Author: Forbiddenromanc Characters | Pairing: Noah/Luke Rating | Word Count: PG | 818 Spoilers | Warnings: None that I can think of. Summary: Confusion break Noah and Luke apart but will fate bring them back together? (I'm awful at these.) Notes: I took the prompts from a community that I can't remember the name of right now. There are 13, I'll probably post another four soonish. Oh, and the title is a slightly altered Hedley song, the original being For The Nights I Can't Rememeber.
#1 - Forgetfulness “Where am I?”
Noah‘s eyes shot to the door, asking Mrs. Snyder with his eyes to give them a minute. “The hospital. Don’t you reme--”
“Is it my kidney?” he prodded at his abdomen, wincing and jerking as he hit a tender spot.
“Luke?” he grasped his hand, comfortingly rubbing is thumb across his skin. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he rubbed his eyes, blinking against the harsh hospital lighting. He yanked his hand away from Noah‘s. “Who are you? Are you a nurse?”
“No, I’m not a nurse.” He felt his stomach drop out and fought against the urge to throw-up. “I’m Noah,“ he continued when his name didn’t register, “Noah Mayer.”
“The intern? What are you doing here?’
“I--I worked with you last summer at WOAK, an intern like you said.”
Luke’s face was filled with confusion. “Last summer?”
He nodded. “This summer you’re looking for an apartment and taking a few extra classes.”
“You seem to know me pretty well.”
Noah‘s smile was tinted with sadness. “We’re very close.”
#2 - Running Away Noah could barely read the sign -- Thanks for visiting Oakdale! -- as he speed out of town. He’d seen too many signs just like it, the town interchangeable. This was the one town he thought would stick. The one where he had what he had thought he’d seen in all the movies he’d watched growing up, what he’d envied other kids having -- unconditional love.
He took comfort knowing his disappearance would be hardly noticed by Luke but he couldn’t stay here anymore surround by memories, that were now only his, and people that thought of him as family but had to treat him like a stranger. He swallowed his regret, remembering the promises he couldn’t keep to Natalie and Faith and the bigger promise he broke to himself; to stop running. The Colonel taught him to never run from a fight but if Noah was good at anything it was running away.
Luke’s expressions of love and affection and words of support and encouragement flooded his head, drowning out his self-disappointment. He cranked the radio’s volume dial as high as it’d go, mentally pleading with it to extinguish Luke’s voice. He wanted Luke to remember them, remember him, what they had together.
He tapped his fingers in time with the beat, glancing in the rearview mirror, the sign was just a blip among the trees.
Goodbye Oakdale.
#3 - Sunsets\Sunrises Watching the sun go down alone, through the window of the motel, in whatever town he was in today, wasn’t the same as it was in Oakdale with Luke. He loved to sit by the fence down along the edge of the field containing the horses, wrapped in a blanket or Noah’s arms. It became a tradition of their’s when Luke was in the wheelchair.
It had taken weeks of planning for Noah to find the safest path there and lengthily conversations trying to convince Mr. Snyder that he‘d never let anything happen to Luke. It was more than worth it to see Luke‘s face light up, like it hadn‘t done since before the ‘accident’. Coming out of the memory, Noah refused to let himself cry, it wouldn’t change anything.
He stayed up til the sun rose, wishing he was in the cozy warmth of the farm’s parlor and not the cold motel bed, missing what made him most happy-- Luke.
#4 - Make Believe “Noah?” His eyes scanned the room looking for his dark haired boyfriend. Raising his volume, in case he was outside the door he tried again, “Noah?”
The door creaked open, revealing his father. “You’re awake,” he sounded surprised. Luke didn’t think he’d been asleep that long.
“Yeah, uh, why am I here?” his throat felt dry and scratchy, like he hadn’t spoken in a few days, but he and Noah had been talking last night. His cheeks reddened, remember what accompanied the talking.
“You don’t remember?” Holden’s worry radiated off him, transferring to Luke.
His voice held a slight edge of panic, “No, I—the last thing I remember is being with Noah at the apartment last night.”
“You’ve been in the hospital for over a week, son.”
“What happened? Why don’t I remember?”
“The doctors said the move, starting a new semester and. . .your mother and my divorce caused too much stress and you blacked out. When you woke up,” Holden hesitated telling his son, “you didn’t remember meeting Noah, your most recent memory was a few hours before Noah arrived.”
“Noah must have been—where is he? He has to know I remember him, remember us.”
“Luke, he’s gone. He left Oakdale two days ago.”
He wanted to pretend it was make believe, like he was little and his parents were breaking up, for the first time, he'd pretend they were still together, but he couldn't pretend with this. Noah was gone.