The Missing Years - a kissing booth fan fiction

Belonging

Elle

It's been a month since my late night confession and today I officially moved in with Noah. Boxes of my stuff are stacked in the spare bedroom and for once I'm thankful that I don't own that much furniture. I'm also thankful that Noah doesn't have an extensive clothing collection because otherwise my stuff wouldn't fit. I hang the last few items and sit down on the bed, looking at our clothes there, on opposite sides of the wardrobe. His suits and shirts, my dresses and work clothes. Of course his side is color-coordinated. Mine is not. But then, I reason, it's easier to do that when you basically only wear three colors.

Noah sticks his head in the door. "Did it all fit?"

"Yeah, just."

"Good. Did you want to unpack anything else?"

I lie back on the bed in disgust, throwing my arm across my eyes. "Ugh! No. I can't look at any more boxes tonight. I think I'm going to dream of boxes. Well, more like have nightmares. A giant wall of boxes, collapsing on top of me. Death by boxes."

I hear Noah chuckle and I can tell he's moved into the room, closer to me. "I think you're being a tad dramatic, Shelly."

"Nope. It's true. Definitely going to have nightmares."

"Okay, well I might have a solution." Noah's voice is quieter, but definitely close now. I keep my arm over my eyes.

"What's that?"

Instead of giving me an answer, Noah tugs off my shoes and socks. I half sit up, resting on my elbows. He's no longer wearing a shirt. "What are you doing?"

He just smirks at me and holds out his hand. I take it and he pulls me up to stand in front of him.

"You can only have nightmares if you're asleep."

"Mmm, yes that's true."

Noah bends down to whisper in my ear. "So the answer's obvious. I'll just have to keep you awake." He kisses the spot on my neck just below my ear and I nearly collapse, but sanity prevails.

"Wait, wait wait. As much as I like this plan of yours, I'm gross and sweaty from moving all day."

His mouth is back at my ear and I feel his hands start to lift the hem of my shirt up. "So we'll start in the shower then."

I don't get to sleep for a long time, but when I do, I sleep soundly, wrapped in Noah's arms.

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Noah

Living with Elle has calmed something inside me that I didn't know was there. It's not like there was a hole in my life that Elle has filled as such, more like there was a dark patch that now has light in it. There's a kind of comfort in knowing that at the end of the day, no matter how late I sometimes get home, Elle will be there. I like that the first thing I see every morning is her face, even if her eyes are screwed shut because of how early I set my alarm to go for a run. I like that bringing her a coffee when I come back from the run results in a less grumpy, more smiley version of Elle's face, too.

In the last couple of weeks she's taken to putting notes in the leather folio I take to work. Sometimes it's a joke, sometimes it's a memory. Other times the note simply says I love you. They don't appear every day, but my best days at work are the ones that start with finding a note from Elle. I'm starting to find a better balance at work now too, after speaking with one of the partners, Amanda, who oversees a lot of the pro bono work the firm does. She's let me start spending a bit of time working on cases for one of the senior associates, helping people who actually need it. While I understand our corporate and wealthy clients pay the bills, it's nice to do something that feels worthwhile. Helping someone get out of a bad contract that could cost them their house feels a lot better than helping someone add an extra couple of zeros to a bank account that already has too many digits.