How to Make a Sinner Sleep - Chapter 52: Chapter 52

Wandering deeper into the dark, very likely to be haunted, forest was probably a bad idea. And they did it anyway.
How else would they prove that it was a terrible idea?
Kaden blended in easily with the night, strolling as if he were made from the darkness, born and raised. In an open space with fresh air filling his lungs and freedom to run as far as he wanted, he couldn't be scared.
It was in dark and confined spaces that his lungs begun to burn, and his hands clawed his neck to breathe. This sort of darkness, haunted or not, was a blessing.
Noah noticed Kaden's wandering mind, no doubt reaching dark and gloomy pits. The wailing child came nearer, its cries grating in their ear as if the sound was rebounding against the trees, filling the entire space around them.
Distracted, Kaden didn't notice a protruding root in front of him and slammed his foot against it, dramatically falling forward. He was an embarrassment, and he was going to humiliate himself in front of that dragon—as if he hadn't done so already.
Shame burned Kaden's ears before he hit the ground.
However, instead of eating dirt, a steady arm stretched out and stopped him from falling. Kaden lifted his gaze, and realized, in the grey of Noah's eyes that scattered with moonlight, it really did look like the dragon were made of stars and dreams.
His snowy hair caught and reflected the moon's gaze, luminous and ethereal, while the ends tinged with an inky darkness, a contrast more vivid in the night than the day.
Noah's voice was gentle, or perhaps that was an illusion made by the evening's winds. "I'm wearing gloves." He said, and Kaden looked down and realized he hadn't even been concerned of Noah's touch, when he would flinch previously.
He supposed, after lying down beside the dragon's warmth for so many weeks, his body had become accustomed to the feel of Noah's body.
Of course, direct skin contact was another issue.
He glanced back up, smiling as he pried himself away, dusting his pants awkwardly.
"Yeah. Thanks. Actually, is it a recent fashion statement to wear gloves? You used to wear them occasionally, and now you wear them almost all the time that I see you. Isn't it stuffy?"
Noah's gaze contained a look that seemed to state, 'you're a fool.'
Instead, the dragon dragged his gaze over to the gloves resting over Kaden's hands, enclosing the slender joints in captivity. "And you? Why do you wear gloves?"
"Avoiding my question?"
"Are you avoiding mine?"
The back and forth answering questions with questions made Kaden tired, and he squinted at the dragon, feeling as if he couldn't win. He spun around, walking backwards as he teased the ends of his glove.
"I wouldn't dare." said Kaden, mirth spilling into his pale green gaze that curved with faint laughter. As he walked further backwards, a light blue glow embodied his figure.
Noah's eyes widened and he reached out his hand. "Kaden—"
Kaden turned at the sight of the glow, the sudden light that broke through the darkness sharp in his eyes. He flinched as the heel of his foot touched not solid ground, but a wet substance.
Normally, it wouldn't have been a problem for him to twist his body around, avoiding falling into the lake. However, the sudden light made his already weakened head throb and he stumbled.
Noah rushed forward to catch him—really, the dragon was doing that far too often recently, and Kaden was getting a little too used to the feel of the man's arms.
However, Kaden's body had twisted in surprise, and Noah who hadn't expected any resistance, stumbled. The two tumbled into the lake, the luminescent blue splashing with their fall.
Kaden broke through the surface, coughing as the white fabric of his shirt clung to his skin, and the pale pink strands dripped down his face.
The lake seemed to swim with a glowing substance, specks of glowing blue under the moonlight. Kaden blinked away the water in his eyes, waving his hand through the liquid, translucent and clear.
Then, remembering his company, his spun around.
"Noah?" Kaden called out, darting his head left and right. "Don't tell me you can't swim? I'm not really interested in seeing your floating corpse!"
As he spoke, another figure burst out of the water, the sharp jaw tilted to the air as slender fingers ran through the tumbled of white-black hair, slicking it back.
Noah's shirt had also clung to his skin, outlining the worked muscles defined by sword fighting and practice. The dragon, already wrapped in an air of indulgence and dark defiance, seemed like a mythical creature under the light of the moon, and the glow of the lake.
The supposed mystical creature's sharp gaze peered over to Kaden.
"You're drooling."
Kaden snapped his hand over his mouth, before pulling it away again and staring at Noah accusingly. "That's just water!"
Noah said nothing, but a hint of faint laughter curved his dark eyes.
Kaden opened his mouth to retort, only to watch Noah peel away the layers of his shirt to reveal a bare chest, smooth and unblemished. Until he turned sideways, and between his sharp shoulder blades and the curve of his back, a large and hideous scar marred his skin.
The dragon tossed his shirt away to the shore, eying Kaden.
"We might as well take a swim."
Kaden swallowed, furrowing his eyebrows. "Noah, how did you get that—"
"Will you tell me the detail of yours, or what hides beneath your gloves?"
"That's different. It's not important."
"Then neither are the origins of my scars." Noah turned back, walking in the shallows where Kaden stood as water rippled around his narrowed waist. "You don't get to know all of me Kaden, if I'm not allowed to do the same."
Kaden stepped back feeling the ground underneath him drop further. "That's different. I have the right to tell you as I want to—"
"You do." said Noah coolly, calmly approaching. Kaden had nowhere to escape except further into the depths of the lake. He debated it solemnly. "You have every right to keep your secrets, and I have every right to hold onto mine too."
"That's not fair."
"Who's the unfair one, Chauvet?"
Noah's charcoal eyes remained fathomless, unreadable. He didn't expect a response from the man always running away, too many secrets to fit in his grave.
Instead, he passed and dived into the depths of the lake's center, ducking under the water that smoothly ran over his figure that elegantly slipped underneath. Noah closed his eyes, the cold of the lake not chilling, but relaxing.
He swam and then broke through the surface again.
Kaden hovered in the shallows, watching. "We shouldn't waste time, Bellamy. Keep swimming, and I'll look around for the source of the wails—"
"Is it a waste?"
At some point, Kaden blinked and Noah had swum up to him, standing directly before the sinner. Moonlight reflected of the droplets that clung to his skin like crystal gems, a shimmer over his body.
"You don't have to always be moving, doing something." The dragon's low voice was an echo that strummed against Kaden's eardrums, a constant beat. "Is it a waste of time if you're living, whether napping or saving the world?"
Noah didn't discriminate against humans or other species. But the particular trait, the living in a hurry to accomplish something, was something he never understood.
Impatiently, one of the reasons he chose not to deal with people was due to that.
The way some humans lived—he didn't want to live in that way.
However, the impatient dragon had mellowed in face of Kaden's similar behaviour, his patience seeming to have transformed into an endless ocean, always expansive and waiting.
He had to whittle away Kaden's self-loathing ideology, his lack of care for himself and the way he lived as if he were about to die any moment. He had to teach Kaden that it was okay to do nothing, it was okay not to be spectacular.
Although, even if that fool didn't understand,
'I don't mind taking care of him until he does.'
Not unexpectedly, Kaden tilted his chin with hesitation and then spun to waddle to the shore. As his shoulders were exposed to air and he drew closer to land, away from the refreshing cold of the lake that eased his bones, he cast a glance back.
The droplets weren't merely crystals over Noah's skin, but a sheen of shimmering scales.
Noah remained in the water, gazing at Kaden quietly. Suddenly, the seperation between them felt prominent.
The dragon half-submerged in the magic of the water, and him, painfully human, standing on the shore. Close, a step to seperate, but there was an ineveitable line that divided land and lake.
But Kaden had fallen into that lake where he didn't belong.
The wind hummed around them, the soft glow pulsing. The dragon beckoned for Kaden, his voice a dangerous allure that anybody would be compelled to listen to. No forceful tug, no threats.
Kaden could leave if he wanted to.
Noah waited knowing that.
"This isn't a waste of time." The dragon declared calmly. "If you can live to say you don't regret it, then does it matter if it was nothing more than an experience? Nothing more than a memory slotted into the story of your life?"
Their eyes were locked, and Kaden was losing the battle. Noah continued, his voice gentle in the night. "Will you regret this memory, Chauvet?"
Kaden glanced at his own legs, still submerged deep in the water.
"...what a temptress you are, Bellamy." He muttered, heard by Noah whose eyes twitched in irritation, eliciting a light laugh from Kaden.
He slipped back into the water, feeling the cold lap against his skin like the pulse of a heart, beating against his flesh. A warmth in the depths, a perfect border between hot and cold.
It was as if the lake were made from dreams and clouds, and a wave of exhaustion suddenly washed over him.
There was some merit in what Noah said.
Live frivolously, live pointlessly.
Live without regard to anything or anybody.
Live insignificantly.
He was insignificant, and therefore his significance to others didn't matter. And others significance to him didn't exist.
One might consider that a dangerous thought, to care for nothing and nobody. Perhaps to some, it was. But to Kaden, it was to live without worry to meet another's expectations, to never put everything to satisfy another.
It was about living selfishly, while being aware of others. About living for one's own sake, rather than for another.
Kaden suddenly felt extremely relaxed, his limbs loosening. It had been a while since he'd felt this comfortable... the lids of his eyes grew heavier as the perfect temperature of the lake hugged his body.
The dragon, waiting in the depths as Kaden slowly apprached, had an awful feeling. The feeling expanded when he saw Kaden's movement stop, a glaze over the man's eyes.
Without warning, Kaden's head rolled back and he slumped sideways, sinking under the surface. Bubbles rose to the top, disrupting the smooth top of the lake.
Noah's eyes widened in horror, a dozen curses running through his mind. How was this the third time that fool endangered himself in this short period? Without a doubt, he would drag Kaden back to their bed regardless of if he disagreed if it meant getting a proper sleep!
He kicked his legs under the water, a powerful thrust of movement as he dove deeper. The water smoothly passed over him without restriction, and Noah gritted his teeth and sped up.
The center depths seemed unknown, stretching far beyond eye's meet.
A short distance away, Kaden's body sunk. The soft hair floated around his face that was captured in an illustration of sleep, ethreal and far away. In a place where Noah's ink-stained hands couldn't reach.
Anxiety sped up Noah's beating heart, and he stretched his hands out neverthless. To tear Kaden back to reality, back to him.
Time suddenly felt like nothing more than a concept that danced around them.
Hardly existing, hardly mattering.
Under the transluscnet water, a gloved hand was gently placed over Kaden's mouth, carefully positioned. A fleeting kiss was pressed against the barrier of the glove that seperated the two.
Bodies tangled far beneath, the shadows cast from its depth while moonlight illuminated the surface, gazing upon.
Kaden's eyes parted a sliver, a hint of confusion and daze spun in the beautiful green.
Noah jerked away as if electrocuted.
The dragon stared, confused at the abruptness of his own actions, eyes trailing to the lips he didn't kiss. To the man he wanted to.
His lungs were burning, and he wasn't sure if it was from the lack of oxygen, or his suffocating feelings. Deciding either were irritating, Noah pulled Kaden close to his body and kicked back up to shore.
They collapsed onto the pillowed grass, the tumbles of green that covered the lake's edge. Kaden coughed violently, water spurting from his mouth.
Noah's gaze was distant as he trailed his fingers over his own lips, feeling the ghost of an almost kiss. He turned his head when he heard the coughing, furrowing his eyebrows as Kaden finished his choking, and fell back onto the grass.
"I almost died." gasped Kaden in disbelief.
"You almost died." agreed Noah angrily, putting aside all other matters. His words sped up. "Do you even realize the state of your body? The severity of it? Were you planning to die while I wasn't looking, where I couldn't help you?"
Kaden was startled at the outburst, even spoken in a steady breath, contained all the highs and lows of irritation. "I, well, that's a little exaggerated. I don't plan to die anytime soon."
"You don't plan to, yet you barely feed yourself, barely sleep. Do you plan to live either?"
"Naturally. I'm not mad—"
"We'll head back now. We're going to sleep."
Kaden rolled over, grabbing Noah who'd pulled his shirt back over his chest, rising to his feet. The dragon gave him a cold look of reproach in return.
"A little more. Let's explore a little more. I... I've never done anything like this."
The honesty was somewhat embarrassing and Kaden regretted speaking immediately. Why did he ever speak? He would probably stay up all night again, and instead of being haunted by nightmares, he'd be plagued with everything he said wrong during the day.
Noah stared at him squarely, seeming to solemnly debate tossing the man over his shoulders and walking back to the forest without an argument.
Finally, he turned to the direction of the distant baby cries that had begun again, and started walking. "When we return, you'll be sleeping in my room."
Kaden sighed in relief, following. "Thank you... wait. What? No, Niklas will question—"
"You can't sleep without me."
It was a statement, spoken without embarassment. Kaden opened his mouth to deny it when Noah spoke again without any fluctuations.
"And I can't sleep well without you."
The dragon continued walking and Kaden froze in his step, left speechless. The statement left no room for arguement, and after collecting himself, Kaden hurried to catch up to the other.
It was really strange.
Noah was rarely insistant or forceful, and it was even stranger for the dragon to insist upon sleeping together. Kaden really didn't understand. Was he being used as a human body pillow?
Noah eyed the fool who was over-thinking and imagining all sorts of incorrect reasons.
He didn't like forcing people to do things that they disagreed upon. It wasn't worth his time to insist on things, and he preferred the option of giving up an arguement that continuing one.
The truth was that he did sleep better with Kaden tucked by his side, accustomted to the warmth that the fool gave at night. But he was also aware, for whatever reason that Noah didn't dare guess, his presence also eased Kaden's insomnia.
And that alone overwrote any reason.