Sitting down, he opened his arms and said, “Come here.”
“WAIT!!” Red yowled, causing Ollie to hesitate just as he was about to sit down in his lap.
“What now?” Ollie huffed as they both looked towards the cat.
“You two can’t seriously be planning to sit there cuddled up in front of me for forty-three minutes?! Like, I am here, and that is inappropriate, considering I raised you. And we both know you two are far too—ugh—touchy for anyone’s sanity!”
“Well, you gave me two options, and now I am going to do the same. Either I sit here in Noble’s lap, or we head back. Choose, Red.”
“Fine! You win. We’ll head back!” the familiar snapped after glaring for a moment, before starting to walk away as he proceeded to rant. “Why am I always cursed with witches that are brats?! Every single one of you damn Cross witches always seems to have to get your bloody way! Never seeming to understand that I am just trying to help. BUT NOOO, don’t listen to the cat, he’s just been alive for longer than you can imagine! What does he know?! Surely what he says doesn’t matter, so let’s perform an absurd amount of PDA in front of him. He’s just a cat, he doesn’t matter. Nothing?—”
Snorting as Red continued on, he eyed Ollie, who just shrugged and held his arms out as he sheepishly asked, “Carry me, please?”
Noble chuckled and pushed back to his feet, picking Ollie up and smiling as the witch clung to him. In his fair and honest opinion, while Ollie may like to be babied sometimes, he’d hardly call him a brat. The man was far too cute to ever be a brat. And if he was…well, again, he was cute, so he could be as bratty as he wanted. Not that Noble would ever agree that he was in fact a brat.
With a large rolled-up sparring mat tucked under one arm, Noble wasn’t surprised when he walked up to the library at 8:40am and spotted Red waiting there, as the double doors of the library opened on their own. Mainly because he’d gotten a mysterious text from what appeared to be the Cross Heritage Private Library text line that said to come twenty minutes early to ‘sneak up’ on Ollie. Apparently, Red was not only encouraging this training, but he also intended to facilitate it.
Following the familiar inside, as Red started up the wide stairs to the first floor. As the doors closed by themselves behind him, he asked, “Where is Ollie now?”
“Making breakfast.” Red paused at the top of the steps, his gaze seeming to zero in on the mat. “I do hope you don’t plan to bring that with you to ‘sneak’.”
Noble snorted. “No, I plan to drop it off at the center of the third floor. I figured the space is large enough to fully unroll it without us having to move anything out of the way.”
“It should be.”
Heading into one of the elevators after Red when it opened, Noble was honestly surprised it was even on, considering Ollie tended not to power them when the library was closed. Then again—he frowned, eyeing the usually lit floor numbers inside when he noticed they weren't on—there was more than one way to power something when one could do magic.
As the elevators silently opened onto the third floor, the normal ding notably absent, he hurried out and quickly unrolled the mat before heading down the back hall to the door that would lead up to Ollie’s living quarters.
Taking a deep breath as he headed through the already open stairway door and up, he cracked his neck and slowed his breathing as he approached the top, but didn’t quiet it completely. Noble had practiced on his own with lowering his stealth abilities since agreeing, and so far, he had somewhat succeeded.
Truth be told, it hadn’t been as hard as he first thought it would be. Noble had somehow forgotten that he did all he could normally to appear like any average human, so it was more like flipping a different switch in his brain.
Pausing near Ollie’s front door, he listened, and upon hearing the sink running, he carefully opened it. Dressed in a thin long-sleeved light forest-green shirt and darker green sweatpants, the witch’s back was towards the door, and he was washing something as he hummed some unknown tune. He had to say it was almost startling to see the man so dressed down, butthen, Ollie’s normal outfits wouldn’t really work for what they had planned today.
With Ollie not noticing his entrance, Noble took quiet step after quiet step closer, approaching from behind. He tried to make sure his feet didn’t fall as silently as they usually did, yet…his precious Baby didn’t notice a damn thing.
After walking around the kitchen table, now only inches away from the witch, he hesitated, only for the chance to act to slip away when Ollie suddenly turned around. His Baby let out a startled, frightened yelp, and slammed back into the counter, clutching at his chest, as the sound of Ollie’s racing heart suddenly filled Noble’s ears.
It didn't exactly feel great to scare the man, so he smiled hesitantly as Ollie stared wide-eyed, still clutching at his chest, as a fine tremble ran through him. “Hi…? Thought I’d attempt to sneak up on you?”
Swallowing audibly, Ollie let out a shaky laugh after a long moment of staring. “Right…we did say…hah, you’d help me with that.” The man gave his head a shake, a more natural laugh coming out as he pulled himself together and smiled. “Wow, you are way better at that when you are actually trying. But I mean, that can only be a good thing, as I’m sure I’ll eventually hear or sense you coming in some way. At least, I can hope, right? Things have to kick in at some point, don't they?!”
“It likely will take both you practicing to bring out the senses themselves, and…possibly more of me sneaking up on you, but I’m sure you’ll eventually get it.” He glanced toward the counter, and on spotting multiple iron skillets already packed with homemade biscuits, his stomach let out a noise. “Biscuits?”
“Yes, and thickly cut bacon.”
“Mm, my favorite.” He pressed a quick kiss to the man’s lips before asking, “Need any help?”
“Washing afterwards?”
“You make the food, I clean. Sounds fair.”
“Anyway, I figured we’d eat and then let it settle for a bit before…training?” Ollie’s nose wrinkled with the last word, telling Noble he was still regretting agreeing.
It wasn’t as if he hadn’t noticed the first yes from the man had been unintentional, followed by Red answering for him. It was more that Noble had been inclined to ignore that to get his own way, as it would ultimately lead to Ollie being better protected.
“Eating and letting it sit would be good.” He’d very much prefer Ollie not pass out from low blood pressure, or throw up. “As for training, I’ve already got the mat set up downstairs.”
