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𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗕𝗘𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗠𝗘

BONUS ONE: LUNA'S BAD
DAY
to you I can admit that I'm just
too soft for all of it

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REAL LIFE

LUNA THOUGHT PLAYING Valorant with her friends would make her feel better.

She was just so horribly and terribly wrong.

It had been a tough decision to make, but after her Good Riddance tour in the US, she decided that in between Eras shows on the weekends where she would come back home to North Carolina, she wouldn't stream. That meant it would be about five months of her not streaming, but since she was opening for fucking Taylor Swift, she wanted to put a lot of her focus on her music. The second she finished her last Eras show in LA, she would stream as much as she could before going to Europe to continue her own tour in the fall.

But it didn't mean that she wouldn't play games with her friends when they asked. Noah had asked if she wanted to play Valorant with him, Rae, Tina, and Miyoung. Luna had said yes, wanting nothing more to just hang out with her friends and do something she enjoyed.

Yet, it had been one of those days. She had woken up with a fog in her head, a tightness in her chest, and an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. At first, she had blamed it on just being tired. So she made herself some breakfast and some tea, but it didn't seem to help. And then her mind started to spin with a million different thoughts, and she was alone in her house because Mary Jane was on West End Broadway, and everything just started to get so loud.

Distractions. She tried to write. Nothing. She tried to answer emails. Couldn't focus.

Luna had hoped Valorant would be a good distraction. She could just channel everything into the game and talk to her friends. That definitely wasn't the case. Luna had talked to them for a little bit, but it always seemed that her heart wasn't in it and she was lagging behind, so she just muted herself in Discord. Then they started playing, and she was doing awful, which made her mood worse, which was the opposite of what she wanted to happen.

She put her chin in the palm of her hand, watching as the screen turned green and read VICTORY. It definitely wasn't thanks to her — she had gotten approximately five kills that entire game. The others had carried her there. She rubbed her eyes, feeling tears prick at the back of her eyes. The only word that could describe her right now was overwhelmed, and as much as she hated it, all she wanted to do was just cry.

"How many games have we played?" Rae asked. "Four?"

"Yeah, I think four," Noah agreed.

"Anyone down to keep going? Or do we want to end here? Or LG?"

"LG!" Miyoung exclaimed.

"I can do LG," Tina said.

"Luna?" Rae stated, and Luna temporarily snapped out of her moment of despair. "What'cha feeling?"

She cleared her throat before unmuting herself. "I can do LG."

Rae then started the queue. Luna muted herself again and let out a deep breath. One more. She could do one more. Then she could curl up under her covers and forget about everything for a while. Suddenly, her phone screen lit up. She glanced over to see it was a text from Noah.

You okay? You just seem a little quiet

Curse him for knowing her so well, considering she hadn't told him she was feeling down. Luna opened up her phone and texted back I'm okay. A blatant lie, but she didn't want him to worry about her. It was just an off day, she could suck it up.

Except she couldn't. As the game went on, and she just kept dying, and dying, and dying, the overwhelmed feeling multiplied by a hundred. She suddenly saw her vision get blurry, and tears started to flow down her cheeks. It was so stupid that she was crying over a video game, but the thought of that just made her cry more. The tears were making it hard to see the screen, and they kept dropping onto her desk. She was glad she was muted, because all the sniffles would've definitely given her away.

Luna had died every single round and barely got any kills again, but the others had carried them to another victory after a really long game. Her crying had subsided a bit, she wasn't sobbing as much anymore, but the tears still wouldn't stop. She wiped some off of her cheeks with the sleeve of Noah's sweatshirt.

They all said their goodbyes to each other — Luna typing hers in the Valorant chat — before dispersing. Luna logged out of her account and turned off her PC before putting her face in her hands. She just sat there for a moment, trying to regulate her breathing. All she had to do was just calm down, there was no reason to be overreacting like this, she was fine—

She then heard a knock on her front door downstairs. Luna picked her head up, her eyebrows knitting in confusion. Definitely couldn't be Mary Jane because she was in London. It couldn't be Karl or Nolan because they were filming. That only left one person who could be knocking at her door at this time of night, but she could've sworn he was just streaming a second ago.

Luna pushed herself up off of her chair, wiping her face furiously with the sleeves before putting the hood over her head. She descended down the stairs, her footsteps echoing throughout the house. Luna then walked up to her door, unlocked it, and opened it.

And . . . yep, sure enough, Noah was standing there.

Noah looked down at her, taking in the tears in her eyes and the tracks over her blotchy face, and frowned. "I knew it."

"Knew what?" Luna replied.

"That you weren't okay." Noah stepped into the house when Luna stepped aside, and he took off his shoes as he watched her closely. "You get really quiet when you're sad, and you weren't talking at all."

Luna shut her door and locked it again. "You didn't have to end stream."

Noah shook his head and reached up, putting his hands on either side of her face. "Lunes, you're crazy if you think I'll prioritize my stream over you. You're the most important thing to me, of course I want to make sure you're okay." He tilted her head up a little more so she was looking at him properly. "How long have you been feeling like this?"

"All day," Luna answered, because there was no point in hiding anymore. "I only just started crying, though."

"Well, a very wise person once told me that it was okay to cry," Noah said, alluding to that time she had seen him look sad in their kitchen after a fight with Mary Jane. "Why didn't you tell me you weren't feeling okay?"

Luna shrugged. "Didn't want to bother you."

"Baby." Noah's thumb moved, wiping away a tear on her cheek that had fallen. "You never bother me."

"I mean, you tell me that, but . . ." Luna looked up at him, her eyes bleary, showing truly how tired she was. "The voices in my head — it's just so loud today."

Noah's frown deepened, his own heart breaking for her. He never ever wanted to see Luna sad. Ever since he saw her cry the first time when her brother showed up, he had made it a personal mission to make her as happy as possible. Yet, this was just showing that everyone just had those days where nothing made sense. Whatever it was, trying to make her happy today wasn't going to work, and he knew that. All he could do right now was just be there for her, which he had already planned on doing the second he saw that she had been muted on Discord for an extended period of time.

"Want a hug?" Noah offered.

Luna nodded. She pressed up onto her toes, wrapping her arms around his neck. Noah put his arms around her waist, pulling her in as close as she could possibly get. Luna let out a sigh of relief, burying her face into his shoulder. It made her wonder why she even tried hiding all of this from him, because this hug was everything she needed and more. Noah could also feel some tears of hers soaking into his shirt, but he didn't care.

"What else do you need?" Noah questioned softly.

She sniffled. "Maybe I'll just go to bed. Forget about it. Will you stay?"

"Oh, Lunes, you silly goose." He turned his head a bit and pressed a kiss to the top of hers. "As if I was going to leave right now. Let's go upstairs, yeah?"

"Yeah." Luna then held onto him a little tighter. "I don't really want to let go, though."

"Well, it's a good thing you don't have to," Noah voiced. He put his hands on the back of her thighs and lifted her up effortlessly, her legs wrapping around his waist. "All good?"

"All good," Luna confirmed, her voice slightly muffled.

Noah then walked towards her stairs and carried her all the way up to her room. Luna just allowed him, not really have the strength to do anything else. But it was also nice to know that he did care about her so much that he decided to carry her upstairs just because she didn't want to let go of him.

God, she loved him.

Noah entered her room. He reached out and shut the door behind him. Luna let her legs drop and slid down from his embrace. She moved away from him just for a second to shut her light off and leave her star projector on. Meanwhile, Noah pulled back her covers and got into her bed.

He sat up for a moment, extending his arms out to her. "Come here, pretty girl."

Luna got onto her side of the bed and enclosed herself into Noah's arms. He slid back until they were laying down, him on his back with his arms still around her and her head resting on his chest — their usual position. Luna shut her eyes, allowing all of that emotional exhaustion to lull her to sleep, along with the sound of Noah's heartbeat. Her mind was still spinning, but she could feel her tiredness start to overpower it.

"I love you," Luna mumbled. "Like, a stupid amount."

Noah smiled softly to himself, kissing the top of her head. "I love you an even stupider amount. Sleep as long as you need, baby."

With his warmth and his love encasing her, Luna allowed herself to fall asleep, leaving her bad day behind.

-ˏˋ ♥̩͙♥̩̩̥͙♥̩̥̩ ˊˎ-

they're so sweet how am I supposed to let them go

also y'all I'm fucking crying over the fact that team bolas went so insane on day one in purgatory but they did in fact roleplay their way out of this one because they had three wins and didn't have to compete for the tie 😭😭😭 like THAT'S MY TEAM