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Noctua was awake, sure, but when was she not? Indifferent stars above winked down at her, expectant and waiting for something. They didn't tell Noctua what for. Maybe it wasn't even all of them that were watching them, but rather one in particular. Noctua had never bothered to learn the location of her own star... she could never visit, so what would be the point, right? She turned her gaze from the stars above down to her palm where a tiny gem glittered as it hovered just above her palm. Not for the first time, she marveled at how such a small thing would have a dramatic effect on her life... from a scared little waif to a soldier fighting for the fate of the earth.

A soldier who couldn't sleep.

"What are we to do," she muttered to the little crystal as she tucked it back into it's home within her chest. "We can't serve if we can't sleep, right?" And she hadn't seen hide nor hair of the corrupt from so long ago who had taken her energy in return for eight hours of sweet sweet oblivion. Since then she hadn't been able to convince anyone else to do the same for her. Dear Beni was too kind. Faustite didn't have time. She didn't know anyone else to ask... She should have made more friends while she was working under Cinnabar. No, that wasn't quite right. What she should do, is she should be making more friends now that she's under Benitoite. Maybe the other senshi that was with Benitoite in the Rift when they were looking for gears. Or another who worked under him, he seemed to have many. Someone who could help her sleep... anyone, at this point.

Noctua's footfalls were muffled in the half-melted, dirty snow. How long had she been out? Long enough for night to settle, heavy and dark around her. Long enough for the moon to climb eye in the sharp and clear night sky. How long until dawn spread over the horizon? Time bleed into time when one couldn't sleep and became difficult to keep track of. And without a timepiece, Noctua was lost to her half-waking nightmares. At the corners of her vision, shadows swam and blinked to life. Tongues and fingers and tentacles slipped out to grab at her ankles, slowing her pace until she stood, alone in the dark of the street, staring at the ground as time passed around her.

The hand on Noctua's shoulder caused her to visibly jump and whirl, heart hammering against her birdcage ribs. It was another instant before she realized who had addressed her. Another still before she was able to dismiss her magic from her lips. Finally, she slumped back down again, a withered skeleton in her too-big fuku.

"Thats... not an easy question to answer."

Her voice was like a shadow, flickering in dim candlelight. She placed a bony hand over the other senshi's and squeeze with all she was worth -- not much. What was meant to be a comforting gesture, learned from Benitoite.

"I'm as fine as I can be... considering..."

Noctua offered a weak smile as assurance, though hardly convinced even herself.

"I wouldn't mind a partner to walk with, however."

Noctua leaned into the affection almost hungrily. Her eyes closed despite herself and for one brief moment, the world stopped spinning and tilting. She anchored herself in the touch and held onto it for all that she was worth. A light in the darkness. A hand in the endless winter chill. Shelter and warmth, if only for the moment, from the jagged sneers and wicked eyes that surrounded her, waiting in the darkness for her weakness.

"If I'm being honest," she sighed, "I'd rather sleep than anything else. I... I can't... not with them watching. Not with them," she took in a deep and shaky breath, held it for a moment, and let it out in an attempt to steady herself. The shadows laughed at the buckling in her knees and the tremble of her chin.

I just want to sleep.

"I haven't slept in days. I can't. They won't let me. They never let me."

Why was she revealing so much? Was it the delirium gnawing at her mind? Or the presence of someone so like her that unlocked her throat. Whatever it was, she couldn't stop. She'd regret it later, she knew she would. Noctua despised her own weakness, but second only to that, she despised showing how weak she truly was. And here she was, clinging to a strange corrupt and... was she crying?

"I just want to sleep," she sobbed, whisper-thin fingers clinging to the other senshi's wrist.

Did she tell this new senshi? Did she expose herself to a stranger? All of her demons and her weaknesses? What if she used them against Noctua? What if this was all a ploy to lower her guard and destroy her?

Questions swirled around Noctua's mind but she was too weak to hold on to any of them. Her fingers grasped at them, but they slipped through her hands like smoke and all Noctua could do was tremble at unanswered questions. In the end, the hand on her face was warm and kind and Noctua needed, more than she knew, to trust someone.

"The nightmares," she whispered, her eyes closing. She tried to open them again but... to no avail. Her lips stung and turned to lead. When she was able to open them, it was only fractionally, and she was unable to focus her gaze on anything. Sleep was slamming against her like a hurricane, bending her to it's will.

"If I sleep now, they'll find me. I won't rest. I need... I need... help..."

What can I do to help you?

Ideas bloomed to life in Noctua's mind, taking her back to the most restful oblivion she'd known. A strange corrupt with shocking red hair who had taken her in his arms and accepted his quota from her. Would this Senshi do the same? It seemed somehow... wrong... almost scandalous to do, even if there was no rule written against it. Still, she leaned heavily against the other Senshi on the bench and tried to find the words to ask.

"Drain me," came the simple request when eloquence was too much to ask. And if the other Senshi ran from her in disgust then so be it. She'd keep moving until exhaustion took her into dreamless darkness or death overtook her weakened spirit.

"Please."

If Noctua were any more aware, the silence may have frightened her. Her mind may have roiled with doubt and shame. She may have even left without waiting for the answer. As it was, however, Noctua's mind rung with only one thing -- a desperate need for rest in whatever capacity she would be allowed. And so she waited, still and calm, against the other senshi.

And when Meridiana accepted Noctua's request, the skeletal senshi deflated against the other with relief she did not expect to feel. She turned her hand covering Meridiana's, curling slender fingers over the back of her smooth hand, so substantial when compared to her own. Hell, Meridiana herself was so more more than Noctua was. More corporeal, more physical, more of this world than she would ever be herself.

A specter she was called. A ghost. The haunt of Benitoite's team. A blackened skeleton who shambled behind the general and his more effective officers. Frightening little thing that she was, all but nothing unit provocation slammed her into fits of blinded rage. Talk less. Smile even less than that. So it was no surprise that Noctua was forced to sort out bitter surprise from the sensation of relief that flooded her bones. Why was someone so beautiful and so kind turning their attentions and affections toward her? Somewhere, Noctua wondered what was in it for the other... her quota obviously... but the other senshi had not stayed to protect her when he had taken what he wanted. Was there, then, more?

Questions for a more conscious mind. For now, Noctua forced her eyes open and her head up. She tightened her grip on Meri's hand as she stood on shaking legs; a new born calf trying to trust the earth beneath her.

"I know somewhere," she muttered, taking several very intentional steps before her gain finally started resembling something like natural. Even then, she stumbled as she led the way to a small maintenance shed near a park that looked more worse for the wear than one would expect.

Inside was no better. There was a small bean bag in the corner, which Noctua gravitated towards almost immediately, but the rest of the room spoke of little to no human interaction. Dust covered shelves and tools, cobwebs hung from corners and walls, and weeds were beginning to push up from the floorboards. When Noctua finally fell onto the beanbag, a small plume of dust billowed up around her, but she paid it no mind. Instead, she shuffled over to the side of the bag, leaving more room than seemed possible for the other senshi.

"No one comes here. We should be safe," she muttered into the beanbag as she buried her head in her crossed arms.