fluffy ZNoah drabble
Summary: it's just them training with gay tension and pining
i cant come up with titles to save my life, sorry
Word count: 2212
[Edit: ok so i forgot to post this on ig, but then thought to edit it while i was here. nothing much changed, it even got 4 words shorter lol]
"I'm clocking out early today."
Kroi looked up from his work with genuine surprise. "But you're usually the last one out," he said.
Noah talked as they packed a small backpack with their water bottle and a change of clothes. They shrugged. "Z's giving me self-defense training or whatever."
"You agreed?"
"Shocked myself, too, actually." Noah slung a single strap over their left shoulder. "But she did have a point. She doesn't always come along for the school visits, and while the Na'vi are really skilled fighters, I guess it wouldn't be a bad thing if I were able to defend myself."
Grace emerged from the adjoined room. She looked oodly smug as she asked, "Is that the only reason?"
Noah raised a brow. "Should there be another?"
Kroi and Grace exchanged looks but said nothing. The latter smiled and patted Noah on the shoulder.
"Well, you've done enough at the lab today," she said, "Great work, as always."
The young scientist couldn't help but blush a bit, a bubble of pride swelling in their chest. They smiled. "Thanks, Grace."
"Alright, go get your strictly necessary training."
Kroi beamed, "See you at dinner, Noah!"
A slightly perplexed Noah waved goodbye as they left through the vacuum doors of the lab. They haven't told a soul, but they'd begun to notice the weird pattern of reaction whenever they mentioned the soldier to their friends, but Noah had never thought much of it, except that it was probably just a bunch of friendly yet fruitless teasing.
When the doors hissed to a close, then the other two scientists burst into lighthearted laughter.
"How are they so clueless," Kroi mused, "Z-Dog could outright tell Noah and they still wouldn't believe her."
"I made a bet with Dr. Patel that Noah might notice in two weeks."
The doctor mentioned chimed in from the other room, "You might as well hand me the money now, Dr. Augustine. That kid's never gonna notice that soldier girl's got a crush on them."
----------
Noah's phone buzzed incessantly while they were on their way to the SecOps wing, much to their annoyance. They already knew who was blowing their phone up and thought it better to just walk the entire way in relative peace. A few paces later, their phone still wouldn't shut up, so Noah yanked their phone out of their pocket and read the messages.
'u out yet?'
'where r u'
'hurry up im bored'
'stop ignoring my texts'
'damn u slow'
"Puta, ingay," Noah muttered to themselves as they punched in a response.
'omw :P'
'walk faster'
'no'
'oh i forgot'
'short legs ;)'
With a sharp click of the tongue, Noah quickly shoved their phone back in their pocket. The thought of just turning right back around and heading to their sleeping quarters instead seemed rather enticing now. As of late, Z had become bolder with teasing Noah around like that, and it's been driving them insane. The dumb jokes and that stupid laugh she made whenever she got a reaction out of Noah… All of it would be stuck in their head for hours, and Noah didn't know how to deal with it.
They started walking faster as they recognized the corridor leading to the SecOps training rooms. The volume of soldiers passing by was growing by the meter. Noah could feel the confused looks that some were throwing at them, while others, thankfully, seemed like they didn't give a crap about the scientist.
Noah looked closely at the room labels placed above the doors, trying to recall the room number Z had told them to go to—without much success.
Just how many training rooms do a bunch of these grease monkey musclebrains need?
Unfortunately, after racking their brain a bit more in vain, Noah had no choice but to ask Z. They were impatient enough as is, and they genuinely couldn't remember that tiny bit of information to save their life. They groaned as they pulled their phone back out of their pocket.
'room?'
'u forgot? :('
'nvm im going back'
Somewhere beside Noah, a bubblegum popped. "And, here I thought you were excited for training."
Noah jumped back a bit at Z just suddenly materializing in front of them. How did they not notice her?
Quickly composing themselves, Noah cleared their throat and said, "Stop playing games already. You were the one telling me to hurry up, weren't you?"
Z chuckled as she ruffled the scientist's hair. "Just wanted to see you sooner," she said, "Is that so wrong?"
Noah frantically pushed the hand off their head and looked around at the crowd in a panic. "Ugh, can you even hear yourself," they chided in hushed tones, "Just—! Let's just get to training already!"
They stormed off, and Z, knowing better, chased after Noah and pulled them along to the training room they'd be using, which was in the opposite direction that Noah was marching off to. Upon arrival, Noah checked first if it was empty. It was one of their conditions for this series of self-defense training with Z. The latter agreed, actually finding it ideal for her, too.
Satisfied that there was nary a human being in the room aside from them, Noah put their backpack down on a bench and plopped down beside it.
They looked up at Z expectantly. "So, what are we gonna do first," they asked.
Z stood across them, arms crossed under her chest. "First, have you ever had any sort of physical training before?"
Noah recounted their experiences on their fingers. "Failed high school phys-ed, used medical notes throughout college… Oh, and Kevin tried teaching me, but I guess I was a terrible student because I didn't learn shit."
"Oh, wow," Z chuckled, "We better get started then."
The soldier cocked her head towards the small black bin by the door and spat the gum in her mouth straight in. The small spectacle shouldn't have been of any note to Noah, but it was. The fact lingered in the back of their mind, but they did their best to not let it show.
"Warm-up first," Z said as she motioned Noah over to the mat, "Some basic stretches can't be too hard for you, right?"
Noah snickered, "Don't count on it yet."
"Alright, nerd. Just follow my lead."
Z started doing some basic stretches. Noah seemed to be following along okay, but they kept tumbling over or losing their balance. At some point, it concerned Z, and she stopped stretching. When she spared Noah a little exasperated stare, the scientist stood up and looked back at her, confused.
"What's wrong?"
"Do the stretch we just did."
Although their brow was still raised, Noah just shrugged, then went back into the stretch. Z walked around them, humming in thought. When she came back to her spot, she had her conclusion.
"Your posture sucks, Noah," she said, trying not to laugh.
Noah immediately straightened up and clutched their braids, their eyes averted from Z in embarrassment in a fruitless attempt to hide their blushing face and ears. "Stop fucking giggling, you pinhead," they retorted, "It's not that bad!"
"Dude," the soldier wheezed, "It's why you keep falling over. It is that bad."
Noah twisted on their heel and began to storm off when Z caught their shoulders, then pulled them back towards the mat. "Don't just give up like that, idiot," she chuckled, "I didn't say I wouldn't help you."
"Still took a fucking sweet time to mock me, though," they huffed as they were dragged.
Z let them settle their feet back on the mat. "Alright, now do the stretch again."
"No."
"Noah."
"Ugh, fine."
A snarl and a string of curses came through as Noah redid the stretch. Z told them to relax as she went behind them and started correcting Noah's stance. But when she went to try and hold onto Noah's side, they jerked back and made a noise between a squeak and a yelp.
Noah, absolutely mortified, looked back at Z. It took the soldier a few seconds to process what she'd just heard.
"Was that… Was that you?"
Noah could feel their ears burning as frustration and humiliation created chaos within them. "You didn't fucking hear that!"
Z absolutely heard it, and she was suddenly in hysterics. "Noah, you're ticklish? Hah!"
"Shut the fuck up!"
"Oh my god. That's just cute," Z smirked, "Who would've thought?"
Noah thought their ticklishness was something stupid, embarrassing, and totally unbecoming of them — but never 'cute'. That tiny comment echoed in Noah's head, as well as the loud pounding of their heart. It felt extremely weird that, no matter how hard they thought, they couldn't come up with anything to snark back at Z with. So they just stood there, stunned, hair pulled over their reddened ears. The same couldn't be done to hide their face though, as it burned a deep, cherry red.
"You're blushing," the soldier teased.
Noah hissed, "I know that!"
Z's laughter trailed into a softer chuckle, then she asked, "How sensitive are you?"
Silence.
Z put a hand on her waist, looking expectantly at Noah. "I'm not trying to tease. I'm asking so I know how to help you in training."
Noah answered reluctantly, "It's really bad when I'm taken by surprise, like what you did just now. But I think if I see it coming… it wouldn't bother me as much."
Having absorbed that little bit of information, Z went behind Noah again. As she guided them into the right position, she'd tell Noah beforehand if she was going to touch them and where. Noah still jerked back on reflex, but they tolerated the annoying tingling sensations until they actually eased into a sense of comfort. The feeling of Z's firm, heavy grip lingered on the areas she would touch, and it rendered Noah quite complacent to the soldier's instructions and helplessly flustered from the tiniest bits of praise.
When they got through the warm-up, Noah could barely feel their muscles burning over the heat they felt in their face. As soon as Z stepped away from them, Noah ran to the bench and chugged their water, purposefully turned away from Z as they mentally tried to calm themselves down.
It wasn't working that well.
"If you were that thirsty, you could've told me," Z said, both teasing and concerned. "And, don't drown yourself."
Noah drank almost the entire bottle of water and was panting as if they'd run a marathon when they put the tumbler down. They wiped away any stray water trails with the back of their hand, then turned back around to face Z.
"What's next," they huffed, expression steeled as if they weren't blushing crazily just moments ago.
Cute, Z thought. She stifled her laughter out of consideration for Noah's determination. "Alright, we'll start with the basics: just punching and kicking. Nothing too complicated"
An hour later, Noah was lying spread-eagled on the mat, drenched in sweat and eyes closed as they struggled to catch their breath. Every muscle in their body was screaming and Noah listened to their plea. They stayed still on the mat while Z looked on.
She snickered, "So, want to move on to lesson 2?"
Noah raised a middle finger at her, only for it to drop back down on the mat. They earned a hearty laugh from the soldier.
Z got her tumbler and Noah's towel from their bag, then handed both items to them, whom she had to pull up to a sitting position. They flung the towel on their head and started chugging down the bottle. It was empty in seconds.
"Ah, shit," they muttered, frowning at the empty bottle. Then they looked up at Z, their gaze soft and apologetic. "Sorry about that."
Z sat beside them. "Nah, it's fine," she said, "I've got an extra bottle in my bag."
"I'm real shitty at this physical stuff," Noah sighed. Training was rough, but halfway through it , they actually started having fun. They had to admit—and they really didn't expect it—their teacher was a pretty good one. But they couldn't help but feel bad about being so crap at following her directions at times.
Z laughed, "Yeah, you are." She patted Noah on the back and smiled. "But, you did good today. Tripped a few times, but hey, baby steps, right?"
Noah lightened up at the comment. "Right," they nodded. "Oh, by the way, I've got a pack of bubblegum in my bag. It's your favorite."
"You remember my favorite bubble gum flavor?"
"Uh, yeah, 'cus you're never not chewing on one."
Z suddenly tackled Noah into a headlock, laughing loudly as they tried to squirm out from under her arm to no avail.
"Isn't that sweet of you," she chuckled.
"Gago, bitawan mo nga 'ko!" [T/N: Let go of me!]
They tried pushing her off, but Noah's arms were twigs in strength compared to Z's. Yet as they cursed out the soldier, Noah was grinning and laughing along with her. Eventually, Z loosened her arm around their neck, and rested it over their shoulder. They didn't try to remove it.
"Same time tomorrow," they asked.
"You don't mind?"
Noah shook their head. Z grinned.
"It's a date, then."
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