Chapter Eighteen: May All Your Wishes Come True

                                    

                                          
A month has passed since then, and as time passed, Asta stayed with her every day. His staying made her happy. She genuinely felt like things were changing and becoming brighter with each passing moment. Things were happy and special, even with the basic things that they were doing such as grocery shopping, late-night strolls in the parker, running to get a quick dinner when Noelle burned their food, stargazing, the list simply goes on. Just being with each other brought happiness to each other's side.
                          
It's another quiet moment inside of Noelle's apartment. It was late at night, maybe around nine p.m. They had just finished cleaning their dinner dishes and were now relaxing in the living room. Noelle sat on one edge of the couch, her eyes fixated on her phone screen in front of her. Asta sat beside her, eyes on the tv to a movie that only he was watching.
                          
Noelle mainly scrolled through her social media apps, which quickly became boring. Her eyes peek at Asta again, whose still intensely staring at the television before they revert down to her phone. 
                          
Being caught staring at him could result in big consequences. And not just any consequences, torrid ones. Like him teasing her for the rest of the night, or maybe even tickling her like he did the previous night. That...that was horrible. She could remember almost peeing herself. How embarrassing would that have been? She would've locked herself in her room all day if that happened, never coming out, letting herself starve, and slowly die away.
                          
"Hey Asta...." she begins, a thought coming to her head as she looked at the date. "Tomorrow...is your birthday right?" she asks. Asta's green eyes finally meet her own. He looks at her, seemingly in thought before nodding. "Yeah. It is...why?" he queries back. "Don't respond to my question with a question! And I was just curious is all. I wanted to make sure." she responds. 
                          
"Why didn't you remind me earlier?" Noelle asks.
                          
"It wasn't important, plus I forgot myself," he responds, his eyes going back to the TV. 
                          
Noelle sighs. "Don't say that. Birthdays are always important...and so is celebrating you. Is there...is there anything you want to do?"
                          
"Yeah," Asta replies, his eyes finally meeting her own. "I want to be with you," 
                          
Those words alone are enough to make her blush. Asta obviously notices since he wraps his arms around her, pulling her close. "With me? Why me?" she responds. She wasn't degrading or downing herself but she knew Asta liked to have fun, and also hang out with his friends. He'd been staying with her for so long that she hadn't thought about his social life. Sure she didn't have a very good one, but he did. Was she being selfish? 
                          
"Why not with you?" he inquires. "You have a social life, Asta. I'm sure you don't want to spend all your time with me. It's okay for you to go out...I'm not going anywhere,"
                          
"I know that...it's just..." he pauses, looking for the right words to say. He should've been told her this, at least when they first reconciled. He only got all this time off because he was supposed to be getting married to Mimosa. There was no wedding and they didn't get married which meant that he would have to return to the military soon. "I got a call a few days ago." he begins. He had to tell her, they had to communicate. They needed to keep their connection strong. "I'm going to be deployed in a few weeks."
                          
"Oh," is his words. It's all she can say for now. It slipped her mind that Asta was still a part of the military. She had remembered when they first met, back when he was dating Mimosa, he told her he was still an active member and only got time off for their wedding. They didn't get married...which meant that he'd be leaving soon.
                          
"How long?"
                          
"Six months."
                          
Her heart aches at those words. Six months? That's how long she'd go without seeing him? Sure it didn't compare or amount up to the two years that they spent apart but it was still a long time. They weren't dating...honestly, she didn't know what they were doing. Having fun? Just hanging out?