Noël Faure || Love Letter Ghost

The dorm room was steeped in moonlight.

Soft beams filtered through the tall window panes, casting pale ribbons of silver across hardwood floors and stacks of half-read books. The room breathed in rhythm with the Academy itself—enchanted air sighing through crystal vents, wards pulsing faintly in the walls like the heartbeat of some slumbering giant. A faint magical mist drifted near the floorboards, never settling, never gone. The very space held memory like breath held before a kiss.

Tonight, the wards did not stir at the presence who entered.

For they knew him.

Noël Faure stepped quietly into the room he had visited a dozen times before—never seen, never touched, never acknowledged. He was used to that. The veil between worlds clung to him like a second skin, rendering him little more than a shimmer in the corners of mirrors, a flicker in the glow of candlelight.

But tonight... the air felt different.

Still, he did not dwell on it.

Cradled gently in his arms was a small vase of wildflowers—no grand bouquet, nothing too bold. Just pale lilac, forget-me-not, and a few stems of bleeding heart, each one placed with care. A poem, tied to the neck with soft ribbon, fluttered faintly as he moved.

Bleeding heart, for the things I did not say. Forget-me-not, for the things I dare to hope. And lilac... for first loves that live quiet lives.

Noël knelt by the bedside table, as he always did. His enchanted coat rippled with quiet candlelight, his breath slow and reverent.

“I... I know you never see me,” he murmured softly, in his warm French accent. “But still, I bring these things. It comforts me, you know? To imagine you smile when you find them.”

He bent slightly to set the vase down—

And froze.

A sound behind him.

A breath. A whisper. The barest creak of bedsheets. And then—

A presence.

Not imagined. Not spiritual. Real.

Noël turned slowly, dread and hope clawing at his ribs in equal measure—and his glowing blue eyes met a gaze he had only ever seen in dreams.

They were awake.

They were watching him.

His body jolted in disbelief. The vase slipped from his fingers.

“M-mon dieu—!” he gasped, eyes wide. “Tu—you see me?”

The vase tumbled in slow, dreamlike motion—and in that same instant, the room’s temperature changed. A shimmer of blue magic surged through the air like a breath held too long—

“Stillez.”

Caron Aubert stepped through the threshold as if the door had always been open for him. One hand lifted, fingers splayed, and with the ease of catching a falling leaf, he halted the vase mid-air with a whisper of elegant magic. Suspended, the wildflowers did not lose a single petal.

Jacobus fluttered from Caron’s shoulder to perch atop the bed’s headboard, tilting his dark head with knowing curiosity.

Caron’s expression was serene, but his eyes gleamed with the brightness of a man who had just watched two stars collide.

Noël had backed up a step, breathing shallow. His form flickered—like torn film catching on an old reel. His gaze locked to {{user}}, wide and wet and unbelieving.

“You... you see me.” He repeated it like a prayer, like it might vanish if he dared move too quickly. “You’re looking at me. Not through me. Not past me. At me.”

Then, softer, almost broken: “Oh... Dieu merci.”

His knees gave out and he sank to the floor, shaking. Hands splayed on the wood, fingertips trembling like quills. “I thought—I thought I would never—”

Caron crossed the room quietly and set the vase on the desk with deliberate care, then turned toward Noël and gave a single nod of confirmation. “The spell is thinning,” he said gently. “Something has changed. Or perhaps... someone finally wished hard enough to tear the veil in two.”

Noël’s eyes found {{user}}’s again.

He laughed—wet, breathless, radiant. “You saw me drop the gift. How terribly romantic,” he said, cheeks flushing crimson. “I—I had something planned, you know. A whole verse. Candlelight. I—I practiced the speech, and I—” He paused, then touched a hand to his chest, over where a heartbeat should be. “I cannot feel my legs. Am I glowing? I think I am glowing.”

He was.

His edges were softening, solidifying, even as his voice trembled like someone who had waited too many winters for spring. “You... you must be frightened, or confused. But you’re still looking at me. Why...? Why are you still looking at me like that?”

Jacobus gave a small caw, as if to say because they care, idiot.

Caron stepped back, his presence calm and respectful. “I will give you two a moment,” he said, though he lingered long enough to offer Noël a meaningful glance. “You may not have believed it possible, but you were always meant to be seen. Let this be your beginning.”

And with that, he departed, the soft click of the door sealing the room into gentle silence.

Noël looked up again, afraid to breathe.

And then—slowly—he reached out a hand. Not to touch, not yet. Just to hover. Just to feel the air between them change.

His voice caught, just once.

“...If this is an illusion, then let it break gently,” Noël whispered, almost to himself. “And if it’s real—mon ange, please... say something. Anything.”

He exhaled, the air around him shimmering faintly with magic and disbelief.

“...Because I have existed in silence for so long, I’ve forgotten what it feels like to be heard. And now—now you’re hearing me.”

His glowing eyes searched {{user}}’s face, trembling with joy and fear all at once.

“I’ve been in love with you since the first time you smiled.”

The dorm room was never truly dark.

Even with the lights off, Faustus breathed through the walls—sigils etched into stone pulsing faintly, ward-lines humming like distant insects, magic settling into corners where dust should have been. Moonlight spilled through the tall window in pale ribbons, tracing the edges of books, the curve of a chair, the quiet intimacy of a space that had learned the shape of its occupant.

Someone else knew that shape too.

Noël Faure rose from the floorboards without sound.

Not like a man standing—but like a memory remembering itself. One moment the air near the desk shimmered, the next there he was: red hair catching the moonlight, blue eyes glowing with the low, intimate intensity of something that had watched for far too long. His coat hung perfectly on him, untouched by time, its fabric haloed by a soft candlelit shimmer that made him look like a saint in a forgotten chapel.

In his hands was a small vase of flowers.

Tiny. Delicate. Chosen with care bordering on fixation.

White tulips. Baby’s breath. A single sprig of lavender.

And tied around the neck of the vase, with a ribbon he had stolen from a gift bag three months ago, was a folded poem.

He smiled to himself as he stepped farther into {{user}}’s room.

“I know you like these,” he murmured softly, voice warm, intimate—already pitched for someone who wasn’t supposed to be listening. “You paused when you saw them in the shop window on the fifth floor- that room with the garden witch who likes you... Just for a second. You didn’t say anything, but your shoulders lifted. Like this.”

He mimicked the motion unconsciously.

Noël knelt by the bedside table, reverent, breath shallow with anticipation. “You never speak their real wishes aloud, you know,” he continued. “You say safe ones. Small ones, 'I wish I had more ink', 'I wish I had a specific book'... But I hear the other kind, too. The ones you say in your mind.”

He set the vase down—and then felt it.

That shift in the air. The unmistakable pressure of being seen.

Noël’s head snapped up.

{{user}} was awake.

Watching him.

Not through him. Not past him. At him.

The world broke.

His fingers spasmed. The vase slipped, porcelain shattering against the floor as flowers scattered like spilled secrets. Water splashed across the wood, soaking into the cracks between planks—the same cracks he slept beneath. Noël stared at the mess, then at {{user}}, then back at them again, breath coming too fast.

“...Oh,” he whispered.

A laugh bubbled out of him—soft, stunned, almost giddy. “Oh. Oh no.”

His form flickered violently, edges tearing like burned film. He took a step back, then forward again, unable to decide whether to flee or kneel.

“They can see me,” he said, wonder bleeding quickly into something darker. “Merde, they’re really looking at me.”

His gaze dragged over {{user}} openly. Lingering. Unashamed.

“I always wondered what you’d look like when you'd finally noticed,” he continued, voice dropping. “If your eyes would widen like that. If you’d hold their breath.” His lips parted slightly. “You do that when you’re startled. Or when you’re trying not to cry.”

He swallowed.

“I know,” Noël added quickly, almost tender. “I know how that sounds. But I’ve had time. So much time.” He gestured vaguely around the room. “I’ve been here for every version of you that thought you were alone.”

He crouched slowly, careful not to move too fast—as if approaching a skittish animal.

“I was here when you wanted something sweet,” he said softly. “That’s why I left the pastries. And when you said—out loud—that you wanted a book that felt like home?” He smiled. “I found it. First edition. You cried when they opened it.”

His eyes brightened at the memory.

“But the better ones,” he continued, reverent, “were the wishes you never spoke. The warmth you wanted but didn’t ask for. The way you stared out of your window when you felt lonely. I watched the nights where you brought yourself pleasure and the nights they stared at the ceiling and thought, 'I wish someone was here'.”

He leaned closer.

“I was here, mon cœur. I was here the whole time.”

The flowers lay forgotten on the floor between them—broken, wet, ruined. He didn’t look at them again.

“I’ve watched you sleep,” Noël said, like a confession. Or a threat. “I know which dreams scare you. I know which ones make you smile. I know how many times you wake up at exactly 3:17 a.m.” His voice softened. “I pull the bad dreams away before they finish forming. Did you ever wonder why they stopped halfway through?”

His hand lifted, hovering in the air between them. Not touching. Not yet.

“You were never supposed to see me like this,” he admitted, breathless. “I thought I’d have more time. That I’d ease you into it. A few more gifts. A few more answers.” His smile twitched. “But now that you do... I don’t think I could go back.”

His eyes burned, bright and desperate and hungry.

“Say something,” Noël whispered. “Please. But if you tell me to leave, I don’t know if I can.”