He wakes up to voices.
"—would have been the last one to see him."
"I can't help you, man, I was blacked out last night."
"Don't bullshit me, Ransom." Beckett sounds angry, and a thrill of anxiety pierces through the bone-deep fatigue trying to pull Noel back to sleep. "There's no way you don't remember something."
"All I remember is someone dumping me on the sofa, and then I woke up a few hours later," Jade responds, muffled like Beckett. "If that was your brother, then I don't know where he went. He probably just got a taxi and went home."
"No one saw him leave!" Beckett nearly shouts.
"Did you talk to every single person who was here last night?"
"I know that he—"
"Dude, my head is killing me and I had a really shitty night, so would you mind not involving me in your brother complex right now?"
"I do not have a—!"
"Yeah, sure, whatever—" Jade's voice grows more distant. "Try calling him or something, have you ever considered that?"
"He probably wouldn't answer me." Beckett sounds farther away too, barely audible.
"All I've got, man. Now go away."
Noel hears the muffled sound of a door closing. Then footsteps.
He pushes himself up on shaking arms just as the bedroom door swings open.
"Good, you're awake." In the same room, Jade's voice sounds hungover, gravelly and low. His jaw is dark with stubble and his usually tousled hair actually looks unintentionally messy. He's still blisteringly hot, though, wearing nothing but tight black boxer briefs and a black undershirt. "Call your brother before he has an aneurysm."
Noel blinks the sleep from his eyes, sluggishly processing Jade's words. His head feels like it's full of wet sand and his muscles are still jelly as he attempts to stay upright. "What?"
"Beckett." Jade crosses to the bedside table and snatches something up, tossing it carelessly onto the blankets beside Noel. "Call him."
Noel picks up his phone in trembling hands, staring at it dumbly. "He won't answer," he rasps. Jade's hangover voice is hot, but his is just pitiful. "He never responds to me."
Then his phone starts buzzing. The screen lights up with a contact Noel hasn't seen there in over a year. "What the fuck."
"Told you so. Now pick up." Jade exits the room and Noel, against his better judgement, accepts the call.
"H—"
"Where are you?" Beckett's irate voice scrapes through the speaker and straight into Noel's pounding head and he winces.
"At home," Noel manages, still reeling at the surreality of Beckett calling him.
"When did you leave the party last night?"
"Why?"
Beckett huffs. "Just answer me!"
Noel winces again. "Uh—a little after two," he says, vaguely recalling the clock on the microwave when they got to the room last night.
"How did you get back to your apartment?"
"I called a cab."
"Why do you sound like shit?"
Noel frowns. "Why does that matter? I'm an adult and I can drink if I want to."
"Did you drink more?" Beckett demands, volume ratcheting up again, and Noel has to hold the device away from his ear. "I told you to go home!"
"You're not the boss of me!" Noel shoots back petulantly. "And stop yelling!"
"The fuck do you think you're doing, getting involved with Quinn and Ransom?! Quinn is furious with you right now, you know that?"
Unease blooms in Noel's churning gut. "No?"
"Because of that stunt you pulled last night—since when are you and Ransom friends?"
"We're not," Noel argues automatically. "I just—uh—"
"Now she's mad at you and there's that stupid photo—"
"Photo?"
"Yeah, the one of you and Ransom at the front desk."
Noel's blood goes cold. "I…uh…."
"The fuck were you even doing?" Beckett reiterates furiously.
"He was—I was—" Noel falters. If someone got a picture of him helping Jade to his room, then there's no way he can claim to be uninvolved. He curses his past self. No more altruism! Ever!
"You've got no place fucking around with the higher classes," Beckett spits. "Just mind your own goddamn business and—"
"You weren't there," Noel snaps, anger rinsing away some of his disorientation. "You didn't see it—Ransom was plastered, he could barely walk—and that girl was trying to take advantage—"
"Ransom can look after himself," Beckett dismisses, the same way Jade himself did last night. "He doesn't need you to—"
"Why should he have to?" Noel cuts in sharply. "Just because he's powerful, that means he can't ask for help? That no one else should care about what happens to him?"
"You—"
"Even if he could have sent that woman flying down the hallway, there was still the chance that something bad could happen to him! What if he passed out first? What if she called someone to help her?" Noel can feel his sore throat straining under his mounting volume but he doesn't stop, indignation pounding through him in time with his pulse. "Was I supposed to just let her take him somewhere while knowing he could potentially get hurt? Just because he's theoretically capable of protecting himself?! Maybe you could walk the other way, but I couldn't! How could I live with myself if something happened and I could have stopped it?! I'd do the same for anyone else, including you! Why should Ransom be different?"
"Because he just is, you dumbass! He's not just some esper at the company, he's the most powerful esper in the country!"
"And that means he can't get hurt? Or feel scared? Or get upset? How powerful does someone have to be before their suffering no longer has value?"
"Why are you defending him like this?" Beckett responds venomously. "You know he's not going to fuck you, right?"
A bitter laugh sneaks out before Noel can stop it. "You're an asshole, Beckett."
"Noel, I swear to god—"
"And you ruined my vest!"
"Good! Don't go to any more parties!"
"Fuck you!"
"You're so fucking stupid," Beckett hisses. "Stay away from Ransom and Quinn and me, just—stay down with the other flunkies and mind your goddamn business!"
The call cuts out.
Noel tries to throw the phone across the room in a fit of impotent rage, but his arm gives up halfway through and it just thumps onto the end of the mattress instead. Groaning, he collapses back against the copious pillows.
The door opens, admitting Jade again. "Been a while since I heard you yell like that," he remarks, passing over a water bottle.
Shit. How much did Jade overhear? Cheeks warming, Noel sits up and accepts the water bottle. In a rare show of thoughtfulness, the lid has already been opened. "I'll get angry more often, then," he mumbles, taking a long sip.
"What is with you two?" Jade asks, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"It's complicated. I don't want to talk about it."
Jade rolls his eyes. "How do you feel?"
"Tired." Noel takes another drink. "Hungry. How long was I asleep?"
"Only about nine hours. It's noon." Bright blue eyes sweep Noel up and down. "You look like shit."
Noel would throw the water bottle at him if he wasn't still thirsty. "Someone fucked my face and came down my throat last night," he grumbles instead, pulling his knees in and running a hand self-consciously through his tangled hair. "Blame him."
Jade smirks. "You did pretty good for your first time."
Noel shoots him a withering look.
Still smirking, Jade reaches over and ruffles Noel's hair. Noel is too surprised to react, and by the time he swats at Jade's arm, it's already pulling away.
"I'm starving too," Jade says, pushing himself to his feet with a tired grunt. "Let's order some food. Anything you feel like?"
"Nothing too heavy." Noel blinks. "You haven't eaten? How long have you been awake?"
"Like fifteen minutes or something." To demonstrate, Jade reaches over his head in a languid stretch, rolling his neck on the way down. "Your brother banging on the door woke me up."
He wanders out of the room, presumably to order food, oblivious to the minor freakout occurring in Noel's head. Jade just woke up, and there's only one bedroom in the suite, so that means he must have been sleeping in the same bed as Noel all night.
It's such a little thing compared to all of the terribly intimate stuff they've been doing, but Noel can still feel his face burning as he hides it in his knees.