Nicolas's gaze lingered on him, slow and unhurried, taking in details he hadn't seen in a long time. Not the uniform he no longer wore, not the posture of a student waiting to be addressed, but the way Noel carried himself now. Grounded. Steady. The change was impossible to miss.
He had grown into himself.
Blond hair, no longer kept short out of regulation but worn naturally now. Emerald eyes that no longer searched the room for approval or instruction, but met his calmly, with the quiet certainty of someone who had made choices and lived with them. There was fatigue there, yes, etched lightly around the edges, but it was the kind that came from moving forward, not from being lost.
