"Fontanelli, huh," he muttered under his breath, before looking up, exhaling into a mist, as his eyes closed.
"You look like you just saw a ghost," Lilith mentioned, as she raised herself and examined his face.
"Didn't see, but you sure did remind me of one just now." Noah's surprising remark caught the snake off-guard, who and she quickly climbed his shoulder, inching onto his ear.
"Why would his name make you like this? Isn't he just a loose end you culled quite a while back?" she asked, thoughtful.
"He... Well, you could say it. But he was involved with far more than just that," Noah told her, but didn't elaborate any further, leaving her to wonder. "So, we're here," he said, as they arrived at the place he'd arranged to look for all the things to buy.
"What's this place?" Maggie's excited voice was the first to sound, as she leaned over the begrudging Bel and looked out the window. Outside, a large building, whose beautiful and striking design was made in a way to get the most attention possible, towered over them.
"It's a shopping center. I had never come here either," Noah told her, as the edge of his vision caught a certain person proudly raising their chest. "You should thank Carlos, I would never have known of this place if he hadn't mentioned it," he told her, the girl's eyes glistening as she looked over at the pompously proud friend of his, before thanking him.
Noah himself didn't quite care, but he still felt Carlos' current state of mind was better than his worried self from earlier, so letting him indulge just this bit wouldn't be a problem. However, he too was quite interested in all the things they would get around to buy.
'Noah, there's something odd.' But against his initial interests, his face hardened, his brows furrowing. Lilith's comment was more important than any of that.
'What about?' he asked, as his eyes panned all around them, as the car turned into the building's parking tower.
'Not sure... It's more of a gut feeling than anything,' she said, as she too looked around for the source of her discomfort. 'It was probably nothing,' she said, feeling the tension rise.
'I'll keep that in mind. Either way, keep your eyes around for anything suspicious,' Noah told the snake in his thoughts, the newfound sense of danger pulsating into his mind like an alarm. What made him nervous, though, was not anything that he felt out of place. Instead, it was that he felt nothing wrong at all.
'This place is too clean, there's nothing out of place at all...' he thought to himself, as his eyes scanned the lines of cars as they went by.
Soon, the car stopped in front of an automatic door, the glass completely covered in ads in a way it became as seethrough as a wall.
"Noah, let's get going!" Maggie's voice caught his attention, as she pulled his sleeve.
Blinking, Noah realized everyone was already leaving the car, with only him not having moved from his seat. "Sorry, I was thinking about something," he said as he shook his worries off.
"Hmmmm... What are you thinking about?! You know I've been waiting to buy this stuff, it's no fun if you're thinking about something else," the then excited Maggie complained with a pout, as she disappointingly started downwards.
Noah swallowed dry. His face, his eyes, his demeanor. This was not just criticism, it was a threat. And he knew whom he was talking about.
Noah's eyes quickly aimed down at the snake on his shoulders, whose confused eyes worried about him instead. Her words and warning about Bel ringing into his ears as he went over the scene multiple times in the span of a few seconds.
'So that's what happened,' he thought, somewhat piecing together how Lilith came to this world in the way he did, and why she was wary of the person who betrayed—sent—her. '... If that's the case, maybe he did it for her own good,' he thought, as his hand caressed the snake's head.
"You're right, I need to enjoy life," he said with a wry smile, the snake tilting her head satisfiedly. And walking in, the image of Alice and Maggie holding up a large plush toy of himself made him freeze, as he stared blankly at the scene.
"Noah! Look! We found a Lucifer plushie!"
'Maybe this was not a good idea,' he told Lilith, who went into a fit of laughter.
"Come on, don't be mad at me. I showed them in because it was a Valorwatch Merch store, how would I know they would find a toy of you," Carlos tried to reason with him as they walked out of the store, Maggie happily skipping while holding a Lucifer plush almost her own size.
"I know, I know." Noah brushed him off, not strictly mad.
'You should give him some slack,' Lilith confided, understanding he didn't want to talk about it aloud.
'I'm not mad.' Was all he told the snake, ignoring everyone, including Carlos.
"Doesn't seem that way," she teased, wrapping herself around his neck, whispering.
'I really am not! Seriously. I have no problem with him leading her in and her buying the toy!' he said in a bit of a yell inside his mind, which made Lilith chuckle.
'Then what is it, could it be...'
'Yeah! I'm embarrassed, alright?! Also, she's already like that. Can you imagine coming home to a room filled with pictures, plushies and toys of yourself?!' he argued, making Lilith cackle.
'I mean, I can see that happening. But at least it's not you, you. Only the game version of you," she said, making Noah roll his eyes with a flushed face he tried to ride.
'For now,' she completed, catching him completely off guard, as he looked back to see Maggie hugging the plushie very fondly.
"Something tells me you're worried about her brother-complex worsening," Bel said with a sadistic smirk, while Noah could only smile wryly.
"Carlos, you're gonna pay for this," he muttered under his breath, realizing Carlos had done this to make him embarrassed on purpose, from his now obvious laughter, finding the whole thing hilarious.