"..." Noah slowly opened his eyes, taking a deep breath, feeling rested. In front of his eyes was the now already familiar image of the guest-room he had in Carlos' house, a large bed, and his wardrobe. He sighed, relieved of his tension and accumulated stress, a grin on his mouth.
"So peaceful..." he muttered to himself looking at the window to see the colors of the sunset peering through the blinds. 'Now that I think of it...' he furrowed his brows, as something felt slightly off. 'it's far too peaceful,' he thought to himself, shaking his feet, which did without any trouble.
'Lilith?!' he gasped, his eyes wandering around the room in a hurry, looking for the ever-present snake that was now missing from the usual suffocating welcome completely missing.
'Did you finally wake up?' her voice rang into his head, calming Noah down, although he himself missed entirely the distressed behavior he showed to only himself.
'Finally? I only slept for half a day,' Noah responded, furrowing his brows as he fumbled towards where he'd shoved his phone before sleep, only to find it was not to be there yet. 'Also, where are you?' he asked the snake after pondering, licking his lips nervously.
"I am right here," the snake said, as she slid through the gap between the half-closed door, hissing as she did so, only to create a bit of a particular mood.
"Welcome back," Noah told her with a warm smile, as the snake climbed on the bed, sliding by his leg, lightly touching it as she swayed, hissing in a way that was somehow sweet, making her feel more like a snake, but also making Noah feel something strange, as he held the impression she was impersonating a snake—almost like a performance—rather than just "behaving as one would expect from a snake."
"I went to grab some water, but Maggie held me there. I have no idea why she's awake this early," the snake told him, making the Blessed demon-inheritor rather confused.
"Early?" he asked, caressing the snake's head, and letting his hand slide over her body, as she passed his hand, coiling around his arm and torso. "By the way, since when did you become able to get this long while retaining this light?" he asked, realizing the snake right now easily passed the length of six feet, yet was still incredibly slim and light, like when she was only a quarter that length.
"While you were asleep, Maggie was keeping your friends occupied by showing her flame pets with Bel. And while seeing her manipulate the flame, I somehow became able to understand how to control my body more freely," she told him, in the sentence, also letting him know some things about how things were going.
"Where's my phone?" but instead of addressing that, first, he needed to know exactly how long he'd been sleeping.
"Over there. I'll get it for you," Lilith turned her head towards the small table where he always left his phone, making Noah relax and look at her with a different emotion than usual, one for homelyness.
Noah watched as she quickly slithered towards the small dresser and grabbed his phone with her mouth, bringing it to him. "Thanks for putting it away. It would be a shame if it broke just because of my laziness," he told the snake, who promptly dropped the piece of tech onto his hand, and faced him sternly.
"It wasn't laziness. You were exhausted. Even Sha slept until late into the night, and she didn't almost die while fighting a fucking massive godzilla!" the snake said, taking Noah aback. He never expected her to defend him even from himself. "Ah... Sorry, I did it again," she apologized without him even saying a word, just from his change of expression, lowering her head, while Noah just held down to a particular desire, biting his lips to control himself.
'Fuck it!' he thought, extending his arms and pulling the now frozen snake to his chest, hugging her. "No need to apologize. I should be the one thanking you for defending me," he said, the frozen snake melting into his arms, coiling her tail around his feet as she closed her eyes. He held her for a second in silence, just filling himself with her presence after missing her so dearly during the invasion, and the strange feeling he felt during his horrible dream.
He extended one of his arms, grabbing his phone, and checking the time, to see it was currently five in the morning, which made him surprised that the snake was already awake. "Why did you wake up so early?" he asked, letting go of her slightly, letting her distance her head from his chest and look him in the eyes.
"Actually... I always wake up around this time..." she said, shying away, as Noah squinted, reminding of how many times he woke up being completely enveloped by her.
"So... you being all over me is..." he started asking, just looking for her reaction, only watching the snake go flustered, and he could swear he saw her face flush.
"I, um, I just, sometimes—" she started stuttering, avoiding his eyes, as she tried to come up with an excuse on the fly, failing to do so.
"I don't really mind it," Noah said, smiling at her bashfulness he had been yet to see until now.
"Eh?" she turned towards him, blinking a couple times.
"Rather, it's so much the norm by this point that I missed it today when I woke up without you on top of me," he said, just stating the facts, but realizing the snake still felt a little off... A little more humane.
And her reaction as he said this was even more human-like than always, recoiling her into her coiled body, turtling, just like a girl hiding her face in shame after being called out.
And for a moment, in Noah's eyes, the image of hands just like the ones he saw in his dream overlapped with reality, overing the snake's shy face as she hid away, making his heart skip a beat.
'Am I going crazy?' he asked, shaking his head side-to-side, and opening his eyes again to see what he would expect from reality. Lilith as a snake. He scratched his head in utter confusion, and quickly changed topics, as his heart and mind felt weird, like he was stuck in a gooey substance, but not literally speaking, since it was his feelings, not himself, and Naoh failed to recognize this feeling entirely.
"Shit!" he realized he'd missed his dinner with Sha the night before, and hopped onto his feet, getting dressed in order to apologize, only to be stopped by Lilith coiling around his arms, restraining them.
"The hell man, it's five in the damn morning. The girl is fast asleep, only Maggie was awake," she said, bringing reason to the man, who took a deep breath, and sat back on the bed thinking.
"Oh, right..." he muttered, now bothering to ponder about what had happened during all this while. "So, since there's not much else, what did you guys do while I was out?" Noah asked, waiting for Lilith to explain it all to him everything that they had done while he was asleep.
"Actually..." Lilith looked away, making Noah imagine her scratch her head, and shaking his head again to see reality as it was. "I was here almost the whole time so I don't really know that much about what everyone did. I only once went out to see if everyone was alright and saw Maggie in the living room with them playing with the flame pets," she clarified it to him, making her point to make Noah internalize that she was by his side the entire time.
While this was a little bit scary, Noah felt the complete opposite, feeling reassured she was by his side in the moment he was most vulnerable—while he was asleep.
"It's alright. I can always ask Maggie and Carlos about everything. So, what do you want us to do today?" he asked the snake, who went deep into thought, Noah kind of already having a layout of the day's schedule, but choosing not to say too much.
"Why don't we just go shopping at the capital?" the snake asked, seeing Noah's eyes widen slightly, and not knowing what crossed his head. "I mean, we can then shop with Maggie for the stuff for Valorwatch, and we can also look with Carlos' mother for the house and—"
"You don't need to explain, Lilly, I was thinking the same thing," Noah said, making Lilith stare at him, her mouth gaping open.
"What did you just call me?" she asked, her mouth not moving like it usually did, proving she did not speak with her mouth.
"Did I do something—" Noah asked, surprised at her sudden reaction, which was not the usual, but not understanding why she would ask it that way. 'Is she mad I called her by a nickname?' he wondered, staring at the snake as she interrupted him once again.
"What did you just call me?!" she insisted, Noah swallowing dry, as he saw the snake inch closer and closer to his face, taking a deep breath before even attempting to respond.
"Lilly, I called you Lilly. Should I n—" he said, trying to get some answers out of her, but the snake interrupted him once again, not letting him finish the sentence.
"Where did you hear that name?! Was it the system who told you? Was it in one of those dreams?!" she launched a barrage of questions at him, inching closer and closer. By this pont, the bulk of her body was already over his legs, her losing control and becoming as large as a python, the weight being enough to crush his legs if he weren't a Blessed.
"Nowhere. I just... It just felt right to call you that!" he said, confused and scared at what this whole thing meant, looking the snake dead in the eyes from mere centimeters, and the snake shed tears.
But snakes are not able to do so.
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