The kid herself is a giggly mess too, dizzy head wobbling up and down at the goddess’ instruction to sit down.
Noire’s prepared reaction comes across to you as impressively smooth (and thankfully with her not-so-hidden laughter, not angry), so even when she scolds you, you can’t help but flash a rare toothy grin up at her.
It turns into a closed-mouth smirk as she tousles your hair, and then slightly agape surprise when she remarks about her being proud of you. Since when had you been told that? Noire’s own sudden mood shift reflects on you, as well. You’re not sure how to express your thanks for it, let alone process her words, but Noire saves you the distress.
You nod with calculated enthusiasm, not wanting to offend your newly winged friend for wanting to explore.
This wasn’t your first time at a library, so you navigated smoothly past the lower reading-level books and into much more promising aisles (chapter books!!). Each book had a different thickness to them, and there were messier sections of thin paperbacks, well-loved and worn.
You’re the type to be up for a challenge, and the type to be moving quite often, so you needed hardier books (easier to keep track of, and more likely to endure any accidents). You’re also the type to be entranced by more colorful hardback covers, especially ones with slight texture to them.
How much of this you think Noire knew about you… Well, you had no clue. But you restrain yourself from sharing your criteria to Noire, if because you’re partly curious about what she’d pick from higher shelves for you.
With your hand frozen on a book’s spine to keep track of it, you glance up at the goddess to see if she’s collected anything.
Noire is immensely thankful for Lucah’s enthusiasm. She follows the child closely as they walk through the aisle. With one eye on Lucah, she glances carefully over the selection, looking for anything interesting. It doesn’t immediately occur to her that Lucah might need help looking at the higher books; she’s still trying to distract herself, after all.
Luckily, there are plenty of interesting titles in this section. A series of thin cyan paperbacks catch her eye: they’re a long running series of kid criminal books. Probably not a good influence. She pulls out three more books, only to find they are also in the ‘kid criminal’ genre. ‘Why are these so popular...’ she wonders, incredulous.
Finally, she finds a more suitable book. The front cover is a faded brown, like fake leather binding, with bold holographic lettering: Monstrata. “Hmm.” The back cover describes the story as a serious but hopeful journey of discovery taken by the main character and their friends, who are all considered monsters by their society- figuratively and literally. ‘It looks like it might be a little dark... but it is also the best thing I’ve found.’ She looks down at Lucah, to see if they’ve found anything themself, only to find them looking back up at her.
“O-oh, uh, did you find anything?” She briefly considers slotting Monstrata back into the bookcase, but ultimately decides against it. The book seems like it might be challenging, in both senses of the word, but she always pushed Uni to do her best; why not push Lucah too?
“The only interesting thing I found was this.” She hands them the hardcover book. “Is it something you would like?”
tangentwithtanner
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