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Noé stretched as he climbed out of bed. He'd slept in again. He'd feel bad about always being the last person to be up if Vanitas actually slept. Noé had never seen him sleep in the short time he'd stayed with him.
That might be the reason he readily leant Noé his bed. Under the condition that he wouldn't mess with his belongings and knick knacks strewn around the room of course.
Noé walked over to the little dresser under the window. The same one that Vanitas used like a step stool when climbing in from the window at the crack of dawn each morning.
Murr also used it as a scratching post. Vanitas hadn't seemed to mind to much when Noé had frantically apologized. Instead the curious man had thrown his keys at Noé and started etching some Cresent moons and V's into the wood with the claws of his gloves. Noé had soon joined him on the floor and added a portrait of Murr and an N next to one of the V's with the keys he'd been given.
After he'd finished getting dressed he made the bed and fixed the purble duvets. When Noé had first slept here the duvets had been blue but they'd since been changed. He guessed Vanitas used them but once again he'd never seen the man sleep.
Once that too was done Noé left the bedroom and entered the living room. He was greeted by a smiling Amelia who poked her head out of the tiny kitchen. She held some plates and was probably in the middle of setting the table. "Bonjour Noé! Vanitas let me in before he headed out!"
"I see! Bonjour to you aswell Amelia. You wouldn't happen to know where he went oui?"
Setting down the last fork and knife she turned back to him. "I believe he might have went on a grocery run."
Noé joined Amelia in the kitchen and poured Murr who had been sleeping on the kitchen counter until then some food.
They talked and laughed as they waited for Vanitas to get back. Noé still found it unbelievable that his first parisian friend had been cured. That she now sat in front of him healthy and entirely herself. Not a single trace of the curse that had once plagued her.
If someone had told Noé about this before he'd seen the human doctor pull out the fabeled book of vanitas in that alley that day and wield its magic as if it were as easy as breathing he wouldn't have believed it. As unlikely as it was for him he would have probably snapped at the person. He would have lost it.
As naive as some claimed he was he would have he would have immediately assumed himself being toyed with and reacted as such. Maybe that was another reason he liked the doctor and Amelia, even that Dante guy. All the people he'd met so far treated him like an adult.
He hadn't realised it until he'd gotten to experience it for the first time but in contrast to it, it became increasingly clear that the people he'd been acquainted with back home had treated him like a child even in adulthood.
He wouldn't mention it though. He didn't want his friends to view him any differently. His teacher had told him to simply stay near the book and it's wielder and observe and learn from them. While his teacher no doubt meant learn in terms of magic, formulas and healing Noé had grown as a person and learnt some valuable life skills since meeting Vanitas as well.
He was grateful. For this opportunity. For meeting the man. For being welcomed in to his home and for the friend confiding in him on her fear of spiders across from him, very much still alive.
And as Vanitas finally barged into the kitchen grocery bags in hand completely out of breath and already nagging them on not having eaten yet Noé laughed.
Vanitas stopped trying to reach the highest shelf on his tip toes and glared at him. "Stop laughing and make use of your ridiculous height! Help me place these on the highest shelf!"
He got up and lifted the fuming man on his shoulders. "Here you go your majesty."
Vanitas shrieked as he nearly fell down sending even the reserved and well mannered Amelia into a laughing fit.
Once they were all seated and munching on the croissants the doctor had brought all had been forgotten and conversation had started up again.
Vanitas and Amelia were discussing the effects of healing herbs on vampires which Noé as curious as he was still found himself halfway tuning out.
He watched his friends finally come to to an agreement on the usefulness of rosemary and with a smile Noé realized that he was content. Content with his life. In a way he hadn't felt since the time he'd snuggled up between Domi and Louis or even farther back when he'd still lived with the human pair that had raised him.