Lilith didn't tell her brothers about the mysterious youth, even though they both noticed that something was off about her. She laughed and told them that she was attacked by some bandits, but she neutralized them and dropped them off in the nearest village. This caused the boys to fuss over her, but once they were sure she didn't have any injuries Lucifer bonked her over the head and Rex, transforming into his baby dragon form, lightly chomped on her fingers.

Ever since that day, she made it a habit to visit that hollow as much as she possibly could, hoping that she could meet the youth again. She knew that he was aware of her visits because every so often, she would spy a shadow that disappeared as soon as she turned towards it or catch a whiff of Qingxin flowers in the wind.

"I feel like I'm coaxing out a freaking cat or something," Lilith grumbled as she set a basket full of food on the ground. She also made it a ritual to leave food in the hollow at least once a week, hoping that if she found out the male's favorite foods she could bait him to interact with her. So far she had little luck, but she did notice that he had taken a bite out of the pudding she placed in the basket for dessert last time. Bolstered by this new discovery, the basket this time was full of nothing but pudding-like foods such as almond tofu, chicken tofu pudding, crab roe tofu, and oncidium tofu for the main dishes; padisarah pudding, mint jelly, rice pudding, and rose custard for dessert.

In fact, her confidence was so great that she decided to plop on the ground and take a plate of almond tofu out of the basket (she brought two plates of it for this very purpose). She took a bite, and sparkles literally appeared in her eyes. "Man, I really am a genius in the kitchen!" she commented, taking another bite. "Well, I'll have to be in order to feed two growing boys... well, Rexy is looking more like a young man lately. *Sigh*, the audacity of him, growing up faster than his big sis," she grumbled into her spoon. "But oh, what an utter shame that I have to eat all this delicious food all~ by~ my~self," she taunted into the air, taking another bite.

She smirked as she felt a spike in the presence of the mysterious male, giving his location away. Taking a page from his book, she set the plate on the ground beside her and teleported behind him. Apparently, the Vision that their mother had given the twins was very useful for both long and short-distance teleportation, although the long-distance travel was much more energy-consuming. Lilith only needed to focus on the male's presence and she was instantly teleported there without much hassle.

"I thought you said that we shouldn't interact anymore?" she purred teasingly into his ear, causing him to jump away with a yelp mixed in a growl. Lilith could sense surprise from him, making her grin.

"How did you..." he trailed off, cupping his ear with a slightly flustered expression immediately followed by a glare. Lilith giggled at how adorable he was, then shrugged.

"You could do it, so why can't I?" The male frowned at that, but before he could say anything else Lilith grabbed his wrist and dragged him to the food basket. "Now, I spent literal hours making all this food and I'm not letting you leave until you tell me what you think of it!" Lilith said, forcing him to sit on an elevated rock and plopping herself beside him.

"You shouldn't be so near to me. You'll only su-" the male was interrupted by Lilith sticking a spoonful of almond tofu in his mouth. His eyes lit up and Lilith could almost see little cat ears spring from his head.

He quickly grabbed the plate of almond tofu from her hand and began to scarf it down. Lilith smiled and leaned forward, resting her head on her hands and studying the male. He physically looked to be a little older than she was, maybe around 14, but from personal experience she guessed that there was a distinct possibility that she was the older one. He was wearing a beautiful, albeit worn black and white hanfu with gold accents on his left white sleeve. Unlike his right black sleeve, his left was cut a bit near the shoulder, exposing well-toned muscles. His loose black pants were bound with thin gold thread, and he wore a large necklace with white and pink pearls and a diamond-shaped pendant.

(Let's just pretend for a moment that he doesn't have that purple diamond mark on his forehead)

Edit: FFS I HATE THIS APP, just look at the cover image fr :^:

Her grin widened as the little cowlick on top of his head bounced as he chewed. She gazed at his soft hair, imagining what it would be like to run her fingers through it. She raised her hand towards his head but was stopped as he quickly raised a hand, trapping her wrist in an iron grip, a sharp wave of fear slamming into Lilith.

"A- sorry, I should've asked before I did anything," Lilith said sheepishly, running her free hand through her own hair instead. He reluctantly released her wrist.

"What were you... planning to do?" the male said warily.

"Your hair looked super soft, so I wanted to touch it a bit!" Lilith grinned shamelessly. To be fair, she grew up with two males who didn't mind her excessive skinship, and finger-combing each other's hair was a normal thing.

The male's face grew light pink, and he looked away abruptly.

"So is that a no...?" Lilith asked, slightly pouting.

The male kept quiet for a bit, then released her wrist and shoved another spoonful of almond tofu in his mouth. "Only because you brought food," he mumbled around the spoon.

Lilith brightened, then scooted closer and slowly raised her hand towards his head. He stiffened, and Lilith started by just fondling the longer strands on the side of his face. As he relaxed, Lilith's hand progressed further up his head, eventually ending with her stroking the top of his head like she was petting a cat.

(I have gotten reliable information that Xiao purrs like a cat in other fan fics, but I have certain ideas for a future discovery that he purrs so no purring yet.)

Lilith grinned like the Cheshire Cat as the male seemed to subconsciously lean into her touch. Seeing that he was warming up to her, she took her opportunity to finally ask the question from the first time they met. "You never did tell me your name," she said casually.

The male stiffened, then seemed to fall into deep thought. Lilith was used to his long pauses by then and waited patiently for his answer. "...Alatus," he finally said, quietly.

"Nice to meet you, Alatus!" Lilith grinned widely. "I'm Lilith, as you know. Wanna be friends?"

Alatus stared wide-eyed at the silver-haired female as if he couldn't believe the words that came out of her mouth. Lilith nervously toyed with a lock of her hair, wondering if she said anything wrong.

"Why would you want to be friends with me?" Alatus asked, frowning deeply. "What would you get out of it?" Distrust wafted off of him, the first truly negative emotion that he had pointed towards Lilith.

Lilith's eyes also widened, understanding why Alatus reacted the way he did. He clearly had strong trust issues and assumed that people would only get close to him to get something from him. She understood that, for she and her brother had gone through the same thing in their old world.

"Other than gaining a new friend? Absolutely nothing at all," she assured him, a soft smile on her face. Alatus was clearly shocked, the emotion only growing stronger as she continued, "If anything, I want to give you anything I can. I don't know why you think that I would suffer if I get close to you, but the only one suffering right now is not me. It's you. I want to be your friend and show you that you deserve so much more than self-depreciation and isolation. And the first thing I'm going to do as your friend," she dug into her basket and held up a plate of Sweet Dream, a variation of almond tofu, "is feed you a ton of delicious food that this kitchen goddess has taken upon herself to make!" She grinned widely, puffing her chest out proudly as she said the last bit.

Alatus said nothing as he accepted the plate, but Lilith knew that he had accepted her words, if only a little bit, when he scooted a little closer to her and slightly tilted his head towards her. They quietly ate for the next few minutes, Lilith's fingers running soothingly through Alatus's hair.

A.N. The next chapter is this chapter but in Alatus's perspective + his impression of Lilith ;)