For a couple of minutes the two of them remained silent, standing still without observing anything in particular and without worrying about the passing of time. On the contrary, they noticed the beginning of the sunset and the spreading of that red in the sky that, at the least, they recognized as familiar; but they decided to stay still at the entrance anyway, sitting down shortly after on the cold concrete.

Roberto then used his magic tricks to make two cigarettes appear on his palm, then used a mixture of technical skill and timing to light them both with a single flick of the lighter. He kept one for himself and offered the other to Alex, insistently, 'forcing' him to keep him company.

In truth, perhaps he was doing it because he somehow felt the need not to be alone in the face of the craziness of the last few hours. Or, maybe, even that was a good excuse to add a notch to the cancer bingo; hard to say for sure considering the subject.

In any case, in spite of whatever thoughts were really floating around in that head of his, he told Alex some time later, as he continued to observe in the distance: "I had the doubt or being the only one who didn't yet have the pleasure of seeing the landscape; and it turns out that I was right too. All this is hard to believe, even for me. Try to brace yourself, in the future things might go even more nuts, and in spite of appearances, I've always had a little place in my heart for stories where the two the main characters would like to be together but are too dumb to confess the shit in their chests."

Alex almost didn't believe it, especially after spending the last few hours in his company. Forgetting that he had even finished his ride in the tobacco roller coaster already, he still tried to inhale a couple more times stuck in a state of incredibly genuine disbelief. Of course, other than more time, all that was consumed as a result of this princess moment was the filter and another notch in his health; at least until he became aware of it.

"I... I feel speechless," Alex said, turning his head to the side and looking at the profile of the heavy smoker, continuing in the same stuttering tone he started with, "The fact that, it seems, you're worrying about me and Camilla like this is already... On top of that, even now you can't use a few better words to express yourself? You'd be a lot less of a pain in the ass if you tried not to always look for the worst way to express yourself."

Coming towards the end though, the words coming out of his mouth began to take on a softer, even at times contented tone. Seeing as how he'd taken the piss out of him countless times and even now the feeling was still a little bit like that, he used his last sentence to send back at least a little of those cheap attacks, too bad he ended up chuckling as he said it. "You sure are strange," he resumed, returning his gaze in the direction of the vanishing sun. "I don't think you're a bad person though, at least on the surface. Keep your hands and eyes off Camilla though, or at least avoid telling me she has a nice ass. I know that perfectly well on my own and I don't need another man ready to remind of that," ending his moment of glory by lowering his gaze slightly and thinking about the past for a moment.

In fact, the last thing he wanted was to be aware of the possibility that others might find that damned, rude, manky girl attractive and, even worse, that she might think of others in the same way. A moment of weakness typical of a young boy but common even for most men.

"Thank you for the compliment, Miss." Roberto replied, getting up from the ground and throwing the cigarette butt away, while the other genius was feeling sorry for himself. There was a hint of a smile on his face, at least from Alex's perspective.Whether it was real or not this remained all to be proven, but what forms on one''s face is often worth very little anyway, and that I suppose applies to both men and women.

"Let's get back to the others, it's not worth being out there for much longer. There's not even a street lamp here," he remarked later without much effort, moving at a walking pace in the direction of the door without waiting for Alex to get his ass off the ground and not offering him the slightest help to do so.

The poor soul sighed and scratched his forehead, using his right arm to get back on his feet. The poor soul sighed and scratched his forehead, using his right arm to get back on his feet. When they reached Roberto, both of them accelerated slightly, realizing that as they advanced, the light around them was diminishing and now the flashlight was projecting more and more picturesque dancing shadows in the distance.

Having to walk backwards through almost the entire structure, avoiding in the meantime to stumble on the debris, their march was quite long. In spite of that, however, once they reached the stairs to the second floor and were thus very close to their goal, Alex felt an overwhelming need to know the truth about an extremely important matter. Not at all mature and ridiculous to say the least, but enough to make her renewed fortitude flicker worse than the flames of the dying flashlight.

This mixture of emotions, doubts and thoughts made him exclaim, "Hey... Before we catch up with the others, I need to know something..." In the meantime he suddenly grabbed his shoulder with one hand, pulling him slightly towards his side and risking the fall of both of them.

Roberto found himself taken aback to such an extent that he stopped halfway up the escalator without even replying. Then, with a slow movement of his neck, their gazes finally met.A worrying moment for all too many reasons, one of them being that if they lost their balance and fell, their necks would go 'kaputt'. Not that the grand vizier of tobacco and bullshit wasn't prepared to take that risk if things got serious.

"You said earlier..." Alex resumed, looking away and eating his words as well, barely managing to deliver an easily audible sentence. "First... Um, here... The speech about Mario, right? I don't have to worry about it, do I? Right? I wouldn't have anything against him if it was that in case... You understand, though, right? That's a fucking closet too and now that you've put this doubt in my head I can't help but worry. I don't have to worry, do I? No? No?"

Ah, so that' s the problem... Roberto thought while listening to him, finding the anxiety that permeated Alex gestures almost refreshing after having been put in a bad mood by the last confirmations. Of course, the fact that he was bringing this up again made Roberto balls drop to the floor as well, but effectively Mario was big and tall so they would be the few who wouldn't be worried if warned of possible mortal danger.

"I think not, but I never said I was a fortune teller. Try to go to sleep with your back against the wall and don't pick up the soaps, I can' tell you more than that." He then reposed to him shrugging, not helping much.

After that, in an extremely inappropriate manner and, hopefully, due to the stress of the moment; Alex stepped up his game by asking with a seriousness that made his victim briefly feel ill, "Just... Just to be safe. I don't have to worry about you either, do I? I'm dying of anxiety man. Tell me I can at least trust you..." Which, created the perfect motivation for a long and very uncomfortable break.

"Ah..." Dumbfounded for the first time in probably several years, Roberto went back to saying, " First of all, take your hands off," releasing himself from his grip first. Then, after turning forward again, he resumed walking commenting with too little energy to use a good cutting tone: "Ah, look, you're out of danger. I like women when they are women, you are still missing a decent pair of tits to be considered as such; but you are certainly on the right track," taking the liberty to piss on the wet.

Finding himself then psychologically battered, left behind in hostile territory and increasingly in the dark; Alex had no choice but to put it away and follow him silently from behind. He kept his distance for the rest of the trip, feeling too ashamed to go along with him again. As hard as he tried, though, he couldn't bring himself to think that all those mental shenanigans were Roberto fault.

I mean... He's the one who started all that crap. He later came to think to clear his conscience and be at peace; finding himself at the gates of their new home before he could even realize it.

"Oh... You guys are finally back! Dinner is being cooked here! Hurry up and get inside. Quick! Quick!" Mario greeted them in a very loud voice as soon as he saw them in front of the doorway, making big wave with his hand to invite them in. Roberto admired for a moment the great work that had been done in blocking the windows to form an extra fortification, before proceeding further.

"It almost looks like a studio apartment under renovation. You've done a nice job here," He replied to him after walking through the entrance, finding himself surprised at the space that had been freed up once all the unnecessary stuff was removed. Not only that, but all the sofas and couches from that store and the one next door had been brought there by Mario and arranged into a series of spartan single beds, while heavy curtains found in the back warehouse had been reused as blankets.

Even the 'kitchen and living room' area had been decorated by a kind of table formed by putting various cabinets next to each other, leaving little leg room. "Huh, what about these chairs? Did you guys go all over the second floor, even though we agreed that for today it would be up to me and Alex?" Roberto asked though as soon as he noticed the wooden chairs distributed around there.

"Ah, well yes. I went there, but don't worry I didn't leave the girls alone for long and limited myself to the closest places. Oh, now that we used the couches to make beds we needed something to sit on. Tomorrow we should also look for a table so we can reuse the cabinets as well." Mario said without making a fuss, always with an exaggerated voice considering the hour, and then making a further nod to encouraging the newcomers to join him near the fire which he was personally taking care of.

The most welcome change for the newly arrived travelers was in fact the temperature of the room, much more comfortable than outside. That little bonfire was certainly doing its dirty work and, by the way, Sabrina was also taking advantage of the usable space at her disposal to use it to cook something hot as well.

"Ah... Wait, I have something useful here..." Alex then said, as soon as he noticed it, using his Terminal to bring up all his loot. Plates, cups, pans, pots and utensils gathered on top of the makeshift table under the astonished eyes of the three who had no idea that the Terminal possessed such an ability.

"Right, about that question..." Roberto used that moment to explain not only that aspect, though not mentioning that he had forgotten to mention it before, but going further and bringing the rest of the group up to speed as to what the day's findings were.

"This is getting weirder and weirder... I feel like I'm going crazy." This was one of the most depressing responses from Camilla, who then abandoned the discussion to go help Sabrina cook. In fact, she had been straining her ear the whole time but had never stopped preparing dinner, demonstrating an amazing ability considering that she was transforming canned food into something extremely appetizing.

“Well then," Mario added. "We've already seen a lot for today, we can also forget about it for now. The important thing is to be sure that there are no dangers in the vicinity. The rest can wait until tomorrow. To be on the safe side, however, I would propose to take turns on guard, caution is never too much."

The others around there all nodded, letting themselves be pampered by the momentary quiet. Roberto would have preferred to decide the shifts on the fly before eating, but avoided saying his own once he saw how tired the others already seemed. Maybe he too had the same expression as them, but without a mirror it was really hard to tell.