fandomhigh | Library [04/12]

Mmmm, coffee. The only thing seperating Bridge from complete unconsciousness.

Exams are coming up soon. Studying is a perfectly good way to avoid dwelling on just *why* he hadn't gotten any sleep. So Bridge spends all of second period reviewing his notes.

And third.

By fourth period he's still studying, yes, but is kind of at the point where he'd be glad for any interruptions.

Yay, lunch! Which consists of a granola bar and apple juice, because that's what you get when you press random Synthetron buttons when sleep deprived.

Fifth period, and Bridge has moved on to actual library work to distract himself. Yay, shelving books!

It's the end of the semester and so there are a *lot* of books to be reshelved, okay? Or maybe he's just going through the stacks and making busywork for himself.

Seventh period rolls around and Bridge spends it tidying up the library in preparation for closing, because as soon as the period ends? He's planning on bolting like a bolting thing that bolts. Places to be, and all.

Forecast calls for at-keyboard most of the day, with an expected flurry of AFK somewhere around midday. Dress warmly, and remember: umbrellas are for wimps.

"Mmfrgle," Ms. Readman said as she entered the library that morning. She might have meant 'good morning.' She might have meant 'I hate life.' It was hard to tell.

"Mmmph," Bridge waves as he yet again attempts to keep his face from planting itself on the desk.

Rikku stumbled in to the library during second period, looking decidedly worse for the wear. Someone had introduced her to the concept of the mochaccino. She had downed three before anything kicked in, and was working on ... well, she didn't remember what number this was. Just that she was upright and mostly functional, despite having had no sleep since ... Monday. Ish. She was pretty sure it was Thursday, but wouldn't bet on it.

She was also developing an odd twitch. Hmm. More mochaccinos should fix that.

"Bridge!" she announced. Whoa, her voice sounded weird. "Bridge-bridge-bridge. Hey. Hey. Yo. Wasn't that spaceship neat? I need your help, Bridge. Hey. Hi. Listen. Bridge."

"Rikku. Rikku, Rikku, Rikku." Bridge replies, wondering if maybe she'd read Mordecai Three-Three-Three as a kid as well. And then realising that no, she came from somewhere not-Earth, and so they probably wouldn't have had the same books, then.

"What's wrong?"

Rikku swallowed and set both of her hands on the counter. Then she looked around to make sure no one else was looking, and leaned forward a bit. Trying to calm down the twitch.

"I need to get in to the ... you know. That section-thing? The place with the you can't get in unless you have a note and I don't? I did? But I used it? Can I use it again? I need to go back there, please, it's really really important and I promise I'll be careful, but I need to. Please?"

"Special Collections?" Bridge gave her a suspicious look mixed with worry. "Why?"

She nodded emphatically. "No reason. I mean, it's not a thing. It's kind of a thing but not a thing, it's nothing big, I just kinda think I need to, you know. Check some stuff."

Getting spacey again. She took a swig of her mochaccino. Better. "I had a pass, last week? To go in and research some stuff? And I need to check something, just voom! Back and check and then back again. Right?"

"...How many of those have you *had*?" Bridge asks, nodding at the mochaccino. "A pass can only be used once. You need a new one each time."

"Didn't count." Rikku twitched slightly. "I kinda haven't slept much. So I needed a little jolt. Thing. So I got some. Some mochaccinos, I mean. They had something there called Jolt but this was chocolatey."

She sighed and pinched the top of her nose. "Yeah, okay, I know that, I mean, you're supposed to. But this is a follow-up-thing. Totally related to the last. I wanna make sure that it's okay, what I'm doing, thing? I mean you wouldn't want me to screw something up just 'cause of that, right? I mean, you can't stay back there very long, so I didn't use all of the twenty minutes I should have had on that pass, and I won't tell anybody if you don't, I promise, just five minutes so I can look?"

"Rikku, I *can't*," Bridge flails a little. Because he can sense how desperate she is- even with his gloves on. "Did you do something, with whatever information you found out the first time?"

"N-n-no," she answered, shaking a bit. "Of course not, I mean, that would be awful and irresponsible and I'd never, ever do something like that. Unless ... unless that means you'd let me go back there? If I ... did something and needed to fix it?"

Bridge raises an eyebrow. "What happened?"

She looked at him hopefully. "Would you? If something had? Please."

"I... Rikku, please. Tell me what happened? I won't tell anyone, I swear."

Rikku squeezed her eyes shut, her stomach wrenching. Dammit.

"N-nothing, honest. I just ... thought I left something back there and wanted to go get it. Th-that's all. Everything's fine. I-I gotta go." She took a long drink to finish off her mochaccino. "I'm not supposed to have drinks in the library anyway."

She tried for a quick smile before turning to leave. It probably failed.

Nothing. Right. Bridge starts to go after her, then remembers that he can't exactly abandon his post, so he just stands at the entrance to the library and watches her disappear down the hall.

And tries not to worry *too* much about whatever was going on.

Library [04/12]

First Period

Second Period

Third Period

Fourth Period

Lunch

Fifth Period

Sixth Period

Seventh Period

OOC!

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