fandomhigh | Library

Entry tags:

library

Library - Sunday

After yesterday's detention, all Lee really wants to do today sit, read and avoid any needles or robot guts or running. So, he's got a stack of books (randomly selected from the shelves), a bottle of water and a banana.

He hasn't started reading anything yet. Instead, he's scribbling some notes about something he had been reading before starting on anything new.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It would be so much easier for Adah to avoid fixating on the Eel's hands if he would stop moving them. Subtle movements, but that only made it worse. It always was the little things that caught Adah's attention, rather than the big, vibrant ones that seemed to flag everyone else.

"Nutrition is difficult in the Congo," Adah wrote. "Fish, sweet things, meat...all hard to come by, and, usually, the parasites got to them first. We ate chicken, but even that had to be maintained so that we didn't run out of eggs. Mostly, we ate this awful stuff called fufu, that was just beaten mush. No taste, barely any nutrients, but it was plentiful and cost nothing but a few hours of time, so it sufficed."

"Fufu," he said, adding another word to the list of unfamiliar words he'd been learning. "It sounds tough out there. Very, very different."

Lee reached over, slid the unopened banana in front of them. "Want some? I've got enough to share."

At the appearance of a banana, Adah couldn't help tilting her head back a little with a sudden laugh; her hand, the pen between her fingers carefully pointed to not poke herself, went immediately to her mouth to cover it as it died as quickly as it had been brought up, into a light smile, pink cheeks. Her hand then waved a little in her face, as if either trying to brush away the sudden laugh or cool her amusement, most likely both.

And then she tried not to waste any more time before an explanation. "Bananas," she wrote. "We had plenty, plenty of those! But you had to shake them before you could eat one, to make sure there were no spiders hiding inside the bunches, and Leah was the only one who could climb the trees well enough to actually get them, so we didn't have them often. But, yes, if you don't mind, I think it would be nice to share. I actually haven't had one since I left Africa."

"I don't mind," he said, smiling at both her reaction and response to his question. "I had one the other day and kind of love them."

He found himself not hesitant but slow to open the banana mainly because he was enjoying her reaction too much, enjoying reading her words about a place he only knew from her. And he liked when she smiled.

And then his hands were opening the banana, careful not to squish the fruit before he tilted it towards her. "There you go."

[Woe! Don't work--wait, I said that already once. When you come back, I have cookies!]

Leaning in slightly with her head tilted against her shoulder, Adah tried to wait patiently, but it was difficult with the grin that was growing on her face. She knew she shouldn't be grinning for the reasons she was, but she really couldn't help it. It, help couldn't, really! Her cheeks were red, but not for the thoughts, as she knew they should be, but more from the effort of trying to keep unwelcome, uninvited thoughts like this out of her head. Not at all a surprise that she was the daughter who had the Verse distributed to her the most: with their Heavenly Father, not even silence could hide deviousness. The slowness of the Eel peeling away the banana's peel reminded her of a gagging incident on Rachel's part, which lead to Adah nearly gagging on her effort not to laugh. Leah looked confused; Rachel looked petrified and pink that the creepy, silent sister knew what she was thinking. After all, Adah didn't relate with those fast Bethlehem cheerleaders, how could she...? But Adah read books. Leah read books, too, but Leah read, mostly, the wrong books.

The grin failing to be contained, Adah reached out at the offered banana and carefully broke off a piece of it for herself. This time, the blush was for her thoughts, and, although she knew she wouldn't say anything stupid, she slipped it into her mouth quickly as if to stop anything that might try. Not...too quickly, though. The idea was ridiculous, but Adah had a curious nature and wondered if her thoughts were singular. Her eyes stayed carefully trained on the Eel to look for signs of his own deviousness.

He'd watched her quietly, smiled at the blush in her cheeks and failed to contain a blush of his own. He felt his cheeks get hot, felt that spread up to his ears and into his hair and didn't bother to look away. She'd seen him blush before and this was no...okay, it was kind of different but it was a good different.

When she reached out to take the banana, his eyes drifted to her hands and he watched those, found himself wondering and then found himself nearly staring.

To cover that, he broke off his own piece of the banana and ate it slowly. Still as good as the first time.

Blush, that in satisfaction was there. With her eyes quietly on the Eel, she couldn't prove that the reaction to her movements was what she thought they were, but that they would provide enough evidence to be what she thought they were was good enough for her. She chewed slowly, on one side of her mouth, and a bright smile surfaced over the long, tedious, necissary action. It did taste good...A little different from the bananas in the Congo, which were smaller and less sweet, but there wasn't a strong taste of pesticides like she found most fruit in America to have. No pesticides, and still no thread of....well, if there was a spider waiting, it had certainly already bitten.

"It's good," Lee mumbled, fumbling over the words a little and laughing at himself. They were small words, nothing complex or anything and he was fumbling over them. Hmm.

And maybe it was the banana or the library or something entirely different, but he couldn't contain next sentence if he'd taped his mouth shut.

"I like when you smile." And then there was more blushing.

Adah ducked her head, but the curtain of dark hair didn't seem enough this time; she had to bring up her hand to try to contain the next smile as she finished chewing the banana, swallowing it down as if it would be dangerous to handle a subject like this with food in one's mouth. Htu oms enoni. Interesting how that worked, how a comment like that only caused her smile more.

"I actually don't," she wrote after a moment of indecision and feeling more like her grinning and blushing had been contained enough that she could tuck her hair back, "usually smile this much..."

He nodded and, still holding the banana in one hand, wiggled the fingers on his other hand, tapped them on the desk lightly before moving them back and forth some.

"It's very..." He trailed off, trying to find the right words. "It makes me want to smile."

The Eel fidgeted his fingers a lot, Adah felt inclined to notice. Fidget fingers, smile lingers, and what exactly is this soft buzz in her ears that might feel like happiness?

And, of course, since he was doing so much for her confidence today, Adah had to ask, "Would you say that wanting to smile is something that happens often with you?"

"There hasn't been a lot of reasons for me to want to smile," he told her quietly, casting his eyes down towards his fingers before looking up at her. "Not until recently."

"...Me, neither," Adah wrote, and, laying her pen down on her notebook, her eyes drifted over to his hand, too. It was a fleeting moment, too quick for her do really do anything with, leaving her, instead, to just smile softly at the Eel. It seemed appropriate enough, anyway.

He returned her smile, content to enjoy the silence, comfortable enough to leave his hand where it was and happy to enjoy the fact that she was still smiling.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Library - Sunday

Re: Morning

Re: Morning

Re: Morning

Re: Morning

Re: Morning

Re: Morning

Re: Morning

Re: Morning

Re: Morning

Re: Morning

Re: Morning

Re: Morning

Re: Morning

Re: Morning