fandomhigh | Library [Sunday, December 9]

"Peeking at my book?" Lee asked, smiling. "It's really kind of boring."

He dropped the book a little lower so she could easier see the words and dropped his attention from said book to her.

Her head ducked as she over exaggerated her peering at the book, Adah grinned, for a number of reasons, but mostly because of how she only had to pause and run the words over in her head for a moment before she understood them. If it was so boring, she wanted to ask, but, unfortunately, hadn't made that much progress, then why was he reading it? It didn't matter, though; she caught a few words, a few lines, reversed them, and decided that, yes, he was right. Boring. She lifted her eyes toward something much more interesting, turning her grin into a smile as she lightly lifted her good hand, waved a little with wiggling fingers to say hello.

Lee waved his own hand at her, wiggling in his fingers in almost a mirror of her gesture.

"Good to see you," he said because it was. He always liked seeing her, never got tired of it. "And good to see your smile. You're much better than this boring book."

Smile softening a little so that she could reserve her energy into listening, Adah paid close attention to the Eel as he spoke. She knew that she'd have to; he talked so much and, while she'd made a lot of progress, she knew that she'd have to be attentative or she'll get a little lost. But it processed easily enough this time, and the light returned in the grin, her head nodding in appreciation for the compliment. Less boring, but probably a little harder to read, she imagined, but not too hard, she hoped as she tilted her head, eyebrow arched, in a silent question of how he was doing today.

"Good day, slow day," he said, answering her unspoken question. "It was a busy week so I'm grateful for the slow day. I was hoping you'd come in. I didn't see you this past week but that was my fault. I ~~hate my job so much sometimes~~ got caught up in a few unavoidable things."

Adah, with an an over-heavy sigh, shook her head in mock, grave disappointment. How did he ever expect her to cope with such behavior, honestly?

Of course, the fact that she couldn't help a small grin at the end of her miming sort of threw off the overall impression.

"I know, I know," he said and shook his head. "I lose terribly. If it hadn't been important, I would've ditched to come see you, I promise. I missed you."

It would have been foolish of Adah to come into the library today and expect to understand everything the Eel had said, and she was certainly not a fool, especially in her own opinion, so it wasn't a worry to her when she didn't follow all of that. Besides, she'd understood the important part, the last one, and it made her smile just that little bit more; her fingers settled lightly on the desk, pulling a trick from his book by giving them a little tapping to get his attention.

Her trick worked and he pulled his eyes away from her and down to her fingers. With a smile of his own, he slid his fingers across the desk to just touch the tips of her tapping fingers with his own.

And here she thought maybe he'd see right through his own strategy. Not that Adah minded, of course, as she smiled with her head ducked slightly to look over at the Eel, lifting her fingers to brush against his.

"Works every time," he said, returning her smile and brushing his fingers against hers lightly. "I told you it was a good trick."

With a light, slightly snorting breath of a laugh, Adah leveled a smirk-tinted glare through her hair. And then, moving her hand slightly to intertwine their fingers, ducked her head slightly, allowing herself to admit that, sure, just maybe, it wasn't too bad at the very least.

"Good week?" Lee asked, brushing a thumb across her fingers and smiling. "Busy week?"

With her head tilting just a little bit more, it took Adah a moment, about the span of a slow blink, to process the words, which she entirely blamed on the distraction of fingers and thumbs. When they did, though, it was like a light in her smile and she nodded. "It was," she said, quietly, carefully. "Productive."

"It sounds like it was," he said, smile widening. "Missed your voice."

Adah bit her lip slightly, feeling a little bit of a blush creeping in. "Probably," she said, speaking slowly still and not at all out of modesty, just out of the fact that no one else ever heard it, really, "the only one."

"Then, I'm the lucky one," he said and smiled at her. "Because hearing it again is...something else. I love hearing you talk."

"It's still..." There was a pause, a long one, as she frowned and tried to find the word she was looking for. "...hard, but I...lots of work, poetry. Little...pieces together, like jigsaws." The urge to gesture as she tried to put words to her thoughts was strong, but not strong enough to overcome the desire to keep touching his fingers, so the Eel would find the little shapes of puzzle pieces lining the side of his finger now.

His eyes were drawn to his fingers, watching for a moment before returning to her face and smiling again.

"Takes time," he agreed. "If you want, I could read to you one day."

Adah gave a slow, decisive nod. "I think that could help...significantly," she said, simultaneously working on using more complex words and dodging around just flat out saying that she'd enjoy that. Of course, she always liked listening to him, but it would be even better considering she could understand him this time.

"Whenever you'd like," he said, smiling again. "My days are pretty much open and I couldn't think of a better way to spend a few hours than reading to you."

Adah, as attentive over the Eel's words now as she had been this whole time, listened, and then her eyes shifted slightly to the side. Clearly thinking, her eyes shifted again, to the other side, and a little smirk formed as her thought processes brought her around to a confirmation of sorts. She looked back toward the Eel and asked, a bit slyly, "No better way, huh? Nothing at all?"

"I'm really boring," he said and laughed. "You should see me on days that I'm not in the library. Just a boring, boring, person."

"Well," Adah chuckled lightly herself, "you're pretty good at hiding it. From me, at least."

"I do that to impress you," he teased, making a face. "So you'll keep coming back and talking to me."

"An awful lot of tricks," Adah pointed out, tilting her head with a pointed look, "for someone so boring. Unless 'boring' doesn't mean what I'm thinking it does. It's possible. I could have it wrong..."

"Maybe you make me not boring," Lee suggested. "You make me interesting and happy. That could be it."

It was hard not to grin a little more at that. "Guess I'll have to just ask around," she countered, "to make sure."

"Oh, really?" He dropped his chin into his other hand, eyes on her. "And who would you ask?"

Still grinning, Adah shrugged her shoulder. "Don't know. Anyone. Simple question: Is Lee Adama boring? Could make a chart, even, and take the results in for research. Very scientific research, that. I can submit it to help me get into medical school."

"But what if you found out that I was boring?" Lee asked, frowning. "Would I just be another science subject? No more time in the library for us?"

After taking a moment to make certain that she was following that properly, Adah shook her head. "Then I'd conclude," she said, very matter-of-fact, "that your theory must be correct, and I'd almost have to keep visiting you, to keep you from being completely boring."

She paused, lifting a finger from his hand to signal that she wasn't quite finished yet, but that she needed a moment to find words again. When she had them, her finger dropped, and she continued. "In fact, I might have to prescribe more time with me, for that reason."

"More time?" He tried not to smile. He really did try. He failed miserably. "I think you should definitely see about prescribing more time with me. It could be very beneficial."

Adah had a significant amount of experience in smiling when she was trying not to; it helped that it was a situation she liked to think that she had the controls of. So she was able to manage just a suspended shine of amusement in her eyes as she gave another light shake of her head. "Research first. Then we'll see. We wouldn't want an untimely and gruesome death due to an overdose."

"We wouldn't want that," he agreed, nodding. "But, I get to see you for the research, right?"

Adah gave a decisive nod of her head. "Of course."

"Good," he said, smiling again. "I used to hate research. Now, I kind of love it."

"And," Adah pointed out, "I used to hate talking."

"See, we're mutually beneficial to each other," he said and covered their joined hands with his free hand. "It works out so conveniently."

Library [Sunday, December 9]

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