fandomhigh | Library [Sunday, April 6]

Adah's usually strong control over her expressions slipped a little bit in the fall of her shoulders and the light roll of her eyes. It would figure that he wouldn't make the connection. "Everything's fine," she said, realizing that this could be a potentially good way to mention that she'd be going home for a few days next week, but, at the same time, she'd also decided that she wasn't going to tell him. Call it an experiment, to see if he even noticed. She was leaning toward assuming that he wouldn't. "I have decided, though, that I want to take back something I said in regards to you punching Karal and punching him good if you ever meet him."

She figured, since she was having Karal cover her shift for her on Wednesday and she wasn't going to be telling the Eel that she wasn't going to be there, that, if he decided to stop in this week not knowing that, then Karal's face could be safe. He was, for all intents and purposes, someone she did rather like, even if she was rather good at making it seem otherwise.

"I can't punch him anymore?" Lee asked, sticking out his lower lip in a pout.

Adah snorted back a laugh at that. "Well, you can," she said. "Just not on my behalf. Far be it from me to tell you that you can't punch a guy on your own volition if you feel so inclined. It wouldn't be very fair, though, really. He wouldn't stand a chance against you."

"Okaaaay," he said and sighed dramatically. "I won't punch him on your behalf. Okay, so that's one hitch. What's the other?"

Adah eyed the Eel, feeling sudden steel in her gaze as she shifted defensively. "Maybe hitch is the wrong word," she said after a moment. "Glitch might be better. A blip. A small, brief disruption in the charts. Barely notable."

Clearly, because one made such a big deal out of tiny little things.

"I wouldn't want to bore you with it. It's nothing."

"No, tell me," he insisted. "Please?"

Adah sucked in a breath; she shifted, mostly in her shoulders and her lowered gaze, shifting both slightly away from the Eel, as she decided whether to insist on not saying anything at all or to tell him.

"I...missed you." There. She said it. Quietly and without looking up, put she'd said it, and the world didn't end. She kept going, though, as if plowing ahead like other people did, with more words, would somehow diminish the meaning. "This week. I mean, the only visit I got at the library was from the Librarian, and that was only just because Bob had sneaked away from me into his office and turned that into her birthing nest and he wanted to return to me the fruits of the rabbits labor."

He winced and immediately felt like an ass.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, sincerely. "I'm...it wasn't anything worse than me getting caught up in some stuff. I lost track of time."

"Like I said," Adah retorted, too swiftly, too brusquely, "it wasn't a big deal. Barely significant, really." She glanced toward him with the firmness in her eyes that that's what she was telling him, so that's what they both should believe. She had her own way of evening the stakes a little, besides.

"Oh." He frowned and opened and closed his hands. "Okay. Not a big deal. Still, I'm sorry. I just got caught up in things."

Blithely, Adah lifted her shoulder in a shrug. "It happens," she said. "It gave me the chance to catch up on my reading."

Lee let out a strained sort of laugh and tucked his hands into his pockets. "Oh. Well...I guess me not being there was helpful then. Right."

"Very," Adah said, nodding a little, and feeling at least some sort of validation in the fact that at least he seemed to feel a little awkward about it. "Not that I want a habit made out of it, or anything. Reading's practically all I do, anyway. That, and take care of rabbits recently, but that's beside the point."

"I'm not planning on making a habit out of it," he said and shrugged a bit. "I didn't mean to do it this time, even if it benefited your reading."

"Good," Adah said and, wanting to be done with the matter before she could start feeling any sort of inclination toward feeling bad about making a big deal out of it when she knew for a fact that she wasn't going to be there for her next shift and that she had no intention of informing him to this effect (although, really, she didn't want to make a big deal out of it; he was the only who insisted), she stretched forward a bit, leaning up, to give him a brief kiss on the cheek.

"Maybe I should go, and leave you to benefit this illusion you've started that you actually do work around here."

"I can shove aside work for you," he said quietly. "Always."

"Oh, I know you can," Adah said lightly, with a small smirk. "I'm sure you can for much less. It's more a matter of if you should."

"Pfft, work can wait," he said and waved a hand at the books.

The smirk remained, as Adah lightly shook her head. She clicked her tongue reproachfully a few times against her teeth. "Such slothful behavior. Such blatant disregard for the all-important task of shelving books. It...isn't as if you have any better way to spend this time."

"...Is there?"

"Shelving books can wait," he said again and shrugged. "I have more important people to pay attention to."

"Like who?"

Adah did rather like to think that she got that innocent quirk of her head down to near perfection, when she wanted it to be.

"Like the girl standing right in front of me," he answered even though he was pretty sure she knew.

"Her?" Adah asked, her grin sharpening a bit. "I think it shows you've got fine taste if that's where you'll invest your time, but how can you be sure she's willing to invest hers on you, hm?"

He moved a little closer and put one hand on the shelves beside her. "I'm going to ask her."

He paused, waited. "Will she?"

"Yeah," Adah said, softly with a matching smile, moving in to close up a little bit of space herself, head tilted expectantly toward him. "Maybe just this once."

Or maybe any time he ever wanted to, really, when you got right down to it. But, for now, she was just going to think about sealing 'just this once' with a lean forward, upward slightly, to kiss the Eel.

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