fandomhigh | Library [07.25]

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Library [07.25]

//No, Strat. We don't try to smash th'books of sheet music against the shelving. I don't care what ideas you got from Dandelion.//

Jonothon's Fender Stratocaster had spent the better part of the day giving him woeful looks every time he got a scolding. They might have been difficult looks to decipher from behind Strat's freakish leather mask thing, but Jono liked to think that he was a bit of an expert when it came to expressions that were limited to only small portions of a face.

//And get away from th'door to Special Collections!//

Today was going to be a very busy day.

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Jono had been about to say something about how everybody bothered him, of course, and so why should she be any different. And then that last part came out.

//Ah.//

And now he was attempting to look sympathetic, really. And he managed to look about as sympathetic as a man with half a face possibly could while in the background his guitar was pulling his muzzle off so that he could lick a magazine.

//I hadn't been aware that you two were actually dating,// he hedged, after a moment.

There was a self-conscious sort of fidget to go with that.

"We ... weren't, exactly," she allowed. "Not technically. But it was at least sort of dating, and now we're not even that."

If he didn't want to be dating her, he'd say that he didn't want to be dating her, and not just give vague sort of 'Whatever' comments. So that counted as almost dating. More or less.

Jono just kind of eyed her, a little sideways, for a moment. And then he finally emerged from the stacks, two-dozen shuffled paperbacks gathered up in his arms.

//So... He never explicitly said that he was yer boyfriend.//

He was just making certain there was no confusion about this.

"No," she said, rolling her eyes slightly. Not at Jono -- at her not-really-ex-who-was-never-really-a-boyfriend. "Squall's not ... he'd never say that, anyway. If anybody else claimed to be his girlfriend, he'd say 'you're not, and stop saying it.' Whenever I'd say it, he'd shrug and say 'whatever.' I mean, I know he wasn't entirely my boyfriend, but we were kind of ... something, anyway. Except I ended it, so now we're not anything at all."

//So you broke up.// Jono could have left that statement at that, yes. But he was Jono. //From yer relation that was a relationship because you made the assumption that there was a relationship. And now yer... Upset.//

A beat.

//Because he won't have any more opportunity to shrug and look like he doesn't care. Because you called off yer vague and more or less undefined romantic whatever-you-will.//

This? This was a particularly dirty look she was giving him.

"I called it off for a reason," she said. "Not because he doesn't care. He does care. He just likes pretending he doesn't. And it really doesn't matter now, because I found out some things and it all got too weird and I had to break it off. Just because we weren't official doesn't mean it doesn't hurt."

... Girls.

//What was so important that it had you calling off yer-// obsession, //wahtever-it-was all out of th'blue like that?//

Sometimes, Jono had to ask these things. One day, Jono would regret asking these things. Today, he'd settle for thumping the books down onto the desk for sorting.

Rinoa shrugged, awkwardly.

"My mom dated his dad," she said. "Not just dated, I mean -- it was this big epic tragic love-thing where he died in the war and she never really got over it. Except he didn't. He just skipped out on her. The song she wrote -- the one I sang for you? It was for him, and for them. And all that time, he wasn't dead. He just left town and hooked up with someone else."

Squall's mother, in fact. Who seemed nice enough. But the whole thing was ... messy, and complicated, and really left a sour taste in her mouth.

Many things could be said about Jono. That he was a bastard, that he had attitude problems, yes. That he was a bad friend who didn't care about the problems of his friends, even when he had things weighing on him, as well?

No. Not often.

And so he listened. And he considered what she was telling him, carefully.

And when he spoke, it was with the slow, careful sort of tone of somebody who was actually taking this conversation at least somewhat seriously.

//And so... yer taking out the actions of Squall's father on Squall? Like-father-like-son?//

Rinoa ... opened her mouth, frowned, and closed it again. Wait. Phrased like that, it seemed ... well. Stupid.

"I ... didn't think of it like that," she admitted, one hand curled protectively around her mother's ring. "I thought ... it felt disloyal, somehow. And sort of weird. Everything's interconnected in too many ways, and his dad dating my mom is just ... another piece of the puzzle."

One she didn't know how to place properly.

Jono nodded a little, tapping his fingers thoughtfully against the top book on the stack.

//Well, how much like his father do you suppose he is?//

"I don't know," Rinoa said, lifting her shoulders. "I've never met his father. I'm not sure he has, either."

Laguna seemed to make skipping town into a hobby.

"Do you think it's ... disloyal?" she asked. "To mom? That she'd mind, if she knew?"

She liked her mom. She didn't want to upset her, dead or no.

The best that Jono could do, at just that moment, was shrug.

//I don't know,// he admitted. //I haven't had much family experience, myself. But do you suppose yer mother would want you holdin' a grudge against an innocent person on her behalf? Over something that his father did? One he might not have ever known?//

He was a bit of a stickler for letting the blame rest on the shoulders of the people who had actually earned it. Especially considering his own family tree.

"Probably not," Rinoa sighed. "I just wish it wasn't all so complicated. He's this guy I met at a dance. Then I find out he's some weird friend-enemy-rival of my ex. Now, my mom dated his dad, and his orphanage's matron was the woman who gave me my powers. It's all feeling sort of ... circular?"

Jono squinted one eye slightly while he took all of that in, added it to the pile of other things he was still absorbing, and then pulled out a chair and rolled it Rinoa's way.

Rolling chairs were therapeutic.

//It's a small world,// he offered. //Most worlds are, at least. I don't presume t'know yers, luv. But I can see how it might leave you wanting a bit of a ... breather.//

"It just hit me weird," she said, shuddering at the thought of it. "And then he was acting like a jerk, so we both yelled, and ... I'm not sure what happens now."

Squall was very bad at relationships. Rinoa was better, but that wasn't saying much.

Normally, Jono might have taken 'acting like a jerk' at face value, especially where Squall was involved. But, there was always that extenuating circumstance, wasn't there? Like Rinoa. She was an extenuating circumstance, all on her own.

"An apology would be a good place to start," he replied, in a tone that was perhaps surprisingly gentle, even if you did know that Jono wasn't as nasty on the inside as he wanted people to think, judging by the out.

"You might be right," Rinoa said, sighing a bit to herself.

Dammit. She hated it when people were right, especially about things that meant she needed to apologize to someone else.

"I shouldn't be bothering you about all this," she said, a bit belatedly. "I mean, I came here to bother you, but not about this."

//Well, by all means, luv, bother me about whatever you want to.//

Strat made another very appreciative coo from where he was looking at the magazines. Jonothon threw a stapler at the back of his head.

//He had that coming to him.//

"Ten points if you hit the magazine next time," Rinoa offered.

What? He'd totally had it coming to him.

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Library [07.25]

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