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Library, Tuesday

Rinoa was oddly quiet during her shift today. Thinking about Squall, and what Jono had said, and what she was supposed to do now, anyway.

Luckily, books were perfect for when someone was feeling oddly quiet. She was going to find a locked-room mystery and see if she could solve it before the last chapter.

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See if you can figure out how the killer got out of the room! It's not the window. The window was locked from the inside.

It had been awhile since Sookie had replenished her supply of terrible romance novels. So today found her wandering into the library to return what she'd already borrowed. "Hi, Rinoa."

"Hey," Rinoa said, perking up slightly. She nodded to the books in Sookie's hands. "Ooooh, were those any good? I'm on a mystery kick right now. Especially the really fussy British ones where everyone thinks murder is distasteful and they all have tea."

"They're brain candy," Sookie giggled. "Which -- you know, those mysteries are probably about the same. My friend Emma seems to have those pretty often for her beach reading." She rolled her eyes and offered, "I like reading things where if I miss a page of pounding hearts and heaving bosoms, I know I'm not missing much."

Rinoa laughed. "The plot's usually easy to follow. Middle of the book? She's still saying she can't be with him, he's promised to change his rakish ways, and now it's time for more sex."

She flipped through her current book. "I feel like I should be taking notes, here," she said. "I'm supposed to have guessed something by the fact that the dead guy didn't have anything in his lapel. But I'm drawing a blank."

"He wasn't attending a formal event?" Sookie guessed. "So he didn't have a boutonniere? That's...all I've got." She paused, and added, "I'd be a really bad detective-slash-British person, I think."

Rinoa pulled the book open and scanned back to the scene of the death. "You might be on to something," she said, skimming the lines. "I didn't even think of that. Looks like I'd be a worse detective than you, huh?"

She shook her head, closing the book again. "I'll just wait for the detective to explain everything at the end. I love those mysteries. Let's all sit down and explain who did it, and why, and how no one caught them. More books should have scenes like that."

"I just like how they make you look back through the book wondering how you missed things," Sookie laughed. "I always feel sort of dim. How've you been, by the way?"

"Makes for a good second read," Rinoa suggested, her smile fading a bit at the question. "I'm ... you know. Okay. Squall and I had a ... some stupid kind of ... I don't even know."

Helpful and illuminating as always.

"How are you? And Bobby?"

"Bobby's out of town," she said, waving a hand and looking concerned. "What happened with Squall, honey?"

"It's so weird," she said, folding her arms and trying to think of how to even explain the whole mess. "I found out ... it turns out, his dad used to date my mom. And he kind of broke her heart and she never got over it and ... we had a fight about it. Because that's just really messed up and I don't know if I'm okay with that, and then he was a jerk, and ..."

She shrugged. And they'd left things hanging, there, in an entirely new undefined limbo from the one they were usually stuck in.

Sookie pursed her lips in a frown, crossing her arms as she listened. "But -- wait. Y'all broke up 'cause your parents have history?"

"Kind of?" Rinoa admitted. Everybody else seemed to think she was insane, at that part of the story. "It was a huge thing for her. It seemed ... I don't know. Weird. So I said we should break up, and he said we weren't even dating anyway, and I got mad, and he just sat there going 'Whatever,' and ... then I stormed off."

All perfectly logical, if you were completely insane.

"...honey," Sookie said carefully, "were y'all actually dating?"

Because that was the big sticking point for her. The other parts were fine -- she had basically perfected the art of storming off, after all.

........ well. Er.

"No," she sighed, scuffing the ground. "But he didn't have to say it like that."

"Well, no," she said, sympathetic. "But still. Boys're dumber than us sometimes. You probably caught him a little off-guard."

"Yeah," she agreed. And for her part, she did look sheepish at her own ... well, stupidity. "I guess I felt like ... like he was saying that he didn't care at all. We're not dating, but it's not nothing, between us. It can't be."

He'd nearly died saving her life a few too many times for that. Call it a hunch.

"No, of course not," she agreed. "He's just mad, maybe? He'll come around, sweetie. If you mean that much to him -- and I'm sure you do, form what you've said -- he won't stay away forever."

"He's so bad at this," Rinoa said. Not that he was the only one in this relationship who wasn't any good at it. (Or that it was a relationship, exactly, in the most literal sense.) "I'm not usually this bad, but with him I never know what I'm doing. Do you think it shouldn't matter? About ... my mom, and his dad? It just feels too ... intertwined."

She tapped a finger lightly on the desk before adding, "Jono said I should go apologize."

And she hated that Jono might be right about that.

"Mmm." Sookie considered that for a moment. "I don't think that your mom and his dad shouldn't matter, necessarily. I just -- don't throw it away on account of something that happened years before either of you was born." She sighed, playing with the cover of one of the novels she'd returned. "It's rare enough to find someone you actually feel that strongly about. Be kind of a waste to give up what you really want 'cause your mom was disappointed, you know? As to whether you should apologize -- do you think he will, first? Because that's the question I'd ask myself."

Rinoa smiled, fondly.

"I don't think he would," she said. "Not because he's stubborn. He is, but it's not because of anything like that. I just don't think it would occur to him."

She had had to walk him through the finer points of 'I would like you to hold me because I am upset, and that would bring me comfort.' Rinoa had to keep reminding herself that most of the time, Squall had no idea what was going on.

Unless he asked someone else for advice, but that would mean talking to someone else about their non-relationship, and admitting he was upset about it. Which was where 'stubborn' did come into play.

"So ... I shouldn't throw this away over me being stubborn, either, right?"

"I think it'd be just as bad as throwing it away for any other reason," she said, shrugging a little. "I've seen so many people break up or otherwise ruin perfectly good relationships 'cause of misunderstandings and little things. I mean, if it genuinely bothers you? Give it some time. But I wouldn't give up entirely."

"Okay," she said. "I'll go talk to him."

And stop being an idiot, if that was possible.

"How did you get so good at this?" she asked.

"Sixteen years of not having a love life because I'm too busy overhearing everyone else's," Sookie said with a rueful little tap to her temple. "I've watched way too many people screw things up romantically to not have learned a bit."

Search for books all by yourself!

Should he decide to pop in!

Edited 2010-07-27 19:17 (UTC)

Out of copyright?

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Library, Tuesday

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