fandomhigh | Library [08.01]

And Didi coming in midway through the morning wasn't much different from every other Sunday, either. Even if there was something a little sadder in her eyes than was normally there.

"Hey," she said gently. "Getting a lot of work done?"

//Plenty,// Jono agreed. And then, as if to demonstrate, he lifted his forehead off of the desk, reached out a hand, and repositioned a book, about three inches to the left of where it had been sitting on the desk before.

Hard at work, that Jonothon.

Didi just looked at him. "Wow," she said. "It might end up all the way off the counter, if you keep that up. I'm impressed."

The tone was more sympathetic than the words suggested.

//I'm pacing myself,// Jono replied, looking up from where he'd fixed his gaze in order to meet Didi's eyes. //Don't want t'do too much all at once. Might run out of work before th'day's through.//

That wasn't terribly likely, really.

"Then you'd have to study,"Didi said, pirouetting to pick a book from a shelving cart. She kept talking as she read the cover. "You could become an expert on .... extinct birds of South America. Oh, that's just sad."

//It rather is, isn't it?//

Jono stared at the book for a moment, and then shrugged and held out his hand for it.

//Might as well give it here, luv. If nothing else, it ought to have pretty pictures.//

Of beautiful animals that the world would never again see. Yes, that would perk him right up again in no time, certainly.

"Mmmmm, not sure that's the best idea," Didi said. She sat the book on the very edge of the counter, so he'd have to reach for it if he wanted it. "Let me keep looking."

The next book she pulled off was about medical curiosities, and that one went back on the shelving cart without a second glance. The third one was about the photographs of Ansel Adams.

"Here," she said, presenting it to him as if it were a gift. "Pretty pictures that aren't of dead animals."

Jonothon's eyebrow lifted slightly, but he held out his hand to take the book, looking down at the cover thoughtfully.

//Black and white landscape photography,// he intoned, as though perhaps the book was going to open of its own accord to tell him exactly what was so wonderful about it. When it didn't leap up to do just that, he opened it up and began to flip through the pages. //Trees. Rocks. More rocks. More trees.// A pause. //Water.//

But they were pretty. Even Jono didn't have it in him to be too critical of Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs.

"But pretty water," Didi said, forever optimistic (or trying hard to be). "More interesting than studying the inside of your elbows, right? Or was that your big plan for the day?"

Jono looked from the book to his elbows.

Well, they were still there. He clearly had to make certain that they weren't going to go anywhere without him.

//I was going to be more productive later,// he decided. It wasn't quite a pout. But it was close.

Didi's eyebrows went high. "And I was going to try to convince you to skip out early and go for a walk," she said. "Unless you're going to be too busy to do that."

She hadn't had any such plans, but it felt like something to suggest. She was still angry at herself for not having been able to help more on Saturday; keeping busy distracted her from it.

//Busy contemplating my elbows?// He watched her for a moment, and then he shrugged, closing the book and pulling himself to his feet so that he could put it back on the cart. //Did you have anywhere in particular in mind?//

Given she had come up with the plan all of 10 seconds ago ...

"The ocean, maybe?" she offered. "We can wade. Look for sea glass. But I can do whatever you're in the mood for."

Perhaps by some miracle, Jono managed to refrain from deciding that what he was in the mood for was a good hour of snogging, followed by a fancy meal with a double-helping of dessert (after which, he'd brush and floss. Floss twice, even), and possibly even a bit of drinking to lighten the mood before another hour or three of snogging.

Instead, his response was more along the lines of, //I don't have swim trunks.//

Which was an improvement, to some degree.

"I'll loan you one of my spare suits," Didi said flippantly. "Or buy one. water will still be there in a couple hours."

He'd lost the chance at kissing and three-course meals and brushing his teeth. Maybe forever. But he still had the ocean.

//It isn't really going anywhere,// he agreed, idly poking through the books on the cart, sorting through them with no real rhyme or reason. //Oddly enough, I don't think I'll be able to fit into one of yers, luv.//

Call it a crazy notion of his.

"They're stretchy," Didi argued, trying to make him smile. "And I think you'd look cute. So there."

Oh, Jono wasn't about to give up a smile so easily without putting up a fight, today.

//Is it a one-piece or a two-piece?//

A stubborn sort of fight in which he didn't actually admit that he was perhaps vaguely amused, but...

"See, I have both," Didi said. "But I'd give you the one-piece. It'd hold your bandages on better. Two-piece would just seem a little funny."

//I hardly have th'breasts for either,// Jono noted, looking down at his... chest... area. //I suppose I'll have to get one of my own.//

"It couldn't hurt, right?" Didi prodded, glancing at his chest area as well. "How are you feeling?"

//Rotten,// reported Jonothon. That statement was accompanied by a shrug. //But here, I suppose.//

Rotten-but-not-here would have made this into an interesting conversation.

"Better here than a lot of other places," Didi answered thoughtfully. "Sorry for the rotten, though. I'll have to change it."

//With a search for sea glass in swimwear that I don't yet own?//

Jono wasn't going to spoil this moment by pointing out that he had a deep, abiding loathing for clothes-shopping, too.

Edited 2010-08-01 19:39 (UTC)

"Sure!"

A beat.

"Or we go to town and see a movie. Or you sit in with the band at Caritas. or something. I just ... feel like having a Jono appreciation night."

Library [08.01]

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