fandomhigh | Library, Tuesday!

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Library, Tuesday!

Rinoa had heard plenty about this Dusk series, but she had to admit she wasn't all that impressed. The girl at the center just seemed whiny. And the guy's protectiveness was kind of cute, but watching her sleep? Right on the 'creepy' line.

So much for Dusk. At least working in a library meant there were a lot of options for a replacement.

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Recommend something. Anything.

"Ah. Classic literature," Henry teased lightly when he walked past the desk and spotted the copy of Dusk. "Are you enjoying it?"

"No," Rinoa said, frowning as she flipped the book closed. "I thought I would. It's supposed to be a romance, and I usually like romances. Have you read it?"

"It gets checked out enough that I've thumbed through it," Henry answered. "It's romantic, all right, but the guy's just ... I think the writer has issues. And it's really badly written."

"I don't mind a little protectiveness," Rinoa said, in what was a ridiculously whopping sort of understatement. "A guy wants to hover, I think that's kind of sweet. But if you're going to watch someone sleep, don't break into their house first. Ew."

"But from his side, he's just found the one person he's ever loved in a very long life," Henry said, mostly for the sake of argument. "Think about that. You fall in love that way, it feels like fate ... I can see why you'd want to watch them sleep."

"That does sound romantic," Rinoa mused. She looked down at the book again. "I feel like all of the story is supposed to seem more romantic than it does. I can see where this is a huge romance, she's been whisked off her feet by some destined, mysterious lover, but ... it feels flat when I read it."

"Because she's not a good writer," Henry repeated. "Hang on a minute. I'll find you something better."

"Oooh, really?" Rinoa perked right up, tossing the Dusk aside. "Thank you! I hope you realize I've been abusing my position as library aide by making people recommend titles to me."

Wasn't that the whole point of working in a library?

"That's half the way I turned into a librarian," Henry grinned. "Don't tell anybody."

He ambled into the stacks and returned with two titles. "here you go, one classic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuthering_Heights) and one ... kinda modern, supernatural thing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Traveler%27s_Wife). The Bronte has the Gothic thing going on that first writer was trying for. I don't know much about the other one, but people keep reading it and neither of the main characters is a total idiot."

Maybe, once Rinoa was finished being a ~~sorry excuse for a~~ revolutionary, she'd settle down and become a librarian. Who was running Balamb Garden's library, anyway?

She took the two titles eagerly, comparing the covers. "No idiots would be a good start," she said. "I don't even think the Dusk girl is an idiot so much as ... she's just not there. Passive. Hey, if you love him, do something about it, right?"

Gothic or modern. Choices.

"Can I borrow both of these?"

"You can borrow as many as you want as long as they come back," Henry said. "The books are happier when someone reads them."

Leaning forward, he added, "And you're right. Nobody ever got la- love, mooning and staring and waiting for the stars to align. Though sometimes things fall into your lap."

Awesome. Now she just had to decide which book to read first. Maybe she'd try the first chapter of each and see which had a bigger grab for her attention.

"I'm not sure you'd appreciate it," she mused. "If love just fell into your lap. You might think it's easy, or take it for granted."

"My wife told me on our first date that she thought she was going to marry me," Henry volunteered. "It wasn't magically easy from there on out, but ... I liked it. It gave me a reason to grow up."

Rinoa laughed, easily, at that. "That's wonderful," she gushed. "Very poetic. And she was right."

She couldn't imagine saying that to Squall. That would involve getting him on a date.

"That still doesn't mean it fell into your lap," she said. "It's never that simple. Or was it?"

"Depends on how you define simple," Henry said, thinking it over. Clare had been working from inside information, but he didn't mind Rinoa thinking it was a flight of fancy. "Being with her felt right, even before she said that. But the actual getting married part ... we had as many problems as anybody else, maybe a few more."

Like, say, Henry vanishing into thin air every few weeks.

"I guess it motivated us to keep going."

Rinoa nodded intently. "Motivation helps," she said. "It's really easy to get discouraged, otherwise. But it's all okay now, isn't it?"

Henry's jaw moved, showing his stress. "In the very long term I think it will be," he said. "We're having some problems right now. Long distances are hard on any couple, so we're ... taking some time."

"I'm sorry," she said, biting her lip quickly. She shouldn't have asked; it was overstepping her bounds. "I know ... this doesn't mean much, but I know another couple ... they had to be apart for a long time, but they never stopped loving one another. He's with her now."

He'd been her anchor, even while they were physically separated. It was inspiring.

He wouldn't have brought it up if he really minded talking about it. Henry smiled a bit to show he wasn't offended. "Well, I signed on for a year here, and then I'll see," he said. "I know I'm going back to Chicago sooner or later, either way."

In part because he knew things that he'd live through in a few years, and they were all in Chicago.

"That's a sweet story about your friends," he added. "Maybe I'll make things work with Clare, who knows?"

You don't need no steenkin' help!

Should he appear, this would be where!

Shiny.

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Library, Tuesday!

Talk to Rinoa!

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Mod Your Library!

Talk to the Librarian

OOC