book fort

It was a relatively normal day in Lumentia Castle, as normal as it could be during the times. While the group of young heroes waited with bated breath for their objective to finish cooking, they were left with a month of downtime. It was almost difficult for them to wrap their heads around after all this time full of drama and action. For once, everything had stopped keep happening.

Spirit, of course, had decided to use it the way she always used to: reading everything in the Lumentia Castle National Library. She and Angel had, to the others at least, taken on responsibility for the girl from the rift after their time at the beach, after all.

They had chosen to bring her here to catch her up to speed on the mechanics of the universe, and she had gotten to talking to the librarian here. He offered to take care of her here, since she didn’t much have a home to speak of, yet. She seemed to settle in quickly after that, and the Lumentians had assumed it was because she had the chance to learn how things work.

As she stepped into the library proper, however, she noticed that the librarian was missing from his post, and the girl from the rift was nowhere to be found, either.

“Professor Hayward?”

Now this was concerning. Spirit feared she would get smited by Ranthael himself for losing the creator of the universe, and Hayward wasn’t the sort of person who would leave his position. And especially not for the purposes of socializing. He didn’t people well. Surely they hadn’t been harmed, right? Right? They better not have been, she thought.

Not thinking to use aura sight in her mounting panic, she began to comb the library for them. It wasn’t long before she heard familiar voices, though and halted in her tracks to listen in.

“...And that, so they say, is how the races came to be.”

“That’s… utterly fascinating. Do you have any more? I- I mean if you want. I don’t want to impose...”

“Nonsense. I have plenty of time, enjoyable company and there are so many stories in this library to tell.”

“I wouldn’t call myself enjoyable company...”

“Now now, poppet, I’ll have to respectfully disagree. You are a very interesting woman, you know.”

“You’re… you’re not just saying that because I’m not from here, are you? Everyone else, I feel like they’re more interested in what I had to go through and the fact that I’m… like this… than they are in me personally...”

“Of course not. I found you to be very interesting before I knew, and absolutely nothing has changed. I just hope that when they bring your house out of the rift, you’ll continue to visit.”

“I will. I promise… You’ve made me feel so welcome. I really actually don’t want to leave...”

“I will admit, I don’t want you to leave either...”

“Then… then maybe I shouldn’t. We’ll stay here together and read all these goddamn books. I like the sound of that...”

“Ah, but, let’s worry about that when we need to. Let’s see what other stories we have here...”

Spirit couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was this the same Hayward? The one who barely emoted on a good day? Being sociable and, dare she think it, downright affectionate? That sounded like affection to her, and it sounded foreign in his voice.

About now, she came around the bookshelf she had been standing behind, to see for herself if this was true. What her three eyes came upon was rather astounding, to her. In the midst of a large pile of reading material, on the floor no less, were the pair in question. They were cuddled together within a fort made of books, and Hayward was staring at her like a deer in the headlights.

The two stared at each other for a long moment.

“Am… am I interrupting something?” Spirit finally thought to ask.

Hayward stared her dead in all three eyes and began slowly stacking books up, filling in the window the pair had been using for light. He stared her down until the minute the last book slid into place.

And when it was in place, Spirit finally thought to turn on her aura sight. And once again, she found herself astounded at the colors she saw. Surprise, of course, was to be expected after she had interrupted them, but she also saw vermillion happiness, and whether the two knew it or not, a very substantial core of deep blue.

He was emoting. This was a foreign concept to Spirit. It very nearly blew her mind to think it. Hayward was in love with someone, enough to build book forts, read her stories and call her nicknames. Oh, she would have to watch over this.

Inside the book fort, the pair pulled closer together as he lit up the interior with a small ball of magical light, about as bright as a bare bulb.

“I wasn’t expecting to be paid a visit, bloody hell...”

“No, no, it’s fine. Promise. We shouldn’t let that interrupt us.”

“I suppose if you insist.”

“Let’s find another story, alright? I’d like to hear it. I like listening to these… and I like listening to you.”