The Library (The Librarian of Alexandria Book 1) by Casey White (surface ebook reader .TXT) 📕

The sounds of turning pages and uninterrupted conversation drifted up to meet him.  He exhaled, back to grinning.  Safe.

“Do you have to yell every time?” Owl said, his voice low.

Leon glared at him, brushing his hand away.  “Do you have to sneak up on me every time?”

Owl chuckled again.  “Well.  No.  But it’s more fun this way.”

“Damn it,” Leon muttered.  “One of these times, I’ll be the one to scare the fucking daylights out of you.”

“Of course you will.”

“You could at least sound like you believe me,” Leon said with a groan.

Owl kept chuckling, turning away from Leon to walk back through the balcony shelves.  The cart lay ahead, right where he’d left it.  The candles burning around the curtain-wall lining the wing’s edge hadn’t gotten any brighter, but from the twinkling dance of them flickering to and fro, they might as well have been laughing too.

“Come on,” Owl said, waving Leon on.  “You might as well help.”

“Damn it.  You know, I sleep to sleep, not-”

“If you want to leave, you can leave,” Owl said, cocking an eyebrow back toward the man.

Leon’s complaints died, his expression turning sullen.  “But you said you’d help me.  I’m doomed.  The chem final is in two weeks, and I-”

“I’m well aware how screwed you are,” Owl said, his laughter growing.  “So come on.  The sooner you help me, the sooner I can help un-fuck your grades.”

“...Sweet.”

For all his complaints, Leon grabbed the nearest book readily enough - and Alexandria positively purred as he started filling shelves.

Owl saw Leon’s eyes dart to the studying pair below, though.  He saw Leon hesitated, book in hand.  “Uh...will they-”

“If we’re quiet, they shouldn’t notice,” Owl said.  “So don’t go yelling, and we’ll be fine.  It’s really dark up here, and the books will eat the sound.”

“Oh.  Right.  Yeah, I guess that makes sense.  You sure you don’t want to leave, though?”

“I’m sure.  We’ll...we’ll be fine here.”

“Only, most of the time, you always try and hide us deeper in the-”

“I kinda want to keep an eye on them, this time,” Owl said, his mood darkening again.

Leon stopped, the book half-placed on the shelf.  “Problems?”

“Nothing I can’t handle.”  Owl pasted a smile onto his face, grabbing at the next tome.  “We’ll just be quiet.  But, I mean...are you really the one to give me shit about problems?”

“W-What’s that supposed to mean?”

Owl cast a sidelong glance at Leon.  “Weren’t you supposed to ask Saul, uh...last night?”  His mind raced, slotting the proper timeframe into place.

His heart fell as Leon’s face turned stony. “Oh.  That.”

“Yeah, that.  Weren’t you-”

“It’s not happening, Owl,” Leon said with a sigh, giving his head a single, final shake.  “Just...it’s a mess.”

“Oh.”  Owl nodded, searching for the right words.  Somehow, nothing he could say felt right.  Somehow, it all felt cheap, like sticking a bandaid over a knife-wound.  “Sorry, man.”

“It’s just...I thought this was something, you know?” Leon burst out, then flinched.  His hand slapped over his mouth.

Again, Owl glanced back to the anthropologists.  Again, he stood motionless, waiting.

And again, when the only sounds he heard were those of total normalcy, he exhaled.  “We’re good,” he said.

“Sorry,” Leon whispered.  “Uh.  Again.  Do we need to go...somewhere...else?  Somewhere they can’t-”

Owl pressed a hand to his face.  His fingers scraped against the porcelain, blocking his lenses for a brief moment.  He needed to keep an eye on Alan and Dylan.  It was his job.  And yet...”Up to you,” he said, pulling his fingers away.  “If you can handle it, I’d like to stay.  But if you need to be loud, we should-”

“I’m good,” Leon said.  It was hard to tell through the dark, but his face certainly looked to be bright red.  “It’s not a problem.  I’m good.  Yeah.  I just...”

He stepped away from the cart, raising his hands to rake through his hair.  “It’s like...every time I open my mouth he keeps...”

Owl watched, methodically unloading the cart as Leon ranted.  He chuckled along as his friend laughed.  On and on it went - and when Leon’s poor, ill-fated romance with Saul was talked out, he let the conversation turn to his poor, ill-fated test scores, and his poor, ill-fated job prospects.

Every word Leon said hung in Owl’s mind, painting a picture richer than any hanging from Alexandria’s walls.  He could see it all - the people, the places, the sights and sounds of the man’s life.

There, with Leon’s stories still filling his mind, Owl was again faced with the worry that he’d made a mistake.  That he should have gone to college, like society said a normal young man his age should.  Back then, it’d seemed like such a horrible idea. Him? Giving up his freedom on his precious days off, to sit in classes for hours on end that would teach him nothing?  He’d suffer through millennia of boredom, he’d thought back then.

Now, though, he wasn’t so sure.  Now, looking back, he could only see all of the things he’d passed straight by in exchange for that freedom.

“Shit.  I’m sorry.”

Owl jerked, his head lifting.  Leon stared at him, chagrined.  “W-What?” Owl said.

Leon reached out for another book from the steadily-dwindling stack, not quite meeting Owl’s eyes.  “I don’t mean to talk your ear off every time.”

“I keep telling you it’s fine,” Owl said, trying to cast his mind back across the conversation and get caught up.

“You’re not my personal therapist,” Leon mumbled. “I really don’t mean to keep treating you like that.  So...sorry.”

“Leon.  I told you it’s fine.”

“Oh, don’t give me that polite-professional bullshit.  I don’t care how much you have to kiss their asses, I’d rather you didn’t lie to me.  Sorry.  I’ll keep a better lid on my shit.”

“Seriously,” Owl said, a stubborn edge entering his voice.  “I don’t mind, Leon.  I like hearing about all of it.”

“Why the hell would you like that?” Leon said, snorting, then pressed a hand to his mouth again.  “Shit.  Too loud.  Sorry.”

“Because-”

“No one likes being whined at,” Leon mumbled.

Owl stared