He sat at a table surrounded by several stacks of books categorized by subject until it was almost like the book forts he used to make at Romano's when he was younger. Research on one subject led him to research another until he had ventured deep down the metaphorical rabbit hole and lost track of the time, so engrossed in the world of words that he seemed to have forgotten everything and everyone around him.
Arlen Halibert had spent the better half of the day dusting. Menial task, that. And one of his least favourites. Unfortunately, given the state of the building he had so lovingly decided to take as his own establishment and library, he could not get away with avoiding the task any longer.
Ye Bochord needed a good dust. Ew.
As far as payoff, though, he had to admit---the old girl certainly did look much better with a good dusting under her belt. At the very least, she didn't look so abandoned anymore.
(Yes, it had been getting to that unfortunate mark. Embarrassingly.)
And oh, what a lucky day it was for Arlen, because today he had a new patron.
An overreaction to the seemingly simple occurrence? Sure, but it was rare to get new people in here. Especially ones that weren't just looking for a bathroom or the newest manga or comic.
No, this guy was reading. Big books. The type that Arlen liked. And lots of them.
Therefore, he was immediately the most interesting person Arlen had seen in an ice age.
Arlen shuffled over as inconspicuously as possible.
Kind of... Hard. Being the owner and the only other guy in the building, but still.
"Hey there," he drawled, in what might have been the least premeditated greeting he had ever ventured, "find everything you were looking for?"
Because Jack was so engrossed in reading behind his little fortress of books, despite the librarian being the only other person in the library, Jack didn't notice him approaching until he spoke. Even then, it took him a moment to register someone was speaking, that they were addressing him, and then what they had said and what the words meant.
"Oh! Hi," he greeted with a sheepish grin and a raised hand, embarrassed it took him a while to respond to the greeting he had been met with. "Yes, actually, thank you! Even more than I had been looking for, in fact. I'm really glad I found this library; I don't remember it from when I was in Destiny City about six or seven years ago. Are you the only librarian here?"
Arlen watched Jack for a moment, fighting the urge to chuckle with how enraptured the other seemed to be in his material, and smiled absently, leaning against a shelf.
"I am indeed! Have been for a good couple years now, but it makes sense that you wouldn't know the old girl—she went under a different name by the previous owner. Something to do with the county, but then there was some debate and turf war about *which* county this building technically belonged to, so we changed it."
Well.
Arlen changed it. But still.
He gestured grandly at their surroundings, an absent sweep of his arm.
"All this material, and yet—nobody has the common sense to come and read it. Makes you wonder, huh? Anyways, are you studying, then?" He asked, quirking his head curiously to one side. "Or just reading psychoanalyses for fun?"
"Oh. That's really interesting," Jack murmured thoughtfully. "Well, I'm sure more people will come soon. Especially with as many students as Destiny City University has. Not to mention all the other schools around here. I just hope it doesn't get too much for you to keep up with on your own."
Beaming, he held out a hand. "I'm Jack; Jack Burnett. As for whether I'm studying or reading for fun, it actually ended up being a little bit of both. I meant to come here and take a few books back with me to study, but I got interested in another subject that came up while reading and had to learn more. Sorry if I'm staying too long; I swear I'll put all these books back right where I found them."
Arlen shook Jack's hand happily, eyes visibly flickering with glee at mention of Jack's interest in the material.
He actually *did* chuckle when the stranger expressed his concern for patrons overwhelming Arlen, and waved a dismissive hand.
"Bahhh, nah, it wouldn't be so bad. Would be grateful for the foot traffic, honestly. The quiet monotony does get to a person after a while."
Gave him too much time to overthink things, really. Annoying.
"And you're definitely not going to be staying too long—linger all you like. There's plenty of room and it's always nice to have some company," he chirped, finally circling back around to the other questions with his backwards order of responding, "my name's Arlen, and it's nice to meet a fellow purveyor of knowledge."
"I'll make sure to tell my classmates about this place, then," Jack assured the librarian. "I'm sure you'll get more people visiting in no time. Especially because people at the university are always looking for quiet places to study."
He tilted his head, regarding the young man as he gave his own introduction. "Pleasure's all mine, Arlen! Do you mind me asking if you just work here full time? Or are you a student, too? You seem really young."
Arlen grinned broadly at that, showing awkward little dimples. "Really? That sounds amazing! Maybe we'll start making some quotas," he teased, elbowing Jack playfully, before straightening up and shuffling over to the unfortunate area Jack had taken all the books from, just across the way.
... Yeah. There was dust beneath the shelving space. Just like he'd feared. Ugh—
He liked his dusting rag back out of his pocket and began smearing at it as he spoke—
"Ah, well—didn't really need a degree to be a librarian, y'know? And I had—well there was this guy who abdicated the position to me, because I was an intern at the time, and I just.... Settled. Y'know?"
He seemed rather pleased about it.
Mostly.
Jack laughed as he was playfully elbowed. "You have quotas to meet?" he asked, surprised. He wondered how the library was trying to meet those quotas if so few people were showing up and if there was any penalty for not meeting them. He hoped not.
Watching Arlen dust the shelves that he'd practically emptied of books, he listened to him answer his question. "Oh. Do you...get paid? Or enjoy it? I mean I would assume so if you were an intern, but foot traffic or no, even just dusting this place seems like a disproportional amount of work for just one person."
Arlen nodded slightly. "Well, if our library doesn't get traffic, we don't get funding—that's how most libraries function, and it's why some libraries sell old books when they're in a rut, or—well, cut workers. Which is why they cut the janitor. So it's just... uh. Me."
He realised he was rambling on, and scratched his head absently, shrugging and snorting a bit.
"And *yeah*, they pay me. But I also enjoy it," he added helpfully, his smile rather pleasant, "it's nice, for the most part."
Unless it was lonely. But that was okay, too.
"Oh, yikes! I'm sorry to hear that. All the more reason to direct people to come here," Jack noted.
"Say, do you even get a lunch break? You probably can't leave to get lunch, huh?" he guessed. "How about I get some and bring it back here so we can eat together? I imagine it must get pretty lonely here if it's normally so empty."
Arlen's brow shot up in blatant surprise, and he glanced over, distracted from his dusting.
After a moment of assessment to ensure the other wasn't poking fun or joking, his surprise melted into another of those dimpled smiles.
"Only known me ten minutes and you're buying me takeout? Careful, I'll keep you," he said, and his tone was so warm it was hard to tell if he was joking, "I'll pay you for whatever you get me. That would... actually be pretty great. Thank you."
He would never say no to an offer of food—he actually happened to quite like eating, and it was one of his greater grievances that he couldn’t eat as much or as often as he liked.
Jack really liked that dimpled smile of Arlen's. One could tell it was genuine at a glance. He smiled back before hearing the words out of the librarian's mouth, which caused him to falter before turning beet red. "K-keep me...?" he repeated quietly in confusion. Did he mean keep him as in keep him occupied? Keep him from heading to class? Or...?
He laughed awkwardly; surely he was being teased. Hanako did it to him all the time. Not to mention to others. Arlen was probably just the same type of person; the sort who enjoyed flirting through insinuations and other ways. He probably just enjoyed watching people's reactions and Jack was giving him quite the show.
"Heh...no, don't worry about it. I'll send you a picture of the menu once I find somewhere decent and you can tell me what you'd like, okay?" He nodded at the thanks. "No problem!"
Eager to leave before his face could get any redder, he turned to head out the door. "I'll be back as soon as possible! Hopefully they don't have long lines since it's still early."
Arlen frowned slightly when Jack's back was turned, rather disappointed that his attempt at flirting hadn't landed—but hey, he was probably a little rusty. Relationships had never really been his forte.
And Jack was adorable when he blushed, so at least there was that.
He hummed slightly, mildly flattered that the nigh-stranger was so eager to assure him of his return.
That was cute.
He waved, his farewell, eyes crinkling up at the edges.
"Don't rush, luv," he quipped in return, "and thanks, again. I will be owing you a lunch date too, then, though."
He winked, and went back to his cleaning.
The day was already looking up.
ArlentheAngel
