Act calm, he told himself. He probably didn't mean anything by it. Or the wink. He was just being cheeky like Hanako. Why do they have to do these things to me, though?!
Probably for his reaction, he reminded himself. If he managed to act calm and act like it was no big deal, maybe Arlen would stop teasing him. Jack couldn't exactly do much about his profuse blushing, but he could manage everything else about how he behaved, right?
"I'm back!" he announced, picking a table as far away from the books as possible to set down the food. He didn't want anything to end up on the precious paper pages or critical covers, after all. Good thing he got lots of napkins, too. "Your order, sir! It should all be right here." Jack set down the bag of Arlen's food and the cup with his drink before him.
Arlen had been... similarly overthinking.
Which manifested in his cleaning of the whole first floor.
Twice.
Did I come on too strong? That was probably weird. Was that weird? Maybe Jack was going to book his a** out of the library and never come back. I probably seemed creepy—
And around and around in circles, until he nearly debated leaving early for the day, but he eventually pulled himself back from the extreme.
He literally beamed, lighting up like a firecracker when he saw Jack's face, immediately shuffling over, wiping his dusty hands off on his slacks.
"Thank you!" He exclaimed, surely too loudly, ears turning red at his own outburst. "I mean, hi again! You weren't gone long at all."
In truth, he knew Jack really hadn't been. But the stress had done wonders to slow the time to a crawl, right when he needed it least.
"Were the lines short like you thought?"
"Yeah, no problem!" Jack answered upon being thanked for the meal. "Heheh...hi again!"
The enthusiasm with which he found himself being greeted upon his return astonished him a great deal. He wouldn't have expected anyone he had just met to greet him that way, so it was a pleasant surprise, but he still couldn't help wondering about it.
Setting the thought aside to ponder later, he admired the newly-cleaned first floor with awe and wonder. "Wow...I may not have been gone long, but you were really busy while I was gone, weren't you? There's not a speck of dust anywhere in sight." Maybe he had wanted to be extra thorough after Jack had shown up and made a mess of things if Arlen was used to being the only one in the library.
"Uh, yeah, they were pretty short! Not bad at all. But if you can't leave the library during work hours, what do you usually do for food? Do you even get to eat lunch usually?"
Arlen chuckled sheepishly, scratching absently at the back of his head as he sat down, taking up one end of the little table so that Jack could sit at the other.
"W-Well, ah—I've been kinda, ah, putting it off for a while, so—really it's just that since you were here, it seemed smart to..."
That may have been the worst attempt at a sentence that Arlen had ever made. Heavens Hex It. Ah—
His ears darkened slightly, and he cleared his throat.
"I guess I don't, no," he admitted, shrugging a shoulder, "I just eat when the library closes. Kind of nice that it closes as five—gives me plenty of time for dinner."
His stomach grumbled helpfully, which encouraged the red to overtake his face.
"S-So, ah—thank you. Really," he added, smiling slightly again, "really nice of you to do for a stranger. Are you always such a standup citizen?"
Jack blinked. Suddenly Arlen seemed really nervous. Or...uncomfortable? Had it been something he'd said? Whatever it was, it was making Arlen act entirely different from the cheeky librarian who'd winked at him before he'd left to get lunch for them both.
"That's terrible! So you just go all day without eating? Not even a snack? What about breakfast?" he asked, concern for Arlen's lack of nutrition overriding his concern for Arlen's sudden change in demeanor. Was he perhaps embarrassed that he didn't eat lunch? It seemed like more than that, though.
Jack snorted at the question of whether he was always such an upstanding citizen. "Hardly. But since I was going to get food for myself, I didn't even have to go out of my way to get you something, too. Anyone with an idea of what's common courtesy would have done it."
He paused. "Um...you okay there? Anything the matter?"
Arlen watched the concern play over the other's face with a small frown, something fluttering in his chest. Jack barely knew him and was already worried about him. That was definitely one of the more adorable things he had watched in a good minute.
Hey! Wait, if Jack liked him enough to worry already, he couldn't have made Jack that uncomfortable before, now could he?
He smiled slightly, the tension bleeding from his frame.
Just worrying too much, aren't I?
Seemed to be one of his more frequent problems.
He waved his hand dismissively, mirroring Jack's scoff. "Nahhhh. Don't worry about it. Does wonders for a diet," he chirped happily, snickering, "or at least, it would, if food wasn't a verifiably addictive substance."
His smile only warmed further at Jack's attempts to brush off his own good deed. "Not everyone," he replied easily, shaking his head, "not even remotely close. You're a good one. I can tell. And yeah. Just getting in my head. Haven't had company in a while."
It was funny; the moods between the two young men seemed to go up and down like a seesaw. Also like a seesaw, when one's mood went up, the other's seemed to go down.
When Jack had been happy Arlen's enthusiastic greeting at his return, Arlen had seemed to become nervous or embarrassed after. And when Jack got concerned over Arlen's uneasiness, making him uneasy, Arlen suddenly began to smile.
Finally, when Arlen commented that Jack 'was a good one' and that he could tell, all traces of Jack's good mood suddenly dissolved into a melancholy puddle. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly obvious as to why.
Realizing his emotions must have been evident on his face, the university student tried to smile again, but it was half-hearted at best. "Thanks," he said appreciatively, "but maybe because you haven't had company in a while, your judgment of people might be a little rusty."
He sat himself down across from Arlen and concentrated on unwrapping his food. "If you're skipping meals with that big a break in between, you'll just eat twice as much when you finally do get to eat. There's always delivery, but that can get expensive. Why don't you bring lunch from home?"
Noting Jack's sad little droop, Arlen frowned, and tapped the table so that Jack would have to look up to track the movement.
"Hey, pretty boy, what's got you thinking so poorly of yourself, huh? You've only been nice to me---and I just met you. So. You can't be that bad," he assured, tone gentle like he were speaking to a flighty cat, "and don't you be judging my judgement---just because I don't have company doesn't mean that I don't have human interaction. Rude."
He stuck his tongue out teasingly, and shook his head, giving an exaggerated roll of his eyes.
"I've met enough weirdos to know that you're not one," he said, very matter of fact, and entirely not up for debate, "don't be so hard on yourself, okay? People aren't supposed to be perfect."
He began digging into his meal with the ferocity of a man who hadn't eaten in days. Entirely accurate, actually, the cleaning had gotten away from him. Big project for two hands alone.
He didn't know how to accurately describe why he wasn't by his house to make food very often. It was really only that, well... He just didn't have time with his... Other job.
"I don't really cook well," he lied instead, giggling with a muffled mouthful of food, "always burn stuff in kitchens."
Surprised by Arlen's way of getting his attention, Jack looked up. He snorted in his attempt to suppress a laugh at being called 'pretty boy' and shook his head.
"Being nice doesn't automatically make you a good person. You can be nice to someone to gain their trust for ulterior motives or to manipulate them. But I appreciate the sentiment."
He laughed bitterly and gave Arlen a wry grin. "Just because you have human interactions doesn't mean you're a good judge of character, though, does it?" He turned a sad smile on his food. "But...I'm glad you think and see the best of people and have faith in them. It's better than being the opposite - bitter, cynical, suspicious, and pessimistic."
When Arlen said he'd met enough weirdos to know Jack wasn't one, the redhead gave him a strange smirk. "I'm not, huh?" he asked. "Are you sure I'm just not very good at hiding it? Or maybe just not like any weirdo you've ever met?"
Chuckling softly to himself, he allowed Arlen to eat, certain that the librarian must have been starving after the sheer amount of energy he had just expelled cleaning.
"Shame," Jack murmured at Arlen's lie of not cooking well. "I heard that can be far cheaper and healthier for you."
"I don't think a bad guy who was trying to manipulate me would be putting so much effort into convincing me that he's a bad guy, but maybe that's just me," Arlen chirped, quirking a brow and smirking, "if you don't mind, I'll keep my opinion of you as is until proven otherwise. I don't think you're as bad as you seem to think you are."
He ate swiftly, like someone who wasn't exactly accustomed to having the time to enjoy something. He wasn't choking on it, by any means, but he was more than certainly eating faster than was perhaps considered "normal", by any standards of the word. He was *starving*, honestly.
"And maybe you're a nice weirdo, then. I'm definitely a nice weirdo." He paused, as if contemplating. "Or at least---I think I am. Probably."
He snickered at that. "Fair. Probably is a lot healthier. But I'm just a miscreant like that, I guess."
"Heh...well. I guess there are different kinds of 'bad guys' too. Some mean well or have good intentions, but still do bad things for whatever reason. So...maybe my attempts to convince you I'm not a good guy is to warn you to stay away so you don't get caught up in said things." He sighed and shrugged. "But it's not like I can make up your mind for you."
He chuckled again at Arlen's comment that he was definitely a nice weirdo. Or at least he thought he was...probably. "What makes you think you're a weirdo? Your giving others the benefit of the doubt?"
Jack sighed again. "I guess I'll have to come by and bring you food when I can, then."
"That's perfectly right—can't change my mind at all," Arlen replied, flicking his tongue out petulantly, "and being involved in bad things doesn't make you a bad guy---that's just stupid."
He said it with the barest hints of irritation, as if the notion was upsetting to him, or hurtful in some way, but the teasing and friendly side was still in full brunt.
"And I'm weird for a number of reasons, but having faith in the human race isn't one of them," he drawled, shaking his head very seriously as he shoveled in another bite, only to choke on it as he processed Jack's next words.
"You---You want to come back? We could do this again?" He asked, incredulous and pleased, if the little flush on his face was any indication. He grinned. "Haven't scared you away yet?"
Jack sneered. "It doesn't? Even if 'the road to Hell is paved with good intentions'?"
He blinked when Arlen began to choke, wondering if he should help him, and finally settled on putting his drink closer to him to remind him it was there and maybe to take a sip.
"Well yeah, if you don't mind. Probably not a good idea to make a habit of eating in a library, but if no one else is here and we try to be tidy about it...I mean, you would be the one to decide whether or not eating is allowed." He looked away, scratching the back of his neck. "I just meant i could bring you food since you can't go out to get it yourself. We didn't have to eat it together every single time."
His smile was wry again when he turned back to look at Arlen once more. "No. And apparently I haven't scared you away, either."
"I think you're just being a pessimist," Arlen chirped in response, tone a slight wheeze as he gratefully accepted his water, downing a sip of it with a sheepish little chuckle, "but yeah---I always thought that all that intention stuff was a load of crap. If you're trying your best to be the good guy, I think that should count for something. Mostly. We're only human---we're going to screw things up every once in a while."
He shrugged, and kept eating, sufficiently less starved this time. "But that's just my two cents, I dunno."
He giggled at Jack's concern for the library. "Aw, B can take it. She's old as dirt and I clean her every other week. And hey--I would like to eat with you, when you have the time. Who wouldn't want to eat with a super hot, super interesting guy, eh?"
He smiled, all genuineness and dimples. "I wanna get to know you. I'm pretty hard to scare, anyways."
"Maybe," Jack murmured after Arlen mentioned he thought it should count for something if someone was trying their best to be the good guy.
"'B'?" he repeated curiously when Arlen said 'B could take it'. "Are you talking about...your library?"
Jack blushed profusely when it was implied he was a 'super hot, super interesting guy' and looked away, trying not to laugh. "Maybe someone who would prefer to eat in peace or concentrate on their food."
He took another bite of his food as he enjoyed the librarian's genuine, dimpled smile. "Alright," he said eventually after chewing and swallowing his mouthful of food. "I'll bring you more meals. And we can try to get to know each other."
Arlen flushed, realising that he had, in fact, called his library by a name, as if it were a friend, instead of a location.
But well---when you spent so long somewhere, knew it's every quirk---it really did feel like coming home to an old friend, instead of just a location. This was Arlen's safe space.
"Oh, didn't you know? There's a rumour that this place is haunted," he replied, tone a playful chirp that was hard to differentiate from truth or fiction, "all sorts of spooky happenings. And there's a rumour that the lady who built this place now walks its halls forever."
As if to emphasise his point, he wiggled his fingers scarily.
"Her name was Miss Beatrice Bordelain, but I just call her B."
He beamed when Jack confirmed his return. "Well, I'll save a table for us, then! Make it a real date!"
"Ohh...so you call the library after the lady it's haunted by? Or are you talking about the lady herself being able to take it?" Jack asked with a small smile. "Do you think that might be why people are staying away? Because they think this library is haunted?"
He chuckled at the mention of saving a table to make their next lunch meet-up a real date. "What defines a 'real date' exactly?" He wondered again if Arlen meant a romantic date, which made his thoughts turn a little anxious. He had never seemed to be any good with romantic situations. Most likely, if that was really what Arlen meant, he would probably screw it up.
Arlen nodded. "Well, the library starts with a 'b', and so does the woman herself, so I figure it's the best way to offer a nod to both," he explained, seeming very pleased by his own ingenuity, "oh. Well. Fair point, though. The place being haunted might be a little... deterring. Hadn't thought about that."
At Jack's other question, he simply gestured between them, grinning again. "Well, to me, this is a date. You do something you like with someone you like. Easy enough. But well, I'm not great at communicating sometimes, so I thought it would be a little bold of me to proclaim—so...."
He flushed, suddenly a little nervous.
"S-So, I just ah... Well... would you want to go on a date with me?"
"Oh, huh," the redhead acknowledged. "That's cool. As far as the haunted thing, though, I wouldn't worry about it too much. That even attracts some people sometimes. I know of at least one person who'd love to try to come meet this ghost of yours - or, at the very least, hear her tale and look for her."
This was a date to him? If that was the case, then maybe Jack was overthinking it and worrying too much. "Oh. So friends can have dates too, then, huh?" He hadn't specified in what way you had to like someone, after all. Maybe he meant that included the platonic sort.
At Arlen's suddenly somewhat timid question, Jack chuckled. "Didn't you say this already is one? Aren't we already on one, then? And if we agreed to have lunch more often after this, isn't that the same as agreeing to more dates?"
Arlen could tell that there was some sort of misunderstanding forming here.
But maybe that was intentional? Was this Jack letting him down gently? Probably—they'd only talked the once, after all—
Getting too far ahead of yourself again, Arlen. Stupid!
Falling all over himself just because a pretty guy let him spend time with him for a while. Ugh...
He nodded lightly, smile dimming slightly, and huffed a wheezy little laugh.
"Yeah! Yeah. I think so, anyways," he replied—biting hard on his inner lip, scratching absently at the back of his head—all nerves again, "yeah, no—that's... yeah."
Hmm. How eloquent of him.
Heavens Hex It.
Arlen could tell that there was some sort of misunderstanding forming here. But maybe that was intentional? Was this Jack lett...
"Was that...not what you meant?" Jack asked, sensing something was wrong.
Arlen flushed further, shaking his head. "No, ah... it's—eh..."
He picked absently at a loose thread on his shirt cuff, and wheezed out another laugh.
"No, that's ah—yeah. That's what I meant, of course! Anyways, ah—you mentioned you were in college classes?"
He went back to eating, stuffing his mouth full to avoid saying anything else stupid.
Jack looked uncertain, but Arlen clearly wanted to change the subject, so he tried to accommodate.
"Uh, yeah. Do you go to college, too? Actually, mind me asking how old you are? You seem about my age."
Arlen chewed and swallowed, and then shook his head.
"Nah, I thought that finishing high-school was plenty school for me," he replied, relaxing at the change of subject, "and I'm 21, actually. How about you?"
"Yeah, school's not for everyone," he sympathized. "I'm 24. I'll be 25 in April," he said between swallows of food. "When's your birthday, Arlen?"
"Yeah, school's not for everyone," he sympathized. "I'm 24. I'll be 25 in April," he said between swallows of food. "When's y...
Arlen took a moment to look surprised. "You're older than I am? By three whole years?" He hadn't been expecting that.
He ate a couple more bites himself. "My birthday is in April, too, actually! So we match! What day does yours fall on?"
"Heh, yeah, I didn't guess I'd be that much older, either," Jack mused, taking another sip of his drink.
"Oh, really? Mine's on the eighth. Yours?"
Arlen was animated now, very pleased by the conversation. "You have a cute face, I think, is why," he chirped, winking, "and mine is on the third! We're almost birthday twins! Imagine that."
He yawned, stretching and then settling into his chair. The afternoon had been passing by much faster than it usually did—he supposed that was what happened when one was having fun.
Jack blushed again and looked away, wiping his mouth with his napkin. "Well, yours is way cuter than mine," he said, collecting their trash in one of the paper bags. "I think I'd better go, Arlen, but it was nice to meet you. And...B," he added with a smile. "I guess I'll see you around, yeah? You mind if I save the number I used to text the menu to you? You can save mine if you like."
Arlen flushed equally hard, and giggled. "Well, I think yours is the cutest one, so there."
He was a little sad to see Jack go, but not more than he was unbelievably happy that he had been given a chance to hang out with someone so...
Well. Amazing.
"It was great to meet you, too! And yes, please—I mean, yeah! I'd love that!"
He'd actually ah... already saved it. Maybe he should have asked? Prolly dumb. Peopling was hard.
"Text me when you're free, yeah? I'm usually just... here."
The college student laughed. "Sure thing. I'll try to get more people to stop by soon, too. I'm sure there are a lot who would love this place. Especially with you as its caretaker and librarian."
Tossing the trash, he gathered up his things and headed for the door. "Take care, Arlen. And hang in there. I'm sure things will look up soon."
ArlentheAngel
((The End))
