A/N: So I can't be the only one who loves these two Nerds (both separately and together). This was supposed to be a oneshot, but then it got entirely too long for that, so I'm going to post this in three separate installments, but they'll all be up within a day of each other.
I don't know if this is perfectly canon compliant, I've definitely tweaked the timeline around a little bit to fit with the story, and I'm kind of assuming a lot of information is ~common knowledge within the military, but I am a writer and ! this is what we do. I tend to go overboard to try to make sure my fics are ~realistic, but I think that's kind of the fun with fic, so here is my self-indulgent piece.
I hope that you enjoy, thanks so much for taking the time to read!
Even supporting characters need their own stories too – Ancient Proverb
Though she no longer worked at the National Central library, Sheska still spent a lot of her time off work there, plowing her way through the books she had yet to read with a passionate fire.
And this time, she couldn't be fired for her hunger for knowledge.
She had always loved coming to the library, ever since she was a little girl. Being surrounded by books made her feel as if her problems were inconsequential. There was so much out there to learn, she could spend every hour of every day at the library and still not finish all the books. And that was only one library in the world! It reminded her that the world was so large; she was only one tiny spec in a giant universe. It was comforting, to know that, no matter how difficult her problems seemed, in the grand scheme of things, they really did not matter.
The library tended to be quite empty in the evenings; surely her fellow Ametrians were at home, having dinner with their families, talking about their days, carrying on like normal families did.
Her mother was so sick that Sheska couldn't visit. Every day for the past week she would turn up, only to be told that her mother was showing no signs of improvement, and any visitors would weaken and worsen her condition.
"If she gets an infection now, it will kill her. We need to be extra cautious", the nurse at the front desk had told her when she tried to visit.
Sheska could remember as clearly as ever the last words she said to her mother. 'I'll see you tomorrow, Mom!'
A week later, and she still couldn't visit. Sheska hoped that the nurses at the hospital told her mother that she had tried to visit, and was turned away. Her mother had always been a sweet woman, and having to watch her age at a rapid pace in front of her was more than unsettling.
It was devastating.
And then, not long ago, the kind man who had given her a second chance at a job had died.
Sheska could think about death and the prospect of death quite logically. You lived, you aged, you died. It was simple. It had never really bothered her before.
But there was something so fundamentally unfair about someone as cheerful and kind as Lieutenant Colonel Hughes – or rather, Brigadier General, as he had been promoted posthumously – dying. There was something so fundamentally unfair about someone as kind and strong willed as her mother fighting a downhill battle.
So, she had plunged herself into learning as many new things as she could, keeping her brain as occupied and busy as ever so she didn't have time to think about what the future held.
The brunette was attempting to teach herself Aeurogonian.
Stack of books piled so high in her arms so tall she could barely see over it, Sheska made her way to her favourite leather chair by the window, and as she passed, a pile of books behind her sneezed loudly.
"Bless you", she called over her shoulder to the pile as she kept on walking.
It took her a couple steps before she faltered, furrowing her eyebrows together. Wait a minute, books didn't sneeze!
Sheska peered around both stacks of books, and there sat a bespectacled man who was taking notes so furiously, it looked as if his hand was having trouble keeping up with his brain. It seemed as if the rest of the world around him had been tuned out completely. His tongue was sticking out just slightly, eyebrows knitted in concentration.
Sheska giggled, and he looked up, startled.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to startle you, I just heard you sneeze, and then I thought it was the books, but then I realized books can't sneeze – now I'm rambling. I'll just – continue – yeah." The brunette pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, flustered, and turned to leave.
"No, it's alright, really. It was a good time for me to take a bit of a break anyways; I think my eyes might be permanently crossed if I keep concentrating so hard." The young man smiled at her, setting aside some of his books in an inconspicuous way, so she couldn't see the titles.
Curiosity taking over, she blurted, "What are you studying?"
He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Communications, it's always been an interest. What about you? That's quite a haul you've got."
"I – yeah, I'm trying to teach myself another language, which is easier said than done when you're trying to learn out of a book. I don't think I've got the accent right at all." She paused, "I'm Sheska, by the way."
"Sheska? Nice to meet you! I'm Kain."
Nodding, Sheska hovered awkwardly for a moment before realizing he probably wanted to get back to his work. "I'll uh – let you, you know. Get back to – bye!"
Cheeks reddening, she scuttled away, books teetering precariously, which thankfully took her attention away from how damn socially inept she was.
Sheska didn't expect to see Kain again, but not a week later, the two crossed paths.
She was standing on one of the shelves to reach a book that was higher up. When she finally grabbed the book in question, she let out a triumphant "Aha!" then proceeded to nearly fall over when she heard someone chuckle behind her.
"Sorry", she hopped down sheepishly, "I know you're not supposed to stand on the shelves but I couldn't see any stools anywhere and I-" Sheska paused. "Kain?"
"We meet again." He was smiling amicably, and Sheska beamed.
"I'm not in your way, am I?"
"No, I was just passing through."
"Well, good luck with the communications research!"
"Good luck with learning your language!"
That same weekend, they ran into each other again, though this time, Sheska realized that it was more significant. She was leafing through a book on motorcars that she hadn't read before, and was so enthralled she hadn't even bothered to put it down and watch where she was going.
She should have seen it coming, but was too preoccupied, and promptly walked smack into someone.
"Oh! Geez, I'm so sorry!"
The book fell out of her hands landed on the ground with a loud thump, and Sheska leaned over to grab it the same time as the stranger she had just accosted did, and they smacked heads as they both leaned over to pick it up.
"Ouch!"
Her glasses were knocked askew, and by the time she righted them, she realized that she recognized the face in front of hers, and her hands flew to her cheeks in embarrassment.
"Kain! I'm so sorry, are you alright? I'd say I'm not usually this clumsy, but that would be a really big lie and I – I ramble when I'm nervous and I'm so sorry!"
Kain rubbed his forehead, smiling kindly at her, "It's alright, these things happen. Is your head okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I thought I cracked my glasses for a second, but luckily they're fine. I didn't realize you came here so often."
Kain shrugged up a shoulder, looking unsure of how to answer. "I don't get much of a break from work, so it's nice to have some downtime when I can."
"Well hey, you seem to keep choosing the least comfy seats in the entire building, I know where the comfortable ones are if – you know, if you want to test them out."
He smiled, and Sheska made a mental note of how kind his smile was, "I'd like that."
"Grab your books and follow me!"
Once the pair had settled in to their leather seats, each with large stacks of books placed beside them, they fell into a comfortable silence, punctuated only by the sharp flick of a page turning, or the soft hum when either of them came across something particularly interesting.
And after that, every few days Kain would turn up at the National Central library, and sit in the chairs that Sheska had shown him. The two would sit and read and make notes in their comfortable silence, until they started sharing facts with each other.
Then, comfortable silence started to turn into comfortable silence littered with intellectual conversation, both sharing facts with the other about what they were studying, that they found particularly interesting or surprising.
In the coming weeks, they started meeting more and more frequently, though it was always completely unplanned. The encounters were not long, only what they could both sneak in after work and before the library closed. But then, conversation started flowing into more personal facts as the two got to know each other.
Sheska found herself telling him all about her anxieties about her ill mother, and how she used to work at the library but had gotten fired for reading too much. Her anxieties were met with kindness and sympathy, and the offer that he was there to help her out if she ever needed it. Even talking about it with someone who was willing to lend an ear was therapeutic in a way Sheska had never contemplated before.
She stayed away from talking about her current job, because she honestly wasn't ready to talk about Mr. Hughes. It was still hard to wrap her brain around how someone so kind was just – gone.
Kain confided in her stories from his childhood; sharing with her what his parents were like, and how he had always been fascinated by communication technology. He told her how he could take apart and rebuild a fully functioning radio by the time he turned ten, in the most modest way possible. She expressed her fascination with what he could do, and he told her that he could teach her sometime.
He also stayed away from talking about work, and Sheska didn't ask or pry, she figured he would tell her about his job if and when he wanted to.
Without meaning to, or planning it, or even actively willing it to happen, the two fell into a comfortable friendship, the kind of friendship that Sheska had only read about in books.
"You really have a photographic memory? I only know one other person with one."
Sheska nodded, "When I was little, I just assumed that everyone could automatically remember everything they read, I didn't realize it was something different until I – well, until I read about it."
They both laughed, and fell back into their comfortable silence.
