"Hey, do you guys have a book on Greek mythology?"
Instead of answering the question, Azami slammed her hands on her desk, as quietly as her frustration would allow. It was a library, after all.
"I am trying," she gritted out through her teeth, "to work. You know how to use the catalog."
She raised narrowed eyes to the man standing in front of her desk, but he didn't seem put off by her fierce glare. If anything, his smile widened.
"Ah, that's true, but maybe you could recommend some? An expert's opinion would really be best, in this case."
Or in every case, apparently, since Tsukihiko had been coming in to ask her questions at least once a week since they were teenagers. Azami was beyond sick of it, sick of his inquiries and messy white hair and cheerful smile that never seemed to falter, no matter what angry remarks she threw his way.
Still, she was a librarian, and helping the patrons was her job. If one of her coworkers spotted her talking to him like this, she'd be in huge trouble. And if they fired her for something like this, Azami didn't know what she'd do. She'd worked at the library for so many years now she wasn't sure she knew how to do anything else.
With a sigh, she levered herself out of her chair, trying to ignore the fact that she wasn't much taller standing up than sitting down. It was harder to ignore when standing next to a weed like Tsukihiko, though. Unfortunately. When they were younger she'd waited for the day when she would hit her growth spurt and finally stop feeling so puny next to him, but it had never happened. Glaring upwards all the time was giving her a crick in her neck.
"I'll show you where they are," she grumbled, "if you'll help me shelve the books that go on the top shelf later." Might as well put him to work if he was going to hang around here all the time.
"Deal!" he replied, much too loud, and she spun around, not even needing to raise a finger to her lips to shush him before he realized and clapped a hand over his mouth.
It was almost a relief to take a short break from indexing the filing cards and trying to decipher her coworkers' handwriting, but of course she wouldn't say that to him. Tsukihiko always claimed that she was working herself to the bone and needed to relax more often, but she wasn't going to admit that he may be a little bit right.
Having worked in the library so long, she knew the way to the nonfiction section by heart, and she barely had to cast an eye to the side to scan the numbers on the shelves as she paced past them. The hush of the library had always been comforting to her, and even though she could hear the rustling of pages further off, it felt almost like she was almost alone in the library. Alone with Tsukihiko, of course, who was following her as happily as he ever did.
When she reached the shelf she was looking for, she cast a critical eye at the way it bowed beneath the weight of the heavy books. Maybe this one needed to be replaced, and sooner was better than later. She noted it down in the back of her mind, to input the request later.
"It's these three shelves," she said, gesturing to them with a quick flick of her hand. "Take your pick."
Tsukihiko suddenly looked nervous. "I'd rather have your advice, though. I mean, if it's okay."
It was rather too late to be asking if it was okay to be bothering her, but she rolled her eyes and turned back to the shelf.
A few years ago, she'd been fascinated by the monsters in these books, feeling a certain kinship with them. Of course, she was an ordinary human, but as somewhat of an outcast she couldn't help but be interested in these stories. She wondered if Tsukihiko felt the same. She'd met him when they were only kids, when he'd sheltered in the library from the bullies at their school and she'd been there after school for her part time job.
With that in mind, her hand drifted towards a pale bound volume, curly lettering down the side marking it as a book of mythological beasts.
"I liked this one," she said, pulling it from the shelf and flipping through the pages, dense text and familiar black ink illustrations passing by beneath her gaze. She hadn't read it in years, but she remembered working her way through it one summer, keeping it tucked beneath her desk so she could read during the slow moments when no one approached the help desk.
"Thought so," Tsukihiko replied in satisfaction, and her gaze flickered up to him in surprise and confusion.
"Wh—?"
Before she could ask what he meant, a piece of paper fluttered out of the book and onto the carpeted floor. From where she stood she could clearly it as a letter, and she bent to pick it up.
"'I checked every book in this building,'" she read out loud, eyebrows furrowing, "'but I still couldn't find the answer. I wonder if you might be able to answer this question for me? Will you go out with—' Tsukihiko!"
Shocked, she smacked him in the face with the letter, and he tried to dodge with a laugh. "No good?"
Azami's face was burning, and she looked from the book in her hand to the piece of paper, as if she wanted to throw one of them at hime but she wasn't sure which. The only answer she could come up with was "I'm at work!"
He laughed, ducking his head. "Sorry, sorry. I can—" He reached for the paper, but she refused to let go. They stared at each other, he with a sheepish kind of hope and she with an embarrassed fury as she tried to ignore how much his past behavior suddenly made sense now.
"Ask me when I'm not working," she said finally, wrenching the paper from his grasp.
Sliding the book back onto the shelf in its proper place (she was a librarian after all, and even if her mind was a mess right now she refused to let her shelves become one), she turned and walked away, trying not to look at the letter that she still held tightly in her hand.
Tsukihiko watched her go, a delighted grin on his face.