4. FALLING ON YOU

The dusty smell of the library filled his lungs, while he was struggling to keep his eyes open. No, that heavy scent of dust, paper and age did not bother him; in fact, he found it rather reassuring. He had always felt at ease between books.

The low light and the warmth of the main chimney, in which proximity the boy was sitting, were really of no help.

He was falling asleep.

The red haired young man regained consciousness just the few seconds necessary to take a quick look around in order to prevent the old panda from storming in and breaking his spine with a German suplex.

The library, deserted most of the time, was the place in which Rabi, the young Bookman heir, had his best naps. Oh yeah.

Basking in the warmth of the chimney and in the embrace of sleep, Rabi was sure that nothing was going to disturb his nap. In fact, the old panda was not in sight. No one could make him leave the couch. No one. Rabi was sure of that.

That was, until he felt an unknown presence. He heard steps, the rolling of the high stairs, books moving, and pages turning.

Now, hearing someone flipping through book pages was most certainly anything but uncommon in a library; but Rabi didn't think alike.

He perfectly knew the steps of each and every soul who entered the library, even if by chance or occasionally.

And those steps were unknown to the young exorcist.

He rubbed his uncovered eye, ran a hand through his messy hair, and stood up, heading silently to the source of the light noise.

Rabi walked through the maze of the huge shelves of the Black Order's library, passing section after section, but spotting no one anywhere.

Aha! There they were! The bookman's apprentice ran towards the 'Contemporary literature' section. He was sure, whomever was in the library was there.

As soon as he stopped in the middle of the section's lane and he cleared his view, Rabi felt it.

The strike.

Two legs such as these couldn't belong to anyone but to a young woman with a beautiful face.

Almost daydreaming, the boy moved closer; wait! Need to check, in order to prevent unwanted events to…ok. no, these weren't Linalee's legs. Phew, he had already felt the weight of Komui's breath on his neck…

He still couldn't see the girl's face, but he didn't really mind, busy in studying the view of her legs. Long and tanned. Too bad she was wearing shorts and not a skirt…being on top of the stair as she was, he could have peeked under and…awwww! Rabi almost giggled as he blushed like a schoolgirl.

The girl hadn't noticed him yet; she seemed absorbed in the book's content.

Sighing, she put the huge art book back in the shelf, and moved to take the next one, when she sneezed, loosing the grip on the heavy book that began his downfall.

"No no no no no" she exclaimed quickly turning and moving to catch the book.

She looked down.

"Hi" Rabi greeted smiling, the fallen book in his hand.

"WAAAAAAAAA!!!" was all she managed to say loosing her balance and falling down. Now, if the book had been caught and saved by that boy, that didn't mean that for her falling from like, 4 meters was going to be consequence-less.

Rabi wasn't sure whether to catch her or to run away; being caught staring at a lady's legs like that was surely going to cost him at least a slap. And he knew all too well how powerful indignant slaps could get.

Lucrezia touched the ground with a thud. No, wait, it wasn't ground. It was softer. She looked around, and found herself sitting rather unseemingly on top of a boy.

More precisely, on top of the boy that had scared her to death and almost made her risk her life like that.

Lucrezia looked at him straight into his eyes; well, into his eye, as the other one was covered by a patch. A patch? She studied his clothing. Oh, an exorcist. Well. That wouldn't spare him from her rage, no way!!! He had almost killed her, dammit!

Rabi didn't notice the quick change of expressions on the girl's face. He was too busy being hit strike after strike.

Lucrezia opened her mouth to begin covering the boy with insolences, but was taken aback by the radiant and warm smile of him.

"I'm Rabi" he said simply. But that seemed enough to make her blush.

Her inner self shook her head. 'Don't fall for that, Lu' "Oh, so you're Rabi. You are Rabi, and you almost killed me."

Rabi smirked, and she couldn't help but think he was as handsome as Kanda-san. This reminded her, she still hadn't managed to get Kanda-san to pose for a sketch. If the stoic Japanese boy kept on like this, she would have had no other options but to steal him. Yes. Steal him. Tie him up and… wait. That would be a little…a little uncivilised.

Lucrezia, don't lose your focus. You must focus on this Rabi boy here, and make him pay for what he almost did!

Rabi kept on smiling. "I am sorry, I didn't mean to scare you...uhm…"

"…Lucrezia" the girl said, cursing herself for having spat out her name like that instead of a thousand bad words.

Rabi put a finger on the girl's lips. The girl shivered and blushed like mad. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!?" she squeaked pushing him away.

Rabi showed her the finger sweat dropping; it was dirtied with red. Blood?

"Oh…I must have bitten my lip while falling…" she muttered, cleaning her lip with a handkerchief "…which reminds me that I must thank you for falling, Rabi-san…."

"Rabi-kun, or just Rabi, Lu-chan" he interrupted her, still smiling

"Ok, Rabi-kun…ehi! What did you call me?!?" a red blush was all over her face.

"Lu-chan, sounds so cute to me."

"…" Lucrezia gave up.