Note: Yay for late updates. I'm on a fluff splurge at the moment, so let's see if I can stretch it just a wee bit further with this chappie, m'kay? ;)
Out of the Blue
Part Four: To Read or Not to Read (Or Just Wreck Stuff Instead)
"No, Kai. You can't see it."
The traveler leapt forward anyhow, and Mary quickly stuffed her notebook onto the tippy-top of the highest bookshelf, hopping off her ladder with a satisfied smirk. "No," she repeated firmly. "Kai, I love you, but no. Rough drafts are not for anyone's viewing pleasure but the writer's. And you're not even a reader, for Goddess's sakes!"
Kai pouted, and immediately the librarian felt guilt pile upon her shoulders in unfair amounts. This, she thought bitterly to herself, was her punishment for finally answering his "what-do-you-do-in-that-library-anyway?" question. She, being Mary, had opted for an honest answer, and he, being Kai, had chosen to get involved.
Which was Not Good. At all.
"If you're writing a novel, Mary, I want to see it," he pressured her. "Hey, if you wrote it, it's got to be awesome, and besides, don't you want some editing?"
"Yes, but not from you, Kai! I mean—" The writer sank into her comfy chair and laughed, shaking her head as her braid bounced back and forth. "Oh, no. No. I can't imagine you…I don't know, Kai…being a grammar Nazi. It just doesn't fit."
"I definitely passed first grade English, thank you very much," Kai teased, wrapping his arm around her snugly. "And I wouldn't mind reading anything you wrote. Really. It could be fun."
A little too fun, Mary worried. At first, the idea of a boyfriend (for that was now what Kai was, take it or leave it) reading her work had seemed terribly romantic, the most delectable of all clichés—but now…now, not so much.
She had silently made this decision to protect her work when a new routine started up between them; before running off to the beach, Mary and Kai would sit in the library a while, where Kai would pick up a random book and begin tearing apart its words. "To read or not to read!" he'd cried in a fake, posh accent as he waved Hamlet about. "Whether tis nobler to face Shakespeare's confusing words so that mine eyes might bleed in horror, or to flee this library's walls so that I might get me some sunlight! Seriously, Mary, can we go now?"
Mary ripped apart her own stories all the time. But to hear Kai snicker at her prose and laugh at her plots, well…she wasn't ready for that.
And this was getting quite difficult to explain to Kai.
"I…I just don't think you'll be interested," Mary replied curtly. "Now, shall we be going to the beach, or do you want to lose your tan, Kai?"
"You're caving in roughly a half-hour earlier than usual, Mary. We have time to kill. Nice hedging, though; I'm impressed."
"I'm not hedging," she lied.
Kai's lips turned upward in a grin. "Excellent. So you won't mind if I do this." And then, to Mary's utter horror and disbelief, her boyfriend rammed himself against the bookcase—knocking down her notebook and dozens of other books in the process.
A single scream ripped from the librarian's throat as they both dove in, fighting to grab the tiny spiral-bound book. Mary's arms flailed about, shoving Laura Ingles Wilder and Edith Wharton aside as she valiantly sought for her work. "Sorry, sorry!" she kept apologizing under her breath as she bent a page, whereas Kai showed no such sympathy for the library's well-being. (Kai, Mary had discovered early-on, dog-eared his books and bent out the binding without batting an eye. It was very lucky she loved him, or else he and his book-marring hands would have been kicked to the curb ages ago.)
"Oh, no you don't!" they shouted in unison as they both spotted the object of their frenzy, tucked behind a fat copy of Jane Austen's work. Two pairs of hands lunged forward, and missing the book, latched onto each other, a strange wrestling match ensuing.
"Kai, let me go!" Mary begged, her eyes glued to her precious book.
"Goddess, I'm not going to kill it, Mary!"
"Let go!" she shrieked once more. This time, the traveler obliged, and Mary tumbled backward into another bookcase, Goodnight Moon landing neatly on her head.
"And I am the champion, my friends!" Kai sing-songed as he held the book up high. He swayed it this way and that, like a glowstick, while Mary seethed at him from behind colorful pictures and slightly bent glasses.
"You…Kai, you…!" she huffed as she fought to catch her breath. "My library, you….you…!" Glaring, her expression conveyed what her words could not.
Kai shrugged. "This is your own fault, love. If you had just given me the book nicely, then we wouldn't have this mess to clean up."
"My fault?" Mary sputtered.
"Well, there's no need to be a drama-queen over this, Mary," the traveler explained, giving his best I-love-you smile to combat her glare. "I care about you. You care about me. You care about writing. So why shouldn't I be a part of that?"
"Because that's my decision, not yours!" Mary retorted, indignant tears stinging her eyes. "If you love someone, you don't go and push them around just because they tell you 'no' once! Once, Kai! Was it so hard to just let me keep one thing to myself?" Oh no, she couldn't let the tears fall, no—but once she felt the cold touch of the first one trickle down her cheek, she found she had no power to stop them. How utterly embarrassing. This entire building had become so messy, so completely devastated of all order, and to top things off, her boyfriend was to blame. And now, the very words of her soul were in his grubby hands, and she was crying.
"Mary, you know I'll help clean it up," Kai coaxed, uncertainty flashing in his eyes.
"You've done enough," the librarian snapped, standing up and smoothing out her dress primly. "Fine. Take home your prize. Laugh away, go ahead. Just leave me alone, Kai."
In the heat of her fury, Kai, really, had no choice but to do as she said.
"You have to start talking to me sometime."
Kai sighed, receiving no answer, and began to pace the floor. "Okay, fine, so I went a little overboard—"
"A little?"
"—and maybe I looked like a jerk—"
"Let's get something straight. You don't just look like one, Kai; you are one."
"—but at least now that I'm apologizing, we're talking again!" the traveler finished hopefully. "So, let's let by-gones be by-gones, and patch things up between us. Sound good?"
"No. You sound like an idiot," was the retort, as Gray crossed his arms and turned away again. "And I'm not forgiving you. Not after what you did to her, got it?"
Manna had learned from Anna, who'd learned from a distraught and tardy Mary, of the events that had taken place in the library yesterday. Naturally, by eight o'clock this morning, everyone had heard enough to know at least one very basic thing: Kai had been a jerk, and Mary had sent him away in tears. So, in Mineral Town, Kai had now become public enemy number one.
There was much rejoicing in Rick's household that day.
"C'mon. You weren't even there!" Kai whined as Gray rolled his eyes. "She wasn't letting me read her notebook, so she put it on a shelf, which basically is the same thing as double-dog-daring me to go get it."
"Double what?"
"Ask Stu," Kai explained with a wave of his hand. "But Mary was asking for it, Gray. I mean, what writer doesn't let people read their work, I ask you? Isn't that what publishing is all about?"
"Mary isn't published," Gray deadpanned.
Kai flattened his palm on the notebook laying upon his desk and let out a single, agitated groan. "I know, I know! But I wish she was, if I could only read her work more easily that way. Now I feel so guilty, I can't even bear to open the stupid thing, and I worked so hard for it, too!"
"Yeah, Kai. Wrecking a library takes a lot of hard work."
"Oh, like you haven't done worse," Kai groaned. Gray opened his mouth. "Don't answer that. Basically, I just want someone to listen to me, at least, and you're my roommate, Gray. We've…we've got some kind of bond, right?"
"Sure." Gray snorted. "And you broke it when you ransacked the library."
"It was not ransacking—!"
"Pillaging, then. Look, either way, you basically trampled on Mary's feelings, ruined her library, and stole her most prized possession. You've got next-to-nothing on the sympathy meter for me, Kai."
The chef cocked his head, fingering his chin in thought. "Well. Next-to-nothing is at least something."
"Not really," Gray answered easily. "The only pity I can give you is for the constant guilt Mary and everyone and their mother will fling at you. Which you deserve, by the way."
"Wow, thanks, Gray. I can feel the understanding and forgiveness just radiate from your kind words."
"Don't mention it."
So Kai didn't.
Mary had walled up inside her room, her nose red and her face blotchy from the perpetual sniffling that had fallen upon her since yesterday. After curling into her mother's arms and confessing about her awful day, Anna had dutifully promised to maintain watch ("I knew that boy was bad news, just knew it!") and keep that bandanna-wearing rascal away from her sweet wronged daughter. Add Manna into the mix, and so was practically all of Mineral Town.
Still in her fuzzy jammies, Mary snuggled into the warmth of her bed, ignoring the sunlight pouring through the windowpane. I wonder if he's read it by now, she thought to herself, staring at her empty journal blankly. I wonder if he hates it.
Cleaning the library had taken her a good four hours, and she'd grumbled and sobbed and shouted all by herself in that tiny room as she nursed each book back to health. Still, that thought had been what truly plagued her all that time: Does he hate it? Does he? Does he?
Now, Mary figured she ought to start a new story, but every idea came out too dark for her taste. A girl who loses her boyfriend to madness. A traveler who refuses to listen to his wife and is swallowed by a big squid because of it. A woman who gets robbed of her most precious possession.
Life, they say, imitates art. For that reason, Mary was hesitant to use her rude-boyfriend-gets-smacked-on-the-head-by-an-angry-blacksmith's-hammer plot bunny anytime soon.
"Darling?"
Mary flinched at her mother's tentative call, and answered, "Yes, mother?" meekly.
"Someone's here to see you," Anna answered, and the gentle tone in her voice assured her it wasn't—as Mary had first suspected—Kai. After debating for a few moments in silence, Mary nodded to herself with a little sigh.
"Um, okay. Send them up, please."
Pitter-patter, pitter-patter. The light sound of footsteps against the stairs sounded in Mary's ears before a young woman arrived in the doorway, her eyes wide and mouth in a huge O.
"Mary, you're still in your pajamas?" Popuri exclaimed in shock. "I mean, if I'd known, I would've given you time to get dressed, but…wow, are you okay?"
The librarian glanced down at her plaid-print clothes and shrugged sheepishly. "I'm…I suppose I'll be fine," she conceded. "It's just, I'm not used to fights, is all."
"If it makes you feel better, Kai hates 'em, too."
Mary frowned at her pointedly. "We are not to speak of the K word in this house."
Popuri erupted into a fit of giggles at that, and plopped herself down on the librarian's bed. "Oh, I've done that, too. Between me and Rick, we had our own little World War III in our household plenty of times over that these past weeks. But…" She twirled her hair about her finger and bit her lip. "But it's okay now. Mhm."
"W-well, I'm happy for you," the brunette replied softly. "That's good news. Good…good news." She, too, sat upon the bed, then gave the younger girl a curious glance. "Popuri—why are you here?"
"Um, that might involve a few K words," she admitted with a tiny blush. "But to make things short and simple, uh, I just wanted to say that I think you're making a big mistake."
Mary's lips formed all manner of responses: indignation, shock, anger. Yet somehow she found she could not speak as she stared at this woman, wringing her hands on her very own unmade bed. Ruby eyes darted back and forth before settling on the petite librarian, and Popuri swallowed noisily. "I know, I know. Why listen to me? I mean, I'm younger than you, I'm his ex, and I don't think you and I have ever really tried to talk that much, anyway. So why am I trying to talk to you, huh? What gives me the right?"
A deep, shaky breath escaped her throat before Popuri continued, "It's not that I'm jealous of you, Mary. N-not that I'm not jealous. Because I am, you know, but not because of what you think. I just see you and him, and I—I see something there, something that I don't recognize, but I wish that I did. I see him smiling, and laughing, and…and you…Mary, you're too good to him. And he's too good to you. So how can something so beautiful, and so romantic, get destroyed over something like this?"
"You don't—!"
"I don't what, Mary?" Popuri asked with a laugh. "I'm not the smartest girl, but I'm kind of wondering how a little fight in a library can be so…so big that it can end something like that. And if everyone looks for that kind of happiness, and it can be ruined so easily, well, why bother with the looking?"
"But he didn't respect me, Popuri!" Mary insisted, her voice high and strange. "He—he took the best of me, without asking, and now he can do whatever he likes with it! He can rip it apart, laugh, or—or he can think I'm stupid, and silly, and just….I don't know! He could be doing anything at all, Popuri, and that scares me!"
Mary curled within herself and pressed her pillow to her face, her cries muffled. Her companion patted her gently on the shoulder, and Popuri whispered, "But Mary, isn't love all about trust, anyway?"
"So what happens," Mary whispered right back, "when he can't be trusted?"
Romance comes at a dear, dear price. For one thing, Kai knew he was never, ever going to try to sneak out of the Inn after closing ever again; he'd tripped on the stairs, woken up Ann, and gotten his head bitten off for it. But on the plus side, she'd unlocked the door for him when he explained his plea…even after yelling at him again for being stupid.
Which, Kai had to admit, he was.
"Psst! Hey!" Clink, clink, clink went the pebbles against the window. The traveler squinted to make out the figure approaching the windowsill, and Mary blinked, her hand hesitating at the lock.
"Come on, Mary! I need to talk to you."
It opened, and Mary stuck her head out, glasses hurriedly perched on her nose. "It's late. I need to sleep."
"Like you were asleep at this hour," Kai teased. "You were probably writing."
Her cheeks colored. "M-maybe. Maybe not. At any rate, I don't want to talk to you. Goodnight." The window closed, and Kai threw another pebble at its panes.
"I'll do it all night, if that's what it takes," the chef threatened.
At that, Mary creaked it open. "My mother would kill you before she let that happen."
"Are you kidding? That woman loves me."
"Not anymore she doesn't," Mary told him with a tiny giggle. It wasn't that she wanted to laugh—because she didn't, of course—but seeing Kai's fallen expression was just too comical to ignore. "I'm afraid she's joined the dark side with Rick."
"And you?"
Mary paused. "I…haven't decided that yet." She eyed him—a tiny purple speck on the ground—and frowned. "Why are you here, Kai? It's over."
"Maybe I won't let it be. Maybe I need to say something before we regret anything." He fidgeted before bringing out the notebook, shame in his eyes. "Um, I…I have something of yours. And I need to say something."
Mary's heart skipped a beat. "O-oh, you…you've read it, then." He hated it, he hated it, it's awful, and terrible, and I'm never going to be able to face him again, that jerk jerk jerk…
"No." Kai shook his head. "I—I wanted to, you know, but every time I started to, I kept…seeing you."
"Seeing me?" Mary repeated.
"Yeah." He scratched the back of his neck, and continued, "Like, I imagined you smacking me on the head with a book, or poking me with a pencil, and yelling at me, and…and it wasn't worth it. Especially not worth ending…us…over."
The librarian considered this. "What book was I smacking you on the head with?"
"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."
"So you must have been feeling pretty guilty, then." Mary propped her chin on her arm and tried to control all these emotions swirling within her: relief, amusement, lingering anger, joy. Yet when Kai looked up at her with those eyes, it was all she could do to keep herself from jumping down into his arms. "I don't know…Kai, I…you really hurt me."
Kai bowed his head. "I know."
"And the library—"
"I know," he repeated. "I…I pillaged and ransacked it. I'm nothing but a stupid Viking."
Mary tilted her head at him, lips pursed in thought. "May I ask you something?"
"Uh, sure."
"Why did you want to read it so badly?" she insisted. "Why would you go through all that trouble, just to read my silly little novel?"
Kai gazed up at her in disbelief, and she blushed, her expression shy and coy. "Because you made it, Mary. And anything you'd put your heart and soul into would have to be beautiful. You've got nothing ugly to give."
A tiny sob broke from her throat, and a smile so wide it could bridge the ocean split across her face as Mary dabbed her eyes. "Kai…" A laugh. "Kai, you don't know when to stop, do you?"
"Do you really want me to?" Kai asked, grinning.
She shook her head, still blushing, and retreated two steps back. "It's late. Um, if my mother catches you out here, I might never see you again."
"Talk about a complete one-eighty, huh?"
Mary giggled. "That's what happens when you wreck libraries."
"You mean pillage and ransack," the traveler corrected.
"That, too." The girl smiled, and without a thought in the world, put her hand to her lips and blew a tiny kiss on the wind. "I'll…see you tomorrow, then. There's a book, I think, that I need to read to you."
"Yeah?"
"Mhm. Goodnight, Kai."
The window closed, and a triumphant Kai pounded his fist in the air, shouting just loudly enough to wake half the town with his whoops and become hated twice as much as before.
"Well, I'm glad that worked out."
"Yeah."
"It could have ended very stupidly, you know. They could've blown it."
"You mean Kai could've."
"Oh, you never know. You can't underestimate the quiet ones, after all." She took another bite of her breakfast and smiled, her companion picking at his meal. "What, don't you like eggs?"
"I do. It's just…I'm not in the mood to eat. I'm still kind of in shock."
She laughed. "I'm not. I'm in a great mood! Bubbly and full of life! Playing matchmaker is so invigorating, I had no idea."
"All we did was guilt people," Gray reminded her.
"True," Popuri agreed with a little grin. "But look where it got them, huh?"
And after giving her new boyfriend a kiss on the lips, both couldn't help but think, And look where it got us.
Gray pulled away just enough to raise an eyebrow. "Rick is going to kill me when he comes downstairs, isn't he?"
"Nah. Not permanently, anyway."
"Just checking."
End Note: Not worth the lateness, I know. I'm sorry. But hey, if you liked it, say so, and maybe I'll be motivated to finish this baby all the faster! Or not. But probably it will.