Fai looks at the clock on the wall above the door. It shows that it's close to the middle of the night but he knows they'll be open for a lot longer. The stack of books in his arms is heavy but welcome, mostly dense magical theory and manuals for different kinds of communication rituals which seemed to not be about summoning creatures from other planes of existence and worlds, as some of the earlier ones had been.
(Fai wonders sometimes, to himself, at what kind of things a world has to go through to decide to allow its mages to simply fish around in the unseen chasms between them and things they only theoretically think might exist and then offer self-help books for it in an ordinary library.)
He feels more awake than usual as he eases the books onto the table where he and Syaoran have been stationed all day, baring the breaks Fai has encouraged the boy to take to stretch or get food for them or to remember to drink water.
(Again Fai is surprised that they allow any kind of food or drink near the books but he supposes that in a place where you can just magically cleanse the pages it doesn't matter so much.)
Syaoran doesn't appear to be feeling the benefits of a magically charged world as much as he is and Fai wonders briefly if it's something to do with how integral his magic is in his own body, almost as important as the blood that runs through him, compared to Syaoran and his connection with magic, more studied than felt, like the boy is calling up a borrowed power rather than generating it himself, even if the effects look the same. He nods over the book he is squinting at, hand paused, ink trailing from the last word he wrote, unintelligible to Fai.
They've been working at translating a few of the more useful books all day, part of a mission the two of them have been on since a few weeks after they'd had to leave Sakura in Clow. Fai smiles slightly, watching the boy as he starts himself awake again and shakes his head to clear it and then sets back to looking at the book, holding his head up with one hand, elbow planted firmly on the table.
Fai chuckles, hand over his mouth, and slips his coat from the chair opposite onto the boy's shoulders.
Syaoran looks up at him blearily, blinking in confusion.
"Ah- Fai-san," he says, looking back down to the book beneath him, "I've been having some trouble with this word." He says, pointing about a third of the way down the page and four words into the line.
Fai humours him, glancing down at it and reading the line to him.
"Using a charged tablet fired in the kiln of the hearth you intend to visit a link can be formed to an abode or a temporary site to be expanded upon as a focus for area spells around that centre at a distance of around five hundred meters for a particularly skilled magician." He reads, tracing his finger back and forth over the words so that Syaoran can get a sense of the structure.
The boy frowns, looking over it quietly as he quickly writes what Fai has said down in his own script, stopping every few words to recall it. Once done he stares at the words, pen floating over the page, and seems confused by whatever they say.
"Um, could you say that again?" He asks, looking back up at him.
Fai smiles and gently shuts the book, page number memorised and the title mentally going next to it as he glances at the cover.
"I think that maybe it's best if we come back to study more tomorrow," he suggests, bending down next to his own notes and peering at the spines of the books he'd only just put down a minute ago. He quickly copies the titles and the numbers on the side into a list in the margin of the paper and shuffles them until they're in order before folding them and sticking them inside Syaoran's bag which he slips over his shoulder.
He scoops up the pile of books he'd been holding with only the slight reluctance of the fact that he's going to have to relocate them again in the morning, "if you could copy out the titles of everything you've got out that would be a good idea though." He says, hefting the pile over to the returns trolley. As he replaces each one it pops out of sight, reappearing where he'd found it, a prickle of magical energy registering each time just above the surface of the trolley and then in the respective bookshelf of each book.
After a couple of minutes Syaoran joins him, going to place his books into returns too.
Fai stops him briefly, putting a hand out as Syaoran attempts to put them all on the little shelf.
"Wait a second- one at a time, remember?" He says, smiling as the boy nods sleepily.
"Ah, yeah," Syaoran murmurs and then slips the book off the top of the pile, watching as the pile decreases down to just his notes.
"Are you sure you're okay carrying that?" He asks Fai as the older man takes his notes from him and stows them in the bag too.
Fai just laughs, ruffling his hair.
"Don't be silly, Syaoran-kun, I'll be fine. If we're lucky Kurogane won't have oversalted the soup this time and we can grab some before you go to bed." He says warmly.
The boy nods, hums and starts walking towards the main doors.
Fai looks over the place where they'd sat, checking it for belongings for a moment, and finds it empty. He nods to himself then and follows the boy, proud of the research he's done.
The wind bites hard as they step outside, a surprise to them both.
Fai's coat whips around the boy and he's quick to reach over, turning Syaoran to face him, pull the hood up securely over his head and fasten it up.
"Ah, thank you, Fai-san" The boy says, far too shyly for the amount of time they've known each other.
Fai smiles warmly and pats his shoulder.
"It's okay," he tells him, "let's get you home."