Title: Overnight Surprise
Ship: Kinshiro x Atsushi
Chapters: 1-1||Words: 2,630
Genre: Romance||Rated: G
Prompt: librarian/avid reader AU, for SilvorMoon
Notes: This is an AU where the whole aliens and monsters thing never happened. They're in their early twenties.
Summary: It started off as a normal evening at the library. Until the lights went out and they were trapped together. A little unusual – and a little surprising.

The lights went out. Atsushi jerked up from where he'd been re-shelving some of the returns, his heart skipping a beat. The weather had been very clear that night, so it couldn't be a storm. He made his way to one of the windows looking outside and peered into the darkness.

Just on the edge of what he could see, he spied the tiniest bit of sparking. Had there been an accident down there? That seemed most likely, which would end up being extremely annoying if it wasn't taken care of soon.

"What's going on?" The voice came from behind him, and he tried not to jump again. He settled himself down before he turned back and offered his best professional smile. He tried his best to look and sound professional when he answered.

"I think there was an accident down the street. It knocked the power out." He gestured out the window and Kutatsu Kinshiro moved forward to take a look for himself.

Atsushi tried very hard not to blush with how close Kinshiro was to him. It had been a long time since they were that close to one another, and he could not escape the faint whiff of expensive cologne. He doubted Kinshiro even remembered that they'd known one another as children. They'd grown up in separate directions – not that there'd ever been a chance that would be different.

Kinshiro belonged to the Kutatsu family; he'd been destined from birth to be rich, powerful, and have everything he'd ever wanted or thought about wanting delivered to him on a silver platter. Atsushi's family wasn't poor by any means, but Kinshiro's family's wealth made them look like they pinched every coin until it screamed.

He'd grown up extremely attractive as well, with silver bright hair and sharp green eyes that Atsushi daydreamed about far more than he wanted to admit to anyone. Atsushi had long since made up his mind that one day he would see a notice online about Kinshiro being engaged to the daughter of some equally ridiculously wealthy family and he would have to resign himself to being happy on Kinshiro's behalf.

For now, however, Kinshiro turned those brilliant green eyes back on him, a hint of a frown on his slender lips.

"Other than the power, how does that affect what's going on here?" His eyes flicked to the door. Atsushi had barely noticed they were in the same room until now. Kinshiro could be so quiet once he got himself deep into a book, and Atsushi had been occupied putting back books himself.

Now he focused his thoughts on what was going on here. "I think we might be in a bit of trouble," he said at last, considering. "All the doors here are automatic – they're not going to work without power."

"That seems a little poorly thought out," Kinshiro pointed out. "There's no other way out?"

Atsushi thought it over a little more, going over the orientation he'd had months earlier when he'd started working here. Everyone more senior than him had insisted on how up to date and modern this library was, with several computers and the fastest internet connection in the city, as well as all the physical books that one could ever want. The doors were all electronic and the most up to date cards were needed to get into some of the rooms.

Which included the room the librarians kept their personal items in when they were on the clock. Which also included his cell phone. He wouldn't be calling out for help.

"I think," he said at last, "that there might be a way out that doesn't need power. But there's a problem with that."

Kinshiro's only answer was the slight tilt of an eyebrow. Atsushi couldn't see it very well, since the only light in the room came from outside, and it was already past sunset. Closing time was less than an hour away regardless. Atsushi suspected he'd be late getting home.

Atsushi gestured to the firmly closed door. "We can't get out of here to get there."

Kinshiro strolled over to the door and tugged on it. It had closed so smoothly that Atsushi almost thought it would open now. The way that Kinshiro approached certainly gave the impression he thought it would as well. But it remained closed, regardless of how Kinshiro glowered at it.

"Do you have a phone?" Atsushi asked, running his fingers through his hair and trying to think of anything else they could do. It wasn't as if they were in danger of dying here. They could probably survive.

"Yes." Kinshiro held it up; it was, of course, one of the most modern types that could probably last for days without needing to be recharged. "However, my parents are out of the country for another week or two. My friends are – busy elsewhere." His lips quirked. "Though if I could contact Arima, I don't doubt we'd be out of here within the next ten minutes."

Everything Atsushi had ever heard about Arima Ibushi told him that was true. But if he wasn't available, then there wasn't much even he could do.

He thought as hard as he could. This was Saturday night. He was the only librarian scheduled to be there this late; the others were probably relaxing at home or at the bars or wherever they wanted to go after this, and all of their numbers were – in his cell phone. Where he could find them. If he had his cell phone.

I don't think the emergency rules for this situation were thought out very well, he decided. As long as there was power everything was fine. Without that – well, it wasn't. At least not until this situation got fixed.

He bit back a long sigh and carefully felt his way to the nearest seat. At least these were luxurious and could be slept on if necessary. "I think we're going to be stuck here until the power's back on."

Kinshiro made his way to a nearby seat. "Doesn't this place have a back up power supply? At least something that could let us get out of here."

Atsushi drummed his fingers briefly on the arm of the seat. "There should have been but it's been taken down to be replaced, then the new one was delayed for two weeks, and they didn't get around to putting the old one back in use." For all the money that supported the library, it was as subject to snafus as anywhere else.

The noise Kinshiro made lead Atsushi to believe that he thought much the same. He fought off the tiny smile that wanted to touch on his lips and instead stared up at the darkened ceiling.

"You're right; it wasn't very well thought out. I think some money exchanged hands somewhere along the line." He'd heard rumors about that from some of the more senior librarians. He'd mostly dismissed said rumors; while he wasn't so innocent to believe that bribery and corruption didn't exist, he also hadn't thought that anyone would be that short-sighted.

"I might have to check into that. I think my family has a divison that can improve on this," Kinshiro mused, leaning back in his chair. Atsushi found himself warming at the words.

"I'd offer you some tea if we could get to the staff room," he said after several long, quiet minutes. "We have several varieties. I've been trying to keep a good stock since I started working here."

He could feel Kinshiro's gaze on him and mentally shivered. "You like tea?" Kinshiro said after a few moments. Atsushi nodded.

"There's not much better after work than sitting at home with a good hot cup," he declared. He really wished he had one now. That would have made this a much more enjoyable situation.

Kinshiro said nothing for several minutes. Atsushi started to wonder if he'd fallen asleep, and glanced towards him to see Kinshiro staring down at his phone before he turned it off and slipped it into his pocket. Presumably seeing Atsushi watching, he said, "My battery's getting low. I – forgot to charge it."

Atsushi blinked at that. "Isn't that one of those phones that can go for days without being plugged in?"

"Yes." Kinshiro fastened his attention firmly on anything that wasn't Atsushi. "But it's been almost a week since I charged it. I've been – occupied."

Under most circumstances, Atsushi probably wouldn't have noticed anything unusual at all. But he was already looking as much at Kinshiro as he could, and Kinshiro's coloring was so pale already that when he flushed a deep red, Atsushi couldn't help but notice it. He wasn't sure what Kinshiro was blushing about, but there it was all the same.

"We should be all right," he said at last. "I saw a few lights in that direction so they're probably going to be working on it soon, if they're not already. So we could be out of here by closing time on matter what."

What he said next popped out of his mouth without any recourse to his brain at all. If he'd taken the time to think about it, he might not have said it at all. But it came out regardless.

"Would you like me to treat you to a cup of tea at this place I know? It's very good. You might not have been there, though." He wasn't sure about every facet of Kinshiro's life, but the tea house he thought about wasn't one of the more expensive ones, and Kinshiro surely only patronized the very best.

Kinshiro tilted his head and made no response at first. By now it was too dark to see much more than the outline of his face. Then, a quick flash of teeth as he smiled. "I think I would like that." He hesitated, a flicker of worry that even Atsushi could see despite the darkness. "Would you – allow me to call you Atsushi again? I know it's been a while."

Atsushi jerked, not having expected that. "You – you remember me?" Now he'd never been so glad that there wasn't any light right now. He would have found a way to bury his head in the nearest pillows to avoid his own bright blush.

"It took me a little while, but, yes," Kinshiro shifted around. He laughed briefly but it sounded more self-deprecating than anything else. "We used to be so close and I really should have recognized you right away when I first saw you here. But -"

Atsushi couldn't stop his own laugh at that. "You were too busy looking for Tried For Error. And then reading it when I found it for you."

He'd never mentioned to anyone that Kinshiro enjoyed reading American crime novels translated into Japanese. Or, to be fair, he enjoyed reading crime novels in any language whatsoever. More than once he'd read the book in every language that he knew how to read, and Atsushi had heard him talking to his friends about the differences between the versions. More than once he'd taken extra time re-shelving books or doing some cleaning just to listen to Kinshiro talking about it and enjoying the sound of him being so excited and fascinated about what he'd been reading.

Kinshiro ducked his head down. "I guess I was. But I remember you. And I would love to have a cup of tea with you." He stared at his hands for several minutes before speaking again. "You've gotten me a lot of the books I wanted. I wasn't even sure if some of them could be found here. The Couple In The Grave is such a rare book here and you managed to get me a copy."

"I just knew who to ask," Atsushi demurred. He'd not thought he'd have a conversation like this, or a conversation at all with Kinshiro, that he wasn't sure of what to talk about. Being locked in a room in the library with next to no connection to the outside world except for what they could see from the window, and having no idea of when they'd get out of there, didn't offer a lot of conversational topics. He wasn't sure what to ask about what Kinshiro's life had been like, and his had been so bland and quiet that he didn't feel it was worth talking about.

The silence between them didn't feel forced or empty, though. It felt very full of potential, of waiting for the moment to be right. Exactly what it was right for, Atsushi couldn't say. It didn't change when he got up and went back to the window, trying to figure out if any real progress down there had been made.

"There are trucks down there," he reported back. "At least one of them is a power truck." He was fairly sure on that. The lights from the trucks and the distance made it hard to be sure beyond that point, however.

"Let's hope they don't take too long," Kinshiro hoped. Atsushi nodded; from what he could see, there had been some form of accident down there. Exactly what he had no idea of. That was one thing he wanted to look up once they were out of there and could find a place to charge their phones. For now it only mattered because that would give some idea of how long this might take. He'd heard of accidents that could take far, far longer than an hour or two to get cleaned up and repairs made.

Atsushi came back over to the seats and hesitated, not sure of where it would be proper to sit now. He could tell Kinshiro moved to look at him, then a gentle hand came out of the darkness to land on his own.

"There's room enough for both of us," Kinshiro said. "There's no need to be halfway across the room." His voice quavered a little, as if scared of his own boldness, and Atsushi couldn't find it in himself to argue. He didn't sit exactly next to Kinshiro but close enough that neither of them had to reach very far to touch one another. Kinshiro's hand rested on the back of his own, and Atsushi's heart beat a little faster at the feel of it there.

"Would you like to go stargazing this weekend? If we can?" Kinshiro asked after several long minutes of enjoyable silence and company. "There's a park not far from home we could go."

Atsushi thought he remembered having gone stargazing with Kinshiro when they were still children. The thought of doing it all over again caused a warm glow to spark in his heart. "That sounds wonderful. Should we make it a picnic?"

Kinshiro's nod was all but invisible but Atsushi definitely caught the whisper of agreement. He leaned back on the soft back of the couch and tried his best to relax. He would still have to finish cleaning up the library once the power came back on, but he'd had a good start on that regardless. It would go quicker knowing he had plans afterwards, plans that weren't just going home to make a solitary cup of tea and seeing if En could be stirred enough for an after work chat to help him wind down.

No matter how long it took for this situation to resolve, at least it had led to a proper reuniting with Kinshiro, one that he'd not thought would happen before. Perhaps it could even lead to something more in the future.

For now, his future – their future – extended only to waiting for the power to come back, and the feel of Kinshiro's hand on his, and that was more than good enough.

The End

Notes: Don't worry; they weren't trapped in there all night. Though that would be an entirely different story if they were, and would probably involve lawsuits on Kinshiro's end afterwards.