The Five Times Valek KO'ed Yelena

Part 3:

Valek was organising his suite again, rearranging and moving various books to find the one he needed. It wasn't there.

"Valek," Yelena whined.

"Yes, love?" he answered, still shuffling the many books he owned.

"Bored again," she chimed.

"Again?"

"Again," she confirmed.

"Okay," he answered. "How about you help me?"

"Okay," Yelena echoed. She followed him into the library, not even caring about the daunting prospect of hunting for a single book in the enormous library. Valek admired the library – a magnificent place, really, full of knowledge and countless books.

"I need you to help me find a book," he ordered, assessing the number of shelves and books and how long it would take. After reciting the title, she drifted towards a shelf, running her dainty fingers over the spines.

Valek strode towards a shelf on his left, examining the lower shelves. The whole bookcase seemed to stretch towards the ceiling, and he could only reach so far. As Valek contemplated the situation, he noticed a very conveniently-placed ladder nearby, and dragged it over, climbing easily to the next shelf.

The world shrank to encompass books, and only books. Endless titles, covers. The thick layer of dust lying everywhere. The fain, clean smell of parchment. The textures, the colours, the fonts of all the different books amazed Valek.

"Is this it?" Yelena's voice startled Valek out of his book-hunting, and he looked down, where Yelena was waving a book around. She looked rather small, and he couldn't see anything from up there. Sighing, he eased his way down.

The book in question was small, with a deep blue cover. It was the wrong book.

"Sorry, love." Valek's voice was rather stern – having to search in the giant library was frustrating, and having someone to 'help' wasn't doing much good either. A bored Yelena required plenty of patience and attention, but Valek had none for today.

With another sigh, he ascended once again.

"How about this one?" Despite being an assassin, with particularly good eyesight and attention span, Valek couldn't see the book title from where he was. In the minute or two it had taken Yelena to find the book she was brandishing, Valek had already looked at and dismissed 3 or 4 shelves.

"I'm coming, just wait a bit, love." He climbed down faster, impatient to climb up and just find the damn book.

It was the wrong book.

"No." Valek didn't bother with the usual endearment of 'love', and he hurried back up again, not noticing Yelena's annoyed expression.

"This one?" Yelena's voice was barely audible, and he couldn't make out how far away the floor was. Was he afraid of heights? Valek didn't know – yes, he had climbed plenty of walls, but this ladder and shelf was very tall.

There was no paralysis, no increasing of heart rate, no hyperventilation, and so Valek thought it safe to assume that he was not afraid of heights. "Coming," he called loudly.

With a little puff of dust, Valek landed on the ground. He had skipped the last few rungs – it was faster to jump, though. Valek's patience had completely disappeared, but Yelena's boredom had increased to never-seen-before dimensions.

"Wrong one." His face had settled into a cold mask – Valek was too entirely focused on finding the book – that damn, pesky book! – and was in no mood to deal with Yelena's silly antics.

"Do you remember the title?" he asked sharply. She nodded, jerking her head up and down, and stomped off. Hopefully to their rooms – she wasn't helping him at all.

The world should just install ladders, just to make things easier for Valek. Ladders were so much easier to climb, and thanks to Yelena, he was practising climbing up and down quickly. Again, he scaled the ladder, ready to continue his search – but he had finished the column. He had to go back down.

Frustration and annoyance bloomed in a maddening flower, and Valek felt the overwhelming urge to yell at the King and his stupid, stupid library, to push and knock down all those books, to pull the pages out, to reduce the number of book to only two, to–

Was that the book?

He peered closer, blinked, blinked again. It was indeed the missing book, and all those feelings had completely disappeared, leaving only behind relief and elation. With some effort, he tugged it out from where it was wedged between two books. A final jerk, and Valek pulled out a thick book, causing him to wobble precariously on the ladder.

But, of course, being a master assassin, he stayed on the ladder. One of the many perks of being an assassin/ninja, he supposed.

Valek stared at the book in his hands, marvelling over the fact that he had actually found it. Overwhelming relief was all Valek could feel – after all, it had taken him so long to find the mysterious book. It had eluded him for so long, and now, here it was. In his hands.

Time to climb back down.

Valek clutched the fat book in his hand, using the other to anchor himself to the ladder. One foot lowered itself onto the next rung, and the–

"Valek?" Yelena's sweet voice startled him – hadn't she stormed off to their rooms? Apparently not. The book slipped a tiny bit out of his hand. His other hand tightened around the ladder. His other food waved around wildly in the air.

The book slipped another inch. Valek cursed and tried to regain his balance. Concentrate, concentrate…

"Valek!" Yelena's impatient voice stole Valek's concentration, and he wobbled some more, letting go of the fat, thick, ridiculously heavy book to grab onto the ladder.

The fat book fell.

Yelena stood obliviously below, calling for her heart-mate. A shout from Valek – "LOOK OUT!" – was the only word of warning received. She looked up and saw the fat book.

The fat book met Yelena's face.

Silently, she crumpled, the pesky book rebounding and landing with a loud thump onto the ground, releasing another puff of dust.

More like her forehead, Valek though nervously as he climbed down. He hurried over to Yelena, bending take her pulse. She was alive – just unconscious. Again.

Valek sighed again – he seemed to be sighing a lot these past few days. He also couldn't stop knocking Yelena out.

"Oops."

Yay! 3rd chapter! I'm sorry that I haven't' been updating. TFTVKOY isn't my top priority, but I'm attempting to finish it, and then fully focus on my other stories.

I hope you liked this one, and credit goes to my friend Infrastructure. She and another friend helped me with ideas on how to knock someone out.

Thank you for reading, and reviewing,

Smileysgoboing

And a Dearblank,pleaseblank post to be random:

Dear Windshield Wipers,

Can't touch this.

Sincerely, That Little Triangle