[Jaykobell]

The library was her favorite place in the whole city. The quiet environment filled with books that ranged from the most ridiculous stories to the most enriching of knowledge; it was her element. No harsh sounds to frighten her, no hooligans catcalling her — nothing. Just a quiet place, full of calm people who came here to enjoy this environment just as much as she did.

She was checking out one of the smaller bookshelves — specifically, she was looking over the one that housed a good number of horror and suspense books. The genres ranged from fantasy stories to realistic ones, and her eyes scanned the many shelves patiently. Her book club had opted for this genre this week. Horror really wasn't her style, but it was good to branch out, she thought. She was a petite little girl, looking much younger than her actual age. Even her appearance made it clear this wasn't the kind of book she would normally read.

It was fine, though. In this soothing silence, she had all the time in the world to make a good, calculated decision on which book seemed the most interesting.

[MythicDusk]

She was here for. Some reason. She couldn't really remember anymore. Places she had to stay quiet always intimidated her a little. The silence felt oppressive after a while It crept up her spine and ran its slick fingers over her shoulders. That may be why she could hear her heartbeat so loudly.

She carefully ran her fingers over the spines of the books, inspecting them silently. She felt too tall for this place. Felt like she was dressed and looked too outlandish for this place. Ears full of piercings, spiked leather jacket, undercut, torn up jeans. For all intents and purposes, she looked like the biggest rebel going.

Too bad she was just a boisterous sweetheart, as her friends often said. Maybe that was why she had decided to try reading. Give herself something else to focus on besides material for next week's improv.

She took a step back, craning her head back to look higher on the shelf before she jumped forward, feeling the bookshelf behind her meet her back. A small, sout thing with horror and suspense novels.

She couldn't help her cry out as she scrambled to grab it to stop it from tipping, wincing as books began to spill from it anyway.

[Jaykobell]

The whole world seemed to stop, when she was looking at a nice selection of books. The other people around her were mostly nothing more than set pieces in the world. If they didn't bother her, she didn't bother them.

As she was looking at the books, though, all of a sudden — her world came crashing down. Quite literally. Before she knew it, something, or someone, had knocked into the shelf, and the books started to tumble down. Started to tumble down on her.

She let out a scream from getting hit on the head, on the shoulders — everywhere. Instinctively, she fell to the ground, using her arms to cover herself from the onslaught of books. Meanwhile, a few people nearby who had heard the scream and the noise, had rushed on over to help the other girl straighten the shelf back up.

Eventually, the avalanche of books stopped. The silence was replaced by the deafening pulse of her heartbeat in her ears.

[MythicDusk]

Buck felt her heart in her throat at the scream. She dragged the shelf back into an upright position, nearly toppling it over the other way in her haste to get it back on its feet. She then rushed around to the other side, fearing what she would see.

There was no blood. That was good. No awkward limbs. Even better. Okay, okay. She'd just given someone a fright. She let herself release a breath she didn't realise she had been holding. After that, she carefully knelt down, trying to keep her voice low as to not disturb people any more than she already had.

"Ah-, hey, you okay? I mean you're obviously not okay and I'm so sorry for nudging the shelf. I shoulda been paying more attention. Is anything broken though?" She carefully began pushing the books off the other person, placing them in careful piles.

[Jaykobell]

She didn't dare to move for a moment. At the very least, not until someone spoke to her. Compared to this girl who was rocking a punk style, she looked like a small, helpless little girl in her long skirt and her pastel-colored t-shirt.

She had been holding her breath too, needless to say. It took her a moment to register everything the other girl was saying, and at first, all she could do was stare, and watch as the other started to pile up the books neatly. "Oh," she breathed quietly. "It's... it's all right," she assured the other one. Well, of course, she would rather this doesn't happen ever again, but she sounded genuinely sorry. Accidents happened.

"I'm... I'm okay," she added, and her hand went behind her head, and through her hair, nervously. She wasn't good at speaking to strangers, and even less dealing with something like this. "I... I was just startled."

[MythicDusk]

Buck let out a heavy sigh and let herself grin. "Good! I'm glad. I'm sorry I startled you though. You need any help getting up?" Her voice was probably a few decibels too loud, probably gowing too loud by the second. She couldn't bring herself to care.

She girl under the books was cute.

Slowly, she stood again. Six foot of lankyness standing over the other woman. Carefully, she bent over, holding out her hand to the woman, offering to help her up. "I'm Rebecca. Everyone just calls me Buck though. I'm really sorry about this. Anything I can do to make it up?"

She wrestled with her self preservation instinct and her impulse control. Neither came out on top.

"Like take you out for a coffee?"

She felt alarms go off in her head at her own words. She readied her soul for the refusal, already finding herself wishing to descend into the earth even as she smiled down at the other woman.

[Jaykobell]

As an adult, the help to get up wasn't really needed. But it was a nice gesture, and when Buck offered it, it would be rude to refuse it. Some would argue Buck ought to help her, considering it was Buck's fault the shelf had nearly crushed her to death. And, well, when you put it that way...

It was a lot of information for her to take in, though. A lot, and with it came a whole lot of noise as well. It was making her a little nervous. Buck was nice, she was just... much more extroverted than she could ever dream to be.

"Oh, um, don't... don't worry," she said quietly, her voice inaudible when compared to Buck's. "I'm... Zoey," she introduced herself, her shy demeanor showing a whole lot more now that she was talking about herself. Even if it was something as basic as her name.

"You don't..." she started to say, and she awkwardly stopped to gather her thoughts. "You don't have to do that," she said, in reference to the coffee. "A-accidents happen," she assured Buck with a large, sheepish smile.

"Unless... Unless you really want to..." she breathed, unsure if it would be rude to refuse. Or rude to accept? She wasn't good with strangers. She wasn't good at socializing. "I-I don't want to be rude."

[MythicDusk]

Buck felt something in her soul take wing. Well, it wasn't a refusal, per se.

"Its nice to meet you, Zoey. And you don't have to come with if you don't want. I wouldn't want to force ya into anything." She grinned wide, helping to pull Zoey up until she was on her feet. "I would just feel bad if I left you with nothing after knocking a shelf over on you."

She found, for a second, she didn't want to let go of Zoey's hand. But that was creepy and desperate. She should stop doing that. Along with grinning like an absolute fool.

She couldn't stop her blush as she took her hand back, laughing nervously. "L-like I said, up to you. It'll be on me, of course."

[Jaykobell]

With her petite size, Zoey felt like Buck was going to throw her up towards the sky. Being helped up just wasn't something she was used to, either. That was probably it.

Once she had found solid ground beneath her feet, though, it made her feel better. Talking while she was still on the floor made for some awkward conversation, for sure.

She looked away when Buck spoke again. Well, her friends did say she really ought to take more risks, or at least, try to be more forward. "I mean," she said hesitantly, but with a soft, friendly voice, "i-it would be nice, for sure," she admitted. Apart from meeting her friends at the library occasionally, and seeing them during their weekly book club meeting, she didn't really socialize much.

She had paused for what was arguably a long and awkward moment. "I-I wouldn't mind going for coffee," she said finally. Just saying "yes" felt so direct.

[MythicDusk]

She couldn't help her grin. A bright, wide thing that lit up her face. She found herself bouncing on her feet like an excited child. "Great!"

She winced when she was hushed, laughing nervously before looking back to Zoey, tucking her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket. "Great, cool, nice. So, do you want me to wait for you and walk with you to a place or meet you there?"

Then Buck internally kicked herself. "I! I mean if you want to go today, of course! We can go any other day, even if you're just agreeing to get me out of your hair thats fine, I really don't mind, you gave me a big ol' boos in self-esteem and, well, that's the best gift you can get from a stranger, right?" She began laughing, but slammed her mouth shut with another hush and a withering glare from the librarian.

Oh, right, this was a library and she was meant to be quiet.

She mouthed a 'Sorry' to the old woman, who simply pursed her lips in displeasure.

[Jaykobell]

It was a bit of a relief to have Buck do the talking for the both of them. Zoey already spoke so softly, and when she did speak, her responses were of few words. Really, having Buck do all the talking kind of made Zoey smile sheepishly, looking away timidly as she twirled her hair with a finger.

"I-it's not just to get you out of my hair," she assured Buck with a shake of her head. "You sound very nice." And hanging out with nice folks was always something she enjoyed; even if she had the hardest time finding folks in general.

"W-we can go now," she said after Buck had been shushed by the librarian. It didn't embarrass her, though; it just made her smile grow a little bit more. It was rare to see somebody so rambunctious in the library. It made for a bit of a change of pace, really.

"Oh," she said after a short pause. "I just..." She trailed off as she bent down and delicately picked up a random book from the shelf that had been tipped over. "I just need to check this book out first," she said, and she felt bad. That wasn't, "we can go now"; it was, "we can go in a minute".

"I-if you don't mind," she said. "I-I need it for my book club," she explained, and she hoped she hadn't ruined it already.

[MythicDusk]

Buck couldn't help but grin at Zoey's acceptance, at her words. Maybe this was gonna turn out alright. Buck still couldn't believe the fact that she had enough gall to ask out a girl after pushing a damn bookshelf on her.

Even she had to admit, it was a fuckin' ballsy move.

"Oh! No, of course I don't mind! I originally came here to look for some books, but I'm not that much of a reader, y'know? Very visual person. 'swhy I do better with movies and the like. All the big booms keeps me interested." She mimed firing a pistol made from her own fingers, making the soft 'pew, pew' noises with her mouth, too.

Until she was hushed again.

She felt herself burn with a blush, scratching at the back of her neck with a shy chuckle.

"I'll ah-, I'll go wait outside. Don't wanna get you in trouble."

[Jaykobell]

Zoey had mustered the bravery to look back towards Buck, and just in time to see and hear the fake finger pistol. And she couldn't help herself: she giggled, and pretty audibly, too.

But the two were interrupted by the upset librarian. Zoey put a hand to her mouth, feeling like she had contributed to the noise as well.

"Oh, w-well..." she mumbled timidly, and she held her breath. Come on. Her friends had told her this before. And Buck seemed like a good, nice person. Come on.

"Wait! Do... d-do you want..." she started to say quietly, and then she swallowed. "D-do you need help?" she finally said, formulating a full sentence. "P-picking out a book, I mean," she clarified. "I... I come here a lot. I-I could help you find a book."

Oh God. Her heart was pounding out of her chest. She could feel her body shaking from the pounding. Was she starting to sweat? Oh, no.

[MythicDusk]

Buck felt her ears burn at the question. She couldn't help but bite her bottom lip. An old bad habit. It was one of anxiety, one of nervousnes, one of wonderment, too. She felt her lips slip from between her teeth as she grinned.

"Y-yeah! I would love that. I mean, I would really like that. I uh-"

She paused for a moment, her hands moving uselessly. Touching herr hair, the back of her neck, before falling to twine her fingers together in front of her as she focused her eyes on them.

"I'm uh, like I said, I'm not much of a reader. I don't even know where to start."

She felt her cheeks start to burn with a blush. Fuck why did she think she had even the slightest chance with someone who obviously loved books when she read a book, like, maybe once in a year.

God she felt like an idiot.

[Jaykobell]

Had Buck noticed any of this? Because Zoey was growing very self-conscious over her anxious wreck of a display, and she could only image that Buck thought Zoey was weird and completely useless.

But no, it turned out, much to her surprise, that none of that had mattered to Buck. Instead, they were both exchanging insanely nervous ticks between each other.

"O-oh, well, I-I can help with that," Zoey said after Buck's answer, and she felt herself holding her breath. But with books now part of the conversation, it was but the tiniest, most minuscule sliver of passion and confidence that shone in her eyes.

"You... you said you like pictures more?" she asked. "They have a lot of comics here... L-like those foreign ones you read in reverse," she pointed out. "I-I heard they can have great stories!" She certainly didn't want Buck to think that Zoey thought Buck was an idiot. ... She was losing herself in her own train of thought, now.

"O-or maybe action books?" she suggested. "Th-there's really a book for everybody," she assured Buck. And if Zoey could help her find such a book, it would be a good deed! And those were always nice.