[pfsb] silence in the library

[stilljustandrew]

Andrew doesn't check out the Milliways library that often, but there are a few books that a patron left downstairs, and he's volunteered to return them.

The library door's pretty thick; it's designed to be. For better soundproofing.

There's no reason he should hear anything happening inside before he opens the door.

Comments

[semicharmed]

"Oh," he says, and taps the page in front of him. "About this?"

[stilljustandrew]

The tips of his ears go a little red. "Yeah. Sorry. I, I didn't really see anything."

A hasty swallow of milkshake seems like it might help the encroaching embarrassment.

[semicharmed]

"Oh," Matt says again, and shakes his head, "no, no, you can totally look at it-- it's sort of related to what I was talking about to you before, the self-powering spells, only I have no idea why I thought Sumerian religious poetry was germane. I'm trying to remember."

He slides the notebook Andrew's way: The open page does, in fact, feature a few lines of poetry (with translation, which reveals it to be about the goddess Inanna).

[stilljustandrew]

" -- Sumerian religious poetry?" His gaze brightens and sharpens both at once, as he leans to look at the page. "Oh, cool -- and it's Inanna, she's got that whole descent-to-underworld-and-rising-again story, that's some powerful symbology there --"

[semicharmed]

"I love it," Matt admits, sipping at his milkshake. His smile's a little broader now, a little charmed; it is very, very cool that Andrew already knows about Inanna.

"Which ... may be the only actual reason I wrote it down, come to think of it."

[stilljustandrew]

He grins at that. "Totally a legit reason."

[semicharmed]

"You can flip around if you want, too," Matt adds, full-fledged grinning back for a moment.

"I don't think my diary's in there."

[stilljustandrew]

... and it takes Andrew another moment to look away from that full-fledged grin and back to the notebook, still grinning himself.

The sketched schematic for a power-generating spell on a public playground makes him give a low whistle. "Oh, nice."

[semicharmed]

"Hmm?" Matt peers, noting that he's nearing the bottom quarter of his milkshake and feeling awesome about it. His head doesn't even hurt anymore.

[stilljustandrew]

"The playground one --" He turns the notebook to show him. "Kinetic energy from the slide, and the circle under the merry-go-round where the turning will power it? I love it."

[semicharmed]

He smiles again.

"That one should actually be one of the simpler ones to implement, I just ... want to be sure I'm as prepped as I can be before I work on something that'll involve kids."

[stilljustandrew]

"Probably the best bet, yeah," he says with a slight wince. "Like, in case anything goes wrong."

[semicharmed]

Matt nods seriously.

"The way my defensive spells typically work, the worst thing that happens is they just fail? But still, yeah."

He's starting to feel a very strong connection to kids who get into trouble that's bigger than they are.

[stilljustandrew]

"So I still stand by my earlier statement," he says, "that this whole spellwork-via-urban-planning is a seriously cool idea."

[semicharmed]

"Thanks," Matt says, and oh we're back to smiling now. "I think-- I mean, it'd obviously be more impressive if you could see it, although I guess you did see one defensive spell of mine in action."

[stilljustandrew]

"Which," he says, raising his half-empty milkshake glass and tipping it in Matt's direction, "was pretty impressive. And effective. Thankfully."

A beat.

"I think maybe we skipped the part where I actually thanked you for saving our lives, though."

[semicharmed]

"Oh!" Matt says. "No, no, it was understood. Thanks for the granola bar; I think it was pretty indispensable."

[stilljustandrew]

"Yeah?" He brightens a little further. "Good thing I had it on me, then. Good job, Past Me."

[semicharmed]

Matt slurps up some more of his milkshake. At this point, he does nnnnot have too much left.

"Yeah! Past You is great at planning under pressure, and intuitively grasping futuristic tech, and proper nutrition."

[stilljustandrew]

He laughs.

... it's actually more of a giggle, almost. (There's not much of his milkshake left either.)

[semicharmed]

Matt grins.

"Hey," he says.

"So--"

The beat is a bit more syrupy than it'd be without magical adventures and an alcoholic milkshake's worth of booze, but the upside is Matt doesn't notice.

"Would you wanna do this again sometime? Only, like, I can take or leave the part where we get chased by magical creatures. In fact, we could skip the creatures entirely. Focus more on the drinking aspect. Again."

[stilljustandrew]

"I like leaving out the magical creatures part," he says. "At least the chased-by part. You know. Magical creatures that aren't trying to kill us, no objections."

Beat.

"... and yeah." Smiling suddenly. "Yeah, let's."

[semicharmed]

Now the grinning is closer to a beam.

"Okay ... aces."

But it's still slightly puzzled.

"And for the record it'd be a date?"

[stilljustandrew]

"...A date?"

Andrew blinks, with the startled look of somebody attempting a major shift in assumptions mid-step.

"Really? I mean --"



His smile is small and uncertain, with disbelief shading to hope.

"Really?"

[semicharmed]

"Yyyyes," Matt replies, still smiling and still confused! Did he say the wrong thing? Did he mess up the ask-out?

"Unless of course that doesn't sound good to you, in which case, totally cool, not a problem."