Chapter 21 | PoV: Sanya
They held the hug for some unknown length of time. A group of students walked out from the gardens and stopped and gawked at Sanya and Mai, wordless, before hurrying around the pair and down the tunnel.
That was . . . kind of awkward. Mai giggled lightly . . . too cute . . .
They had to break up from the cuddle at some point. Mai and Sanya stepped back from each other. Sanya never wanted to leave . . . Mai's hair smelled like soap . . . Sanya wanted to lift up Mai's hair and take a bite—um, what? Perish the thought.
“Which first?” Mai asked, grinning like a madwoman.
Sanya pointed to the library.
“Okay!”
Mai skipped over to the library’s tunnel. Sanya followed behind, needing a little burst of jogging to keep up with Mai.
The llumifruits thinned until the tunnel became too dim. The hallway opened up into the library.
Mai stopped first to look forward in awe. Sanya caught up with Mai, stopping next to her. Mai’s right hand snakes towards Sanya’s left before catching it like prey.
Rows of bookshelves shot up into the air, tall enough to need a moveable ladder to reach the top books. While the middle of the library was open air, a second floor wrapped around the cavern like a balcony. It too, had towering bookshelves.
The cavern itself was four or so stories high, definitely helping to show how deep underground they had all gone.
Books dominated the shelves, many dusty and decaying, but others in better condition. Pristine, not dusty—whatever.
The lack of llumifruits created a cozy and intimate setting. A few groups of students wandered about the aisles, as well as people in pairs or alone.
The very center of the library had a few round tables encircled by chairs. Cubbies off to the sides of the room had more snug reading and studying spots as well.
“Wow,” was all Mai could say.
It was more than what Sanya could speak, at least.
Mai once again pulled Sanya forward, navigating the aisles and reading all sorts of titles. They seemed to be vaguely grouped by study or topic. They passed math (blegh), philosophy (also blegh) . . . and so on.
Mai stopped in one of the aisles, displaying various works of fiction. “We should find the romance—you know, the gay kind!”
Sanya blushed.
Mai scanned the titles, probably looking for anything vaguely romantic. “We should ask a librarian. If someone's maintaining the books, then they're probably around here somewhere . . .”
Mai tapped her chin with one finger, squinting up at higher titles. She took multiple steps, continuing to consume the books.
“Yes?” A voice asked from behind. “May I help you?”
Mai and Sanya spun around.
A woman in pristine dark robes stood, a stack of books in her hand. The first thing Sanya noticed beyond that was the maybe-librarian’s lack of glasses. Her brown eyes promised intelligence, and a dozen braids fell from her head, most behind her back. Bangs kept her hair out of her face.
“Are you the librarian?” Mai asked, excited.
“Yes?”
“Um,” Mai said. “I didn't actually expect you to—um. Now that you're here, I don't know if I should—”
The librarian chuckled. “There's no need. I'll grab a ladder.” She pointed to a spot above them and winked at Mai. “They're up there.”
“Wait!” Mai cried. “You're telling me a bunch of religious monks kept lesbian romance novels!?”
Mai was, um, really loud. Her voice rang out across the library. Sanya heard hushed snickering from around the library.
The librarian shushed her.
Mai blushed in embarrassment after realizing what she had done.
The librarian disappeared behind a shelf, then came back rolling a step-ladder on wheels. “No, silly. We got donated a lot of books, especially from orphanages. That's probably where these came from. I don't know about them being so high up, it seems almost gatekeeping. I might move them further down somewhere in the future.”
“Thank you!” Mai said, giving a little bow with her head.
“Just enjoy!” The librarian said, disappearing into the depths of the library once more.
Mai climbed the ladder and began picking out titles. “Ooh, ‘The Saint of a Hundred Words’ . . . ‘The Healer and Her Puppet Knight.’”
Mai took her time to read the titles, then flip through the first few pages, before deciding what to keep and what to put back.
“I'll be Sanya's Puppet Knight,” Mai muttered.
Sanya blushed.
Mai continued to pick out more books and added them to a small stack on the ladder. She paused at one in particular.
“‘The Heiress Believes Violence is Occasionally the Answer?’ That's lesbian romance?” Mai shrugged, adding it to her stack after a concerningly negligible amount of deliberation.
Mai picked up her stack of books, nodding in satisfaction. She hopped down the ladder with the books in her hands.
No room to hold Sanya's hand . . . Um. What?
“Let's go and read!” She got down the entire aisle when she stopped and turned around. “Unless you wanna check out the gardens now?”
“We can read for some time. We have all day,” Sanya said.
“Let's find a comfy spot!”
The two of them walked around the outer rim of the first floor. They found an empty nook in the wall. A table sat between two chairs, both with plush cushions on their seat and back. The ceiling was just tall enough for them to stand up in, and the wall extended back enough only for the chairs and table. A pathetic string of llumifruits gave meager light to the cubby. Barely enough for reading, it appeared. Maybe it was enough.
Mai dropped into one and sighed in content. She dropped her pile of books onto the table with a thump.
Sanya slid into the opposite chair.
Mai blinked and stared at her.
“W-what?” Sanya asked.
“This won't do!”
Mai stood, navigated around the table, and sat down on the same chair as Sanya. Sanya nearly jumped from her seat in surprise.
“Hey! What are you doing?” Sanya cried, glancing at Mai.
“Getting cozy,” Mai said, shrugging, with a mischievous smile plastered on her face. “Can I not?”
Noooo . . . Not that expression. “Hmph, it's fine. Just get off my leg.”
Sanya took up too much of the chair. Mai sat on the armrest and on Sanya's leg. So, Sanya inched to the other edge of the chair, giving Mai enough room to squeeze in.
She pulled the stack of books closer to the two of them. Sanya's heartbeat fluttered all over the room.
“Look at this one!” Mai pulled out the bottom book, showing off the title to Sanya. “Isn't she pretty? Look! A demon!”
“Sure, as long as I'm prettier,” Sanya muttered.
Mai cast a side look at Sanya. “Are you jealous of this random girl on the cover?”
“N-no!” Sanya crossed her arms.
Mai opened the book and began to read. Sanya's eyes lazily read along with Mai. Sanya finished the pages before Mai could, leaving time before she could flip to a new page.
The story was about some girl who transferred worlds and weirdly ended up on this demon lady's flying ship. Sanya couldn't even imagine sailing ships, so ones that flew? Wow . . .
“Can I see your hand?” Mai suddenly asked.
“Why?”
“Because.”
Mai did not make any sense sometimes. Sanya had thought Mai was predictable back in the caravan. She was surely mistaken. She never knew what Mai was going to do from one moment to the next, even less what kind of thoughts ran around in there.
Whatever, Sanya might as well watch wherever this went.
Sanya held out her left hand for Mai. “Hand.”
Mai set the book down and held onto Sanya's hand. H-hey! Sanya was reading that!
“What are you—?”
Mai brought Sanya's hand near to her mouth and bit down on one of Sanya's fingernails.
Sanya's eyes went wide. “Hey! What are you? . . . Why are you? . . .” Words.
“Mmm.” Mai put her free pointer finger to her lips, gesturing a shush noise, because Sanya shouted out in a library.
Sanya rolled her eyes.
She tried to wriggle free, only making Mai put more effort into her struggle. The end of Sanya's fingernail broke off. A strand of saliva connected Mai's mouth to Sanya's finger before she pulled enough away for it to break off. Gross! And kind of cute? At this point, I'd think that about anything Mai did . . . I'm hopeless.
“Nail clippers,” Mai said simply. Sanya was right-handed though, this was the completely wrong hand—
“I'm starting to rethink this girlfriends thing,” Sanya said, but not seriously.
Mai snuggled into the chair even more with Sanya. Sanya patted her head, and soon, Mai started making noises of contentment. If anything, Sanya was Mai's Puppet Knight, and Mai, her Healer.
. . . Or the demon dragging her to Hell, the way Mai was corrupting her thoughts.
“Thinking about marriage already?” Mai mumbled.