it’s been a long time since acsel has found himself WORRIED. sara’s bright smile does a lot to calm the frantic beating of the heart at his side, but he can’t help but still feel a bit nauseous. he isn’t sure about the flowers, but he read somewhere that they were appropriate to give to someone who you cared for… and the woman selling them had reinforced the idea. clueless, but hoping to put a smile on sara’s face, he’d purchased them. and the moment she lit up he was glad he had.
he could see why she didn’t like hospitals. it was all very sterile and bland and felt very much like a place too used to dealing with sickness and death. she had spent most of her life in them, and after having seen what earth could offer he understood how such a place paled in comparison. part of it reminded himself of home, however. and again he found himself almost dwelling on unwanted memories.
for someone so LIMITED, sara had so much life about her. it was something he had grown to admire. she pushed herself farther than should have been possible and she didn’t let the opinions of others get in her way. as worried as it made him at times, it also made him PROUD.— and it also made him want to be better. next time he’d catch her.—if she fell again, he’d catch her. he wasn’t entirely sure what this… feeling was, but he knew he wanted to be there for her. he couldn’t stop her recklessness and ( within reason ) he didn’t necessarily want to. if she wanted to jump, he wanted to be her safety net. he wasn’t sure what that meant, but that’s what he felt.
her soft lips touch his cheek and he smiles, unsure but encouraged that the gesture is a good thing by her words. it tingles there, turning his cheeks a slight pink that he cannot see. it’s not that he doesn’t know what a kiss is, he just isn’t sure how much weight earthlings hold behind the gesture. it seemed to have different meanings. ❝ i do not think it is possible to be too… sweet to you, but i am glad, ❞ he tells her and means it. he isn’t sure there is any other way that sara could possibly be treated. ❝ i like it when you smile. ❞
brows creasing ever so slightly at her cough, he takes her offered hand without hesitation into both of his own. it was cold, but comforting, and he enjoyed the feeling. her request threw him momentarily, but he supposed he should have seen it coming. she talked about her past and problems often, but he only vaguely mentioned his. the reasons were obvious, of course. he couldn’t be fully honest… no matter how much he wanted to be. ❝ alright… ❞ he nodded, the small hesitation in the action was evident, but he pushed through it. if only to make sara more comfortable, he could reveal a bit more about himself.
❝ the library is… well, bigger.— much, much, bigger. the section on space alone is three stories tall. ❞ and that wasn’t even including space travel. years and years worth of accounts and personal journals of explorers than he knew she’d love to read if she was able. ❝ i could spend forever there… and most days i did… ❞ he zoned out as he recounted it, reimagining every volume, every shelf. ❝ it held a wealth of knowledge, centuries old. ❞ books and scrolls from all over the galaxy right at his finger tips.
❝ my… father wanted me to focus on politics and strategy, but my heart was mostly set on exploration. I read everything I could on the subject. ❞
▌█ ∵ 🏥 ∵ █ As much as she loved her friends, her party, they often under estimated her or over worried about her. She hated being limited, the fact unlike most people she really only did have option A and option B. She couldn’t chose her own paths in most cases which is why when she knew she could she took those opportunities. As much as she pushed the idea, the seeming fact she was going to be the first official police officer in space, which seemed like such a childish idea for someone of her age she wanted it to be true. She so desperately wanted the fact of her going to space being true, that she could even go there to be. But it wouldn’t and never would be. The closest she would get would be sending the rockets there herself which was what she was reaching for.
Maybe that was all she would need. But knowing herself, knowing her parents she knew it would never be enough. She had to go to space or not do anything with it at all. For now she supposed she could live in the ideas she could be a space cop but eventually, when she was done living in the rebellious streak she was she would let reality settle in. For now, today, tonight, however long her friend was staying she would keep that up. Talk about books, see what ones he had read on space given he had said exploration. While she wanted to travel the world discover what she could, she wanted to explore the vast curiosities space had to offer the most.
A slight smile as he took her hand before nodding her head softly at his words. The library he spoke of sounded like one of dreams. She wished some day to have her own library and have collections of books with that much knowledge. She wished she knew she would live long enough to see that day but, every morning was a gift and was held with the strict pinching of herself to make sure she was in fact still actually alive. Only pausing a moment to address former words on her smiling. This causing another one before shaking her head and speaking joking words. ❝I like smiling when you’re around, it reminds me I can still smile. Half the time my smile with the Party is just a pity smile.❞
Bright eyes closed imagining the library and books he spoke of. Rendering up endless possibilities and shelves that never seemed to end before she opened them again. Brows raising at what he said his father had told him to read. She knew the importance of those things but life was about so much more than just that. ❝Sounds like you’re dad only thinks being a political leader or president is important rather than living life to it’s fullest.❞ She was always grateful for her father, but in this moment even more so. While over protective and overbearing some times which she understood because often she would end up in situations like this, him forcing her to not be who she was or do things she didn’t want to would make her upset. Angry even. ❝Well, just know when we’re at the library together you can read all the books about exploration you want and if anyone says anything I will yell at them.❞
And after words of being harsh past her lips expression turned to the one of wonder once again. Thinking of spending days like that. A better library than, as much as she hated to call it this, the piece of trash one Hawkins had. Somewhere she would never run out of new things to read. Two months of being bed ridden and she had gone through the whole library here. Maybe, one day wherever this library he talked about was from he would take her and they could get lost in it together. ❝It sounds like you have ripped this library from my dreams and made it real. If I even had something to read from when Galileo was around I think I would be content for years.❞ A soft hum at the thought before squeezing his hand and flashing a bright smile.
An idea, probably a bad one but given the fact she lived for living in the moment she didn’t mind. Besides it had already been thought of the second he began to describe the library, now it was just taking a better form than a thought. Excitement registered on her face, followed be another series of coughs before shaking her head. For a moment her free hand rose and rested on the center of her chest taking a deep breath before focusing again on him ❝Maybe one day when I am better and you can go back to wherever the Library is you can take me with you. We could just, stay there all day and sleep there in the night between the section about space and the section about exploring everything.❞
FIRST FIVE IN MY INBOX GETS A RANDOM ACT OF AFFECTION FROM MY MUSE! || 1/5 STILL ACCEPTING @cxtratcrrcstriial
▌█ ∵ 🏥 ∵ █ Bright smile at act of kindness, flowers were not needed but given anyways. She never much minded them before, they had gotten old especially because of how long she had been in the hospital previously and people constantly sent them out of guilt. But this, this was different somehow. she wasn’t sure how or why but it was different she could feel it.
Admittedly, he had tried to warn her about how she would get sick. But, of course, being herself she didn’t listen. Part of being a Hopper meant being stubborn as hell and doing whatever you wanted even if it was a garbage idea that would end up getting you hurt. To be fair, the rain was what got her put her, and the falling but mostly the rain. Frankly, if it was any of the other boys they would probably be telling her they told her so. But, thankfully it wasn’t.
After their first meeting, she seemed to somehow open up to him faster than normal. Maybe it was because he was the first person she met that actually seemed to care about how she felt on space. Or the fact he put up with her nonsense ramblings about wanting to be the first space cop. Maybe because he listened to her get upset about the fact she knew that could never happen, that because of her lungs, her health she would never be able to go into space. Whatever it was, whatever made him so special she felt it even in the simple notion of bringing her flowers. This caused the smile on her lips only to blossom into a larger one.
Sitting up in hospital bed bright smile as she moved closer to him. Arm holding an Iv while another seemed to have random things stuck to them monitoring things, a cord even going over her shoulder. But none of that could stop her, she was determined to get her next action. Leaning over pushing back her own hair before scooting the slightest bit closer. and suddenly lips were pressed against his cheek. ❝You are too sweet to me. Thank you for the flowers. I thought I would hate them by now but, I guess you got it right.❞
Leaning back a small cough hand covering lips before ‘clean’ one was held out for him to take. If anything, at least touching someone would be nice, everyone around here treated her like some sort of plague. It probably didn’t help she made all the cancer jokes she did but it was how she was dealing with the fact she could die any day. Other than her father, who admittedly could be overbearing he was the only person who treated her like she was normal. Like reading a million different books on stars and black holes was something every kid did or knowing how to spell large words with pointless meanings was normal. She could at the very least treasure that and be selfish for once in her life, and if holding hands and kissing his cheek made her that way then she didn’t mind. ❝Tell me more about that library, and those books you said you read. Anything, everything, this whole hospital thing, being sick and stuck here it kills me.❞
with a small shake of his head, he gestured toward the bookcase. ❝ no really, i insist. ❞ if she wanted to better herself by reading it, who was he to stop her? he didn’t mind finding something else. all of earth’s books tended to be outdated by taranean standards, so he’d never quite find what he was used to reading. ❝ three times? ❞ he asked, his tone slightly surprised. hawkins was a small town, so the selection of books wasn’t massive, but it was large enough for that to still be impressive. ❝ i see… ❞ his expression softened a bit, the corner of his lip curving just so. ❝ considering i haven’t been here very long, i can’t say i’ve reached quite that level… ❞ he admitted, eyes roaming the shelves. in the short time he’d visited the library, he had gone over about eighty-five percent. ❝ —but where i’m from i’ve read our extensive library on the subject hundreds of times. ❞ he missed the grand library dearly. it had been one of his few ways to escape from his responsibilities…
❝ oh? ❞ he asked, intrigued. ❝ i wasn’t aware there was one… ❞ he rarely talked to the librarian, so he hadn’t been informed.
▌█ ∵ 🏥 ∵ █ A nod of her head as a bashful smile slid onto her features. Three times, it would be more if she hadn’t been sick for three months but, she wins some and she loses some. It was nice to be able to even get up and walk around so if she had to take three months of not reading to be able to be alive she would. A soft laugh at his words on the fact he hadn’t gotten around to reading as much as she had. ❝I’m surprised someone even wants to try and read this much. Usually the other kids just come in here for a school assignment or something.❞ Face lighting up as he spoke of another library. She had one like that when she lived in the city but because of how far it was she could never go. Aside from that her friends weren’t really interested in taking her and her mother freaked out when she even went to school. ❝I used to live in the city but this was the first real library I have really been too. My mom used to over react whenever I left the house. But that sounds like the kind of place I want to be in. I wish I had the time to do that.❞
A nod of her head at the statement before once again features lit up. ❝Oh yeah, it’s actually a few different books.❞ A pause before pulling book they had both reached for. Starting to walk towards back corner table motioning for him to follow her ❝I’m most excited about the one on black holes though, there is one other space book coming in. I just don’t remember what it is about.❞
as ascel reached for the book he’d been looking for, his fingers brushed against someone else’s doing the same. ❝ —oh. ❞ startled, he pulled back, eyes falling on a blonde earth girl slightly shorter than himself. he wasn’t sure how he hadn’t seen her at first. ❝ apologizes… you can have it. ❞ he could always find something else to pass the time. he was sure he already knew most of what was in the book, anyway. ❝ …i assume you’re interested in the multiverse theory? ❞ considering that was what the text was about, he felt it was safe to assume the sort. he didn’t see many of the earthlings around his age in this section of the library. the books tended to be above their reading level.
▌█ ∵ 🏥 ∵ █ ▌Rather then jumping from being startled on her end a simple pull away of her hand. A soft shake of her head stepping away from bookshelf before offering smallest smile as she looked at him. ❝It’s fine, you can. I have another on my list anyways.❞ She could always come and get it once he was done. This section was practically untouched by anyone else, especially not kids their ages anyways. A slight nod as a bright smile fell onto features at his question. ❝Absolutely, but my real passion is with space. I have read every book about it at least three times over.❞ Rare moment in feeling she could gush about how much she liked space and reading about it. Often times most ignored or told her it was boring but given they were in the advanced section of the library and had gone for the same book she figured she could be selfish for a moment at least. ❝This was just going to be something to hold me over until the new book came in.❞
