Work Text:
The shop was warm and cosy, filled with the promise of a thousand different worlds, just like Simon had promised her. The warm light of spring flooded through the front windows and various skylights in the old building, making it feel bright and airy despite the array of shelves that stretched out across the space. They were all enormously tall, stretching to the full height of the room, which had to be a good ten feet or so. The high ceilings worked really well with the space, and somehow it felt like a greenhouse for books. The smell of fresh paperbacks and coffee hung in the air, along with the stained wood that seemed to be in every inch of the place. Hardwood floors, comfy armchairs, the gleaming shelves with little handwritten labels down the side…
Maia loved bookshops. She’d always loved bookshops, and the promise of knowledge and worlds unexplored that lay within, the chance to escape for a while into a place where her own problems didn’t seem quite so important. But she’d never been to a bookshop like this before. Barnes and Noble felt like a sterile hospital compared to this , where the shelves seemed to glitter with colour and magic. Looking into the back corner of the room, it looked like the shelves literally were coloured, if the very obvious rainbow arrangement of the books was anything to go by.
She took a mental note to thank Simon for the recommendation later. He’d mentioned the place before, said a friend of his ran it. The only reason she hadn’t managed to come by sooner was because she’d never been able to convince herself she had the money to actually buy books, especially when she lived so close to the campus library. She needed to eat, and to pay rent, more than she needed to buy new books. Even if it killed a part of her soul to admit that.
But things were looking up for Maia. Summer was approaching, and she’d just received confirmation that she’d be doing a mythical paid internship over the summer. Life was good, and her bank balance was going to look a lot healthier in the coming months. Maia figured she deserved to treat herself, and give herself something to take her mind off of things. If it weren’t for her friends, Simon, Bat, Luke… well, she wouldn’t have many good relationships left in her life. But she did have them. And they meant the world to her.
Wandering among the shelves for a while, Maia took pleasure in just checking out the different sorts of books they had on offer. Some of the signs she’d expect to see were there. She’d found the Crime department easy enough, right beside Horror. Then, maybe a little ironically, Self-Help wasn’t too far away, along with the Education section, which seemed to hold an assortment of study guides along with some other selections for school kids.
But the further Maia delved into the store, the more she found the little quirks. There was a boxed in section mid way along one of the walls which had an old wooden sign hanging above it which read Historical. But within that, the edges of the shelves had tiny painted signs which seemed to grow more and more specific, from ‘Ancient Egypt’ to ‘Old Posh England’ and ‘Not Another Tudor Book’. It got worse when she made it into fantasy - Vampire fiction had its own collection of shelves, with a sliding scale along the bottom running from ‘Sparkly’ to ‘Less Sparkly but Still Sexy’ to ‘Actually Really Wants Your Blood, All Of It’.
By the time Maia remembered she’d gone into the shop with an actual purpose, she was standing in the Mythology section, taking in the various array of books that existed around Greek Myth, which absolutely wasn’t what she’d gone in for. Turning on the spot, she looked around, trying to work out where the object of her desires might be hiding. Heading back to Crime, she found the Heist section easy enough, but little sign of what she wanted. She had another go on the other side of the shop, and whilst the section of texts on Magical Matters was large, expansive, and seemingly all on the top shelf, she didn’t see what she was looking for up there.
This shop might be a dream, but she was beginning to wonder if it was designed in such a way that she was supposed to spend the next three hours of her life there. Whilst the comfy chairs did look appealing, she had a lab report to write that evening, and she definitely wouldn’t be able to write it curled up in a chair reading about the mating rituals of dragons.
Walking back out to the middle of the shop, Maia looked around a little uselessly, trying to pinpoint a direction to go in that might reveal what she sought. And just as she was trying to decide in maybe heading for the birds would fit with the humour of this place, the voice of an angel came from behind her.
“Can I help you?”
The woman had dark black hair which had been tied up into a bun, and the biggest, most soulful eyes Maia had ever seen. The red tank she wore showed off her shoulders, as well as the cute bra she’d chosen for the day, and those skinny jeans didn’t leave Maia much to wonder about, other than the fact she was fairly sure girls being that pretty just wasn’t fair. Her arms were full of a stack of books, and from the keys at her hip, Maia had to guess she worked in the shop, although she wasn’t wearing a name badge so it wasn’t exactly easy to tell.
Maia wanted to know her name more than anything. Not that it mattered. Pretty girls in bookshops didn’t work in bookshops so that their useless gay customers could flirt with them, or fantasise about them, or do… whatever it was Maia was trying to do. Even she didn’t really know.
“I… yeah. I’m looking for a book but I can’t seem to find it,” Maia offered, feeling particularly useless. Her brain begged her to say something fun or clever but all she could think about was how cute the shop worker looked when she smiled Maia’s way.
“Sure! Which book is it, I can check the system to see if we have it,” she offered, putting the books down on the cash desk and walking towards a sturdy looking laptop that was sitting behind the counter.
“Six of Crows,” Maia started. “It’s by…”
“Leigh Bardugo,” the shop worker finished, turning away from the laptop in an instant. Maia hadn’t even seen her type anything in. “I know it. It’s this way,” she offered, before guiding Maia to the back corner of the shop, the one she’d thought looked like a rainbow. There were no labels on the shelves, and Maia hadn’t been able to work out a rhyme or reason to the section, so she’d mostly left it alone. The woman stepped sideways, before crouching down towards the ground, looking at the section of black bindings at the bottom of the collection. Maia did her best not to stare before the woman straightened up, holding out the book for her. There it was. Six of Crows.
Fancy that.
“What is this section?” Maia asked, looking upwards, unable to really work it out. The woman smiled at her and stood back.
“Ah, we didn’t label it because we thought the rainbow was a label by itself. This is the part of the store we use for books we consider to be inclusive, whether it’s by having really strong LGBT+ characters, or non stereotypical representations of minorities in general. It’s only for the good ones though,” she explained easily. Maia’s eyes widened a little, skimming the shelves with a lot more interest than she’d had before. A haven of books with real, good representation? A store that actually singled them out and didn’t make her spend hours on the internet trying to decipher where the good books with diverse casts were?
She could see why Simon loved it so much for these shelves alone.
“So… do you read all of these?” Maia asked. How else were they supposed to know what was good and what wasn’t? The girl smiled, shaking her head a little.
“No, but we have trusted sources on what’s good and bad. We never even ordered in Call Me By Your Name,” she explained, and Maia resisted a smile. Simon had gone on a half hour rant about that movie. No wonder he loved this shop. Maybe the advice had come from him for that one. “We read everything on our recommendation board though,” the girl continued, gesturing towards the desk. There was a big chalkboard there, along with ‘Ask us about these for liberal enthusiasm’ at the top. There were a few books Maia recognised, and some she didn’t. And there, at the bottom, was Leigh Bardugo. Six of Crows & Crooked Kingdom.
“So… you like Six of Crows then,” Maia stated, feeling like an idiot. Of course she did, or it wouldn’t be on the board. Or maybe it was someone else’s recommendation. She didn’t know how many staff there were. Simon’s friend was a guy - Alec - so maybe he’d had a hand in some of those books instead of the gorgeous thing before her. The woman beamed.
“It’s fantastic. You’re going to love it,” she offered, and Maia chuckled.
“I know. I already read it,” Maia explained, quickly clearing the confusion on the girl’s face. “I borrowed it from the library last month. I wanted my own copy though.”
“So who’s your favorite character?” The girl asked, leaning up against the rainbow shelf. Maia smiled, looking down at the paperback in her hands.
“Inej,” she answered without hesitation. “She’s… she went through so much and it just made her stronger. But she didn’t lose herself, or how she felt. She still has a heart. It’s…” Maia tailed off. What was it, other than a message of hope for herself? Her parents hadn’t been the best parents in the world, and her last boyfriend had been so good that Maia had decided she was into women instead. She hadn’t had the easiest of times, and to see characters who’d suffered but retained their soul, their ability to connect to other people… It made her think maybe she hadn’t ruined her whole life. Not yet anyway.
The shop girl smiled, nodding. “I’m more of a Nina fan myself. Plus she’s bisexual so that’s a major plus.”
“What?” Maia said after a moment, blinking as she focused back on the Nina girl. Maybe she could call her Nina for now, since Maia still didn’t know her name. It didn’t suit her, somehow. She didn’t look like much of a Nina.
“Oh - have you not read Crooked Kingdom?”
“No,” Maia explained briefly. “The library never stocked it.”
The shop girl looked horrified. Her eyes widened, and she immediately knelt back down, pulling a pristine copy of Crooked Kingdom from the shelf, and placing it on top of Six of Crows, which was still held loosely in Maia’s hands. “Here. You have to take it too. I insist.” Maia hesitated for a moment. Whilst she’d come in for a book, she’d come in for one book. And she’d been so good about her budgeting… “It’s even better than the first.”
Maia blinked for a moment, her brain freezing as her eyes shifted between the cover and the girl before her.
“How is that even possible?”
“Take it and you’ll find out,” she said, and then she winked. She honest to god, winked at Maia. Maia swore she could feel her heart stutter in her chest. Was she flirting, or just being nice? Girls were so pretty and sweet and gorgeous but damn if it didn’t make it hard to work out if they wanted to date you or not.
Although Maia was probably getting ahead of herself. She was just buying some books. Maybe this girl wasn’t even interested in other women. Although she hadn’t raised Nina’s sexuality… and the shop did have a rainbow shelf. But maybe that was for Alec. Simon had met him at an LGBT group at the college, so it would make sense…
“Okay,” Maia said after a long moment, enjoying the feel of the books in her hands. The shop girl beamed like the sun had just lit up the sky, and pushed away from the shelf. “Great, let me just ring it through for you then.”
She headed towards the desk and made quick work of putting the two books through the register, pulling out a paper bag for them to go in. The side was covered in a pretty runic design, and then the name of the store in cursive. ‘Lightwood Books’. It was poetic, really. She could see why the space deserved the name Lightwood.
When Izzy read out the amount she had to pay, Maia frowned, reaching for her purse. She was sure books were more expensive than that. Two books should definitely be more expensive than that. Part of her just wanted to let it slide, but the woman had been so nice… she didn’t want to cheat independent bookshops out of their profits. “Isn’t that a little low?”
“Oh, there’s a special discount on today,” the girl explained. “You get a half off if you take my number and promise to give me live updates when you read those books.”
Maia couldn’t help but laugh a little, smiling. “You do this for all your customers?” Maia couldn’t help but ask, looking down at the counter, watching as she fished out a flyer for the store and scrawled along the blank space at the bottom. She finished with a flourish, before holding the precious piece of paper out for Maia to take.
“Just the cute ones,” she said warmly, and Maia could tell she meant it. “I’m Isabelle, by the way. But my friends call my Izzy.”
“Maia,” she offered after a moment, taking the paper and gently folding it into her pocket. Her hand stayed gripped around it, as if it was the most precious thing in the world. “And I will definitely take you up on that offer.”
“Perfect!” Izzy chirped, taking the bills from Maia and passing her back her change. “And, maybe if you’re free, we could discuss things over drinks?”
“Like… a book club?” Maia asked hesitantly, not wanting to jump ahead of herself. She might be straight. All the cute ones were, right?
“Hm… like a special kind of book club. One that happens on… maybe a date?”
Maia beamed, and she swore her heart might burst with joy. Maybe not all the cute girls were straight, then. “I’d like that.”
“Then I look forward to hearing from you soon, Maia,” Izzy offered, and Maia nodded, taking the bag from the counter. As she walked out of the store, she couldn’t help but feel like she’d found a little piece of heaven in a world that was mediocre at best.
And her name was Isabelle.