Chapter Text
PART I
| The Librarian |
A ghost of a smile graced her lips as she opened the doors to her sanctuary. The comfortable silence of the building and the scent of new and old books brought a sense of calm over her.
Elsa walked with purpose, the heels of her boots clicking on the carpet, towards a specific aisle. She scanned the books. Her fingertips brushed the used bindings of each one until she found the one . It was exactly where she knew it would be since the last time she’d taken it out to read.
Pulling it from the shelf, Elsa spun on her heels to approach the front desk of the library.
She was greeted by the same woman each time she took out a book. Surprisingly, the librarian seemed to be around her age; her long hair tied back in the usual braid and she wore the same beige beanie with a little reindeer patch on the front.
“Good afternoon, is this all?” she asked, her brown eyes glancing down at the book Elsa had placed on the counter and back up.
Not one for much small talk, Elsa nodded.
“Just this one,” she replied. Then, her eyes widened when she remembered to provide her library card. As she opened her bag to fish it out, the woman shook her head.
“No need! I know you’ll return it by the time you leave,” she assured her with a tiny smirk. And. . .was that a wink?
Elsa blinked, inwardly shook her head thinking she’d imagined it, and scooped the worn book back into her arms.
“Okay, thank you,” Elsa said softly. Pushing the odd encounter out of her mind, she turned away from the desk and headed toward her favorite spot: a chair by the windows.
All the while, Elsa swore she felt the heat of the woman’s eyes burning into her back.
With a soft sigh, she placed her bag down next to the chair and settled herself in. Elsa gazed down at the familiar, worn book in her hands with a fondness that she seldom expressed—save for her sister. She ran her fingers down the cover before flipping through. She’d always admired the green-edged coloring of the paperback version. And, finding herself immersed in the imagery of the words made her feel like she was home again.
“So, Elphaba and Glinda huh?”
Elsa tensed at the sudden, yet familiar voice, and fumbled with the book in her hands. After a few moments, she sighed with relief when she caught it steadily; safe again in her gentle grasp.
Elsa looked up to find the librarian standing a few feet away, gazing down at her with a small pile of books in her hands. A soft, crooked smirk was curled on her face.
Elsa cleared her throat a little, closing the book, but keeping her thumb in the place she had just started reading.
“Y-Yeah,” she stuttered, then took in a breath to gather her bearings. She straightened her back and thinned her lips, morphing her expression from surprised to stoic.
She looked back down at the green and black book in her lap. “It’s my favorite. Though, I can’t deny the. . .undertones between the two female protagonists.”
The librarian grinned at that.
“You know, I always thought his writing style was a little too pretentious for my taste, but he knows how to tell a story,” she commented, her brown eyes glancing down at the book in Elsa’s hands.
Elsa’s eyes darted up to her and back down to the book before clutching it to her chest protectively. “A little pretentious, yes. But, I do like his imagery. I like how he forces me to think. It’s not a straightforward writing style, but there’s a lot to take in. Nothing is purely ‘good’ or ‘evil’ and Elphaba is the misunderstood character just because people don’t understand her and her differences. Meanwhile Glinda is placed on a pedestal, but her personality is shallow—at least, until she befriends Elphaba,” she defended, biting her lip.
Her eyes widened in surprise at how talkative she’d become.
Over a silly book.
To someone she didn’t know the slightest thing about besides the fact that she was a librarian who worked here.
Elsa felt her cheeks heat up a little and she averted her gaze.
The woman settled down into the chair across from her, resting the pile of books on her lap with a tiny smile.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you defend your obviously favorite book—I mean. . .you checked it out ten times? But, I agree. With everything you said.” The librarian’s eyes widened. “Oh I’m sorry, I never introduced myself. I’m such an idiot,” she chuckled awkwardly before holding out a hand. “I’m Honeymaren, but everyone calls me Maren.”
Elsa’s shoulders lowered and she felt her body relax a little. Her blue eyes focused on the outstretched hand. She hesitated. Her hand twitched, but instead of shaking Maren’s hand, she tightened her hold on the book against her chest.
“I’m Elsa,” she replied.
Maren’s eyes widened and she appeared a little disappointed, before lowering her hand back down. However, the smile returned to her face not even moments later. She nodded.
“Okay, Elsa. It’s nice to meet you. Though, I feel like I’ve known you for a while considering how often you come here,” Maren laughed with a tiny grin.
Maren’s energy was contagious and Elsa felt a pull in the corners of her own lips.
“Perhaps,” she replied, her laugh light but a little forced. She then stared down at the book in her arms, still wrapped protectively against her chest. “For the record, I thought I checked this book out only five times,” Elsa added, cheeks coloring.
Maren shook her head. “Nope. The computers don’t lie. Ten times,” she confirmed with a grin. She paused, looking down at the pile of books in her hands. “May I make a recommendation? Do you like the classics?”
Elsa watched her with interest, quirking a thin brow.
“Classics? That depends. If you’re going to recommend ‘Great Expectations’ then that’s a hard no. Never again. That entire book is one large paragraph and the plot is horridly boring.”
Maren threw her head back with a laugh. Her body jolted enough that she had to scramble to catch all of the books that were beginning to fall off her lap. “O-Of course not,” she gasped, catching her breath once her laughter died down. “But, thank you for providing me some ‘book’ boundaries from the get-go!” She winked.
Elsa blinked. Now she was definitely not imagining the winks. Her brows furrowed in confusion. Didn’t this woman have a job to do? Like putting those books back on the shelves or. . .something?
Elsa’s gaze found their way back to the pile in Maren’s lap as the woman shifted through them.
“I’m not sure how you feel about romances, but you definitely seem like the type who enjoys outspoken and daring female protagonists.” Maren pulled a book out from beneath her pile, almost as though she were hiding it, and handed it over to Elsa.
Taking the book, Elsa’s eyes roved over the cover and title. Its familiarity didn’t pass over her, but she’s never given it a chance before.
“Pride & Prejudice?” she asked, her tone raising a little in question and surprise.
“Have you read it before?” Maren tilted her head, leaning toward Elsa with what seemed like an interest that Elsa couldn’t describe.
“I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never sat down to read it.” Elsa sat up straighter, placing the recommended book atop of Wicked. “But, I’ll give it a shot.”
Maren grinned and clapped her hands together.
“Great! I think you’ll definitely enjoy Elizabeth Bennet as a character!”
Elsa quirked a brow at Maren’s enthusiasm, but gave her a tiny smile with a shrug.
“We’ll see,” she replied, surprising herself that she was even entertaining this woman in the first place. Especially when she came here to just read, not interact.
After Elsa’s eyes lowered to the new book in her hands, opening to the first page, a long silence settled over the two.
She could still feel Maren’s gaze burning through her.
She bit her bottom lip, taking in a shuddering breath. She couldn’t read like this.
As if on cue, or perhaps Elsa’s body language gave enough away, Maren clumsily gathered the books in her hands and stood.
“Well, I should get back to work. These books have places to go, you know, on the shelves,” she laughed awkwardly. With one last look at Elsa, she smiled softly. “I hope you enjoy the new book.”
Before Elsa could even reply, Maren rounded the corner and disappeared behind one of the shelves.
With the first page of Pride & Prejudice between her thumb and index finger, Elsa’s lips pursed and her eyebrows pinched as she replayed the recent encounter in her head.
Just what was that all about?
After thumbing through the first couple of pages, Elsa found herself checking out Pride & Prejudice and brought it home with her later that night.
She lounged on the couch in the two bedroom apartment she shared with her sister, already halfway through the book.
At first, she rolled her eyes in the beginning; especially at Mr. Darcy’s character introduction. How pretentious and arrogant . Yet, she surprisingly found herself engulfed in this odd romance between him and Elizabeth—a character she easily found herself taking a liking to. Her sass in a world of misogyny in this setting were words to behold.
It was in a heated discussion between the two characters that Elsa huffed in surprise when a weight bounced on the couch.
“Whatcha reading?” Her sister asked.
Elsa pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. She peered at Anna from over the top of her book. She opened her mouth to respond, but her sister’s eyes already caught the title of the book and Anna gasped.
“Pride & Prejudice?! Wait, really? Elsa, you’re never one for these types of books! Oh my gosh, do I even know you anymore?!” Anna shrieked, dramatically falling back against the couch. Her arms hanging over the top edge.
Elsa rolled her eyes at the display. “It was just a recommendation Maren gave me when I was at the library today,” she replied.
Then, her eyes widened at her slip-up.
She’d mentioned the worst thing she could ever mention to her sister—an interaction with another person, in a library of all places.
She gulped when she saw Anna’s eyes widen as she rolled over onto her stomach, cradling her chin in her hands with a grin.
“Maren? You’re talking to girls in the library now?”
Elsa saved her spot in the book and let it flop against her stomach as she slammed her head against the back of the couch. She rolled her eyes up to the ceiling.
“ Anna , she’s just the librarian.”
“Oh? The librarian , huh? Is she cute?”
Elsa glared at her sister and gathered her books, already moving up from the couch and to her room.
“We are so not talking about this.”
“Oh yes we are!” Anna called, hot on Elsa’s heels. “She recommended a classical romance book to you! And you’re actually reading it! That means something, Elsa!”
Elsa held onto the threshold of her doorway with the book tucked under her arm. She glanced over her shoulder at her sister with a pensive expression.
“Anna, this means nothing. She’s a librarian, of course she’s going to recommend books to people.”
“Yeah, but has she recommended to anyone else on the same day?”
“I—“ Elsa’s mouth hung open and she shook her head. “I have no idea, how the hell would I know that? I was reading . In a library .”
“Pish pash, fine fine. . .you’re right, it’s probably nothing . Just a one-time recommendation right? That you were convinced to read in a genre that you usually don’t read? Means absolutely nothing!”
Elsa ran a hand through her loose hair and groaned at the obvious sarcasm in her sister’s tone.
“Anna—“
“Okay okay, dropping it! But. . .if it means something, I definitely told you so~!” Anna sang, sticking her tongue out at Elsa as she turned to head off.
The moment Elsa closed the door behind her, she banged her head on the wall and remained there for a few minutes, closing her eyes.
There’s no way the librarian was flirting with her. Right?
The next day when she walked into the library, the desk was empty. So, Elsa placed the book in the return bin before walking off to situate herself in her favorite spot.
She sighed contentedly with Wicked back in her hands again. The familiarity of it helped her relax.
She wasn’t alone for long though.
Maren rounded the corner of the same shelf she disappeared behind the day before with a smile. Elsa glanced up and noticed a single book tucked against her chest.
“Hey, sorry I missed you at the desk. But, I saw you returned the book. Did you really read it that fast or was it just not your cup of tea?” she teased, slowly taking the seat next to Elsa.
Elsa’s eyes circled high, but she couldn’t hide the mischievous smirk that began to curl on her features. “Oh, you know. I thought Mr. Darcy was way too arrogant and pretentious for my taste to continue reading,” she jested.
Maren’s eyes lit up and she grinned, shifting in her seat with what Elsa interpreted as excitement.
“So you did like it?”
Elsa hummed. “I did, surprisingly. You were right. Elizabeth was a protagonist I would enjoy.”
Maren laughed. “I knew it.”
They stared at each other in the silence that passed between them for a few minutes before Maren jumped in her seat.
“Oh! Right, I have another recommendation for you. . .if you’re open to it. It’s another romance novel,” she said, fidgeting with the book in her arms.
She went from confident to ambivalent in a split second and Elsa lifted a brow at the out-of-character display for the woman. Then again, she didn’t know her all that well, so she didn’t think much of it.
“I’m open. What’s the book?” Elsa asked, now curious.
Maren took a deep breath and handed it to her.
Their fingers brushed and Elsa tensed a little. A spark raced up her arm before she gently pulled the book from Maren’s grasp.
She looked down at the cover, eyes finding the title.
“The Ladies?” Elsa read, voice raising in question.
Maren bit her lip.
“It’s a sapphic novel about two women who run away in order to be together despite how their relationship is frowned upon by society,” she explained. She refused to look at Elsa.
Elsa’s mouth formed an ‘o’ shape as she assessed the book in her hands. This was definitely not something she’d read or even heard of before. But, she did like Maren’s last recommendation, why not give this one a try as well?
“It sounds interesting enough. I’ll try it,” Elsa replied with a nod.
Maren finally made eye contact with her, brightening up with a smile.
“O-Okay, great! Let me know what you think of it! I’ll uh. . .” The librarian licked her lips and averted her gaze again, adjusting the reindeer beanie on her head before standing. “I’ll leave you to it.”
Elsa blinked, watching her go. Her eyebrows creased as she stared in the direction Maren had left.
Finally, she looked back down at the book in her hands and sighed.
Anna was definitely not going to let her live this one down.
“A book recommendation about two lesbians?! And you’re reading it! Elsa, come on ! She’s totally into you!” Anna shrieked, her excitement palpable.
Elsa buried her face into her pillow, resisting the urge to scream. Loud. Or perhaps if she suffocated herself with it right here right now, it would be a better fate than dealing with her sister’s ridiculous assumptions.
“I mean it’s called The Ladies . She wants to run away with you like these two women in the book that she recommended to you that you willingly decided to read—“
Elsa lifted her head for a split second to reposition the pillow over her head, covering her ears to hopefully muffle out her sister’s rambling. Her reprieve was short lived when Anna yanked the pillow off her head, tossing it to the other end of the room.
Elsa glared at her sister and reached for another one. Anna threw them all off the bed before crossing her arms in triumph.
Elsa rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, refusing to look at her younger sister.
“Anna, please. . .it’s just a book,” she sighed, weary.
“Uh huh. ‘Just a book,’” Anna replied, using her fingers to punctuate the quotation marks in her tone. As if it weren’t obvious enough.
“I’m just branching out, okay? And it’s a good book so far,” she defended. Yet, she didn’t understand why her face felt hot.
Ice. An ice pack would be great to bury her face into instead this time.
“And you like it!” Anna gasped, as if she’d just made a huge discovery in a science experiment. “Do you like her?”
Elsa squinted her eyes at the ceiling. She refused to give her sister the satisfaction of making eye contact. “She’s. . .nice?”
Anna pouted. Her lips puffed like a blowfish. “Nice? That’s it ? That’s all you have to say about her?!”
Elsa closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on. Her mind was racing now, replaying how she felt when their fingers brushed as she took the book from Maren.
“Yes, that’s it,” she lied, her tone icy; it was the only way to get her sister off her back.
Anna murmured to herself—Elsa didn’t care to try to understand—but got off the bed and headed towards the door. “Fine fine, I’ll leave you to your lesbian book, then.”
When her sister shut the door, Elsa released a long sigh, billowing the short strand of hair that hung over her forehead.
What exactly did she get herself into?