Chapter Text
Work is slow today, and Doug is grateful for it. He didn’t sleep well last night, missed his alarm and turned up late to several people impatiently tapping their feet outside on the sidewalk, waiting to return their weekend readings before they leave for work or just hoping to escape the heavy winds that are sweeping through the streets this late october. After he had let them into the old building, through the baroque door arches that are slowly but surely losing their paint jobs and into the tight labyrinth of bookshelves and DVD racks and newspaper bundles, things died down quickly.
He’s alone today. The little library is somewhat out of the way of the busy streets, considered a hidden gem by fans of the architecture but not many others, so a huge staff is out of the question for the place. Susie was supposed to be there, too, but she fell ill with an acute case of the cold, weirdly enough just the morning after her big house warming party that he wasn’t invited to.
Whatever. At least there’s no one to witness him being late.
By early afternoon he finished sorting the returned media into their respective shelves and sits down to go through the stack of mail waiting at the front desk, stamping away at little notices and scribbling down notes for the cork board they’ve put up in the break room.
RETURN SCI MAGS TO UNI LIB BY NOV 15TH OR ELSE, he writes and doodles a little stick figure wearing an academic cap with a menacing grin full of sharp teeth next to it when a shadow appears over the front desk.
He quickly shoves the notes to the side and looks up as the patron slides a book over to him. “Hey there, you found everything you-” He stocks.
Daniel stands before him, hair all over the place and hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jeans. His eyes flicker through the room, conveniently missing Doug’s gaze everytime. If Doug didn’t know any better, he’d say that the man is blushing, which would be weird enough even without the fact that he’s here. At the library. Where Doug works.
Anyways, he thinks. He takes the book and slides it through the scanner.
“You found everything you wanted?” he asks again and can’t help but notice with some embarrassment how easily his service voice slips away.
“I- Yeah, I did,” Daniel says above him.
The computer beeps and Doug looks up at him. “I need your library card.”
Daniel is blushing. Doug is absolutely sure now, because his face is absolutely, indisputably getting redder. He’s just about to make a comment about it when Daniel says, “I don’t, uh. I don’t have one.”
Doug raises his eyebrows and cannot help but smile a little bit. “Well, okay. I’ll order one for you then, if you-”
But to his surprise, the man shakes his head. “No, no, that’s not- that’s not necessary, no,” he says. “I don’t really want to, uh, get this.”
Doug looks down at the book. A Paula Hawkins novel, one from their New Arrivals shelf. Now that it’s pointed out, this really doesn’t seem like the kind of books Daniel would read, if any at all. He looks back up. “So…?”, he says, hoping that the questioning tone would convince him to explain.
Daniel crosses his arms and shifts his weight from one foot to another. “So… uh.”
Doug nods in understanding. “Ah, yeah, no. I get it.”
A smile tugs at Daniel’s mouth. It seems to unravel something in him, because at once he leans forward and says, “Go out with me.”
Doug leans back in his chair. “Go out with you?”
“Yes.”
Doug can’t help but laugh. That seems to deflate Daniel a little bit. He opens his mouth, probably to backtrack, but before he can take it back Doug quickly says, “Yeah, I’ll go out with you.” Watching that grin break out on Daniel’s face feels almost comical, but Doug can’t help but adore it somehow. Still he adds, “Even though you’re really weird for coming all the way out here, to my job, to ask me that.” He raises his eyebrows. “You could have easily just called me.”
Daniel shrugs. “I didn’t think you’d answer. Tonight, then? I’ll pick you up. When are you done here?”
“Around half past six.” Doug leans forward again, intrigued. “Where are you going to take me?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. I’ve got just the thing for you,” Daniel grins.
Doug smiles and shakes his head. “You know, you’ve got a weird way of saying ‘sorry I bailed on you and then didn’t respond to anything you’ve texted me for three weeks before just sending you a picture of a dog i saw, hope all is good between us.’”
Daniel laughs at that, and there’s something in his voice when he smiles and says, “well, good thing you seem to understand it anyways.”