Work Text:
Jason was at the library, trying to find something new to read. There were only so many times you could read the classics in a row. His Jane Austen books were falling apart at this point, he had read them so much. He had decided to branch out a bit to period dramas, mysteries, and romances that were set generally in the same time period. Not much of a reach, but at least it would be something new.
He moved from his typical area in the classical literature section, and went to the romance section, trying to find a period romance. He began to search the titles, looking for one he had seen good reviews for online, when he realised that they weren’t in alphabetical order by author or title.
He glanced as the call numbers. They weren’t in order either. He glanced quickly up at the section. Had it been organized by some sub-category?
No.
They were all done by colour.
Some monster had come and rearranged the books by the colour on their spines.
He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. It would take him forever to find the book now.
Grumbling to himself, he took out his phone again and looked up the cover for the book. It had a green spine. That really didn’t help. There was a whole row of green. Sighing, he tilted his head to the side, reading the names one by one until he found what he was looking for.
In a bad mood, he used the self-checkout, and left a complaint in the comment box by the door.
He was back the next day.
The book had been awful. The sheer unoriginality of it was about as underwhelming as the multiple references to heaving bosoms that littered every few pages. He was going to try to find a drama today. Less focus on romance aspects or women with breathing issues – at least he hoped.
He arrived at the section, to see that the books were arranged in an arch, with the tallest books in the center, and splaying outwards to the smallest books.
In frustration, he started pulling out all the books from the shelf he was looking on and piling them on the floor. He had no idea what size the book was, and it came in multiple formats so he had no way of knowing which one the library had because for some godforsaken reason the library website didn’t deem that important information, and he was damned if he would be trying to find it by searching every single call number or title when they weren’t in order.
He had to go through three rows before he finally found the book. He slammed the book on the counter to check it out, along with his library card, never looking up.
“Good book!” the librarian said in a sweet voice. He wasn’t in the mood, so he grunted his agreement.
“Did you find everything you were looking for?” she asked.
“Yeah. Damn pain too. Books were out of order,” he grumbled.
“Hmm… that’s too bad! We are always here to assist you if you need help next time.”
“Thanks,” he responded dismissively. He left with his book. He knew he had been rude, but didn’t really care at the moment.
~~~~
The library had been trying to get more young populations interested in going to the library. They’d posted ads, hosted events and book readings. Nothing had really taken. The library was just too ‘boring’ to keep the kid’s attention.
Marinette had just finished her Master’s degree in library information sciences. She spent most of her day repairing old texts and rare manuscripts, but when the library wanted to reach out to a younger demographic, Marinette had jumped on the chance.
Make the library more fun. It didn’t sound too hard, but it pulled at Marinette’s creativity more than her cover for hunting down old miraculous grimoires.
Most kids these days didn’t even know how to use the classification systems the library ran on. They went by cover images and book names to determine if it looked like a good book to read. So she suggested that they try out something more visual in a few sections, just to see if it upped reader interest.
She started simple. Arranging books into rainbows and designs, making waves on the bookshelves. It looked pretty. It grabbed the patron’s attention. It was annoying as hell for them to find a book for someone when there was the rare time someone wanted help, but it seemed to be working.
At least, until someone had completely destroyed her hard work in the drama section.
Seemed not everyone was pleased by it. She would guess the extremely cute man with the angry scowl that came by earlier in the day and had checked out something from that section. She had seen him in there before, but he usually just read classic romances by the look of his checkout history. (She didn’t purposely look it up – it popped up on his history when he checked things out. She had stopped those stalker tendencies years ago, thank you very much. She had learned her lesson with Kagami.)
Maybe next time he came in she could give him a recommendation. Strike up a conversation. Maybe work up the courage to ask him out for coffee.
She pushed up her glasses that had fallen down her nose a bit and sighed.
A guy like him would never notice her.
~~~~
Marinette was leading a school class through the basics of how the library call system worked when the guy walked in again. This time he headed to the mystery section. If he really was the one that had dismantled her section a few days before, he was surely going to be pissed this time.
Marinette had turned all of the books on their sides. None of the spines were showing at all. They were all facing down, so you couldn’t even see them if you looked from the top. She had added a sign, ‘Choose a book, if you dare.’
She watched as he got to the section and took it in. A look of pure disbelief and irritation crossed his face. Then he saw the sign, touching it with a hand and lifting it up a bit to read it properly.
She was sure he was going to rip it off and destroy the whole thing… when he began to laugh. A deep, hearty laugh that made her stomach twist in knots. She would have gone over and helped, but one of the kids dragged her attention away to help them instead.
She did notice that he eventually just picked a book at random. He looked at the cover and grinned. He must have liked it or the idea of it enough, because he went over and checked it out with Amy.
~~~~
Jason returned the mystery book – ironically one based on the Bats and conspiracy theories around them. One that Bernard had checked out frequently by the look of the library card inside it. Tim got a kick out of knowing his boyfriend had read the book so often.
He grabbed another book at random from the mystery section. This time it was a standard murder mystery. He figured it wouldn’t take him long, so he thought he would get a second book for the weekend. He decided to try his hand at the romance section again today.
A woman was rearranging the books into the shape of a heart, with pink and red books forming the heart and little paper hearts stuck to the book ends keeping everything upright. He was going to complain about the rearranging of the books. Enough was enough.
She was wearing a pencil skirt that accentuated her ass and her amazing legs. Granted, that was all he could presently see of her, as she was bent over, rearranging the next line of books. He watched as she hung up a sign saying, ‘Find your new love in the library.’
Well, he may not love the way she was rearranging the books, but he certainly did love the view.
He cleared his throat, causing her to jump and turn around.
Suddenly he found that he really had no complaints about the displays after all. The rest of her was just as amazing, if not more so than the previous view.
He had never had a thing for the whole ‘sexy librarian’ thing before, finding it too cliché for his taste, but when it was an actual sexy librarian… all bets were off. Her glasses framed her face perfectly. The red frames were perfect for her blue eyes and dark hair with blue highlights and brought his attention to her face.
She dropped the stack of books that she had in her hands. He bent over to help her pick them up.
“Hello again,” she said quietly. Her glasses had fallen down her nose and she was looking over them at him.
“Again?”
“I checked you out the other day.”
“Oh you did huh?” He teased. “Well you can check me out whenever you want, sweetheart.”
She bit her lip as her eyes involuntarily roamed over his chest and arms. Then she turned bright red, the blush making her face even more captivating.
He wanted to bite that lip instead of her.
“I-I didn’t mean- Oh gosh. I meant I helped you check your book out!”
“You can do both.”
He reached forward, almost crossing way too many boundaries to take her lip out from between her teeth again, and instead grabbed the pen that she had dropped.
“Oh, uhm, did you need help with anything? Are you looking for something in particular?”
“Well, I’m looking for romance. Love. Maybe something sexy. I heard I can find that in the library.”
“You- you did?”
“Yeah,” he smirked as he touched the sign behind her, leaning way too far into her personal space to grasp the corner. “Got any recommendations?”
“M-Me?”
“I think that’s a great idea.” His smirk turned more mischievous.
“I-I-I meant…. What? Uhm, ah, I meant a recommendation from me?”
“Either works for me.”
Boy did she fluster easy. It was adorable. Obviously smart. Creative. Gorgeous.
“I-I’d- I mean-”
“No pressure. I didn’t even ask if you were taken,” he tried to calm her, realising that he never even asked her name or if she was seeing someone. He glanced up at her nametag as he continued, “Marinette.”
“I’m not!” she replied quickly. “Let me just… Oh where is that pen…”
She took off her glasses and tucked them into the top of her button up shirt, straining the top button. God, this woman was going to kill him, and he hadn’t even introduced himself yet.
With a flourish, he took the pen he had grabbed for her earlier and tucked it under her chin, lifting her head up to look at him. Just as beautiful without the glasses too.
She stared at him, seemingly lost in thought for a while. A few moments later, she seemed to snap out of it and grabbed the pen from him, stammering a ‘thanks’ as their hands connected.
“Jason.”
“Thanks, Jason.” She smiled at him sweetly, with just a hint of something mischievous. “Hmm… Paper…” She started to look for a spare piece, tapping her lips with the pen. His eyes snapped to watch the pen. Her half-hearted search didn’t come up with any paper. “Mind if I…”
He nodded his assent. Her hand reached to take his hand in hers, turning it over. Her fingers danced up his wrist, pushing up his sleeve to his elbow. The light touches left a tingly feeling down his arm. She leaned into him to get the right angle to write down the ten digits in what was apparently a sparkly pink glitter pen. His chest pounded as she pressed her back into him just a bit and he tried to resist the urge to touch her and wrap the other arm around her.
She went to move away, but he took her hand and kissed the back of it. She flushed again. “Want me to check you out now?”
“Any time, lovely.”
Jason decided that she could mess up the books any time. He would just have to ask for 'help' finding them more often.
~~~~
Jason was running late for his date with Marinette. Very late. He was supposed to pick her up from work since she had worked the night shift… but it had ended over an hour ago.
The doors were already locked, but she let him in when he knocked.
He looked her over. She was wearing the same outfit from when they met over a year ago. “I’ve come to check you out.”
“I think we may need to sort out your late fees first.”
“I was rather late, wasn’t I?" he groaned and placed a hand on her hip, pulling her in for a kiss that ended up trailing down her neck as she gripped his arms for support.
“Mhmm. Come to my office and we can sort it out.”
She let her hand slide down his arm to grab his hand, and led him past the romance section towards her office – the one with the sign ‘Find your new love in the library.’