Chapter Text
„He’s back!“, Nile hissed as she very unsubtly poked Joe with her elbow.
Joe looked up, finding him strolling into the library like he didn’t have a care in the world. Like he wasn’t the focus of at least half the library’s rumors. Like he wasn’t the biggest mystery this library had. (Things had been pretty slow okay, they needed to entertain themselves somehow).
Like he had done every time he had come in in the last month the mystery man walked straight up to Joe’s part of the info desk. (Joe knew his name, he signed out books after all but calling him mystery man was way more fun.)
“Good morning, Joe.”
“Morning Niccolo, what can I help you with today?”
Joe didn’t even have to paste on his customer service voice whenever he talked to Niccolo DiGenova. Helping him was a genuine pleasure – and not just because he was hot as fuck. No, he was one of the people that made this job fun.
“I’m looking for a few more books, I was hoping you could help me find them.” Niccolo said and handed Joe a piece of paper with five books written down neatly.
As always Niccolo didn’t offer any explanation as to why he wanted the books on his list, instead he just looked at Joe with that smile that made Joe weak in his knees.
“Of course,” Joe replied, without even taking a look at the piece of paper that was now firmly in his hands.
“Thank you, I’m going to use the reading room and pick the books up when I leave if that’s alright?”
Joe nodded; he would probably agree with anything that Niccolo asked of him. He just couldn’t ever tell anyone that. Nile was already mercilessly teasing him about his crush on their weird mystery man.
Speaking of the devil, as soon as Niccolo had turned around and was walking away towards the history section of the library Nile appeared again from seemingly thin air, trying to grab the list out of Joe’s hand.
“What creepy books is it this time?” she demanded to know when Joe pulled the paper out of her reach.
“Maybe they’re not that creepy today,” Joe found himself defending Niccolo – instantly regretting it when Nile’s eyes lit up.
“Ooooh was someone to busy flirting to look at the list?”
“I wasn’t flirting! I was talking to him, which is my job!”, Joe replied, instantly regretting just how defensive he sounded.
Nile used Joe’s floundering to grab the list from him, taking a few steps back so she was out of his reach. Damn she knew him too well.
“History of the Crusades. The Damascus Chronicle of ibn Qalanisi. An Arab-Syrian Gentlemen in the Period of the Crusades. History of the Expedition to Jerusalem. The Master of Game.“ Nile intoned like she was reading a eulogy and not a list of books someone had requested. “Cool so after those weird torture books from last week he is now into religious wars and hunting. I’m telling you he is in a cult.”
Joe rolled his eyes and snatched the list back from Nile. It wasn’t like it really mattered who fulfilled the order but Niccolo had given the list to him.
“He is not in a cult and the books he orders aren’t that weird,” Joe grumbled and sat down in front of the computer so he could note down where to get the books from.
“Not on their own maybe but first it was Outdoor Survival, then it was books on gutting and skinning animals, that weird week where he spent every single day going through the old ass book that literally just lists every possible sin you can confess to. Oh yeah and then there was that month where he kept asking for books from actual cult leaders followed by the month, he only read fundamentalist texts.”
Joe couldn’t really argue with Nile on that really but he still didn’t believe that Nicky was an (aspiring) cult leader. He was way too nice for that. But then most cult leaders were probably very nice and pleasant people when you first got to know them. How else would they get people to join their cult after all.
“Okay so he has a weird taste in books that doesn’t mean he’s in a cult,” Joe grumbled.
“He’s not in a cult, he definitely is the charismatic leader who gets them all to kill himself,” Nile replied with an eyeroll.
“Oh is DiGenova back?”
Joe didn’t even bother turning around before he pointed his middle finger in the vague direction of the voice. There really was no other way to greet your best friend who continuously took Nile’s side.
“Yeah,” Nile replied, trying to get the list back from Joe to show it to Booker. But Joe had worked with her long enough and managed to snatch it away just in time. “And Joe is too busy staring at his ass to realize the obvious: the man is a cult leader.”
A small tussle broke out when Nile tried to grab the list again. But Joe had kept things out of Nile’s reach long enough, he knew all the tricks. But so did Booker and he had no qualm in using Joe’s distraction to his own advantage and grabbing the coveted piece of paper.
“I keep telling you he is not charismatic enough to be a cult leader. My bet is on serial killer, probably with some cannibalism sprinkled in.”
“He is charismatic enough to be a cult leader!”
There was a second of silence when Booker and Nile just stared at Joe and he realized what he had just said with a sinking feeling of dread. He was never going to live this down. Then the two of them both burst into laughter. Joe hid his face in his hands with a groan. Today was gonna be a long day.
~*~
Joe thanked his lucky star that he was alone at the check-out desk by the time that Niccolo was leaving. Neither of his friends would have been able to keep a straight face and the teasing he had gotten all day was embarrassment enough. No need to let the poor man witness any of it.
“Successful day?” Joe asked when Niccolo had reached him.
Niccolo didn’t stay every time he checked out books but it wasn’t unusual for him to be one of the last people still in just like he was today.
“Yes, it was very enlightening,” Niccolo replied, keeping it short like usual.
In most other customers Joe would have probably found the tendency to be curt annoying or downright rude but somehow in Niccolo he found it charming. Which his friends could never know.
“Glad to hear that,” he replied as he was pulling the ordered books from the shelf behind him and putting them down on the counter with a thud. “Here are your books, hope you find them helpful with your…”
Joe trailed off, hoping Niccolo would take the bait but the other man just grabbed the pile with a mumbled thanks and a barely there smile before leaving. If Joe wasn’t so focused on the other man – and no not just on his ass Nile! – he probably would have even missed that.
Well. Mystery still intact.