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The first time Octavia saw her, it was three in the morning and she was sleeping in the very back of the library, near the janitor’s closet. She was sprawled out on a large pile of old books, head hanging at an odd angle that made Octavia wince. A physics text book was lying open on her chest and she was snoring softly, completely knocked out. She was beautiful, undeniably so, and lying like that she looked utterly at peace.
But it was three in the morning, Octavia had a class at seven, and she just wanted to go home and pass out, so the girl had to go.
She bent down beside the other woman and gave her shoulder a shake. Lightly at first, but when she didn’t stir she shook her harder. The woman jumped up, gave a little gasp and then shrieked when her forehead collided with Octavia’s.
“Ow, what the fuck.” The dark skinned woman muttered, holding her head and rolling off the books. “Ow, what the fuck!” She repeated, whimpering as she landed on her stomach on the hard floor.
Octavia sat back on her heels, holding her throbbing head, glaring at the distraught woman. “We’re closed.” She muttered, messaging her temples.
The woman turned to her, eyes wide. “Huh?” Even confused she was adorable.
“We’re closed.” The brunette repeated slowly.
The distressed woman looked around the room, saw that the large building was empty. “Oh…” Slowly she stood, grabbing her physics book and putting it in her bag that she was using as a sad pillow. Then she caught the time on her watch and jumped. “Shit! My paper is due in two hours. Shit, shit, shit!” She yelped, then flung her bag over her shoulder, which hit Octavia in the face. Again. And ran towards the exit.
“You’re welcome.” Octavia muttered, holding her now pulsing eye, smiling dreamily as she watched her run out. Even though she was in pain she couldn’t stop smiling. She hoped she’d see the woman again, even if it meant getting hit in the head every time.
The second time Octavia saw her, it was one in the morning on a Sunday and she was already exhausted. She was doing her usual rounds, eager to close up early, desperate to crawl into bed and sleep away her hangover from the previous night. She turned a corner, entering the ancient civilization section, and saw the girl from two nights ago jumping up, trying to reach a book on the very top shelf.
Octavia leaned against the shelf, crossed her arms, and watched the woman for several seconds at her failed attempts to get the book she was desperate for. It was on the fourth try that she backed up and ran towards the shelf. Octavia opened her mouth to stop her but was too slow; the woman leapt up and smacked face first into the book shelf, falling back on her knees and holding her red cheek. The brunette sighed, thankful that the large shelf was against a wall, otherwise it would have tipped over and she was not about to stay the extra four hours to set it back up.
“Need help?” She asked in amusement.
The woman stood, brushing off the back of her black leggings, and turned to Octavia with a scowl on her face. “You couldn’t have asked before I face planted into the damn shelf?”
Octavia raised her eyebrows, pointed to the left of the woman. “There is a stool right there.” She pointed out with a coy smirk.
The other woman rolled her eyes, motioned to the book shelf for Octavia to get her book, and then put her hands on her hips, tapped her foot impatiently. “Well,”
With a snicker, Octavia reached for the book she was so desperate to get and handed it to her. Their fingers brushed as the woman took it and—not to be cliché (but totally cliché)—a buzz went through her. Not in that whole soulmate way, but in the way that made Octavia want to know her better.
“Uh, thanks.” The woman mumbled, holding the book to her chest and picking her bag up, slinging it over her shoulder and not smacking Octavia in the face with it this time.
“No problem.” Octavia looked at the wall behind the brunette, careful to not meet her deep dark eyes. If she made eye contact she probably wouldn’t be able to look away and she didn’t want to seem like a creep.
The silence became awkward after a few seconds, neither of them knowing what to say. The woman coughed, then pointed towards the counter. “Ring me up?”
Octavia furrowed her brows, thinking of a million ways she could… “Oh!” She meant check the book out to her. “Yeah.” She walked past her before she could catch her blushing like an idiot. She went behind the counter and the woman handed her the book, waited patiently with her hands behind her back while Octavia rang her up. Raven Reyes popped up on the screen, along with her student ID information and a pretty picture of her. “Here you go.”
Raven gave her a brilliant smile. “Thanks.”
“Have a nice night, Raven.” Octavia called as the woman walked away, waving back to her but not turning around.
“You too, Octavia.” She called back and then walked out the door. Octavia bit her lip as she watched the woman descend the stairs outside, hoped that calling her by name wasn’t too weird. It wasn’t like she was going to stalk her like that man in You.
Then her eyes grew wide as she realized that the woman had called her by name, too, and she wondered how she knew it. She stood there idly behind the counter, pondering all the possible scenarios, then she realized she was wearing a name tag and groaned internally at her hopelessness.
The third time Octavia saw her, it was two in the morning on a Saturday night and the library was virtually empty. Save for the bangs and moans coming from the second level storage closet. Reluctantly, Octavia made her way up the stairs, annoyed that yet again someone was having sex in her library and she had to break it up. She’d lost count at the times she had to do that.
“Could you please—“ Well, fuck me.
She froze, mouth hanging open when she saw who was behind the door. It was Raven, shirt off, hair a mess, arms around a tall blonde woman, lips locked.
“Shit,” Raven muttered, pulling her shirt back over her head and face reddening. “Sorry.” Then she grabbed the sheepishly grinning pretty blonde woman and ran down the stairs, both of them giggling the whole time.
Octavia was left standing in the vacant doorway, heart stopped and body tense. Slowly she closed her mouth and felt a cold shiver go up her spine. She slammed the storage closet door shut, took deep breaths as she went back to her desk downstairs.
How was it that she could feel a little tear in her heart when she wasn’t even fucking dating the woman? Crushes were the absolute worst.
The fourth time Octavia saw her, it was one in the morning and she was fuming. She was definitely overworked that week and exhausted, so maybe that played into her attitude. Or maybe it was just solely Raven dragging her drunken friend through the double doors and leaving him in the back of the library, passed out under a table.
“What the hell are you doing?” Octavia hissed, throwing her arms in the air.
Raven put her finger to her lips and motioned for the woman to follow her away from the sleeping man so that they wouldn’t disturb him. Octavia eyed him, seriously doubted that he’d be waking up anytime soon, but followed the woman to the front of the library anyway.
“He just needs to crash here.” Raven said, shrugging like it was no big deal.
“This is the library. He can’t crash here.” Octavia could have screamed. And she would have if it’d been anyone else besides Raven. At the moment she hated her stupid crush on the woman.
Raven looked back towards her friend, bit her lip and sighed as she turned back towards the hardheaded and too cute librarian. “He can’t stay with me because I have too many roommates already and his girlfriend kicked him out for the night. He can’t sleep on the streets.”
Octavia narrowed her eyes, put her fists on her hips and studied the woman. Raven gave her a cheeky smile. Finally, she huffed a sigh, rolled her eyes, waved her hand through the air. “Yeah, fine, whatever.”
“Thank you!” Raven threw her arms around her in a quick, tight hug, and then left.
Octavia stood there for a few moments, that stupid grin climbing on her face yet again. “Yeah, you’re welcome.” She mumbled, though the woman couldn’t hear her because she was already gone.
The fifth time Octavia saw her, it was four in the morning and she was nearly dead. Earlier that day she had a three hour lecture, which she barely paid attention to, and then she went straight to work after that. She hadn’t eaten anything since early that afternoon, so she felt like her stomach was devouring itself from the inside out.
She was trekking through the aisles of the library when the sudden aroma of pizza assaulted her nostrils, causing her mouth to water and her stomach to scream. She followed the smell and it led her to the middle of the library where all the tables and chairs were located for study groups. She saw Raven sitting at the table on the far left, waving goodbye to some people as they walked away. She recognized one of the guys as the man who she let sleep in the library a few nights ago. Smack in the middle of the table was a beautiful pizza only half eaten.
“Hey, you want some?” She heard the woman call. Octavia looked from the delicious food to Raven and nodded eagerly, began maneuvering her way to the table she was set up at.
“Thanks.” She sat down beside Raven, who handed her a slice of fully loaded veggie-pineapple pizza.
“Pineapple on pizza?” Octavia questioned, taking a bite and humming with approval.
Raven rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those.”
The tanned woman cocked a brow. “One of those?”
“Yeah, one of those people who think it’s a moral sin to eat pineapple on pizza.” She explained with an upturned nose.
Octavia chuckled, shook her head and took another bite of the food. “I’m not one of those. Though I’ve never had pineapple on pizza until just now.”
“What?” Raven gasped, slapping her hand on the table. “How is that possible?”
Octavia shrugged, her face heating up. “I just tend to stick with the all veggie.”
Raven shook her head disapprovingly, grabbed another slice for herself and chomped on it. “Unacceptable. You haven’t lived until you’ve tried barbeque chicken pizza.”
“Oh,” The woman shifted in her seat, gave a half smile. “I’m vegan.” Usually when she told people this they made backhand insults, calling her stuck up or asking if she thought she was too good for “real food”. She hoped Raven wouldn’t because damn that would have been inconvenient.
The dark skinned woman nodded understandingly. “Totally get it. We’ll go with tofu then. You like tofu, right?”
Octavia’s face lit up and she nodded several times. “I love that shit.”
“Great,” Raven pushed her shoulder flirtatiously. “Then barbeque tofu pizza it is. With pineapple”
The brunette grinned. “It’s a date.” Then they finished the rest of the pizza while making small conversation and Octavia thought that she was actually getting somewhere.
Then she remembered the pretty blonde Raven had been making out with on the second floor and her stomach twisted in a tight knot. Oh… She tried to not let the disappointment show on her face and body language as she continued to talk to the interesting woman.
A friend date. She figured she could live with that.
Maybe.
At least she got her number this time.
The sixth time Octavia saw her, it was five in the morning and she’d just begun her early shift. It was midterm week, so they would be busy. Thankfully everyone who walked in was an adult so they could basically help themselves, meaning that Octavia would have time to study for her impossible tests.
She walked to her desk but stopped short when she heard high meowing and chuckling. She arched a brow and followed the noise, which led to one of the one-person tables, where Raven was sitting with her laptop open, youtube up, laughing at kitten videos. As the woman grew closer she realized that Raven wasn’t laughing at all; she was crying.
“Hey, you okay?” Octavia asked, placing a comforting hand on the woman’s shoulder.
Raven jumped but didn’t pull away from her. “Not really.” She said but nodded. Confused and curious (and also concerned), Octavia pulled up a chair and sat beside the dark haired woman.
“What happened?” She questioned as Raven blew her snotty nose.
“They make me happy when I’m sad.” She nodded her head to the kitten video playing on the screen.
Octavia gave a little nod. “Okay, but why are you sad?”
Raven looked at her then, dark eyes red from intense crying. “She broke up with me.” She confessed, her voice cracking with more tears.
The tanned woman’s eyes grew slightly wide and her stomach clenched. “Oh,” She mumbled, putting a comforting hand back on Raven’s shoulder. “Girlfriend.”
Raven furrowed her brows and shook her head. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“What?” She questioned with a small gasp. “But I saw you making out with…that girl in the upper level.”
The dark skinned woman’s cheeks turned red and she looked away with a little smirk. “Oh, yeah, no, she’s not my girlfriend. I just met her at a party.” She shrugged.
Octavia couldn’t help the smile forming on her face. “So you’re single?”
“Yeah.” Raven drew the word out skeptically.
“Good.” She let slip, feeling like an asshole afterwards. There Raven was, opening up to her about just getting dumped by someone—not a girlfriend!—and there Octavia was, celebrating the fact that the woman was single. She was awful. But somehow she didn’t care as much as she should have.
“What?” Raven questioned, confused.
“What?” Octavia repeated innocently.
Raven cocked her eyebrows. “Uh-huh.” She blew her nose again and clicked on another video just as that one finished.
Clearing her throat, and hoping she hadn’t screwed things up, Octavia asked, “Anyway, who broke up with you?”
“My best friend.” Raven murmured dully, more tears spilling down her cheeks.
“That hurts worse than a romantic breakup sometimes.”
“Yeah, it really, really does.”
Octavia stood, held her hand down to Raven. “Come on.” She motioned for her to get up with her head, and Raven did, grabbing Octavia’s soft hand and letting the woman pull her up.
“Where are we going?” She asked as the brunette began pulling her towards the exit doors.
“To get some ice cream.” The woman answered simply. Studying be damned; this was way more important in her eyes. Plus, she’d been studying all week in advance so she was certain she’d be fine for exams.
"Aren't you vegan?" Raven asked with an arched brow.
Octavia gave a little roll of her eyes. "There's a vegan ice cream parlour down the street." She said matter-of-factly.
Raven pulled back a little, looking longingly back towards her table. “But—the videos.”
Octavia stopped walking and put her free hand on Raven’s shoulder, gave her a serious look. “As much as it pains me to say it, ice cream helps better than animal videos.”
“But what about my computer?”
“No one will steal it.”
“You don’t know that!” She exclaimed.
Octavia shrugged. “Just trust me.” Then she pulled Raven out of the library before she had the chance to argue some more, all the while not letting go of the woman’s hand. Raven didn’t pull away or object, so she kept quiet about it and enjoyed it.
“We never went out for that pizza.” Raven mumbled after a few minutes of silence. Then, added in a semi hurt voice, “You never called.”
Octavia looked over at her, gave her a little one shoulder shrug. “I thought you had a girlfriend; I didn’t wanna get my hopes up.”
She nodded. “But I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Then we’ll definitely get that pizza.” Octavia said confidently.
“As a date?” Raven asked, her tone hopeful.
“You want it to be a date?” The tanned woman asked with a little sly smile.
Raven considered this, nodded, squeezed Octavia’s hand. “I would not be opposed to the idea.”
Octavia squeezed her hand back and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Then yeah, a date.”