Chapter Text
“I’m all alone. In a library. With an attractive person. A normal day, I thought this was going to be a normal spring day, but NO they had to leave me all alone.”
Nox sat behind the reception desk in the library. His coworkers left him alone at work to go on a date together, but as soon as they left an attractive stranger had entered the library.
“Excuse me,” the stranger asked. This snapped Nox out of his head.
“Yeah,” he replied.
“Are there any dark romances?”
“Oh…um, yeah there are. Let me show you.” Nox stood up and directed the stranger to that section of the library.
“Thanks…umm,” the stranger looked at his name tag, “Nox.”
“It’s nothing. Just doing my job,” Nox laughed nervously. He walked back to the desk and waited for the other to check out. When they did, they smiled at him then just left. Nox sighed in relief. He had never seen the stranger before, so he hoped, for the sake of his heart, that they never came back during his shift again.
He must not have hoped hard enough because a week later, the stranger came back.
“At least he knows where the books are now,” Nox thought to himself. The stranger obtained the books they wanted then checked out. And just like the week beforehand, he smiled at Nox then left. Except this time his coworkers were there to see it.
“Who was that?” the first coworker, Amy, asked him.
“Yeah Nox. Got a boyfriend you didn't tell us about,” Zain, the other one, followed.
Nox blushed. “It's nothing like that. He just came here to get books.”
“Are you sure?” Amy pestered. “That smile seemed pretty flirtatious to me.”
“He did the same thing last week as well.” Nox looked away.
“Okay Amy, let's stop making the poor kid blush,” Zain butted in.
“Fine,” Amy stopped. The two walked away from Nox before Amy turned around and gave him a thumbs up. This just made him get flustered again.
The next week, the stranger came again. And the week after that. And the week after that. Pretty soon the library visits turned into two times a week. Then three times a week. With every visit, the stranger always smiled at Nox before they left. Even when Nox wasn't at the reception desk, the stranger found him, gave a smile, and then left.
This happened for a total of four months, and Nox was finally going to do something about it. The next time the stranger visited the library, Nox walked up to them.
“Excuse me,” he said, slowly losing the confidence he had a few seconds again.
The stranger turned around and smiled. “Oh, it's you. What's up?”
“You've been smiling at me every time you come here, and I want to know why.”
“Why? Well...,” the stranger started, smiling. Nox was getting impatient with fear, and his face showed it. The stranger giggled at the boy's reaction.
“It's a friendly gesture,” the stranger continued. Nox’s heart rate slowed down with this new information.
“Also I think you're cute.” And right back up it goes.
Nox had a lot of mixed emotions about the stranger's response. He was happy that the stranger had complimented him, but he was also nervous. What if they were just being friendly? What if they didn’t mean it the way Nox interpreted it? He didn't even know the stranger's name?
“Hey, you good?” Nox snapped out of his head.
“Yeah, I'm good. This is awkward, but could I get your name and pronouns?”
“My name is Revon and my pronouns are he/they. What are your's?”
“He/him. So are you like non-binary or are those just your pronouns?”
“I'm a demiboy. It’s under the non-binary umbrella.”
“Cool.”
Revon looked down at his watch and back up at Nox.
“I need to get going, I have work,”he stated.
“Oh, what’s your work line?”Nox asked, intrigued in learning more about Revon.
“I’m a florist.” Revon’s eyes sparkled stating his occupation. Nox could tell they had passion for it. Revon started to leave before he felt a hand on his shoulder. He let out a small shiver before turning around to see that Nox had followed them. “Yeah?”
“Would you maybe wanna meet up on Saturday to talk more?” Nox questioned, avoiding eye contact. Revon gave the boy a small smile.
“Sure. The coffee shop down the street around five work?” Revon responded. Nox looked up, his face tinted.
“Yeah, that works.” Revon gave him his signature smile and left. Nox walked to the employee lounge.
Amy and Zain were taking a break, reading on the sofa together when Nox walked in redder than a rose bush.
“What happened to you?” Zain questioned as they walked over to Nox. They guided him to a chair before he continued.
“You know that guy that’s been smiling at me for the past few months?” Nox replied. This piqued Amy’s interest. She put her book down and walked over.
“Yeah,” she stated.
“So, I talked to him and now we’re kinda going on a date this Saturday,” Nox explained, covering his face.
“What?! Really!” the others reacted in unison. Nox nodded.
“I’m proud of you,” Zain patted him on the back. Nox continued to blush immensely.
“So today's Thursday, so you have about two days to prepare. Knowing you, it's not a fancy date. You got to wear something cute but casual, got it?” Amy rambled. Nox gave a thumbs up. Amy’s look softened. “You got this, okay. You're an amazing guy.” Zain nodded in agreement.
“You're gonna do great and end up with a boyfriend,” they added on. Nox chuckled at the teasing.
“Thanks guys, I feel better now,” he thanked.
Nox went home that night hopeful and nervous. No matter what happened, he was gonna be okay.