Work Text:
Of all the wonderful things Ariel has experienced on dry land, nothing quite beats the feel of real books beneath her fingers—the crinkle of the pages, the dense weight of a pile of them stacked in her arms, the smell of ink and pulp. There was something whimsical about books, something delicate and sweet. Ariel found that she spent most of her time on weekends in the local Barnes and Noble, wandering through the aisles and shelves, selecting a pile to read in her favorite armchair. She only went home with one per week, though—it could become a slippery slope.
She didn’t want to end up like the pretty brunette girl who spent her week’s pay on a dozen books every Saturday.
“Another Lackey book? I swear you’ve read all of them twice,” Ariel jokes, helping the girl balance the stack in her arms as they both browse. “I like the dragons, though. They always make a good story.”
The girl flushes a bit, ducking shyly. “They do, don’t they?” She’s wearing a blue bow in her hair like a princess.
On a whim, Ariel takes half of the girl’s stack in her own arms. “How about we take these to the coffee shop and I’ll buy you a cupcake?” Cupcakes—my second favorite thing on dry land, she thinks, and knows she made the right move when the girl smiles.
“That sounds perfect,” she says, following Ariel to Starbucks.
Maybe after a cappuccino, I’ll learn her name.