Chapter Text
The library was more crowded than usual.
There were enough humans browsing through each section that any key-sized person with two functioning braincells would not step out here in fear of being caught.
Evidently, Nox did not have two functioning braincells.
No, he only had one braincell, and that braincell was currently so obsessed with a certain blond-haired boy that it had decided to guide Nox, on this fine day, to go on such a daring escapade.
Peeking out of the gap between two bookshelves, Nox scanned the aisle he was currently in, and found only two humans occupying it — a middle-aged lady, holding the hand of a little girl who couldn’t have been older than Prunella. The lady was distracted, searching for one or the other title in the large collection of books, while the child stood looking bored, like she’d much rather watch grass grow than be here with her mother.
This particular aisle was the hardest for Nox to cross in order to get to his destination, as the next row of bookshelves did not have enough of a gap to fit the tip of a pencil, let alone a key-sized person. Which meant no safe place to hide and no pitstops.
It wasn’t much of an issue, though. You see, Nox was a self-proclaimed expert at hiding from humans, perhaps even more so than his tutor Violet, but don’t tell her that.
So, it would be fine. Two random humans weren’t enough to ruin his plans for the day.
He stood vigilantly in his hiding spot and waited patiently for the little child to get distracted, and sure enough, something on the far end of the aisle seemed to have caught her attention. It wasn’t long before she freed her hand from her mother’s grasp, who only murmured a ‘don’t wander off’ to her, still too busy searching for her books.
Once the little girl was well and far away, Nox took the chance and ran across the aisle. Sticking close to the row of books on the lowest shelf — ready to hide among them should anyone show up — the Key made his way to the nearer end of the aisle.
From there, he didn’t have any issue running across the next aisle, and finally arrived at the literature section.
“No way, the heroine’s a singer!?” A familiar voice spoke. Nox felt something warm bubble in his cold metal chest. Carefully, he peeked out of the gap between the bookshelves where he was currently hiding.
There Chase was, holding a book in his hands, a wide grin spread over his face.
It had turned into a weekly routine for the Hollow cousins to visit the library for their narratonin-book hunting. Ever since Nox had learned about this, during one of Chase’s rambles in a book, he had begun crawling up the air vents and into the library floor every week, just to catch a glimpse of the golden boy he so adored.
At first, he used to watch from afar, but as time went on, he found himself wanting to shrink the distance more and more, craving to get closer and closer and closer, until he found himself here, in the present.
Here, Chase was tall. So much taller than Nox. It should terrify him. It should, and yet, strangely enough, all it did was lure Nox closer, like a moth drawn to a flame.
A dangerous game.
Nox had to remind himself of that in order to get his legs to cooperate and hider further away. He was being too careless. It would be so easy for Chase to spot him here, where he stood a mere feet or two away from Nox.
So close, yet so far.
Nox’s chest tightened, a sensation beautiful and painful at the same time.
“Deaconnn!” Chase called out to his cousin who was picking out books from another shelf. “We have to do this book today!”
“No, Chase,” Freckles replied, not even bothering to look at his cousin. “I have another book prepared for today. And I haven’t read that one, so we won’t even know what to do.”
“Pshsh, like it’s hard to figure out,” Chase said confidently then turned the book over to squint at the summary printed on the back cover. “Uh.. something-something rising star, oh! I think Buddy’s gonna be my selfish manager. Guess that means I’ll spend most of my time with him, and of course with my adoring fans too.” Chase then trodded closer to his cousin, away from Nox. Nox found himself leaning and peeking out again as to not lose sight of Chase. “Deaconnn come onnn!”
Nox snorted at the other boy’s attempt to change his cousin’s mind. Chase was also slightly turned, and thanks to that, a certain shiny object near his hip caught Nox’s attention.
The Key stopped himself from audibly gasping at the sight of the star keychain, the keychain he had gifted Chase only yesterday, hanging by his beltloop.
Chase liked the gift. He liked the gift so much that he’d decided to integrate it into his outfit. A pleasant feeling fluttered in Nox’s chest.
His attention too preoccupied by the golden haired boy, Nox didn’t notice when another human had snuck up on the duo.
“Hey, that’s my keychain!” The little girl exclaimed, startling Nox so bad that he jumped a good few inches into the air before scuttling back into the relative safety of the darkness. It was the same little girl he had seen on the other aisle, Nox quickly realized. And she was pointing at the star keyring at Chase’s hip.
Ice-cold realization crashed into him. The keyring belonged the the child. The keyring was hers, and she had now seen Chase wearing it.
“Oh, hey kid,” Chase replied very calmly, turning to the girl. “Ah, this one’s mine. Does your keychain look similar to this?”
“It is mine,” The girl insisted. “I lost it here last time. Please give it back.”
Chase and Deacon silently stared at each other, probably thinking how to calmly refuse this child who wrongly believed the keychain to be hers.
Except, it was hers. Not that Chase would know anything about that. How could Chase know? Nox never told him. Nox never told Chase that he wasn’t who Chase had always thought him to be. Nox never told Chase that he was incapable of purchasing things from a store, or that he couldn’t interact with humans, or.. or that he was— that he wasn’t human.
Nox never told Chase that he’d merely found that little keyring in the lost and found box of a library’s basement, that the keyring must have belonged to someone else before Nox had gifted it to him.
A farce of a gift.
“What’s your name?” Chase asked the girl.
“Melissa.”
“Alright, Melissa. See, I have this very special friend who gifted this to me, so it’s very important to me. I can’t give you mine, but hey, I can help you search for the one you lost!”
Nox turned his back on the scene, shame and guilt swirling into an ugly storm inside him.
“When did you lose it?” Chase’s voice continued, but Nox didn’t want to stay here any longer. Slow, heavy steps carried him further and further away. “Oh hey, maybe we can ask the staff to see if they have it in the lost and found!”
The mention of his current residence gave Nox a jolting pause, but he shook his head and continued on his way. It wasn’t like Chase would be able to find Nox there. He wouldn’t, because Nox would continue to hide and slink around the dark corners.
Nox wouldn’t reveal the true him to Chase, not today. Maybe not ever.
Behind him, the child continued to insist. “No. I know this one is mine. Give it back to me please.”
Nox chose to tune them out. The frustrated tone of the child, the ever calm and patient voice of Chase, everything was ignored in favor of navigating out of the maze of aisles. A new voice seemed to have joined them, feminine and wise, but Nox chose not to care. He chose not to think about Chase, about the private moments of happiness they had shared yesterday, about the little star-shaped gift that had led to the present. Maybe Chase would just give away the little star back to its real owner and be done with it. Maybe Chase believed now that Nox had stolen it from this little girl, even though he— he didn’t— he wasn’t a thief—
Nox pushed all the agonizing thoughts out of his mind and ran across the aisle, desperate to go back to the basement and sulk in his lonely corner for the rest of the day.
In his haze, he didn’t even realize that he was actually crossing the “hardest aisle”.
Loud footsteps startled him back to the present, and he immediately backtracked, darting into the lowest shelf, hiding among the rows of books just in time to evade the human’s gaze.
If Nox had a heart, it would have jumped out of his chest and left the Earth. As it was, he was made of metal, and the churning mixture of anxiety, fear, and all the other emotions from moments ago felt too heavy and exhausting in his tiny non-organic body. To top it off, the clueless human was just lingering back and forth, as if unsure where they were supposed to be. Nox wanted this idiotic human to leave already so that he could go. This wasn’t the safest hiding place as a human searching for books could still spot him.
He watched, anxiously and impatiently, as the human continued to be clueless for several agonizing moments that seemed to stretch on for decades. Finally, they walked away and turned the corner. Immediately, Nox hopped out of his hiding spot and ran across the aisle.
Once again, he was startled by a childish squeak, making him flinch. He turned around only to find a girl — the very same girl — staring at him dead-on.
Dread coiled tight around him, paralyzing him, as his metaphorical stomach dropped to the floor.