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The first time he met her she was a gleam of gold among a world of beige and dust.
The sight had been caught out of the corner of his eye, the world of mysterious mists and forgotten gods fading away as a flash of lightening caught his eyes once more before it disappeared within the shadows of an aisle. Normally, there was very little that could draw Solas away from his books, but normally there were very little people that found themselves so deep within the recesses of the reference section of the library.
"Can I help you?” Solas had asked as if he were a gatekeeper, his voice a tad stern while he stood from his chair behind his desk. In the silence, shuffling was heard, the sound of a file cabinet being closed before the flash of gold returned it all its blinding glory. The woman resembled a sun, golden hair left flowing down her back while eyes the color of jade stared back at him. Spread upon her cheeks and forehead the wings of some grand creature took refuge against the pale, rosy color of her skin.
The woman did not apologize, her lips pulled into a look that was apologetic enough. “No, I believe I’ve found everything I need.” She informed as she shifted the books in her arms, “I’m Persea, by the way. I was going to introduce myself earlier but you were…” she paused as if she were thinking about her word choice, “busy.” She had concluded, eyes glancing to the abandoned book on the desk before him.
It was as if her words had struck him mute. His own water blue eyes pulled to the book below before he looked back to the librarian. “I apologize,” Solas came forward with a thin smile, his hand extended in greeting before the two of them met in the middle and his large hand engulfed her own before breaking apart and falling to their sides.
“I’m Solas.” He greeted and like that their fates twisted together like vines, the world seeming to change around the woman with hair like the sun that smiled back with a fondness that had Solas wondering if he had said something funny.
As it turns out, Persea smiles quite often. She smiles at children reading over the picture books and old ladies with their romance novels; she smiles at the soft-spoken young man that follows her like a shadow and the fashionable woman that read all the books of medicine the library kept. Yet, even with her smiles being a constant Solas had never seen her so fond, so genuine as much as he did as they looked over their cups of lavender tea in the dwindling hours of the library like they did now.
“So you don’t drink coffee?” She asked as Solas set his tea down against the fogging wood of his desk. He glanced to his tea, the soft brown liquid mirroring his face back at him as he nodded, “Not at all. I really don’t like tea either; it makes me jittery and makes it hard to sleep.” Persea, who rested her elbows against the desk, nodded as well looking to the tea thoughtfully in the fading daylight.
Unlike their first meeting her hair was tied up, the summer heat bleeding through the windows and the air conditioner doing little but the areas that had a vent. Her eyes were still as vibrant the day Solas had met her however but something had changed, though he wasn’t sure if he could put his finger on it exactly and wasn’t sure if the change was from himself or her.
"That makes sense," Persea responded after she had finished the rest of her tea and tossed the cup into the trashcan, her eyes back on Solas as she gathered some of the books in her arms. “Let me.” Solas stood from his desk, reaching out to take the books from her but she smiled and shook her head, strands of gold falling against her cheeks like curtains. “I’ve got it, just help me find their places.” Persea stepped back from the tall desk and Solas followed, eyes scanning over the spines of the books before they found themselves in the fiction section of the library.
Standing on her tippy toes Persea tried to push a box inside, Solas watching from the side before he shook his head and grabbed the book from her. For a brief moment their fingers brushed against one another, their bodies inhabiting the same space for a moment as his own heart thudded like a hammer against cloth.
“Thank you.” Came her reply, her voice softer and her eyes still directed towards the spines of books as if she were reading them. Solas only nodded, his hands fidgeting at his sides before he walked them out of the dimly lit aisle and into the front of the library trying to understand what had just happened. It was truly nothing, he thought but he still felt his heart beating and his palms sweat like he was nervous about something.
“Do you think you could walk me to my car?” Persea asked as if she were running out of time. Her eyes looked to Solas and all he could do was a nod, the air around them going stiff and muddled as they walked from out of the glass doors to the beaten up old car Persea drove.
Persea opened her car door and Solas held it open, both of them standing silently until their eyes met. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow...” Persea told him as he nodded, the air around them charged with something that had the both of them on edge. They stared into one another’s eyes with an intensity that would have anyone shifting but instead Solas found himself caught in the gaze of green.
He thought that Persea was waiting for something but what it was Solas wasn’t sure himself, instead he stumbles and finds himself trying to understand what exactly Persea wanted from him.
"Until then,” Solas affirmed and as soon as he said it he could feel the air that had been pressing on him sucked away and replaced with a palpable feeling of disappointment . She slid into the car and closed the door, leaving Solas reeling and confident he had missed something important.
It was hours after the encounter and Solas was still left analyzing the encounter, searching for the clues he had missed in the moment. He remembered the way her eyes looked in the dim light, his heart beating all over again as the memory of her replayed in his mind her eyes fell to his lips before-- a soft sound left Solas’ lips with the realization he had missed.
“She was...” the words failed him, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose while he let his words trail off into a sigh. “Fool.” He mumbled to himself, eyes closed while he shook his head in disappointment.