Chapter Text
The first time Idia stumbled upon the library chillout corner, it felt like unlocking a secret level.
Tucked behind a row of towering bookshelves was a tiny pocket of calm: a reading lamp, a faded blue patchwork beanbag, and enough shadow to discourage rogue extroverts from wandering in. Perfect.
Idia dropped into the beanbag with an incoherent sigh. Today had demanded not one, but TWO classes that he was required to attend in person, and that was almost enough for a total system shutdown.
“Finally,” he muttered, dragging his hood over his head. “HP recharge time...”
Compared to the crowds and noise of the cafeteria, this place felt like discovering a hidden save room. It was deep behind the reference tomes too, so no risk of random people making eye contact. The hum of distant air vents and the occasional rustle of pages soothed his clinging nerves.
Honestly, Idia respected whichever Night Raven alumni had set this place up. He ended up dozing there for nearly his entire lunch break.
After that, the corner quietly became part of his routine.
-
The second time Idia returned, something had changed.
There was another beanbag, yellow this time, shoved opposite his blue one like someone had duplicated his setup. A couple of cushions had been scattered across the floor too, not particularly neatly.
Idia paused in the gap between the bookshelves, his eyes growing wide.
“Heh… has my player two finally arrived?” He grinned to himself, then glanced around self-consciously, just in case there was anybody who had heard him. To his relief, his only company was still the old reference tomes and dust.
Whoever the newcomer was, he wasn't there now.
Idia flopped onto his usual beanbag and stared at the empty yellow one beside him. For some reason, the existence of another person using his hidden corner didn’t annoy him nearly as much as he expected. Maybe this mystery student was on a similar wavelength? They’d gone to some effort to find the only decent hiding spot on campus, after all.
Then, on impulse, Idia dug through his backpack and pulled out an unopened can of lychee juice.
“Welcome to the napping zone, comrade,” Idia announced, cackling gleefully as he tossed it onto the yellow beanbag. “May your harvests be bountiful and your SSR pulls blessed.”
It wasn’t like he expected the other person to respond.
A few days later, Idia returned between classes and nearly choked on his cup ramen. The lychee juice was gone.
And, sitting squarely in the middle of his blue beanbag was a can of black coffee. Unopened.
Idia stared at it for a long moment.
“Wehehh…” Okay. Okay, that was interesting.
He picked the can up carefully, as if its presence in his hand might trigger some immediate character history info-dump. It didn’t, but still, the other student had clearly understood. Not only understood, but replied.
Like the beginning of an epic side quest.
Idia sank into the beanbag, turning the coffee in his hand while constructing increasingly abstract theories.
Maybe it was another shut-in. Some exhausted honours student. Or someone from the Film Research Club - the typical black coffee aesthetic. Maybe a ghost.
The coffee was way too bitter for his taste, but he drank it anyway.
-
The next exchange happened almost accidentally.
Idia was half asleep after class, searching through his backpack for his handheld console, when his fingers brushed against one of the little pom-pom creature keychains clipped to the zipper pocket.
It was the kind of thing he liked fidgeting with during lectures. Soft enough to squish. Stupid-looking enough to be entertaining.
Without letting himself think too hard about it, Idia stood and crossed to the yellow beanbag.
“There,” he muttered, placing the keychain carefully on top. “Limited-time event item… sent. Co-op mode enabled."
The next day, it was gone. Idia tried not to feel weirdly pleased about that. In its place, a blanket had been tossed messily across the yellow beanbag, crumpled like its owner had simply collapsed there and rolled away afterward.
And, more surprisingly, there was a new blanket on his blue patchwork beanbag too, except this one had been left folded. Not the neatest folding, sure. The corners didn’t line up at all, and one side was weirdly bunched. But an effort had been made.
Idia crouched down and peered at the folded blanket, his brain immediately overanalysing.
Clearly there was another attendance-adverse student using the space. Somebody who liked naps and hated people enough to hide in the library between classes. They obviously didn’t share the same electives or break periods, as they’d never been here at the same time. So, they’d probably never seen him either.
But still, it kinda felt like… well, the folded blanket…
It felt deliberate. Like a comfort gift that nudged at his soul.
Idia snorted and shook his head, shoving his headphones over his ears. It wasn’t like the other student knew who he was. It wasn’t like there was some sort of red string of fate connecting them, drawing them towards each other through a series of thoughtfully gifted items that reflected their innate understanding of the other…
“Pfft. Not a ghost, then. Maybe he’s the protagonist of a shojo manga!” Idia grinned as he settled snugly into his beanbag and covered himself with the blanket. It was warm and soft and heavy, a weirdly soothing combination for a cold library and his socially-exhausted brain.
But before he drifted off, Idia found himself pulling his backpack onto his lap, rummaging around the various items in his inventory. Sweets, more sweets, sweet n’ sour sweets, a can of sweet milky tea and an energy drink powerful enough to violate several magical treaties. Whoo boy. So he had the choice of gifting his mystery nap partner either sugar or insomnia.
Idia hummed in thought, rearranging himself as he gazed at the empty beanbag next to him. The one thing Idia knew for sure was that this guy liked being warm and comfy - the blankets were his idea after all. Then Idia reached into his hoodie pockets, a slow, pleased-with-himself smile spreading wickedly over his face.
“Oh,” he whispered delightedly. “I can absolutely work with that.”
-
Leona slumped into the library, his bad mood emanating from him like a cloud. It had been a groupwork day, a word that professors apparently threw out whenever there weren’t enough useless and irrelevant assignments on their curriculum as it was.
Groupwork meant being fair, playing nice, and then having to do everything himself anyway.
“Life isn’t an equal participation game…” he muttered, throwing himself down into the yellow beanbag in his new corner. “Sooner or later, they’ll all figure that out.”
Getting comfortable, Leona allowed himself a glance at the blue patchwork beanbag beside him. Empty, as usual. But his senses told him something was different. The way the lamp had been pushed aside, maybe. Or the fact one of the cushions had a dent in it, like someone recently used it as a pillow.
As Leona settled to his side for a nap, his eyes suddenly went wide and his ears flattened. There was something small and soft wedged against his shoulder - it must’ve been on his beanbag when he sat down. He leapt to his feet quicker than he’d like to admit - not because he was startled, but because he was ticked-off that he might’ve accidentally damaged it.
Luckily, the object hadn’t been harmed at all. Leona’s ears twitched as he looked toward the blue patchwork beanbag. This little thing had been tucked exactly where he’d sit.
Slowly, he curled back into his favourite sleeping spot, this time holding the item with both hands. It felt like some sort of small sack, filled with grains. As he turned it over, perplexed, the sack seemed to respond to his touch, becoming warmer and warmer until a comforting heat spread through his palms.
Blinking, Leona nestled the heat pouch back into his side, where it seeped a gentle warmth through his veins. The sensation melted away some of the tension he held in his shoulders, and the ache in his muscles after spelldrive practice suddenly felt a lot less sore.
Leona yawned, mulling over his tangled thoughts. The owner of the blue beanbag might’ve left it here by accident.
Or - a thornier idea - his anonymous nap buddy might’ve left it there on purpose.
Kicking his school satchel open, Leona flicked his gaze to the pom-pom keyring attached to the inner pocket. He found it on his beanbag the last time he came for a kip in the library. He didn’t need it. Figured it might’ve been lost.
And yet it was still clipped to the zip pocket inside his bag, brushing against his wrist every time he reached in to get something out.
Leona growled, then pinched the bridge of his nose, glad for the extra warmth of this new gift against the autumn chill. With the seasons cooling, his usual nap spot in the campus greenhouse was quickly becoming uninhabitable. Did his nap buddy somehow guess Leona was the kind of guy who liked to fall asleep in the sun? Whoever he was, this guy was clearly good with conduction magic, and there was a solid technomantic charm on the heat pouch.
Inspecting it more closely, Leona was sure the pouch had even been made on the fly. The material looked like the inner pocket of someone’s hoodie, cut neatly away from the rest of the fabric and stitched back together in a pinch. So this guy was pretty resourceful, too.
What other kind of stuff would his nap buddy like? Leona sighed, arching his back in frustration. Leona had left a blanket for him last time. Anyone with eyes could see that a guy who left this many empty energy drinks around was perpetually running on empty. He hadn’t really expected a gift in return. Slowly, his eyes drifted over the many, many library shelves surrounding him.
His face split into a slow, lazy grin. He didn’t need to have brought anything with him.
There was plenty of stuff right here.
-