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Ah, the library. Terry had become really fond of the library in his time at St. Pigeonations, which was almost entirely to do with the quiet and the solace that it offered and had nothing to do with a certain mourning dove who was always around.
Nope. No sir.
"Nageki?" His voice could only be described as a raised whisper, which doesn’t make much sense but if you really think about it neither does a post-apocalyptic world populated largely by highly intelligent birds with the ability to speak in the same manner as humans, so if that’s going to break your suspension of disbelief then this really isn’t the story for you.
Anyway.
He sat quietly in the corner of the library, completely 100% not let down by the fact that Nageki wasn’t there and opened up his book. He’d come down to work on his math homework, but honestly he wasn’t particularly concerned about his grade and this story was a lot more interesting than advanced triginometry. Which was saying a lot as the book was painfully dull and arguably incredibly offensive to humans in some places - it was about a young dove who had to choose between her love for a Dangerous Human or her childhood friend who turned into a cat when the moon was full.
He did wonder why Nageki had recommended this to him. Maybe Nageki was a romantic at heart?
Whatever. The book was still awful.
"Terry!" Nageki exclaimed suddenly, causing Terry to just about leap out of his skin in alarm. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here," he continued, doing a poor job of trying to calm Terry down with a calm and soothing tone of voice. Mostly he just sounded displeased.
Satisfied that his bones were firmly inside his skin, Terry nodded and gestured to the book in front of him. “I thought I’d come down and finish reading this?"
He pulled a face, wondering why he’d phrased that as a question.
Regardless, Nageki seemed pleased with this. Terry could tell because he was also morose and sullen a lot of the time, and thus was very good at interpreting subtle shifts in mood. Also because Nageki had come closer and asked for his opinion in a tone of voice that he interpreted as hopeful. It took him a moment to parse the question, however, as he felt incredibly flustered by the sudden proximity and was staring intently at the table, trying desperately to will the redness out of his cheeks.
"Uh…" He desperately wanted to say it was good, that he loved it. But he also didn’t want to lie, honesty was something that Terry valued highly, after all. “It’s terrible, Nageki. I’m sorry. And I’m not sure it’s okay to talk about humans this way."
Nageki’s entire body seemed to deflate at that and Terry desperately wanted to take back what he’d just said.
"I suppose you’re right," Nageki mumbled, “but you read it all."
"Well, almost." Terry shrugged, “I thought if you liked it enough to recommend it, then there had to be something good about it."
"No. I think I just like these stories because I never…" Nageki sighed, still looking horribly deflated. Like a morose dove balloon a week after being filled, “it’s not important."
Oh. Terry frowned.
"Hey, Nageki?" He piped up after a particularly emotionally trying moment’s silence. “I was wondering if… Maybe you wanted to eat dinner together sometime?" He could almost hear the objections and hastily added, “I know you don’t like to leave the library. So I could bring some food here?"
He’d long since learned not to question how or why Nageki seemed to live in the library.
Nageki was silent for a while, “I don’t really like to… eat. With others."
"We don’t have to eat," Terry responded way more hastily than he would’ve liked, “I mean, it’s okay if you don’t want to. I don’t want to pressure you."
"I do want to—!" This time it was Nageki who responded way too fast, and both of them froze in silence. Terry looking like some sort of rodent that was confused and terrified by being petted by something significantly larger, and Nageki like. Let’s be honest here he looked like a mourning dove, they don’t exactly have expressive faces.
"Okay." Terry said slowly, “good."
"Mm." Nageki agreed.
Terry grabbed his bag and started to back out of the library, doing an admirable job of not crashing into any furniture on his way. “So I’ll… See you tomorrow?" He clarified as he got to the door. He wasn’t sure since Nageki hadn’t moved from the other side of the room, but he seemed to nod. Which was good enough for Terry, who hastily blurted, “okay, bye." And exited the room.
He still had no idea what this ‘dating’ thing entailed, though.