The boy with the bag hat...

An accident waiting to happen

Upon waking from my sleep I could see that I had definitely been restless, I must have moved a lot in my sleep as I awoke wrapped up in Mono's arms, head resting on his chest, ear over his steadily beating heart. Sitting up like I had been electrocuted, I dusted myself off and gathered myself before shaking Mono awake.

"What do you want now love?"

"We need to get up and go find Six, we've slept for long enough." He sits up, rubbing his eyes as I replace my gnome hat upon my head and follow the vents through the building and into a library. Immediately upon my dropping in I could hear the rustle and clunking of books being pulled out and replaced. Peeking through a shelf, I saw the calves of the teacher facing away from me. A loud thump behind me made the legs twitch slightly before returning to normal. "Shhh!" I whisper at him, creeping back over to the vent's drop off point, "She's through there."

"Who? Six?"

"No dumbass, unless Six is now 12 feet tall and wears old women clothing, the teacher!" He shrinks slightly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh..." I roll my eyes as we come together to move a ladder across the shelf, giving us a way up and onto one of the lower shelves in the library. Mono spots a hat and goes back for it as I check ahead. Bad idea. Some books are knocked off the ledge, causing the teacher's head to burst through the books behind me. I take of sprinting, throwing myself up a small step as she lunges at my feet, a hair away from having a hold on me. I ran a bit further, sliding under another shelf and just out of the head's view. Eventually, the cracking diminished, showing I was safe again, for now. It was under this shelf that I waited for the inevitable doom that was being momed by Mono.

"Oh my lord! Are you okay? Did she get any of you? Are you injured? Look at me, are you in shock? Do you need a minute? We can stay here as long as you like. What the fuck were you thinking going  on ahead without me? You could've died! Dum bitch. From now on I'm leading, you hear that? Me, I'm going first. You stay. I go. Follow when it's safe. Now stay." I didn't get a chance to argue after he was done checking me over several times as he was gone like the wind, climbing up pillars of book and jumping across to another pillar of books. What's with this arcitecture? It literally makes no sense... I thought before I was broke from my head by the sound of more falling books. Turns out, Mono wasn't as slick as he thought and the teacher was a second away from finding him when she gave up looking. I let out the air I didn't know I was holding, watching him drop safely on the other side and the teacher exiting the room. I then, and only with the permission of Mono, make my own way across the pillars, jumping onto the floor and tripping into Mono.

Shit.

In the moment of Mono catching hold of my arms, we had ended up very close together. I could feel his hair on my cheeks, his breath fanning over my face, the brush of his lips on mine. I stand up, coughing awkwardly and brushing my hair back. "We should... keep... going..." I cough again and Mono nods, I glance up at him to see him staring at me. There was an emotion glinting behind his honey eyes that darkened the more we stood there, I couldn't tell what it was, and I left before I could find out. I find a box of books, manoeuvring around it to start pushing it towards the door. Eventually, Mono came up next to me, helping me move the box immensely quicker. I jump up, pulling on the door handle and allowing the door to swing open from my weight. We run down a corridor and into some sort of main room with a large staircase, going up the stairs, we check around the rooms, finding a broken chess piece in front of one of the doors. Taking the initiative, Mono picks up the top of the chess piece and returns it to its place, clambering up and opening the door. We hadn't talked since the incident, and the awkward atmosphere was getting heavy, at least, it was for me. I wasn't sure what Mono was thinking, and that worried me slightly. I kept catching him staring at me in the corner of my eye, it was slightly unsettling.

In the next room was a chess board, a pottery child tied to a piece in the centre of the board. Remembering my grandpa who loved to play chess, I went about silently trying to find the tops of the different pawns and set to placing them in their specific places, check mating the child in the middle. The lights flickered on and I look around, that was it. Just lights. Seriously!? I groan in disappointment before a grinding resonated from behind me. Spinning around I saw the bookshelves on the far wall rolling open, revealing a key on a chair. Looking up, I lock eyes with mono's, he was hanging off a light atop a tall table. He drops down elegantly, retrieving the key before we sprint back down the stairs and to a door that was locked. Using the key we make our way down a wider corridor, that reminded me of that you would find in a restaurant leading to the kitchen. I slow down my sprint to a walk, taking deep breaths.

"Tired?" The voice startled me, making me squeak in surprise. "Don't worry love, it's just me." Mono laughed, making his way over to me and bending down slightly so we were face to face.

"I-I'm okay... just tired from running..." I stutter, conscious of how close we were, "About earlier-"

"What about earlier?" 

"Umm- I-" I struggled for words as I stared into the dark spots that represented Mono's eyes on his hat, "Nothing... it doesn't matter." I shake it off, not wanting to talk about it just yet, anyway, it was probably nothing and I was just overthinking. I push past him, continuing on towards the sound of children. I move a large rack across the room and beside the door, using the typical jump and grab technique we had done so many times before to open the door.