Always Confide in the One

Lost in Words

Mass'de seated himself in the library after picking a few books off the shelves that looked to be of interest to him. They were murder mystery novels. Or at least he thought the were- he wasn't entirely sure, on account of his poor reading ability. 

The library certainly wasn't where he'd usually spend his time. Usually, he would be training, growing his muscles even more- even if it wasn't physically possible. However, the blue oaf has had Mass'de escaping his comfort zone recently- willingly too. It was weird. 

It's lonely here. And quiet. I kind of miss having Denzel around to pester me. Always talking..talking to me. Why does he wriggle his way into every corner of my life?! I can't even escape him in my thoughts now..! 

Mass'de let out a sigh and shook his head. He drags one of the books he grabbed along his table until it was in front of him. He opened it slowly, allowing himself to feel the cover. It felt worn, well-read. 

It must be a good book, then. 

Mass'de leaned in to sniff at the book, disappointed to find out that it had lost its new book smell. 

He sat back in his seat again, trying to make out the words in the table of contents. His mind got lost easily, remembering all that had happened last night. How good of a time he had with Denzel. Stargazing wasn't really for Mass'de, but he enjoyed seeing how Denzel's eyes lit up when he was pointing up into the vast sea of stars. 

Mass'de didn't like getting lost in his own thoughts, it felt like a loss of control to him. He was uncomfortable with it. Honestly, he was uncomfortable with most things. Especially feeling the way he did about Denzel. It wasn't even entirely obvious to him, but he knew it was wrong. To him, anyways. 

Mass'de focused back in on the book. He had to use almost all his brainpower to read the words on the page, which was nice, it helped to stop small thoughts from sneaking in. After getting past the first page, reading the book became relatively smooth sailing. Mass'de ended up reading the next four chapters without even realizing it- which had taken him a couple of hours. He was incredibly invested in the admittedly cheesy storyline of the murder mystery novel. 

"It's the big red man!!"

"Oh- no- Nemu. Nemu we're going this wa- aaand its too late."

The voices near Mass'de caught him off guard, pretty abruptly pulling him out of the book. Looking up, Mass'de was greeted with Nemu standing across the table from him, with a tired looking Sahara shaking her head. 

"Oh- um. Hi..Nemu?" Mass'de said that with uncertainty, because he honestly didn't remember Nemu or Sahara's names. 

"Yeah!! Nemu! Me!" Nemu points to herself between giggles. She points towards Mass'de as if to signal him to state his name as well. 

"Mass'de." He stated it with a smile while pointing it to himself. He stopped for a moment before taking the chance to point to Sahara..and hopefully learn her name..

"Sahara," she states her own name but doesn't take the liberty to point. "Come along now Nemu, we don't want to distract him, he seems busy.." Sahara's eyes moved towards the books on the table... Low reading level mystery novels. Something Nemu could realistically read. She chose not to comment on it. 

"Oh. Um. No its fine aha..I was probably going to wrap this up soon anyways. I don't usually read of course- that stuff's for nerds. Of course," Mass'de said while rushing all the books into a pile.

Sahara gave him a stare. "Of course. Yes. My vast home library is for nerds." She rolled her eyes.

Mass'de didn't catch on. "Hey..if you've got a home library, why are you out here anyway? And you live pretty close to Rangdol too, don't you? It seems kinda pointless to come all the way out here, I think."

"Yes, well I do agree with you, but they're selling a book Nemu wants today, so we decided to take a trip" Sahara stated while motioning to a little station where a book was being sold. It looked like it was part of a book series about soldier cats or something. Mass'de looked over for a moment before looking back to Sahara. 

How long had that been there? Weird that I didn't notice it. Like at all. Whatever. 

Mass'de wasn't much of a conversation ender. Or starter. Or a conversationalist in general, for that matter. "Um..it was nice..chatting. I'm gonna..go now. Bye Sahara. And Nemu." Mass'de picked up his small pile of books and charted his way for the exit-slash-entrance. 

"Bye Mr. Mass'de! Don't forget to check out your books!" Nemu motioned to the front counter. 

"Check out my books? What's that mean?" Mass'de had..never really been to the library on his own before, let alone check out books. He could see Sahara rolling her eyes in the corner of his own eyes. "Um..sorry. I don't usually read. Like I said."

Sahara mirrored Nemu's motion to the front desk where a clerk waved Mass'de to come over. Sahara and Nemu walked off to buy their book as Mass'de made his way to the counter. The clerk looked tired..he probably didn't wanna be there. Or anywhere. "I take it you don't have a library card then?"

"Um..no. I don't. Uhh..whatever your name is..can you help me. Get one." Mass'de probably couldn't have stated that in a way that was any more awkward. 

"Well..my name. Is Tyrone." He points to his name tag. "And yeah. I can. It's not like its my job or anything" he said sarcastically. 

"Its not?" 

Tyrone let out an exhausted sigh. "Just- I- What's your first and last name. For the card. And I need one silver"

"Mass'de Mass'de" he stated as he fished a silver out of his pocket and placed it on the counter.

"Wow, your parents must really love you huh. Give me just a sec." Tyrone takes the silver off the counter and places it inside a mechanical device made for storing money. He grabs a card from under the counter and runs it through a little magic system to get it registered. Tyrone scans the card so that Mass'de can just scan his books to check out and then leave. "Alright, your card's set up. Here, lemme scan your books, and then you can..do whatever it is that you do."

Mass'de places the small stack of books onto the counter, three books to be exact. They were all from the same mystery series, but Mass'de wasn't really paying much attention to that when he checked them out in the first place. After getting everything scanned, Tyrone gives Mass'de a bag to make carrying the books easier. 

"Here's your card- um don't lose it 'cuz you need it for books. Or do lose it. I don't care. You can always get a new one. But you'll have to pay again. Oh, and you have to have the books back in two weeks or you pay a fee. You can always bring them in to get renewed before your two weeks ends though." 

"Thanks. I..will try to keep it safe." Mass'de stuffed the card into his pocket callously while taking the bag of books. Truth be told, he probably wouldn't be in here that often..and definitely wouldn't be checking out books. And to be even more realistic, he was probably gonna unintentionally end up stealing every book he checked out. He didn't care too much about it though. 

Mass'de exited the library, he was honestly a little shocked at the fact that the sun was up high in the sky and that it had warmed up since this morning. It was only now that he realized just how long he had been reading. He looked around the area once again, unsure as to what he should do next. There was still plenty of time left in the day, he just had to figure out what to do with it.