Hiraeth

{9} They knew

NOTES: Enjoy this boring chapter ;)

"Elizabeth?" Immy shouted through the library.

"Yes, Imogen?" a voice replied.

"Can you come here?"

Within seconds, Liz was stood in the doorway with her arms folded, looking on fondly at Immy who was lying on the carpeted floor, holding a book above her head. Her nose was scrunched, and her eyebrows knitted together. In Elizabeth's mind, she looked quite like an irritated rabbit.

"Imogen, what are you doing?" she chuckled.

"I don't get it," Immy whined.

"Don't get what?"

The librarian walked into the room and lay next to the other, looking up into the book. Immy pointed at a line: Deny thy father and refuse thy name, or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I'll no longer be a Capulet.

"Ah, Romeo and Juliet. I do prefer Macbeth, but you can't deny a lovable classic," Liz started, already loosing herself to the will of Shakespeare. "Here, Juliet is vowing that if Romeo loves her but refuses to leave his family, she will give up hers so that they could be together."

"That's quite beautiful," the girl replied, turning her head to face her crush.

"I wouldn't be so sure," the librarian continued. "I think it makes no sense. Why would two people with very little in common spend very little time together and then plot to abandon everything they've known to be with each other? I don't understand it."

Immy studied the contours of Liz's side profile and smiled. "Maybe you don't have to understand it," she whispered.

Elizabeth turned her head to look at Imogen, their noses almost touching, "maybe," she smiled.

Imogen felt a tingling heat warming her insides, spreading down to her fingertips and all the way up to her nose. The skin on her face grew hot and she was very aware that the shade she had turned was more crimson than the cover of the book she now had lying across her chest. She gulped hard to calm the kaleidoscope of butterflies fluttering in her stomach and wondered if the girl opposite could hear the rhythmic thumping if her pining heart. Never had she felt so alive than in the presence of a simple librarian. She could have kissed her but- no. Embarrassed, she averted her eyes from the perilous stare of her secret love. Elizabeth chuckled at her gently, obviously seeing the state she had put the love-struck girl in, "is it hot in here?"

"A-a little," Immy gulped, still feeling the gaze pressed like a kiss against her skin.

Liz silently got up and walked over to the side of the room. Immy sat up on her elbows and followed the other's movements as she opened a window.

"There, all better."

Imogen smiled weakly.

"Tell Dorian and Conan that I'm going out, okay? I shouldn't be long, it's just for bread."

Imogen didn't even have time to nod because just as quickly as she had arrived, Elizabeth was gone. The giddy girl sighed gayly and flopped back onto the floor, smiling to herself. The sound of the door shutting was followed by footsteps coming in her direction.

"Where'd she just go?" Dorian barked at his sister.

"Bread, I think? I don't know I wasn't really listening," she sighed, still staring at the ceiling.

Dorian breathed a laugh and shook his head at his love-struck sibling before walking back through the library. He snaked through the twists and turns until he reached a parting in the encyclopaedias and shuffled through. Conan looked up at him and smiled. He suddenly looked flushed as he marked his place and set his book down next to him, hugging his knees to his chest.