He Left Sparkles in his Wake

A Kind Smile (Jirard)

Richard was back into his routine of only going to class or to his room for the first week after the breakup. He stopped eating and dressed in baggy and comfortable clothes when he was able to so that he could hide himself. Not to mention that he was cold and tired all the time now. He knew that it wasn't healthy, but he didn't want to risk running into Jared for that first week. He felt so bad for unintentionally breaking his sweet boy's heart, that he felt that he needed to take it out on himself; he deserved to be punished. Finally, spending ever day in his room got to him. He was starting to go stir-crazy. Richard sighed and decided to go to the least likely place that Jared would go to: the library.

The building was nearly silent and musty with the smell of books. Richard relished in the change of scenery and sighed happily. He slowly lugged his body in the direction of fiction novels. He felt so tired...maybe it was a bad idea to come to the library. He could, quite literally, fall asleep here. He pushed his glasses out of the way so that he could rub the sleep out of his eyes. "So tired." He whispered to himself and moved to the next isle of books. He browsed for easily ten minutes before finding an old set of mysteries that he loved reading. He gently pulled the first book out and began to shuffle towards the reception desk. Richard hesitated as he rounded the last corner. Behind the desk was a smiling Satch with laughing Jirard standing on the other side of the counter. He hesitated, even thought about putting the book back and leaving, but Satch noticed him. The man behind the counter waved him over with a smile.

"You don't have to be quite; Jirard was the last one here. Well, until you showed up. Let me check that out for you." Satch called out, startling Richard out of the quiet library haze. He forced a smile and walked over to the others.

"How have you been?" Jirard asked, cheerful as ever. His smile was so genuine and warm. As if he could possibly care about me, Richard thought.

"I've felt worse to be perfectly honest. How's Jared holding up?" He asked softly and slid the hard covered novel to Satch. They both snickered.

"Petty as ever, but that's Jared for you. I don't know if I liked it any better when you were dating. He would talk to himself about how he was 'so in love with a secret someone' but he knew I could hear him." Satch muttered. Richard realized that he had struck a nerve and gulped.

"S-sorry about that." He muttered. A yawn ripped it's way out of his body. Richard managed to cover his mouth with his hand out of courtesy, but couldn't keep the ever present yawn-hum from sounding. Jirard's smile faltered.

"I know you said you've felt worse, but you don't look very good." The bearded man softly murmured before looking at Satch. "I think I'm going to walk Richard back." Richard looked at him with sad and concerned eyes.

"No no no. It's-" He yawned. "It's okay. I just pulled an all-nighter is-" Another yawn. "Is all. Re-" More yawning. "Really. I don't want to be a burden." Richard managed to say  finally. He groped for the book, but Satch handed it to Jirard.

"Make sure he gets all the way back to his room. I still need to lock up." Satch said with a soft smile to his friend. Richard couldn't find the energy to fight them anymore. He obediently nodded and moved next to his escort home.

"Bye Satch." They said in different energies of unison. As they approached the door, Jirard walked past Richard and held the door open for him. Richard found himself blushing slightly from such a sweet gesture.

"Thank you." The younger boy wished and stepped into the cooling air. He shivered faintly, but pulled his sweater closer to his skin in attempts to combat his chill. Jirard quickly joined him. They started off towards Bluebell, neither knowing what to say. Jirard finally broke the silence as he handed Richard his book.

"How are you actually doing?" He asked softly. Richard looked at him, surprised. In doing so, he managed to catch his foot on the edge of a lamp post and fell shoulder first into Jirard. They two of them thankfully toppled into the slightly-softer-than-pavement grass: Richard had twisted mid-fall and managed to land on his back beneath Jirard. For a split second, it was reminiscent of when he and Jared and slipped in the hallway. But Jared was old news; the pain radiating through his weak body was new news! He made a soft, painful whine and opened his eyes to see gray. A moment later, Jirard moved to support his upper body, removing his shoulder from Richard's face, before leaping off the smaller boy.

"I am so sorry!" They both exclaimed in unison.

"It was all my fault. Are you okay?" Richard asked in retaliation. Jirard's brown eyes flickered back in the direction of the library. He shook his head and extended his hand.

"No. I surprised you, so it's my fault." He responded. Richard felt somehow even worse! He placed a shivering hand in the outstretched one. His hand felt so warm and secure as it wrapped around his tiny pale wrist. Unintentionally, Jirard almost knocked them over as he pulled Richard to his feet: the boy had been trying to stand when the Normal Boots member gave his arm a tug, causing his body to ram into Jirard's again. This time, however, he was more prepared and caught Richard in an embrace before they could topple over. Richard meant to pull away. Meant to apologize again. Meant to do anything to diffuse the situation.

But Jirard was so warm. He couldn't help himself; Richard closed his eyes and smiled, relishing in the brief contact. Before he could absolutely lose himself though, Richard stepped back. Jirard's hands were still on his waist for a moment before returning to the owner's sides.

"I am so sorry about making us fall, but thank you for helping me up." Richard managed to say and retrieved his book from the pavement. His face was refreshingly hot for the first time in a week. He was blushing partially due to the experience and how cliche it was, but also who he had experienced it with. When Richard looked back at his teal clad hero, his face was also pink tinted.

"Let's um...let's get you to your room." The bearded one stated nervously. Richard nodded and they scurried off to Bluebell. On Jirard's floor, our boy stopped and smiled.

"Thank you for walking me back." His voice was soft but honest. The other smiled his familiar and kind smile.

"Satch said to walk you to your room, and I'm not one to go against his wishes." He said in what sounded half joking and half serious. They continued on to Richard's room where they exchanged another set of 'Thank You's and 'I'm Sorry's before parting ways. He had fallen head over heals for the wrong guy: unlike Jared, Jirard had a genuinely kind smile.

(First new date! There are many more to come, but these will take some time to write because I have so many plans and so many boys to write about!)