It's been so long since I wrote something other than ALS for this fandom that I've forgotten what constitutes crack. Is this crack? Probably a little. Idk. I wrote this instead of sleeping last night. Enjoy.


It was finals week so, naturally, the library was rammed. And it smelled terrible.

Whilst true that I didn't spend as much time as I should, it was clear I used the resource a lot more than some of the other freshmen wandering around in search of textbooks they should have read months ago. The horror on the face of one engineering student as he realised he could never get through the huge volume in a week was enough to make me feel slightly better about my own study schedule. Only slightly.

Hearing my sigh of defeat, Christian looked up from his essay and smirked at smirked at me.

"You wouldn't be so stressed if you'd started studying when we did," he said, wrapping an arm around Lissa's shoulders. Her pen slipped, and she shrugged him off in frustration.

"Bullshit," I argued. "You're just as behind as me. I know you sneak off to make out in the stacks like every other hour."

Lissa blushed and focussed harder on her notes, but Christian's expression morphed into a full-on grin.

"She's my study partner, and this is a library. It still counts."

"I hope you fail spectacularly," I said, only half joking. Bad grades would do wonders for his attitude.

Lissa thumped her book down on the table a little too loudly, making somebody a few desks over shush us.

"If you two don't shut up, we'll all fail! I really need to do well this semester."

We lapsed into silence again. It was true- she did need to pull up her grades. So did I. Between Lissa's mental health relapse near the start of the year, and her roommate turning out to be an utter psycho at Christmas, we'd fallen woefully behind. She'd been lucky enough to meet Christian and get a study buddy as well as a boyfriend, but I didn't have anyone to copy notes from. My evolutionary biology cohort took 'survival of the fittest' a little too literally, and it was all-out war for the best marks.

Lissa and Christians politics and economics friends might have been stuck up, but they would always help others out in hopes of being able to call in a favour in the future. They also threw awesome parties.

Of course, the major difference between our courses' willingness to collab may have been the fierce competition for internships in my degree programme. Lissa's future politician friends has enough connections that they were set for life, whilst most of my fellow scientists and I had to earn them through the school's highly competitive Guardian mentorship programme. It was a huge leg-up only offered to the best of candidates.

Get a mentor, get an internship, get a well-paid job straight out of college. That was my plan. Only, it was the same plan as everyone else on my course had. So far, I was behind.

I could feel the familiar strains of anxiety in my stomach and chest as I contemplated my future and knew that I wouldn't be able to focus on work until I calmed down. Signalling to Lissa that I was going for a walk, I left my stuff in her care and headed for the dusty attic rooms on the fourth floor.

It was quieter up here due to the lack of power sockets or natural light, and probably the musty smell of old books too. I liked it up here though. Solitude and gentle sensory stimulation were just what I needed to quell the rising waves of panic. Plus, mouldy attics smelled better than sweaty students that hadn't bought shampoo in weeks.

I strolled between the stacks, every so often pausing to look at a particularly interesting books or people. One of the heavy volumes I pulled out had tiny bugs crawling through a hole in the spine, which was gross but oddly satisfying to watch. One girl had made a fort around her workspace out of energy drinks and chocolate, which would definitely get her thrown out if any of the staff caught her. Of course, if staff ever came up here, there wouldn't be books crawling with bugs.

There was also a boy sat with a violin, reading sheet music and fingering the instrument whilst barely making a sound. Every so often his bow would squeak against the strings and he'd cringe, though nobody shushed him. He might have been interesting to watch for a little longer, but someone else caught my eye.

It was him. Library bae.

I'd first spotted him in here at the start of the year, back before everything went to shit. Lissa and I had entertained ourselves through study sessions by picking out dream boyfriends, and making it our mission to learn as much as we could about them before they went home. Mostly we only figured out names or majors, but sometimes we'd overhear something juicier. It didn't matter- half the fun was the stories we made up about our mysterious men, or library baes, as we ironically called them.

And none had been more mysterious than this one.

He was a few years older than us, that was for sure, but there was no way of telling what grade he was in. None of his books or materials had helpful hints. I was pretty sure he studied literature as well as a subject close to my own. I read some of the same journals as him. It was an odd mix, but not the strangest I'd encountered here.

He also spoke Russian. I'd heard him muttering to himself several times, and when I'd tried to put the phrases into google translate, I'd found they were swearwords. He was quite inventive with them too. That, on top of the fact that he was drop-dead gorgeous and super tall, made me think he could actually be my dream boyfriend, much more than the shared interest in biology. I'd already decided I had no interest in dating anybody from my course.

To top off the enigma that was this man, he always had with him a long brown leather duster, like cowboys wore. There was always a small novel tucked into the right-hand pocket, as if he needed to be able to grab it at all times. From the titles or authors names poking out the top, I had determined that every one I'd seen had been a western. Today's book proudly proclaimed to be written by Louis L'Amour, and I recognised it as one he'd read before. I remembered because the last time he'd had it with him, I'd tried reading three pages of it online before giving up.

Yes, I might have been crossing the line into real stalker territory there, but that that wasn't as bad a crime as reading those god-awful cowboy novels.

It occurred to me then that I'd been staring at him for a really long time. My eyes were burning. I realised I'd barely blinked in the last two minutes.

"Jesus, Rose," I whispered to myself. "Get a grip woman."

If nothing else, staring at Mr. Tall, Dark and Russian had distracted me from my spiralling thoughts. My stomach was no longer in knots, even if my chest did still feel a bit fluttery. Maybe that was the comrade's fault, though. Being that attractive could wreak havoc on a girl's heart rate.

When I made it back to our table, Christian was playing Angry Birds and Lissa was reading through flashcards, everything else stacked neatly on the edge of the desk.

"Thought a pile of books had landed on you or something," Christian said without looking up from his game. "We were about to leave without you."

Lissa smacked him with the stack of cards before putting them in her satchel.

"No, we were waiting for you before we left. We decided to call it quits for today so we can get an early start tomorrow. My brain's had enough."

I stared down at my notes, only three pages on from what I'd been reading at lunchtime. Shit.

"Yeah, me too." I slammed the offending book closed, earning another glare from the girl across the way. I gave her the finger.

"Do you want to come over for dinner?" Lissa asked, shouldering her bag. It was heavy enough to pull her slim frame over sideways, so I took it instead.

"Nah, I've got leftover pizza at home. Can I get a lift though?" The bag was really heavy, as was my own.

"Sure," Lissa said, at the same time as Christian said "no".

"Well, it's her car, so it looks like that's a yes."

Since Lissa's fallout with her roomie, she'd moved off-campus into the huge apartment Christian rented. He was weird and antisocial so had been living alone right from the off, courtesy of his aunt. She'd asked if I wanted to move in with them next year, but there was no way I could afford it, and I didn't want to be that girl sponging off her rich friends. Even if they were really rich. Like, European royalty rich.

Still, I wasn't too proud to enjoy the ten-minute ride in the Audi rather than a half-hour jog home in the dark. I rode shotgun, much to Christian's annoyance.

Lissa hugged me before I left the car.

"Do you want a ride in the morning as well? We're heading in for 7."

My first instinct was to refuse and declare them both insane, but I paused. Yeah, that was two hours before I had planned on getting there, but there were advantages. I'd claim back half an hour or so in bed since I wasn't walking. I wouldn't have to brave the cold. I'd probably be able to snag one of the comfy study pods in the library and avoid people glaring at and/or shushing me all day. I could get breakfast on campus.

It was the thought of freshly-baked donuts that did it.

"See you at 6:45!"


At precisely 6:52 the next morning I was sliding into the rear heated seat of the Audi.

"How are you always late to everything!" Christian whined.

"My dad fucked off before he taught me to tell time," I shot back, fastening my seatbelt as Lissa peeled away from the curb. "And by the time my mom got round to it, she was on a different continent. Time difference and all."

Christian rolled his eyes. "Wrong crowd, Rose. Orphan card beats Daddy Issues every time."

"Shit Annie, you're right-"

"Can we not have the my-childhood-was-worse-than-yours fight before 7am, please?" Lissa asked, exasperated. "I love you both but I'm stressed out and I swear I will dump you on the side of the road and make you walk the rest of the way."

We shut up immediately.

At least, we were quiet until we got to the library and realised it was even busier than it was last night.

"How is this possible?!" I exclaimed. I couldn't see any seats left together. One of the high-backed comfy chairs in a study pod swung around to reveal a guy with bedhead and rumpled clothes. I bet he was responsible for the scent of unwashed gym sock that hung in this area.

"Freshers?" he asked. We nodded. "Finals week, man. You have to sleep here if you want a seat."

Somebody on the other side of the partition hummed in agreement.

"Fuck this," I said. "Let's go upstairs."

Lissa and Christian followed me up the two flights of spiral staircase and through the stacks to the musty old rooms in the back. Nobody would have slept here- there were no power sockets, and laptops would have died overnight. Armed with a bag full of fully-charged technology, I entered the room with a triumphant smile.

An hour later, I was sat with a full page of notes in front of me and my favourite motivational playlist blasting through my headphones. Lissa and Christian were somewhere to my left, but my attention wasn't focussed on any of that. I was staring at the person three desks ahead of me and one to the right. The person that was sleeping with his head pillowed on a beat-up old western novel.

Without looking, I pushed a huge book off the edge of the table. The thump caused shelves to rattle and dust to puff up from the floor.

The dark head of long, silken hair jerked up off the desk in front of me, whipping around as he searched for the source of the noise. After a moment, he realised where he was, and slumped back down on the desk, muttering in Russian. I chewed my pen to hide a smirk.

When Library Bae raised his head again, he finally noticed the to-go cup of coffee placed in front of him. His brow furrowed in confusion, and he reached for it, squinting to read the label as he rubbed his eyes.

He made a sharp sound of surprise as finished, and I ducked my head behind my laptop before he could catch me smiling.

Morning, Sleeping Beauty! You looked like you're gonna need this.

P.S. Fancy a study date?
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I think this is a oneshot, but we'll see I guess. Consider it complete for now. I might come back to it in 3 years. You never know with me.