𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐌𝐏𝐇 || ʜᴀᴡᴋꜱ

41➟ In which I face my own fears.

I've never thought electricity could read a room, you know, considering it's not alive. But apparently, I was wrong and, not only could it read a room, but it could also save my life.

I jumped when I met the weathered face of the Librarian, I also nearly shit myself practically half a second later when the strip light on my ceiling blew and sent sparks flying down all around me, Rin and the crime syndicate who'd decided to pop in for a quick chat.

I'm not proud of my foul mouth, so I won't repeat every single thing I said. What I will tell you is that I probably shouldn't have said half as much as I did in front of Rin. I really did hope that he didn't look up to me enough to view me as a role model and copy what I said- but it's Rin, and he definitely didn't (and still doesn't) view me as a role model. If anything it'd be more accurate the other way around.

The Librarian chuckled, "I'm so sorry my dear, I didn't mean to scare you."

I laughed nervously, trying to link my thoughts to Rin furiously quickly, "Paper, get the paper now whilst he doesn't see you and hide." Although I had no way of knowing if he had heard me or not, as he made no effort to respond.

"Don't worry about it, sir," I smiled in the dark, despite knowing that it was pitch black, except for the window on the floor, and no one could see much.

"Why don't we find our way to Clover's office, for a bit of light, hm?"

I nodded, again forgetting he couldn't see me and quickly responding, "Yes! Yes, let's do that."

And, though it was a struggle, I did, eventually manage to do that, slapping my hand against the wall until it fell upon the metal handle of the glazed glass door. There wasn't any light coming through the blurred facade meaning his blinds were down, so I just assumed Clover wasn't in, proceeding to stumble through the door and smash my hand against the wall until I found the light switch. Surprisingly, light helps. The Librarian managed to get through the door once a light was actually visible, and yet again, I was jumped by the face of my boss right beside me.

I fell backwards into the Librarian, who was surprisingly stable for his old age and quickly pushed myself off, apologising profusely and cursing myself out for being so clumsy. This was definitely a full 180 from the person I was at the underground speakeasy the other night.

He just laughed, showing off his yellowed teeth and patting me on the shoulder, "Don't worry sweetheart, happens to the best of us."

I smiled awkwardly and he walked past me, making his way behind Clover's desk and sitting on Clover's ridiculously large, green leather desk chair. He spun himself around a bit before stopping to look at Clover and me.

"Well?" He asked, "Are you not going to sit down?"

Clover mumbled something along the lines of "that's my chair old man" under his breath but sat down on the opposite side of the desk anyway. I followed.

"What's this about?" Clover asked, sitting with a rather rigid posture. It almost looked like he was trying to make himself look bigger. If he couldn't make it work, I definitely couldn't.

But I tried anyway.

"You should get a better job."

"Are you promoting me?" Clover looked up hopefully.

The Librarian practically glared at Clover, turning to me instead, "I was talking to you."

"Haha," I laughed politely, "I think I suit this job."

"Well I don't," The Librarian said rather bluntly, "You have so much potential, and Clover has you sitting around going through his old documents.

"I do it to protect the secrets you need me to keep," Clover spat back, crossing his arms over his chest.