alight. : a fireafy fic

Chapter One

"Hey Leafy!"

Leafy could recognize that voice anywhere. She peered out from behind the bookcase. "Oh hey, Bubble!" Bubble's iridescent eyes shone when she laid eyes on her friend.

Leafy hoped so much that Bubble was sincere. That Bubble still cared. But Bubble was sometimes difficult to read, and Leafy couldn't really tell.

"I brought you some coffee," the blue haired girl said. "I didn't see you at the shop this morning, so I took the liberty to make you a cup on my break."

Leafy's eyes sparkled. She'd been feeling tired all day, and she finally gets the dose of caffeine she so required. "Thank you so much Bubble! It really means a lot!" Leafy took a sip and sighed at the taste of the warm, comforting drink. She looked up at her friend.

Bubble was smiling back, still clad in her barista's apron. Leafy then felt bad.

"Although," Leafy started. "You shouldn't have done that for me..."

Bubble's smile faltered. "What do you mean?"

"It takes a lot of effort just to come over to the library all the way from the coffee shop. You've already used most of your break!" Leafy set the coffee onto the bookshelf. "I don't deserve this. Take more time for yourself, okay?"

Bubble frowned. "Leafy, I wanted to do this. Don't worry about me! I enjoyed it. It was nice!"

Leafy smiled slightly. "I'm glad. Thank you again Bubble!"

The girl smiled in response. "You're welcome! I gotta head back to work now, I don't want to leave Pen alone for too long."

The librarian laughed at the thought. "Alright! Thanks for visiting!" She waved as Bubble turned to head back to the coffee shop.

Humming to herself, Leafy took another sip of coffee and sighed in happiness. Today was going to be a good day.

She put the coffee cup in the book cart and pushed it over to the main desk up front. She organized the books by genre, to make Book's job of putting the books back a little easier. She smiled to herself and picked up her coffee to take another sip.

That's when she caught a sight of the orange hair.

She nearly choked on her drink and ducked under the desk. She peered out at Firey from underneath the desk, carefully watching his every move.

Firey used to never come to the library. What was he doing here? From the looks of his attire, he's still working as a security guard at MePhone Products. Firey observed his surroundings, his amber eyes darting around the library, potentially searching for something. He then shrugged, and made his way to the comic book section.

Leafy's mind was a whirlwind right now. She gripped onto the leg of the desk as the thoughts hit her like a train. What was he doing here at 11 am? If he's still working at MePhone products, he shouldn't be off his security shift for another four hours.

She hates how she still remembers his schedule.

Why was he looking around the library like that? Was he looking for something? Someone? Was he looking for Leafy? Was he looking for someone else...?

"Are you okay?"

Leafy snapped back to reality and looked up. Book was staring at her.

"Yeah," Leafy cleared her throat and stood up. Book raised an eyebrow and said nothing, and simply just grabbed a stack of books Leafy had organized off of the desk.

"Whatever you say," Book said before going back to the shelves.

Leafy watched her go until she was out of sight. She turned back to the desk and began to go through the check-in cards and newly returned books.

A shadow loomed over her.

"I want to check this out," a familiar voice said. Leafy looked up, and immediately regretted it.

Firey was staring at her, a comic book gripped in his hand.

"O-oh," Leafy gulped, and took the book to scan it. Her finger accidentally brushed against Firey's palm, and she pretended not to notice him freeze. "Do you have a library card?"

She was met with silence.

"I'll take that as a no then," she said quietly.

The orange-haired boy then reached into his pocket and slammed a library card onto the desk, scaring the shit out of Leafy.

Oh, right. She had given him one while they were um. Friends.

She touched the card with her finger and slid it to her side of the desk, scanning the book, then the card.

"You've got fourteen days to return it," she mumbled, before pushing the book and card back to Firey.

"K."

And with that, he grabbed the book and turned around.

"It was good seeing you, Firey," Leafy breathed softly.

He began to walk away, then suddenly turned back around and grabbed Leafy by the wrist, causing the girl to gasp. He dragged her out through the library doors, only letting her go when they got behind the building.

"Can you forget about me already?" Firey hissed. "I don't even want to see you!"

Leafy ignored what he said. "Aren't you supposed to be at work? It's 11:14 am."

Firey rolled his amber eyes. "Why does my schedule matter to you? I'm seeing someone else now. I don't need you keeping track of shit for me, Leafy."

Leafy's heart started beating faster. "Who are you seeing?"

The boy laughed. "Why does it matter to you?"

Leafy shook her head and narrowed her eyes. "It matters to me when you drag me out of work and accuse me of stuff I'm not even doing. We used to be a thing, Firey. And of course I'll keep track of your schedule, since I fucking remember it."

Firey huffed and opened his mouth to speak, but Leafy interrupted one more time.

"And if you didn't want to see me, why did you come to the Library? You know I work here."

Fiery rolled his eyes once more. "I forgot you did."

"You didn't." Leafy was not having it. "You were looking around for someone."

"I was looking around for my new girlfriend," Firey snarled. "I wanted to see if she was there. And I wanted to check out a book."

"You hate reading."

"You took Dream Island," he retorted.

"We found out that place wasn't even real!" Leafy took a breath to calm down. "And how does Dream island play into you going to a library when you hate reading? How does this play into you interrupting me from my job?"

"You chose your job over me. You chose yourself over me." Firey's eyes were alight with anger. "You got selfish, Leafy, and you still are."

Leafy stopped. Selfish? She's still being selfish? She looked away. Firey looked almost apologetic.

He sighed and left without saying a word.

Leafy kept staring at the ground. Was she really still selfish?