Lenore barely got any sleep last night.
Her mind would always wander off to that moment when Stephen kissed her. So when she came out of her room early in the morning, she didn't bother to even glance at Stephen when he came out at the same time as her. She quickly sprinted away before he could see her and quickly made her way to the library.
"Master Lenore." Wong greeted her after he saw her going inside, he then took notice of the way she looked. Her hair was in a messy ponytail, her robes looked disheleved. Wong became even more worried when she stopped in front of his desk. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.
"Are you okay?" Wong looked down on Lenore once more, noticing the dark circles in her eyes, "You look like you didn't sleep at all."
"Because I didn't." she replied while planting her hands on his desk with a loud slam, "Wong, I need a favor."
"Anything." Wong set down the books he was holding and crossed his arms over his chest, "What is it?"
"Take over my class for today. And the day after..." she paused as she inhaled sharply through her nose, "The whole year I'd you have to."
"Woah, calm down. I can't do that, I'm a guardian of these books. I can't go teach full time like you."
She pouted and averted her gaze away from Wong, "Fine. How about a week?"
"Three days."
With a roll of her eyes, she sighed in defeat and said, "Deal."
After the two shook on it, Lenore heard the sounds of someone entering the library. She turned around and noticed the shadow by the wall, no doubt, she knew who it belonged to. Panicked, she hopped over Wong's desk, much to his dismay, and slid under. As Wong was about to open his mouth to ask, Stephen had already neared the table.
"Stephen." Wong greeted him, buti s eyes were still on Lenore below the table.
"Wong." Stephen looked at Wong skeptically until the latter brought his attention back to Stephen.
"What do you want, Strange?"
"Books on Astral Projection."
"You're not ready for that." Wong said as he shook his head in disapproval. Lenore, however, had a raised eyebrow as she listened to the conversation between them.
"Try me, Beyoncé." He quipped, jerking his head slightly to the side and raising both of his eyebrows while waiting for a reaction from Wong. The librarian kept a stoic look on his face and Lenore almost bursted into a fit of laughter as she clamped both of her hands over her mouth.
"Oh come on, you've heard of her. She's a huge star, right?"
Wong remained still, looking at Stephen with his face still showing no expression.
"Do you ever laugh?" Stephen muttered with an annoyed tone in his voice. Looking away,
Stephen grumbled, "Come on, just give me the book."
"No!" Said Wong, causing Stephen to let out a defeated sigh as he rolled his eyes.
"Fine, but have you seen Lenore around?"
Wong glanced down at Lenore for a brief moment, "Why do you ask?"
"I just want to talk with her."
Wong looked down for a moment, meeting Lenore's gaze from underneath his desk, she shook her head sideways with a finger pressed against her lips, signaling him not to tell Stephen.
Wong rolled his eyes while letting out a tired sigh, "I don't know where she is. Have you checked the training grounds?"
"I haven't, but thanks."
Wong nodded at Stephen, he remained still while watching him leave the library. Once out of earshot, Lenore shot up from the floor beside Wong.
"Thank you, Wong." Lenore said, hugging his arm.
"Why are you avoiding him?" Wong asked, looking down at her with a skeptical look on his face.
"Let's just say something happened that wasn't supposed to happen." Lenore reked with her chin perched on his shoulder. Wong nodded in understanding and began piling up the books in front of Lenore, making the corners of her lips curls into a nervous smile.
She let go of Wong as he started to instruct her of her tasks. She didn't realize that it was so much work but she's already here. Once Wong left to take her place on teaching the students in the training grounds, Lenore started to work in the library.
She first placed all the books on their respective shelves before she proceeded to clean the whole library. It helped her forget what happened last night, but by the time her tasks was done and she was all alone, she distracted herself by reading the books in the Ancient One's collection.
She recalled staying up late just to read these and to train herself. She used to be a candidate to be the next Sorcerer Supreme, having been trained under one herself. But she backed out, she felt like it wasn't a job for her, like it wasn't destined for her but it was for someone else.
She told the Ancient One that very reason and she surprised that she had accepted it. And that was only a few months ago.
"Damn." She muttered to herself as she felt her stomach grumble. She set the book aside and made her way out of the library when all of a sudden, a familiar figure walked inside. Before she could even hide, Stephen had already seen her.
"Lenore." He called to her as he jogged up to her.
"Strange," she replied, noticing the slight twitch on his eyebrow when she decided to call him by his surname instead of his first name.
"What are you doing here?"
"I was going to ask the same thing," Stephen chuckled sheepishly as he looked down at her, "I didn't see you today."
"Oh that." She brought he hand on the back of her head and scratched at one spot, "I was...sick?"
Stephen, at that point, knew she was lying. But he played along with it. He wore a surprised look on his face. "Are you now?"
Stephen moved his hand forward, attempting to place the back of it against her forehead. but before he could do so, Lenore stepped back.
"What?" Stephen asked with a raised eyebrow, "I'm a doctor, I can help you."
"Oh don't worry about me, I'll be fine." She crossed her arms over her chest and then changed the subject, "So, you're here, I'm assuming you want a book."
"Yeah, I was about to urge Wong for books about ashes projectiom and—"
"Woah!" She cut him off, raising her hands in front of her, "You are not ready for that, Strange."
"Oh come on, you too? Look, you've already seen what I can do."
"You opened a portal, it's not even an advanced spell."
"Oh come on, cut me some slack. Can you give me the book?"
Lenore cocked an eyebrow at his direction and crossed her arms, "And what did Wong say?"
"He said no." Stephen replied, looking away in annoyance.
"Then no. I'm sorry, Strange." She turned around her heel and started to walk away, until Stephen grabbed her hand, stopping her.
"Then let's talk about what happened last night." Stephen started, he let go of her hand as she turned around to face him again.
"Fine then." Lenore grabbed Stephen's hand before she looked around, making sure they aren't being seen, "But not here."
Stephen allowed Lenore to drag him back inside of the library. Once they were inside, Lenore let go of his hand and closed the doors with a loud bang, making Stephen jump slightly.
Lenore spin around her heels and faced Stephen with hr arms crossed over her chest and a serious look on her face.
Stephen decided to speak first, "Look, I know you have been avoiding me."
Lenore sighed as she rubbed a hand over her face, "Is it that obvious?"
"Yeah, especially this morning when you were hiding under Wong's table."
Lenore sucked in a breath with a grimace on her face, "You saw that too?"
"WELL, Wong didn't really hide it that much. I mean, he had his gaze down on he floor the whole time we were talking."
Lenore muttered under her breath, "Dammit Wong."
"Anyways, I just want to apologize. I shouldn't have done that, I guess... I was caught up in the moment." Stephen scratched the back of his neck, "I'm sorry."
Lenore sighed, "It's fine, Stephen."
"So, are the lessons still on?"
Lenore puckered her lips, "I don't think so. Especially with how fast your progress is with your magic," she replied, causing the hopeful grin on Stephen's lips to fall.
"How about Astral Projection then? You could teach me." Stephen urged, stepping closer to Lenore but she didn't mind.
Lenore giggled softly as she looked up at Stephen, she felt her cheeks warming up. She withheld a smile by biting on her lower lip but unbeknownst to her, Stephen noticed it and her glanced down at her lips.
"No." she responded, bringing Stephen's attention back to her face.
"Oh come on!"
_______________
As the sun sets on Kamar Taj, every students and Masters all retreated to their respective rooms. While everyone got ready to go to sleep, Stephen stayed up, sitting in front of his desk and Co tempkating whether to go through his plan or not.
But after a few mjnufes, he decided to do it. He stood up and moved his right hand in a circular motion to create a small portal which gave him a view of the very shelf that contained the books he needed. Stephen quickly grabbed the book before proceeding onto the next shelf.
Meanwhile, Wong was sitting on his desk, reading a book while listening to Beyoncé's Single Ladies on full blast that he didn't know what was happening behind him, but he had a feeling. Wong quickly turned around to check but found nothing, but when he turned around, the book he was reading was gone.
Stephen then spent the rest of the night, studying in his astral form while his physical form asleep. But halfway through his book, he remembered Lenore. She wasn't joking when she said no earlier, but the two were able to spend dinner together and to Stephen's surprise, he thought Lenore would be bothered about the mistake he did last night but she wasn't. It was as if it never happened.
He tried doing that to. To think that nothing had happened between the two of them. But the thought always brought a smile on his face everytime he thinks about it. He loved the feeling of their kiss, it felt natural. Not to mention, Lenore kissed him back and hesitated soon as their kiss became feverish.
"Damn." Even in his studies, all he could think of was the attractive brunette who lived a few doors down from his.