~ Bookends ~

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Ghost Hunt

The first time Mai stepped into the library, she was sad to admit, completely unnerved by the way the books seemed to stretch out for miles into the vague distance. She looked at the slip of paper in her hand with at least ten different sets of alpha-numeric call numbers on it and sighed heavily. Trust the lecturer whose research she was assisting to send her all the way to the National Library when she'd never even been there before. While she hovered uncertainly by the imposing brass and glass entrance of the reference section, the security guard, a tall, gaunt looking Chinese man, stood up and came over. "Can I help you miss?" he asked in a stern but not unkindly tone. As she fumbled to show him the list of books that she was looking for, a couple strode on ahead through the doors, and the red headed woman, who was clearly an employee of the library, stopped to speak to the guard who was now perusing her scrap of paper. The man who was waiting patiently for her grinned and winked at Mai, who blushed.

Evidently, Mai had arrived at the wrong end of the library, because the guard was now shaking his head slightly and pointing to a staircase at the end of the corridor. When she looked baffled, the tall man merely smiled a little and waved another passing librarian over. This one was clearly Caucasian and wore a cheery expression on his face. "This way," he said with what Mai was startled to hear, a flawless Kansai accent as they mounted the white marble stairs. Two flights up, and Mai found herself facing another set of double doors in the same brass and glass façade. The discreet bronze plaque mounted on the wall beside it proclaimed that they had arrived at the General Reading Room. "Oh, but I haven't got my books yet," Mai started to say when the door opened softly. A girl dressed in a kimono sauntered out, followed by yet another librarian, who bowed after her. "Thank you for your patronage…" she heard him say as with a comforting smile, she was ushered into the room by her own librarian.

As she wandered between the impossibly tall shelves, watching the various people reading or browsing quietly, she was struck by a comfortable sense of belonging that she didn't think she would have been able to experience there. "The person whom you should be speaking to is over there, at the end of the room" her librarian was saying as she drank in the soft ruffle of pages and the slight musty smell curiously. The General Reading Room was constructed as a two-tiered circular room, with fluted pillars supporting the high domed ceiling. Going up the curved staircase to the second tier, she stopped to let a lady balancing a tall stack of leather-bound journals pass. The lady gave her a grateful smile and indicated with a nod of her head the top of the stairs. "He's just up there. Don't let his compulsive tea drinking frighten you," she said before making her merry way on.

The 'he' turned out to be a young man who was perched behind an imposing white marble and mahogany desk that ran in a smooth curve around an island of tightly massed together shelves that framed a doorway that said "Staff Only" on it. The man had not bothered to look up from the leather chair he was seated on, and it was only when Mai had coughed to get his attention that he unwillingly put his own heavy black book down. A pair of cerulean eyes assessed her from under black framed glasses. And when Mai continued to stare at him, he asked in a light tenor voice, "How can I be of assistance?"

"I was told to pick up these books for Professor Gutenberg," she said and handed over the list to the black-clad librarian. He sighed and got up from his chair.

"Wait here," he said and disappeared amongst the shelves.

By the time he returned half an hour later, his remaining tea had gone cold and the girl who had handed him the very improbable list of books was nowhere to be found. As he ran a hand through his immaculate hair and felt a sense of annoyance well up in him, a soft snore caught his attention. It was the girl with the soft caramel eyes after all, fast asleep on a nearby bench. He smiled a little to himself as she yawned sleepily and then woke up properly with a guilty jolt. "Oh, er…" she said, red-faced, and didn't seem to know what to do. He held out the stack of books to her. "I believe these are what the professor would need. Some of them are very rare," he added. Mai wrinkled her nose at the bundle of peeling corners and yellowed pages. "Hai…"

They looked at each other from across the tower of books awkwardly and Naru was the first to turn away.

"I'll better go then," she said finally, and though she didn't know why, a little sadly too. Without looking back, Mai had begun her descent back to the lower tier when she heard someone calling her.

"Wait," he practically shouted. As a dozen or so surprised heads swiveled round irately in search of the culprit, Naru, not one to be bothered by disapproving glares (deserved or not) bolted two steps down at a time until he reached Mai. "My tea's gone cold because of your books," he said stiffly. Before the girl could retort, he added quickly, "The least you could do is accompany me while I get a hot one at the café."

Two minutes later, Lin, who had finally gotten rid of the noisy, ponytailed sporting boyfriend of the President of the Library Board, was startled for a second time that day by the sight of the Head Librarian walking out with the girl who'd asked him for directions earlier. Smirking behind his newspaper, he watched satisfyingly as they crossed the road to the tea shop…

Author's notes: Yay!! Naru with glasses *grins mushily* And yes, if this fic is anything to go by, I do have a thing for books and libraries...