A/N: Shiori means "bookmark".

He loved the way that she got that dazed off look in her eyes as she hunched over slightly, strands of hair falling lightly forward to cover strips of her face while her eyes ran back and forth across the page. He loved the way her facial expressions would change every so often—sometimes he would catch her holding in her laughter and sometimes he would catch her holding in her tears. And he couldn't help but wonder exactly what images were being created in that brilliant head of hers by the words that were printed on those pages.

He knew all of her reading spots. It took him some time, but he had discovered all of them. And now, whenever he didn't have anything to do, he would check all of those spots until he found her. And he always found her. It was as if she were always reading, always consumed by those bound pages. It perplexed him as to how she never seemed to tire of the words or never run out of books to read. He wasn't sure if he would ever understand their appeal.

"I wonder," spoke a voice from beside Ace one day, "what she would say if she found out how much you watch her, yoi." Ace had jumped up at the words and turned to see one of his fellow commanders, Marco, with an amused look on his face.

"She'll probably think he's a creep," said Thatch, from Ace's other side. Ace's eye twitched at the appearance of the other commander. "I mean, it is pretty creepy, kid."

"Who asked you guys?" Ace said, looking over at Shiori on the other side of the deck who was paying them no mind.

"No one, yoi," said Marco, "but it's getting damn right annoying to see you practically stalking her."

"Come on," said Thatch, throwing one arm over Ace's shoulders. "Go talk to the girl."

"I can't," Ace told them, pushing Thatch's arm away and moving his eyes back to Shiori. "I don't want to interrupt her."

"She won't mind it. If it doesn't bother her when I do it, then it won't bother her when you do it." Ace raised an eyebrow at Thatch's words.

"What's that supposed to—?" He started to ask, but before he could finish he had been pushed forward a fair distance toward Shiori by Marco. Ace saw his two fellow commanders looking at him expectantly. He knew that the two would not leave him alone until he actually went to talk to Shiori so, with a deep sigh, he erased the distance between her and him.

She was sitting on the railing of the ship with a light green book in her hands. Her legs were wrapped around the bars of the railing to prevent her from falling. Though, knowing how she was, Ace knew that she was more concerned about keeping the book out of the water than about keeping herself from falling overboard. A small smile crawled onto Ace's face at the thought.

Shiori did not move a single muscle as Ace neared her. She was too consumed by the tale that was being weaved right in front of her eyes to notice any movement around her. This was her biggest flaw—not only while she read, but also on the battlefield. She would always get lost in her thoughts during fights and end up letting herself get injured. Which, consequently, led to a scolding from her blond commander. It was never any fun.

Suffice it to say, when Ace finally made his presence known from right behind her—by a "Whatcha reading?"—she jumped and the wonderful book that she had just been reading slipped right out of her hands.

"No!" She squeaked out, diving forward to grab the book, but immediately something held her back by her shirt while she saw a hand appear and grasp the book. She turned to see Fire Fist Ace looking at her quizzically. Her book was in his right hand while his left hand gripped onto the back of her shirt. She sighed in relief and snatched the book out of his hands. She closed her eyes as she held it tightly to her chest.

"Thank you," she breathed out as she looked back at him. "But what were you doing sneaking up on me like that?"

"I wasn't sneaking," said Ace. "You just weren't paying attention." Shiori's mouth formed into an 'o' shape as she realized what had happened and her face started to turn red out of embarrassment.

"Well, did you need something from me?" She asked him.

"I just wanted to know what you were reading," he told her. "You're always reading so it's got to be something interesting." He watched her eyes light up at his comment. He was certain that people didn't normally ask her about her favorite pastime.

"Of course it's interesting! There's all sorts of cool, different things happening in each one. Each story has it's own set of characters and they're all so fascinating with their own backgrounds. And there's all sorts of different worlds that I can just get lost in for hours. Like this one!" She said and then lifted the book that she was holding up so that Ace could get a better look at it. "In this one, this man gets a ring from his cousin which a wizard tells him is crazy powerful and that he needs to take it away from his home immediately. Along with some others from his home, he leaves with the ring and they travel a lot before learning that they need to destroy the ring. And the only way to do that is to take it back to where it was forged, which is a volcano, and throw it in there. So now they need to travel even farther!" Ace couldn't help but grin at the sight of her excitement.

"That much is happening in just those pieces of paper?" Ace asked her skeptically.

"Of course, silly! That's what books are." She got off of the railing and landed on the wooden deck. She tucked her book under her arm and then grabbed onto his hand, pulling him inside the ship.

"Woah. Where are you taking me?" Asked Ace.

"To the best place on this ship, of course!" She answered. Before Ace could question her any further, they arrived in front of an intricately carved oak door, which he recognized as the entrance to the library.

"Of course, she would consider that the best place on the ship," he thought to himself. He had seen her enter and exit it many times before, but, as far as he had noted, she only entered to return books and get new ones. She never read there.

Shiori let go of his hand and left him standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by all the books. Ace couldn't pull his eyes away from her as she walked back and forth amongst the shelves. She seemed to be looking for something, but she also seemed to be trying to make a decision. After a few minutes of silence, she pulled out a book and walked over to him, handing him said book.

"Huh?" Voiced Ace. He was confused as to why she was handing him a book.

"Read this! I think you'll enjoy it! It's about a guy who finds this dragon egg and—," she covered her mouth with her hand. "Sorry, sorry," she said after. "No spoilers! Just read it." Ace looked at her dumbfounded. He didn't want to read the book, but he didn't want to disappoint her either. She looked so happy to be able to share her passion with someone else and he couldn't bear to take that away.

"This is all Marco and Thatch's fault," he thought. "I was perfectly fine just watching her. Though, I would've never gotten to see her smiling like this if I hadn't talked to her so—." Ace internally groaned. He was starting to get frustrated. He decided that he should say something to her, anything, to get himself out of this mess. But before he knew it, he was getting pulled out of the library and into a cranny hidden below the ship that was just big enough to fit the two of them. There was just enough lighting to make it possible to read.

"This is my favorite reading spot on the whole ship," Shiori told him in a soft voice. "I don't mind sharing it with you, though, but you can't tell anyone else about it. Promise?" She looked up at him through her lashes. Ace felt his breath catch in his throat. She was so beautiful.

"Promise," he told her, but he was sure that his voice came out a lot quieter than he had meant it to. She sent him a huge, radiant grin before sitting herself down on the floor and pulling him down with her. She opened her book on her lap, quickly getting absorbed within the printed letters.

Ace sat beside her uneasily. He didn't want to do the reading, but he did want to keep sitting by her, skin touching skin, warmth meeting warmth, and sharing something so special with her. He opened the book that he had given her on his lap in the hopes that it wouldn't be as bad as he thought. Of course, he was wrong. He stared at the page with furrowed brows.

He realized that it wasn't that he didn't want to read it, but that he couldn't. He frowned as he thought about his childhood. He spent his years with his two brothers running around the forests, fighting and hunting, not going to school like he knew that the other kids that lived in the Goa Kingdom had. If you put him in a fight, he'd win without a problem, but read a book? No.

He tried his hardest, but the limited amount of literacy that he knew was giving him trouble getting through the first paragraph. He wasn't sure how much time had passed before he saw Shiori's head pop into his field of vision, leering over the book in his hands. She looked up at him with a pout.

"So cute," thought Ace.

"How come you're still on the first page?" Ace gulped. He didn't want to say that he didn't enjoy the book for fear of disappointing her, but he didn't want to tell her the truth for fear of having her look down on him. He couldn't make a decision before she decided to speak.

"Do you not like it?" Shiori asked him with teary eyes. Ace mentally cursed at himself. What was he going to do now?

"No, it's not that!" He exclaimed, defensively. "I just..." He trailed off. He looked back over at the page before him and ran his eyes across the symbols that called themselves letters. He unconsciously furrowed his brows as he looked down at them. The expression that he made didn't escape Shiori's attention and her eyes widened at the sudden realization.

"Oh my gosh!" She shouted. Ace turned around to look at her questioningly. He saw her cover her face with her hands and he could see through her fingers that it was turning red.

"I'm so sorry!" Exclaimed Shiori. "I didn't even think—Ah! I'm so insensitive." She dropped her hands back down to her lap and met his eyes. "Please forgive me. I just got so excited at the thought that I had finally found someone who could be interested in books with me. I totally forgot to consider the fact that some people can't read."

Ace felt shame fill his whole being. Surely her opinion of him would drop significantly now. He saw more tears begin to well up in her eyes.

"Why?" He thought. "Was it such a bad thing that—." He stopped when it finally hit him that she had been apologizing. She didn't seem to think badly of him for his illiteracy after all.

"Wha—?" He questioned her. He placed his hand over hers. "Don't cry. It's fine. Really." Shiori looked up at him with her lips set firmly between her teeth. Ace picked up the book in his lap and handed it to her. "How about you just read it to me instead?" He watched her blink away her tears and a small smile etched itself onto her face. She sniffled.

"Okay," she said. "That's not a bad idea." She closed the book that she had been reading and put it aside before grabbing the one that she had given him. She calmed her breathing down as Ace sighed in relief since everything had worked out. The two made themselves comfortable in the cranny again, a bit closer to each other than they had been before.

"Eragon knelt in a bed of trampled reed grass and scanned tracks with a practiced eye," Shiori began. Ace leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes so that he could enjoy her voice fully.

"The prints told him that the deer had been in the meadow only a half-hour before." Her voice was lovely, he realized. It was light and soft and hit his ears like a sweet melody.

"Soon they would bed down." A small smile crept onto his face. This was nice, he thought.

"His target, a small doe with a pronounced limp in her left forefoot, was still with the herd." He could get used to this.

"He was amazed she had made it so far without a wolf or bear catching her." He could definitely get used to this.