——
She made her way to the history section and browsed the shelves. She would do this for two hours, after all it would not look good for her to directly walk to the more mature section of the library, even if it was in the back.

She would make her way a round to look at some of the sections with fake interest, grabbing one to seem like she was trying to make a small pile.

When it seems like an accident that she found the mature section and seeing no one near, she looked to see if the collection of stories she was studying was still there.

It was not.

She huffed, before acting like she didn't mean to go to this section of books despite being the only one on this side of the library.

Calming her expression as she found herself in a random section with self help books, she bumped into someone.

She nearly dropped the three books in her hands. Turning, she panicked and gave a nervous giggle.

"S-Sorry...", she sweated.

"It's alright~", the man in front of her said.

He grinned at her before glancing down to check her out. Finding that uncomfortable, she tried to excuse herself.

"Now hold on, little lady! How about we spend some time together-", he was interrupted by another guy.

"Care to keep it down? I can hear your conversation from- Oh Me Gosh! Is that really you?", the guy that interrupted was an old friend from childhood.

She found herself dragged a way and she was a bit relieved. Though she did focus on who had recognized her and tried to remember him past all her fears.

"Sniffles?", she tested quietly.

"Yes! It's me!", he said as they sat down at a table.

The table had one more person. They were colorfully and covered in candy pins (?), but most striking of all was their lazy eye. She didn't want to stare so she looked back at Sniffles.

Sniffles looked like he had back in middle school. He even had a pale blue lab coat.

"I can't believe it.... You're still so tacky.", she gave him a ghost of a smile.

"Ha, at least I don't look depressed!", he countered.

"I am depressed.", she blinked and tilted her head.

The man that sat at the table with them almost burst out laughing but managed quiet giggles. Sniffles' expression grew dead and he held his hand to his face.

"You still can't detect humor, some things never change.", he sighed with a shake of his head.

"I can't take that as a joke if I really am depressed.", she frowned.

"Are you still taking your medication?", he asked a bit worried.

The colorful man wisely buried himself into a book about cooking.

"No....I can barely talk to anyone now.....", she stared at the table.

"You're talking to me?", he pressed a hand onto hers.

"That's because you were practically my annoying brother in middle school and then you left.", she said.

"I would have called but I never got your number.", he said.

He let go of her hand to shuffle some papers in front of him. He lined them up and set them inside a binder sleeve before closing it.

"Well... you're back now... what have you been doing and how long will you be here?", she almost whispered.

"Oh! I've come back permanently. I have my own lab now, I'll give you my card.", Sniffles opened his lab coat to take a card from an inner pocket.

"You're a real scientist," she giggled, "You're chemistry phase paid off huh?"

Sniffles smiled and her the card. It was lily blue with bold black letters.

"Thanks, Sniffles. I missed you.", she smiled.

"Oh please! I bet you were so happy I was gone that you forgot all about me!", he waved.

He held up his hand.

"Don't even think about answering that seriously young lady!", he continued with a wave of his finger.

She immediately bit his gloved finger. She was grinning through the bite with a mischievous look in her eye.

Sniffles stiffened and tried to breathe in and out carefully. He upper lip kept twitching. He softly patted her head as he didn't blink.

She let go and he pulled his hand a way. He silently stood up and walked out the front door.

Nothing happened for severally minutes. She glanced at the man at the table with her and saw that he was on the verge of laughing.

He calmed down by the time Sniffles came back.

"So.... How'd it go?", she asked once he was back in his seat.

"I mowed the lawn and trimmed the hedges.", he said.

"Hm... so if I go out side there aren't any trees with massive claw marks?", she asked as she leaned over the table.

"No. I don't do that any more. I now do clean yard work.", he replied as he went back to his research.

She hummed and began to read the first book in her pile.

As this all happened, the librarian looked at them in curiosity. They weren't too loud, but he did pick up that they were having a nice (?) conversation, so he didn't worry.

He also kind of noticed that Flaky has a nice smile.
——

——
It was an eventful day for Flaky. It wasn't what most would call exciting, but it was different. When she got home, she checked her emails.

One was junk mail, one was from her mom, one was from her publisher, and one was a reply from a previous email she sent out weeks before.

She got rid of the junk mail, answered the email from her mother, and replied to the email from her publisher.

She decided to go take a shower and answer the last one tomorrow. She turned her computer off.

———
In the shower she imagined a water pipe bursting and blasting her with hot steam. She would be screaming as she was boiled alive.

——-
Bye