Sparks and Smiles

An Affinity For Libraries

She had always admired large, majestic libraries.

She had snuck out with Xiao You and Qing He when they were younger to go and watch Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

While Xiao You had oohed and aahed over the handsome prince and the beautiful dresses and Qing He's eyes went wide at the sight of Belle and the action scenes, Shancai laughed at the talking furniture and marveled at the beautiful library.

It was stunning and absolutely jaw-dropping.

The image of that library in all of its glory never left her mind, even as she grew older and the value of money became more obvious to her, even when she was too busy to read and too poor to buy non-academic books because she had to earn money to support her family and go to school, the beautiful library still remained in her mind as a distant dream.

When her paths crossed with the green crocodile shoe guy, she would have never imagined herself to end up dating him.

He grew on her and she surprised herself at how happy she was with him.

One of the activities they did together was study.

From an outsider's perspective, one would assume that he was coat-tailing off of his parents' success and that he wasn't in the most famous university in China from his own merit, but she quickly learnt how sharp her boyfriend's mind was and how he was one of the best students in his department, not only through natural talent but through hard work and studying.

Although their study sessions often ended up as impromptu kiss sessions (which neither of them would complain about) or studying with bribery as a motivation, she really enjoyed studying with him and her grades benefited tremendously.

Her mother burst into tears upon seeing her grades after her midterms and cooked Ah Si a feast as a thank you. He was all she would talk about for weeks.

On one of their first study sessions in the library, a group of twittering girls entered all at once along with some guys who interrupted them and asked for her input in finding a book.

 How would she know? She wasn't a librarian!

She had guided them with very vague directions, literally pointing in the direction of all of the bookshelves. She then returned to her textbook, the amount of long words she needed to memorize for her anatomy class making her head spin. She had made her way down half of the page before a hand was tugging on hers and dragging her out of the library.

 When she called his name and demanded to know what the hell he was doing, she only got "the library was too loud" before they were in the car driving towards his mansion.

He then led her past his room into a room that looked like it was straight from the Beauty and the Beast.

There were exquisite bookshelves covering the entire room, from floor to ceiling, along with beautiful big windows that looked to the outside with comfortable looking window-seats under them. Plush looking chairs and sofas dotted the room too.

She spun around, in awe.

In that moment, she fell in love with the modern day version of the library of her dreams.

It felt like she was in a wonderful fairytale.

At first, Ah Si grumbled at how she paid more attention to a room full of paper then she did her own boyfriend (he walked away from that one-sided huffy fit with swollen lips and a smirk on his face as she showed him how he would always have more of her attention) but eventually most if not all of their study sessions were held in his majestic library (they ended in his room eventually because his room had the world's nicest pillows and a nice TV for them to watch movies on).

And she really liked it.

Occasionally they would have food and drinks brought up on the days they were particularly lazy and didn't want to go down to the kitchen to make anything but for the most part, they had the entire room to themselves.

A perfect picture of  coziness.

They were currently curled up on the couch and he had fallen asleep not to long ago.

She found it amusing and slightly charming that Mr. Mysterious Intimidating Bad Boy of Ming De University was curled around her, wrapping one arm around her and using the other to hold her arm tight as her shoulder became his pillow. Her heart fluttered knowing that she was the only one he would willingly be this defenseless around.

She was glad that he was sleeping though, as she had noticed the bags under his eyes darkening over the last few days as he tried to juggle all of his many responsibilities.

So any chance that she could get him to sleep (because he was a stubborn platypus at the best of times), she'd take.

She felt his body tense. His hand started to twitch and his face move from peaceful and innocent to pained.

Nightmare.

She gently raised her hand to his face, gently smoothing out the furrow between his eyebrows with her thumb before letting it fall to his chest.

He had in his own way protected her several times since they'd met. She couldn't protect him in the same way physically but vowed to be there to help chase the demons from his mind. 

That is what lovers in an equally balanced relationship did. 

After all, her boyfriend was no fun at all to bicker with when he's all doom and gloom.

She moved closer to him and inhaled his signature scent that had quickly grown on her since they'd been together. How he could still smell amazing while he's sleeping and in a room full of books, she'd never know. Her hand came up to stroke the hairs on the back of his neck soothingly as she brought her face near his in an effort to comfort him.

Continuing with the motions on the back of his neck, she whispered "It's okay." "I'm here"

She whispered that over and over again until she got it through his subconscious.

His body began to relax and his face tilted towards hers, as if seeking her warmth.

Her eyes started to flutter as the atmosphere of the room and the warmth of his arms around her started to make her feel sleepy too.

She wrapped her arms around him and snuggled into him tighter.

As the sound of Ah Si's heartbeat lulled her to sleep, she thought with a happy and content yawn that she knew there was a reason she had always had a soft spot for beautiful libraries.

Because of the possibility of moments just like this. 

*~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Inspired of course by the beautiful libraries in both Beauty and the Beast films. #LibraryGoals

A/N: If your mansion doesn't have a library like this then why have a mansion at all?

A/N: Thank you to every single person who has read these stories and shown their love for these stories from my imaginative mind. Your support means a lot. I hope you continue to enjoy these little snapshots into the lives of our favorite stubborn love birds. Sending virtual hugs!!!