Work Text:
”Carlos. No.”
Carlos looked at his boyfriend and tried to smile apologetically. “It’s for science!”
“I let you have many things for science and let you forget me for a while for science but this is something I really don’t see a reason behind,” Cecil answered and stared at Carlos.
“But… science!”
Cecil shook his head and grabbed Carlos’s hand. “I love you very much, I really do, and I am very glad that my boyfriend is such a great scientist but this is something I hope you’ll understand not to do.”
Carlos bit his lip and hesitantly smiled at Cecil. “Maybe you’ll give me something else to think about?”
**
“What did I tell you?” Cecil asked, furiously, when his boyfriend appeared at the apartment, looking a bit worse for the weather. “I specifically said you are not to go to the library. Not alone, especially.”
“But science!” Carlos replied and shook his hand.
“What happened?”
“Oh, it was most exciting, Cecil, you should have been there! You know I wanted to know what the librarians are like, and I really wanted to see if it would be as dangerous as you claim. I would like to conduct experiments on the librarians (“Carlos, no!”) but I understand that that might cost me my life. Even though some great scientists have ended up losing their lives because of the scientific things they have done,” Carlos answered with a grin.
“That really didn’t tell me much,” Cecil noted and pointed at the sofa next to him. “Sit down and tell me more about it.”
“Yes, sorry. So, you see, we got in the library and it seemed like one of those abandoned places that you see around the place. And you see, I said ‘we’ not ‘I’. I wasn’t alone, I had my scientist friends with me. My colleagues who do scientific stuff with me. Anyway, we got in, and our main goal was only to see a librarian, and if we got lucky, we would take a sample out of it. (“Carlos...”) I mean we’ve heard that librarians are poisonous, obviously we have to test if that’s true. There’s so much science there to do. But we got in, and the library seemed empty, and there was no one around. So, I thought back to what you’ve said, and remembered something about the fiction section, so I told my colleagues to make their way with me over to the fiction side of the library.
“We weren’t silent on the way and we learned that Helen Hunt can look very terrifying. I had no idea she was so terrifying. Did you know she is so terrifying? I wanted to take a copy of her biography with me so I told Nils to grab us a copy so we could scientifically experiment on it at a later time.
“Anyway, we continued on our way over to the fiction side and the fountain in the reading section continued it calm noises. Or as calm as a fountain can be while it’s making deadly sounds. But when we got over to the fiction side, or not even there, Nilanjana heard something else as well. We didn’t stop, not yet, I mean even the spectre didn’t make us stop, but we definitely heard something. There probably was a rat or something, that was our scientific opinion on the matter.
“But then it attacked Arv. It didn’t look like a rat but it didn’t really look like a human. We had to think and we had to think fast, because we didn’t want it to kill Arv, of course we didn’t. So Nilanjana took out the sticks we had brought with us to stick and prod the librarians if we happened to come across one and I took out my sample tubes to take samples of the librarian so that we could do scientific tests.
“Nils prodded the librarian enough so it let Arv go and even though I suggested we stay there to do some more scientific experiments, Arv was beginning to look a bit green so maybe the poisonous theory was correct. Nils told us to run, and, dragging Arv, we did.
“The library may have seemed completely abandoned when we got there but when we were trying to get out of there, with Arv and test tubes and prodding sticks and a copy of a haunting biography of Helen Hunt, it was suddenly very much alive. The librarians from my hometown would have been shushing at us all to be quiet, because in those libraries where I come from the librarians are actual human beings who just want it to be silent and who hate any kinds of noises made by the library patrons.
“We got out mostly fine. Arv was still looking a bit blue, or was it green earlier, but anyway. We took Arv to our laboratory to begin our science things on them so that we would know if the poison was poisonous or only discoloring. Still waiting to find out how that goes. And all the other things as well! Helen Hunt looked much calmer outside of the library, so we don’t know, not for sure, if it’s the library that affects her negatively or if it’s something else, and I can’t wait to do science on the book.”
Cecil nodded with a frown and pulled Carlos into a hug. “I am very glad that nothing happened to you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Of course nothing happened to me. I’m a scientist. Although scientists have died during science but I still had so many things to experience with you. Could I leave you without exploring Night Vale and its mysteries with you?” Carlos asked and leaned closer to kiss Cecil. “But now I’m almost itching to get back to science. There’s so much to learn about the librarians and the library itself!”
“You’re staying home the night. And you sound far too much like you’re planning on going for another library trip. Carlos, I’m saying no,” Cecil said, holding Carlos tightly. “At least think about it again.”
Carlos nodded. “Staying here now. But we’ll see. Science is such a fascinating thing, you know I’m fascinated by it. You know I’m fascinated by many things. You included.”
“I do. And I won’t hold you back. Much. I know how important your work is, and how important of a scientist you are,” Cecil answered and pulled back a little bit. “You need a shower.”
“Yes, I agree. Will you take one with me?”