[Action spam! Everyone's welcome!]

[librariansheart]

[ With exams coming up, shy Sheska has been spending more time than usual at a little sidewalk cafe near the public library, but only three of her books seem to be about classwork, and they remain untouched on the top of various stacks. The others, excepting one or two she has open, form the lower parts of the short towers. The stack of notebooks

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[lordsummoner]

[Braska is wandering by - taking a slightly different route home today. He spots Sheska and pauses for a moment, not really sure if he should say something. He fidgets for a moment with his ponytail - about half and half light brown and grey hair - and then decides to go for it. The worst she can do is brush him off, and he's more than used to that.]

Hey...are you okay?

[librariansheart]

[Sheska yelps, starting and not-quite knocking her tea off the table. She scrambles for it, and manages to catch it, spilling half of it over her injured hand. She hisses with surprise more than pain and dries her fingers before moving one of the open books and resettling the cup in a less precarious position. She's so preoccupied with the wet bandage that she barely spares Braska a frightened look.]

Y-yes, I th-think... ow.

[lordsummoner]

[Braska sighs slightly. He's not buying that one at all]

I may not have any friends, but I'm not stupid. [He gestures at the injured hand] Is it alright if I take a look? What did you do to it, anyway?

[librariansheart]

[Sheska has the bandage off now, the palm and heel of her hand is scratched up badly, as though she might have used it to save herself from falling on some kind of rocky surface. She's regarding the sopping bandage, dismayed.]

I-I just.... I fell down. P-please, it's not...

[evocations]

[The cafe's not on Minato's usual route home, but as he has a date tonight he's opted to cut corners and proceed straight from swim practice. As he passes by with his headphones in, he doesn't particularly notice the mountain of books or the girl; but with the kind of choreographed coincidence that's defined his life thus far, a stack of books at the very top of the pile choose exactly that moment to overbalance themselves and go toppling over. Catching the flash of movement out of the corner of his eye, Minato's moves are lightning fast - he manages to deflect the brunt of the spray with his bookbag, but a few books fall tumbling off the table to land open-faced on the sidewalk.]

Ah-- ....... sorry.....

[librariansheart]

[Sheska was on her feet, caught frozen in the motion of reaching for where the top of the pile previously had been. For a moment she stayed that way, shock and utter horror widening her eyes. Then she's around the table, hands fluttering, apologies mangling themselves into a mush. The general idea seems to be that she's really sorry and is he ok? He's not hurt is he?]

[evocations]

It's fine - here, let me.

[He's a bit oblivious to her panic, calmly arranging the spilled books back into their respective piles before kneeling down and picking up the ones littering the ground. For all her fretting and worrying, he seems remarkably unscathed; he straightens with the small stack of books under one arm, looking at the cover of the last book with an appraising eye.]

.... 'I Want to be Your Canary'?

[librariansheart]

[Well, if she wasn't red before, she is now. All that energy is clamped down to a tiny ball which seems to be caught in her throat as she shrinks in on herself and holds out shaking hands to take the books from him. The words are all in the proper order this time, but have been greatly diminished in volume.]

I-it's just a project... Research...

and along came a troll~

[devilmustdie]

[Walking from wherever he's coming from -detention, skipping class, partying, or any other activity a charming stud and trouble-maker might be doing, Dante spots the little studious creature by the café and decides to stop by.

He walks right up... pulls out the chair opposite to her, sits down, leans his elbow on the table and smiles charmingly.]

Hallo. What you doin' today, babe?

it's worse than a spider!

[librariansheart]

[A rabbit in the headlights, she sits very still, frozen in the startling flash of that blinding smile.]

D-Dante-san?

[devilmustdie]

Sheska, right? Shouldn't a cute little thing like you do something else than studying' all the time, kind of waste of potential don't'cha think?

[Que a big smile and yeah, he winked at your right there. .. before picking up random book from a pile and inspecting it.]

[librariansheart]

[Oh no, not that. Don't pick up the Mercedes Lacky novel... She started to try and intercept it, but it was too late. She could feel herself going pink. So time to distract him by responding to the question. ... There had been a question. Oh, right!]

That's right, I'm Sheska... Um... I... I like to study? I'm working on a project, um... Wh-what are you doing around here? This doesn't seem like somewhere you'd like to be...