25 with ferdibert 😏🖤
“Hi! How can I help you today?”.
That was a question Hubert had been asked a lot lately, since he’d become a passionate regular of the library at the center of the town. Question always followed by a wide smile, bright as the sun itself, so bright Hubert’s heart struggled to keep beating steadily, looking at it.
Not as if the young von Vestra hadn’t been a client of the institute already, but he’d found another reason to stick around more frequently now.
That reason being the owner of the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen.
A tall pile of books in his arms that almost reached the tip of his aquiline nose, Hubert scowled at the guy behind the counter for a moment before actually dignifying him with a reply.
“I have these to return.” he explained simply, showing his loot with a shrug of shoulders.
“Oh, lovely!” the guy exclaimed joyfully, his rose lips forming an ‘o’ that Hubert didn’t find cute at all.
His excitement earned him a disdainful glare from a girl who sat not so far, and the guy’s cheeks flushed furiously.
Hubert had to bite his lower lip to suppress a snigger.
“I’ll take care of them.” the guy continued in a lower tone, leaning forward on the counter, action that incredibly caught Hubert off guard.
In fact, the young von Vestra swallowed loudly, his throat suddenly dry, as the guy’s honeyed eyes bored into his, making his legs wobble a bit under that intensity.
In all their brief encounters, Hubert hadn’t had the chance to look at him so closely, and now could spot an intricate pattern of auburn freckles adorning the bridge of his nose, his cheeks and his forehead, his lips even, his current complexion only emphasized them.
“I- uhm, thanks.” he babbled out awkwardly, then winced at the sound of himself being so miserable just because a cute guy was being kind to him.
Cute.
Hubert squeezed his eyes shut at that thought, then shook his head vehemently as if shooing it from his traitorous mind.
He knew the guy was just doing his job, being obliging and friendly, but he couldn’t help himself.
Despite all his efforts, that guy’s face had been tormenting him the moment he saw him one day taking over for the former clerk who usually stayed at the library’s entry.
First thing he’d noticed about him was his eyes. Hubert could get lost into them if he wasn’t careful enough. They were the color of amber kissed by the shy light of a summer dawn, with a spark of gold near the pupil.
Those very eyes were staring at him intently now, palms open in offer of help.
It took Hubert some long seconds before his mind clicked in action.
He abruptly pushed the books into the other guy’s arms, who widened his eyes in panic at the sudden gesture, a strangled squeal escaping his throat.
Hubert sneered at the scene, feeling more at ease after the guy made a fool of himself because of him, a personal vendetta for that sense of dizziness he elicited in Hubert every time he smiled at him.
But that swell of pride didn’t last long.
Because the guy not only managed to not drop any of them, miraculously, he also piled them quickly on the counter, graciously smiling during the entire process as though nothing had happened.
Hubert’s scowl deepened upon realizing he didn’t scratch the guy’s positivity, not even a bit.
Just when he thought about turning tail and exiting the library without a single word, his mood beyond bored, the guy reached out and gingerly grabbed the sleeve of his black sweater.
Hubert would’ve admonished him for harassment on customers if he hadn’t been so shocked by his boldness.
“Can I- uhm, help you with something else, maybe?” the guy inquired around a nervous chuckle, his voice an octave higher, as his fingers tightened their grip, twitching.
The more time passed, the more their current position looked embarrassing.
The young von Vestra was gaping, his eyes out of their sockets, his shaved brows knitted together, while the guy’s face was so beet red Hubert was genuinely surprised it didn’t catch fire on its own.
When finally his tongue decided to work again, the words that slipped from his mouth were loaded with revulsion and irritation.
“What the fuck are you trying to do?!”.
The guy gulped loudly at his assertion, but probably had a death wish since he didn’t back off, or have any intention to move for the matter.
So, Hubert wrapped his hand around his wrist, very intended to snap him away from his personal space, but his body wasn’t on the same page.
When his fingertips brushed against the guy’s skin, Hubert’s breath caught in his throat, a warm shiver ran along his arm and made his entire figure quiver.
He had the gut twisting feeling the guy somehow sensed, too, the electricity that quick contact ignited between them.
Their gazes were locked, and Hubert was losing himself once again in that ambered sea.
A muffled cackle caught both guys’ attention.
They whipped their heads in the same moment toward the source of that noise.
“Ferdinand, stop flirting with the broody goth boy and get your shit done.” the girl from earlier chewed around a strawberry bubblegum, leveling them with a look.
Both Hubert and the guy, whose name was Ferdinand apparently, froze like struck by a spell.
The young von Vestra felt heat creeping up his face and down his neck at that unsolicited comment, and the same reaction was mirrored on Ferdinand’s features.
“It’s becoming pathetic to see the two of you dancing around each other this way.” the girl continued to speak, one fine eyebrow cocked amusedly.
“Get on with it and ask him out on a date, you’re scaring the customers with your creepy face.” she ended nodding her head in the direction of the queue that had formed behind Hubert in the meantime.
A pregnant pause, then Ferdinand cleared his throat for good measure.
“Forgive her, she isn’t serious.” his voice came out pleading as he briefly bowed his head in mortification, before going back staring at him with a kind smile on his face. “But you haven’t answered me, do you need something else?” he politely asked, then gnawed his lower lip.
His entire face was still flushed deep, blending too well with the color of his hair, a thick mane of ginger waves that was messily gathered in a mermaid side braid for the occasion, and Hubert stupidly missed the way it followed his movements.
The young von Vestra considered the guy’s- Ferdinand’s words, his beading eyes scanning him up and down. Then, he folded his arms over his chest and showed a vicious grin.
“No.” he answered after a handful of seconds, wanting to leave him hanging just because he could.
The heart, though, was a vicious thing to own, in Hubert’s opinion, and usually didn’t dictate the course of his action, him being a rational person by nature.
That day, fate surely wasn’t on his side.
When Ferdinand was about to bid him goodbye, Hubert quickly interceded him. “Actually, I’d like to read something about human vivisection.” he requested, his tone impassive as ever, while a violent battle raged on within himself.
Ferdinand’s face immediately shifted in a confused frown at that change of mind. “Oh, yes, right. I’m on it.” he nodded fiercely nonetheless, before circling the counter and rushing to the science section.
Hubert heard somebody huff in frustration behind his back, but couldn’t care less.
His eyes landed on a pen holder on the other side of the counter and a sly smirk tugged at the corners of his lips.
After a couples of minutes, Ferdinand got back from his quest and gave the young von Vestra the book, who quickly secured it in his left hand.
“We’re not so stocked with books about this theme, but I hope this will satisfy your tastes.” the guy spoke not looking directly at him, as he fulfilled a renting form with Hubert’s personal data on the computer.
Hubert observed him with skeptical eyes, but didn’t say anything, his heartbeat too loud in his ears for clear thoughts to overcome it.
Once he finished, Ferdinand turned his head to gift him with another of his bright smiles. “See you soon, then.” he muttered as his cheeks turned pinkish again without Hubert guessing why.
The young von Vestra just grunted in reply before dashing out of that place with stiff strides.
***
Later that afternoon, when Ferdinand was putting a book back in its shelf, a piece of paper suddenly fell from its pages.
The book momentarily forgotten, he picked it up from the floor and looked at it, trying to understand what was it.
His eyes went wide within a second as he realized.
There was a phone number written on it in a elegant calligraphy, the blue ink a little smudged. The discover itself wasn’t what surprised him, it wasn’t so unusual to find notes in rented books, but what he read next.
'The broody goth boy’.
Ferdinand’s heart jumped in his throat as butterflies twirled frantically in his stomach, his face suddenly aflame.
A crystalline laugh left his lips before he could refrain himself.
“Sshhh!” somebody reprimanded him from an aisle nearby, but he was too happy to care.
Send me a prompt!
