[r] iris

[vertigo]

books were never his forte; after exhausting himself on a chapter of the anatomy of skarmory, J had been incredibly sleepy. words were indeed mightier than the brute force of a sword -- he could go for round after round of physical battles, but reading a chapter ...

no, just no. he stifled a yawn, and proceeded to nap on the thick encyclopaedia. what researchers found interesting between the lines, he would never know. it was a mystery he would rather leave unsolved.

[king]

addi's finger traced along the spines of all the books, pausing when she came to one about houndours. at her side, rondo barked before addi had to shush him. on the way to the check out desk, a head of hair caught addi's attention. she paused for a moment, then walked over and chuckled. asleep, eh?

taking a seat across from J, addi set down the book and began flipping through it. rondo jumped up into her lap, before taking an interest into J. he padded over and inspected the other's ankle for a moment, before deciding that it was a perfect moment to practice a bite attack.

[vertigo]

J had been rather sound asleep until a rather unpleasant sensation took over his feet.

something had clamped itself around his ankle, and without looking up, he tried lifting his leg to shake it off, before deciding to fully wake up and glance under the table. a houndour. he hadn't looked at the person before him; his attention was completely on the canine.

he lifted his other leg and tried to stomp on rondo.

[king]

at the sight of the foot, rondo immediately let go and whined. loudly. there was a shush from somewhere else, and the houndour quickly retreated to addi's feet. she soothed the scared pokemon, chuckling a bit. "not a morning person, are you?"

addi flipped a page in the book, fingers tracing the words as she read. she tried to hide her grin behind her hair.

[vertigo]

not a morning -- shit.

two things: one, it was already morning? J had planned to leave at dawn, not wanting to get the evil eye from researchers filing in to do their work. two, that voice. that damn voice; he recognized it as a good singer, but not the best person to be around.

J glanced away from the floor to addi, sitting happily before him. the grin on her face was a vast contrast to the unamused expression J wore as he looked at her.

"okay," he grunted, voice hoarse from being woken up involuntarily.

[king]

addi couldn't help but laugh a little harder at the expression J wore. she skimmed the rest of the section, flipping the page again to a very colourful picture of houndours with descriptions of basic body language. well okay then.

"okay?" okay then. okay to what? "good morning to you too." she offered, one hand propping her head up at the cheek. rondo was still winding around her feet, settling down at last. one day, and he was already causing her entertainmenttrouble. well, you take what you get these days.

[vertigo]

J grunted something intelligible, and returned to his book. he ran a hand through his messy hair, expression disgruntled due to the bite, the woman, and the words he had trouble understanding. "okay is okay," he growled, not wanting to handle the intricacies of human-human interaction at the very moment.

and then he plopped back down on the heavy book, keen to get some more sleep in as the researchers hadn't been filing in as they usually did. one more hour, just one more hour would be nice.

[king]

well then that was... okay. addi watched as he settled back down, ready to sleep again. she herself went back to reading her book. the silence of the library was well enough for concentration, and was one of the few moments that she didn't have music running through her head.

about an hour and a half later, she noticed some people glaring at J. maybe she should wake him up. one final evil eye, combined with pointing and laughing, addi shot them a vicious glare. yeah, she should wake him up. "J." she gently nudged him, brushing her fingers across his cheek. "people are staring at you, you should probably wake up now."

[vertigo]

reluctantly, J had to wake up. people had already filled the library, and it no longer was as quiet as it was before; even though everyone was trying to be quiet, the occasional flipping of pages or misplaced books had caused more noise in the library than when it was just four, or five of them.

there were about ten of them, maybe in the teens as well -- at cursory glance, anyway. he inhaled deeply, crossing his arms before him. J had promised himself an hour, and got an hour and a half. that wasn't too bad, but for want of sleep, he remained in a half-grumpy state, barely able to muster more than a growl or a grunt in response to addi.

[king]

addi was quickly growing used to the quiet wordlessness that was J. she mimicked it, simply going back to her book. she herself tended to be coherent only after a few hours after waking up, then again she woke up around five in the morning. rondo crawled into her lap, settling down for a nap of his own.

she would attempt conversation once J didn't look like satan after just having found out hell froze over and now he would have to buy a heater. for now she would read quietly, being polite. the chattering would simply be delayed a bit.

[vertigo]

it took J nearly five minutes to shift from crossed arms to reaching out to the skarmory book and shutting it with a snap. he proceeded to stare at it for another five minutes before getting up from his seat. his footsteps were heavy as he dragged himself away from the table to the aisle with vending machines; he looked no different from a snorlax forced to run miles for a bowl of food.

he rummaged around in his jacket for some coins, and inserted them into the machine. J almost dozed off waiting for the drinks to be processed; when the beeping of the vending machine alerted him, he returned to his seat with two paper cups filled with hot chocolate and set one before addi.

still sporting barely-open eyes and an unamused expression, J croaked, "... good morning."

[king]

the snap was a bit startling, but the cup of hot chocolate was even more so. she wrapped her hands around the cup and smiled, looking like the complete opposite of J. "morning sleepyhead." she said radiantly, almost glowing with the enthusiasm she had. it was amusing to see how slowly J woke up, almost as if he had slow start for an ability. "sleep well?"

of course, sleeping on a book could only be so comfortable. didn't this guy have a bed to sleep on? then again, many people just bunked over at the pokemon centre. addi took a sip of the hot chocolate, enjoying the taste and scalding heat. sure it was warm in the library, but it wasn't quite warm enough for comfort.

[vertigo]

J attempted to speak, but was quickly reminded of why he didn't earlier. he instead opted to sip the boiling hot beverage, and felt much better from the warmth it offered and the way it jolted his senses. much more awake from before, he no longer looked at addi with eyes like dead bidoof.

"mmf," he said in response, finding it an adequate onomatopoeia to summarize his thoughts. he couldn't give a damn whether addi interpreted it correctly or otherwise. another sip of the chocolate, and he put the book on skarmory aside. "nngh."

[king]

if there was one thing addi was, it would be dense. she paid no attention to the lack of communication and simply decided to make up for it with her own side. "so, interested in skarmories?" it was impossible to notice the pages that J may or may not have been drooling in for multiple hours. "they're pretty cool. do you have one? how come you're interested in them?"

well, someone would have to talk. apparently it would be addi, though she didn't protest. she took up the role with avid eagerness, if only she could be that passionate about being a ranger.

[vertigo]

J had dwindled into sign language by the time addi launched into full-on conversation mode. yes he was interested in skarmory, yes they were cool, yes he had one, yes he was interested -- wait a moment. J paused half-nod, and narrowed his eyes, more at himself than at addi.

a gulp of the hot liquid helped him speak. "are you a trainer?" he asked, ignorant of the fact that his statement had nothing to do with skarmory as a species or steel-types in general. to be honest, he couldn't see her as a researcher, and that left one of the remaining three occupations that dominated kohaku.

he had his money on breeder because of her enthusiasm, but he also remembered that he always had horrid luck at gambling.