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[Maybe something for a hobby. Bird-watching, whittling, cooking...]

Some bullshit examples with one not quite like the others... In reference to Nic, all three were pretty beyond his realm of interests. Nic wasn’t really a gentle, patient guy by default. Nina brought out the best in him, which was definitely no surprise to anyone who knew them long enough. But Nic was pretty terrible at lying. It came with the strong, silent, violent bundle.

Too honest for his own good. Too raw.

Nina was smart, but Nic was praying to whatever god existed that she wouldn’t catch on.

When Nina found what she was looking for, Nic joined her and blinked slowly at her question. Well...he wasn’t really sure and he didn’t know yet whether Alex bought ingredients for dinner tonight or not. Knowing the woman, however, it’d be something simple or a recipe diligently copied from Granny Joel. Pursing his lips in careful thought, Nic eventually gave a half-hearted shrug.

[Stew.]

There was stew for just about any occasion, right? So whatever Alex ended up buying, she could use it. Plus, she didn’t even need to use it tonight. Hell, it wasn’t even guaranteed that Nic would give her the book tonight. Or rather, Alex would find it tonight. He might just put it somewhere she’ll notice tomorrow morning.

Why was he thinking about this so much?

Although Nina didn’t really get her answers, she just cheerily breathed a sigh of resignation through her nose. She gleaned that he liked fiction. Historical fiction? Realistic fiction? Fantasy? Literature? She did want to know as much as she could about him, but she knew that she would have to chip away at it. He wasn’t much of a chatterbox, but she could be. The last thing she wanted to be was annoying to him.

Something useful? Like some kind of instructional manual? Huh. Probably not anything to do with building– she didn’t see any kind of construction project going on at their place. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Somehow the idea of Worick building something made her laugh. It would probably include him losing his temper and swearing while trying to hold up pieces of wood by himself.

[Sure, what did you have in mind?]

As soon as she heard that it had nothing to do with building, Nina was the tiniest bit disappointed. She touched his arm as she passed by him and pointed to the other side of the store. If she remembered correctly, the clerk said that the cooking section was near the gardening and home sections. Nina slithered in between rows of shelves until she spotted related titles and a makeshift sign taped to the middle of the bookcase. Nic waited for her to solve the maze before following.

[What’s for dinner?] She joked, actually asking what kind of recipes he was searching for.

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When he reunited with Nina, she was smiling with anticipation at her findings. He gave them a curious glance when she presented them to him, taking in the titles quickly and squinting an eye. They left him slightly dazed by ignorance, but Nina knew about such topics. He would never understand why such a young girl was so involved in medical things, but he wouldn’t imply he wasn’t grateful for that.

Nina tucked the texts under her arm to try and sign to him, which was more distracting than what she was actually saying. Since she was still learning, she had trouble signing clearly with just one hand, which Nic had mastered by this point. Before he would answer, Nicolas leaned over to grab the books in one broad hand, holding them at his side for her.

[Already looked. Didn’t find anything.]

Plus, Nic already had plenty of things to read. He and Worick picked up things as they went along their daily lives. Sometimes they received books as rewards for errands they ran, other times they found them abandoned in the alleyways of the city. It was actually very rare for Benriya to purchase books. Worick was the only one who did and it was more often than not for an occasion, such as the birthday he assigned to Nic.

Their collection so far was primarily fiction with a few instructional manuals, a dictionary, and an old history book. Recently, Alex had asked about the same thing Nina wondered - where were all of the books? - and Worick had told her that Nicolas kept them in his room. When Worick was telling him about the conversation, he mentioned that they didn’t have any cookbooks and that Alex might like one.

With a soft noise of resignation, Nic looked back down at Nina.

[Wanna help me find something useful? I have enough fiction.]

It was probably because Nic had heightened senses in other areas that their perception of the room’s smell was different. Plus, Nina was used to heavy disinfectants and the smell of blood around the clinic too, so it seems that she didn’t notice it down here. She too thought it was an odd combination, but it was probably the cheapest place around. Most small businesses in the city barely kept their heads above water when it came to staying in the black in terms of profits.

She leaned her hands on her knees as she scanned the whole bookshelf on medical practices. She took a few out, glancing at their back covers or flipping through their pages to see how laden with diagrams or explanations it was.  After a few minutes she took three books off the shelves and nodded confidently at her choices. 

Dr. Theo’s books were alright, but she figured having a variety with different writing styles and perspectives would be refreshing. Dr. Theo had those books (which he passed on to her) ever since he could remember, he told her. His collection could use an update.

[Yes!] She nodded excitedly when her companion returned. Nina presented the short stack and then placed them under her arm, making it easier to sign. [Ah, you don’t have anything. Where do you and Worick keep your books, Nico? I see you reading them sometimes when I come over, but I’ve never seen a shelf.] Obviously they weren’t in their living room area. Knowing the posters on the wall, she probably didn’t want to go peeking through their ‘novels’ to begin with.

[What’s your favorite kind of book to read?]

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The building was like most others in this ward of the city - weathered and well-used, but maintained enough that it wasn’t decrepit. As soon as they approached, he could already smell the heavy scent of animal blood and bone marrow. Occasionally they ran errands for the owner of the butchery, so when they walked in, Nic waved to the stout, bronze man behind a blood-stained counter.

For Nina, the smell changed in the basement, although perhaps she could notice the underlying iron in the air from the business above them. However, Nic’s nose scrunched up as he tried to process binding glue, meat, aged parchment, and seasoning mingled together. He squinted slightly as he peered around, thinking to himself that this was a terrible place to have a bookstore, but the people of Ergastulum set up shop wherever was first available.

[I’m fine] he waved to Nina passively, watching he smile at him before wandering off to where her texts awaited her. Nic nodded politely to the store owner before he meandered in his own direction. The place wasn’t terribly big, so he found the fiction section relatively easy.

Unfortunately, nothing he looked at, which wasn’t anything off the eye-level shelf, really struck his interest. Nic knew of the phrase ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, but he usually picked based on titles. There was only a slim chance he’d miss something good if the title wasn’t interesting. After all, the title’s job was to encompass the literature, right?

A few minutes after arriving and he was already back at Nina’s side.

[Find something?]

“You’re going to choke if you do that, Nico.” The nurse whined, but was met with a shrug. Nina’s eyes narrowed in on the sign to the bookstore. She wasn’t terribly picky with the location, since the few bookstores in the city generally had everything she needed. Bookstores that didn’t have a good selection didn’t last a few months in Ergastulum.

She nodded and pulled him along until they got to the doorstep. The store was like many in the city–below another establishment. In this case it was a butchery on the first floor, and a large basement housed the books. Luckily the smell didn’t permeate down into the lower business, and instead they were greeted by the smell of old paper. The stairs creaked a bit, and an old man behind the counter in the back waved at his customers and smiled. It looked like he was rolling some cigarettes on the counter to pass the time. 

There didn’t appear to be very many people there today. One middle-aged woman was looking through a stack of discounted books, and a boy was gazing wide-eyed at some comic books, counting nickels and dimes in his hands.

Nina asked where the medical books were and the owner gave her a short explanation of the layout of the place. She waved to Nic to tell him to follow her, if he wanted to.

[I’m going to the right wall to browse. Do you want anything here Nico? The man behind the counter seems very nice.]

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Hm, so that Twilight girl was doing alright. That was good news in this bleak time, he supposed.

Though would it really make a difference...

Ah, he shouldn’t think like that, at least not around Nina, who worked very hard to help Twilights with Dr. Theo.

Nicolas watched Nina play her little game, his arm bouncing up and down as she leapt from painted bar to painted bar. She seemed to be in high spirits today. Quite the resilient one. Thankfully there wasn’t much vehicular traffic right now; she had the time to be careful in her execution. Nic’s eyes left her figure as they reached the opposite sidewalk, gaze drifting up and down the quiet road.

The Twilight Hunts had even the big bosses of the city staying indoors, he thought. Usually the cars that would roam the streets belonged to important officials of the city. Lately, they were sparse, save for the police. Not like they did much aside from relish in their diplomatic immunity.

Though Nic wondered if the Destroyers would hesitate. He was convinced they wouldn’t.

Tugging Nina’s arm abruptly, he shoved the rest of the muffin into his mouth and used his emptied hand to motion toward the bookstore. There were two or three in Ergastulum, so he wondered if this was the one she wanted to visit.

Nina furrowed her brows when Nic offered her his hand, looking at her own hands. Her bashfulness of being able to hold his hand on the way to the store was trumped by common sense. She couldn’t sign to him if one of her hands was occupied. Maybe it would work if Nic wasn’t paying attention to the sidewalk in front of him, and read her lips instead. She would accept his hand after she explained this part.

[She’s with Loretta for now. I don’t think she’s staying at Bastard. They’re probably looking for a secluded place with other Twilights the Cristianos helped. She’s doing much better health-wise, but she might have to be monitored by peers for awhile.]

Nina then grabbed onto his hand, just in time for the duo to cross the street. Nina made a game out of walking only on the solid painted lines while they quickly scampered to the other side. Not many roads in Ergastulum had crossing walks. Many roads didn’t have pavement to begin with. Citizen safety wasn’t exactly a top concern.

Nina took a deep sniff of air in. While the city wasn’t the most pleasant scent in the world, the city on a (soon to be?) rainy day did feel refreshing. Nostalgic, even, to some extent.

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He could get used to this. “I’m sorry that my responsibilities keep me away, dear.” Gently grabbing his head, Reisi pulls him in to kiss his forehead.

Plants a brief smooch. “Haven’t seen ya.” There needn’t be a reason.

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Sigh. “What has gotten into you today? This is out of character.”

“Hoh, you won’t deny it. Cute.” Someone is feeling flirtatious on this fine afternoon.

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“So what if I did? You are very rarely vocally affectionate. It caught me off guard.”

“You were blushing.”

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“あぁ、そう。It does...”

“I’m testin’ out the word. You seem to respond to it. So it works.”

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“What is it?”

“Darling.”

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‘Darling’...

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“King! Wish Yata-chan a happy birthday!” 

“…” There is drinking and bickering going on. Why.

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“Happy birthday, midget.”

“You’re seriously askin’ for it now, you skirt chasin’ asshole–”

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“Perhaps when you hit 173 cm like the rest of us.”

“So when are you gonna catch up and do the same, hah?”

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On their way out, Nic was sure he saw something tucked underneath of the cabinet in the main office area and he sighed to himself. Even though Worick was cleaning up, he was still a spoiled rich kid at heart and never took it seriously. ‘I’ll get to it when I need it’, he always said, but he never remembered where his stray belongings were stashed when he needed them.

Nic would just have to re-tidy up when he returned. For now, he simply signed [Idiot.] to the blond and closed the door behind himself and Nina.

Taking a large bite out of a muffin he’d snatched once Nina left her gift unguarded back home, Nicolas chewed slowly as he signed quickly, [It’s fine.] Honestly, Nina was too much of a pushover sometimes. Not a jealous bone in her body. Nic offered her his hand as they walked.

[And that Claire girl?]

Nina returned the thumbs up and dropped the basket on the desk. She was a little disappointed that she didn’t get to see Alex, but Nic told her that she had been out that day since there weren’t a lot of jobs coming in. Hopefully she would enjoy the sweets anyway when she got back.

Worick looked pretty bored, but it seemed like he was taking care of some chore before going back to man the phone. Nina cheerily ran up to him and gave the man a high-five, informing him that she’d be back later, once their shopping trip was over. Worick squeezed her hand and said he was looking forward to it, and smiled in that carefree way of his. They both waved, with Nic and Nina making their exit.

[How was your morning?] She asked, looking up at her eternally grouchy-looking companion. [Thank you so much for coming with me today. I know it’s probably not how you’d ideally spend your day.] Nina’s eyes opened wide as she remembered the previous week. Oh, that’s right! She still hadn’t updated him on the situation at the clinic. She didn’t have much news, but she figured that she would inform him of what she was told, to get it out of the way.

[Officer Adkins said those men are being taken care of. They haven’t gotten much information out of them yet, but they’ve found a few more guys who they were spotted talking to down the street. They’re questioning those men too. The clinic has been peaceful ever since.]