Chapter 12
Noble walked into Ollie’s bedroom, coming to a stop when he spotted the pantless, teary-eyed librarian standing on the far left beside the large, full-length antique wooden mirror that sat in the corner. “What’s wrong?”
The witch looked at him, his bottom lip wobbling for a moment before he cried out dramatically, as if the world was ending. “My overalls broke!”
The man whimpered as he held up a pair of black overalls, which had a pattern of embroidered mummies on them, by a broken strap, the man showing off the now detached clasp in his other hand.
As Noble watched two big fat tears break free, he opened his arms. “Come here.”
Ollie sniffled and hurried to him. Holding the man, he started to rub his back. “I’m sorry your pants broke, Baby. Is there something else you can wear with the outfit? I’m pretty sure I saw mummy wrapping ones in your closet.”
The witch pulled back on a horror-filled gasp. “They’ll clash with the wrapping top! It’ll be too much mummy wrappings, and not enough contrast! Not to mention, I wore them earlier in the month!”
Noble choked down a laugh at how very much Ollie’s tone read: ‘how could you even suggest that?’. “Right, I should have thought of that…sorry…”
Ollie sighed and tossed the overalls and metal clasp onto his canopy king-sized bed that sat against the far wall, and headed for the already open door of his large walk-in closet, which was to the left of the bed.
The man’s closet was fully wood, as the dark-blue walls with bronze trimmed panels that made up the bedroom were absent.
Lining the three walls inside the closet were upper and lower hanging rods, each section fitted with two drawers beneath them.
The man kept his tops on the upper rows and his pants on the bottom, and things were separated by theme, and then organized by color in their individual sections.
In the center of the room sat a large brass cart with drawers, with various velvet boxes on top, that he knew were full of Ollie’s jewelry.
Noble watched as Ollie began looking through the bottoms in a back section of the closet, the man grumbling under his breath.
He hesitated, as he wasn’t quite sure what to do to fix this, other than suggest Ollie find something else to wear. Though, if he were to guess, this little breakdown was less about the overalls and more about it being the first day the library was open since shit went down.
Either way, he was not what one would call stylish, and Noble honestly didn’t pay much attention to whether things clashed or not, or when he’d worn something last. He pretty much just grabbed shit from his dressers.
As long as things were clean, he put them on without thought.
Ollie was the complete opposite in that regard.
Frowning, his gaze flicked to the pants, his eyes narrowing in on the broken strap.
It…looked like an easy enough fix. The seams holding the clasps had come undone.
And if there was one thing about being born in 1839, not to mention being single for most of his life, it was that one didn’t just throw away clothes, especially not back then.
“Do you have a sewing kit?”
Ollie looked back, his brow raised. “I do. Not that I know how to use it.”
“Get it out.”
Ollie pulled up the newly fixed strap of his overalls with a smile, despite how chaotic his mind felt. Though maybe chaotic wasn’t the right word? Or was it? There were a lot of competing thoughts in his head, and most of them weren’t good, just…loud.
On the unserious side of things, should he learn to sew? He probably should, but based on his last fifty attempts, he likely would not, and would just end up with a pile of unused supplies.
On the possibly mind-breaking side, could he be taken over by some arcane being at any second without warning?
Maybe? Maybe not? Would he stop jumping at shadows anytime soon?
Probably not. Was he ready to answer any of the serious questions that would come from Elias?
Definitely not. Was he ready to face more people?
He didn’t know. Was he okay? Not really.
Were people around him hiding things from him?
Yes, he was sure they were, but so was he, so how could he really judge? Hell…
Ollie sighed.
“It should be enough to hold you over today until you can take it somewhere to be fixed,” Noble mused behind him.
The man said that, but it honestly felt sturdier than the other strap, and like it had never broken. Noble’s stitching even looked professional.
Eyeing himself in the mirror, he had to say, he was happy with his outfit.
But then, how could he not be? Ollie had paired his black with embroidered mummies overalls, that clenched at the ankles like sweatpants often did, with an off-white mummy wrapping blouse with puffy sleeves that buttoned at the wrists.
To break up the white, he had added a black scarf, which he’d tied into a bow around his neck.
For jewelry, Ollie put dangling mummies in his bottom lobe piercings on both ears, black gems in the upper two, and a gold hoop with a back gem in his helix piercing on his left ear.
The only thing missing was his off-white boots, which he’d put on before leaving.
Copper curls pulled up into a messy bun, face-wise, no bruises or marks remained, so he looked perfectly put together, and ready to face people.
Plus, his outfit was cute and on theme, which would make everything just a bit better as he dealt with the public for the first time since Mikael attacked him. Ollie was ready.
Ready if he ignored the hollow look in his eyes, the slight redness there from his possible overreaction to his overalls breaking, and not to mention how stiff the smile on his face was.
Swallowing, he took a deep breath in and out, his smile turning watery as his eyes started to gloss over once again.
Shaking his head, he took another breath. No…no, he was not going to freak out—again. He was fine. He could do this. Really, he could. Ollie just had to ignore what happened, and the fact that the doorbell had freaked him out yesterday.
He was Oliver ‘Ollie’ Wisteria Cross, an enthusiastic spreader of library learning and joy. One small incident was not going to ruin what he loved!
As Noble came up to him from behind, wrapping his arms around him, the smile on Ollie’s face became less forced. “You’ve got this, Baby.”
“I do!”
“But—” The man pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “—if you need another day, you can take it. No one would blame you for needing more time.”
Ollie shook his head. “No, no, I can’t do that.
You literally just fixed my overalls. Also, I can’t really justify stepping away and adding even more to the workload when everyone is going to be overloaded anyway with all the changes in scheduling from the library being closed last week.
Honestly, I’m just glad we have a company that comes in to do the Halloween decorations. ”
They used to put them all up themselves.
From transporting the boxes from storage, scaling ladders to add fake spider webs, to putting batteries in the many hundreds of fake candles.
It had been hours, sometimes even days’ worth of work that Ollie, a few years back, had decided was better left to professionals.
While the company they hired did still use some of the library's own things, they also brought in special displays, with creepy realistic wax figures and more.
“They do a nice job.”
“They do. I did, however, forget they were coming yesterday.”
Noble chuckled. “Really glad they showed up after you’d finished practicing.”
“Yeah, just an hour earlier and they’d have seen one of their displays come to life. Though, they’d have had to find us out back first, I suppose.”
“I’m surprised you don’t decorate sooner. I assumed your love of themed outfits would trickle over to decorating.”
Ollie wrinkled his nose. “To be honest, while I do love themed decorations, all of it is a pain to work around.”
And it was. From cleaning to just doing normal daily tasks…things would get in the way.
Noble let out a hum. “I can see that. Some of them are rather elaborate. I'm sure even just the simple stuff like the cobwebs on the desk lamps would make cleaning harder. How long do you leave them up for?”
Smiling sheepishly, Ollie admitted, “They’ll be gone on Sunday.”
The man barked out a laugh. “Can’t handle them for longer than a week, huh?”
“Nope!” He giggled.
Elias may complain every holiday about how long things stayed up, considering how expensive it all was, but Ollie didn’t care. Like, he loved themed decorations, but the clutter made him twitch too much, and he could only handle bumping into shit for so long before he lost it.
“Ready?” Noble asked, his gaze trailing over his outfit as he pulled back.
“I just need to get my shoes on.”
“Mm, your outfit is adorable. I can see why you needed the overalls to complete it,” the man hummed as he pressed a light kiss to his lips.
Ollie beamed and gave Noble a peck back, before chiming, “Let’s go!”
A smile slipped onto Noble’s face as he stood slightly out of view, watching Ollie become more and more animated as the story progressed.
And thanks to Ollie’s enthusiasm, the children around the man had gradually become excited balls of too much energy.
Which meant the witch was surrounded by bouncing, squirming, can’t sit still children.
Ollie’s reading circle, which usually had blue puzzle carpet pieces and a large lily pad rug, had been changed for Halloween to look like a spooky swamp.
The blue had been switched out to a murky green, the lily pad rug had been replaced by a rickety old-looking boat one, and the stuck-on ducks that were usually in the corner of that area had been switched to frogs and silhouettes of bare trees.
He couldn’t help but notice that in this area of the library, the decorations were toned down, and they were all things that couldn’t be easily removed or become a choking hazard.
It was a little after 5:30pm, and the day had admittedly been hectic, with the amount of activity going on throughout the library.
While Noble wasn’t sure it was the best option, given how much Ollie had been through lately, they had doubled up on their normal scheduled programs to fit in the things that had been missed last week.
Which meant Ollie and the other librarians had been running around all day, because they had everything from crafts to multiple live readings going on in the many various rooms of the library. It was a lot. Yet…
His smile widened as he recognized the spark in Ollie’s eyes.
A lot or not, the look on his Baby’s face made him glad the little witch had decided to start back today with everyone else.
Sure, the man had been tense at first, hesitant even, and he probably was still a little jumpy, but as the day had progressed, his expressions and the tone of his voice had become more real and natural with each interaction.
The hollow look in Ollie’s eyes that had been there since being attacked by Mikael had finally disappeared.
So hectic or not, it was worth it. The only thing Noble needed to figure out now was how to keep that hollow look away, and the bright smile on his Baby’s face.
Ollie eyed Elias, as the man blocked Noble and his way down the hall that would lead to his office. He had managed to avoid and/or run away from the man all day, with various and often actual reasons, but he feared his time was up.
He cleared his throat nervously when the blond-haired man just stood there silently glaring, arms crossed, his expression flat and stiff. “Umm, hi? I’ve been…meaning to talk to you?”
Elias scoffed, and with his British accent as thick as always, he snidely drawled, “I’m sure you have, but as I want this fire business settled sometime this year, I figured I’d better track you down, since you’ve been avoiding me and ignoring my calls.”
Ollie looked to Noble helplessly before turning back to Elias. “Is it really necessary?”
“Yes! Your office, NOW!” the blond snapped, before turning his glare on his boyfriend and adding, “To note, we do not need outsiders for the conversation, so you, Mr. Vincint, can stay right here!”
He uselessly reached for Noble as his Assistant Director started dragging him away.
Noble gave him an apologetic smile. “I’ll wait for you right here. Good luck?”
Ugh, he was going to need more than luck, more like a miracle…and Tylenol…