Should she ask how old he was? No! No…she didn’t need to know how old Noble really was. Wait…was he older then? What did she even know about witch hunters?! Nothing, that’s what!
And it didn’t matter; none of it mattered. Well, it did, as Noble being a witch hunter, even a former one, while dating her best friend, who was a witch, was kind of a big deal. But it didn’t matter in the case of those two dreams. Because they were just dreams. Just pure, unadulterated brain nonsense that was made up and definitely not real.
Oh, God, she was starting to sound like Ollie when he was in denial about something…
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 clashedor 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 pulledup 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? Notreally. 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!
