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 slippedonto 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 thelittle 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?”
