Chapter Text
As a librarian, she didn't expect to utilize her admittingly sparse social skills with the readers.
Yet there are times where particular chatty ones come by every now and again.
The sweet old lady that sat across from her, adorned with feathers and triangle shaped beads continued to go on with her tangent about younger folks, and how they weren't grateful for their youthful appearances and their absolute abundance of energy and she'd go on and on and, well, she didn't hear the rest as she had, ever so subtly, shuffled away.
There were times when she'd meet her limit.
Yeah, she wasn't so certain on how she was going to get out of that one.
There's a reason why she didn't go out a lot.
She absolutely loved her favourite characters in books and how she's able to just be in the story with them, but interacting with an actual living individual in real life?
I think not.
Though she did feel slightly bad leaving that nice lady, she had a job to do!
Okay, no, she felt awful but her raw and underdeveloped (shit) social skills weren't enough for her to continue.
The lady must have gone on for more than an hour!
Plus, her job wasn't much, honestly.
Most visitors to the library were regulars, meaning the most she did was to fetch certain books hidden within this labyrinth of a library, if they needed.
Her muffled footsteps were the only thing she heard in this vast place, with a greeting from an occasional browser.
She casually strolled among the towering bookshelves that held a variety of colours, bright or dull with age, passed by her.
The intimidating height of the bookshelves, enclosing her, didn't register as she navigated through them with a familiarity one could only gain with a plentiful amount of experience.
She loved gazing at the deep rich browns of the sturdy shelves and was always amazed it was never tarnished.
But then again, it was her dear sister that lovingly cared for these particular grounds.
Growing up to be surrounded by novels, short stories, and a few ancient texts here and there was quite a childhood indeed.
The smell of paper, especially freshly delivered, with an underlying scent of ink picked up through some deep sniffing, that she wasn't ashamed of, was forever etched into her mind.
Everytime she thought of home the image of a few thick books placed next to an impossibly comfortable chair was one of the first to pop up.
Just thinking about it has her tempted to browse her favourite aisle...
A small flash of green caught her wandering eye.
With a curious glance through the cracks of books revealed something with a familiar shape, one that was bear-shaped and was traversing a few bookshelves away.
It was very hard to make out but..
Is that?...
She soon lost sight of a potentially familiar stranger after the thickness of books hid them away.
She took a moment to figure out which section they were in before taking off.
If it was who she thought it was then this would be exciting.
A few zig zags through and, strangely, over bookshelves later she caught up to the figure.
The dim lighting didn't help and she huffed with frustration at the strain her eyes went through to keep track of the person.
Marching towards them when they were just behind a bookshelf and got her further excited with a jump start to her nerves.
Wow, it had been so long!
When was the last time she saw him?
She could still remember him as the boy who caused all that ruckus in the library long ago.
Nothing much exciting happens in libraries, but with how memorable that experience was she didn't really mind all the cleanup.
She really did enjoy his company and was a tad bit thrilled to see him again. She really wanted to know how he was doing recently.
The sound of grumbling didn't register to her as she took in the sudden sight of him. Though she could clearly see how much green he was wearing, she didn't really care.
Maybe it was a new fashion trend or perhaps better usage for camouflage.
Who knows.
All she really cared about was that she was gonna see her friend-
"Finn!"
The sound of her exclamation clearly spooked him as he gasped and fumbled the book they were holding.
She quietly sucked in a breath through her teeth and had an apology ready to dive off her tongue, which quickly froze as she took in the appearance of this person. Really taking in it.
He looked almost exactly like him.
Save for the fact that his entire being was, well, grass.
Not skin. Or, actual clothes.
The sight of hundreds of grass blades tucked neatly into rows all over him was confusing and hard to focus on.
His 'skin' was grass that was soft with blades that were a lighter shade and his clothes made out of grass that was spiked and all prickly.
He didn't even wear grass shoes.
Her eyes couldn't be more shocked at this sudden development.
She was so confused to the point she even questioned if this was even Finn.
But… it has to be him, right?
He was unmistakable, Finn the human, HERO of Ooo. He has the SAME backpack too. Which was grass.
Even if his bear hat became rectangular in the ears, and with how the entirety of his grass blades that made him up she wondered if it was only piles of grass or grass growing *out* of his body? What?
Even his backpack was in different shades of green and was covered..? in grass. He looked so shaggy and soft.
Did something happen? Was he under some type of curse? A change in style?? She just couldn't stop staring despite being subconsciously aware how... rude it was.
It was Finn but...
"I'm not who you expected, huh?" a voice gravelly more than she remembered came from within him. She knew it had been awhile but it felt..off.
He seemed to have grown tired of being ogled at and glared at her.
Oops..
He had a frown etched into his smooth grassy face and after snatching his book from the floor he dusted it off.
She felt a pang of regret as she made a very obvious mistake.
This guy wasn’t Finn.
And she made such a fool of herself with her shameless staring too… She really could have been paying better attention and now she felt the awkwardness seep and latch into her bones.
"Ah, I'm sorry man." She nervously laughed. “I really thought.. I mean it's just you really reminded me of..” She trailed off. Her mouth absolutely struggled to improvise without her brain coming up with a plan, or anything to say to the guy, really. I mean, he probably got confused with Finn all the time, looking how he does. Was that rude?
The familiar looking grass being had continued his browsing, but had a downright sour look on his face.
Did he not like being compared to Finn? Seems so, poor dude's probably sick at this point. Clearing her throat with some difficulty she continued sheepishly,
"It's just, you reminded me of someone I used to know and well, you look like him an awful lot, which I'm pretty sure you're aware of and-”
"Please, stop." He groaned. His head thumped against a shelf, except it would've but his head was still made of grass. What he said next looked like it actually pained him to do so.
“I'm not who you’re looking for. So, please, leave me alone” He forces out tersely and further grumbles under his breath.
He faces towards the bookshelf once more, continuing his search whilst ignoring her.
She didn't know what to do and fumbled around for some sort of apology to spit out.
But so out of place due to her assumption nothing came, except the alarmingly increase of blazing heat throughout her body in embarrassment.
'Oh, gaaaawd,
nooooooooo,
whatdoidoooooo'
...This was so awkward. She should probably leave.
Yeah no, she's gonna leave, now, and maybe go and hide, never to be seen again.
After a hesitant and jagged step backwards she quickly fled the scene. Leaving the grass boy on his lonesome