When Tim had disappeared into his room Sophia quickly covered her face with her hands, which had turned a bright red. Oh my gods, he looks so good! She thought to herself with embarrassed excitement. She felt like one of those fan girls in anime, gushing over the guy they liked. By the time Tim had come out of the bedroom fully dressed she had managed to regain her composure.

Letting out a small laugh at his words as she stood up, Sophia replied, "There was no need to. You look good."

Fuck. Did I just say that aloud?

Ignoring her own previous comment Sophia asked, "Do you want to walk to the library or take my car?" The library was a few blocks away. It was within walking distance, but she thought she'd offer anyway.

Tim giggled a little, flustered, cheeks flushing red as he looked away at her comment. She said he looked good? Well, that was the first time he had felt positive about his body in years. Well, mainly because she was the first person to really comment on it or anything. She was the first person he had ever truly hung out with, really. There was nobody else to say anything. Plus by this point he was slowly starting to worship the words coming out of her mouth, so any positive thing she said to him meant three billion times more than it normally would. He muttered out a quiet thank you.

He shoved his hands into his hoodie pockets, smiling still as he spoke.

"Lets just walk." he said, moving towards the door, grabbing his keys off of the coffee table. "I like walking more."

"Sounds good to me," Sophia said as she grabbed her jacket and put it on, zipping it up. As she put on her hat and gloves she explained to him, "After I left last night the snow continued to fall. It's been falling all day actually, and there's a decent layer out there. The temperature's dropped too. Since we're going to be walking to the library how about we grab some coffee from the shop real quick before we go?"

"Yeah, sure, that sounds good," Tim replied as he finished getting his shoes on.

Finally the two made their way out of the apartment and into the chilly late November air. Everything was covered by a blanket of snow, leaving the world white and soft. They stopped by the Rose Cafe for some hot coffee, then began their trek to the library.

Tim froze a bit as the late November air grabbed hold of him, pulling him into its icy embrace. He zipped up his baggy army jacket, grossing his arms over his chest as the two of them walked down the street, a comfortable silence settling in over them as they walked. Tim looked at her, she at him. He smiled, and she smiled back at him. Their heads went back to the snow covered side walk in front of them, still smiling.

Comfortable silence.

Thats new.

After making it to the Cafe, Tim let Sophia take the lead more, letting her order the two coffees for them. Soon Tim would be ready to do something like that... but not yet. Social interactions were still fare too scary and nerve racking for him to even begin to comprehend. So, coffee in hand, they left the Rose, moving forwards to their destination. Tim took a sip of his coffee before speaking.

"Y'know, I was actually, up, doing some looking into those runes a few days ago." He said, looking at her, taking a sip from his coffee. Sophias eyes lightened up, a wonder unleashed in them. "On the internet? I did some back search stuff, y'know. Google searching, forum browsing, all that fun stuff. Well, believe it or not, the language seems to be a bunch of pieces of runes and hieroglyphics and shit from, like fifty different cultures. I had to look at roughly thirty different languages to figure that out." He raised a hand to the side of is head, scratching as his scalp absent mindedly. "I wonder what that means..."

"It means," Sophia said with an excited grin, "whoever wrote them in that cave was very intelligent if they knew fifty languages." She reflected for a moment as she sipped her coffee then added, "OR there were multiple people working on it. We can probably piece some of the things together using google translate or books on languages, but I can't be sure if we can get everything right. I think we should get a notebook or two and start writing down what we find, taking notes. Maybe that will help us connect things."

As they walked along, the snow on the sidewalk crunching nicely beneath their feet, snowflakes once more gently began to fall from the sky. On either side of the street there were city workers putting Christmas lights up on the telephone and light poles, and shop owners were beginning to take down fall decorations and put up Christmas ones in their place.

Sophia let out a small laugh. "Look at that," she told Tim. "Pretty much the day after Thanksgiving and people are already getting ready for Christmas. Can't say I really blame them, though, what with the snow already beginning to settle in. It seems like we're going to have an early winter."

Tim looked on, smiling as the workers hung up the lights and decorations. She was right, of course. There was still a whole month for this. But he loved it, he would admit. His mind went back to childhood memories, sifting through the plethora of bad to find one of the good ones. When he was six, he remembered venturing into the snow in the middle of the night, for what, he couldnt remember, though it was probably to get away from his mother. It was snowing slowly, but heavily, and with great volume. He remembered finding his way to the main street, and looking down the empty abandoned, snow covered streets. The orange glow of the towns Christmas lights shining bright through the snow storm. It was beautiful.

It was one of the very few good memories he had.

"Yeah." Tim responded quietly, eyes wandering to the different sets of lights along the buildings and street poles, connecting across gaps, bridging across the streets from one building to the other, forming criss-crossed patterns. "I like the lights."

Sophia recalled the Christmas Eves and Days spent with her family. Many were happy, but some were bitter-sweet such as the first Christmas without her Grandma Rose. Through all of them, however, Sophia recalled doing their many family traditions. Baking sweets together, family dinners, opening one gift one Christmas Eve, caroling, and going around town to see the lights. Seeing the lights was one of Sophia's favorite parts as it always made the town seem so much brighter and cheerier in that winter-dim, snow covered world.

"Yeah," Sophia agreed softly with a gentle look of fondness in her eyes. "I like them too."

She began to wonder what this Christmas might be like. Sophia intended to invite Tim to spend the holiday with her again, though this time she hoped he might come and see her family. She would just have to be sure that they didn't crowd him too much or press him about things she knew he wouldn't want to talk about.

Sparing a glance over to Tim while taking a sip of her coffee, Sophia wondered what it would be like if he had Christmas with her and her family and was able to laugh happily and talk cheerfully and freely with everyone. She thought of what it might have been like for him on Christmas with a mother like his. The thought made her heart throb painfully so she pushed it out of her mind. It was Christmas time now. A time for cheer. What mattered was making this Christmas--and all the holidays and regular days to come--a great one to remember.

As they drew nearer to the library Sophia continued to silently observe Tim out of the corner of her eye without being too conspicuous about it. She could see the snow flakes landing in his hair and recalled the other night when they walked back to his apartment hand-in-hand. She really wanted to do that now--walk hand-in-hand to the library--but was almost afraid to do so. What if Tim moved away? But he had been the one to take her hand the other night, so maybe it was alright.

Her heart pounding wildly, Sophia reached out and took Tim's hand in hers, lacing their fingers together before she put their hands in Tim's jacket pocket.

She couldn't quite bring herself to look at Tim as she shyly explained, "I wanted to hold your hand, but you don't have gloves and I don't want your hand to get cold. I hope it's alright." Sophia's face was red, but fortunately that could be passed off as due to the cold.

Tim, for once in his life, did not freak out. He needed to not freak out this time, and he was going to be calm. He focused incredibly hard on staying completely calm and collected, bringing his coffee cup up to his mouth, taking an elongated sip, not speaking for the next few moments. HE gulped down his coffee before letting out a sigh, his breath visible in cool, early winter air. His cheeks were red, burning with his internalized nervousness. He smiled a bit again, nodding as he kept his eyes forwards.

"That's okay." He said as they rounded the corner, the library in sight now. "Its a good idea, holding hands, lets do it more ofthe."

He giggled nervously at his statement, not really expecting that to come out of his mouth. Ever.

How bold of you.

The Paul Revere Memorial Library, which was nearly in the center of the city, was a large building of intense grandeur. There were large, brown cement columns at the top of a wide, equally large staircase. There were three sets of double doors to enter through the front, and, of course, there was a stature of the famous Paul Revere riding on his horse, lantern in hand near the front of the building. The library was four stories tall and two stories deep, filled with a countless number of books, magazines, newspapers, classic and important films, old film reels, and much, much more. Though, certain areas, usually the first two floors, were far more populated than others. One would barely ever see a soul searching through the books on the fourth floor or the second basement floor.

"Oh...fuck." Tim said as they approached the front of the building. "I forgot how big this is."

A quiet, "Okay," was all Sophia managed to squeak out. Her cheeks were a bright red, and by now it was surely easy to tell it wasn't just from the cold. She had been so worried that Tim might pull away, but he was perfectly fine with it and even suggested they hold hands more often. Honestly, Sophia couldn't have been happier at that moment. In Tim's presence, their hands clasped tightly together, Sophia felt all her fears from the past slowly sliding away. She felt comforted. At ease.

"Geeze," Sophia remarked as they stared at the enormous library before them. "You're right, Tim. It's positively huge. I haven't been in a while so I've kind of forgotten." She shook her head for a moment at the thought of all the work they were going to have to do, then brightened up. It would be worth all the work if they could discover something about the cave and the tunnels and everything related.

"Alright!" She announced excitedly. "Let's get to work!" So they headed in and stopped by the front desk where the librarian sat doing her work. "Pardon me, ma'am," Sophia asked in her best library appropriate voice. "Where might we find some books on local lore and myths?"

"Third floor in the historical fiction section, upper left corner," the librarian replied.

"Thank you, ma'am," Sophia said with a bright smile. Turning to look at Tim she said, "To the third floor we go."

The third floor was quiet that day with few people lurking its aisles. Toward the center of the room there were tables and chairs with cushy arm chairs to sit at, and along the far wall there were computers for anyone to use. For now Sophia and Tim headed to the historical fiction section and began to look for books on Nottingham.

After about a half an hour of searching, Tim had collected a monumental stack of books of various bindings, sizes, and wear. Peeking around the side of his stack, he slowly inched his way over to one of the round tables in the middle of the floor. Carefully, he placed his stack down, backing away slowly. He looked the spines up and down, noting the titles, trying to decide which of them to go through first. He had a pretty wide range of titles here, everything from Languages of the World to Decoding for Dummies! lined up in front of him. How was he supposed to pick out books for a situation like this? Where was he supposed to begin?

Turning on his heels, he took a quick look around the room. The few people that were up on this floor included one college aged student writing a paper on one of the computers, an older man, roughly in his late fifties sitting in the opposite corner, fingering through a book about dragons, or something mythological, and young woman of Korean descent looking through one of the shelves, probably in her early twenties. They were obviously not here together, so nobody was talking. There was silence, save for the tapping of the college students fingers on their keyboard.

Tim leaned back against the table, letting his gaze shift over to Sophia. She was crouched in front of one of the tall shelves, a stack of books balanced in one hand, another on the shelf, gently pulling one of the books out, her eyes scanning the title before she pushed it back in, an inquisitive gaze on her face. He sighed a bit before looking away, rubbing at his cheeks to get rid of the redness that had started to show on them.

Why is she always pretty?

Sophia pulled out one final book from the shelf and added to her stack of books she was carefully balancing in one hand. If she didn't work in a cafe she probably couldn't have pulled off balancing six books at once, especially since they were getting heavy. Satisfied with what she had found in the myth and lore section she switched to carrying the books with both hands to bring them over to the table. Tim was already waiting for her with his selection of books from the language section. Sophia smiled at him as she thought of how together they should be able to solve their own private little mystery.

"Let's get started," she said as she sat down in a chair and pulled it up to the table.

Looking at what she had collected, Sophia picked a book and started to leaf through it in hopes of finding some hint of recognition for what they were dealing with. For an hour or more she flipped through the books. Occasionally she would stop and make notes on her phone from what she and Tim found that they thought might be a clue or hint. Close to the two hour mark Sophia noticed that her phone had lit up to denote that she had received a text message. The phone number wasn't one she recognized, but Sophia opened it up and read it anyway.

Hey, bitch.

Sophia frowned in disapproval and text back, Who is this?

A moment later a reply came through.

You know who this is. It took me forever to get a hold of your number since you had it changed. I just wanted to remind you that even though you have a new boyfriend that doesn't make you worth anything. You're still the same dumb bitch I took advantage of in high school.

All the blood drained from Sophia's face. Quickly she blocked the number, deleted the conversation, and tried to immerse herself in her books. But her heart was no longer in it and she wondered, How did David get my number?

Tim, who had been absorbed in his work, scribbling down notes on a note pad, his nose nearly pressed against the page, was snapped out of his trance when he heard the slight vibration of Sophia's phone on the table. Seizing the moment to take a rest, he leaned back in his chair, looking over at Sophia as she tapped at her phone screen with a look of...confusion? Anger? He couldn't quite tell. He furrowed his brow for a moment, watching her stare at her phone for a moment before another notification went off.

He felt his heart stop.

He watched the color drain from her face. Her hands began to shake, her pupils dilating as her breaths got faster. She tapped at the screen a few times before quickly burying her face in another book. He didnt know if she had even seen him looking at her. But it didnt matter, because he had seen her, and she... she was not well at all. He knew what it was. He didnt know the cause, but he knew the symptoms. Short breaths, lightheaded, probably. Oh, he knew them all too well.

These were the exact things he felt when his mother talked to him.

"H-hey, Soph? Are you alright? What happened?" He asked, pushing his book aside, leaning over a bit to her.

Sophia jumped in her chair, startled by Tim's words and his sudden closeness. She felt her heart racing a mile a minute from the scare as well as from David's text. Part of her brain realized that now was not the time to freak out. Quietly she inhaled and forced herself to calm down.

It's not like he's my boyfriend anyway, Sophia suddenly thought with a mixture of annoyance, worry, and--to be honest--a bit of disappointment.

Then she thought, Damn.

Tim had noticed that something was wrong, but she was going to have to lie to him about what. Sophia didn't want to tell him that David had just text her. He knew that David and the others had caused her trouble in high school, but he didn't know the full extent of it. Sophia had only shared all the information of her hellish senior year with one other person. Even her parents didn't know all about it.

While stretching and trying to appear as if she was trying to relax, Sophia let out a soft sigh. "I'm getting a little tired from all the reading," she lied. Lying had come easily to her over the course of her senior year, given that she had to hide so much from her parents and friends. "Shall we call it a day on researching and check out some books to take home?"

Tim crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes a bit as she spoke. It was bullshit, and he knew it. IT had to be. But he thought that she probably didnt wanna talk about it, at least not right now. God knows he didn't like talking about his mother. He probably talked around Sophia when the idea of his mother came up at first, but he came around eventually, and she would probably come around with whatever it was that was bothering her, eventually, as well. So, he accepted her story, for the time being.

"Oh, you wanna stop for today?" He asked, leaning back, giving her a bit of space. "We can do that."

He closed his book, setting it on the top of the stack again, which wobbled slightly, causing him to throw his hands up around it, telepathically telling the pile to stay put and not fall. Almost as if it could hear him, it stopped wobbling, eliciting a relaxed sigh from Tim.

"So, um, what do you wanna do, then?"

Relaxing a bit, Sophia closed her book and sat back. She thought of what they could do. What she didn't want to do. She didn't want to be home alone right now after getting David's text message. If he knew her phone number he might know where she lived. Going home and being alone was the least smart thing Sophia could do.

She really wanted to stay with Tim where she felt safe. Being somewhere public would be even better.

"Let's bring some of these books back to your apartment," Sophia suggested. "Then maybe we can go walk around the town square and see how the decorations are coming along. Maybe visit the park and see when ice skating is going to start up."

Yes, that seemed like a good plan. Staying out in the open with lots of people and Tim by her side. Sophia could handle that and the distraction would calm her nerves.

Tim nodded in agreement, taking a couple of books from the tall stack next to him. Sophia needed to calm down, that much was obvious, and this was going to help her, so he wanted to do it. Plus, maybe being exposed to more people would help him stop being scared of them. Plus, Sophia would be there, and that would probably help, right?

"That sounds...um, yeah, that sounds like fun, we should do that." He said, giving her a small smile, assuring her.

Tim reached for a book at the bottom of the stack, tugging it out as he balanced the books with his free hand. That, however, was just not enough. Tim recoiled in fear as the pile of books went crashing down off the table, slamming into the floor with an incredibly loud and disruptive bang. Everyone stopped what they were doing, startled by the suddenness of it all. Tim felt his cheeks getting red, burning with embarrassment. Eyes were on him. He brought his hands to his face, covering it.

Eyes on Tim.

The young korean girl leaned around the corner of her shelf, looking over at the mess quizically, one eyebrow raised.

"Are you...alright?" she asked, peering over her glasses.

Tim was too embarassed to answer. He looked at Sophia, through his hands, pleading for her help silently.

Sophia's heart nearly stopped when the pile of books tumbled to the ground. Thankfully they were on the third floor where there were very few people, but Sophia still felt really bad that they had deserved the peace. And she felt bad for the books too. It wasn't a terrible incident, however, and the other patrons of the third floor seemed more concerned for Tim and Sophia's well being than for the sudden disruption.

"Yes, thank you," Sophia said as she gave the Korean girl a smile before leaning down to start picking up the books.

The girl approached, offering even as she began to gather the books, "Here. Let me help with that."

"Thanks," Sophia said again.

"An interesting selection the two of you have," the girl noted as she and Sophia set the books on the table.

"Yeah, we're doing some self-study," Sophia told her. The girl likely wouldn't believe her if she told her about the tunnels, and she wanted to keep that a secret anyway.

After they had gathered all the books Sophia thanked the girl once more before she went on her way. Sophia and Tim chose what books they wanted to check out, put the rest back, and then went down to the first floor to check them out. From there the two made their way back to Tim's apartment to drop off their books.

"Off to the town square," Sophia declared, giving Tim a smile. Meanwhile, her phone sat in her pocket on silence so Sophia wouldn't hear message after message coming in.

Tim had his hands tucked in his pockets throughout most of their trip back to his place, books balanced under his arm, his eyes cast down as they walked. He was still a little embarrassed by the incident, but by this point, he wasn't entirely sure as to why. He didn't do any damage, and the people were very helpful. He needed to just shake this off, he knew that, but he couldn't get the image of everyone looking at him out of his head. He sighed as they entered his apartment, setting his books down on the coffee table, taking Sophia's and doing the same. His eyes darted to a throw pillow, discarded by the coffee table from his fit earlier that morning. He quickly kicked it back onto the couch, pushing the thoughts out of his head.

Well, at least to the back of his head.

He gave Sophia a small smile as they exited his apartment. He made sure to lock the door behind them, as he always did, following her down the stairs to the outside world, encased back in the bright, gleaming whiteness of the sun reflecting off of the freshly fallen snow. HE brought his hand up, shielding his eyes for a moment as he stood next to her.

"Yeah, off to town."

On the walk back to Tim's apartment Sophia had been able to sense her friend's discomfort. She could easily guess the reason as to why. For now she tried to push her own uneasiness out of her mind in order to reassure him.

"About the library," Sophia started kindly. "It'll be alright. No one was bothered by what happened and I'm sure no one blames you for it. Don't worry about it, ok?" She gave him a smile to reinforce her words that everything would be alright. A stack of books falling wasn't a huge deal after all.

Recalling what Tim had said earlier about how they should hold hands more often, Sophia decided to do so. She slipped her hand in his and instantly felt a warmth blossom in her. Her uneasiness left from reading David's message began to subside and she felt better.

Sophia wondered where they should begin at the town square and thought over the places that was there. Clothing stores, a game store, a book shop, places that sold knickknacks, a candy shop, a kitchen store, an Asian market, and lots more.

"Do you want to swing by the candy store?" Sophia questioned. "They might already be working on putting out their holiday specials."

Tim felt his cheeks flare up and turn a shade of crimson when she grabbed his hand. He wasn't expecting it. He told her it was something they should do, and she just... did it. God he wished he had the same confidence that she had. He wanted to be able to just do things and have confidence, like she did. He wanted to have the same sureness in his walk, like she did. He wanted to have the same bravado and excitement in his speech, like she did. He wanted to be as good as she was.

She was so great.
She was so great.
She was so--

"Do you want to swing by the candy store?" Sophia said, effectively snapping Tim out of his Sophia trance. He looked over at her, taking in what she was saying, trying to stay out of his head for a moment. "They might already be working on putting out their holiday specials."

Oh, god, candy specials. If there was one thing that Tim unabashedly loved, it was buying candy in bulk at a discount. But, then again, what sane person wouldn't love that? Plus, The local candy shop had all of the best candy. Not only did they have the best, they also had the worst, of course, and some weird--really fuckin' weird-- obscure candies from other countries. The candies where you couldnt even read the label because it was from Scandinavia. It was candy heaven.

Plus, Sophie wants to go.

"Yeah, that, um... yes, that sounds like fun...we should do that."