Who: Remus and Caroline. What: Hanging out at the library. Where: UCI Campus. When: Mid-October. Rating/Warnings: Low/None. Status: Complete.
How did this always happen to her? The semester started and it seemed like she had all the time in the world. Every time she was determined to go to all of her classes. Okay maybe not all of them, but the majority. And then some form of OC craziness happened and she ended up missing a ton. Somehow it was already time for midterms and she barely had any idea what was going on in her classes. Okay that was a sight exaggeration but still it was time for some major study sessions.
Into the campus library she went. Ready to get down to her studying, but then she spotted a familiar face and made a beeline for him. Might as well study in good company right? “Remus, hey,” she had to remember to keep her voice low cause library.
Ah, the library. At this point, Remus felt they ought to have a table reserved specifically for him (and wasn’t that simply depressing). On one side of him was a neat stack of books, on the other side his binder open to notes, and in the middle sat his laptop while he plucked away at a paper that simply did not want to be written.
So it really was sort of a godsend when he heard someone call his name.
“Please tell me you’ve come to rescue me,” he said, by way of greeting. Taking the books off the table, Remus made some room but putting them into his bag and shifting over a bit.
“If by rescue you mean join in your misery then, yes that’s what I’m here to do,” Caroline joked giving him one of her famous smiles as she plopped down at the space he had just cleared. “I so have not done enough studying this semester,” or going to class really but she didn’t need to share quite that much information. She began pulling out her books and stacking them on the table so she could attempt to get her own studying done.
“Better than nothing.” Remus gave her an amused look, reaching over to give her hand a pat. “I’m sure you’ll be fine. It’s not so hard. What do you need to study for?” He could try to offer some guidelines, anyway. It would do to have a break from his own circle of hell.
“Like everything,” Caroline replied sighing dramatically. “What do you know about Shakespeare?” When she switched her major to drama she didn’t think she was going to have to take a class dedicated to the guy. All that old timey language was so difficult to process.
“Uh.” Remus raised his eyebrows and exhaled a puff of air. “I could probably recite a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and, you know, tell you some random trivia about the era but . That’s all I got. Sorry.” He paused. “What do you know about the Cold War?” His lips quirked up in a smile.
“I’m going to need a little more than ‘O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’” Caroline teased since that was probably the most well known Shakespeare quote. At least it was for her before the class. “It’s okay. I’ll figure it out.. somehow,” she gave him a reassuring smile before going on to answer his question. A blank expression coming over her features. “Uh… it was cold?” There she went feeding into the blonde stereotype but then she went on to say more. “Wasn’t that like some type of stand off between us and Russia after World War two about using nuclear weapons?” See? She knew some things. But that was probably the extent of it.
“You could always try my kingdom for a horse,” Remus quoted back. He even laughed. He’d almost forgotten what it was like to laugh - midterms literally were soul draining.
“... That’s. More or less the gist of it, yes. A shame that, like your quote, it’s not enough to fill a paper.” He stared forlornly at his notes. “When this is done, you should come over for a celebratory drink or five.”
“Fair is foul and foul is fair,” Caroline replied with a laugh of her own. Maybe if she wrote enough famous Shakespeare quotes she’d pass? Seemed like a good theory. Showed she at least knew something.
She wrinkled her nose at his next comment. “Well I tried,” she offered but then her eyes brightened some. “Count me in!” she let her excitement get the better of her causing a glare from the librarian. Caroline gave her a sheepish smile. “Whoops.”
Remus snerked. It was a legitimate sound. “Can’t be too excited in libraries. It’s an unwritten rule that all patrons need to be miserable.” He gave Caroline a pointed look. “Fortunately, we are allowed to fuel ourselves with a variety of sustenances. Do you want a coffee or something? I think I need one. I can go grab them for us so you don’t get overly distracted from your work.”
That was probably the best idea considering Caroline had just gotten there. She really should get some work done. “Well if you’re going anyway I won’t say no,” Caroline replied giving him her winning smile.