Who: Rapunzel and Stiles Stilinski What: Random meeting Where: Local bookstore When: Afternoon Warnings: N/A Status: Closed, Complete
Bookstores were absolutely one of Rapunzel’s favorite places. The smell and the sounds were soothing to her and she really liked just losing herself in a book. Her tastes varied by day usually and she mainly came for art books, but she also liked finding new fiction books to read when she had a little free time from her classes. At the moment she had a couple new art books in her arms and she was wandering up and down the aisles without a care in the world as she turned down one aisle and promptly ran into someone, “Oof! Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!”
***
Stiles stepped back, hands up to protect himself when the collision happened. Not that he was at all hurt, or anything of the sort. It was just reflex to put his hands up and react. He grinned, though, and let his hands drop when he saw that there was no real threat, just an accident.
“It’s all good,” he said. He was an easy going guy, for the most part. Sure the dreams had him a bit on edge, and he was maybe a little more stressed than usual because of it, but he hadn’t lost his easy nature. “Is something wrong? Or…” he asked, because if something was wrong, if she was distracted or whatever, he’d be glad to talk to her, or let her talk to him if she just needed someone to list.
***
She was just impressed that she hadn’t dropped her books, but held onto them without letting them slip at all. Thankfully she also didn’t hurt herself at all because the other body was a little more lean than squishy, so she really only bounced back just slightly. He didn’t seem to be injured at all either, so it was just more of an embarrassment than anything else.
“Oh no! I was just turning corners too quickly and I didn’t realize that you were there. My apologies, sometimes my head gets into the clouds,” it was a completely fair explanation because it actually happened to her a lot. Nothing was wrong she was just a daydreamer. She offered up a smile with her explanation and hoped it would be okay.
***
“That’s good, then,” Stiles smiled. He had an easy smile. He was glad nothing was wrong, that she wasn’t distracted because of bad things going on in her life. Stiles sometimes thought too hard about the lives other people were living. He couldn’t help it. He as a compassionate soul.
That seemed to be somewhat true even in his Dreams. He wondered if this girl was a Dreamer like him. It was entirely possible, even though he wasn’t aware of her presence on the network. There were so many people on the network he couldn’t possibly know them all.
“If you’re sure, I won’t bother you. You probably want to get back to whatever you were doing.”
***
That was basically how Rapunzel was as well, but her hippie background made her quite prone to flights of fancy. It came in handy when she was creating art, but not so much when wandering around the store. She liked to wander until she found things that caught her eye and she would check them out. She also talked to random people, which is what she was currently doing right now.
“Oh, I was just wandering. What are you doing? Find anything good on the shelves?” Sometimes you got good recommendations and she took them up on it. If it sounded interesting Rapunzel usually purchased it and hoped for the best when she did get around to reading it.
***
Stiles shrugged. “I guess I’m just wandering too, looking for something to catch my eye.” He’d given up researching dreams. The dreams he had, the dreams he had, the odd occurrence of shared dreams and living a whole other life in the dreams wasn’t well documented, Trying to research something that wasn’t really written about was frustrating.
“I guess I just like the smell of bookstores,” he told her. “The smell of books is soothing to me. I don't know why. And I know, it probably makes me sound like some kind of freak.” Which, because of the dreams, felt accurate.
***
“I know how that goes. Sometimes I start to daydream as I wander the aisles until something catches my eyes and I have to stop and investigate. And I totally get you on the smell of books. It’s one of my favorite scents. Right behind fresh oil paints,” Rapunzel explained with a laugh as she reached up to grab a book on the shelf and flipped through it absentmindedly.
“So, don’t worry, you’re not a freak. I’m Rapunzel by the way,” she replaced the book on the shelf and held her hand out to him for an introduction.
***
“I like the smell of Sharpies.” Stiles admitted. He took he took her hand and gave it a firm shake, “I’m Stiles,” he told her. He felt like his name was about as odd as hers, but Stiles was actually a nickname for him. He never bothered to tell anyone his real name since it was even more odd than Stiles.
“I was looking for something to read that wouldn’t make me think too much. Between homework and everything, I wanted something light and easy.”
***
“Sharpies smell kinda nice,” Rapunzel agreed with a bright laugh as she returned the handshake, “Stiles...I like that name. Different.” It wasn’t a completely normal name nor was it as weird as Rapunzel. If she told him that it was a nickname then she probably would have spent twenty minutes trying to guess his real name.
“Hm, I would go with a manga perhaps. Easy to read and fun to look at. Otherwise there’s some good fantasy books that are easy to read.”
***
“Manga.” Stiles nodded. “I hadn’t thought of that. That’s a good place to start.” She’d never be able to guess his first name. And if he wrote it down, she probably wouldn’t be able to pronounce it. And Stiles was a nickname based on his last name, so that would make it extra hard to figure out his first name.
“I think that’s a good plan. Because it is nice to look at, most of the time.” He’d been really into Manga a few years ago.
***
“Perfect! I’m so glad I could help give a suggestion, especially if you find something good to read. Have you ever heard of Valarnet? If the book is good you can hit me up on there and let me know because I’m always looking for new things to read,” Rapunzel wasn’t too picky about what she read and she did enjoy the art styles of various mangas. Hopefully he found something that would keep him engaged.
***
“Yeah, I’m pretty active on the Valarnet,” he told her. He’d met a lot of people that way. “I’ll keep in touch, all right?” He smiled a little. “It was nice meeting you,” he said with a nod and a smile. He liked meeting and talking to new people.