Read again our beginning

Turning the page, tilting the head to lean further on his hand. Ren enjoyed the peace the library provided him soaking himself in every word he read, or at least he was doing that until his silence was broken.

“Hello, do you mind if I sit here?” a voice from behind startled him, making him turn to see who was its owner, and finding a boy of disheveled hair and uniform that Ren thought was a couple of years older than him, although they were the same age. 

Too busy checking on the unfamiliar, bruised face, Ren took a few seconds to realize he had been made a question. 

“No,” he answered, forcing himself to be polite and making the other beam and take the seat.

He then resumed his reading, somewhat confused. He didn’t understand why he had been asked that in the first place, there were plenty of free seats other than that one plus it’s not like he needed his permission to sit there, however, things would have seemed clearer if he knew that the actual intention of the other was to start a conversation. 

“My name is Neil,” he introduced himself, making Ren look up from his book again. 

“I’m Ren,” he said, looking away rapidly to try to hint that he had no desire of talking, but Neil already knew this when he had made the decision of approaching him.

“What book are you reading? Is it interesting?” he continued with a smirk, willingly making the other annoyed. That was the most topic question, and the one Ren hated most, something Neil could guess by just seeing him read. 

“The neverending story, and yes, it is quite interesting,” he answered coldly. 

“Good, good. I also came for a book, I don’t really like reading at the library though,” he continued, making the raven-haired boy regret having let him sit there because since he had, all he had done was rereading the same word over and over again, which pissed him off.

“Could you be a bit less loud?” he said, trying to put in the best way and with the best tone he could such a sharp petition. 

Neil raised his eyebrows mockingly, “Are you telling me to shut up?”

Ren scoffed, that was it, he decided it was no use keeping his manners any longer. “I’m trying,” he replied with an eye-roll. 

The blond let go a side smile, “Aw don’t be like that, you aren’t going to make many friends with that attitude,” he teased, poking the other.

Ren pushed his hand away angrily, “I already have friends, but I have no desire of befriending you.”

Neil chuckled, “Books don’t count as friends,” he said, offending the other. It was a soft spot to touch and Ren could just see it as a rude insult despite Neil’s jocking tone. 

“I believe we aren’t close enough for you to make a personal attack on me like that,” he frowned. 

The blond laughed, leaning over and wrapping his arms around the other, squeezing their cheeks together. “Are we close enough now?” he replied playfully. 

“Get off!” Ren shouted, struggling to push him off when the hiss of the librarian walking to them froze them in place.

“You two! This is a library! If you’re going to play and shout go to a park!” she scolded, making each return to their place.

“Sorry, we’ll be quiet,” Ren said worriedly, he didn’t get rebuked often. But Neil, on the other hand, was struggling to subdue a chuckle. 

“I believe I didn’t express myself correctly,” the woman said, “ get out!”

“What? No, Miss Madeline, please, I was quiet, you know me, it was him,” the raven accused, pointing to the other. But it was no use right now.

“I don’t care, get out of my library!” she continued, picking his backpack and handing it to him roughly, for which he felt extremely offended. He went there every damn day and he had never been kicked nor called out! 

“T-This isn’t even your library! It belongs to the government! A-And you are being incoherent because you’re being the loudest one!” he said back, having the other boy to drag him out. Although his bad temper dropped when he remembered the book he was reading, “Can I rent that book?” he asked awkwardly before getting the door slammed in the face, “No!”

The sun of the day made him squint his eyes before he could turn to look daggers at Neil. 

“Come on, come on, it’s fine, it can happen to anyone,” the blond said, patting his back with his usual laid-back expression that was getting to Ren’s nerves. 

“What do you mean?? It was all your fault!” he shouted angrily. 

“Was it?” the other replied pretending to think, “I’m pretty sure I didn’t raise my voice at any moment though.”

The remark took Ren by surprise, but realizing he was right, he couldn’t but look away embarrassedly. 

“Well don’t worry about it, we can read in another place,” Neil said with his bright beam, starting to walk, but the other stopped him. “We?”

“Yeah, it’s a subject pronoun that refers to a group including the speaker,” he replied.

“W-What?” Ren was genuinely confused but putting a hand on his face and shaking his head he brushed it away, responding, “Uh, we are not going anywhere together, so please stop treating me as if we knew each other and just go away.”

“Jeez, you can be mean huh? But don’t worry I’m not offended, plus maybe you would like to come if you knew where I’m going,” the blond said vividly, leaning on him. 

“I wouldn’t,” the other answered stepping away. 

“I’m going to a super awesome book store where you can for sure find that book you were reading and that isn’t that far away, isn’t that better than going to rot to your house on such a beautiful day?” he said anyways, with his characteristical smirk on. 

Ren fixed his gaze on the sky. The day had nothing beautiful for him, it was sunny and hot, not a good wheater compared to rainy and cold in his opinion. But the first part had caught his attention, he had left the book in the climax and he wouldn’t be able to sleep leaving it like that.

“Come on, I know you’re dying to know how it ends. Well, I can tell you instead if you don’t wanna come,” Neil teased mimicking dramatically, to what the other replied quickly.

“Don’t do that,” he said. That was the worse thing he could get done. 

But going over the sentence again, he noticed a fact that he had skipped, “You’ve read 'the neverending story'?”

“Of course I have, a great book isn’t it?” he replied.

Ren looked him up and down, that pose with his arms akimbo, that blinding smile, that funny hair; he wondered if he had judged him incorrectly. But, being too proud to admit he had, he just nodded, “hm,” still making speculations but having that annoying voice to sound a little bit less annoying. 

“So you coming?” Neil took him out of his thoughts. 

“I guess,” he shrugged, making the other smile and put an arm around his shoulders, “I knew you would,” he cheered. 

In a park he had never actually been to before, Ren walked just a few steps behind the other, whose jaunty pace had him unconsciously hypnotized. Until he, jumping, took him abruptly from his trance.

“Oh cool!” he shouted, running and flopping onto the green grass that coated the sides of the path, confusing the other, “What’s it?”

“Grass, I love grass,” he replied rolling on it and giving Ren an idea of why he looked that messy but puzzling him even more, “What? Why?”

“Because it’s awesome, don’t you just fall in love when you read a description of a field at dawn? With dew shining as very stars! And it’s even better when you can lie on it and let it tickle your feet while reading!”

The way he talked made Ren think he really was in love, and it managed to transmit him some of that love too, even for something as silly and dirty as grass. 

But again, an angry voice startled them, “Hey you two, can’t you read? get out of there!” a man shouted, “Oops,” Neil got up and started running, taking the other’s hand to drag him along.

“I can’t believe you’ve got us scolded two times in less than fifteen minutes,” Ren complained. Although that wasn’t even Neil’s record. 

“You’re the one that has chosen to come with me, so getting scolded yourself is your fault,” he replied. 

Ren lowered his head, he hated getting disarmed by a good point because he wasn’t stupid enough to try to retort to something he knew was true. 

But not even half a minute of rest he had before a tug in his hand, that hadn’t been freed, got him running again. 

“Oh! run! they’ll leave without us,” Neil said, sprinting to the stop in front of them in which the bus had just stopped. 

“Wait, taking the bus? I thought you said it wasn’t far,” Ren replied as he got pushed inside the vehicle. 

“I lied,” the other answered casually.

“What? Okay, I’m not going,” he said nervously, but the blond’s hold prevented him from getting off before the doors shut.

“Too late,” he said amusedly, although it didn’t amuse Ren at all.

“Wait, let me go,” he struggled, but he had to give up as the bus had already taken off. 

“What do you have against buses?” Neil asked, searching for two empty seats and going to the end of the bus where there was plenty. 

“They make me dizzy, they’re stinky, and there are weird people in them,” the raven complained, going to where the other was but taking the furthest seat he could. He didn’t like vehicles in general and less the public transport.

Neil made a playful eye-roll, before getting up with a jump and sitting on the place next to him, “That’s why they are cool! They are like those side characters of a quest! Or our crew comrades! Let’s talk to someone!” he said in his flamboyant tone, ready to get up.

“No way, I’ve already met enough weird people for a day,” Ren replied grabbing his shirt to keep him in place. 

Neil smiled, it was a fair point, plus there wasn’t anyone that really caught his attention, so he just obeyed and sat back down.

The bus ride wasn’t that long, but it seemed so to Ren, especially after they didn’t get down at the first stop. The fact that Neil spent it quiet also made it longer, Ren couldn’t but wonder what was it that he was thinking about in such a deep concentration.

The bus had taken them deeper into the city, a place Ren rarely went to but that he was enjoying walking through. 

On the sidewalk, some men had laid blankets to sell each something. Neil approached a particular one that had some piles of books exposed, and Ren hoped that wasn’t the ‘super awesome book store’ he had promised to take him to, which he would find wasn’t. 

“Amaru! My man!” the blond greeted, high-fiving him.

“Hey Neil! Sup! Is your face better?” he replied, signaling to his bruise.

“Yes, it’s perfect!”

“What happened?” Ren took that chance to ask, the fact of his black eye had bothered him since the first moment, which made him wonder again why had he agreed to go with him. He just hoped he wasn’t the type of getting in fights.

“Oh, I ran into that pole for reading while walking,” he laughed, pointing to a lampost some meters away and making Ren regret having worried in the first place.

“You are an idiot.”

Neil laughed again, “I know, I’m told often,” he said before introducing him to the man, “Amaru this is Ren.”

“You come each day with a new friend,” he said amusedly.

“And you with new books, can I take a look?” the other answered.

“Go ahead.” With the permission, Neil crouched to the floor, starting to rummage around the book piles. 

However, Ren just looked at him from above, going over the words of the vendor again. Of course he had seen Neil as a friendly guy, but he hadn’t actually imagined him having many friends, as stupid as it may seem. He felt something close to anger fill his stomach, was it jealousy? No, it was rather frustration, he felt manipulated, as if he was just a side-character driven into Neil’s story for his mere amusement. 

He couldn’t find the answer to what to do, for he was angry but also having fun, so, as soon as Neil paid for a couple of books, he decided to check if it was worth staying with him or if he should just return home. 

“Why are you taking me to that book store?” he asked.

The blond wasn’t expecting the sudden question but he didn’t take long to respond, “Because you wanted to come.” 

It was a fair answer.

“But why did you talk to me in the first place?” Ren rephrased. 

Neil smirked, turning to him to reply, “You seemed amusing, your face of concentration when reading was cute,” he giggled. 

Ren looked away, ignoring the last part and believing that bore out his suspicions, “You approach anyone that seems amusing to you?” he said upset. 

“Usually, plus you don’t find many people that love reading as much as I do, but you seemed to do,” he responded, making the raven lit up slightly, “I needed a John Watson! A Samsagaz Gamyi! A Sancho Panza!” he continued, putting an arm around his shoulders and leaning on him, almost making them bump with some woman. The comparison made the raven happy, he didn’t feel like a filler character anymore, although he had to complain, “Why would you be the main character?”

“Okay, then what about a Peregrin Took? An Eugene Wrayburn? A Stephen Maturin!” he exclaimed excitedly. 

Ren allowed himself to chuckle, with a laugh that, for being the first one he saw, Neil saved as a cherished memory. 

“We aren’t even friends,” the raven replied shaking his head. 

“I still think I made a good choice, or do you rather keep only having books as friends?”

“I may do, at least books aren’t that loud,” Ren continued with the joke. 

“No way! That’s because you aren’t reading them correctly.” Neil’s answer surprised him, but he got even more when, opening one of the books he had just bought, he got on a bench.

“ 'The music-room in the governor’s house at Mahon, a tall, handsome, pillared octagon, was filled with the triumphant first movement of Locatelli’s C major quarter',” he started reading histrionically, loud enough to make Ren embarrassedly look around at the passerby whose attention he had caught. 

“Even if you don’t read out loud,” he continued, jumping off the bench and lowering his voice dramatically to then raise it again, “they can still be loud, as loud as to fill the most silent room! The most silent world! The most silent life!” 

The words touched Ren at a personal level, just as Neil had intended, and he felt a liking for that annoying blondie’s point of view, he could admit that he was starting to feel some sympathy towards him.

“But at least you can shut them up,” he joked, snatching the book from his hands and making him stop shouting and snicker instead. 

It was at that moment when a small store that lit up Neil’s already bright face came into view. 

“Oh we are here!” he exclaimed, taking the other into the establishment and making a small bell tinkle. 

“Hello Mr. Oliver!” he greeted, making an old man peek from behind some hundreds of books piled with no apparent order, like the ones that occupied all the place. 

“Hello son. How are you?” he asked, happy to see his regular customer. 

“Great! And you? Is your wife better?”

“Yeah she’s fine now,” he said with a kind smile that turned into a surprised face when he spotted the raven boy, “Oh, I see you brought a friend, that’s unusual.”

“I’m Ren, nice to meet you,” he introduced himself politely, glad to know that, unlike the other place, this was somewhere Neil kept for his own, and that he had decided to show him. 

“Ren! Isn’t this place great?” Neil, that was at that moment out of the other’s sight, said. 

The shorter boy nodded, walking through the shelves until he found him crouching to look over some books. 

“Here each book has more than one story, you know,” he started keenly, “it has the one that’s turned into words, but between its pages, it also hides the one that the writer lived while making it, and the ones of every person that has read it, and when you take it, you add yours! The one of how you got to it, or the one that may happen while you read it!” he smiled up at the other, who liked just how passionate his way of talking was, and how it conveyed him this feeling he sometimes forgot, which made him start enthusiastically going for hours through the books on the shelves and through their yellowish, pleasant-smelling pages until it was time for them to leave. 

“Here, I bought it for you,” Neil surprised him, handing him a book of beautiful covers that read ‘the neverending story’. 

The raven looked at it for a few seconds, shocked, “You didn’t need to,” he said, raising his gaze to the other who just gave him a smirk.

“I wanted to, besides, they kicked us out of the library because of me so I owed you”