One Chapter More [Emiko]

Indeed there still sat the tiny mouse reading away at her book, unaware she'd startled one of her professors into hitting the bookshelf. Hell, Ami didn't even flinch when Emiko bumped into it. Her eyes were still trained on her book, despite the fact she had to move the desk light closer at some point so she could continue her reading. Really, her body was basically running on autopilot right now.

When Emiko spoke up, there was only a faint stirring to the mouse's body. While it had been complete, wonderful sentences to Emiko, to Ami it was more along the lines of: Library...Closed.....Students are.....in here at.... Idly one of her hands reached up to tuck in some of the light brown- nearly pinkish in the current light- hair that was falling around Ami's face as she hovered over her open book. She managed to turn her head slightly in the direction Emiko had basically (to Ami's ears) made noise from.

However her eyes were still greedily taking in the words on the page.

"Oh no that's.....great, professor...." Ami mumbled, her tone conveying her very clear distraction as her attention was still on her book. She didn't even know who she was talking to. It couldn't be Diya, that much her brain figured. Diya would've ripped the book away from Ami at this point. She figured it must've been some kind of staff. or maybe a student. Who knew? "Great....yes...." She trailed off, not even knowing what she was calling great in the first place. Her head gradually started to drift back over to her book and the hair she'd tucked away start falling once again. "Just....one more chapter?" She hummed questioning, her tone a mix of pleading and distraction.

Ami hummed in soft, noncommittal agreement to whatever Emiko had just said. Truth be told, she was only responding to the sound. She actually hadn't a clue of the actual words being said. Hell Emiko could've just called her some horrific insult and Ami would've agreed with it all the same. The words before her were all that mattered at the moment unfortunately. Ami flipped the page and just kept on reading.

At some point Emiko made another noise. Upon sort of hearing it, she smiled faintly and nodded her head, letting out another soft hum of noncommittal agreement. Oh yes, whatever the professor just said surely was profound. Whatever it was. Yeah, definitely. Ami had to assume it was something good. I mean hey, her book hadn't been torn away from her yet! That was always a good sign!

And seeing as Emiko did not try to pry the little mouse away from her reading, she would continue to read until she finished the chapter. And the next one. And the one after that. And the one after that. Even as the lights surrounding them finally went out and all other individuals within the library left Ami kept her head craned over her book hungrily reading each page. The only change she made was scooting closer towards the light once all of the others went out. That and the occasional expression that crossed her face depending on what she read. She was a very active reader on top of being an absolute bookaholic.

Left unchecked and undisturbed, Ami would finally finished the book and close it with a sigh. Maybe she could get the next book bef-

Wait a second.

With her face finally out of the pages, Ami only now realized the library had been taken over by darkness. Had the library staff forgotten about her? Slightly baffled, Ami turned her head every which way until it landed on Emiko. Whom she had certainly not expected to find sitting nearly right beside her! Ami let out a tiny squeak of surprise as she jolted. When had the professor sat down there? How long had she been there? Hell, what time was it?! "P-Professor! I...." Words! She'd just been reading a whole book full of them! "Wh- How- H-How long have you been there?" Was what her brain finally pushed out. She looked around again. Anything to avert her gaze from the woman next to her and hide the blush quickly infusing her cheeks. Her brain was starting to click everything together. Her expression, though she kept her head turned away and staring at her now finished books, had turned sheepish. "......I stayed too late again didn't I." She muttered, stating it more than asking it.

For the past few hours?!
By the Gods Diya might have been right!

And that was the worst part about it. With a soft groan Ami buried her face in her hands. She could feel the heat radiating off of her cheeks into her palms. The action also dug her glasses into her eyes, which made her swiftly pull her face back with a little "ow!" escaping her. Somehow even more embarrassed and flustered, Ami slid her hands under the red spectacles and rubbed the hurt bridge of her nose. Great. This was just perfect. Absolutely perfect. Not only was her best friend right about the fact that she apparently went into an unreachable dimension when reading, but she'd stabbed her eyes and made a complete fool of herself!

And it just had to be Professor Inoue, didn't it?

For the most part after her impromtu eye-stabbing she kept her gaze averted from the other woman. Especially when she was reminded (albeit rather politely) that what she'd done was technically against the rules. Ami couldn't help but huff and pout a little, though her head was still a little averted. Why couldn't they just make the library stay open a little longer? Surely that wouldn't be such a hard thing? And the other students would probably appreciate it too!

Because Ami was most certainly not thinking it should have extended hours for selfish reasons at all.

Eventually Ami's eyes did flick over to Emiko to find-- Amber eyes widened from behind her corrective lens. Shit. Shitshitshit. Of course her eyes would be drawn to the straining buttons the moment she looked over. Because of course it would be on the damn eye level from her position. Color flooded the tiny mouse's cheeks and reached up to her ears. Quick you idiot, don't stare! Ami snapped her gaze away to the first thing she could see. Her books. Right! Her books! Somewhat in a hasty scramble, Ami stood up with her chair roughly screeching against the floor. Even she had to wince at that, making her all the much more flustered.

Shit.

"Ah- u-um I should probably put these back, r-right?" The words more or less tumbled out of her mouth as she grabbed the three of them. "I-I'll just put them back." Not exactly fleeing she fished her phone out of her pocket to use as a flashlight before walking off into the library. Thank goodness she basically had memorized its layout (purely on accident) so she knew where she'd gotten the novels from. Meanwhile she could mentally hit her head on an imaginary desk.

Shit.

Yeah, lessen the librarian's workload. That was entirely the reason Ami had all but ran from the table Emiko was sitting at. Not at all because she needed a second to breath. or because her face was still burning red like a beacon to her embarrassment. Or that the image was still in her-- Would it cut that out?!

Gods, she was a mess right now.

Quickly Ami made her way through the maze of the library looking for her books' section. Of course it just had to be on the opposite side of the place! Then there was the faint sound of the approaching click of heels. The professor was following her. Oh wonderful. At least she sounded a little far off. Though it was hard to tell. The noise was echoing slightly like some eerie sound foreshadowing her demise (which wasn't dramatic. Not at all). For all Ami knew the woman could be right behind her. Surely she couldn't be that silent wearing shoes like that though right?

"Yes!" Ami blurted at first, the word coming out a little too loud for her liking. It was nearly another squeak. Curse her voice for carrying. And curse her nerves making it high-pitched! Wincing and tsking at herself silently, Ami cleared her throat and tried again. "Uh, y-yes. I'll put the books back in their correct places. I'm very familiar with the library's layout." It probably helped that she spent almost every available minute she had in the place. She'd even memorized where each individual section was. Though at the moment her brain was having some difficultly.

Probably because she currently felt like a mouse being stalked by a goddammed cat.

Finally, though, she managed to find the aisle she'd pulled her books from. With a sigh of relief she began training her light over the different backs of the shelved piece of literature. This she could do. While she knew the general location she couldn't remember the exact area of the bookshelf she'd pulled these out of. Hadn't it been somewhere low? She was fairly certain it was. Crouching down Ami focused on finding the place to put her novels back.

Certainly not on the ever approaching noise of stilettos.

Praise the gods that Ami soon found herself too distracted to notice the click of stilettos on the nearly empty room had gotten closer before stopping. Because that meant the little mouse didn't know her professor was essentially spotting the issue that came with wearing a skirt and crouching on the floor. Especially since the little mouse had to move around trying to find the place where her darn books went in the first place!

"Aha!" There it was! She saw the other books in the series and the large gap her missing books had created. Sorting them in order Ami still wasn't aware of Emiko until she spoke up. Which of course prompted another squeak of surprise and a jolt from the girl. Which then dropped her phone. Which then hit her eyes. Which then had the girl flinching back from the light as it shined up. "Putain!" Came the reflexive hiss as her eyes burned slightly from the sudden intense light after being in darkness for so long. Ami's hand scrambled over the floor until she picked up the phone and turned it away from her. The muttered words of "C'est vraiment des conneries!" escaped the tiny mouse's lips before she recalled that a teacher was standing right there.

Thank goodness for the darkness again because now her face was surely scarlet.

Hastily the books were put back into place. Not messily mind you; even in her embarrassment Ami couldn't possibly harm a piece of literature so readily. Once again she heard Emiko speak up and this time Ami was ready for when she turned her head and-- Could her face get any redder? because Emiko wasn't the only one with an advantageous viewpoint. Maybe hers wasn't as good as Emiko's but from where Ami was crouching...

The tiny mouse shot up standing, taking her phone with her. Regretfully she forgot to turn the flashlight off so now it was Emiko that got an eyeful of light. "Ah! Sorry!" With the exclamation came a scrambling to turn off the light. When it did they were both pretty much trapped in the dark. Ami took that moment to place her phone against her forehead in frustrations. A string of low mutterings (likely curses) in french left the tiny mouse's lips before she looked up again.

Could this really go any worse? She'd honestly like to see if it was possible.
...On second thought, no she wouldn't.

"I-I know! S-Sorrry I um..." Went into a book reading dimension? Got lost in the words? Infuriatingly proved my best friend's theory to be true? "...I just lost track of time." She repeated lamely, looking anywhere but at the woman before her. Not even her feet because those led to her legs which-- aaaaaaaand she was derailing that train of thought right now. "We should go!" She blurted. Then promptly wanted to slam a palm into her forehead. "B-Because it's late. And I shouldn't be in here." And apparently she was Captain Obvious right now. "Ahhh...S-Should I go turn out that light? I should go turn out that light." That was a brilliant plan; maybe it would get her to shut up and stop vomiting words. Only problem was: tiny aisles. So when Ami tried snaking past Emiko she still managed to bump her. "Ah! Um je suis désolée." She spit out rapidly before slipping back towards where she'd been sitting and thus the light they'd left on.

Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit-

Well wasn't this going so wonderfully? No really, she was doing such a great job. Well done Ami. You singlehandedly managed to make yourself look like a complete and utter dunce in front of one of your professors. Truly, this had to be a record for how many things she was doing wrong. Oh if only Diya could see her stumble and stutter now. In the back of her mind Ami could practically hear the Surajan woman's laughter ringing in the distance. That was enough to shake Ami out of her horrifically flustered state and at least give her a little indignation to pull through.

Otherwise the tiny mouse was sure she was just going to curl up on the floor and hope she disappeared.

Turning off the last remaining lamp, Ami sighed and rubbed her face again. This time making sure she did so under her glasses. What was wrong with her? She was pretty sure any chance of making a good impression today had been flushed straight down the toilet. The sooner she got away from the blonde woman, the sooner she could bury her face into a pillow and scream. Yeah...that sounded pretty good right now.

Using her phone's flashlight once again the little mouse managed to move through the rest of the desks and chairs without ramming into anything to reach the door. However as she tried the door she found it was locked. For a moment absolute panic overcame the girl. Wait was she stuck overnight in the library with Professor Inoue?! A heavy blush settled into Ami's cheeks again, reaching up her ears as her thoughts started running away without her. Before it could go much further though Emiko spoke up. Coming.

Good gods her thoughts just pinpointed.

The tiny mouse released the knob as though it burned her, stepping away a few quick steps from the burn. She kept her eyes on the floor while inwardly she was trying to rein in her mind. Stupid brain. Stupid doors. Stupid hormones. Stupid...Everything! She felt like screaming. Was she actually asleep? Was all this just a nightmare? Some horrid nightmare where everything went wrong and her dream brain was frolicking with thoughts she shouldn't be having? It certainly felt that way. Rubbing her temples, Ami clamped her eyes shut and tried to get a hold of herself. COuldn't she have at least a shred of her tattered dignity left? Just for a moment?

By the time Emiko reached the door, Ami had become composed enough that she didn't feel quite to close to curling up in a defensive ball. She still kept her eyes to the floor but at the very least she managed to say: "Um.....S-Sorry about...staying so late. And...A-And shining the light in your eyes." There, that was good wasn't it? Even a stammered apology mumbled towards the floorboards was better than her standing there and letting her thoughts stew, right? yeah especially with the "helpful" ideas her brain was giving her.

Gods she was never going to live this down.
Thankfully Diya wasn't there. This was already going to plague the mouse's mind for months; she didn't need even further reminders from her best friend.