Narue and Hideki

He grinned, more then a little impressed by her zeal for reading. It was nice to see someone academically minded. It made sense that most shinigami weren't academically minded, since it was a military minded organization, but it was still nice to know he wasn't the only one who liked to read.

He turned a corner and headed down a bookshelf. "Well. Here we are. The occult section. Anything in particular you wanted to find? Folklore, ghost stories maybe?" He cleared his throat. "Of course, you should probably look fast. They DO say this place is haunted at night." He said completely kidding.

Once they reached their desired section, Narue's eyes lit up at all the books. There were so many, all of them containing all sorts of legends, folklore, and stories. There were so many she had yet to read and learn about and so many were in front of her now.

"Folklore, please." Narue replied happily, still in awe of all the books that she'd almost not caught his last words; to which her expression changed slightly to that of a surprised one, although her smile now seemed a bit forced.

"R-Really now? Haunted?"

"Sure thing." He happily slid over to the folklore section and started pulling out a few select books. Overviews of some of the more obscure myths and legends out there about the world. She'd enjoy this and be better able to pick out specific stuff she wanted to learn more about. As he was picking up books, his smile slowly spread from ear to ear, noticing the stutter to her voice. Well well well. He hopped away from the shelf and whisked over to her, coming awkwardly close. "Yes. QUITE haunted... they say you hear odd things at night... squeaky wheels.. the turning of pages... but there's no library patrons to be found..." He said mysteriously, seeing if he could unnerve her a bit.

"Re..really now?" Did those things...really happen?

She tried as hard as she could to keep her usual expression, trying not to fumble in her words but her attempts obviously ended in failure at that point. She told all those scary stories, had fun spooking her fellow division members, and was into all of these things because she found it interesting...and to make better friends sometimes, though deep down her interest rooted from wanting to mask her own fear of these things.

He smirked in the shadows, seeing it was getting to her. He wouldn't scare her too bad. Didn't want a freak out... buuut... just a little bit more of a scare. "Oh, not only that... but you should see what happens to the poor souls who wind up staying here overnight.." he moved closer, lowering his voice to a whisper. "They SAY... that they're never seen again... but the rumor is...? Every time someone disappears..." He paused for dramatic effect, before going completely deadpan, his face sinking into a creepy expression. "The leatherbound books in this section seem to have newer covers."

Okay. Maybe a bit too much. At least he didn't do anything to give her a jump scare.

Her arms had an iron grip around Hato-kun at this point, her fingers curled into fists so as to stop herself from visibly shaking. "R-r-really?"

W...Were the leather bound books...really...

He gave a veeeery long thought to the idea of really spooking her, but... y'know... scaring the living shit out of a pretty girl you just met and were trying to impress was... Well it wasn't an AWESOME idea. "No... but that's definitely a good story to scare your squadmates with, right?" He said, dropping his scary face and giving her a reassuring smile. "Sorry. I didn't think you'd get that scared."

Without a chance to stop herself, Narue let out a sigh of relief but caught herself at Hideki's last words.

"I-I wasn't scared!" She denied, her words coming out quickly, but it was obvious that she was just saying that, as her fear earlier had been rather obvious.

He smirked. "Oh, of course not. You just tremble all the time, huh?" He teased, giving her a small poke to the side. "Don't worry. I've spent enough time overnight here that if anything fishy were going on, I would know." He reassured her again. "Although if you ever decided to scare some recruits here, I'd be more then happy to put together some fake human-skin books." Goodness knows he had the extra time on his hands.

"Eh hehehe..." Narue let out a sheepish laugh, not exactly able to argue back, no matter how poorly, at that.

At the Hideki's suggestion about using the library as another method of sharing scary stories and spooking some of the new recruits, Narue's interest was piqued. "That actually sounds like fun, it'd definitely be a change from sitting in a circle. Though are you sure doing something like that wouldn't interrupt your schedule?"

He'd said he'd be happy to, but she had no idea how much free time he had in his schedule. Helping manage a library of this size seemed like a busy job.

He couldn't help but give an awkward little laugh too, rubbing the back of his head. "It does seem like fun. Goodness knows we don't have enough excitement around here." He startled at the question about his schedule. "Uhhhh..." He thought for a moment about his schedule. All of the shelving, filing, returning books, asking stupid questions, balancing pencils on his nose...

"Um.. y-yeah... I'll squeeze it in.."

Narue smiled, "Then I'll have to work something up then! There's a few new transfers coming in too so the timing is perfect!"

She'd have to make sure they didn't get lost in the library though if they were going to do this. If they did get lost however she could likely find them just by sensing their reiatsu, it was sure to flare if they got spooked enough.

He smiled back, absentmindedly lifting one hand to rub the back of his head. What are you doing Hideki. You're just standing there... like a lump. You're being a lump. A sad one, too. A sad librarian lump. That's what you're being. Stop it. Stop the sadness, the librarian-ness and DEFINITELY the lumpness. He readjusted his smile to a less awkward one and reached out, gently taking her hand and giving it a small squeeze. "For the prettiest lieutenant in the whole ball, we'll give them all heart attacks!" He exclaimed, hoping his romantic valor would overshadow his nerves and inexperience.

At his compliment, Narue giggled; covering her mouth with the hand that wasn't in Hideki's grasp.

"I don't know about prettiest, but thank you." She smiled, a small tint finally appearing; it wasn't too obvious but it was there.

It was true though, she didn't really see herself as that pretty; there were plenty of other female shinigami that had much better hair, eyes, faces, other assets...she was happy with how she looked though, even if she wished her chest could be a little bigger.

He gave her hand another little reassuring squeeze. "It's no problem." He smiled at her, his eyes narrowing just a bit as he saw the faintest hint of color in her cheeks. Well, that was reassuring... Still.. what was he doing... he didn't exactly bring her here for sloppy make outs. He'd just met her... And she'd seen the library... crap... What now, Hideki?

"It's getting a little late... if you want, I could walk you back to your quarters." He recommended politely. Not that he really wanted this little hang out to end, but he didn't want to just stand there awkwardly either.

"Sure, if you want." She replied, smiling.

If he wanted to walk her back he could, it was late as he'd said, but her quarters were at the First Division which was a little bit of a walk and she didn't want him going out of his way.

"Well, I wouldn't want to make you walk home alone." He said, walking towards the door, still holding her hand. "Besides, I... y'know, I enjoy your company." He fidgeted a little nervously. "I mean..." his face tinted just the slightest shade of red. "So yeah." He rubbed his arm, deciding to not dig himself a deeper hole then he already was.

"Okay then." Narue said, smiling softly, "you're fun to hang around too."

Even if he'd actually managed to spook her it'd been fun hanging out with him. The ball, the library, it was all fun. Plus she'd been stressed a bit due to the presence of the faction that was their enemy, even if they and the shinigami had made an agreement, it had been really nice to get her mind off of it.

Hideki had been having so much fun, he himself had forgotten he'd originally been trying to distract the girl. "heh.. No mention of my inherent cuteness?" He asked with a playful wink as they left the library. He trotted down the steps before looking up at her with a smile. "Hey. If you're tired, I could give you a piggy back ride."

"Huh? A-Are you sure I won't be too heavy?" Today had been taxing and piggybacks were fun but what if she were too heavy? While she didn't weigh all that much she felt Hideki was probably tired from today too...so something like a piggyback ride would just weigh him down and make him more tired.

"T...Too heavy?" He looked confused before shaking his head with a smile and backing up to her and crouching down. "Please... TEN of you wouldn't be too heavy. You're petite. " He gestured with his head for her to hop on. "Now don't be silly, silly." While he felt like girls were upset about their weight too much, just this once it was more than a little adorable.

"O-Okay, if you're sure." She said just as Hideki crouched down and motioned for her to get on.

Before leaning over, she wrapped Hato-kun's wings securely around her neck; almost wearing him like a backpack. She knew he'd stay, since she'd had to use his wings like this many times before; it was a good thing they were long enough to tie. When the plush was secure she placed her hands on Hideki's shoulders, leaning down enough to put her weight on him so he could properly lift her.

"Yeahh, I'm positive!" He said before she hopped up. He clenched his teeth tightly together as he did so. She was light as a feather, but he wasn't exactly what you would call 'strong'... He considered for a moment trying to continue like this before realizing he needed to more evenly distribute her weight. He frowned to himself before reaching back and very VERY cautiously taking hold of her legs. There... much better... just his face was red now. "S...sorry." He said awkwardly as he started walking. "Um.. you comfy, though?"

"Mhmm, no need to apologize! I'm just fine. You okay?" She asked once Hideki had a secure hold on her and seemed steady enough. He hadn't seemed to have a problem lifting her, but she just wanted to make sure he was alright just in case.

"Y-yeah. Just uh... Just felt weird having to grab your legs. Th-that's all." WHY WERE YOU EVEN SAYING THIS, HIDEKI. JUST WALK, FOOL. "You've got Hato nice and secure back there, right?" He asked, knowing she would but wanting to make sure she knew he was concerned for her doll. He made sure she didn't slip, while trying not to think about how smooth her skin was.