Shelf Life by Fancy Pants

Chapter 1

Golden eyes watched her skirt lift higher, higher as she reached to shelve one last book off her cart.  The slightest hint of lace was revealed as it barely cleared the top of her thigh highs.  She stepped down off the ladder, the stretching of her skirt over her backside leaving nothing to the imagination.  With a quick brush of her hands leaving a small dust cloud in the air, she made her way back to the front desk.  It was official; Sesshoumaru was in love with the librarian.

The first time he laid eyes on her, he knew she was going to cause him trouble.  It was her first day, and the timid little thing was shyly smiling at everyone, making sure to greet each person who walked in the door and wish them well when they left.  That was pretty much the only thing she was competent at for the moment.

She’d forget to demagnetize the books, which would cause the alarm to go off as patrons cleared the door to leave, which in turn would throw his concentration off.  It would also slip her mind to stamp the books with the return date, causing her to call back quite a few people.  Luckily, librarians were only at the desk for an hour at a time, so he’d just have to get through her shift before delving back into his work uninterruptedly.  But that wasn’t entirely the case today.

Of course she’d have to get the one cart with the squeaky wheel.  And of course her shelving would have to be near him.  Sesshoumaru got to the point where he wasn’t even doing his paperwork anymore, just glaring holes in the back of her head.  This, unbeknownst to him, would end up very lucky for her in the end.

She was in the process of attempting to shelve a particularly thick book on the top shelf.  The ladder she was on was stuck, or just too heavy for her to budge from her perch, so she was stretching a bit farther than was particularly safe to get the book in its place.  Right after giving it a last ditch shove, she lost her balance and teetered for a moment before falling sideways off the ladder. 

No matter how much the girl annoyed him, it wouldn’t do for him to have her fall on his conscience, so reluctantly he moved.  To her credit, she only let out a tiny squeak during the short trip from the ladder into his arms.   Then promptly sent a charged reiki blast through him, taking him aback.  Who would’ve thought the shy thing was packing so much power?  A lesser demon would’ve been feeling that for weeks. 

Upon opening her eyes once she realized she was cradled against a strong chest, the librarian started apologizing rapid fire. 

“Omigosh, I am so sorry, sir!  I should’ve been more careful, I promise this won’t happen again.  I’m so, so sorry.  And I zapped you, too!  Are you alright?”

He let her down gently while she was babbling, and had just turned to go back to work when he felt her snag his shirt sleeve.

“Please, sir, are you alright?  Do you need any medical attention?  I sent a nasty jolt through you there.  Oh, I am so sorry.”

Just wanting to get the danger prone thing away from him, he uttered a non-committal hum, and turned his back on her.  Something soft collided with him, wrapping arms around him in an awkward backwards hug.

He barely heard it as it was murmured into his back, but he felt every bit of gratitude when she said, “Thank you for saving me.”  Then she promptly grabbed her still half-full cart and squeaked back to the front desk, ducking into the staff room behind it. 

Shaking his head, Sesshoumaru went back to his work, and put both the librarian and ensuing incident out of his mind.   

Hours must have passed in his concentration, and part of the lights went out, signaling it was nearing closing time.  With a sigh he packed up all his reports into his briefcase and picked out a new book for himself on the chance he’d have time to read it.

Of course, when he went up to the desk, the unlucky librarian was there to assist him.  She went fully pink in the face when she looked up from her paperwork and saw him standing there.  Bravely, though, she greeted him with a smile and took his library card and scanned it before doing so with his book.  She stamped it, upside down he noticed, and recited the due dates back to him.  

As she passed it to him, she caught his hand and said, “Thank you so much again.  I really mean it.  You were my guardian angel today.”  When he inclined his head to her the slightest bit before leaving, she smiled tremulously up at him. 

And of course his still-magnetized book set the alarm off as he left.