“Hey, let’s go to the break room, yeah?” Brennan said.
Cole sniffled loudly and his red face emerged from his hands at last. He nodded and Brennan led the way, Cole keeping a loose hold on Brennan’s arm that Brennan was hyperaware of. Was Cole’s touch always this hot?
No,badBrennan,he scolded. He needed to ignore his ill-advised crush and help comfort his friend and act like a normal person for once in his goddamn life.
Brennan hoped things were still where he remembered them. He pushed open the door to the storage room and held it open for Cole, who passed up the table and chairs in favor of flopping on the ground with a fair amount of drama. Brennan went to the box labeled in Cole’s scratchy all-capsEMERGENCY COMFORT STASH. The Cute Library Blanket Guy origin story.
Within five minutes, Cole was wrapped up in his favorite blanket—the fleece one with a scattered pattern of dogs with speech bubbles that said “fuck off”—and holding a steaming mug of cocoa. The mug, a gift from Tony, saidSEXY LIBRARIANin gaudy lettering. Brennan made the cocoa with water instead of milk, because Cole was a weirdo who preferred shitty watery packet hot chocolate to anything of real substance. By the time Brennan was sitting on the floor across from him, legs crossed and hands in his lap, Cole had stopped crying.
“It’s just, obviously midterms is a stressful time for everyone, but the library is like… Everyone is stressed, all the time, and everyone needs my help, and I’m trying to—tobethe library blanket guy, right? With the smiles and the hot cocoa and all.” Everything came tumbling out of Cole in a rush. “But it’s so exhausting when I’m trying to take care of everyone else. And, really, I don’tmind,but it piles up.”
While Cole was busy taking care of everybody, was there anyone taking care of Cole?
God, was that what Brennan had been doing, too? Accepting all of Cole’s kindness and not offering much in return? He’d come here today, as all days, for selfish reasons—just wanting to see a friend. But maybe Cole needed a friend in all his shit, too.
“What do you need? Advice, or sympathy, or…?”
Cole sniffled up at Brennan, dangerously close to crying again.
“Honestly, Brennan, I needed a little bit of hospitality and you have more than provided.” He pulled the blanket more firmly around his shoulders in illustration. The lilt of his accent was thicker around the edges.
“I only did what you do for, what, eight people a day?”
“That’s my job,” Cole said. “And it’s far less often than that.”
“Then it’s my job to make you your shitty cocoa and let you rant if you need to.”
“You didn’t come here to deal with me beinglike this.You must have your own stuff going on, you had the vampire support-group meeting this weekend, right?”
“Oh my god, Cole, just let me take care of you!”
Cole’s jaw clamped shut and he gave a wide-eyed blink. Brennan startled at his own exclamation, and then they both started, in the most sophisticated and composed way possible,giggling.
“Sorry,” Brennan said, “That was weird. It’s been a long day.”
“It’s been a long week,” Cole agreed. “And it’s not weird. It’s sweet. You’re sweet.”
Brennan pushed down the warmth that was flooding his chest and face and melting his insides. Inexplicably, he said, “Well, shucks, me?”
Cole snorted. “Yeah, you’re pretty… good, for a vampire.”
“That’s the goal, I guess,” Brennan said, picking at a thread on his jeans. Then he flickered back into problem-solving mode. “Now, you mentioned an essay due at midnight?” Brennan checked his phone for the time. “You could bang something out in two hours, or at least ask for an extension. I can handle a little shelving if you need to work on that.”
Cole blinked up at him from inside the burrito of his puppy blanket. It was unbearably adorable. Brennan averted his gaze and eyed a cart of books by the door, sizing it up.
“Or, I mean, depending on your stance on academic integrity, you can handle the stacks and I can tackle the essay,” Brennan joked.
Cole grabbed a nearby stuffed animal and chucked it at Brennan. He ducked swiftly, because, well, vampire instincts.
“I doubt you’ve ever lacked academic integrity in your life,” Cole accused.
“Yeah, I don’t know why I joked about that, I don’t play around with plagiarism.”
“Then I guess you should get stacking.”
Brennan turned to leave but the sound of shuffling made him turn. Cole had tripped over himself trying to get up while still wrapped in his blanket, but he managed to cross the small space and wrap a warmhand around Brennan’s wrist. After not seeing him for two weeks, having Cole this close was making Brennan dizzy.
“And hey,” Cole said. “Thank you.”
