Late Night Library AU

[Nienke]

The whole fanfiction thing was still blowing Aslan’s mind, but it was good to know that it was not just out of dissatisfaction from readers, but more out of love? And horniness? He still didn’t quite grasp the concept, but did know exactly what his plan was for tonight.

Replacing letters with numbers was also an entirely new concept to Aslan and before he knew it, Eli had grabbed his phone out of his hand to enter the password. He tried to object and get his phone returned to him, but Elijah quickly climbed to the highest point of the chair. He tossed the phone back to Aslan, who naturally caught it and saw that he had saved his number in Aslan’s phone under “My favourite librarian” with a little heart at the end. He couldn’t help but feel weirdly excited for it. He tried to look up angrily, but the look of satisfaction on Eli’s face made it very, very hard.

“Actually, could you maybe get me another book? I can’t come in tomorrow; I have a thing.” Aslan was leafing through Eli’s newest book recommendation.

“A thing? A hot date? Another knitting party? Threesome? Undercover mission? Orgy?” Eli said as he plopped down on his seat again, cross legged, with his hands underneath his chin.

The instant regret of sharing any personal information with Elijah washed over him.

“It’s nothing really.” He shook his head and pretended to start reading.

“Please do share.” Eli said after promptly slapping the book out of Aslan’s hands. “I’m allowed to do that. I work here…”

“Fine,” he knew this wasn’t going to be the end of it. “My woodworking class is organizing an exposition. We’re forced to show off our projects and invite family and friends. If you want you can come and bring Milo… I’ve already invited Marge and her wife.” Aslan started going through his bag and pulled out a flyer for Eli.

[Bandersnatch]

Elijah had been tempted to put something more raunchy as his contact name, or simply a "Future Husband" with some eggplants for extra measure, but in a split second decided he didn't want to completely scare the poor guy away.

"Oh my god, you do woodworking? That's so cool! What type of thing do you carve?? And absolutely I wanna come, gimme, gimme gimme..." He wiggled his fingers as he saw Aslan pulling out the flyer. Aslan, meanwhile, was mentally agonizing over how someone could be so mesmerizing and addictive and annoying as hell all at the same time.

"I'll be there." He smiled sweetly at Aslan, after having given the flyer a quick once over. "I can't believe you do woodworking and go on retreats to knit with your mom while looking like that." He muttered, a small smile tugging at his face as he squinted at the small address typed at the bottom of the flyer.

[Nienke]

"Sure, yes, woodworking. I also like to go on hikes and spend my time birdwatching. So I mostly carve birds. The teacher is making us hone our crafts though, so we've had to make a chair and some other things. You'll see tomorrow, I guess..." He needed to remind himself that it was nice to make friends and have people come to his exhibits. His mom was utterly excited to see what he'd been making. But the thought of all his librarian friends coming felt almost too much. He was not a fan of showing off his work, most likely the reason he wrote under an alias. There was something about being witnessed that had always made him feel uncomfortable. It was hard however to not be witnessed at his height and intimidating looks. It didn't bother Eli however. It actually seemed to do the opposite.

"What do you mean looking like that?" He frowned a little, before picking up his book from the ground and patiently waiting for Elijah to pretend to go back to work again.

He stayed for another hour or so, before heading up and opening his laptop. He went to the internet and googled 'Haidar Laith Bionic Hearts fanfiction' and fell down a 10 hour rabbit hole of reading some of the most horrific, horny things he had ever laid eyes upon. Finally, finding a raunchy as hell version that had made him put his food down and he couldn't tell for sure if it turned him on or if he wanted to quit writing. The name that signed it off was 'GayLibrarian69' and he had a slight hunch as to who it might be.

[Bandersnatch]

Elijah gazed at Aslan in adoration, too stunned to say anything other than an impulsive, "you're adorable." muttered softly, not really intended to be heard.

Elijah grew slightly flustered. "Have you seen yourself?" Elijah scoffed, incredulous. "You look like some ancient god lovingly crafted you with his own hands." He huffed, though a small smile was on his face. "And then all your hobbies are insanely wholesome and cute, and like, there's gotta be something wrong with you, right?? Like you're secretly a serial killer or something." He rambled, immediately kicking himself mentally for letting his increasingly more down-bad crush on Aslan take full control of his mouth. He stood up suddenly, slamming his hands on his thighs.
"Anyway, I was gonna get another book for you, let me just go do that." He mumbled, turning his face away so Aslan wouldn't see him cringing at himself.

[Nienke]

Aslan had not slept much last night, his dreams a combination of nightmares and sex dreams. He felt wildly confused really and like he had fallen down a very wrong rabbit hole of things he could not unread. However, he spent the rest of his day working on finishing up his woodworking projects after which he went back home again to change into something clean.

With his books doing well and living a very simple life, he had a lot, a lot of money left to spend on whatever he wished for. His mom was of course well taken care of, but even then he was left with too much. He wasn't exactly vain, but he had come to appreciate fine clothing. Not so much the very well known brands, but definitely the more interesting designer pieces. He didn't like standing out too much though, which was hard, especially after hearing the description Eli had given him yesterday, which would have made him blush was it not for his darker skin. Today he went with white jumpsuit with what could only be described as world's least function, most fashionable toolbelt around his waste. A statement piece for sure.

He got to the place earlier, helped set up and was not waiting for people to come in. He wasn't exactly nervous, he never was, but at the same time eager for this whole thing to be over.

[Bandersnatch]

Elijah, similarly, had not slept much that night either. He had run his mouth the day before and in Elijah's head basically asked Aslan to have babies with him, and so most of the night had been spent releasing his frustration on a new chapter filled with absolutely no plot, only the horniest smut he could conjure up. Well, that, and also of course jacking off because he kept thinking of Aslan's lips.

"What do I even wear to this? I need to look hot." Eli whined as his bed was getting buried in discarded clothing options at an alarming rate.
"You always look hot, just wear one of your dumb blouses." Milo rolled his eyes while scrolling through his phone in boredom.
"But what if someone is dressed hotter than me?" He pouted.
"Children in Africa are dying, Eli."
"You're right, this blouse does nothing for my figure." He chucked away another blouse.

"You look even more like a pirate than usual. But like, in a hot way. I like it." Milo nodded in approval, raising a thumb as he gave him a once over. "Now can we finally fucking go?" He moaned, sitting up finally.

"Oh hey, you look hot too!" Eli looked Milo over, shooting him a thumbs up and a grin. "Nice fit!"
"Yeah, you wanna take it off of me real quick before we go?" Milo smirked, dragging Elijah closer by his belt.
"Sorry, I'm saving myself for marriage with Aslan." He firmly shook his head, flicking Milo in the forehead.
"Dude, you're what the youths would call ran through, half the men in this city know about the two moles on your left ass cheek, what exactly are you saving here?" Milo bickered with him while pulling on his coat.
The two continued this way the entire ride.

"That guy was absolutely not hot." Elijah grimaced as he slammed the door of the car shut.
"Dude did you even see his ass?"
"No, I was too busy trying not to catch his serial killer stare. Oh, hey Marge! Lorraine, looking beautiful as ever!" Elijah threw his arms around them as if he hadn't seen them in years.
"Boys." Marge grunted.
"Boys!" Lorraine exclaimed, softly patting their cheeks as she smiled at them.
"Margie you need to invite these sweet boys over more."
"No, I really don't. I already see enough of you two little shits as is."
"I'll bring my keylime pie." Elijah smiled sweetly at Lorraine.
They made their way into the gallery, quickly getting separated as Marge started chasing down the waiter carrying drinks, Lorraine stopping to talk to just about everyone and Milo following his second head as soon as he saw a cute guy.
Elijah started trying to peek over all the heads - it was quite a turnout - to try to find his favorite library-goer, but quickly got distracted with a beautifully carved chair, sinuous in shape reminiscent of art nouveau and with tiny little carvings of plants and animals, a pair of small birds carved to sit on top of the backrest. A smile spread on his lips as he took in all the details, knowing who had made it without needing to look for a nameplate.

[Nienke]

“Hey mom,” he kneeled down a little to give her a hug. She was a wrinkly, but beautiful woman. Her skin was leathery from always having been in the sun and you could see the smile lines carved deeply into her face. He held two glasses and handed her a glass of red wine.
“I’m very proud of you, Aslan,” she said softly, but beaming as she squeezed him a little closer. “It’s nice to see someone continuing the family trade, even if it is just as a hobby.” That definitely made him feel warm inside, they weren’t very vocal with their affection in this family.

They walked around together for a bit, until Aslan saw a flirting Milo walk around and gave him a nod. The two of them had never really spoken much and he wasn’t quite sure Milo had even acknowledged him here. But Milo being here meant someone else was too, and Aslan’s eyes couldn’t help but look search the room for him.


He was nearly ashamed to say he recognized the ass first of the person leaning over to inspect his handiwork. Amongst his presentation for tonight was a mandatory chair, painting frame, technical assignments and some ‘freestyle’ work that included several birds, a hunting owl and a piece inspired by the library. It was a an open folded book with the pages transforming into a scene from a fairytale. Castles and woods and little animals and a mysterious character on the run. It had taken him a lot of time.

“You should really see Gale’s work. She’s really mastered the whole chairmaking.” Aslan stood a few steps behind Eli, hands behind his back. He could see E too had dressed up for the night. Hus pants even tighter and his blouse more open than at work.

[Bandersnatch]

"I don't know about any Gale, but I've never seen a chair this pretty." Eli hummed as he admired the two birds for a couple of seconds more before turning around to face Aslan.
Elijah's brain immediately short-circuited as he took in Aslan's outfit. How was it possible for Aslan to get even hotter? He could feel his brain grasping for words - any of them, to cohesively form a sentence.
"You look... um, wow, you...fuck me." Elijah stammered, his eyes wide.

[Nienke]

Aslan thought for a moment about playing coy, but he owned a mirror. He knew he looked hot tonight. He wasn’t expecting this reaction though. Elijah had been quite obvious with his flirting lately and Aslan was trying to not interact too much with it. After all, he had made up his mind about not being able to date the librarian. It was really, really hard though, to not think about him. To not catch a glimpse of him every time he walked by in the library. To not stare when he was bent over sorting out some books and especially difficult to not flirt back when he wanted to bad. So to not respond to E’s “fuck me” would just be bad manners.

"Come now, Elijah, buy a guy a drink first?"

[Bandersnatch]

Elijah grinned sheepishly, eyes crinkling while his cheeks slightly colored.
"I, uhm.. That one kinda spilled out, but in my defense, you look delicious in that suit. I mean..." Elijah stammered, his eyes like a deer in headlights as he tried to get his brain's gears to start working again to little avail.
"Anyway, your work is really beautiful and I have to go drink something. Do something. I gotta go." Elijah inhaled sharply at how catastrophically his neurons were failing him and went to walk away, bumping into Aslan's chest because apparently his coordination was gone too, stammered out some small apology as he was met with Aslan's eyes right above his, and quickly beelined away in search of some air, or Milo, whichever came first.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god, Milo, can you like, slap me across the face?" Elijah murmured to Milo as soon as he spotted him, dragging him away from the guy he was trying to chat up, much to his chagrin.
"What." He droned, obviously miffed at having been cock-blocked so abruptly.
"I just saw Aslan and he was wearing this suit, holy shit, did you see him? He looked so... Anyway my brain stopped working. I don't remember what I said. I think it was probably bad." He sputtered, to which Milo sighed and rolled his eyes.