Tag: yes?

astarill:

“No.” The Altmer’s reply was as blunt as it was immediate. “I’m not finished with you.” The book he carried, the one he had come to the Arcanaeum to return, he put aside for the moment. 

“You were told to go straight to your first class, and you didn’t think you could drop off your belongings.” Both brows raised briefly, as to signify a wordless ‘Correct?’ at the end of his sentence. He didn’t wait for confirmation, however.

“Not only did you fail go to your class, you also appear to think it is customary to bring what appears to be everything you own into a lecture hall ― the one you passed by on your way up here despite what you were told. Next time, simply a notebook will suffice. Furthermore, if you were shown around the grounds, then surely the tour included the room you were assigned, where I should think you were expected to leave behind your belongings, which is another thing you failed to do.”

His opaque gaze dropped to the book clutched in the Khajiit’s grip as though a piece of driftwood to a drowning man. Let’s take it away from him, shall we? He held out his hand. “Let me see that.”

The entire time that the Altmer was speaking, J’hasi wasn’t sure if he was to maintain eye contact or continue to keep his gaze lowered. His tail started to curl closer to him, quivering a little as he settled on looking high enough to catch any expression of…well, anything beyond the mer’s current expression would certainly fall past the bounds of ‘displeasure’, but low enough to not quite meet his eerie eyes.

The Khajiit’s ears pulled back further and further the longer the lecture went on, his shoulders unconsciously drawing tighter to his body. He was in trouble, sure, but it didn’t seem like the professor was going to strike him, least not anytime soon. His breathing slowly became a little easier in his tight, dry throat, but not by much.

He had screwed up. He didn’t think. Maybe it was the exhaustion or the stress of coming to such a new, big place, but in any case it wasn’t excuse enough. Certainly not enough for the mer standing in front of him, he was pretty sure about that. It definitely was a mistake he would take great care to avoid in the future. Being chewed out by this mer was something he was rather sure he could only handle once in a lifetime.

At the Altmer’s request, J’hasi felt his heart constrict in his chest again, his eyes snapping up to meet the mer’s own, sure that he was referring to what he had been poking at prior and…

Oh. Just the book then. He could do that.

He released the excessive tension in his grip, feeling his joints ache and his fingertips prickle as he lifted the book up for the professor to take. The Khajiit started to open his mouth to apologize, but he snapped it shut once again. Maybe it would be better to wait and only speak when prompted to do so. The quicker this was over with, the quicker he could breathe properly again.

It wasn’t until he had already offered up the book for the Altmer to take that J’hasi remembered just what he had been reading about, but at that point it was far too late. If he withdrew it now, it would not only most likely land him in more trouble, but the reluctance to hand it over would also draw unwanted attention to his exact purpose in the library. And that was something above all else that he wanted to keep quiet.