The boy shrugged his shoulders at the last comment and set the bird upon one of the shelves nearby. It fluttered and hopped around on the wooden surface, not quite content, but happier than it had been. Surprisingly, the bird remained quiet as it waddled on the small surface, sticking its peak into the cracks between the books’ spines. Quite honestly he expected that commentary, as he’d never said anything to insinuate otherwise, but still, there were things to say with it.
“Yes, well I can say it wasn’t planned.“ He admitted, and hand reached for the back of his neck anxiously. A simple rub rustled the back of his hair upwards a bit, made unruly with the simplest touch. The candidate, though, wasn’t really as uncomfortable as he looked as much as he was unsure how to explain his purple-ish yellow friend. ”He appeared one day. Egg got into my room somehow and it was addressed to me, so… he’s mine. Can’t say I’d want it any other way, though.”
His eyes drifted to her books and for a moment, he walked across the room and opened a nearby cabinet. With quick decisiveness, he pulled a leather bag from the inside by the strap and held it in front of him. It was grey, not quite white, but it looked like the bag he held at his side already otherwise, despite the lack of wear. When he returned to just before her, he did extend it out, although anticipated her refusal.
“——Take it. I don’t use it and it matches you anyway. You don’t have anything to carry those with.“ He knew she’d tell him she’d cradle them in her arms, that he was being too generous and that it wasn’t necessary, but he’d simply insist. It was a bag. If she wanted to return it when she finished with the books, he wouldn’t deny her, but he wouldn’t say that yet. He’d just smile faintly and put it in her hands, because it was what he felt was the right thing to do.
Never had she seen a baby chocobo before, and they really were far cuter than she had thought they would be. Then again, a chocobo was technically a bird, and any infant-esque animal tended to exude an innocence and be small enough to appreciate aesthetically. For a moment she wondered over the tint of purple that edged its wings and wondered if that meant that it was going to be a different color than the yellow ones she saw most often, but figured it would be a silly question to ask. Instead she turned back towards Ace, tearing her gaze away from the baby animal on the bookcase, and blinked when he held out a bag to her.
People had been offering her more things as of late, a phenomenon that she truly did not understand, and her immediate impulse was to deny such a thing. And in actuality she knew that he would know what she would say—they may not know each other entirely, may not have shared all of their lives, the bad and the good, but they had reached an understanding. That was their relationship, an understanding of each other that many did not have with them, and just as he knew that she would not accept such an offer readily she knew that he would not take no for an answer.
That wouldn’t stop her from saying the words either way.
”Ace, I couldn’t possibly take a bag from you,” was what he automatically insisted, even though she knew that it would be a fruitless effort. Entirely pointless, but that didn’t stop her, a small seed of determination sprouting in her chest. Such determination was almost familiar to her at this point, albeit not entirely. ”I really don’t need one to carry these books.”
Oddly enough if, it did match her. And for a moment she spared a thought as to why he had such a bag when the uniform that he wore was black and gold and red, colors that were vivid and dark and bright all at once, colors that overpowered white entirely. Though the bag wasn’t necessarily white, rather grey, but it was close enough and when it was place in her hands she shook her head and did not pull the bag towards her person. ”It’s too much.”
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