Booksnakes!? [Chihiro/Lerna]

Though the firecracker of a girl typically carried out her duties with a degree of joy and encouragement in her days, one of these days was when she was a little more tired, a bit more frustrated with her predicament. Her seated officer always set her off to do a bunch of menial labor throughout the Seireitei, something she REALLY didn't want to do.. But she supposed she had to make some impression, she only joined the 2nd Division a handful of months ago, of course they weren't gonna have her on important kido stuff yet!

But, by the Soul King, she HATED delivering and organizing the academy's textbooks. She couldn't rush; if she put the books away wrong AT ALL she was just told to look over the incorrect places and try again. Reading was such a pain, especially when a lot of them were about stuff that still made her head spin! Sure, she just had to follow the organization method, but that took hours...

Groaning as she picked up yet another thick textbook, she probably read over the title like three times to figure out where it should be going, having to check the titles of the books one by one to make absolute sure she was following the guidelines, the threat of having to do this chore again laying heavy on her as she'd stretch up to place the book in a spot she hoped was correct, but she was a bit too short to put it in place.

"Rrrrrhhh.. Cmon cmon go in..!" She'd beg to the piece of literature, practically on the tips of her toes, having lifted herself up by a single shelf, trying to place the heavy book in with her singular free hand. Sure, she could've gone to get a ladder, but that was the last thought in her mind, and she just wanted to get it over wi-

"AAH!" Of course her hand slipped, the book tumbling off the tips of her finger and hitting her square on the forehead as she'd fall onto her butt, her yell definitely bothering anyone studying currently.

"Ow ow ow ow ow...!" She'd rub her forehead, gritting her teeth. Great, now she had a stack of books left to put away, AND a headache.

The fiery blonde was about to give the book a frustrated punch, having been quietly fussing about how stupid, and dumb, and annoying it was, until her ranting was interrupted by the voice of another, whipping her head around to be face to face with someone alarmingly familiar. Her irritated, droopy expression quickly turned to that of joy and relief when she realized who was talking to.

"Lerna?!" She'd squeak out in surprise, only to be met with a whole lot of sharp shushes, covering her mouth with an embarrassed flush hitting her face, "Sorry, Lerna!" The girl would say far, far quieter, "Yes, oh my gosh that would be great, I hate putting the books away."

Though she didn't know Lerna with as much familiarity as her exclamation would imply, she did share a few classes and conversations with the woman. She always seemed pretty cool and fun but she never really formally asked her to do much outside of the Academy, and she graduated not so long ago so all she had were duties keeping her away from reconnecting with anyone in the Academy she may have known... Even if they were all chores.

"I'm surprised to see you here, I mean not in a library I just mean running into you today, it's not like i'm implying you wouldn't go to a library or anything I was just surpris- How are you doing?" She'd stiffen when she got to the point, realizing she was just running on her words with seemingly no end surprisingly fast for how she normally spoke.

Chihiro's mouth opened wide with a smile with a brief inhale, but in an unprecedented act of self awareness, she immediately covered her mouth with both hands again, knowing full well if she kept being loud she'd just get kicked out of the library again. Holding her breath for a second, she'd only uncover her mouth when she was absolutely super duper sure she wasn't going to shout, "That's great!" She excitedly whispered with both of her hands cupping her mouth.

For a second the girl's expression lit up when Lerna praised her look, having been rather proud she managed to become a Shinigami despite graduating a year late, though she seemed to immediately droop with the mention of 2nd division, something unexpected of an easy to excite girl like her, swaying a bit to the side with her fiery honey eyes hard on the floor,

"It's beeeeen... Fine, I guess.. I was hoping i'd be doing cool kido stuff but i've only ever been sent off to do stupid chores. Like this. It sucks," Gently stamping her foot on the ground, she'd cross her arms and pout, "Squadmates treat me like a dumb stupid baby because I can't keep up with them, and the seated officer i'm under just keeps me on delivery or busy work. It's not fair."

Chihiro's face grew weary with Lerna's words, particularly stopping what she was doing with the mention of the infirmary, "I have to deliver or take care of garbage there a lot. It always smells weird..." A gentle scowl crossed her face with the memories of stinky medicines she either had to carry or had to be around, not to mention the smell of blood or used supplies, yuck. She couldn't imagine wanting to work as a medic, it just seemed dreadful in all sorts of aspects; you had to be around people screaming in pain, clean them up, be inside all day... Just dreadful.

As they finally finished up, the girl seemed to perk up with Lerna's other question, of what she wanted to accomplish! Now that was more her speed, especially since they were out of the stuffy library. Sure she'd have to report back in a few hours, but that was no sweat,

"IIII~ wanna be super awesome amazing at Kido, so awesome and amazing that I could be a captain!" She'd proclaim proudly, jabbing a thumb to her own chest with a big smile on her face, "That way, those jerks couldn't possibly look down on me, and I can do a ton of cool.. Uh.. Spell stuff, yknow! I'm not great at it now, but I will be!"

She looked to Lerna with a shining, expectant look, as if she thought Lerna would find that at all admirable of a future.

The fiery golden spirit blew a brisk exhale from her lips, "Yeah, but I wanna do the cool spells now! But they keep exploding in my face and I just look dumb in front of everybody then I gotta go get patched up and the nurses just baby me!" Her complaining turned into pure fuss, kicking her feet about as she'd suddenly put on an uptight, mocking tone, "'Chihiro, this is the third time a mid-50s level Hadō blew up on you this week, give up!', 'Chihiro, i'm not even sure why you joined 2nd, your impatience's better for like 4th or something!' Blah blah blah, it's stupid! How am I supposed to be awesome at using higher level kido if I never use them?!"

Huffing, she'd roll her eyes at Lerna's comment of someone in her division crushing on her with how she speaks, "Oh GOD I hope not! Not a single cute boy in my division, NONE!" She'd suddenly lean in real close, nudging Lerna with an elbow, speaking real quiet as if there were ears everywhere, "3rd Seat Ayasegawa dresses like a girl, like, does he want guys to be into him or something?"

She'd hop away as if she never shared that thought, tilting her head to the side, "Oh, Captain Kuchiki? Not really! She just seems really busy! And sad, wow, i've never seen her smile. So i've mostly kept out of her hair, like i'm such a bother to everybody else, i'd definitely be annoying to her!"

Chihiro seemed a little too excited in her expression of self awareness, a hop in her step and going about unflinchingly, "Ohh you'll find your focus one day, Lerna! But I wouldn't really call what I have focus, more like I came on something that's cool and I really wanna do it... Soooo maybe, I dunno, find something really cool that you wanna really do, even if you hate the process! I hate reading, but I like Kido, and Kido has so much reading, so even if I hate it I try to learn it anyway! If I really feel like i'm struggling, I just get together some flowers of good fortune and put the arrangement in the right corner of my room."