Book Striking [Yui/Cecil]

...he knew it wasn't the most productive at this point, but he couldn't really stop. No matter how much agony and strain it resulted in for him, no matter how much it became apparent that this still wouldn't take him anywhere in particular...he kept going.
What else was he supposed to do? It was the most he could do until he started figuring things out.

And so, Cecil found himself in the library again with a stack of books beside him.

The librarian was used to his presence at this point. He helped out when they were closing up sometimes - at least when they didn't insist that he go home and get some rest. He really had to wonder how bad he got that they would be so insistent.
He waved them off as they came to check on him while his head rested on the table he was working at, obviously unconvinced of his insistence there was nothing to worry about but not willing to push the issue at the moment.
He continued to smile thinly until they went back to their work...at which point he groaned and crashed back down on the table again.
Let's see if I can get 5 minutes before Ankou starts giving me shit again...

At that moment, Yui was more or less scrambling through the aisles of bookshelves, hovering around the academics section. When she first came to some government-funded school or whatever, she thought it’d be hard, but she didn’t think she’d find herself cramming in the library this early into the year. Under one arm were two books, one a thick encyclopedia, the other a classic novel. The still needed to find one more book though, a textbook she didn’t have on hand, but was told that she could find a copy of in the school library.

Try as she might, she just could find the damn thing, making the already on edge girl going even further off. She brought her free hand to her head to run her fingers through her hair, a tick that seemed to help her calm down as she took in a breath. She looked about the tables, only now seeing the lone boy practically hiding in a fort of books. Yikes, she thought, what kind of mess did he get himself in that he needed to cram that much? However, after her internal comment, she’d notice one book in particular in one of his stacks. The textbook she had been looking for.

There was little hesitation in her decision and her movements as she approached the seat next to the blonde boy, placing the two books she already had gotten herself on the table in front of her and putting a backpack down at her feet. She’d then lean over, trying to look passed the tower-high stacks of books and to the boy himself.

“Hey,” she’d speak in a whisper, using her thumb to point towards the textbook in the middle of one of the stacks. “You mind if I borrow this or something, my dude? I need to cram bad and I can’t find it anywhere else.”      

The librarian simply rolls their eyes as Cecil finds himself once more surprised. By all means, it was only a whisper, and he really should have noticed the presence of the girl that had showed up beside him - but really, that sort of perceptiveness was something of a pipe dream when you were near brain-dead and close to seeing if you could drop unconscious and stop thinking for a few blissful minutes.

Somewhat back to awareness, he groans and pulls himself up to look up at the girl that had showed up by his side with an apologetic expression. "Sorry, just...a little too focused on things." Considering his head was resting on the table moments ago, it was pretty obvious he hadn't been focused on anything, but with any luck they wouldn't say anything. "Go ahead. It's not like I don't have plenty of other material to work on in the meantime."

Yui would so much as flinch as the boy suddenly yelp like a frightened animal as he was broken away from his “focus”. She didn’t quite believe him on that either. To her, it looked like he was about ready to pass out from exhaustion if he hadn’t already. Nonetheless, as he gave her the go-ahead to take the book, he wouldn’t do much waiting. She lifted the top half of the stack of books and separated it into a different pile, taking the textbook she needed out from the middle before putting the other books back on tops.

“Thanks man,” she said simply, setting the textbook atop of her own, much smaller stack of books. She’d then reach down, undoing her backpack and taking out from it a notebook and pen, setting them in front of her as well before opening the textbook she had borrowed from the blonde boy. Before she’d get to her own work, she looked over towards him again. The boy was almost comedically buried in his own work. If it wasn’t for how exhausted he looked, she might’ve thought he was just being a dork or something.

“Are you gonna be alright there?” she asked, once again in a whisper. “You look kinda backed up is all, did you need any help or somethin’?”

Cecil's eyes widen as he shakes his head rapidly, raising a hand to wave off the very notion that there could ever be anything significantly wrong that he might need help...though admittedly, it's not like there really was anything the girl beside him could do that much to assist with. "No! No. I've just...call it me being an overachiever. I'm not backed up or anything, I'm just trying to get ahead of things." He chuckles awkwardly, looking at the pile of books around him. "Or, well...everything. Getting a grip on it all, buffing up my knowledge, making sure I do good and even better."
He chuckles once more, before resting his arms on the table and letting his head crash down into them. "Yup...nothing to see here..."

Whatever Cecil was studying for, it definitely wasn’t for his acting. Yui didn’t buy any of it for a second. The thought of someone sitting down and doing this to themselves out of anything other than necessity, it just seemed impossible. No one would really do that to themselves, would they? She leaned in slightly closer to the blonde boy, narrowing her eyes towards him.

“What’s really goin’ on my dude?” She’d ask. She might’ve believed him if he said he was working on something independently or something along those lines. But not only did he give an unconvincing lie, but he also looked like he was gonna pass out again.

“What year are you in?”

Cursing his state and the way it keeps attracting attention, he drags himself back upright and looks over to Yui. "I just told you...I'm guessing it looks crazy to you, but that is what I'm doing." He brings up one arm so he can prop his head up with it, sighing tiredly. "I don't have any last minute work to rush through. I don't have any horrific grades to fix or an imminent pile of tests. Tell me if I forgot something else I could be direly rushing to confront, please." He put up the front as best he could, but he was exhausted, and occasionally the arm supporting his head would wobble and threaten to drop him into sleeping space that his limbs had worked with the table to make for him.
All because he really would do that to himself, and frankly, had.

"...third year? Why are you asking...?" The question confused him, and once more, temptation urged him to drop himself onto the table and blank out just as another part of his mind urged him to keep up appearances enough to ward off major concern, and a third part told him that nodding off would be an utter disgrace and waste of time that had to be made up for later.