Private Finished Just One More Book...

It was insane how much time could pass when you were reading a good book. Here in the truly gargantuan library near the school, with its strong smell of yellowing pages and new ones alike... It was intoxicating. Everywhere Aswan looked, a new manual replace the one before it, bigger and better than the last, each alike in subject but different in content. Every one had a different take, a different smell, a different feel. Right here, with her current favorite - a large, soft leather-bound textbook she'd found on the first shelf she'd looked on - it was amazing. Several others, of varying size and age, rested further away on the tabe, their pages seemingly calling out to Aswan, a chrous of chants begging her to read them. Calming music flooded her ears via her earbuds (bought at a local dollar store), smooth clarinet and clear piano. Both, classics. Everything would be perfect, if it weren't for two things.
One, Aswan was dead tired. It seemed as if the recent move to Starlight Academy - and Manta Carlos in general - had sapped all the energy out of the girl. And, in addition, she had a very handsome and charming mage to worry about, now. So there was that, as well... but mostly she felt tired. Like dead weight.
Two - and she wasn't sure if this correlated with the first point - despite the perfect setting, and her willingness to explore as much as she could of the library... she couldn't focus.
Not with the music in her ears, which usually helped.
Not with her favorite mint gum.
Not with the suddenly overly-soft pages of the book in front of her.
Aswan blinked hard, forcing back the sleep back into the deepest corner of her mind she could find. She had missed a lot of the semester here at Starlight - not to mention a few years' worth of general education - strenuous catch-up had to be played in order to be in a relatively good position. And after? When she had gotten all caught up, she would study more and more: she aimed for top of the class, and nothing less. THAT was why she needed to study this much. Not to mention - if she could gain more information about both herself and her powers, her form.... everything... it would be so much better.
Even if it meant not sleeping. And being in this sitting position for more than hours on end.
With a quiet sigh of frustration, she snapped her current book closed, producing a loud thump that she was certain made her jump a little. Picking it up, she hauled it over to the shelf where she had found it and plopped it back, collapsing into a little ball near there and just... Ugh. She was already dead, so why the hell was she so tired?
She trudged back to the comfy chair she had been seated in and grabbed a lighter, newer book. "Hmmm.... Aargh. I can't study... Where did that old volume on ghost culture and tradition end up, I wonder?" This had never happened before. Her mind was so blank....
@Saberteck

At first, Aswan didn't reply, because of three reasons.
One, she still had the smooth classical music still soothing her ears from any harsh outside noises. It helped her to study, usually - she couldn't focus today.
The second reason she didn't reply was that she had no clue Roland was even there - she was lost in her own little world, trying to work up the energy to concentrate, to learn, to feel, to absorb all the information these yellow-paged tomes could provide. While this one was slightly lighter and newer, it was still just as information-dense, and she had to blink back the sleep again to read the words clearly on the page. The cursive handwriting did little to help that fact.
The third reason she didn't reply was that she was, as aforementioned, entirely sapped of energy, from everything.
So, when a certain dark-haired, charming mage strode in and kissed her cheek, understandably Aswan was a little surprised. Snapping her head up and to the side, expression frozen in a state of surprise, she took a few seconds to process who it was.
"Ah. Roland. Hello." The brunette smiled softly as she tugged her headphones out of her ears, focusing on Roland instead. She really had developed a sort of soft-spot for him, hadn't she - anyone else could have done that, and she would have sent them flying into the roof, yelling and all. "Please, take a seat. I am merely here for late-night studying. I do have a test tomorrow, and I was also researching my own powers, for my upcoming Powers class. It is going- " She cut the sentence off midway, to make way for a delicate little yawn. "It is going well, as of now." Well, there was the fact that she couldn't concentrate enough to actually absorb the information on the test subject... But she wouldn't let him know. Studying was supposed to be her forte, after all. One squeeze of her hand. How did Roland's hand get there so quickly? The sudden contact made Aswan want to yelp - it was almost as if she had been zapped. Fortunately, she calmed down quickly, and settled back into her seat, eyeing him with a sheepish-tinged smile. "I am fine. All this research I am doing is extremely interesting."

"Quite. Did you know, for example, that the death of a human decides their form in the afterlife? According to this research here," she pointed a slender finger at the large volume in front of her, "the more traumatizing a human's death is, the more it affects the spirit. At least, physically, as far as I can tell." She had taken that fact from the page she was open to now, the faded print spelling out essentially the same thing she was saying. She didn't think Roland would notice, though.
Looking up from the yellowed pages of the book, she caught Roland's soft smile, and responded in kind, for once a soft smile spreading across her lips. "I am glad you admire my work ethic, among other things." Her smile only grew as his hand stayed on hers, the buzz from the contact slowly fading away. He brushed her hair aside from her face - which was really quite nice, given that it really was in her face - and there it was, a kiss on her lips. Which of course, woke her up considerably and set her normally translucent face into a true red-cheeked mess. "A-Ahem! Th-Thank you!" she stammered, pressing her hands to her cheeks, tapping them to try to calm down.
When she next was calm, she took a deep breath and nodded. "I have already gotten my required rest for today, though." Technically it was true - ghosts didn't need sleep. However, he had a point on the whole front of her not being drowsy during the test. It took a few seconds to actually come up with a rebuttal.
"Yes, I may be drowsy the day of the test, but I can always use coffee and green tea to wake me up and keep me alert. And I am associating all my notes thus far with mint gum - thus when I take the test, I will chew this gum and the taste will remind my mind of the action of reading these notes."
Yes, she loved him, loved him dearly, but nothing was going to get in the way of her research for today.
"I am almost done, in any case."

Indeed, it mattered very much to Aswan, her studies. But what was more important was the subject of the book below her - her own form. To learn about that, to learn about herself, would be amazing. "I am being as careful as I need to," she replied casually. "I feel fine."
Stifling a laugh, she gently batted his hand away from her nose. "You must stop poking me like that," she said, a grin evident in her voice. "My mind is formidable, thank you. Smart, and calculative, and amazing - although it seems to turn to utter mush when I am around you, Roland." Aswan's attempt at a flirt. "You are not bothering me any. If, at all, you are causing an effect, it is positive." I love you too, her eyes told him, shuffling a bit closer to him - but not touching him. And then closer, as he recounted his story. Closer still, until it was stupidly close. As it was, she'd been a red-faced mess, and the second kiss left her all the more flustered. "It is no bother," the ghost reaffirmed.... "I only want to complete notes on this chapter." Complete - that is to say, redo. She hadn't been paying attention, clearly.

Aswan was about to reply to his flirt with another mal-concocted attempt at one, save for the fact that the flirt before was, well, to be quite honest, horrible. So, she settled for a shy smile, complimenting her obviously pink face. Which, of course, only developed more into a garish sort of red when the second kiss came. She was sure she was smiling as an imbecile would, right then.
Cue a sneeze, to which Aswan's only mortified response was to cover her mouth with her hand. "Excuse me!" She managed, with an awkward little giggle. "It must have been the dust from the books."
Speaking of which. With Roland by her side, she might be finally able to focus. Might. It wasn't a good working theory, but it was a theory. Reaching a hand out, the ghost flipped through the book in front of her, to a previous page. Her other hand reached for her pen, to note, or rather correct her notes, on the subject.
As she expected, nothing new happened, except maybe a little peace of mind, from knowing Roland was safe.
His stories were always a treat to listen to - full of magic and full of Roland... just being himself.
"Was he a ghost, as I am?" Aswan asked distractedly, as she sketched out a diagram. "It seems, then that most ghosts do enjoy knowledge, or the seeking of knowledge. Interesting." And she scribbled this in the margins as well. "Save for the fact that I was the same way as a child as I am now. I suppose 'scholarly' is the term for it?"