genessia | it's always tea time

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it's always tea time | closed

Who: Jefferson and Airy Miller
Where: Holly Ridge Room 201
When: Backdated to April 24th
What: Tea party! Isn't that self explanatory?

--

Maybe it was a little ridiculous for a grown man to be excited about having a tea party, but Jefferson was no stranger to being considered a little offbeat.

He'd taken a considerate amount of time finding the best ingredients he could come across for his tea making lesson with Airy. He'd likely spent too much effort and what bit of currency he had on the whole ordeal, but what was a tea purist to do? Besides, Airy had been one of the first people to extend her hand in friendship when he felt like his world was ending. He knew he could never really repay what she'd done for him with just a bit of simple fun, but he decided it was a good place to start.

Eventually he made it to her apartment building and located her room number with ease. Satchel full of goodies in hand, he pushed up his hat to see better and knocked on the door.

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Airy had the apartment all set up and ready to go, which meant that she had closed the door to her room to hide the mess and cleaned up the main room. A teapot sat on the stove while she pulled one of the kitchen chairs over to the fair side of the coffee table. On that chair sat two adorable pink bunnies that Dave had won for her at the carnival. They were married and were going to be the guests of honor at their tea party.

It might seem silly but Airy loved these sorts of things. When she was younger her mother and her would stage things like this and when she was really young she was even able to convince her father to take part; thinking back on it now, Airy was pretty sure there had been beer in her father's tea cup.

She jumped at the echo of Jefferson's knock and almost stumbles over the couch to get to the door.

"Welcome!" Airy greeted him with a happy smile, opening the door so that he could step inside. His hat was awesome.

"I'm glad that you didn't get lost."

At least if they were considered silly, they could be silly together.

"Miss Miller." He removed his hat and bowed playfully, an irrepressible amusement in his smile. He lingered in the position for a moment but soon stood once again and placed the hat back on his head in a fluid motion indicating that he'd done it hundreds of times.

"I'm not one to get lost if I can help it. It doesn't last too long when I do, either." Jefferson stepped past the doorway and headed straight for the kitchen as if to punctuate his point. He was quick to notice the toy bunnies, which made him stop for a moment.

"You didn't tell me we were having guests." His sudden change in tone showed that he was thinking about something, a memory from home to be precise, but he was quick to turn his attention elsewhere. Out of sight, out of mind. Or at least that was the theory.

"Do you think we should leave some for your roommate? The blend, that is." He turned back to look at Airy, his face scrunched up just a bit. "Cold tea is a sin."

"I hope that's okay." She rushed to Jefferson's side, there mostly to answer any question he might have while setting things up in the kitchen. She tried to get everything he needed out but she might have missed something. "I didn't want to leave them in my room and at home I have a bear but I got these two from Dave at the fair." She was rambling so, much like Jefferson, she switched topics.

"Ah, we can leave him some. He gets out of work this afternoon and he usually comes straight home." Airy didn't see a correlation to her being home and him coming straight home. To be fair, she'd only been kidnapped once and it had been when she wasn't at home.

"I think he'd like that but I want you to teach me how to make it so that I can make it for him." At least make it correctly. "Wait... what about iced tea? I think that's a thing people do."

"You're lucky I came prepared. Unexpected guests are frequent at good tea parties." He was removing ingredients from his bag as they conversed, but he gave a mischievous grin when she mentioned how she got her rabbits. "You didn't tell me you have a boyfriend. You know you'll have to tell me about him now, right?"

Not that it was his business and heavens knew if there actually was something going on, but hopefully she didn't mind him asking. It had crossed his mind that Nathan could be the one with his eye on her, but not having met neither of them made piecing the puzzle together a little more difficult. Especially if there was no actual puzzle to be pieced. He was probably just being too overly protective.

He laid out the last of the ingredients and sat the satchel somewhere out of the way. He was about to start teaching her, but he abruptly turned and put his finger to her mouth.

"We don't talk about iced tea. Ever."

Airy's cheeks flush a deep scarlet hue at Jefferson's teasing. She flailed her hands in the air, her palms facing Jefferson as if to wave away the very thought of her having a boyfriend.

"What?! No, I isn't like that. I mean it was sort of a date but nothing like that. I haven't dated since high school because..." That was a long story however there was a short version and that short version had one name. "I mean there is something I like but..." Airy paused when she realized that she was rambling.

"You don't actually want to know this... do you?"

It was complicated, in that Airy had no idea what to do, and simple, in that Airy was a chicken and doing nothing. When Jefferson directed her attention back to the tea she just nodded. It wasn't worth arguing about and if she was being honest, she never did like iced tea anyway.

Jefferson bit his lower lip and smiled, a good natured laugh accompanying the action a moment later. The more she tried to explain herself the more the whole ordeal tickled him, honestly. He shook his head, his amusement plain for her to see.

"You don't have to tell me, but I'm going to wonder who this someone is if you don't." He made his remark sound a bit aloof so as not to pressure her, but the truth was that he really did want to know. Rather she liked it or not, Airy was be the closest thing he had to anything like a family in Genessia. She was much older than Grace, sure, but the sentiment of fatherhood remained. The instinct to protect her wasn't about to go anywhere.

"But we can talk about that later. We have a momentous task to attend to, after all." With everything all set out, he was ready to go. Thank goodness she hadn't argued the point on iced tea.

Making people laughed was a talent of Airy's. She was good natured and earnest in every possible way. His smile made her happy but at the same time she couldn't help but feel embarrassed. While she's alluded to the fact that she likes Nathan, she has yet to formally tell anyone. Nathan just wasn't the kind of guy to fall for girls like her and she didn't want to ruin the tentative friendship that they had managed to construct.

It was a tense friendship at times but it was at least something and something was better than nothing.

Airy lightly tapped the counter with her toe, looking for something to do with herself as she thought. It wasn't that she disliked talking about it but it was hard for her to explain and she was pretty sure that she would sound like a rambling teenager. Then again, anyone who's seen Airy in the company of her roommate probably already know how she feels about him.

"Maybe later." She agrees softly, hoping that later she might know what to say. Of course, that was just wishful thinking but she was more interested in the tea that he so carefully prepared. "What kind of tea is this anyway? There are kinds right, like colors?"

Jefferson understood when to pursue subjects and when to drop them. If Airy ever wanted to talk to him about the subject, at least he'd made it known that she could.

"The kind we're making is a type of black tea, but people call it red tea sometimes. Probably because nobody can agree on anything. There's plenty of others, but that's for lesson two." He looked as if he were about to continue, but stopped.

"Do you mind if I take my coat off?" Before she could answer, it was already off and thrown on a nearby chair. "Hope not."

Back to business.

"I couldn't find everything, but we're close. It'll work." He placed his index finger on the counter, right next to the first ingredient. He planned on being thorough, but not overly fussy. He wanted to teach her, sure, but this was also about fun.

"I couldn't find fresh on short notice, so we're going to have to use dried leaves this time. I may have gotten a little indecisive and bought several other kinds, but for this time we're going to use Ceylon black tea. It's most notably characterized by bright citrus notes."

He turned his head to her and decided to linger before he moved to the next ingredient in the lineup.

"Questions? Concerns? Compliments on my new scarf?"

Which was almost the exact same shade of red as his other scarf, only in a vaguely different fancy pattern. For the record.

Edited 2016-05-30 22:24 (UTC)

Airy smiled a bright smile and then laughed softly. There was something about Jefferson that always made her want to smile. "Make yourself comfortable." She was only able to slip that in after his coat had been removed. She peered over at his work, her eyes shining with open curiosity.

"Citrus like orange and lemon?" She looked up from the dark dried leaves to Jefferson. She knew some about cooking from her mother though admittedly, not very much. What she had learned most was baking but she didn't think that knowledge would be very useful when it came to tea.

Airy's grin widened. "I love your new scarf." And it was the truth.

He liked to hear her laugh. It was a small ray of brightness in a place that wasn't always so sunny.

"Or grapefruit or tangerine or pomelo -- have you ever seen tried a tangelo?" He was getting a bit off track, but he tended to do that.

He grinned and laughed when she actually gave a compliment.

"Why thank you. I must say, you're looking quite lovely yourself. No point in a tea party if we're not at our best, wouldn't you agree?" He winked playfully before turning back to the counter.

"Next is a few safflowers and calendula petals." He pointed out each one as he said their names. The safflowers were a bright yellow, while the calendula petals were a more golden hue. "Not as hard to find as I thought they'd be."

Airy laughed brightly. "Yes." She wasn't sure if she could remember the last time she laughed this much or this hard. Things have been difficult lately but Jefferson reminded her to smile. He reminded her a little bit of her dad with his weird quirks though not into sports like he was. The thought tugged at her heart and her expression dropped for a fraction of a second before lifting again.

"As long as we don't have to paint the roses red." She smiled, and as she thought of the infamous children's store a white rose, splashed with what looked like red paint across it's petals. The paint is dry making the rose look like it was grown with a splash of paint on it.

Airy frowns. "Woops."

She lightly pinches the rose between two fingers and lifts it up to inspect it more closely. A thorn presses against the pad of her finger pricking the skin, causing her to drop the rose back to the counter. "Ouch!" Now she felt like an idiot, back to tea. "So why safflowers and calendula." She didn't know what either of those were.

He didn't know that it was possible to grin much wider, but his smile only continued to brighten. He couldn't help but think that Grace would grow up to be quite a bit like Airy, and entertaining the thought actually made him feel a little less sad about missing her. The small shift in her expression was something he noticed, but if she was that quick to hide it he had a feeling she didn't want to discuss it. That was okay.

He rolled his eyes at her comment, but in a teasing way. He tilted his head as he watched her with the rose, but concern covered his face when she pricked herself. It wasn't a big injury, sure, but all injuries still hurt.

"You sure you're okay?" He didn't want to keep going until he was positive. He tended to worry too much at times.

Airy blinked and looked over at Jefferson. She hadn't really thought to much about pricking herself but she looked back at the small dot of swelled blood.

"Huh? No, I'm fine. Just paying more attention to tea than what I'm doing over here." She laughed nervously and then waved the rose away. She slipped a step closer to Jefferson, leaning on the counter with her elbows. Her bright green eyes shined and she forced herself to focus.

"So, great-and-wise-master-of-tea, why did you choose these to go together?"

He frowned.

"Because they balance out the sweetness and add extra depth of flavor, but I'm not telling you anything more until we take care of that wound." He grabbed her wrist and inspected her finger.

"Do you have bandages around? Does it need disinfected? I don't know how exactly your powers work, so..." He was being unnecessarily worrisome again, but he couldn't help it.

"I can go buy things if I need to." If it wasn't evident he was in father mode before, it definitely was after that comment.

Airy was a little surprised by Jefferson's forcefulness. She watched as he took her hand and inspected the injury site. The blood has already begun to clot and the scarlet red began to oxidize to an uncomfortable brown. Airy swallows and then nods her head towards the bathroom.

"Just down the hall, under the sink in the bathroom." She didn't know why the bandages and first kit things were there but they at least had them. Airy hurts herself on a regular basis and has made such things necessary in the house.

"It really will be okay. You don't need to worry." Her voice was softer and a little nervous. She didn't want him to worry about her. As far as Airy saw it, she wasn't worth it.

As far as Jefferson saw it, she was worth everything.

"I won't worry once it's taken care of." His response was slightly mumbled as he left to retrieve the medical supplies. It was just a cut, sure, but cuts weren't pleasant no matter how small. Besides that, he wanted to take care of her. It felt right.

Once he was back he sat the supplies on a nearby table and rummaged through until he found what he was after.

"You never got back to me on the disinfectant."

"Oh, no, it doesn't sting or anything. As long as I wash it out it'll be fine." Airy slipped around Jefferson, which was easy because she's very small, and ran her finger under the sink. The bleeding has already stopped leaving a bright pink line across her skin. She inspected the cut curiously for a moment before turning back to Jefferson.

"Ready for band-aid."

She wiggled her finger trying to bring some levity to the situation. So far their tea party has met with an unfortunate road block which Airy had hoped they could just look past.

It didn't take long for them to care for her finger and once it's all wrapped up again Airy turns towards Jefferson with a bright smile. "Okay! Now what? Oh! I don't have tea cups but I found these cute mugs." She walked over to the counter where she set out a few small mugs that look like they belong with a cappuccino machine. Airy assumed that Nathan got them from work, his love for coffee was probably unhealthy but Airy found it rather charming.

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