fandomtownies | Covent Garden Flowers, Thursday

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Covent Garden Flowers, Thursday

Octavia actually practiced making tea today. Not only that, but she actually took her time with it, following both the instructions Seivarden had given her as well as consulting the internet on her phone to get it right.

It had nothing to do with any desire to please Seivarden, though, and everything to do with Octavia's need for something to immerse herself in. She'd actually managed some sleep last night, but that only made her feel more alert, not less... whatever the muddled, anxious feeling roiling around in her should've been called.

The tea was a good distraction. But it still only took up a fraction of her day.

The preserve was calling her again.

Covent Garden Flowers was open, and Octavia was listlessly trying to keep herself busy. Somewhere towards the back of the shop, ferns seemed to be multiplying as the day went on.

[ooc: Open, with some SP during my afternoon!]

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Duke wasn't 100% certain he was someone Octavia would want to see right now. Well, he was sure she wouldn't turn him away, but a lot of issues had been dragged to the surface the other night, and his self-esteem was kind of in the toilet. So a part of him wondered if he was doing either of them any favors by showing up with lunch today.

On the other hand, he needed to show her he was -- not okay, obviously, but not totally broken, either. So here he was, with a couple fancy tuna melts and another large container of fries, all set to try to pretend things were normal again.

Fake it 'til you make it, and all that noise.

He was damn close to being the only person Octavia wanted to see today.

She wasn't behind the counter when he came in. Instead, she was once more fiddling with the tea set, as if that did anything, as if it would fill up her day. (It hadn't.) She straightened up when she heard the door, and turned towards it, the cup still in her hand.

She looked a little surprised.

Underneath it, she just looked tired.

"Ha yun, jaka."

"Ha yun, gona," Duke replied. He gave the mass of ferns at the back of the store a bit of side-eye, then headed over to her. "Giving the tea a try, huh?"

Octavia was mostly ignoring the ferns. She thought she knew what the store was trying to do, though.

"I guess," she replied as she set the cup back down. "Keeps me occupied."

If it was "build her a mini-preserve so she'd feel better", that was extremely sweet. And also disconcerting.

"I get that. I ended up skipping my usual Thursday fishing trip because it'd give me too much time to think."

"Mm."

Octavia tilted her head just a little, as she stepped closer to him.

"Maybe I could've come with you." Maybe she could some other time.

"Now there's an idea," Duke said. "Just you and me, some tackle, a rod. . . ."

Lucifer was a terrible influence on him with the dirty puns.

"Wouldn't have to leave the island, either. So . . . less chance of surprises."

He knew better than to count on no surprises at all.

Speaking of surprises, Octavia surprised herself with a faintly amused huff at the pun. Those had been in short supply for the past couple of days.

"Non-Fandom ones, anyway." She put her hand on his waist. He was holding food, yes, but she also wasn't really going for a full embrace right now. Wasn't really sure where the limits were. "Could be good."

See, and Duke was so used to her being the one to set the limits, that he just assumed she was the one who didn't entirely want to touch him right now.

(She'd seen where he'd come from, now. The dregs lurking in his genes. He wouldn't want to touch him, either.)

"Pick a day," he said. "Maybe not a Thursday, just so neither of us have to rush off to work."

"Some day after you get back," Octavia said, a little more lightly than how she actually felt about that. "Next week, if we're feeling up to it. Maybe Wednesday."

Making plans past him going away was another way of holding hands.

"After I get back," Duke agreed. "Wednesday's bird hat class, but we can probably get some good fishing in if we head out early enough. Best time to catch them's early anyway."

Before the world woke up and scared them off.

Octavia blinked. "I knew that." About his class. But she'd also slept slightly less than enough for one night over the past two nights, so she probably shouldn't have been surprised.

She huffed out a sigh. "I don't know. We'll figure it out."

"We have time," Duke said. He tilted his head. "Okay, I know why I'm still kind of a wreck." His dreams were doing mean things to him right now. "Did you get any sleep last night?"

"Enough," Octavia replied with a tiny shrug.

It had not balanced out the near-complete lack of sleep the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, but, hey. It was something.

Duke gave her a look like maybe he disagreed, but let it go. She probably wouldn't react well if he tried to apologize for keeping her up.

"So show me this tea. Seivarden has decided I need to discover its wonders."

Octavia knew he disagreed, but she also knew she'd made all her own choices. She'd deal with the consequences.

She also made a tiny 'ugh' sound at his request - but that was a good sign, considering how she'd been acting all of yesterday. "It's really just hot water and tea leaves."

She'd been practicing. That did not mean she had suddenly grown very fond of it.

"Well, coffee's just hot water and beans, and that's amazing. . . ." He looked over the tea set. "It does look pretty fussy. Is it fussy?"

Seivarden seemed like the sort to enjoy a certain amount of fussiness in her habits.

"It's fussy," Octavia replied in her perfect deadpan.

She finally stepped away from him, and closer to all the tea stuff.

Duke followed, sticking close to her. He could still be right there, even if they weren't touching. He set the food down and popped the french fry box open, offering them to her as he looked the set over.

"So . . . water over leaves equals tea," he said. "Really not seeing a big difference here from coffee."

It was a nice set, jade green.

Octavia snagged a few fries, and popped one in her mouth as she shrugged. "Maybe it's the ritual of it," she said mildly. "I can make you a cup?"

She'd done it like three or four times today, already.

"Rituals can be good," Duke said. "Sure. You can show me how it works. And I can tell Seivarden that I at least tried it."

He did not anticipate being into it, no.

Octavia did not expect him to be, either. But he might be into seeing her get seriously focused on something again, because that was what was about to happen. She quieted down, and got to work.

It was obvious that for all of her objections to adding tea to a flower business, she'd actually listened to Seivarden's instructions. The expression on her face was focused, but almost in a way that seemed to be turned more inward, like she was reciting the right way to do things inside her head the whole time. And she was meticulous, every step of the way.

She'd turned herself into a Trikru warrior, once. Making tea that was up to Radchaai standards (or as close to them as Fandom would allow) would not best her.

At the end of it all, she straightened up and presented him with a steaming warm cup of tea.

"Here."

"Mochof," Duke said, taking the cup. "Smells good. You been drinking it yourself while you're practicing?"

He could see where that was the sort of ritual that worked for people. It was focused and precise, not unlike cooking would be -- or at least cooking the way Geoff did it. Duke was more of an improviser in the kitchen than a gourmand.

"A little." She shrugged. "Don't like it."

Which made it annoyingly hard to tell by taste whether she'd done it right, but, oh well.

"Too leafy?" Duke asked, with a sliver of his usual cheeky smile. He brought the cup up, taking another moment to just let the steam seep into him, then took a sip.

Not as bitter as coffee, and in some ways more complex. A bit . . . grassy for his tastes, though.

"Huh. Might be good with some milk."

Seivarden would ardently disagree.

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