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So leave nothing up to fate
Yvette and Serg are YA fiction protagonists together
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Evetrie does not know why she's been summoned to the main temple of her city. There aren't many reasons for her to be summoned, alone, to the temple. She had notice, she was told in advance to be at this temple, at this specific time, and there wasn't even a hint about what could possibly be the reason. This is immensely frustrating.

More than anything she wants to know - but it'd be rude (and maybe a bit sacrilegious) to demand an explanation from the gods themselves. The summons came directly from them. Except not being told why she's being summoned is also kind of rude, and the gods are immortal, right, surely they're used to it...? But that's not an excuse, is it. But what if she needs to prepare for something, what if they're asking her to help with a magical project, what if she could be spending her spare time working on her skill with fire or water or life for more precision, more control, more power...? But what if it's not that at all, what if the point is that she's not supposed to be prepared, what if she's just overthinking it...?

She's almost certainly overthinking it. It's - probably not important. (But it seemed pretty important.) She's freaking out for no reason. Knowing that doesn't make it stop. If anything, it makes it worse, because along with the nervous energy is a nervous 'I'm-being-silly-and-overreacting' energy, and the latter mixes with the former and they have a baby together, and the baby has all of the combined powers of the nervousness that came before, magnified and concentrated and driving her to fidget relentlessly. She ruined three of the hems of her sleeves before her mother decided to solve this problem, by dropping a book on knitting, two needles, and a whole lot of yarn on her anxious fidgety daughter. Evetrie has been knitting furiously ever since.

The day of the summons, she arrives early, she sits in an out of the way corner, and she continues her trend of furious knitting. These mittens will be aggressively knit with extreme prejudice. They will be such good mittens.

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Just as the bells begin to ring noon, a priest of Akhale comes to collect her. His long orange robe swirls around his feet, lively as a flame, but somehow manages never to touch the floor; whether from divine favour or excellent fashion design, it's hard to tell.

He leads her out of the main hall with its grand vaulted ceiling and down a succesion of increasingly obscure corridors, never saying a word. This probably does not do anything to soothe her nerves.

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It absolutely does not. And she can't even knit anymore. She does her best not to mangle her sleeve hems, but aaaaauuuuughhhhh what is this foooooor.

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In the small round room he leads her to, there are two people waiting: another robed figure, this one in the green of Vaneda, and a boy about her age leaning against a pillar with his hands in his pockets. When she enters, the boy un-leans from his pillar and turns to give her an appraising look.

"Ekideth Evetrie Lucaran," says Akhale's priest, directing her to stand on the life-green leaf of the six-pointed god-star in the center of the room.

"And Ashazei Tael Ismani," says Vaneda's priestess. The boy steps forward of his own accord to stand opposite her, on the red leaf representing the god Zokoris, whose element is soul.

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She stands where directed, returning the appraising look with a shy little smile. Maybe he knows why they're here...?

Then his title clicks and she blinks. Ashazei? It's a little tricky to keep track of all the syllables and their meanings, especially when so few people have all three, but that's - air, soul, fire...? But that's almost perfectly opposed to her set -

She realizes what they're here for, and accordingly flushes scarlet. Oh. Oh.

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Tael grins.

"The gods have seen the balance of the world reflected in you," says Vaneda's priestess. "On the first day of the coming year, you are invited to return to this temple and join your hearts in marriage."

"We are pleased to offer you these gifts as tokens of your betrothal," says Akhale's priest, and he hands Evetrie an ornate god-star necklace, each leaf of the star a shining gem set in a silver pendant. Vaneda's priestess gives a similar token to Tael; he looks at it, shrugs, and puts it on, still grinning.

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Evetrie puts on the necklace. She can't decide if she wants to examine her new fiancé (!!!!!!!!!), or her shoes, and so she does a mix of both. He seems... happy? To be engaged (???!!!!) to her? He's smiling, anyway. At her. That's - probably a good thing?? She thinks???? It's probably better than an expression of revulsion or a frown or immediately attempting to flee the room, at least? Or is it? She doesn't know what his smile means, does he think she's cute or is he glad to avoid the trouble of dating or is this giving him an exit from a shitty family situation or, or, or -

She's just going to stand here. Bewildered and blushing and wearing a betrothal necklace and wondering what in the world she's supposed to do. If they hate each other are they allowed to go, 'No thanks, gods'??? Are the gods good enough at matchmaking that this won't be a problem???? Can she successfully flee to the hills if he's awful? Maybe? She can maybe do that, that sounds like an option if she needs it. It wouldn't be fun, but she could probably pull it off, and go build a giant plant castle in the middle of nowhere. If anyone has a problem with it she can set them on fire.

In summary: aaaaaa.

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"Hi," says Tael, laughing. "Nice to meet you."

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She smiles a shy, tentative little smile at him. He has a nice smile, and a nice laugh; he seems sweet. At least, as far as she can tell. After less than five minutes with him. This is admittedly not enough evidence to accurately gauge if he is in fact sweet. But he's cute, so, she's got that going for her.

Um - words, she should words, those are important. She should not stand here awkwardly smiling like an idiot.

"Hi," she says, bravely fending off a vicious attack of the shy. "Nice to meet you too."

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"I've only been in this city about three hours; they gave me a house but I haven't seen it yet. Want to help me find it?"

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Is that a lead in to, to, 'introducing' themselves at his home?? No that's ridiculous, she's reading too much into that for sure, he's just trying to have literally any personal interaction with her. And also maybe could actually use help finding his house. Wow, three hours in a city and already engaged, that sounds like it would be really really stressful, he's handling it well. Also, they gave him a house? Is - that going to be her house too, now, or...?

"- Yeah," she agrees, ignoring the mess that is her mind right now.

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He beams at her. The priests gesture them toward an open door, and Tael takes her hand and leads her through it. A couple of turns later, they emerge from a side door into the alley that runs alongside the temple.

"And now I'm completely lost," he says cheerfully. "I don't think I even remember the way to the skytrain."

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She is perfectly happy to let him lead her out of the temple. Also: aaaaaa he's holding her hand aaaaaa!

Despite this nigh insurmountable emotional obstacle, she still giggles a little once they're in the alley.

"It's, uh," she takes a moment to get her bearings, then points, "that way. If it's the one I'm thinking of, anyway. What's your address?"

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"Rose Street. I don't remember the number, thirty-something?" He digs in his pocket for an envelope and peers at it. "Thirty-eight."

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"Oh, that's a nice neighborhood. I don't know Rose Street in particular, but different districts here have different name themes. If it's a flower, then it'll be to the northwest. We should be able to find it without too much trouble."

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"Lead on, then," he says, smiling at her.

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"Okay," she agrees, ambushed by another shy. He still has her hand, so she can just - tug him along and show him where his house is.

"Do you want me to just - lead you straight there or, um, maybe attempt to give you a tour of the city first?"

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"A tour of the city sounds like fun!"

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"Okay. I um - might not be the best for it, but I did uh. Grow up here. So. I can definitely hit the high points."

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"Why wouldn't you be the best? Nobody else is going to show me the parts of it that you like."

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... Well now she's blushing and stammering like a dork.

"I-I mean, for - for showing you which parts I like, yeah - but for an, um, unbiased overview, I-I don't know what you like? And we probably have different tastes."

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He giggles and squeezes her hand. "Oh, you're cute when you blush. I don't want an unbiased overview, anyway, I want your Okaiva."

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He finds her cute while she's blushing? Well, then she has good news for him! There is a lot of that going on.

"Okay," she agrees. "Um - thank you? I'm glad one of us is - benefiting from my - inability to social competently right now."

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He grins at her. He has a good grin.

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He doooooes.

All right then, if she's showing him her Okaiva, then she's damn well showing him her Okaiva. There's a park she likes nearby, she can take him there. The fact that she helps with the plants there is - well, part of why she likes it. Then they can go ambling down a lovely little path with exquisitely well-tended gardens. The plants are fascinating - some look like they're spun from colored glass, others look like woven webs of sunlight. One section has a whole set of flowers with petals that look like stained glass windows, another has a series of trees and bushes in a dark, faintly iridescent blue-green, set with glimmering droplets that catch the light. Another section has ghostly wisps of transparent leaves and flowers in shades of pearl and alabaster and moonlight. After some breathing space is a brilliant set of autumnal tones that shine like jewels, reds and oranges and golds brilliantly shining among deep browns and blacks and greens, carefully balanced so as to be brilliant without being too much...

It's a nice park.

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Tael likes this park. Tael might want to marry this park.

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Evetrie finds this delightful and beams at him.

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He beams back!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaaa!!!!!!! It's so pretty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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"Do you want to stay for a little while?" giggles Evetrie, squeezing his hand.

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"I want to kiss you," he says without thinking, still dazzled by the beauty of her garden.

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Well now she's a shade of pink again. Oh no, this is terrible.

 

"... yeah okay," she mumbles, shyly, enchanted by his smile.

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He squeezes her hand and kisses her on the lips - a brief peck, because he can't stop grinning long enough to do anything more serious.

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Aw! Brief peck! It's very cute and earns a giggle. He's adorable.

"Want to wander around or find a nice, out of the way spot to sit?"

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"This garden is amazing," he says. "Did you do the flowers?"

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"Some of them! Not everything here is mine, though. I did the ones that look like stained glass, the dark iridescent glade with the little lights, and the autumn section, and I helped someone else out with the ghost grove. He had trouble getting them to do that on their own, and wanted some help after seeing my flowers."

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"They're beautiful."

He's still smiling, but now he's also looking at her with a nameless intensity in his eyes. Like she's the most amazing thing in the world.

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"Thank you," she mumbles, shyly, smiling to her shoes. "Personally, I think the dark glade looks better at night, it's hard to tell how they shift colors in the sunlight."

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"I want to kiss you again."

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She giggles, then gently tugs him off the main path and into a more secluded section of the park. From her familiarity with the park, she knows about an out of the way little bench, separated from any path and most casual park-walkers. Privacy! Or the closest they can get in a public park. At the very least, they can hear anyone tromping through the bushes.

Then: yes, all right, he can kiss her again. Like so.

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This time he does not have the 'can't stop grinning' problem. He does not have that problem at all.

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Oh.

Oh.

Well isn't she pleased with her foresight. She doesn't have to worry about someone stumbling across them, she can just... enjoy kissing her betrothed.

Mm.

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Mm indeed. Very mm. So much of mm.

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He is very good at eliciting plenty of mm. So very good at it.

It's really easy to just - lose track of time. Even easier to end up accidentally wrapped around him, pulling him closer, deepening the kiss. It was such a good idea to go be in a secluded spot. Such a good idea.

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He pulls away, eventually, looking into her eyes with that same deep wondering intensity.

"I think I'm in love with you already," he murmurs. "The gods really know their stuff."

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She giggles faintly, gulping in air and struggling to right herself after - that. She has ever kissed someone before, but - it had not been like that.

"I didn't think I was that good of a kisser," she teases, airily. Beaming at him.

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"Everything about you is amazing." Pause. "Want to go find my house?"

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"Sure," she agrees immediately, without thinking. ... Then she pieces together the implications, and blushes and looks down. "Um, but not for - uh - anything further? Just yet?"

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He tucks his arm around her shoulders and kisses her on the cheek. "Mm. Okay," he murmurs.

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The arm around her shoulders makes it very easy to lean on him for snuggles. Like so. She smiles up at him, delighted.

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Snuggle-hug. With another one of those utterly enthralled smiles.

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Aww!

"You smile at me like I'm the most amazing thing in the world."

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"Well, you are."

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"I've mostly just been stammering and blushing!"

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"You're cute when you blush!"

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"Sure, but lots of people are probably very cute when they blush."

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"But none of those people are you."

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"Okay, yes, but..." She pauses, trying to put thoughts to words. "... You like me for more reasons than 'the gods said so' and 'has characteristics most people have,' right?"

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"I don't know about reasons. I'm not a reasonable person. I'm irresponsible and impulsive and when I told you to show me your city you took me to the most beautiful garden I've ever seen and all the best parts of it were yours."

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... Blush.

"Oh. Well. All right then."

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He kisses her again.

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Oh, this, yes they can do this again, that works for her. Mm.

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This time it goes on for a while.

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Time? What's that?

She's having trouble stringing coherent thoughts together.

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He pauses, eventually, and murmurs with his mouth very close to hers: "Are you sure you don't want—"

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"Mmmnh," she mumbles.

... She maybe needs a minute to stitch her brain back together.

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...he giggles, and nuzzles her cheek, and waits.

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Okay. Then she'll just. Lean on him and focus on breathing for a little while.

"—Um," she begins, a little awkwardly, "I'm – I haven't before? And you're – you're really attractive, but I. I think it'd be – too fast? For someone I just met, however much I like you? It's the kind of thing where that'd be scary, so. I'd. Rather wait until it definitely wouldn't be."

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He nuzzles her cheek again, wrapping his arms around her.

"I—mm. Yeah. Okay."

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"Sorry. Thanks." She snuggles him. She's a little shivery, after all of the time spent kissing him.

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He shifts the way he's holding her, freeing a hand to pet her hair with.

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Evetrie hums appreciatively, leaning on him and smiling.

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Nuzzle. Pet pet.

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Giggle.

"You're cute," she accuses.

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"Who, me?"

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"No, my other betrothed, hiding in the bushes behind you." She smiles at him. "Yes, you."

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He laughs.

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Snuggle.

"You're very happy. I'd be – ah, much more upset if I were suddenly dropped in another city with a stranger."

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"Oh, I didn't like my hometown all that much."

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"No? What didn't you like about it?"

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"It had my parents in it, for starters."

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... This phrasing earns him a little amused snort.

"Didn't like them much?"

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"Yeah, we didn't get along."

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"All right," she agrees, snuggling him. She considers asking for specifics, but that seems a bit, uh. Rude.

"Well, since you have a house now, if they come to visit you can slam the door in their face."

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Snicker. "That'll be fun."

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"And if they don't visit you don't need to see them again! Either way, you win." Pat pat.

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He laughs and hugs her.

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Hug!

"I'm glad coming here was a good thing for you, then. Instead of, uh. A scary move to a new place with none of the people you like."

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Nuzzle. "Yeah."

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She giggles a little at the nuzzle.

"Do you want to move on with the tour of the city, or stay here?"

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"Mm. Well, I do like what we've been doing here." He kisses her on the cheek. "But I'm sure your Okaiva is bigger than one garden and I'd hate to miss out on the rest if it's even half as good."

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Giggle.

"It is in fact bigger than one garden. Uh - are you hungry? We could get something to eat."

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"Sure!"

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"All right." She scoots away from him on the bench, gently taking his hand to lead him away. It gets a kiss before the leading occurs, because gosh he's adorable. "There's a cute little tea house nearby that serves excellent soup, if that sounds good?"

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"Yes it does!"

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"Okay!"

Leading occurs. The walk is a pleasant one, made more so by how she can't seem to stop smiling at him. Aaaa so cute aaa.

As advertised, the tea house is also cute; small and out of the way and very cozy. The staff seem to recognize her, and once they notice her holding hands with Tael, they notice the matching amulets. Summarily, they begin giggling among themselves.

.... Evetrie finds this a bit embarrassing, and steers Tael to an out of the way corner. In which she blushes. Again. Damn it.

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Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Tael giggles delightedly.

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"Downside to showing you my Okaiva; my Okaiva includes people that are going to find us adorable," she predicts, sagely. "The horror."

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"Aww, but I like when people find us adorable."

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"Well, I'm glad one of us is getting something out of this, then."

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This prompts another of his seemingly inexhaustible supply of delighted grins.

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It's such a good inexhaustible supply of delighted grins!

"We can probably get an adorable little box of seasonal tea, if you're feeling experimental. It's a themed variety thing, based on the time of year. When it's just me it's a bit too much. Even with two people, we'd probably still have to take a couple tea bags home."

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"Seasonal tea sounds like fun!"

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"Okay," she agrees. "Do you want anything besides soup? They have, uh." There's a little set of adorable menus; she retrieves one and offers it to him. "Mostly baked bread stuff, really."

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"Oh, pick something for me, I wouldn't know what to try."

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"All right."

An amused waitress swings by to take their drink orders. Evetrie requests the little seasonal tea box, two bowls of (different) soup, and a little series of pastries with fruit fillings. The waitress clearly finds the two of them very cute.

This order made, Evetrie goes back to smiling shyly/fondly at Tael.

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He smiles back, adoringly.

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Eeee!

"So um," she says, flailing for a conversation topic, "I should probably also make sure that you know where to buy food and clothes and - stuff. I don't think you can live off of little tea shops and gardens."

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"You'd be surprised!"

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"Oh? How so?" she wonders, leaning forward and propping her chin up with a hand.

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"I can make a lot of stuff by magic. Not enough that I'd never have to leave my house again, or anything, but I'd be pretty comfortable for a week or two."

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"Oh. All right, fair enough. I can make things too, maybe between the two of us we could just. Have everything that might be necessary."

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He laughs. "That sounds like fun."

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"I can make clothes," she says, conversationally. "I mostly don't unless I have something in particular I have in mind to wear, though."

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"I can do that a little too, but I've put the most work into making food. 'Cause it's hard to get just right, but once I've got the trick for something I can just have it whenever I want."

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She nods, smiling. "Makes sense. I can make some really nice fruits and vegetables without much trouble at all. And I'm actually pretty good at the texture of clothes, it's just the - bother of styling that's the trouble? Sometimes I'm in the mood to tackle it, but usually it's easier to just go and let other people have fashion ideas for me and then pick and choose what looks better on me at the market."

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"I actually kind of like that part, myself, but it's frustrating not being able to get things to come out exactly how I imagined them. And if I practice for a while I end up buried in a huge pile of clothes."

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... Giggle.

"I don't usually have that problem! I can just sort of — keep messing with it if it's not right. We might be able to just work together on this and solve both of our problems."

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"I mean, it's not like I don't have any transformative aspects to work with, but the thing I'm trying to practice is creation, so..."

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Snort. "Yeah. Fair. ... Where does the creation come from, anyway? I thought you were, uh —" She makes a face as she attempts to remember. "... Air, soul, fire? Did I get that right?"

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"Yeah. All transformative. But I got fire's free aspect."

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"Oh! All right, that makes sense."

She smiles wryly, then confides: "I got life's free aspect."

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"We sure are something, aren't we."

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"Yeah," she agrees, with a little laugh.

A waitress arrives with two empty mugs, a kettle in an adorable purple tea cozy, a box of tea, two bowls of soup, a plate of fruit pastry things, and a delighted smile.

"Thanks," mumbles Evetrie, blushing again.

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Tael beams across the table at her. "Have I mentioned you're cute when you blush? You're cute when you blush."

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The waitress giggles and politely leaves before Evetrie turns too red. Evetrie, for her part, inspects her nails and pretends she isn't a fetching shade of pink.

"You probably mentioned it somewhere..."

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He laughs.

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She takes a minute to hide behind her hair and contemplate the state of being pink.

Then she clears her throat, unhides and says, "So! Tea! Tea is here, would you like some?"

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"Yes I would!"

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She opens the little tea box and turns it towards him invitingly.

"Do you want to pick what you're drinking, or...?" she wonders, picking out a tea bag for herself.