milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Finals are in preparation at the Magic Guild and the Guildmaster needs a breather from having her fortune told. A hot cup of tea and a few episodes of Tentacles of Our Waves is just what she needs, all curled up in a booth.

Unbeknownst to her, the Knight is in the booth just behind her, sitting back to back. With the music curse in Milliways over and the Princess finally out of his hair, he can get back to having some semblance of peace. He's unfamiliar with the show playing behind him but doesn't care as long as it's not another telling of his story.

Come bother?

[ooc: Specify if you want Mia, Lohengrin, or if you want to try to work in both!]

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And the boy walks right past the both of them, battered and oblivious to questionably named soap operas and peace-seeking swan knights.

He places his hand on the door to the grounds and removes it. Then he repeats the action, as if he's forgotten what the hell he was planning to do.

Because he has.

He ends up passing Mia first, who takes notice as he hesitates by the door.

"Autor?"

Lohengrin looks towards the door at this but doesn't say anything to the woman behind him.

Autor swings his cotton-filled head around and places his hand on the door frame. "Oh," he says. "Mia. Hello."

His lips quirk. "How are you?"

He's always amused when he gets to ask her that. She taught him how, after all.

At the address to the Guildmaster, the Knight returns to his business of waving over a waitrat and quietly ordering a cup of coffee for himself. But he remains alert and instructs the waitrat to serve the booth behind him next.

"I'm well," Mia answers. "But you don't look well."

She stands up, leaning against her table, and gives Autor a look of quiet concern.

"No, I'm--" he starts, and then cocks his head. He chuckle quietly. "I've been worse," he says, "but yes, I've been better, too."

Really, he sounds kind of embarrassed. Woozy, but embarrassed.

Mia takes a step away from her booth.

"Will you come sit with me? Nothing but sit for a little while?"

He's got nothing to lose by sitting with her. Mia's never been a threat. She could be, but she hasn't been.

The kid steps forward, meeting her halfway. "Sure. All right," he says. And, eventually, fuzzily, "What in heaven's name are you watching?"

"A soap opera," she says with a dismissive wave towards the television.

She holds her hand out to him, watching to see if he's about to fall over. It's not until the waitrat wordlessly chatters at her that she realizes the creature is waiting to take her order. She sends it off with an order for another cup of her tea, some of Autor's blend, and a glass of water.

"Oh," he says, wrinkling his nose and wincing against the bruises on his face. "I know what those are."

His hand is cool in hers, though the fact that this is the first time he's taken her hand in all the times she's offered barely registers. "Do they all feature octopi?"

"I don't know. This is the only one I've watched."

Mia walks them back to her booth, her hand lightly leading him along but not squeezing. She ends up facing back towards the television, not quite seeing enough of the Knight to merit a doubletake.

"Would you like to sit beside me or opposite?"

He shrugs a little, shaking his head. "I don't mind either way," the boy says, and takes a seat opposite her original one. "Thank you for ordering tea, but don't worry too much on my account."

"I can't help what I feel, only what I do about it."

And with that, she places some healing herbs on the table for Autor.

"Along with that, I have to convince my emotions that I can't act for others. I can't and won't make you take anything from me or explain how you came to this state. But if you wish to accept my help, then I'm right here."

Autor's jaw drops. It's similar to speeches she's given before, but this time something twists in his chest. That she doesn't ask him to explain... he almost laughs in his relief.

"Thank you," he murmurs eventually, and presses of the cool herbs to his cheek--after squeezing her hand.

Punie would probably think me weak for all of this, he thinks, smiling a little. So much fuss over so small a thing.

I miss her.

Mia nods and gives his hand a squeeze back before returning to her seat.

The waitrat shows up with the drinks for the two booths, stopping to give the only-partly-eavesdropping Knight his coffee before providing Mia with her order. She takes her cup and passes the other two to Autor.

"Is there anything that you need?"

Autor starts to shake his head, and then hesitates. "Sleep," he admits. He sips his tea carefully, moving his herb, which reveals more of his pale face as it strips him of his bruises. "Other than that, you've given me the means to fix my face, which was rather annoying at this point."

The boy leans forward, furrowing his brow. "Are you sure I can't offer you anything for this?"

If he insists on paying her back in some way, and he has every time she's offered to help him, then she won't deny it in the end. After all, if he's going to accept her help, why forbid him from returning the favor?

However:

"That's not important right now. Recover first."

"All right," he says quietly. Autor loosens his shoulders and bows his head. He could ask about her children, but he's too tired and his head is too snarled to keep a conversation going.

The kid shivers a bit. Recovery, huh? "Have you eaten anything?"

"I haven't had dinner yet. Would you like something to eat?"

At the shiver, Mia waves the waitrat over again and requests a meal for herself as well as a blanket for Autor.

Autor blinks at her. "You didn't have to do that. I'm not"--he starts, and has to stop, because he is cold. He's always cold, and he thinks a blanket sounds quite nice, surprisingly.

She's mothering me, the boy marvels. She's mothering me. Is that okay?

He catches the wait rat before it leaves with a request for a meal--anything, really--and two purple cows.

If he had more energy, he'd hate that he feels much better already.

The waitrats with the blanket return much faster than the ones with the food. Mia takes the blanket and loosely drapes it over his shoulders.

"Autor, it's all right to be comfortable."

"I know," he says, clutching the blanket with one hand, "but I focused on this so much that I just... Well, I forgot. I guess. I didn't expect the gyre to widen so quickly, nor for me to start falling apart in the middle of it."

The kid grins at her sheepishly. "Good to know for the next time."

"That's how life tends to be, I'm afraid."

She tucks the blanket in around him just as their food arrives. She places Autor's plate in front of him and pats his hand before sitting down with her own.

It seems they both thought macaroni and cheese was a good idea?

And Autor, to his numbed shock, lets her. The dish, however, confuses him. "Is this... a variation on macaroni casserole? Huh," he says, poking at the dish. "I've never seen it before. It's usually too expensive for anyone but the upper classes, and I never paid that much attention to foodstuffs anyway."

He takes a tentative bite. All of his bites are tentative, but this is experimentation, after all.

"Oh," the boy says, licking the white sauce off of his bottom lip and grinning at Mia. "This is passable."

By which he means he's found a new favorite food.

"It's amazing what changes over time. If the stores in the Malfoys' home are any indication, this will become quite widely available. Cepheus tends to ask for this."

Fortunately, Milliways is here to bridge that gap among others.

"I can see why," Autor says, laying his spoon down after indulging in a few more bites. "It's such a simple dish. I'll have to learn to make it."

The boy yawns again. And again. He closes his eyes, and opens them. Then he reaches to drink his tea, but--it's gone. When did I drink that?

He glances up at Mia, wondering if she said something and he missed it during the displaced time. This is a stupid amount of sleep lost over such a small thing, he thinks, closing eyes filled with sand. I should figure out a way to charge Gene for the inconvenience.

Edited 2013-05-16 07:17 (UTC)

And when Autor nods off, Mia sits herself sideways in the booth, ready to camp out with him. It wouldn't be the first time she fell asleep in the main bar and there's still soap opera to watch.

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