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A scientific experiment of the highest order is in progress. One which includes raspberry fudge, brie and crackers, and several different wines. Autor plans to get tipsy today, and he'll do it in style.

He'll also do it with help. Autor endures light ribbing by Sunshine, who has promised to stay with him and make sure he doesn't do anything foolish while even slightly inebriated--a serious concern of his, especially with a sprained ankle. She's keeping to tea today, just in case.

Autor raises a glass, his cheeks already tingling. He swirls the wine, as he has seen done before. Then he holds it up to his nose and takes a deep breath. "Ah, yes. This clean, buttery wine has a heady bouquet with oak notes, and a spicy aroma of vanilla and currant," he says, and takes a sip. "Sadly, it is broad--it has a full body aroma, but lacks any finesse to its taste."

Rae grins, sipping her tea. "Try harder not to sound like you memorized the book, Autor."

[OOC: Two pups, two muns! All threads will come after Rae and Autor's, when the boy is already tipsy.]

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"Delicious stuff is my profession, vocation, and passion," Rae grins, pouring for Autor, as well, and scoots the cup over within his reach. With him focused on Mirai, she doesn't want to outright hand him the cup of hot tea. It would be asking for disaster. "I'm glad you like it, Miss Kuriyama."

She smiles at Autor's display of affection. It is terribly cute, and such a different side of him, when the scholar is usually so restrained about showing his true feelings.

Edited 2014-10-27 05:17 (UTC)

Cute as it may be, Autor's prediction is accurate. Mirai, red enough to qualify for a strawberry now, does indeed flail, spilling her own tea in her lap as a result.

"I- I'm really not!" she protests, barely even aware of the tea on her legs. "I don't know where you come up with these thoughts, Autor-senpai!"

She retrieves her teacup and, turning to Rae, asks, "Oh, Seddon-san, I didn't spill any on you, did I? I'm so sorry."

"Oh, no!" the boy says, panicked at the tea spilling. Autor pulls his handkerchief out of his pocket--it's almost second nature with Miss Kuriyama around--and offers it to her. "Don't cry over spilled tea, Rosachen."

Then he turns his head to Rae, and blushes, horribly, because he'd genuinely forgotten that she was there. "Oh! Thank you for the tea. You are lovely, too, you know."

"None got on me, no," Rae says, snickering a little over the flustered teens.

Because... yeah, it's kind of adorable. Was she ever that easily flustered?

Nah.

"The tea didn't burn you or anything, did it?" she asks, offering napkins to help.

"I don't think it did," she says, accepting the napkins first to take care of the tea. "It's not the first time this has happened to me here."

Mirai wads her wet napkins into a pile and ends up accepting the handkerchief to dry her hands.

She'd like to tell him she actually has her own handkerchief, but instead she asks, "W-what did you call me, Autor-senpai?"

"What did I call you?" Autor wonders, blinking. And then he remembers. "Oh! Ohh. R-Rosachen. That's a word that doesn't feel funny in my mouth. It... It means 'little p-pink'. But I can't call you that! You are pink but you're not a -chen, not yet."

He curls his arms to his chest, much like he has seen Mirai do. The boy glances to Rae, mouthing the word, 'help?'

Rae pours a fresh cup of tea for Mirai, smiling slightly. "It sounds lovely. At the very least, it's accurate, which means it has a lot more going for it than most nicknames. Miss Kuriyama is slight -"

- she figures it's nicer than saying short or small -

"- and pink, so 'Rosachen' seems as though it would be quite fitting. It even sounds cute," she adds, testing the word again. "'Rosachen.'"

"W-why would you say I should have a lovely nickname, Seddon-san?" she asks, fingers clutching into Autor's handkerchief.

Once she realizes she's doing that, she loosens her hold and offers it back to him.

"L-look, I know what you said before, Autor-senpai, but this... This is more than... Okay, you keep saying I'm not unpleasant, b-but that doesn't mean I should get things that are... that are that not unpleasant!"

The boy smiles at Rae and mouths the words, 'thank you'. He doesn't take his handkerchief back. Not at first.

Autor laces his fingers together and rests them on his lips. He peers at Miss Kuriyama over them, thinking. "I keep saying you're not unpleasant because you aren't. And you... You don't have to take the nickname if you don't want to. But--there's always a but, huh? wow, that's rude of me--but I think... would it help if you took more pleasant things into your life, even small ones?"

Then he takes his handkerchief back, resting his hand on hers for a brief moment.

Rae smiles gently into her tea, taking a sip. "I can only really speak from my own experience, but it is a really nice feeling, having a nickname."

See ya tomorrow, Sunshine.

"Rather warm, really, and sweet," she smiles. "It's not like the name you're given when you're born - it's given with fondness, and affection. It's something of your very own, unique to you, and very much not unpleasant."

"The thing about nicknames, though," she adds with the start of a grin, "no one gets to choose their own. They just happen."

Mirai looks down into her new tea. She's already stuck with a name that leaves her with little affection, and that surely suits her more.

"I don't deserve fondness and affection."

"I used to think that about myself, too," Autor says quietly, a little discomfited. "But everyone deserves kindnesses, and just like I think you are not unpleasant, I think that you, too, deserve fondness and, um, a-affection Miss Kuriyama."

He furrows his brow, trying to find words. "I probably can't change your mind today but I hope in my heart of hearts that I can eventually, and I also hope that I don't chase you off by saying this--gosh, that would be awful. But if you need to run now that I've said it, that's okay, too."

"What a horrible world it would be, if we only ever got what we deserved," Rae says with a slight smile.

"That's one of the better things about affection. If someone feels it towards us, it doesn't matter whether we deserve it or not. Deserving's got nothing to do with it."

Her mind leaves her without rebuttal beyond the bone-deep feeling that they're wrong. She rubs her thumbs against her teacup and takes a careful sip.

"....I guess I can't stop you."

"Oh, yes you can," Autor says, sitting up straight. He raises a hand to count off his points, but gets confused by the second one and abandons it. "I don't want you to take a nickname you don't like or want and I definitely don't wanna offer you affection when you don't want it, either, but I don't know that I can help that, but it's totally your choice on whether or not to accept it, but whether or not you do probably won't change the fact that I'm gonna offer my handkerchief to you and still feel this way."

He covers his heart with a hand. "Miss Kuriyama, you deserve so much more than you think you deserve, and I can't wave a magic wand and fix that but I wish I could make you see just how lovely I think you are."

And then, realizing what he's saying, the boy blushes. "Ah," he croaks, and glances to Rae, desperate to change the subject. "Is that why you're so nice to me?"

Edited 2014-10-28 03:35 (UTC)

"I'm not nice to you, Autor," Rae grins at him, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze. 'Nice' can cover a multitude of sins, in her opinion. Like 'polite.'

"I'm your friend. That covers just about everything, I should think. Not the least of which is that I care about you, your happiness, and your well-being."

And it's Rae's words that put Mirai's problem in focus.

"I- I don't think I know how to be a friend right now," she says to Autor. "And I don't know when I'll be able to be one. B-but... but thank you..."

"That's okay," Autor says, a little excitable. "You can learn if you want to--I did, and it took a long time, and I still think I'm pretty bad at it--and you have to really have to want to. And it takes time, and sometimes you can watch what other people do and take notes--Rae, I'm a really good note-taker, aren't I? You should show her the notes! Ooh, maybe I can take notes for you, Miss Kuriyama."

Autor adjusts his glasses over his blush, nodding.

"He does take phenomenal notes," Rae admits, smiling, "when he's not utterly drunk."

His notes from this particular experiment, well... they will certainly make for interesting study once Autor sobers up.

"I- I'll let you know if I want notes," Mirai agrees before drinking down more of her tea.

She has a feeling Autor will be around for whenever that will be.

"Aha!" Autor says, pointing a triumphant finger at Rae. "I knew you thought I was drunk. I just knew it, and now I get to argue against you: I am not. Therefore, you are incorrect. Hahaha."

Point made, he folds his arms--also triumphantly--and adopts an expression that matches the smuggest kittens. Then he turns to Mirai, unfurling and softening. "Are you hungry?"

"Oops, you got me," Rae grins at him, holding her hands up. "I stand corrected. You're completely sober."

Yeaaaaah, no.

"If it makes you feel any better, Miss Kuriyami, he's not usually this overtly affectionate."

Edited 2014-10-28 13:34 (UTC)

It kind of does, actually.

"Ah, I am hungry," she answers, some of the tension in her body bleeding away. "What kind of muffins are these again?"

Autor smiles. "Oh, good. Well, we have brie and crackers and pumpkin muffins--pumpkin is my favorite--and tea, but oh, you have tea. And raspberry fudge, and we can order anything you like from the bar."

He blinks at Rae. "Speaking of affection..." he starts, and then sits up straight. He pulls a ruler and pen out of his pocket, and starts scribbling on a napkin, muttering to himself. "Nicknames, absolutely too much. But gifts? And compliments? Hand holding, that's definitely too much--that even makes me blush! What about food?"

Eventually, he turns the napkin around to face the two women. "This is a very serious graph," Autor says, very seriously indeed. "It also looks like cat."

"There are a few different kinds - pumpkin, of course; blueberry; cream cheese; cinnamon-apple; and walnut-raisin," Rae answers Mirai's question.

"That is definitely.... a graph, Autor," Sunshine can't help but grin at it. "The cat-ears of affection."