^ [open post]

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan doesn't believe in the mansion spirits, but she is being followed by something in a way that makes little sense.

It begins when she wakes up. Opening the drawer to the sideboard in her room to retrieve tea, she finds another gold chess piece wrapped neatly in ribbon. Lancelot didn't put it there - it hadn't been there when she made her pre-sleep cuppa the night before, and she woke up when he did and sleepily saw him off to his training; he hadn't gone near the drawer. She shuts the chess piece firmly away, makes her tea, and dresses blearily for her own archery practice.

There's a new bow in the closet, too. To her pleasure, it's a heavier one that requires a stronger pull - she's quite got used to the draw of the ones the closet first supplied to her.

After her shooting routine, she finds a lipstick in the precise shade Ingrid used to wear on the bathroom vanity. When she's showered and dressed for the rest of her day, she finds her favorite pastry - a sort of breakfast roll she used to get from the shop by the tube station she'd walk past on her way to work, back in London - on a platter in the kitchen.

It's when she opens one of the closets in the hall off the library to return a pile of laundered wash-cloths that she receives both some clarity and a deepening of the mystery: a jumble of assembled balloons tumbles out, made of some queer material and filled with a gas that keeps them afloat. The writing on them reads: HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN PEVENSIE.

She stares at them, perplexed.


Susan's birthday post! Three days (by our reckoning) and eight months (by her reckoning) early! Feel free to have your puppets run into her in any reasonable location at any point during the day; she's just going to be accumulating more Stuff she can't get rid of as the day goes on.

Comments

[lightbearinglord]

Such a minor, nearly inconsequential mystery. Lan Wangji considers it, but can make nothing of it. Claudius might have better insight. "I once offered to serve you tea once Dark had concluded. Although it is not your birthday, the offer stands."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh! Yes, of course." Susan had, in truth, quite forgot. "I would love some tea, thank you."

[lightbearinglord]

Of course, Lan Wangji's face doesn't change whatsoever, but he is pleased. He is always pleased for the opportunity to serve tea to someone. He nods. "Come with me, then." And he turns to head directly back toward the kitchen he just left.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Very well," says Susan. She's not a follower, but his legs are so long she's got to take two quick steps for every one of his to keep apace.

[lightbearinglord]

On the bright side, although Lan Wangji walks quickly, he does it with a certain air of unhurried calm, as if he is unconcerned about the time at which he might reach his destination. Additionally, the kitchen is not far -- of course it is the smaller one he nearly always uses, the one with a clean wok ready and waiting atop the stove and whose cabinets are well-stocked with all the ingredients he might first reach for. "You may sit," he offers as he crosses to the cupboard that contains the components of a modest tea service.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan doesn't. "Might I help?"

[lightbearinglord]

Thankfully, Lan Wangji recognizes readily the kind of person who needs a task. "You may set some water to heat on the stove, if you like."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"You don't use the kettle?"

[lightbearinglord]

"I predate electricity by at least a thousand years, and I am set in my ways." Lan Wangji is neatly arraying items on the kitchen table: tea caddy, tea tray, teapot and cups.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I predate this sort of thing as well, but it's tremendously useful." But Lan Wangji had specified the stove, so Susan fills a traditional kettle and sets it on the flame.

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn." Lan Wangji has no doubt at all that it is useful; if he needed to make tea in the most efficient manner possible, he might concede to the use of electricity. But that is not why he likes to serve tea. "Thank you," he says, in any case, as he rifles tidily through the tea cakes in his caddy.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan usually prefers her tea as expediently as possible, but she's never opposed to a proper service. With the kettle heating on the stove, she steps back to watch.

[lightbearinglord]

It is a fairly modest setup, but Lan Wangji is fond of it: the cloud-patterned pot and cups, the bamboo tray, the faint but unmistakable scent of tea leaves in the air as he plucks a tightly-packed cake of oolong from the caddy with his tongs and sets it neatly within the teapot, awaiting the water.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"The patterning on that is lovely," Susan observes, mostly for the sake of saying something. She holds her hand near the side of the kettle. It's warming, but will still take a minute or two longer.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji glances toward her with a nearly imperceptible softening of his expression. "Claudius called these into being when he was in the body of Crowley's angel." Naturally, he kept them, and has used them often ever since.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Claudius is ever so thoughtful," says Susan, her own expression also softening.

[lightbearinglord]

"He has been a steadfast friend and brother," Lan Wangji agrees. The depth of his fondness feels glaring to him, as if it must be shining forth from every nuance of his expression, but he knows by now that what he feels is obvious in him is rarely notable to others.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan, whose expressions are also often muted, can sense at least a fraction of that warmth. "Yes, he's lovely," she agrees, matching that affection. "He's always been good to me - oh!" The kettle has come to a boil; she switches off the stove and lifts it away, offering it to Lan Wangji.

[lightbearinglord]

"Thank you." Lan Wangji takes the kettle, plucks the lid from the teapot, and pours the hot water within in a careful stream. Almost immediately, the scent intensifies as the tea cake breaks up and the tea begins to steep.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan closes her eyes, inhaling happily. "Oh, that's lovely."

[lightbearinglord]

This infinitesimal twitch to Lan Wangji's mouth very well might herald a smile. "Mn. Tell me your opinion of the taste, too." For now, it must steep.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, I shall." Susan hesitates, hovering, and then says, "Ought I find some digestives?" There's likely some still lying around from the batch she made yesterday.

[lightbearinglord]

"Digestives?" Lan Wangji inquires, politely curious.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Digestive biscuits," Susan clarifies. "The ones you take with tea. Have you got anything of the sort where you're from?"

[lightbearinglord]

"If I were to serve food alongside this tea, it might be dried fruits or nuts."