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Of all of them, Peter was surprised that John was the tea snob. Given no other choices, Peter would drink whatever was offered, but John... nope, John would not. If it wasn't a good tea, he wouldn't drink it.
Which is how Peter found himself with a shelf in the kitchen dedicated to a wide variety of teas. And tea paraphernalia. And cups that could never be used for coffee, only for tea.
Now that he looked at it, the tea had taken over an entire cabinet in the kitchen. They had lots of cabinets, Stiles had insisted on an over-sized kitchen, so they had the room. It was the principle.
"Stiles, do you even know what rooibos is?" Peter asked.
Stiles looked up. "Sure, it's a red broom-like plant that's a member of the legume family. Grows in South Africa."
"And why are there... six, seven, eight... eight different teas with rooibos in the name? Isn't that a bit much?"
Stiles shrugged. "Dad likes the variety of flavors and it's a simple thing to let him have them."
"He's not here that often."
"Often enough. And I drink it sometimes, especially when I've had too much coffee and I don't want to take the time to make proper hot cocoa. The antioxidants in rooibos teas are always good for anyone and there is the side effect of reducing inflammation. It also helps cholesterol, which is one of the reasons he started drinking it."
"Sounds like you've researched this."
Stiles laughed. "Oh, yeah! Researched the hell out of it when I found out about the cholesterol part. Had to talk him into trying it at first but it didn't take too long for him to find variations he liked."
"Which explains the hot pot in his office," Peter nodded.
"Yup. Got him that, too!" Stiles grinned. "It's dead easy to boil water and he uses tea in bags at work, not the ball for loose tea, just to make it easier. But it stops him from drinking the coffee in the break room. Besides, the coffee in the break room is usually pretty awful, so it's no sacrifice to drink tea instead."
"Then why do we have an abundance of cups that are only for tea?"
Stiles gave a belly laugh and came over to the cabinet Peter was looking at. "Oh, man!" He really looked at all the cups on the shelves and laughed some more. "Dad's just trolling you. Since just about everything goes into the dishwasher, it really doesn't make any difference." Stiles leaned in for a kiss. "Means he approves of you."
Oh! Not that Peter had been worried but being pranked by one's father-in-law did imply a level of acceptance he had never expected.
"Maybe I'll get him some special tea cups he can use at his place," Peter mused.
"Now you get it!" Stiles laughed some more.
Peter shut the door of the cabinet gently.