Chapter Text
The cloying scent of honeyed tea wafted around Qifrey, sticking to the roof of his mouth. He took a sip, breathing out deeply and opened his eyes. It was sunset, the last rays of the summer's sun filtering through the vine filled window of the shop. It had been a long day….too long Qifrey thought as he took another sip of his tea.
The shop has practically been flooded from open to close, and it hadn’t helped that a group of apprentices had wandered in around midday and run rampant around the shop. He had gotten Aggott to shoo them out while he took care of a rather grumpy prune of a witch demanding for an nonexistent blend of tea that Qifrey certainly didn’t carry, but nothing was to be done about the display of enchanted teacups they had knocked over. When the apprentices had so rudely knocked over the display, several of his special enchanted teacups had fallen to the ground and shattered. Always the teacher, Qifrey had given the shards to the girls to experiment with, challenging them to find a way to put it back together. But, as creative as the girls were, he doubted he could put their fixed cup back on the shelf.
Qifrey took one last sip of his tea, swirling the dregs at the bottom of the cup while contemplating how he was going to fix the display. I could just rearrange and put some of the tea catalogs at the front, he thought. But my teacups are my bestsellers….I really should just replace them, especially with the upcoming Festival of Apprentices bringing in so many new customers.
Heaving another sigh and Qifrey sat up, eyeing the mess that was his shop. In a way, the mess was part of the charm. Piles of tea catalogues, jars of tea blends, and teacups were scattered everywhere, and the high arching windows towards the front of the shop were practically overgrown with vines. Olruggio always complained it was a fire hazard, muttering something about tea kettles and the fire seals that were inscribed on them. On more than one occasion, there had—almost— been a fire in the shop, but it was almost always caused by Coco practicing her fire seals. But he would never tell Olruggio that. Never.
“I suppose I should get to work then” Qifrey muttered to himself, shedding his cloak and rolling up the tight sleeves of his black turtleneck. He headed to the front of the shop, weaving his way between display tables and locked the front door. Next, he picked up a broom, and swept his way through the shop, collecting all of the fallen tea leaves. There was an especially big pile of leaves in the back of the shop, the result of a new tea blend Qifrey was trying. He had wanted to match the tea leaves to a special seal on the teacup that would make the water form the shape of the flower the tea was made from, but his attempts had been…less than successful so far. And now I need to worry about replacing the tea cups that were broken. Qifrey thought, slipping behind the register and pushing away the curtain that separated his workshop from the front of the store.
If the store was a mess, then Qifrey’s workshop was the definition of a disaster. There were half finished seals drawn on teacups, open notebooks with their nonsensical scribbles on full display, and a smattering of loose tea leaves strewn all over the place. Ever since he had established his shop, he had realized that there was no saving the mess that inevitably was created. And as the shop grew in popularity, with Qifrey making a name for himself for his impeccable tea brews and fantastical teacups that he sold along with them, the mess just never was cleaned up. And maybe there was a part of Qifrey that liked the clutter, that liked being surrounded and seeing bits and pieces of himself slowly filling up the space. It gave him a place to feel safe, something the Great Hall had never given him, and never would. Oh yes, the witches of the Great Hall had offered him a place to set up shop in their underwater kingdom, but Qifrey had turned them down to the dismay of many. He had pleasantly told them that he needed to be able to easily travel to find new ingredients, but really that was an excuse. He hated the Great Hall.
“But I am not in the Great Hall anymore.” Qifrey told himself in a firm voice, pulling himself out of his spiraling thoughts as he sat down. “Right now, I am in my shop, and I have things to attend to.”
Reaching into the shelves above his desk, Qifrey brushed aside Coco’s brushbuddy that was curled around some empty teacups. It scampered off, its little feet pattering away as it headed upstairs to where the girls were surely sleeping. Pulling out his pen, Qifrey drew a quick spell to light up the collection of candles sitting along the windowsill and set out his special inkpot. It was filled with a special mixture of ink that Olruggio had concocted for Qifrey when he had first started his shop years back. Unless the ink was surrounded by heat, it would be invisible to the naked eye. It allowed for Qifrey to ensure that the magic behind his enchanted teacups was unknown to the average person, as to them it seemed like it was simply special patterns that appeared when the cup was filled with water.
Qifrey settled into his work, the sounds of a storm starting outside and his pen harshly scraping across the smooth surface of the teacups filling his workplace. He drew seal after seal, getting through about 5 teacups to replace the broken ones, and eventually called it quits when he noticed that the wax from the candles had started to drip from the windowsill onto one of his many jars of tea scattered across the desk. He packed up his pen and inkpot, put them in their respective cubbies, and lined up the new teacups along the far end of his desk.
However, just as Qifrey was snuffing out the candles he heard the fainting swishing sound of the curtain separating his workshop from the shop being brushed aside. Lighting cracked, and for a brief moment, Qifrey spotted a glimpse of his assailant. A Brimmed Cap!
In almost the blink of an eye, Qifrey snatched his pen and quire, quickly drawing a seal onto one of its pages and threw it into the ground. Instantaneously, bolts of water shot out from the page and raced towards the Brim, wrapping around them. Activating his Sylph Shoes, Qifrey launched himself from one end of the room to the other and pressed a second seal into the back of his assailant. Almost as soon as did that though, the water surrounding the Brim turned to steam, the ice emanating from his second seal followed suit, dropping to the ground in a puddle. Qifrey blinked, and the next moment he was on the ground, his assailant above him, their hands pinning his hands to the ground and their knees digging uncomfortably into his chest.
“Qifrey, by the Great Witches Qifrey, it's me! Calm down would you!” Lighting cracked again, and Qifrey finally got a look at the face looming above him. It was….Olruggio?
Qifrey fell limp in his grasp, wanting to curl up and die. “Spirits above Olruiggio I thought you were a Brim.”
Glancing up, Qifrey noticed that Olruggio had draped a raincloak around himself, and put the hood above his cap, making it look like his cap was brimmed. Qifrey let out a breath and felt all of the blood rushing to his face as it hit him. Olruggio was above him. Practically pinning him to the ground in fact. His best friend's hands were like an iron vice around his, and Qifrey let out a strangled cough, Olruggio's knees still digging into his chest, and wheezed “Could you let go of me?” Before I have any more thoughts I shouldn't Qifrey thought to himself.
“Oh, yeah yeah of course.” Olruggio scrambled off of him, and Qifrey sat up, rubbing his wrists. Olruggio looked flushed for a moment as he stood above Qifrey, but then quickly rearranged his face into a seething look of annoyance.
“Qifrey, if you had taken just a second before you practically leapt at me, you would have noticed I wasn’t a Brimmed Cap.” His features softened, and he offered a hand to Qifrey. As he pulled him up, Qifrey’s cold hands briefly intertwining with Olruggio's, he continued, mumbling “I really shouldn’t have snuck up on you like that. I've known you for years, of course you would go on the offensive if someone broke into your shop in the middle of the night.”
“Speaking about,” Qifrey said as he brushed himself off “How in the world did you get in?”
“I have a key remember?”
“Since when?”
“Since I don’t know, you gave it to me ages ago! Geez this is the thanks I get for making sure you actually get to bed at a reasonable time?” Olruggio huffed, plopping himself onto one of the many plush chairs scattered around the shop.
“How did you know I was awake?” Qifrey asked, head cocked. A little part of him had completely latched onto the fact that Olruggio had cared enough about his disastrous sleep schedule to come over from his shop next door and check on him, but Qifrey tucked that information away to be mulled over later.
“Our windows face each other.” Olruggio deadpanned, jerking his hands towards the window in the workshop.
“Oh…I’m touched. You’re awake too though” Qifrey said, situating in the armchair next to Olruggio’s.
“Doesn’t count. Since I’m here, might as well tell me about your day.” Olruggio said, making himself at home and kicking off his shoes.
“Well, you must have seen the line from your shop. Today was the busiest day I’ve had in months. My tea leaf supply is dwindling, and I really need to go out for a few days to the forest to collect some ingredients before the Festival of Apprentices. Ugh, speaking about apprentices, you would never believe what happened today ....”
Qifrey and Olruggio lapsed into an easy conversation, and for the latter part of the early evening they chatted about everything from Olruggio’s plan for his next contraption (a ring that acted as a compass for a lost item) to how the girls were doing (Quite well, I’m planning on taking them on my next restock expedition). Halfway though, Qifrey had grabbed his personal teapot and made some tea for the two of them, where Qifrey’s heart had almost burst when Olruggio's hand brushed against his when he handed him his cup of tea.
As the storm slowed to just a patter, Olruggio stood up. “Well I suppose I should get going. It’s rather late, and you have completely distracted me from my mission of fixing your dreadful sleep schedule.”
“You enjoyed talking to me. And you have no room to talk, your sleep schedule is just as horrible as mine. “ Qifrey said with a grin, leading Olruggio to the front door.
“Of course I did.” Olruggio said, then quietly muttered. “I’m trying to get you off the path of ruin so you don’t turn into me.”
Chuckling, Qifrey leaned against the doorframe as Olruggio left, watching as he headed over to his shop next door.
“Oh Qifrey?” Olruggio turned back. “Is there any chance I could be with you when you take the girls out on the restocking expedition? I need to pick up a few supplies too.”
“Of course.” Qifrey said warmly, and Olruggio nodded, ducking inside his own shop.
That night, as Qifrey fell asleep, he was once again tormented by his relentless thoughts. This time though, they weren’t about damp roots and blood streaming down his face. No, this time it was about a certain black haired witch and when he untangled himself from his sheets the next morning, he rubbed his wrists, smiling.