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It's the middle of the night aboard Mephistopheles, wrapped in a cold darkness as you toss and turn on your uncomfortable mattress, trying to get some godforsaken sleep. You've tried so many sleeping positions, trying to find a comfortable way to finally fall asleep, but it's too cold even under the covers, and your aches and pains from battling today are overwhelming. Any way you can try to contort your body doesn’t fix your immense fatigue.
You kick off the covers, hoping that fixes the issue; only to be met with discomforting cold air. You curse to yourself, wishing this feeling would just go away. After all, you only have so much time to sleep before you have to wake up and repeat the cycle all over again.
You call it quits.
Pushing the covers aside and giving your bed a final disapproving stare, you walk to the door of your room you're staying in, out the door and into the main seating area of Mephistopheles. You decide why not make yourself useful by being on nightwatch duty for a bit. As you approach the front of the bus, you see a silhouette of someone sitting in one of the front seats, alone. You approach slowly, and notice it’s the 6th sinner looking incredibly bored.
Hong Lu notices your presence and calls you over to sit with him.
“Can’t fall asleep either?”
You nod.
He motions for you to sit next to him.
You move to sit next to him in the double seat, not too close, but not too far either. It squeaks a little as you sit on it, and you try to rest your back on the seat hoping for a moment of comfort to no avail.
“I can’t fall asleep in a room that cold.. I got tired of trying, so I came out here instead.” You give him a little smile.
“Ah~ How about I brew us some tea?” He turns to look at you, his right eye gleaming in the moonlight. You notice he looks a bit more tired than usual, even after a fight. “That would be great!”
He stands up and retreats back to his room, humming to himself.
After a little while, he comes back bringing an expensive-looking tray with a teapot and two matching cups, a kettle, infuser and a small folding table. It looks a bit cumbersome carrying all of that, he's struggling to keep the door open with his foot. “I’ll help with that!” You spring from your seat and quickly grab the folding table from under his arm, opting to hold the less expensive thing to avoid any liability. You help him set the table up and as he places the tray down, you study the detail poured into the design of the tea set. They were a deep, rich blue in color, almost a navy with gold fine detailing depicting beautiful flowers sprawling across the surface. The teapot and tray both matched the cups, the teapot in particular had gold leaves sculpted around the handle, giving it a unique form.
“Hong Lu, this tea set is beautiful! Where did you find it?”
“Ah! This one is a hand-me-down from back home~ It’s one of the less expensive sets we own...Haha!” He laughs a little, sensing your nervousness. “Anyways~ I brought my favorite tea flavor with me… Peach ginger! Ah, I hope that’s okay, I forgot to ask...”
“Oh that’s just fine! I’m not particularly picky, as long as it warms me up.” You give him a reassuring smile.
Hong Lu looks a bit less tense, he starts to add the loose tea leaves into the infuser, and adds a dash of hot water from the kettle in the tea pot to warm it up. He then pours the boiling water into the teapot and you watch as the tea leaves slowly start to infuse with the whirling water. You wonder if you should try to make conversation as it's been a bit quiet, but the silence isn't unwelcome. It's rare to have a moment like this.
As you both wait for the tea to steep, you study Hong lu's face, his bangs falling beautifully across his forehead, and you swear you can see his left eye glowing.
After a minute, he picks up the teapot with great care and pours a serving of tea for each of you. The steam wafts up and the light and airy scent of peach fills your senses, along with a subtle hint of ginger. The sinner places his teapot down on the tray with care and brings the hot cup to his face, closing his eyes savoring the aroma. He looks quite beautiful like this, with the moonlight glowing behind him illuminating his hair.
You watch as he brings the cup to his lips, slowly blows air across the surface a few times and takes a big sip. Your staring is cut short by one of his eyes opening to look at you, his wink wondering why you haven’t sipped your tea yet. You jump a little at that, but quickly after pick up your teacup, making sure to handle it with extreme care. You've been so focused on Hong lu that you completely forgot how cold you were, but quickly felt relief as the teacup warms your hands.
You bring the warm teacup to your face, blow air across the surface and sip slowly, careful not to burn your tongue. The taste is light and sweet, not too strong but not too subtle. It's amazing.
“How is it~?” Hong Lu's quiet voice breaks the silence.
“Amazing! No wonder it's your favorite.”
“I'm glad you like it as much as I do~”
You smile at him, feeling your cheeks warm up a bit. You can't tell if you're blushing or it's just the warmth of the tea.
After you both sip your tea for a bit and have a few small chats about nothing in particular, you start to feel drowsy from the calming tea, regulating your temperature so you're no longer too hot or too cold. You feel your eyes fluttering closed occasionally, finally feeling tired enough to fall asleep, yet you would like to continue your chat with Hong Lu.
Him and his beautiful…
Beautiful…
Beauti-
Hong Lu suppresses his small surprise at you falling asleep on his shoulder, but he's happy nonetheless. He giggles a bit to himself and wraps his arm around your shoulder, moving you a bit closer to him. He finishes his tea and moves his tea set to the ground, where it won't spill or break, but he probably wouldn't care anyway. He could just buy another one, but he wouldn't want to wake you up with the racket.
He slowly rubs calming circles into your shoulder, as you continue to doze off on him. After a little while of savoring this moment, smiling to himself, he rests his head against yours and starts to doze off as well.
“Goodnight~”