Title: Still Heartless: Immediate Transplant Recommended
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Shamelessly stolen from grey-eyed goddess with her permission. And oh yeah, the characters and products aren't mine either.
Author's Note: E-flat above middle C

Sugar (Revisited)

It was only five minutes after he had left the room that Boq realized the horrible mistake he'd made. Three years of being forced to prepare Nessa's tea simply because she was too damn lazy to do it herself…you think he'd have memorized her beverage preferences by now. He had watched her every morning and afternoon: cup, bag, water, seven packets of Domino-brand pure granulated sugar, stir and drink. The woman was so brand-specific it almost made him nauseous even thinking about it. The edges of his memories blurred as his eyes from the past focused on the purse of her lips, and he shook his head to clear his thoughts.

'Boq, did I ever thank you for taking me to the dance that night at Shiz?'

'If I recall correctly, I told you about two years ago that if you did so again, I'd write you a personals ad and have it posted in the Times.'

She pressed her lips together and stirred the tea with one hand while pouring the fine granules in with the other. 'Well, thank you for that night, Boq.'

It hit him at that moment…roughly a thousand cups of tea later, he'd had a momentary lapse of common sense. Why hadn't he seen it earlier? In all three years of relentless tea-making, Domino sugar had never come in a yellow packet…and Nessa had never made her own tea, either, come to think of it. Just like she never attended her own meetings or wrote her own speeches or brushed her own teeth. His body pivoted before his mind had even processed what could have happened in that room. Glancing upwards and starring at a serrated splinter in the door, Boq's eyes locked anywhere but the door knob. He twisted the knob, and the door swung open, making a suspicious creaking noise that seemed to vaguely resemble a stale fart.

'That night was wonderful Boq. All of those years. No one had ever...' She continued to stir as she smiled. 'And if you really do take out that ad…be sure to use the picture from that picnic back in school, where I've clearly got my arm around you already.' He rolled his eyes and she tapped the spoon against the cup softly and set it down. 'You're dismissed.'

He barely had a chance to step into the room before Nessa lobbed the teacup straight at him and shouted "What in Oz are you trying to do, poison me?!" Gingerly wiping his face dry with his once-pristine sleeve, Boq heaved a sigh and wandered over to the table. Running his thumb across the pile of empty Splenda packets, Boq couldn't help but snicker just subtly enough that the irate governor wouldn't take notice.

It may have been made from sugar, but it tasted like shit.