In Kaladin's opinion, the coffee in the Kholin house was awful. They had a coffee machine, they just had no idea how to use it. It sat completely ignored in a corner of the kitchen, gathering dust. When Navani was over she occasionally made a half-hearted effort to use it, but she usually left the group handles in too long and let the grounds burn while she looked for a mug. The resulting coffee was almost as bad as the instant stuff that Adolin drank nearly continually. Renarin stuck to tea, which considering the quality of the Kholin's coffee was almost forgivable. At least he drank the good, loose-leaf stuff.

To make matters worse, Dalinar, arguably the most terrifying man in the warcamps, started every morning with a cup of storming orange juice.

"You're just a coffee snob," said Adolin, who had somehow managed to make an art out of drinking instant coffee in the most offensive way possible. "It's really not important, man." Kaladin glowered at him.

"You would say that, wouldn't you," he said. He tossed back the last of his coffee, which he had picked up from a proper café on the walk to guard detail this morning. It wasn't bad. He'd have to try that Reshi single origin again sometime.

"Well, yeah, duh," Adolin said. He spooned another teaspoon of sugar into his monstrosity of a drink and stirred it in. That was his third. "It's about the caffeine, bridgeboy, not the taste."

The impossibly indignant noise Kaladin made would forever live in Adolin's heart. "You've just never had proper coffee," he said through gritted teeth.

"This is proper coffee."

"It is not!"

"Can you make coffee, Captain?" Renarin said. He'd been standing in the kitchen this whole time, watching the morning's Coffee Debate with the sort of interest other people reserved for a tennis match.

"I can," said Kaladin. He nodded towards the dusty espresso machine in the corner. "Even on something as sad looking as that."

"Go on, then," said Adolin. "I'll even drink it."

"With what beans, princeling?"

"I think there are still some in the cupboard," Renarin suggested.

"Stale," Kaladin said. "Navani never seals them properly." He shook his head. "No, I'll buy some tomorrow."

The growl of a coffee grinder woke Adolin at some unholy hour the next morning. He dragged himself out of bed and went to see what all the fuss was about.

He hated to admit it, but the kitchen smelt... actually good.

"It's too early for this," he said.

"You'd usually be awake in half an hour anyway," Kaladin said. He rubbed some of the grounds between his fingers. "I wanted to get this right first."

"At six thirty," Adolin said. He rubbed his face. "Storms."

"The ground is important," Kaladin said. He tamped the grounds and twisted the group handle onto the machine. He flipped a switch and watched critically as coffee began to drip into his espresso glass. "And it looks like I've gotten it basically right."

"You'll wake up the whole house," Adolin grumbled. He took a seat at the kitchen table. "And you look dumb in an apron."

"Yeah, yeah," Kaladin said. He tasted the coffee and smiled. "What do you want?"

"You to go away," Adolin said.

"Coffee. What coffee do you want?"

Adolin frowned. "Normal coffee."

"Normal..." Kaladin sighed. "Fine. Milk?"

"Duh." Adolin frowned at the kitchen in general, and then at Kaladin specifically. Was he whistling?

Navani strolled into the kitchen wearing a dressing gown that was certainly not her own. "Oh," she said pleasantly, taking a seat. "A long macchiatto, please. I didn't get much sleep." She ignored Adolin's sudden coughing fit.

"Certainly," said Kaladin. He placed a cup in front of Adolin and turned back to the machine.

"What is this?" Adolin asked incredulously, staring down at the coffee.

"It's a cappuccino, dear," said Navani.

"I said a normal coffee," Adolin said. "This isn't normal."

"You usually have your coffee with so much sugar, I thought it was better than something black," Kaladin said. He finished extracting Navani's shots and spotted the drink with a teaspoon of milk.

"You want me to drink this."

"Yes," said Kaladin. "I mean... if you're not too much of a wimp."

"Adolin Kholin, you will drink your cappuccino and you will like it," said Navani ominously. Adolin reluctantly raised his cup to his lips and took a sip. "That's... not awful," he said, even more reluctantly.

"You like it?" Kaladin asked.

"I don't... not like it," said Adolin. "It needs sugar, though."