Chapter Twenty: Opposing Intentions
Rain pounded heavily against the windows of the reserve, the icy spring showers shedding the last of winter's spell, freeing the green grass from beneath the blanket that had covered it for months. The air smelled of a slight tinge of warmth, the sign that Earth was regenerating as it did every year. Walking across the courtyard path leading from his dormitory room towards the main building, Simeon was unaware of how drenched he had gotten in the few seconds outside. Letting the fresh downpour course over him naturally, it soaked down into his skin and seeped down from the pores into the core of his body. With a heavy cleansing sigh, he stepped out of the rain and into the main building, dripping with the liquid heaven made.
Leaving behind a trail of wet footprints, he marched along the corridors, his cold hands in his pockets. The water in his shoes squished and squashed as he marched. Passing the lounge, he stopped at the handmade scoreboard chart of the Triwizard Champions, giving it a hard long look with his tiny dark eyes. Finding the representative of Durmstrang, Viktor Krum, he nodded reluctantly. Krum was in second place at eighty points, the two Hogwarts champions tying for the top spot only five points ahead while Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons was far behind because of her second task fiasco involving Grindylows, at least according to the Merrows. Simeon remembered handing over another satchel of Galleons to Charlie for the results of the underwater challenge, but he had lost the bet to him fairly and that much was undeniable.
Continuing his way along the twisting corridors and hallways, he made his way up a flight of stairs, streaks of water being left behind him and marking every single step he'd taken. Squeaking quietly along the researcher's corridor, he peered through the large fishbowl window, watching as researchers in white lab coats worked swiftly and silently against the backdrop of rain against the opposing window. Keeping an eye open for one particular young researcher he stared through the window as remaining rain trickled down his face.
"By Merlin!" a sudden gasp from around the corner entered his ears, making him turn his head and straighten his back at attention. "Simeon Slovensky, you're going to catch a dreadful cold."
Not having time to react, Simeon felt a soft hand grab his arm and pull him to the end of the corridor and into the last office. Being thrown onto a spare wooden chair, he soon found himself having a pink wool jacket draped around his shoulders while the hands of an Italian researcher holding his cheekbones in her palms.
"You must have been caught in this downpour," Bella shook her head, feeling Simeon's cold skin as concern danced around her brown pupils. "Best keep you as warm as possible. Do you think you need to see Abby? She may have a potion."
Simeon shook his head. "No, Miss Bella. I am fine."
A weak smile crossed Bella's face, her hand patting the dragon keeper's knee lovingly. "I'd ask you to remove your wet clothes, but I'm afraid I don't have anything for you to wear."
Giving her wand a little shake, heat began to emit from the tip, waves of warm air splashing onto Simeon's skin. He could feel his skin drying to a clammy touch instantly, wanting almost to jump back outside and into the rain again just to rid himself of the tight feeling.
"Feel okay?" asked Bella, putting one of her hands on the breast of Simeon's soaking shirt.
His spine jolted as her hands rested on his body, giving an involuntary shiver that made Bella's hand jump back into her lap. Diverting his eyes away from Bella, he nodded his head. "I am fine."
Quietude took over the room, neither Bella nor Simeon moving to speak as warm air continued to fill the small space. Little beads of sweat formed along Bella's forehead, her delicate hand fanning herself as she sighed, looking about the room as if trying to search for something to speak of other than the horrible weather.
"How is your book coming?" Simeon finally broke the silence, making Bella's eyes widen in shock at his sudden reception to conversation.
"It's coming along all right," grinned Bella, rising to her seat to grab her pink flowered folder. Opening it up, she pulled out a few scrap parchments, looking them over in a quick glance. "Still a long way to go, naturally; so much research to be done still. I think I've finally gotten the chapter about Antipodean Opaleyes done though. Still not too sure about it."
"May I?" Simeon held out his hand, gesturing towards the papers stuffed into Bella's folder.
"Oh, of course," replied Bella immediately as she handed the parchments she'd written on in her neat uniform print to the soaking dragon keeper. "I'm always open to anyone who wants to give me some feedback or criticism. Goodness knows I need it, my English writing still isn't the greatest."
Grasping the papers in his own hands carefully, Simeon gave Bella a small nod as he started reading, cautiously keeping the fragile pieces away from his soaking clothes as her wand continued to blow hot air in his direction. His small dark eyes scanned over the pages, taking in every single image that Bella's mind had conjured by words, drinking them in like sweet elf-made wine. Little scribbled drawings in the corners and edges of the page danced, becoming alive on the page as if she had photographed the image in pencil film. It could have been a list of people's phone numbers and advertisements for all Simeon knew, but Bella made it seem like music to his ears.
"So, what do you think of it?" questioned Bella as Simeon reached the end of the last page and turned back to the beginning. "Any mistakes you can find?"
"Lovely," was the only word Simeon said, holding the pages back out to Bella.
"Really?" Bella cooed, a larger pearly smile spreading out from one ear to her other. "You really think it's good?"
Simeon nodded.
"Oh, thank you," exclaimed Bella, leaping from her seat and wrapping her arms around Simeon's shoulders tightly, not caring for the fact he was still damp and dripping rain water. "That is so sweet of you to say. It means so much to me that you like it."
His eyes widened as he felt Bella's little body press against his, her hands in his mass of drenched hair. Clenched tightly against the arms of the chair were his knuckles, too white in surprise to remove themselves from their place and hug the lovely writer back. There was barely a breath left in him to protest her outburst of happiness, and a section of his mind was grateful for it.
"Well hello," a voice Simeon had grown to loathe like a plague entered the area from the door. "Am I interrupting anything?"
"Oh, Seth," Bella chirped, jumping up to greet the travelling journalist as he set a fresh fragrant bouquet of pink and white lilies on the desk. "You wouldn't happen to have a spare set of clothes, would you? Poor Simeon got caught in this nasty weather and his are all wet, as you can see."
"I happen to have a bit to spare today," Seth nodded, placing his backpack down on the floor, starting to rummage through it for something for Simeon.
"It is fine," Simeon shook his head. "I vill dry. I vill be fine."
Pausing, his nose began to twitch, letting out a mighty sneeze just as he had finished his sentence. Without delay, he did it again, the strong smell of the flowers from Seth irritating his sensitive nostrils.
"Nonsense," protested Seth, pulling out an old green t-shirt and a pair of torn and ripped blue jeans from his sac as Simeon sniffled back another sneeze. "Sounds like you're already developing a slight cold, and we don't want that to further. Spring is almost here, the new working season is coming what with the possible hatchlings, and you don't want to start that off sick."
Tossing the garments towards Simeon, matched with a pair of white socks, Seth removed his wand from his pocket and pointed the tip towards the ceiling to conjure a curtain rod, dividing the small office space and sectioning a small corner of it off with a long navy drape.
"I assume you don't want us watching." Seth's head tilted towards the new partition, his eyes giggling along with Bella's chortle. "Put those on. Once you're in some dry clothes, you'll reduce your chances of a cold by a lot."
With a quiet groan, Simeon picked up the pieces that Seth had given him, disappearing behind the thick blue curtain to change his waterlogged shirt for a new clean and dry one. Vanishing from sight of Bella and Seth, it was as though he was no longer there as Seth began to flip through the latest chapter on Antipodean Opaleyes and make suggestions to an interested researcher.
- - -
"Shame about the weather," Justin Arbor commented, staring vacantly out the lounge window into the misty grey rain. "First the ground is covered in snow and now the rain. We'll have to schedule a Quidditch game once it clears. I've been waiting for months for a go at the goal."
Mockingly throwing a Quaffle out the window, Justin let out a sigh of longing before flopping onto the couch in front of the television set. Turning his head to the glowing box of colour, thoughts diverted from one sport to another, the Chicago Black Hawks in an intense hockey match against the Calgary Flames.
"It has been a while since we've played Quidditch here," Constantine picked up the abandoned conversation from a nearby table where he and Zuberi were concentrating on building a tower made entirely of wizard cards. "I don't know if my double eight loop is what it used to be."
"As long as we have a good Seeker, that doesn't matter," stated Zuberi, barely looking up from his gentle placement of the next tier to the growing card building. "Isn't that right, Charlie?"
Charlie didn't respond, leaning against the closest wall with a magazine in his hand. Flipping the page and continuing to gaze his eyes upon the words he read, Constantine pulled his cherry wood wand. Pointing the tip towards Charlie, a loud slap hit the dragon keeper on the cheek, making him drop his reading material and look sharply at his two companions.
"What's the idea?" questioned Charlie, eying Constantine and his wand as he leaned over and picked up the magazine.
"What's so interesting that you completely ignore talk of the best sport ever, Quidditch?" Constantine rebuked, slamming his fist against the table, causing the card tower to shudder to Zuberi's dismay.
"The Zonko's Catalogue," Charlie answered, showing his Greek co-worker the bright zany moving cover of what he had been flipping through. "I'm trying to decide what to send my twin brothers for their birthday. It's only two weeks away."
"Just go with the classic," shrugged Constantine, leaning back in his chair with his arms folded. "Dungbombs. It always does the trick for my nephews. Anything that annoys their parents or teachers is a good one."
"That's what everyone gets them every year," Charlie shook his head, trying to find the page he had been browsing before he had been interrupted. "Mind you, they use them enough."
"There you go," nodded Constantine, giving Charlie an as-a-matter-of-fact smile as he plopped his feet on top of the card table, his heavy boot ramming through the base of the card tower, making the entire thing collapse and burst into flying golden sparks. Zuberi buried his face in his hands, past words to yell at Constantine with as he clenched his fist at his roommate.
"Best order those now then, owl post taking forever and all" Charlie excused himself from the room, leaving the two before anything could happen.
Scurrying out of the lounge, Charlie breathed a sigh of relief as he shut the door behind him, feeling as though he had escaped something particularly brutal. Briskly, he made his way towards Herb's office nearby, hoping to borrow a quill and some ink to write out the order form. With his finger marking the page for Dungbomb orders, he raised his closed hand to the door, ready to knock, when it opened itself to reveal a pretty pale face.
"Why, hello Charlie," Giselle Leblanc greeted him with surprise, letting out a small girlish giggle as she opened the door fully.
"Giselle," replied Charlie, his eyes scanning the office for its regular occupant, purposely trying to keep his field of vision away from the scantily clothed niece of his boss, whom in spite of the rainy weather wore a cropped purple shirt that showed off her bellybutton and a tight fitting skirt to match.
"We really must stop meeting like this or I'll have to tell my uncle you're stalking me," she teased, running her fingers through her blonde mane playfully. "Really, these past few weeks, it seems I can't get away from you. Every time I step out of the office, there you are. How do you explain this odd, yet fascinating, phenomenon?"
"Would you believe in a lot of coincidences?" Charlie joked back, forcing a small laugh as Giselle watched him through her piercing cerulean coloured eyes. "Could I borrow a quill and some ink for a moment?"
"Well, I was about to go on a coffee break, but all right," she said, moving towards the desk where Herb normally sat, giving Charlie enough room to finally enter.
Looking curiously at the desk in front of her, Giselle's fingers slid under the handle and pulled on the first drawer, her eyes scanning it for a quill and ink. Not finding it she moved onto the next, and the next. The only sound in the office was the sound of opening and slamming desk drawers, and then those belonging to the filing cabinet as she searched for the items Charlie sought.
"Where oh where did Uncle Herb put them?" she laughed, giving Charlie a quick eyelash bat before turning back to her search. "I swear, he needs keep things a bit more organised in here."
"Normally he keeps them in the same spot all the time," Charlie pointed out, taking a seat at Herb's desk and opening the very top drawer on his left, where many brightly coloured quills and varied coloured inks rested neatly atop batches of parchment paper. "Right here."
"Oh." Giselle twirled a strand of hair in her fingers, a small flush of pink rising into her cheeks behind the layer of foundation as she stood behind Charlie, putting her hands on his shoulders. "Silly me. I'm always forgetting those sorts of things."
"That's all right," excused Charlie, taking out a red quill along with some plain black ink, unscrewing the cap to the bottle. "It happens."
Feeling a squeeze on his shoulders, Giselle's delicate fingers began to knead at his flesh, her thumbs pushing into the tender area just below his neck and around his spine. He shuddered in surprise just as his quill dipped into the black inkbottle, nearly spilling the ink all over the desk to Giselle's amusement as she giggled lightly. Taking a deep breath, he pretended he didn't feel her touch as he began to fill out the order form for two sets of Deluxe Dungbombs. Continuing to write out the information, it became harder to ignore, the push of her fingers becoming stronger as he sat still. A part of his mind was telling him to just tell her to stop it, that it felt a bit strange considering they worked together, but the politer side of him thought against it.
"You're very tense, Charlie," Giselle declared, running her manicured nail down his neck very gently. "I can feel it in your shoulders."
"I'm sure it's nothing," Charlie brushed the thought aside, feeling Giselle's hands travel down his chest and wrap around him, making him cringe from the inside.
"You need to relax a bit," Giselle suggested sweetly, removing her arms around Charlie as he stood up, rolling up the order forms and tying them with a bit of string from Herb's desk drawer. "Perhaps a strong cup of coffee would do the trick? Care to join me for some?"
"Best not," replied Charlie, turning around to face the blue-eyed office worker, patting down the rolled up parchment. "I've got to get these to the owlery. Right now."
"Oh," sighed Giselle, disappointment crossing her face as her eyes looked away from Charlie's, not wanting to meet them head on. "Then maybe we could meet for lunch instead?"
Charlie shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I have to take a lunch up to Abby. If I don't, she doesn't eat, so I don't really eat in the mess hall mid-day."
The blue eyes of Giselle blinked a few times, before she shook her head and smiled towards Charlie. "Don't apologise. She is your friend, after all, and that dreadfully thin little thing needs to eat. Perhaps another time we can have a cup of coffee together."
"Sure," Charlie responded without thinking, feeling guilty about having to take a rain check with the only niece of his boss when she was trying to be so nice, massaging his back merely because she thought he was tense. "We'll do that some time soon."
Waving goodbye, Charlie disappeared up the stairs, bounding up the stairs in leaps towards the owlery as he pulled a hood over his head. Giselle watched as he vanished around the corner and out of sight as she leaned against the doorframe. A few dragon keepers walked by, saying hello as they passed her, but her gaze didn't remove itself from the direction Charlie had left in.
"We'll do that some time soon," she repeated Charlie's words quietly to herself, pushing her body off of the doorframe. "You can count on that, Charlie. I do enjoy a challenge."
With a grin, she strutted back into the office. Glancing at her nails, her thoughts turned to filing and the emery board sitting in her purse just waiting to be used.
- - -
The fogged windows of the infirmary were hard to see anything from, but Abby didn't need to look out to know it was raining. The pattering against the glass was enough to inform her of the weather, raging and endless, which had prompted her to put on a kettle for a hot pot of green tea to warm her from the inside out. Whenever rain fell when she had lived in the United Kingdom, it had always seemed tradition to have a cup of tea, just as a source of comfort from the uncontrolled climate.
Hearing the steel teapot whistle from over her burning blue fire, she carefully manoeuvred her wand to lift it from the heat source, placing it over a porcelain holder before placing fresh tea leaves in. She let it steep only for a moment, and then poured herself a cup while it was still piping hot.
Even Muggle health specialists knew of green tea's medicinal benefits, though no one had truly explained how it was so. It was a fairly recent find of wizard kind as well, the health benefits being due to the Japanese water demon, the Kappa. Every time the scaled monkey Kappa spilt the littlest drop of water from its hollow bucket head, a bit of the creature's strength went with it. Such potency of the liquid was breeding ground for the beneficial tea plant, being medically helpful and calming as well as delicious on the tongue.
Abby smelt the intoxicating drink as it warmed her hands through the edges of the handle-free cup. Letting the steam rise and glaze her chin, it was as if she could already taste the sweet liquid coursing over her tongue and sliding down her throat and into her stomach. Bringing the brim of the cup to her lips she sipped only a small amount, not wanting to burn her mouth, just enough to heat every inch of herself without having to put on her jacket.
"Perfect," she sighed blissfully, her eyelids falling a little bit as she felt the warm sensation travel to her toes.
Taking in the moment of complete serenity, her mind drifted into thoughts far from the infirmary, raging rain and unwanted owls. It felt as though she floated, as light as a leaf caught in an autumn breeze dancing on white clouds. Closing her eyes, she could see sunlight that had not yet shown its head that day, imagining it in her head. A pair of brown eyes came into her brain, staring straight at her green ones before a loud bang of the infirmary door against the wall cut off her thoughts and made her open her eyes in reality.
"Giselle," Abby exclaimed at seeing Herb's niece walking towards her in violet coloured heels. "What brings you here?"
The office worker cringed slightly, jutting out her lower lip a little as she raised her left index finger for Abby to see. "Paper cut."
"Oh, those can be painful," sympathised Abby, tightening her lips as she glanced at the thin red slit in Giselle's finger, "but it's also easily mended. Take a seat and I'll get the disinfectant solution."
"Thank you!" Giselle took a seat on top of the clean white bed closest to her, crossing her legs and resting her chin in her left palm, keeping her injured finger out so not to cause herself more pain than necessary. She watched as Abby headed over to a cabinet, beginning to rustle through her potion supplies, checking every label as she searched for something to clean the cut.
"So, how's the office?" Abby asked, making small conversation as she read the label of a thick green coloured potion, taking a whiff to realise it wasn't what she sought.
"Bit lonely, naturally," answered Giselle with a little sigh. "It is just Uncle Herb and myself all day long in that little office. Of course, we get visitors and helpers coming in sometimes, but on the whole it's a very isolated job."
"I know the feeling," nodded Abby, uncorking a purple solution from her cabinet and walking over to the nearest table to Giselle's spot. "There are days that I'm here completely alone."
"Except for lunch," Giselle pointed out cleverly, raising her eyebrows slightly in Abby's direction. "Charlie always comes to bring you lunch, doesn't he?"
Abby paused. Turning her head slowly over her shoulder, she met Giselle's engrossed blue eyes, waiting for an answer from the Healer. "Well, yes."
"He seems like a nice friend," commented Giselle as she flipped her hair over her shoulder, "doing that for you and all."
"Oh, he is," Abby agreed right away with no hesitation, turning her attention back to the potion flask as she conjured a long white cotton swab from her wand. "We go quite far back, all the way to Hogwarts in fact."
"Really?" Giselle said, patiently waiting as Abby dipped the swab into the bottle of cleaning solution, soaking it until it had become a light lilac when she withdrew it. "How...sweet. He really is a catch for any girl who would want him."
The swab in Abby's hand fell back into the potion bottle, though she barely realised it as her wide-eyed attention went to Giselle, who raised her mocking eyebrows a little higher. Diverting her green eyes away, she quickly busied herself with fishing the cotton swab from the bottle, avoiding the interrogating look in the office worker's pupils.
"He'll make someone very happy one day," she concurred without looking to Giselle as she pressed the end of the swab against the glass of the flask, managing to worm it out of the solution and press it against the brim to let the excess trickle back in.
"I know," grinned Giselle, batting her eyelashes sweetly as she tilted her head slightly to the left.
"Now, this may sting a bit," warned Abby, finally approaching Giselle with the soaked cotton swab in one hand while using the other to hold her patient's wrist steady and still as she sat on the bed next to her.
Sticking out her wounded finger, she barely flinched as the purple potion seeped into the cut and cleaned it of any dirt or bacterium. Taking great care, Abby made sure to coat the minor injury well, but by the smile Giselle bore seemed to suggest she couldn't feel a thing.
"Do you know if he's interested in anyone or seeing anyone currently?" Giselle asked as Abby removed the cotton swab from her wound.
"Excuse me?" blinked Abby, not following along with what her patient was speaking of so suddenly.
"Charlie," laughed Giselle heartily. "Do you know if Charlie is interested in or seeing someone?"
The Healer coughed a bit, clearing her throat as she shook her head. "No." She grasped her wand in her hand, pointing it towards Giselle's cut finger to mend the skin. "No, I don't know."
"You know, when I first met you and saw the way he looked at you so caringly, I was under the impression you two were an item," confessed the office worker as she watched her red injury become flesh again, waiting for a reaction from the person mending her finger.
"No," Abby responded right away, not removing her green gaze away from her work as the small paper cut became completely sealed. Releasing her light grip from Giselle's wrist, she met the blue eyes of her patient and brushed away her stray strands of brown hair. "We're the best of friends."
"I see that," Giselle nodded with an understanding smile. She put her hand on Abby's, giving it a tight reassuring squeeze. "You just don't have that intention for him. By what I know of you, you'd never risk a friendship for romance. He means that much that you wouldn't want to ruin anything you already have."
No words came from Abby, only a nod as she took a deep breath. Looking down at her left hand, Giselle's hand atop it, there was nothing to be said on her part.
"You know, I think that's smart of you," Giselle added in, patting Abby's hand softly. "I really think it's wise to keep friendship rather than put it on the line by adding in passion. I've known too many people who have ruined a good camaraderie because they thought they could be more."
"I'm really not searching for romance now anyway," admitted Abby at last, removing her hand from beneath Giselle's as she stood up. Walking back to the uncorked potion, she quickly closed it up tightly, pushing down on the cork with the brute force of her single thumb.
"Really?" Herb's niece rose from the bed, smoothing out her skirt as Abby turned to face her with the shut potion flask.
"Just not my time," Abby shook her head, her right hand unconsciously glazing over her bare ring finger.
Giselle nodded politely and began to walk backwards in her heels, towards the door leaving the clean infirmary. "Well, thank you for that mend. I'd best be off, plenty to do today."
"No problem," replied Abby, shaking herself awake to wave goodbye from where she stood at the bedside. "Have a good day."
With a small click, the infirmary door closed behind the grinning Giselle, the quiet returning to the room with only the sound of beating rain once again. Setting the bottle of cleaning solution back into the cabinet, Abby picked up her cup of green tea, feeling the mug had gone cold. Sighing quietly, she vanished the frigid drink and poured a new steaming cup. Bringing it to her lips, she let the liquid dump down her throat in one long gulp, draining the cup of tea. The heat spread quickly, warming her up from the pit of her stomach outward, but the sensation of worry-free floating didn't return. There was no comfort at the bottom of the mug.
The door to the infirmary opened again, three people walking in as Abby focused on who had come to see her. Two of them were Seth and Bella, walking on either side of another man wearing a green shirt and light blue jeans, whom she couldn't put a name to as they approached her.
"Abby," greeted Bella as she tucked her loose curls behind her ear, "thank goodness you're here."
"What's the matter?" the Healer asked, setting her empty cup of tea down.
"Simeon got caught in the rain earlier," explained Seth, putting his hand on the shoulder of the man in the green shirt, catching Abby by surprise at seeing the Bulgarian dragon keeper in a colour other than black. "I gave him a change of clothes, but judging by the sneezing fit he had in the office, we thought it was best to bring him down to you."
"Okay," Abby nodded, gesturing for Simeon to have a seat on the nearest bed.
"You'll soon be better, Simeon," Bella assured, sitting next to Simeon and holding his hand tightly with one hand as the other brushed his long dark bangs aside. "You just take care of this cold and it'll be gone in no time at all."
"Come on, Bella," Seth tilted his head to gesture towards the door. "We'd better leave Simeon to recover and Abby to work her magic."
"Shouldn't we stay with him?" questioned Bella, her eyes darting from Seth to Abby and back for an answer.
"Well, you don't want to catch his cold," Seth reasoned logically, putting his hand on her shoulder gently. "It can be contagious until treated properly. And we don't want to distract Abby from her work. It's best if we leave for the time being. We can always come back a bit later, if that's all right?"
Abby nodded as Bella's pleading stare bore into her. Torn between the hand in her own and the hand on her shoulder, she released Simeon's, beginning to follow Seth out the door.
"We'll be back to see you," she said quietly. "You get better."
"Rest up, Simeon," Seth added with a nod of his head before he and Bella disappeared through the door.
Unmoving from his place on the bed, Simeon remained unflinching, letting his clumpy dry bangs fall over his dark eyes again. Approaching carefully, Abby felt his forehead for a temperature, nodding at its normalcy. Observing his nose, it wasn't red or runny, nor was his throat inflamed as she gave his mouth a quick peek. Looking Simeon up and down in the quickest scan, there was nothing wrong with his physical health. It was his eyes that told a different story, one that Abby was quite familiar with and understood without expression.
"You know, I don't think it's too serious," she confessed honestly with a weak smile, "but I would prescribe a cup of tea."
Moving towards her steel kettle, she quickly took another handle-free cup from a cabinet and poured another cup of hot tea. Steam rose gradually as she glided over to Simeon, holding it out to him. Slowly, his hand wrapped around it, holding the warm mug as he nodded gratefully.
"Thank you, Miss Ridges," he whispered, silently toasting before he took a sip.
"No problem," she replied, taking a seat across from him.
The two sat in silence as the rain pounded against the infirmary windows, further word exchange seeming unnecessary between them.
A/N: If anyone has doubt of where Simeon's affections lie, read this chapter VERY carefully. wink wink
And supposedly green tea is good for you, but...it doesn't actually occur because of Kappas in the canon. That's just me being imaginative off tangent. But green tea is very nice.
Not much else to note. Hope you're enjoying yourself.