I bet Eli forces Nico and Josef to have tea parties
and while Josef hates them, he knows the proper etiquette since he is a prince and gets annoyed when the other 2 do something inproperly
Okay okay, so we have leeway, because its the opposite.
Josef sucks at being a prince, it was completely surprising to his closest companions that he grew up in a palace. Literally the only mention before that hinted at him being noble is him having "tutors" who first taught him swordfighting. And like after he mentions in an internal pov that he broke the habit of sleeping in late when he ran away.
But like he sucks in every way at being a prince, hence he ran away. I will come back to this because the man doesn't drink, and I don't think he'd enjoy coffee, so tea is like the obvious choice in beverage then right.
Eli is basically a Disney princess, he was raised in a tower by what is technically a government official (Banage was a Tower Keeper back then, and while the Spirit Court isn't apart of the government he's pretty fucking close that's what Tower Keepers are they are the go between for the spirits and humans for a designated region. They are legal representatives), ran away, got kidnapped and groomed by an evil nature lady, ran away and got adopted by a rogue who taught him how to steal. There's probably a fairy tail out there with that premise and we haven't even gotten to the talking to trees thing.
Now we know two things.
Banage and Miranda have a tradition of having breakfast together in the garden
And Giuseppe is fancy as fuck.
So Eli is the one who knows the etiquette and is good at it.
Now, Eli talks with his mouth full and puts his elbows on the table in canon. The three of them are lax on manners, they are rogues they are allowed.
But see, while Eli doesn't care for manners and the proper way of doing things, man loves annoying the shit out of Josef.
So they have tea, proper tea with cups and a pot of it, Eli is going to take the piss out of it. He's going to criticize everything Josef does, he's gonna act like he's better then him by being proper, he's going to comment on everything. And Josef is going to take it because he doesn't care and knows Eli is just being hilarious.
Now Nico, we know she ain't got any past with tea, doesn't mean she doesn't have manners. A lack of previous memory doesn't mean anything for this, and we don't got much in canon to say she's a proper tea drinker or not. But we know she doesn't like it when Eli teases her, but is often entertained when Eli teases Josef.
So we can fucking assume that if they are having tea together she's gonna make sure she isn't a target, and if she is, it's because she's doing everything right. At least as far as Eli has chastised Josef for.
And that just adds to Eli's game. Cus Eli can call Josef an animal for getting crumbs on the table, and watch Nico quietly brush the crumbs off her side of the table, and point at her and go "see Josef? Nico understands cleanliness."
And that's entertainment for the two of them, while Josef gets to watch them laugh at his expense. Which he tends to be okay with.
Josef does get to have fun too, don't worry. He'd shove food into Eli's mouth to shut him up, and then tell him it's impolite to talk with his mouth full.
Who gets the last treat? Nico.
It's always going to be Nico. Eli and Josef could wrestle for it but it's going to be Nico who gets it in every scenario. Why? She deserves it. But also that one Daggerback scene in Spirit Thief sits in my mind at all times. Nico wins, Eli and Josef are distracted, both are alright with her winning.
But in this specific thinky thought she takes the last cookie or whatever and Eli notices it's missing while it's still in her hand and is like "who took the last-" turns and sees Nico shove it into her mouth as fast as she can, and screeches "THIEF!" while Nico tries not to choke on her prize.
And just blatantly adding onto this post, I think Nico is a black tea with cream and sugar type or person.
Josef likes herbal like ginger or something, but will drink anything.
Eli will drink anything but enjoys sweat ice tea in the afternoon.
And adding Miranda she's a fruit tea without sugar kind of person I think.
And Eli is really good at biscuit chicken, where you dunk your tea cookie and then eat it without it crumbling apart, Nico is not as good at it, can't get the timing right. Josef doesn't see the point of the game, I don't see him as a tea dunker.













