Li Hua found his awkward head scratching adorable. He reminded her of a child who was caught in a white lie and now that he was exposed to the obvious truth, the only thing he had left to get himself out of the situation is being cute and awkward. If she knew him a bit better, she’d have laughed but since it was merely an hour since she had met the professor, Li Hua kept her amused reactions to herself. The clipped leaves of mint and lavender were soon placed on a wooden table and reached up to get a tea kettle.
The half-sphere greenhouse was a huge place and here, at the back behind the mints and jasmines, there was a big, round wooden table with four chairs and two shelves above it; one shelf held two tea kettles and some jars filled with unknown herbs and the second shelf held several mugs and glasses. “I really do like this place. I can even prepare teas or ice tea without any trouble. So, don’t worry. Yours will be done in a second.” She said. Upon the mention of Jasmine, the Nagini quickly turned around “You like jasmine? Well, you could have said so before. We happen to have really nice jasmine here.” She grinned and walked over to clip some leaves of her favourite plant.
“Mixing these can be a trouble but the end result is delicious, you’ll see.” The Nagini said, fully focused in preparing the beverage. She was so lost in thoughts about the herbs that she forgot about the professor’s presence and started to release stifled rattling sounds. It was a normal reaction for a snake like her - once something was enjoyable, she showed it in this manner. Being alone half of the time at the greenhouse sort of made her forget there could be others close to her. Once the tea was prepared, some fifteen minutes later, she turned to the professor and smiled. “Voila! Do you want to drink it here or should I pour it in a thermos bottle?”
“Really? I’d appreciate it, you’d be surprised how many pains you can have that it’s not worth a pain killer addiction to fix. Tea have been my best friend since I graduated” he explained following here to the small comfortable area she had obviously made out for herself to relax in her work space. It was quaint and charming, and had Fred not been too in love with the glow of computers and his dark dank workshop in the school’s underground, he may have been more tempted to spend time here - but he loved his work too much to do more than pop in every now and then.
“I’ll have a cup with you now, but the rest would do me better if I can take it with me” he gestured over his shoulder towards the school to indicate that he had lots of work to do still - it wasn’t a lie - but he wasn’t so disrespectful that he wouldn’t sit with her for at least one cup. It was lonely being new here and he wanted her to feel properly welcomed in this overwhelming school.
It had taken some time for her to be ready and in that time he had gotten himself comfortable and sat simply smelling the fresh greenery, it had been a long time since he had smelled anything quite this fresh since leaving his Mother’s house and it definitely smelled better than the dungeons where he spent all of his time outside of classes. There was definitely fresh air here.
“I can tell you love your work, you were so focused just now” he chuckled, pointing out how he didn’t think it was possible to spend fifteen minutes on just a cup of tea. He was the type of guy to get vending machine coffee for convenience, so fifteen minutes seemed excessive, but it was something to behold when watching. He wouldn’t ever do that for himself that’s for sure.
