Tea and Tension || Alice and Remus
@swearwolfremus
Alice could have gone home after work, but that would have meant facing Frank and she couldn’t do that right now -- not with her nerves singing the way they were. He would be able to tell and, worse, he would want to help. To reassure her, to make her feel better, to offer comfort. And if he did that, she might scream.
Not wanting to scream at her new husband for things that weren’t his fault, Alice had instead elected to swing by Headquarters for the Order on her way home; perhaps there would be something there that needed doing and at the least, she could feel perfectly justified in getting home late with that excuse even if all she ended up doing was drinking tea in the back room by herself.
A cup of tea was probably exactly what she needed just now, in fact. Alice hung her cloak on the crowded rack of hooks inside the front door (never an indication of how many of her fellow members were in the building; they kept so many spare cloaks hanging there just in case someone needed to grab one that it was always crowded even when the place was empty), kicked slush off her boots, and strode quickly down the chilly hallway to the study. It was a good place for making a cup of tea, with lots of old chairs and a fireplace large enough for floo travel. (The kitchen would never do; Alice could hardly bring herself to set foot in a kitchen, knowing as she did that no respectable witch would ever be caught dead in a proper house’s kitchen which was the undisputed domain of the elves!) She wasn’t the only one to think so, which was why said fireplace held the permanent addition of a kettle with a wire rack to swing it in over the flames.
Alice was halfway across the room before she realized that it wasn’t empty; when she saw who else was in there, she stopped dead. Her eyes went wide and her shoulders tensed, making her bad arm twinge, as she stared at Remus Lupin -- the werewolf -- bent over the kettle. If she had only crept inside quietly, she might have turned and slipped out again with him none the wiser, but Alice was sure that he had heard her arrive; if she wanted to leave she would need an excuse, and what excuse could she offer? Less than a year ago the two of them had been cheerfully trading tea tips and preferences, comparing favorite blends and arguing over appropriate flavorings. Less than a year ago, Alice would have been delighted to join him for a cuppa, finding Remus to be surprisingly adept and well-schooled in the art of drinking tea properly. Less than a year ago, she had thought he was human. Now...
Now she plastered a smile onto her face, took a deep breath, and said in a hearty voice, designed to hide her discomfort, “You wouldn’t happen to have enough water in there for two, would you?” Part of her hoped he would say no; part of her hoped he wouldn’t.
Even sharing tea with an animal seemed preferable to going home right now...marginally.