Midnight Manor Private Residence, Saturday Morning

[pocketpretzels]

The heating pad had helped a great deal to soothe the ache in his arm, though at some point during the night Watts still found himself awake and restless. He scribbled a quick note for Steven and headed downstairs to make himself a cup of tea.

Fandom being Fandom, he never made it back upstairs, and thus come Saturday morning there was a tiny Llewellyn Watts fast asleep on the library couch, one arm slung over an equally fast asleep Raphael, who was laid out next to him.

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[hasaknightjob]

"Right, here we go then. On three?" Steven said. He put his hands under Llewellyn's arms. "One, two, three - up!"

With that Steven lifted Llewellyn so he could sit on one of the stools. Luckily even Steven could handle the weight of a child.

[pocketpretzels]

Even more luckily, Llewellyn was a pretty small child for his age. "Thank you!" he chirped as he settled in to the seat.

[hasaknightjob]

"Well done," Steven said. "Now how would you like your orange? Sections or slices?"

[pocketpretzels]

"What's the diff'rence?"

[hasaknightjob]

Steven gestured with his hands to help demonstrate. "Sections is how they come naturally. You take the peel off and pull them apart in chunks. Slicing is when we cut them up. So they are thinner, but the peel stays on and is a sort of handle to hold while you eat the inside."

[pocketpretzels]

"Oh," Llewellyn thought about. "Slices."

[hasaknightjob]

"Slices it shall be," Steven said. He then got busy with getting the kettle on for tea, preparing the teacups for the both of them, and then getting oranges. When the time came to cut the oranges, Steven held the knife to indicate thickness. "Now would you like this or thinner?"

[pocketpretzels]

"What d'you like?" Llewellyn asked.

[hasaknightjob]

"Depends on what I'm in the mood for," Steven said. "Sometimes I like a good bite into a piece of fruit. Other times I enjoy getting the juice more. I think today I'd like more juice, so that would be thinner."

[pocketpretzels]

"Then that's how I want it too!" Llewellyn declared. Maybe he'd try bigger pieces with his second orange.

[hasaknightjob]

"Thin for us both then," Steven said. He gave no indication he suspected Llewellyn picked that because it was what Steven was having. Instead he cut thin slices of orange for them both, then put them on plates for the two of them. "Here we are then. Ah! And there's the kettle. I'll fix our tea."

[pocketpretzels]

Of course that wasn't why Llewellyn picked that! It was total coincidence, really. His hand reached out to snatch one of the slices and his eyes went wide as he put it in his mouth, surprised by how juicy and tasty it was.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven caught the speed and smiled. "It's all right. Those are yours. Eat them as you like."

[pocketpretzels]

Llewellyn made sure to get every last little bit of orange off the peel, which he set aside carefully before taking his next slice and eating it much, much more slowly.

[hasaknightjob]

"There's a good lad," Steven said. He ate one of his orange slices before finishing getting the tea ready. Llewellyn's cup was weak with a great deal of milk - regular milk, thanks to Marc's supply. "Here you are. Careful, might still be hot."

[pocketpretzels]

"I saw you put milk in," Llewellyn said. "From the icebox- the frigerator."

[hasaknightjob]

"That's correct," Steven said with a smile. "Do you think that helped it be cooler?"

[pocketpretzels]

"Yes, 'cause things is real cold in there," Llewellyn pointed out. "'Cause of the magic."

Well. In a roundabout way, anyway, at least in this house in particular.

[hasaknightjob]

"That's right," Steven said, giving him an encouraging smile. "It does help the tea be cooler. But I don't want you to burn yourself accidentally, so take a careful sip to be sure it's cool enough for you to feel comfortable drinking, all right?"

[pocketpretzels]

Llewellyn made a show of blowing over the top of the mug before taking a sip. "Not too hot," he reported.

[hasaknightjob]

"Excellent. It's always good to check," Steven said. He did the same to his own cup of tea to show that even adults needed to be careful. "Not too hot for me either."

[pocketpretzels]

"How come you didn't put the same in yours?" Llewellyn asked.

[hasaknightjob]

"I like a different kind of milk," Steven explained. He got the carton to show Llewellyn. "See? Mine is made of oats."

[pocketpretzels]

"How do you get milk from oats?" Llewellyn demanded.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven knew the answer, but he liked encouraging imagination. So he first asked, "How do you think? If you were going to do it? Perhaps ask the oats nicely?"