----------------------------------------------
THE BOUQUET ESTATE - MIDNIGHT
----------------------------------------------
Narrator: After a pleasant, purring sleep, induced by the draining nature of the day's work, Teis wakes up, finding herself still curled up beside Enver with her head on his chest. 'Huh? Oooh. . .Right.' Teis thinks to herself, initially taken off-guard by the Mongoose. She quietly slinks herself out of bed, being as light and careful as possible not to disturb Enver. Once she's out of bed, she stretches, yawning silently. She realises now that she'd been so tired that she'd fallen asleep in her lab attire. Probably time to change? Yeah. Time to change. But. . .Enver's in the room. Hm. Nah. He's asleep. It's fine. Teis walks over to her wardrobes, starting to strip herself down with the aim of changing into her casual dress.
Enver makes a bit of noise as Teis gets up and soon after adjust his position to make up for the lack of cat against him, but he's still soundly asleep, at least for the moment.
Narrator: Success! Teis gets away with changing. With a bit more of a stretch, Teis figures what to do with her evening, at least until Enver wakes up. She can't imagine Della taking kindly to simply leaving Enver in her room while she goes off to do something else. With that in mind, Teis shuffles over to her desk and plucks her textbook up from it. Quietly, she slinks over to her balcony, opening the glass door. Once out there, she settles down and clicks her fingers, creating a small, softly glowing light source, pinched between her pointer and thumb. She taps it against a button on her top, imbuing it with it's soft glow to aid in comfortable reading.
Enver wakes up a little while later, finding the room dark and himself alone on Teis's bed. He sits up, bleary eyed, taking a moment to get his bearings before remembering where he is. "Teis?" he calls out quietly before noticing the soft glow coming from the balcony. After fumbling in the dimness for his shoe and putting them on again, he stands up and moves over to the door to the balcony, peeking out. "Ah, there you are..."
Teis' ears flick when she hears the door behind her open, accompanied by Enver's voice shortly thereafter. She lowers her textbook, keeping the page open, turning to Enver, voicing "Hmm?" as she does so. "Oh. Good. . .Uh, evening, I guess." Teis smiles. "You didn't interrupt my cat-nap after all."
Enver steps out onto the balcony and leans on the railing. He gives a little nervous laugh, hoping that the dim light will hide his embarassment. "Yeah, well I might have laid there kind of petrified after you fell asleep, not wanting to disturb you... for like, a couple of hours... I think? I assume the clocks in your hall are accurate anyway. It was more than couple of chimes before I managed to fall asleep too."
Teis' smile grows. "Aww. . .That's adorable. And I appreciate it. But. . ." Teis' smile returns to normal size. "I have to ask. . .Why agree to it if you knew you'd just be laying there? How. . .Did you even? I mean, I like a good laze, but. . .I'd go nuts if I just had to lay there, doing nothing."
Enver turns to look out over the balcony toward the lights of the town. "Well, I mean, that was mostly... in my head? You know? And a couple hours next to you is nothing compared to hiding away on a ship for a couple of months when I came here..."
Teis at this point decides to bookmark her page, placing it on the table nearby and dismisses the light on her button. "Hm. I suppose that would be good practice. . ." Teis replies. "What, ah. Do you mean by in your head though?"
Enver moves over to sit next to Teis. "Well, the worries were all up there. It's not like I literally made myself a statue or anything. Like, once you were asleep for a bit, I was able to get comortable. I just couldn't... sleep because of the worry." He shakes his head a bit. "This is all still weird to me, like... us... together."
Teis: "Well. . .So long as you're. . .You know. Fine, I suppose. Just, ah. It isn't exactly odd for me to sleep during the day and stay up at night. . ." Teis pauses. "And. . .Yeah. I know what you mean? I'm not exactly sure what 'together' means. Even still, early days, Enver."
Enver nods. "Yeah, I don't know much. I mean, you're the one with all the smarts." He looks down at his feet. "I'm just glad that you like having me around, I guess. You're fun to be with, on top of being really cute and smart and all that."
Teis blushes a little in embarrassment herself now. "Please. . .I'm not. . .Nearly as smart as you think. Still, it is kind of you to think that." Teis replies. This is. . .Weird for her. Normally, she yearns to be told she's smart. Why is it that she's deflecting the compliment now?
Enver reaches out and takes Teis's paw in his good hand, squeezing it softly. "Yes you are. You have that fancy lab and read school books for fun and like, you said your whole family is depending on you to invent stuff, right? If that's not being smart, then what is?"
Teis idly allows this, unsure of how to respond both physically and socially. "But. . .Those are just things you've observed, or you've been told. There are others out there who are in similar positions through no merit of their own. What makes me any different?"
Enver gives a bit of a shrug. "I don't know those people. I know you, at least a little. Maybe you're not the smartest person in the world, but you're still smart."
Narrator: Recalling what she'd learned previously, Teis attempts to turn the tables back on Enver, "And you're social, athletic, good with the children. . .Kind. . ."
Enver blushes but nods. "Yeah, I'm pretty good at those things. Not the best, but I try. So why don't you want to agree when I say that you're smart?"
Teis: "Because you're not the person I want to hear it from!" Teis blurts out in response, immediately regretting it. Her ears lower, her gaze shifts awkwardly to the ground, and she retracts her paw from Enver to defensively cross her arms, rubbing herself sheepishly.
Enver looks up at Teis, a bit shocked at the yelling. He doesn't move away from her though, but rather just looks down again as he processes. "Who then? Your family?"
Teis, with watering eyes, finds herself unable to verbally reply. Instead, she sheepishly nods twice.
Enver sets his jaw as his mind churns with bad thoughts and worse words for certain members of his own family. Rather than give them voice, though, he just reaches out to take Teis's hand in his and gives it a soft squeeze before letting it go. "I understand..."
Teis weakly reaches a hand out for Enver's offering hand, squeezing back, however she doesn't let go, though her grip is weak.
Enver squeezes the paw again and holds it steady in his hand. He leans his body against Teis's, enough to let her feel him there, but not enough to put any real pressure on her.
Teis pulls Enver in closer, dragging him down onto her chair ontop of her to hug him. She's evidentially not concerned about being crushed by the Mongoose. After several seconds however, Teis speaks, her voice strained "Uh. . .Maybe not. . .My smartest idea. . ." Teis attempts to push Enver off.
Enver hugs Teis, but quickly gets off when he realizes the nature of the problem. He then turns the situation around, pulling Teis into his lap and hugging her warmly. "Maybe not. Is this better?"
Teis complies, switching places with Enver. Despite watered eyes, Teis cheers up, giggling through the sadness. "Much." She weakly smiles. "I'm. . .Sorry. I. . .Didn't mean to. . ."
Enver shakes his head. "That's okay... I get it... but it sounds like you should talk to your sister about this stuff. I can be there for you if you want." He squeezes her a bit. "I mean, assuming it's her and not your dad or whatever."
Teis: Teis' eyes shoot open as she realises the implications of this. Panicked, Teis replies, "Ah! No. No! You cannot tell her. Absolutely not. She doesn't like it when I share family things, or things about her! Besides, I didn't say it was her! A-ha! Ha-ha! Ha!" Teis nervously chuckles, her breathing picking up to match her alarm.
Enver frowns. "No... I wouldn't tell her... I haven't even met her yet." He sighs a bit and gently pets the fur on her neck. "I'm here for you, not for her..."
Teis lets out a sigh of relief, quickly calming down, "Good, good. . ." She mutters, relaxing into Enver.
Enver squeezes Teis as he continues to pet the fur on her neck and the back of her head. "So... uh... what are you going to do tonight?"
Teis: "Usually at nights I tend to study so I can enjoy the night air. Leave the work for the daytime hours." Teis replies. "But. . .Hm. You're here. ." Teis hums in thought.
Enver blushes a bit. "Right. Uh... I can... uh.. let you do that... if you want to..." The little squeeze he gives to the cat shows that he doesn't want that, however.
Teis: "Well. . .Maybe for tonight I can make an exception, given what I did today. . ." Teis hums. "Della did tell me to take care of myself. Does this count? Hm. Not sure."
Enver laughs a bit. "Uh, yeah, I think so? You could also take a closer look at my new hand if you wanted, more uh... science-wise?"
Teis: "I could, yeah. We could also chat more about the stuff with the children, or any books you were interested in. . ." Teis suggests. "Not that I'm NOT excited about your hand. It's, just, ah. I figured your friend might be able to tell me more, so I figure there are better ways to spend our time together?"
Enver laughs a bit. "I guess you're right? Uh... not really sure what to talk about with that stuff. I kind of just do the stuff with the kids. I just try to keep them happy. I don't think about it too much."
Teis: "Well, I meant more, what kind of stuff you wanted me to. . .I guess do, in regards to that. If I'm able to make something to help, or like, contribute my magic to your performances in some way. Like, ah, give you a mystical smoke? Everybody likes smoke. Unless there's fire. But I could give you fire also." Teis jokes.
Enver laughs at that. "Oh, I haven't really thought much about that... I guess we could make some plans maybe, but like... maybe you could just talk to them and see what they'd like to see?"
Teis: "Wouldn't that ruin the surprise and the allure?" Teis questions. "And, ah. I'm not even sure how I would ask? Besides, I don't want to take away from what you do."
Enver: "Maybe? Like I said, I don't think about that stuff too much when I'm with the kids. I do a lot of stuff kind of... spur of the moment, you know?"
Teis: "You don't have like, routines? You're mostly improv?" Teis questions.
Enver blinks. "Oh, for the juggling and stuff, yeah... but with the kids, I mix in a lot of other stuff..."
Teis: "Hm. Well, that certainly makes it harder to. . .Plan things." Teis chuckles. "Look, ah. I know I said that I wanted to help you, but I'm. . .Ah, not a performer. I'm. . .Gonna need your help to um, help you."
Enver hugs Teis a bit closer. "Right... I mean, it's more that I've just never planned for it, not that I can't. I just want to have new stories for them each week, right?"
Teis purrs into Enver a little, rubbing the back of her head up and down against him a few times. "That's fair. Ah. Hm. Maybe I should come watch you some more, so I can get ideas, maybe. And you have a think also?"
Enver nods. "Sure... I'd like that. You can take notes or something?" He rubs his hands up and down her back. "So uh, do you have any favourite stories from when you were little? Stories that excited you?"
Teis: "I. . .Do have one story from when I was little. I would ask Mother to read it to me all the time, we didn't. . .Have any others." Teis begins. "It was about this group of puppies that would sneak out to play at night, and there was this one greedy puppy that would always steal their food before sneaking off with them. Eventually, though, they tricked the greedy puppy and left him without food for the day."
Enver ponders. "Ah... I know that story... yeah..." He smiles. "It's not a very happy story though, but we could work with it, make it into something more fun..."
Teis: "I mean, yeah. But I still liked it. . ." Teis replies. "But, ah. Make it more fun how? The nature of such stories about karma and selfishness. . ." Teis questions.
Enver nods a bit, thinking on this. "Maybe add some redemption through selflessness? Hard to say really..." He starts sketching out an idea for an altered version of the story, and the two spend more than a little while hashing out the details and thinking of ways for Teis to enhance the telling of it. Such talk makes time fly for the pair, the conversation going deep into the night until it gave way to pre-dawn.