Sarah and Yvette - Tea for Two (backdated to December 5)

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

Sarah drops by to visit her friend Yvette and possibly pick up some Christmas gift hints. Conversation gets... interesting.



It had been awhile since Sarah had caught up with her friend Yvette, other than saying hello when they saw each other in passing, so she figured there was no time like the present to stop by the other girl's room and see her. Christmas was also fast approaching and she had no idea what she should get Yvette, so she also had a hidden agenda of trying to secretly pick the other girl's brain for potential gift ideas.

Reaching her room, Sarah reached out and rapped on the door three times, waiting to see if her friend was home.

"Come in!" came Yvette's voice. She sounded cheerful, but a bit distracted, and when Sarah opened the door, it revealed the red spiky girl sitting with books and papers scattered around the coffee table. Still, she looked up and smiled as she saw Sarah. "Hi, Sarah!"

She did appear to be very busy indeed, books spread out all around her. Sarah smiled at her, waving a little as she entered the room. "Hey Yvette! How are you?" Looking around at all the papers and things surrounding the other girl, she realized maybe she was interrupting her. "This isn't a bad time to stop by, is it?"

"Of course not." Yvette stretched her arms above her head before getting up to greet her visitor. "Finals are soon, so I have been studying, but it is time I had the break. Would you like a drink? I can make some tea for us."

"Ooh, tea would be nice, yes please." Sarah's strategy when it came to finals was more of the 'try not to think about them' variety. She studied, of course, but when she wasn't studying she was doing her darndest not to think about them at all. Hanging out with one of her best friends and drinking tea certainly fell under that category. "How are you doing with it all?" It certainly looked like Yvette had been working hard at it.

"I think I am ready," replied Yvette as she moved to the kitchenette to put on the kettle and get out a couple of mugs. "I am possibly over-thinking things, but I want to do well. Especially since Professor Xavier is so kind as to cover my tuition fees and such."

Sarah wandered over to the kitchenette to help her friend. "Aww, you'll do just fine, I know it." Yvette was very much on the ball in her eyes, as evidenced by all the work she was doing now to prepare for her exams. "He's pretty good like that, totally." She'd feel the same way, once she finished high school and started post secondary, only it'd be her folks footing the bill.

"If it wasn't for the Professor, I would not have this chance. So I want to do well." Yvette sounded a little embarrassed. "I owe so many things to him and the school. Especially now my mother is gone."

If it weren't for the fact that they were both in the process of taking out mugs and prepping to make tea Sarah would have totally given her friend a hug. As it was, she gave her a sad smile and reached out to touch her hand. "You're making all of them proud, Yvette, I know that for a fact." She nodded, because Yvette was one hell of a person indeed. Not to linger on mushy sentimentality, she turned to one of the cupboards. "Hmm, what kind of tea do you have here? What's your favourite, Yvette?" That could be a potential gift idea for the girl, come to think of it.

"I have this type called mountain tea. It is very good for the immune system and very popular in my home country," Yvette explained. "It might not be to your taste, but I can add some honey?"

"Ooh, mountain tea, that sounds cool. Kinda exotic or something." Sarah made a note of that and tucked the idea away for future gift shopping purposes. She grinned at the question, nodding and joking with Yvette. "That sounds like a great idea, sugar!"

Yvette blinked at her for a moment and then burst into merry laughter. "Oh, I see what you are doing there," she replied, still giggling. "Very sneaky!" She reached past Sarah and took down the box of mountain tea, which she had brought back with her from Albania on her last visit. "Let me know if you like this, and perhaps I can get you some next time?" she suggested. "I am yet to find it in New York, but they tell me New York has everything, yes?"

Sarah laughed along with her friend, nodding as she did so. "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. And I will, I'm sure it'll be just delicious!" She moved out of the way so Yvette could take down the box of tea. "Oh yeah, if you know where to look and you look long enough I'm pretty sure you could find just about anything there."

"And if I cannot, there is always the internet, yes?" Yvette opened the box, using only the tips of her long fingers, and fished out two teabags that seemed to be filled with dried plant stems and leaves. "What about you, Sarah, what have you been doing? I saw you had a good time with your family for Thanksgiving."

"Exactly, you can find anything on there." She grinned, that was another avenue she could explore herself as well. Sarah watched her friend as she prepared the tea, looking down in her own mug at the teabag once it was inside and sniffing it. It smelled pretty good, different than anything else she'd had before. "Mmmhmm, I did, thanks. It was nice and relaxing, and I still got to chat with people a bit online, like Layla. Jessie was a bit of a pain though, she made Layla think... well, she confused Layla, I think."

"I hear siblings can be like that. How did she confuse Layla?" Yvette asked, making conversation and completely unaware of the potential minefield of the conversation.

"Oh yeah, they can be." Sarah rolled her eyes, then tried to think of how to explain what had happened. It had been weird enough to experience and to talk to Layla about but it was another thing altogether to try and tell someone else. "Um, well. Layla and I were talking online and Jessie hopped on while I went afk for a bit. And she just... I dunno." She shrugged. "I think she just started goofing and was joking with Layla like we'd been cybering or something. She's weird like that. Jessie, I mean, not Layla."

"Cybering?" Yvette asked. "I do not think I know that word. What does it mean, please?"

"Cybering?" Sarah echoed. Yvette didn't know what that was? Oh man, did that mean that Sarah was going to have to explain it to her? Her cheeks flushed nearly as red as her friend's as she struggled to comprehend to even begin such an explanation. "Oh, well, um, it's... you know." She paused, searching for more words and hoping for an interruption. "Talking with someone online in a... a... courting manner. Like, you like them and you're- you're flirting and talking sexy talk with sexy words and stuff, and... and then you're- you both touch- you know." Please say you knew, Yvette, her cheeks were burning up enough as it was. When she apparently didn't and the world still hadn't swallowed her she continued. "Yourself." She practically whispered the word and couldn't say any more, sorry Yvette.

"Oh!" Yvette nearly dropped her cup, her eyes flaming as bight blue as Sarah's cheeks were bright red. "Oh, that! I am sorry, Sarah, what a thing to ask. Why would your sister think you had been doing such a thing with Layla, that is so embarrassing!"

Still blushing, Sarah shook her head at Yvette's reaction. "No no, it's ok, don't be sorry! But yeah, it was weird, and having to talk to Layla about it after, oh my gosh." That had been the hard part, but Layla hadn't been angry at her or anything, thankfully. "I think she saw... well, we were joking about stripping. Not like stripper stripping, with a stripper pole and strippiness, but stripping of titles. Silly nicknames we use." She wouldn't elaborate on that any further if need be, and just waved a hand at the idea. "I think Jess read something about stripping and tried to get a reaction out of Layla and, well, she did." Sarah paused before adding. "...just to be clear, there wasn't any cybering or touching or stuff." And there was the blushing back again, because holy crap.

Yvette shook her head. "No, it is okay, you do not have to explain. It is the private thing, yes?" The whole thing was way too embarrassing to think about, especially with a student involved, even if Sarah was her friend as much as one of her RA charges. "You and Layla are becoming the good friends quickly, yes? It is good, to have that."

Relieved, Sarah smiled weakly and her blushing began to fade a little. "It is, yeah, or it would be, that kind of thing." Which thankfully they didn't have to talk about. Her smile increased a little bit more at the mention of her friendship with Layla. "We are, she's awesome. We've been spending a lot of time together and we just get along well, I suppose." She'd spare Yvette the gushing over how good it felt spending time with the blonde girl, at least until she could better figure out what that meant to her own self. "You know who else is awesome? There's this really cool RA I know."

Yvette poked her tongue out at Sarah playfully. "And I know a very interesting girl who talks to machines," she countered. "How is the new job going? With X-Factor?"

Sarah giggled at that, glad to have put the awkwardness behind them. "This interesting girl sounds kind of awesome, I think." She nodded, smirking as she did so. "It's going well, I think. They haven't fired me yet anyway, so that's something, right? I like it, and I even get to dress casually." She'd overdone it on the first day but was much more comfortable with dressing down as Bishop had suggested.

"Of course you have not been fired, you are awesome," Yvette replied with a returning grin. "What sort of things are you doing there?"

"See, this is why you're really cool." Sarah gave a sage nod, it was true. "Just regular receptionist work, answering phones, dealing with people, filing things. Oh, and they're having me digitize a lot of stuff too, which is kinda cool. A good work out for me." Her powers were a huge help for that task and she rather enjoyed getting a chance to practice her skills while getting paid for it.

"I am glad that is coming in handy. I mentioned to Vanessa that it would be a good use of your powers when she was asking for a volunteer," Yvette replied, smiling. "And practice is always good."

"Mmm, me too, and I can totally use it." She was getting better with her powers but Sarah knew there was a ton of room for improvement of course, which was part of the reason why she'd come back in the first place. "It does, yes." She smiled at Yvette and looked down at the tea they were fixing to see if it was about ready. "Thanks for putting a good word in for me, Yvette."

"Oops!" Yvette looked down and realised she'd been dunking the teabag way longer than she'd meant to, carried away with the conversation. "That is enough for the tea, by the way. And of course I am happy to help you, Sarah. That is what the friends do, yes?"

In Yvette's defense, the conversation took some weird and unexpected turns there, what with explaining cybering and all of that, so she could hardly be blamed for losing focus. "Oh, ok!" Sarah stopped as well, looking down into her mug. It smelled great, she couldn't wait to try it out. "It is, exactly, that's what friends are for. I only hope I can be as good a friend to you as you are to me." She meant it, Yvette had made her return so much easier and for that she'd be eternally grateful.