Tea with a twist, Vidos Dodd

Lily took his cup and just looked at it at first. She was positive this was the most exciting thing she had done all day. She loved mystery and this secret ingredient was just that. She had never heard of anything like it, it definitely wasn’t sugar or anything like it. She smiled at Vidos gratefully.

Lily picked up the cup and took a tiny sip. She waited, and waited some more, and then when nothing earth shattering happened she took another sip. It did taste different although she wasn’t sure what to compare it with. It made the tea tastes stronger and she liked it. “It’s nice” Lily smiled radiantly “Your right, metallic. I can see why you would like it.” Carefully she pushed the cup back. “Can I have it too?” She pointed to her own cup.

As soon as she asked that question, Vidos' eyes darted to the slightly pulsing veins in her wrist. His small smile turned up lightly into the beginnings of a smirk,

"Oh I'm sure you could have some of your own..." he muttered to himself before reaching in and pulling the strange 'salt-shaker' like container out of his pocket. He put it one the table softly, "Make sure not to add too much. And try not to be alarmed by the color."

He tipped a small drop of the blood out onto his palm,

"It's just a solution of sugars, salts and some dyes." he explained, not technically lying.

Lily noticed him looking at her wrists, but wasn’t sure what to make off it so she ignored it. He was smiling and that was good as far as Lily was concerned. Lily looked at the salt shaker as though it was the most exciting thing she had ever seen. She couldn’t wait to put some of it in her own tea. Lily watched Vidos put some of it on his hand. It was a pretty sort of color, a little like blood which was a color Lily had always found highly fascinating. It didn’t alarm her at all as she accepted Vidos’ explanation without much questions.

Carefully she took the shaker and put the tiniest little bit in her cup which changed color very quickly as her camomille tea was a very light colored tea. Lily put in a little more , but then stopped as she had remembered Vidos’ warning. She took her cup and tasted it and found that the metallic taste was somewhat stronger in it. “Do you want to taste mine?” Lily said stretching her hand, holding the cup, to Vidos.

Vidos had to stop himself launching himself at Lily with a quick 'don't mind if I do!' shouted out before hand.

Insteed, he calmly reached forwards and took the tea cup from her small hand. With his small smile he took a sip of it and had to restrain a sigh of relief/pleasure at the amount of 'special ingredient' she'd put in. He handed her the tea cup back,

"You've put quite a lot in there. Very adventurous of you."

Lily watched him carefully as he sipped her tea and was pleased to see that he liked it. She took the tea back from him and smiled radiantly when he complimented her, or she took it to be a compliment. “Thank you. I do so love an adventure, don’t you?” A moment of sadness flashed across her eyes, but she quickly pushed it out again. “People never seemed to allow me to have adventures. They always tell me that I trust too much and take everything away from me that they call dangerous and to me just seems like fun.” Lily shrugged “I guess they mean well.”

Lily took another sip from her tea. It definitely had a strong metallic taste and it made her wonder what it actually was. Vidos had said something about sugar and some sort of dye, but that didn’t make it all that more clear. Lily decided not to ask him as he had already told her and it would probably be rude to ask again.

Vidos reached over and took one of Lily's hands in his own. He looked straight into her eyes, his face set as firmly as possible,

"What you perceive as adventure can in fact be dangerous. You're lucky Lily, I never had anyone warn me away from danger. I was pushed into insteed." he let go of her hand, suddenly concerned that she may have taken it to be inappropriate. He coughed politely into his hand, "Just remember this Lily. People become adventurers, adventurers become heroes and heroes don't live to grow old."

Lily smiled when Vidos held her hand, it was intimate and warm and it seemed like a caring sort of thing to do. “Maybe you are right. I’m sorry they pushed you, they should not have done that.” Lily gently caressed Vidos’ hand ones and then let go. “It just feels sometimes like I am not allowed to live. A little danger is part of life isn’t it? How am I supposed to learn what danger is if they keep everything away from me.” Lily shrugged “Don’t worry about it. My life is fine as it is.”

When he spoke again the sadness returned as it always did when the topic became death. Her father was no adventurer and certainly no hero and neither was her mother. All they had ever wanted was a family of their own with children to raise in the safety of their home. Nothing too adventurous and still that hadn’t stopped them from dying. “People don’t need to be heroes to die young. If death wants me, he will find me.” Lily sipped her tea again.

Vidos nodded a little,

"Obviously, death can strike at any point. But my point is still valid, live a dangerous life and you're going to see The Grim faster than you'd like." he sighed and took another sip of his tea, "But we seem to have drifted off into troubling topics. Do you have any really good friends you wish to talk about? A lighter, more comfortable topic."

Lily smiled radiantly when he spoke of friends. She had had a lot of friends back in Dovercourt, well actually Lily considered most people in that village her friend as she had known them all her life. In London however she only met a few. Not because she found it hard to make friends, as that came relatively easy to her, but because she hadn’t really had much time to do it. She had made a few though and they meant the world to her.

“Oh I do. I like most people, but there is a girl at work that I really like, Amy. She is really sweet.” Lily thought about it some more “Natalia is my friend too. She is very nice. She has these strange eyes that seem really old, but she looks young.” Lily looked at Vidos’ eyes for a moment “Kind of like yours.” Lily continued “I met her a few years ago and she has this really cute flower shop. I haven’t seen her in a while though, but I am sure I will meet her again.”

Vidos raised an eyebrow before tilting his head back slightly and laughing. Not his usual dry chuckle, but a real laugh. The last time he'd laughed there were still empires around. He broke off the sound slowly and looked back down at Lily,

"Well keep looking at the eyes Lily, they tell more than most people care to imagine." he chuckled again, "And thank you for making me laugh. I haven't laughed in such a long time."