Milk and no sugars, please
“Vinyl, get up.”
“Wha? Come on mum, just five more minutes.”
Above the bed where the mangled and frankly embarrassing state that was Vinyl Scratch lay, stood an increasingly impatient Octavia. And while she was perfectly happy leaving Vinyl alone in said mess, she did not enjoy the prospects of being late for a lecture because of her, again.
“I’m not your mother, Vinyl,” she said firmly. “I don’t know how many times you’re going to make that joke, but it isn’t, and never will be, funny.”
Vinyl managed to lift her upper body up from her bed slightly, using her arm to wipe drool away from her mouth. “You really aren’t. Mum always brings me crumpets when I’m like this.”
“Crumpets?” Octavia chuckled. “I sometimes wonder if you’re more British than me.”
“Hey!” Vinyl shot a wobbly finger at Octavia. “England is more than you poshtots with your frickin’ Tea pots. It’s also us lot and a good old mug of Yorkshire.”
Octavia raised an eyebrow. “Do you honestly consider tea to be such a key part to being british?”
“It is good though.”
“Then get up and make yourself some.” She pointed at Vinyl’s alarm clock. “I can’t wait all day.”
“What? You mean you haven’t made me any? No crumpets or tea. Do you have no sympathy for people still attached to their irish ancestry?”
“Vinyl, you don’t have any irish ancestry. I, on the other hand, am quarter irish.”
“Which is why you don’t have a hangover.”
“Yes, or maybe it’s because I’m a functioning member of society, one of the two,” Octavia said, ignoring the fact Vinyl was sticking her tongue out. “Still, I don’t believe either tea or crumpets are considered cures for a hangover.”
“Don’t worry about that, I’ve had worse migraines. I’m just hungry and need a good cup of tea in the morning, like any sane person.” Vinyl pushed herself up a bit more, still wobbling. “Anyways, I thought offering a cup of tea was second nature to you lot.”
“‘You lot’?”
“Poshtots.”
“Ah.” Octavia let out a small chuckle, finding Vinyl’s use of the word humourus. “You have me there, and I concede that to be the normal protocol. But you’re my exception.”
Vinyl groaned, wiping a little bit of sleep from her eye. “I understand you like to treat me special, Tavi, with you being madly in love with me and all.”
Octavia scoffed.
“But you’re going about this all wrong. You have to be extra nice to me, get me breakfast in bed, order me a curry for the evenings, and, most importantly, make me tea.”
“And that would be enough to woo you, would it?”
Vinyl winked. “What can I say. It doesn’t take much when it’s you.”
Octavia rolled her eyes. “Duly noted. But I must say that I haven’t got you any tea, so you’re gonna have to get up for that.”
Vinyl let out a groan. “You really have a lot to learn about impressing a lady.”
A smile crept onto Octavia’s face. “I was unaware you considered yourself a ‘lady’. I’ve always seen you as a northern lass.”
Vinyl chuckled. “You sound funny saying ‘lass’”
The unimpressed expression returned. “I’m glad you find my accent so humourous. Maybe next time you can stay in and talk instead of getting absolutely trolleyed at the clubs.”
Vinyl gave a quiet snicker—muttering, “trolleyed,” under her breath—before moving to give Octavia a sly smile. “Is that your subtle way of asking me on a date, Tavi?”
Octavia sighed. “Are you really gonna try and flirt while hungover?”
“Try? I’m gonna succeed.” Vinyl moved her body so she was leaning on her left hand, using her right to click and point at Octavia. Unfortunately, her left arm quickly lost its strength, and she fell headfirst onto her bed. “Call me.”
“You do certainly have a way with women.”
“I do,” Vinyl stated, voice slightly muffled by the bedsheets she had her face in. “You just have to come with to some clubs again. There, even you couldn’t resist my charm.”
A slight blush appeared on Octavia’s face, followed by a frustrated expression. “I’ll have you know that had nothing to do with your self proclaimed ‘charm’. I just happened to be completely plastered—”
“Heh, plastered.”
“... very drunk, which led to some bad decisions on my part. I am yet to see any evidence of your charm.”
Both Vinyl and Octavia jumped slightly as they heard a loud yawn close by, very close by infact.
Vinyl turned to see the other side of her bed shuffling, and out of this mess of covers, emerged two arms that pulled up the recognisable body of—
“Lyra?” Octavia yelled at her sleepy faced classmate.
“Oh, hiya Tavi.” Her movements were wavy, only just holding herself up. “Do you happen to have any tea? I could kill for some right now.”
“W-what on earth are you doing in Vinyl’s bed?”
Lyra frowned. “Didn't your parents ever give you the talk?”
“That’s not what I mean.” Octavia shot an accusing finger at her. “What I mean is you have a girlfriend! What would Bon-Bon say if she saw you?”
“I’m up.” The easily recognisable hair of Lyra’s girlfriend shot out of the far side of Vinyls bed. “I’m… oh hey Octavia. Do you by chance have any tea?”
Octavia exchanged looks between the two girls and Vinyl, who had begun to smirk proudly as the memories of last night started to come back to her.
“This is sick,” Octavia grimaced.
“Hey,” Lyra snapped. “I do not stand for that kind of homophobia.”
“Lyra, I’m gay as well. You know that.”
Lyra gave a drowsy smile. “Oh yeah,” she said before laying back down onto the bed. Bon-Bon promptly joined her, but seemingly because she nodded off again.
“I can’t believe this,” Octavia sighed.
“Y’know,” Vinyl said, “if you’re that upset about being excluded, you can join us next time.”
A flash of horror spread across Octavia’s face. “I’ll have you know I don’t wish to take part in this hulogunitic behavior of yours!”
“Hey, it’s a perfectly natural thing. And besides, what else are you ment to do at university other than crazy stuff like this.”
“Oh, I don’t know, study maybe? Preferably at the class you have with me today.”
“God, you’re such a buzzkill sometimes.” She rolled over slightly, moving into her ‘paint me like one of your french girls’ position. “Although, seeing how it would be your first time, I understand if you want it to be a bit more delicut.” She winked.
There was a pause as Octavia just continued to stare at her with a look of disbelief. “Vinyl, get up.”
“But I don’t wanna.” She fell back onto her bed. “Can’t you give me a break for once?”
“Oh, I would love to. Were it not for the fact we have a music lecture soon, I’d have left you to mope around for all I care.” She moved over to the room's window. “But as that’s not the case.”
Vinyl hissed as the sudden light engulfed her bedroom, looking around as frantically as she could muster to find her sunglasses.
“Oh, please stop hissing like that. I don’t want to deal with your weird Vampire fetish.”
Pushing herself within arms reach of her desk, Vinyl grabbed her shades and promptly put them on her head. “Hey, it’s not a fetish, an unhealthy fantasy at most.” She pulled herself up. “And you, you of all people, do not get to judge others for their fetishes.”
Octavia’s face flashed with anger and a bright redness. “You agreed never to mention that again!”
“And you agreed to never try out your weird bondage stuff on me. If this isn’t you letting out some psychopathic fantasies, what is it?”
Octavia’s arms were shaking with a mix of rage and embarrassment. “You know what? I don’t know why I bother! Stay here for all I care. You don’t deserve any more of my time.”
She stormed through the doorway and grabbed onto the doorknob. “And don’t even think about walking with me today. Find someone who’s stupid enough to put up with you.”
Vinyl shuddered as the door slammed close. A wave of regret fell over Vinyl as silence engulfed the room.
With a little groan, she forced herself upright and rubbed her hand through her hair. Leaning over, she let out a long sigh. “Crap.”
“Women, am I right,” said a still drowsy Lyra from behind her.
“You can’t say that, Lyra” said an even tireder Bon-Bon.
“Why not? It’s not sexist because I am also a girl.”
“It’s not that. It’s just that you tend to get angry at smaller things.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Can you two be quiet,” Vinyl snapped. “I’m trying to think here.”
“Me too,” replied Lyra. “I had no idea Tavi was into that kind of thing. That’s a lot of new information to deal with. How did you find out?”
“I accidentally walked in while she was watch—wait, no, that’s not important.” She hit her head. “Come on think. Damn it, Vinyl, why did you have be terrible at things.”
“You know,” Bon-Bon said, “I always think better once I’ve had a cup of tea in the morning.”
Lyra frowned. “Is that your subtle way of asking for a cup of tea?”
“Be quiet.”
“Wait.” Vinyl snapped her fingers. “Tea. That’s it!”
“Did someone say tea?”
There was a pause, everyone registering a new voice, before they all turned to see a grey head with messy blond hair pop up from behind Vinyl’s bed.
“Oh, hiya Cloudkicker.”
“Hey Tavi.”
“Go away Vinyl.” Octavia shoved the final piece of notes into her backpack, facing away from her room’s door and Vinyl. “I don’t want to see you right now.”
“Come on, please?” Octavia just about heard a sigh from the other side of her door. “Just five minutes. Five minutes and I promise I’ll go.”
Octavia stopped violently zipping up her bag, pausing to consider her options. After checking her clock to see they still had some time to spare, she turned back around. “The door’s unlocked.”
There was a beat of silence.
“Erm, I can’t open the door. Hands are kind of full.”
Octavia raised an eyebrow but, nevertheless, stood up and walked over to the door.
Upon opening it, she was greeted by an apologetic looking Vinyl holding a tray that, to Octavia’s surprise, had crumpets, cups, and a pot of tea placed on it.
“I made you some tea,” Vinyl said, trying her best to seem casual.
Octavia stared at the tea, shocked, before returning to Lyra. “You made me tea… in a pot?”
Vinyl shrugged, trying her best to stop a blush from emerging. “Yeah, I guess I did. Will admit it felt weird though, as I didn’t really know what I was doing. Had to look it up in case I messed up.”
“Uh-huh.” Octavia continued to stare at Vinyl, who couldn’t stop herself from going a bit red.
“It’s tetley as well,” Vinyl said. “I know that’s your favorite.”
She shuffled slightly, trying to avoid direct eye contact. “I can leave this on your desk and go if you want. I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.”
With a little chuckle, Octavia allowed a little smile to appear on her face. “No, you can stay, please.” She moved aside to let her in. “And judging by the fact you have two cups, I believe that was what you were hoping for.”
“Heh, you know me, always the optimist.”
Octavia led Vinyl into her room, signaling her to leave the tray on her desk. She initially went to sit on her bed, leaving her comfy chair available, but Vinyl insisted that Octavia sat there.
She also insisted on pouring them both the teas, making sure to prepare Octavia’s exactly how she liked it—two sugars with milk. Octavia couldn’t help but enjoy seeing Vinyl so well mannered for once.
“Okay,” Vinyl began after sitting down, “like many things in my life, I’m doing this because I messed up. I said a lot that I shouldn’t have, the kink shaming especially wasn’t cool, and I feel really terrible about it.”
“Rightly so,” Octavia stated.
“Yeah, I know.” Vinyl scratched the back of her head. “It was early, I was hungover, wasn’t thinking properly, it shouldn’t have happened.”
Octavia took a sip from her tea. “Those sound more like excuses to me.”
Vinyl sighed. “I’m sorry, Tavi, I really am. You were trying to be nice, waking me up so I wouldn’t miss class, but I just ended up hurting you without stopping to think. There’s no excuse for that, and all I can do is promise that I’ll try my best to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Octavia raised her eyebrows. “Impressive, it’s not like you to admit your mistakes so easily.”
Vinyl shrugged. “What can I say, you bring out the best in me.”
“You know, that would have more weight if you hadn’t just brought two girls to bed with you.”
“If I say that I need two girls to make up for the fact I don’t have you, would it be better?”
Octavia gave her an amused look. “Would that be true?”
“Partly. I wouldn’t go out clubbing nearly as much if you were here to snuggle.” Vinyl took a sip of her tea, missing her proper Yorkshire. “That being said, if you’re ever up for some girl-on-girl-on-girl action, just let me know.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, just don’t hold your breath.” Octavia paused for a second. “But, I do owe you an apology as well. I know you don’t like me mentioning your vampire hobby, and I know it’s not a fetish. So I am also sorry.”
“Y-yeah, exactly, totally not a fetish, thanks for understanding.” Vinyl coughed. “But hey, now that we’re past that, we can move back to me constantly giving you bad pickup lines, the way it should be.”
“That is pretty much our relationship, isn’t it. I do admire your persistence with this whole flirting business. I would have given up by now.”
“What can I say, stamina is one of my better qualities.” She winked.
Octavia rolled her eyes with a chuckle.
“I mean, to be fair, you’ve never actually said ‘no’. I’d say that it’s still fair game till then.”
Octavia thought for a second, a sly smile creeping onto her face. “Never said ‘no’. Hmm, I guess I haven’t.”
Vinyl stared at her. Despite her endless catalogue of one-liners, she went quiet, leaving the room to fall silent, and Octavia to continue smirking.
As the moment continued—to her own disappointment—Vinyl gulped. A lump in her chest built up, accompanied by her ever hotter cheeks, as Octavia’s gaze just continued to linger.
“Tavi,” Vinyl finally said, “have I ever told you that you are an expert at the ‘hard to get’ game.”
Octavia, keeping eye contact with Vinyl the whole time, slowly lifted her tea up to her lips and took a delicate, little sip. Then she winked.
