Her Home, His Heart | ✓

☆*✿TWENTY-ONE(21)❀*★

♪♪ I don't know what I want, so don't ask me

Cause I'm still trying to figure it out

Don't know what's down this road

I'm just walking ♪♪

ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ[A Place In This World] - [Taylor Swift]

       ══════ ✿❁︾❁✿ ══════

Esmé's shoes squeaked on the tiled floor in the kitchen while she moved around the counter to get breakfast ready. Her hands stilled at the soft tapping of footsteps approaching the room. The intoxicating scent of Kian's woody cologne announced his presence before he spoke.

"Good morning, Esmé," Kian greeted her, his deep voice reverberated through the room.

Esmé turned around to face him with a smile which increased at the sight of him in his light blue long-sleeved dress shirt and navy-blue suit pants ready for work. His lack of a warm smile did nothing to reduce her own. "Morning, Kian."

After Esmé's apology and her realization that she wanted to prove to him she was different, she took it upon herself to spring up conversations to make him feel a bit more relaxed around her. It didn't seem to work perfectly, but she wasn't about to give up.

After the brief uncomfortable silence, Kian cleared his throat and looked away from Esmé towards the counter where the teapot and cup lay set waiting for the boiling water.

Esmé followed his line of sight and smiled reassuringly. "You can have your seat while I help brew your tea," she said and nudged her head to the kitchen chairs for him to settle in.

Kian's head jerked back in surprise, and he stared at her with a dazed look. Making tea was something he mostly did for them after the first time she tried his tea.

"Shut up, I've been practising." Esmé chuckled and rolled her eyes at him. She turned to brew the tea.

Kian chuckled slightly, pulling out a chair that scrapped against the tiles before settling down. "You have a certain habit of telling me to shut up when I say nothing, you know? And you've been practising?" He titled his head to the side, squinting his eyes that held a tint of mischief at the thought.

"Your face said it all, Kian. And yes, I have to practice. You can't work in Silver Palace and not know how to make a good cup of tea," Esmé commented. She waited for a few minutes for the tea to properly brew before pouring it into a cup. 

She turned with the teacup and saucer in her hand, carefully placing the cup in front of Kian. Esmé tipped her head with a taunting grin. "Try it."

Kian gave her a sceptical condescending smile which she met with a pointed glare urging him to try the tea. He lifted the cup to his mouth, hesitating as it touched his lips.

"Oh, come on, just drink it already. It's not like I plan to poison you or anything," Esmé said, throwing her hands up in the air. She was enjoying the moment, despite how frustrating she found his adamant attitude to try the tea.

"One can't say," Kian murmured with a smile grazing his lips while he took a sip of the hot cup of tea. His eyes lit up with surprise at the strong taste of the tea. "Interesting. You definitely got the sharp taste. You really have been practising, huh?" he commended with a bemused smile.

Esmé broke into a full-blown smile. "Now you see that it's good to try out new things. They don't always kill."

Kian froze at the double meaning he received from Esmé's statement. A pensive expression decked his face while he studied her, but her smile didn't falter at his watch and that nearly made him think she hadn't thought of the innuendo her words made.