A Shared Heart

🍵Chapter 11- Spilled Tea 🍵

༘ 🌱☁️ 🍵 .˚ ༘ 🌱☁️ 🍵 .˚ ༘ 🌱☁️ 🍵 .˚ ༘ 🌱☁️ 🍵 .˚ ༘ 🌱☁️ 🍵 .˚

Angelica:

Angelica watched as Wanderer stood up for her and fought off the vile man.

However, the bulky man stumbled straight into a waitress coming towards them with a tray of what she assumed was Wanderer's tea order sending it, of course, flying through the air and hitting the ground with a jump-worthy shatter.

That must have pushed Wanderer's buttons as now she was looking at a severely prune-faced man that she wasn't even sure whether it was the face she was looking at and not just another muscular part of the man's body.

Angelica left her seat, peered down at the unconscious something and narrowed her eyes at him, grabbed a pitcher of ice cold water on the table next to her and without even thinking twice about it she poured it all over the man's face making him splutter underneath it.

She squinted, her glazed eyes staring down at him before hissing in disgust, "Swine."

Spinning back to Wanderer she looked down at his spilled tea before locking eyes with him, "Thank you for protecting me, to have a man touch me in such a way is vile."

She sighed in relief before continuing, "Next time you want tea, it's on me. I know how to make refreshing bitter tea using plants, I could make some for you, after all, it's the least I can do for you after helping me."

Wanderer:

Wanderer shrugged in response, "I wasn't doing it for you I did it for my tea." Before adding, with a light smirk, "But I didn't know you had a rough tongue to you."

Angelica:

Angelica just puffed her cheeks out and frowned at him in disgust, "So you were aggressive because of your tea and not at the fact that this man had touched me inappropriately? That's quite... nauseating since my wings are sensitive, and I don't like people touching them without my permission." She fluffed her feathers up as if to get rid of the man's touch.

"Um, you wouldn't happen to be able to get me some essential oil for my wings, would you? I need it to preen them." She said rather hesitantly avoiding his gaze.

Wanderer:

Indeed. That's exactly right.

"Essential oils?" he brought his fingers to his chin in thought, ignoring the previous comment and looked up at the afternoon sun before nodding, "We have three hours."

Accepting the request, he snatched the ribbon - once tied to their wrists - from the ground and dusted the particles off before wrapping it back around his waist and motioning for her to lead the way.

Angelica:

She smiled widely as she could now run free.

Skipping down the street with a face of glee as she perused the stalls, trying to restrain herself from running off and in her delight with each step she took gracefully twirled like having a waltz with the wind.

After much searching, she eventually spotted a store in the distance selling essential oils and incense. Excited she ran over to it forgetting about her self-restraining order.

Scanning her eyes over each one with careful consideration, her hands behind her back like a wise scholar choosing what antique is worth buying.

Until, finally finding the special oil she was looking for, cedar wood.

She pointed it out to Wanderer with a beaming smile on her face.

Wanderer:

Picking up the essential oil she pointed at it without glancing at the other bottles along the rows and examined it with half-minded concentration.

As he thought, no matter how much he read the object he couldn't understand how this could help with her wings, it was confusing to him and made him hesitate, after all, what if it was laced with poison?

Perhaps Tighnari would know he thought until a head achingly possible scene played out in his mind, interrupting that option and reigniting this urgency to prevent any such encounter from happening because it would most definitely turn into a very boring discussion of flowers and plants as the walking Akashapedia Tighnari was.

But the insistence of the ever-growing puppy eyes next to him would probably burst into an explosion of tears if he ended up not buying even if he did do it for her safety.

He went to the receptionist, reluctantly bought the item and gave it to the girl who waited expectantly for said item.

Angelica:

As Wanderer handed her the bottle of essential oil he bought, Angelica smiled fondly at him holding the bottle to her chest in gratitude.

Even if she knew that Wanderer was doing this only to follow Nahida's orders she still felt warmth in her heart at his gesture.

Her cheeks blushed and she looked up at him, "Thank you, Wanderer." She spoke in a gentle voice of appreciation, hesitating, she gently leaned up, tiptoeing slightly and planted her soft lips on his cheek quickly.

Angelica then fluttered up to a high branch above them and waited for him to follow.

Wanderer:

Wanderer touched the cheek she kissed, the Vision on his chest stirred but he gritted his teeth in irritation, again, she did things that he could never calculate.

He wasn't angry but disturbed more than anything.

He rubbed the spot that burned against his cheek, frustrated at the fact he wasn't ever able to dodge her advances despite his incomparable reflexes, so why was that?

He looked up at Angelica who flew to a branch of The Divine Tree, she waited for him he knew but he did not want to be anywhere near her lest she pull another trick on him.

There was one side of him who felt contempt and another side who was piqued with interest and this side won the fight for control of his body as before he knew it, he was by her side. Instead of sitting down like one half wanted to do, so badly, he leaned against the tree trunk arms crossed, watching the species in front of him as she dangled and swung her feet like a child. 

"What is your purpose?" He confronted suddenly, unsure on where he was going with this but no matter how much he tried to understand this creature in front of him he felt he was slowly losing himself more and more and he didn't like that.

He shook his head and clenched his jaw, "Don't do that again, you are my mission, Lesser Lord Kusanali told me to keep you safe, so that's what I'm doing. We are nothing but strangers, not even friends."

He tossed the wallet to the girl, "If you want to buy anything else use that," he stood upright, staring upward at the falling sun that slightly touched the horizon, "You can do that much without me."

With that, he triggered his Hanega and without another word, flew up the tree out of sight.

༘ 🌱☁️ 🍵 .˚ ༘ 🌱☁️ 🍵 .˚ ༘ 🌱☁️ 🍵 .˚ ༘ 🌱☁️ 🍵 .˚ ༘ 🌱☁️ 🍵 .˚