Deathshipping one shots

Tea for Two

"Mr. Bear, would you enjoy a spot of tea?"

The brown fluffy bear remained dormant, silent, and passive.

Ryou smiled brightly and poured some into his little teacup. "That's what I thought. How about a biscuit?"

Another moment of silence, he took his tray of cookies, placing one on his plate.

"How about you, Ms. Elephant?"

Ryou was in the middle of pouring her tea when the front door unlocked and Melvin, his flatmate of a few weeks, walked in, not really in or out of the world. He was in his bored daze, casually making his way to the kitchen for probably a soda or some leftovers he could scavenge.

Awkward and a little embarrassed, Ryou quietly tried to clean up his little tea party and find somewhere to put Mr. Bear and Ms. Elephant. He was in the middle of shoving some biscuits into his mouth and storing them in his cheeks when Melvin came closer to observe the conundrum.

"...what...?"

"...uh..." Ryou twiddled his thumbs, although his mouth was stuffed with cookies and it was hard to speak. You're home earlier than I thought. He sat in awkward silence while Melvin stared and he chewed quietly.

Melvin looked at the little scene and raised his eyebrows, the corners of his mouth turning up against his will. He tried not to laugh.

Ryou looked down and frowned, his face hot and his hands all clammy. He took his stuffed animals in his arms and bolted for his room, shutting the door behind him as he leapt onto his bed and buried himself under the sheets, burrowing further and further into his mountain of blankets until he felt safe enough.

He didn't entirely blame Melvin for wanting to laugh— Ryou was not a child anymore, he shouldn't be playing with stuffed animals and hosting fake tea parties with them...but he didn't have very many friends that were interested in tea parties.
It was still quite embarrassing, though.

About five, maybe ten minutes passed and Ryou sat in his little blanket huddle, wondering if he should come out anytime soon.

A rustling noise came from outside his bedroom door, like a piece of paper.

Ryou's head poked out on the top of the blanket mountain, peering over at the door to see a piece of paper being wedged through the bottom of the door. On top of that paper was a biscuit.
"What's this?"
He crawled out of his mountain to see the treat being slightly crushed and crumby, but still good.

The piece of paper said, Sorry for crashing your party. Here's so you don't starve in your room. I may or may not have bitten into the other ones.

Ryou sighed, but he nibbled on the biscuit anyway.

Melvin was leaning against the wall across the hall from Ryou's door, wondering if he saw the note.

Ryou opened the door; scratched the back of his head and said, "Sorry, I don't usually start running off like that. I was just a little embarrassed, that's all."

"I—"

"It's okay, I might've laughed too."

"It was funny, yeah." He shook his head. "But you left before I could get mad at you."

"Mad? For what?"

Melvin frowned. "Why the hell didn't you invite me?"

"...uh...I...?" He shut his eyes tight, opened them again, and then asked, "What?"

"How could you have a party in our apartment and then not invite me? I though we were friends, Creampuff. I am wounded. I'm hurt." He placed a hand on his own chest, looked away, and sniffled for effect. "I thought we had a connection."

"Didn't you eat all my biscuits, though?"

"I was drowning out my sadness with food."

Ryou rocked back and forth on his heels. "I wasn't even aware you liked tea."

"And I wasn't aware you had the indecency not to ask."

"You can't expect people to know that sort of thing!" He stuck out his lower lip. "It's something I usually do alone, Melvin. If I invited you, there was a very high chance that you would laugh at me."

Melvin sighed and kneeled on the ground before him, pulling Ryou's torso closer to him and hugged him, leaning his head to Ryou's stomach.

"What are you doing?"

"Can I go to the next one?"

Ryou looked down and pursed his lips. "Why are you leaning against my stomach?"

"To further convince you that I should be invited to your next tea party, I shall now blow a raspberry against your stomach."

"What? Wait— no—!" He was interrupted by his own laughter.

***

"Melvin, quit eating all the biscuits."

"Mr. Bear wasn't eating his. I'm helping."

"You're not drinking your tea!"

Melvin sighed, then he reached over to the cup and picked it up, daintily sipping his tea while sticking out his pinkie.

"Thank you." Ryou giggled, then he sipped his own tea with a smile. "Now say, 'May I please have another biscuit?'"

Melvin frowned. "That is a cookie."

"Biscuit."

"Cookie."

"Biscuit."

"COOKIE."

"BISCUIT."

"Biscuit."

"Cookie—!" He caught himself when it was too late, Melvin was already laughing.
"Oh, bugger..."