Wish

Epilogue

The bell on the door of the tea house jingles as you enter, shaking off snow. It started coming down suddenly on your way home from a holiday visit with your family. The small building is crowded with faeries enjoying hot beverages in a brief respite from the winter weather, and many of the faces are familiar. Since this has become a frequent rest stop when you visit the farm, you're accustomed to seeing the often clumsy, purple-haired faerie at the corner table where he usually sits, nose stuck in a book. Today, as he frequently is, he's accompanied by his handsome friend with the distinctive laugh who is enjoying a rather large lunch. Oddly enough, the ever sleepy looking piano player from Jimin's favorite restaurant in the city is with them as well. You're wondering how they know each other when the door's bell jingles again prompting you to step out of the way of the new arrival. Making exaggerated noises in reaction to the cold, he heads over to join the other three. For some reason an image of him with a squirrel comes to mind…

You refocus when you spot Jimin waiting for you at a table across the room. He's chatting  with his best friend whose expression slowly shifts from a rather intense look to his infamous boxy smile as Jimin reaches the punchline of whatever story he's telling. Despite the unfortunate circumstances of your first impression that fateful night months ago, these days it's really easy to see why Jimin loves the guy. Laughing right along with them is the good-natured rabbit guard who is Jimin's clear favorite choice whenever the queen wins the battle to make the royal couple travel with an escort. Probably because he's just as talented at participating in mischief as he is at protecting you from it. 

You wave to catch their attention. Jimin excuses himself, greets you with a kiss on your hand, and accompanies you to the counter to order a drink. 

"Cold one out there isn't it, Highnesses," the old tea faerie greets you with warm familiarity, "I've got just the thing for you, if you're up for a surprise."

"You know we have nothing but the utmost faith in your judgment," Jimin leans against the counter as he flatters her, and you giggle, nodding in agreement. 

"Alright, stay right there. Don't get too cozy, you'll not be wanting to linger," she instructs as she heads back into her kitchen. You shoot Jimin a questioning look, but he just shakes his head and shrugs. 

"Here you go," the tea faerie returns with two small mugs of what looks like hot chocolate topped with a dusting of red and white powder - peppermint you assume. "My own very special blend of chocolate," she begins to explain as you take a sip. The taste is sweet, but also, surprisingly, spicy, "and spicy chili pepper! It'll get you warmed up in a jiffy. In more ways than one," she finishes with a wink.

You choke a little at the unexpected comment. Jimin looks at you with big, faux-innocent eyes over the rim of his mug as he drinks. The tea faerie laughs cheekily on her way off to help the next customer.

"Do you ever get the feeling she set us up from the beginning?" You ask Jimin suspiciously.

He sidles up closer to you still sipping his drink, "Oh all the time. She's absolutely devious."

"Why do we keep coming here?"

"Gratitude?"

"Hmm," you nod absently, continuing to drink your delicious, spicy chocolate, heedless of the promised effects. You do, in fact, feel pleasantly warm all over… and another kind of heat creeping up on you. 

You glance at Jimin who raises an eyebrow in return. 

In unison, you set your cups down and wave goodbye to his friends and the old tea faerie as you head out into the snowy afternoon, arm in arm. 

"Pleasure to see you as always," she calls after you in a jovial voice, "You kids enjoy!"

*****

A/N: This was mostly an excuse to revisit the tea faerie who is my favorite bit character, but figured we may as well get the gang together. Did you catch them all the first time around?
Seriously thanks for reading if you got all the way here. I'm just goofing around so if you enjoyed this enough to read the whole thing that's super cool. Drop a comment and I'll return the favor <3 See you around.