[PRP] Getting to know you EVEN BETTER

[TawnyAngel]

Dith tilted his head slightly when Dove's grins and soft laugh gave way to a kind of a calm still look but he mentally shrugged it off; he still didn't know her all that well after all and she didn't seem upset or anything so it was no big deal. "Some tea I like without sweetness, but stronger black teas I do like it," he explained, picking up the kettle as it came to the boil and pouring a little water into the little teapot.

"Though here," he continued, nodding to the doorway and then heading through it himself into the lounge with kettle in one hand and the tray with pots and jug in the other. Once in the main living area he moved over to the table, or more to the point to the large silver urn-like object sitting on it. Lifting off a lid Dith poured in the rest of the hot water, replaced the lid, and sat the teapot on top in a clearly purpose-made groove. "This is the samovar," he explained, "we put most of our hot water in here. You pour just a bit of the strongly concentrated tea into your cup and then add more hot water from the samovar so you can have it as strong or as weak as you like."  

[Tori Honoo]

She nodded in agreement, still quiet, but content, and followed him as he lead her into the lounge area of his home. She did pause in the doorway, however, and looked back to the plates as Lovey crossed beside her legs. "Oh... did you want me to get anything for you? Sweets wise, I mean, since I took out plates and you're carrying the tea..."

She smiled as she watched him, curiously soaking up the steps as he explained, then nodded again to show her understanding. "Ah, I see...What is the ceremony for?" she ventured curiously, waiting for his answer to her previous question before she would move from her place to take a seat.

Lovey wandered toward the man, her ears perked high in chipper greeting.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh, yes, thank you," Dith replied, looking back over at the door he'd just come through. Now, what did he actually want? "Uh... one of everything?" He was pretty hungry and everything smelled very good, if he did say so himself. "Ceremony though? I'm not sure what you- Oh!" Dith paused mid-sentence as he worked out what it was Dove was referring to. "Ah, not really a ceremony for anything," he explained with a shake of his head, crouching down and holding a hand out to Lovey as he spoke. "I mean more like a... mmmh, a personal ritual? Just a nice way of doing an every day thing. We come together, we sit around the samovar, we talk, we drink the tea and eat cakes or sandwiches. We have a phrase that translates more or less as 'to have a sit by the samovar'; it just means to have a leisurely talk together, to catch up, to be together. Oh, and to drink the tea of course," he concluded with a grin.  

[Tori Honoo]

Dove would go, then return quickly with a plate for Dith, heaping with one of everything, just as he had asked, though she wondered how on earth he would be able to take it all. It all did, however, look very good.

Lovey pressed her head into the man's large palm, her tail waving happily as she rubbed against his fingers. "veeee!"

"Oh, I see," the woman smiled, moving toward her seat and carefully depositing their plates on the table. "It sounds wonderful. I take it you do this often, then?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith grinned and scratched Lovey gently behind the ears. "Excuse me," he said to the eevee as Dove reappeared, "tea calls!

"I do," he continued to Dove as he straightened and then sat down in one of the chairs, reaching down to stroke Viktor as the Espeon padded over and hopped up into one of the vacant chairs. "Less so than I used to I suppose," he shrugged, "everything is always busy, you know? It seems like if I'm not at work I am training, myself and my pokemon." They had to be ready, always ready for the next time something happened. Maybe if they were all stronger, a better team, he wouldn't lose any body part next time.  

[Tori Honoo]

When Dith withdrew his hand, Lovey gave him a nod of thanks, then made her way straight to Dove's lap, careful not to disrupt the small plate the woman had just picked up again as she took her own seat.

Dove stroked the eevee's back and ruff before responding softly to Dith. "I understand completely. Work had me traveling for a while, but we still train every day as well," she agreed, nodding before taking a bite of a small pastry she had placed on her own plate. Her eyes widened. "Though I might have to strengthen my personal regime if there are more of these around..." she giggled, once swallowing her bite, and looking to the morsel in her hand. "They're delicious!"  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith chuckled at the compliment and nodded; "Thank you! I'm glad you like. Maybe we could hit the gym together, or go running sometimes? It's always more fun with somebody else there." Scheduling might be an issue but maybe they could work something out on a semi regular basis; Viktor was usually with him but he couldn't hold a conversation with his pokemon partner.

"We should battle together too," he added, taking a bite of brownie and swallowing before adding; "Training against as many different people as possible is good, no? We need to be on best form."

Maybe next time he wouldn't lose any body parts and would be able to help his friends stay safe too. All of this... ебать, he wished they'd never got mixed up in it. He wished he could quit. He didn't want this, any of it.

For a moment or two Dith looked a little distant but he soon shook himself and flashed Dove a smile. "Tea should be good now!" Tea was good. Dith lifted the pot off the top of the samovar and poured a generous measure of the concentrate into his cup before passing the pot over to Dove.  

[Tori Honoo]

She nodded enthusiastically, her smile brighter. "That would be great! I run every morning before we train, but it does get lonely sometimes, even with my team. They're great company, but not too much good for conversation."

She took another bite of her treat, and nodded again. "Any time! You do have my number..." And thank goodness she had his. Yuri would have been a lot worse off without Dith quickly stepping her through things over the phone. "I'm sure my team would love to battle yours. They'd learn a lot."

His distant look went unquestioned; Arceus knew she got lost, much moreso recently. She smiled and watched as he poured his tea, then followed his example before placing it safely back on the table. "So how have you been? Anything new and interesting since your big birthday?" she asked, smiling despite memories her distress that evening.  

[TawnyAngel]

He did indeed have Dove's number but he couldn't help feeling a bit weird about the idea of contacting her when he wasn't contacting all the group. This was not a feeling that was unique to Dove however, he'd feel strange contacting most of them privately. Not Rosie, obviously, and maybe not Sera after she'd turned up on his doorstep when her family lost their fortune but.... Well it was one thing to casually message people your own age but they were all so much younger than he was. He couldn't help worrying about seeming creepy or something.

Ugh, well, if Dove had invited him to message her it was probably okay right? Right.

Dith nodded. "Well I should be able to meet you sometimes for that, it depends on my shifts! What time do you usually go?" His own work varied, obviously, so sometimes he would be meeting her before and sometimes after but even if it wasn't something they could do all that regularly it would be nice.

"Since my birthday though.... Humm," Dith shrugged and spooned some jam into his tea, stirring carefully. "Well I've been busy with work and training really. My work week is uh, maybe between seventy and eighty hours? With that and training myself and my team every day time to do anything else, to do things like this, is pretty rare." He did regret not getting to socialise all that much anymore, there was little he loved more than just the company of good friends, but it was necessary. If they were all going to survive, if they were going to win he couldn't sacrifice training time and nor could he compromise his work. It was just the way things had to be.  

[Tori Honoo]

Dith's hesitation, while understood, would be alleviated quickly if she were to be made aware. Dove had once been used to a wide array of people sending her texts and emails, both for personal use and business ventures.

"I go running around 6 every morning," she told him, with a slight grimace on her face. It still baffled her that she was able to keep up such a routine now, when in her past, she had always loathed being called up earlier than 10am when she had control over her schedule. Not that that had been often, but still. It was the principal of the thing. "We run not too far out of the city, then train around on our own in one of the meadows in the forest. We go out later in the day to actually battle others now, but my... less experienced pokemon get more attention earlier in the day, you know? It was better for Trill to be kept a secret, but the league says it's okay to have it in public now, so long as we can handle people asking questions." Ooops. That was probably a bit more information than Dith was asking for, and when she realized it, she offered a somewhat bashful smile and looked down into her tea again. It had been a while since she had held a decent conversation.

Her brows and eyes lifted in surprise, however, when Dith relayed his work schedule. "Seventy and eighty hours? Oh my...I can honestly say I...don't envy you in that respect. How do you find time to train?" She shook her head. "I'm sorry you don't have more time for things like this. You're so good at it," she smiled, genuinely. A pause, perhaps longer than she would have liked. "And thank you, for inviting me to your birthday party. I know I'm a little late with that, but, it really was beautiful."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Humm, I can make six work sometimes," Dith nodded, "I know my schedule a couple of weeks in advance so I can let you know when I am free to join? Maybe we can battle a bit too, I'm always up for finding new training partners! Variety, right?"

Dove' mention of Trill got a nod but no more than that because... well frankly he was still mildly embarrassed about the fact that - first time he'd seen the Mew - he hadn't even known it was a rare pokemon let alone a legendary.

"Heh, my working week is a self inflicted injury," Dith continued with a grin, "I knew what I was getting into! And uh, yeah, well it's a tight squeeze I have to say and means that most of my days off are fully dedicated to is so I can keep up a decent rate of improvement. And thank you for coming," he nodded, "it was wonderful to see everyone... frankly I didn't usually do big parties, you know? I don't want the bother, or the extravagance, but my parents persuaded me and... yeah, I had a great time. Nice to do once in a while I suppose but I don't think I could imagine doing it every year!" Mainly because he knew exactly how much parties like that cost and could think of a million more useful ways to spend such an amount; blowing it all on one night just seemed... well, wasteful to be honest. You could have a good time with a good gathering of friends for far less than that party had no doubt come to.  

[Tori Honoo]

Dove nodded. "'Right," she smiled. "That sounds great."

She tipped her head in understanding, and smiled somewhat meekly when he returned her thanks. Her expression slipped a little, when she found she could relate a bit. "My parents used to throw parties like that for me, too, but I never really minded it until now..." Now she would give almost anything to go back and find some way to persuade them out of it.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Mmmh." Dith took a delicate sip of his tea. "I don't know, can you give them the benefit of the doubt to think they thought they were doing the best for you?... But even if so it's no reason to," he waved his free hand, "oh, you know, to feel like you have to forgive everything. Everyone's life is there own, that's the point, and if people do things that hurt you in it there's never any obligation to accept apologies or whatever."

Wow, that had just got a bit serious.

"But uh... yeah! Small parties are nice. When is your birthday? Maybe we can all do something together."  

[Tori Honoo]

"They did think they were doing what was best. It's all they know," she reassured him, though the second half of what he said didn't sit half as well. If ever she was sure they genuinely understood... There was no obligation, of course, but it would only be right to forgive them then, right?

That was touching on a few too many seemingly unrelated subjects for her liking and she mentally set it aside for now. She was doomed to contemplate it later, she knew.

"They were beautiful parties, and most people honestly enjoyed themselves as best they knew how, but...they won't happen anymore. So," she rounded, sipping from her tea. She shook her head and put on a smile. "I won't worry about them anymore. Enough of my...reminiscing." A small laugh.

His question drew a genuine touch to her smile and she shook her head again. "It's in October, so... no time soon. And that would be really be lovely. I could cook us all dinner, sometime, maybe," she offered, though deep down, she wasn't sure it would ever have the chance to happen. Not in the way she believed he imagined.  

[TawnyAngel]

Humm.... Well if she didn't want to talk about whatever was bothering her - was something bothering her or was he reading too much into her brief pause? - then he wasn't going to pry. He didn't know her well enough to feel like he had the right to do that.

"That sounds lovely," he said instead with a smile and a nod. "Maybe we can cook together? I like to cook with other people... well bake mainly, I am better at baking to be honest." He had enjoyed baking with Nadja but.... Well, she was a busy woman and it wasn't as though they'd been a thing. He wished they had been, in hindsight, but that always was twenty-twenty wasn't it? Anyway, he probably wouldn't have got up the courage to say anything to her. She was a bit young for him really anyway, right?

Dith took another sip of his tea. "Where are you living? I mean, what's it like? If your place is a little small to host a dinner party you're welcome to hold it here. Any of you are welcome here any time in fact, if I haven't said."