Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Side sim: The Report Dilemma

(snip)

“Okay,” Rand smiled and then stood up carefully to make sure her foot wasn’t going to embarrass her. Then without realizing what she was doing, before she let go of his hand, she leaned over and kissed his cheek. Her eyes went really wide and she backed up a quick step, having surprised herself, and she stammered, “Uh…oh…um…I…I’ll go get it.” She turned quickly for the door.

Rand

Before Roman had realized what was happening, Rand had leaned over and kissed his cheek. The action surprised him, and he paused for a moment. Not at all upset, actually he was quite happy about it. But her eyes went wide and she backed off, and Roman didn’t want her to leave. “Miranda, wait,” he said, trying to catch her before she left. “You gave me some of the tea, remember? And I’ve got a kettle. We can make some right here.”

~ Roman

Rand stopped and turned to look at him as he caught up to her. Not that hard considering the size of the room. She really liked how he used her whole name. Never when anyone was around, just them. It made her feel… different, all warm and happy and nervous - in a good way. He had the tea… Oh right, she gave it to him. He made it for himself sometimes. She was totally caught by surprise over his statement about making the tea there she forgot all about worrying if she should have kissed him or not or how he felt about it or not.

No one else used her full name, and that made it… special somehow. Maybe because it made her name more different from Randy’s but that wasn’t it, not really. It was familiar, like a special nickname. Except it wasn’t, it was just her name.

“Oh, of course..right,” Now with a focus on what she was doing, she moved away from the door. Then she paused, realization kicking in, she had no idea where he kept any of it. She’d always brought the tea with her. She was looking around the room, where she guessed he might keep everything, but it would be rude to just go through his things. “I don’t know where you keep it all.” And of course if Rand had left she would have worked herself up horribly and then possibly not returned at all.

Rand

Roman, satisfied that Rand was not going to leave, was already headed over to the little counter space he had in the room. Next to his own electric kettle were the little ceramic jars he stored his tea in, the sort that latched shut. “It’s all here.” He pulled out two of the pouches of her tea and set them on the counter as he put water in the kettle. There really weren’t many places to put things, but Roman didn’t have that many things, either. The only things out on the little counter space were the jars of tea and the kettle.

~ Roman

Rand followed him over to the counter, he had pulled the tea bags out, and the other container contained his black tea. She didn’t see mugs at first but found them easily enough. She didn’t use honey or cream in this tea, but she knew he liked it, and she didn’t see any on the counter. “Do you want honey or cream? I can go get it if you want it.”

Rand

Roman pointed to a drawer near where she’d found the mugs. “They’re both there. Just cream today would be fine,” he said as he put the kettle on to boil. It was electric, so all he had to do was plug it in and wait.

~ Roman

Rand opened the drawer that let a small breath of chilled air and she took out the small container of cream. She placed the tea packets in the mugs and then when the kettle beeped and the light flashed and she picked up the kettle and poured the steaming water into the mugs over the tea. “I miss the sound of the kettle whistling.” Rand was very careful as she poured, letting the hot water hit first against the side of the cup and then begin washing over the teabag so that the tea didn’t burn. She let it steep and then very carefully swirled a spoon around the cup and lifted the tea bags out and discarding them. She’d been making Roman’s tea long enough she knew, without asking him, exactly how much cream he took in his tea. She poured the cream, swirled it with the spoon and then with a soft tab on the side of the cup she put the spoon down. She picked the cup up and offered it to him. “Here ya go.”

Rand