Early Bird

[Rika]

Rika giggled at his statement of her having a strange taste in fun. "Why does that have to be considered strange?" She asked back with a smile.

"Hm?" She perked a bit as he began to offer a proposition to her, rather curious at where he was going with this. When he finished by saying he would do whatever she wanted, she giggled at that and smiled brightly at him. "I will definitely make you laugh and have fun at that park! Just you wait, it will be a great day!" She exclaimed happily, not sure what she might ask him to do, but more concerned about getting him to enjoy the day than winning some proposition like that.

[Zephel]

Zephel had to take his time to give Rika a good long stare at her question, "...Are you seriously asking me that? ..Seriously?" He's so dull and apathetic, it's a ridiculous notion to even combine the word 'fun' with him.

"I commend your bravery. Good luck," he responded, sarcastically of course. "I was just attempting to rile you up, but obviously, that didn't work.." Just after he spoke that, he could hear the back door being opened, probably another worker arriving, so he pulled himself from leaning on the table in between them and checks the oven.

Just then, apparently out of nowhere, a thought entered his mind. "Hey Rika," he called, an air of urgency in his voice. "You're good with herbs and plants, right? Can you make herbal teas?"

[Rika]

Rika simply smiled at Zephel with a slight tilt to her head as he spoke. She let out a quiet "Hm?" At the end of his replies, not too sure what he meant by riling her up as she considered her excitement thoroughly riled. She giggled at him after a moment, then exclaimed "Consider myself excitement thoroughly riled for this weekend!" She said with a thumbs up at him.

Rika looked towards the entrance where she heard another coworker entering. The other girl passed by them with a weak morning greeting, to which Rika happily replied with "Good morning!" The girl tiredly made her way into the back room to change and get ready to work then.

When Zephel called her again, Rika smiled over at him, not really noticing a sense of urgency in his voice. She giggled slightly at his question and beamed a smile at him. "Of course I can! Do you need anything?" She asked him, still smiling brightly.

[Zephel]

Zephel could hear her response of being 'riled up' and wanted to just place a palm over his face so badly. It still both appalls and annoys him how she can be so ridiculously happy and motivated this early of the day.

Thankfully, the door distracts him from thinking any further.

Zeph only nodded at his coworker as his respond to her morning greeting while he's opening the oven. At the small of fresh baked goods the moment he opened it, he questioned Rika if she knows how to make herbal teas. Her answer pleases him that he actually brightened up by her response.

"That's great. I was thinking about making tea buns. But it'd be great if the tea has herbal effects as well. Maybe I can throw in honey flavored, maybe cranberry, some raisins too.. What do you think?" He had never made a single tea bun before, but it'd be great to advertise to the Kumo residents about the cafe if they serve pastries with herbal qualities.

[Rika]

Rika smiled excitedly at Zephel at his idea of making tea buns. "That sounds amazing, Zephel!" Rika was always excited about new ideas, especially when it's something that she can help with.

"Oh!" She exclaimed suddenly with a look that showed she just had an idea or figured something out. "I have the perfect tea recipe for that!" She said with a bright smile. "I'll be right back!"

With that, Rika dashed to the back of the kitchen area where she had left her things when she changed earlier. She quickly found her belongings and started to go through them happily, hoping she had all the right ingredients today. She pulled out a bunch of small herb containers and her other supplies to properly prepare them. She then carried the items back into the kitchen and placed them on an open table, starting to organize them with a huge smile on her face.

"With these ingredients, blended in just the right way, I can make a tea that will help strengthen the immune system and aid with faster digestion. That way, if the customers eat a lot of sweets, including the tea buns, they can still maintain a healthy flow and reduce their risks of getting sick!" Rika announced this with a bright smile up at Zephel. A moment later, her smile turned a bit sheepish. "I created this recipe when I kept feeling unwell with my poor diet choices..."

[Zephel]

Zeph finally smiled properly, glad that Rika's very receptive of his tea buns idea. When she said that she has a good recipe to try, Zeph only nodded and watched her dashing off with slight amusement. He raised his cup of coffee and took a long sip from it, enjoying his morning drink.

Now, when Rika returned with a number of items instead of a piece of paper like he expected, Zephel blinked down at the things she placed on a table near him. He looked back up at her in surprise when she explained that she can make a tea with curable properties. Actually, he was pretty damn impressed.

Listening to her last comment on how she came to create such a useful recipe, Zeph let out an airy singular chuckle, shaking his head slightly. "You used yourself as a test subject?" He asked in both bewilderment and amusement, then puts down his mug of coffee as he walked over the table to look over at the ingredients.

He needed to see how thick is the powder and if the scent might end up smelling burnt during the baking process, but there's no way he'd know that unless he tried first. "You sure I can use these? I'll make a couple of beta buns for us to test if it tastes fine first, and if it turns out decent, I might need you to write down these ingredients for me so we can get a stock of these. Is that okay?"

His face was serious when he said those things, but then it warms up into a small smile. "I need your herbal specialty for this, thanks for deciding to work here."

[Rika]

Expecting Zephel to comment on the fact that Rika tends to choose unheathly foods more often than healthy one, she was a little surprised at the question that actually came out of his mouth instead.

"Eh?" She looked up at him in mild surprise before chuckling sheepishly. "Well, yeah. I was giving myself problems, so I figured I might as well use my herbal knowledge to my own advantage too." She placed a hand a bit behind her head, smiling rather sheepishly. "I... only got sick once or twice in the process."

Rika smiled happily again when Zephel asked if she was sure they could use the ingredients. "Of course! Most of the plants I got these from aren't hard to find." Her smile faltered a moment as she recalled the trouble she went through for one in particular the last time she found it. "Most..."

"Ah!" She brought herself quickly back to an excited mode, very happy to be of assistance so soon. "I'll divide and prepare them! I suppose I should plan for what could make up one pot of tea?" She inquired to be sure just how potent she should prepare the recipe.

"Oh! Don't worry! I also keep note of everything I collect! After all," she sheepishly held the back of her head again as her thoughts went off onto another tangent, "I wouldn't want to accidentally test something using unknown ingredients." She chuckled nervously, then looked away with an ashamed glance. "I... uh... well.. that's one of the reasons I got sick before."

Rika quickly pulled herself out of her thought again to smile happily at Zephel with a small chuckle. "Well, at least I've learned to be more careful. Oh and don't worry! That happened a few years ago! There's nothing really strange or unknown in my supply!" She said assuringly with a cheerful smile. "Whenever I come across something I don't recognize, I take a picture of it before I collect it and label it unknown, then I look up what it is to make sure it's nothing bad!"

Rika caught the moment when Zephel's serious expression warmed into a smile. She smiled back happily before being hit by a flattering comment. Her eyes widened a bit and her cheeks flushed a pinker shade than her usual pink tone. After a brief moment of surprise at his comment, her smile returned brighter than ever. "I'll do my best!" She exclaimed excitedly.

[Zephel]

With Zephel having his eyes down towards the ingredients, nobody would've noticed how his gaze paused a bit when Rika admitted that she got herself sick through testing on how to cure herself. Slowly, his eyes raised from the staring at the ingredients to the woman in front of him. ".....You're one weird and brave girl, Rika." He shook his head slightly with a slight smile and reverted his eyes back to the ingredients she provided.

"Well, if it's not much of a problem for you, I can ask my brother to go with you the next time you want to collect these plants." Remembering how Hikaru is also drawn towards herbs and such like Rika is, Zeph is sure he can depend on him at least in this field. "So he can help you out, I don't want you to wear yourself out for the sake of this idea of mine."

When Rika entered that excited mode of hers again, Zephel unconsciously stepped back to minimize the impact of the energy she's bursting forth. "Yes, yes. One pot of tea is good enough.." He nodded, about to turn to mind his bread and get started on another batch of dough when Rika started to talk about unrelated things.

With his back facing her, it didn't really seem like Zeph was listening, but after Rika had finished speaking, his shoulders jerked a bit, as if he just let out a silent laugh. "You're a passionate young woman, Rika." He said while still having his back towards her. "I'm sure you'll do your best in everything," his head was slightly turned over to glance at her as he said that before returning back to focus on the dough he has to work on.

'...Oh right. I have to introduce her to Hikaru later.'

[Rika]

Rika smiled cheerfully and giggled at Zephel's compliment of her being weird and brave. At least she took it as a compliment.

At his offer of asking his brother to accompany her to go herb-gathering next time, Rika's clasped her hands together excitedly. "If he'd like to, I'd love that!" She replied cheerfully, excited by the possibility of being able to speak herbs with someone new who might also be interested. Rika then giggled at Zephel's following comment. "I won't be worn out by that, don't worry~"

Rika beamed again from receiving more compliments from Zephel. She felt so happy, she even playfully gave him a little salute with a smile and a tilted head when he glanced back at her.

As Zephel returned to his dough, Rika happily began to go over her containers of herbs. She pulled out a special mixing bowl and stir stick and began measuring out ingredients and adding them to the bowl, mixing and crushing them together until they were almost a paste. She then pulled out a small piece of special cloth from a package of many such small cloths and scooped the small mixture into the cloth. She closed the cloth and tied it with a string so the mixture wouldn't spill out, then set it down to go fill a pot with hot water.

When she returned, she gently lifted the mixture-filled cloth and slipped it into the tea pot, making sure the string caught in the lid as she closed it so that she could more easily retrieve the make-shift baggie when the tea was done.

Satisfied, Rika let out a happy sigh then carried her mixing bowl and stir stick over to the sink to clean them out and wash her hands. She brought the dried bowl and stick back to the counter with her herbs then walked back to her locker to find some paper and a pen. When she returned again to the counter, she leaned over with the pen and paper and began jotting out the ingredients and the specific amounts of each for one pot, how best to prepare them, and other items that were good to use as well for the best result.

[Zephel]

'She's like a little kid.' Zephel caught himself thinking of that thought after witnessing Rika's high energy and optimistic responses. He ended up inwardly chuckling to himself at how true that is. Rarely did he see an adult, or even a teenager, with that amount of spirit nowadays. Most people are dulled by the drone of their everyday customs and responsibilities, so to see Rika still viewing life so highly and positively like every day is a new day for her, he decided it's best not to rain on her parade and let her enjoy her rose-tinted view of the world for as long as it lasts. He'll might even try to protect that perspective of hers, if only to receive the refreshing after-effect of her bubbly energy.

He eyed Rika over at the other counter occassionally, smiling to himself at how energetic she looked with even focusing on doing her thing. As he pulls another tray of freshly baked goods, more of the employees entered the kitchen, chattering among themselves with pleasantries and topics of their life.

"Zephel...!" Zeph turned his attention to the one calling his name, and found that the baker who called him gestured her head towards the back door. Familiar red hair peaked from the opened back door and Zeph immediately recognized who he is. Quickly, he bagged a few pastries and tarts, and rolled the top of the paper bag down as he made his way to the back door. Like he predicted, Hikaru is standing there with a plastic bag in his hand. The boy's hair looks so unkempt, Zeph ran his hand on his brother's hair to at least smooth it down a bit.

Hikaru frowned at his action and weakly brushed his arm off of his hair, "Stop it, I'm not a kid anymore. And here are your potions." Zeph then traded his paper bag with Hikaru's plastic one, "Thanks. And take this. Eat." Sometimes, when Zeph's too tired from work, he would ask Hikaru to use Maki's instructions in concocting the energy potions for him. Hikaru, knowing his brother's condition, gladly offered to help whenever he stops by. It's not often he'd be in Evnae though, since he's either with Yuki or in Kumo. Hikaru's quite active in his social life recently that he always seems so busy. He only decided to stay with Zeph for a few days when he came with Muri in tow some time ago.

Suddenly remembering that this might be a good time to introduce Hikaru to Rika, Zeph was just about to voice that out when Hikaru made a quick salute to him. "I gotta go, nii-san, I'm REALLY late for the temple event. See ya! Good luck with work!" And the boy's gone the moment Zeph exhaled his breath, he actually jumped over the rails of the metal staircase and landed with a thump on the ground below. The silver-haired sighed while shaking his head, closing the back door before he resumes back his place at his work table.

[Rika]

When Rika had finished writing down the ingredients and instructions for making this tea, she smiled and released a satisfied breath of air. She pulled the piece of paper out of the little notebook, leaving it next to the pot for a moment, and put her notebook and pen in a pocket of her uniform. Rika carefully picked up the string that was in the teapot and held it in place as she opened the lid and leaned forward to check the colour and smell of the tea to get a rough estimate of how much longer it should steep. Thinking it was almost done, she smiled happily and returned the lid and string to their positions.

Satisfied with her work, she stood a bit taller for herself and smiled brightly over at Zephel. "It's done~!" She spoke a little proudly, hoping he would be satisfied with her tea. "The tea is almost fully steeped and I wrote down a list of ingredients and instructions so that someone else can make it if I'm not here." She beamed happily, glad to be of any help whatsoever.

[Zephel]

Once Zephel returned to his kneading table, he was surprised to be greeted by Rika's announcement that she's finished completing his requests. "Really??" There was an unmistakable surprise in his tone. While he knew Rika from long ago, this was the first he gets to see her work ethics. To see her to be surprisingly efficient pleases him, "Wow, that's great. Thanks..! I appreciate it." He's relearning how to be genuine and honest with his words, not just when he's upset, but when he's grateful too. There's a lot he needed to relearn.

Zeph slowly eases his hands back to the dough he's been working on, but continued talking with Rika, "I hope you don't mind that we'll have a small experimental session after your tea's finished and I'm done with this." He gestured to a coworker to take over the kneading and cooling process later. Zeph then turned to Rika again, "We'll both have a taste of your tea while trying differently made plain buns to figure out which texture works best with the after-taste of the tea. After I've decided which technique works best for it, I'll apply your ingredients to a small batch of dough and we'll see if it works. Might take a lot of tries though, I hope you're ready."

The way he talks sounds so professional, but Zeph's just inwardly excited to try this new idea. He's glad Rika inspired it, and he wondered, if it works, that he should named them after her.

[Rika]

"Yep~!" Rika chirped when Zephel asked for confirmation that she was already done. When Zephel then complimented her and thanked her for completing the tea, Rika beamed happily up at him. It always felt good to complete tasks and make others happy.

"Ooo~ Experimenting is always fun!" Rika responded to Zeph stating they'll have an experimental session. She listened attentively to his description of the intended session, a full smile on her face. She giggled a bit when he said he hopes she's ready. "I'm always ready for anything~" She responded with a big smile. "We'll make the perfect tea buns, I'm sure of it~"

"Oh!" She exclaimed suddenly with a shocked expression and turned back to the pot to turn off the heat. She removed the teapot from the heat and checked inside again to make sure it wasn't overdone just now. She gave a small sigh then turned back to Zephel with a thumbs up and a big smile. "It's still good~ I got to it just in time!"

[NPC: Female]

She was hidden underneath her angelic cloak as she walked in the cafe where freshly baked goods were being created. “Angelise” was quiet and gentle in her steps, and while there was no sign of the one she was hiding away from for the time being, she still remained relatively cautious, even as she continued to help other people around the domain, studying and interning as a nurse at Jowston Hospital. The only time she let down her guard in its entirety was when she was back home in Sougen where she lived.

“Angelise” was an alias that she had chosen to use if people asked what her name was while she was making her rounds. Those that knew her face and true identity were people that were close friends, or were acquaintances that she knew from high school. But ever since she got word that her biological dad was in the domain and hunting her down, “Angelise” couldn’t take any chances, although she hadn’t thought that Sougen could have been risky to let down her guard, she still took a chance when she was at home anyway, as she wanted to hide her identity but not be scared in her own home.

She also did what she could to lock down any information that could get out about her as much as possible, but being the resident angel that she is, the time will come where information about her location will be revealed and that's when she has to face the harsh reality and her father. She was in her early twenties after all and she wasn’t going to let her father take away her peaceful life that she had worked so hard to create and maintain.

The angel gently called out to order something for the children that she was looking after as a nurse intern, and she unfortunately didn’t see anyone at the front of the counter as of yet since it was still very early morning, and well “Angelise” got there the minute the cafe sign was flipped to open so of course other the coworkers were still busy coming in and getting themselves sorted, and noticing that there was a pregnant coworker in the mix the angel decided to help her. “Here let me get that for you. Be careful okay? Don’t lift anything heavy.”

Milo the angel’s most trusted companion, friend, and dove got excited by all the scrumptious smells coming from the kitchen. Some of the herbs had made him hyper- almost as if he was getting high off it. The dove bolted into the kitchen and took a taste of that dough, that was being made into teabuns. “Angelise”ran after her bird and apologized to the two that were working. Zephel will definitely know who “Angelise” really is if he has a moment to look at her face, but the rest of her body was hidden under her cloak. “I’m so so sorry! The dove is mine, and I didn’t know he would react like this. I’ll just get him and we’ll be on our way out. After I buy something to make up for this little fiasco.”

[Zephel]

'Of course the word 'experiment' sounds fun to her,' Zephel mused in his mind, picking up Rika's excitement of their soon to be experimental session. "Yes, yes, we'll make the perfect tea buns indeed." He drones, feigning tiredness of her blinding energy, yet the small smile on his face told otherwise.

Zeph follows Rika's movement with his eyes once she remembers her teapot is still boiling, chuckling to himself at her somewhat airheaded antics. It's nice to be young and spirited, he doesn't mind watching over her while they're workmates at this point of time. Perhaps she will be a good influence on him during her stay here.

As they prepared both the tea and the plain buns beside one another, Zeph signals for Rika to take the first drink and bite. For a while, they both sat there and began to discuss what could be improved. The baker ended up deciding to use Rika's herbal mixture into a small section of the dough, just enough to make 4 or so buns, just to test how well it would go with heat.

His ear perked at the faint sound of the bell at the door of the cafe ringing. It got drowned out by the loud oven dinging at the same time, none of the staffs inside could hear the bell. "Huh. Anyone at the front?" He asks the staffs milling around, assuming someone is already there, but made sure to ask anyway. The silver-haired is not particularly in charge of the store, but he has a certain authoritative aura that made the staffs intrinsically reliant on him for some reason. One of the pregnant staffs --Mary Beth is her name if he remembered correctly-- went through the kitchen door to check on the front, and Zeph relaxes.

With the staffs going in and out of the kitchen to put some pastries out in the display glass, just before the kitchen door closed on its own, a bird flew in like a bullet. "What the--" Zeph, being a seasoned warrior, was acutely aware of the thing the moment it slipped in. "Careful." He warned Rika, who's closest to him, and already had an arm in front of her as he looks up at the bird.

It appears to be a white dove, which is strange in these parts. Birds would not fly around Evnae due to the pollution in the air. To his surprise, the dove flew straight towards the dough he's working on. Heck, his gloved hands are still sticky by kneading that same dough, he's worried the bird would get itself stuck in it. The dove ended up landing beside the dough and pecks it in its beak. Zephel has no idea if the dough, which is raw, is safe to consume for birds. He's now worried if this random bird will show signs of pain.

His second concern is the dough batch is essentially ruined now. He doesn't want to risk possible disease from a random animal, so he opts to not use this specific dough to bake now. Fortunately, it's only a small batch, so he doesn't feel like it's too wasted.

A person had followed the dove in the kitchen and was quick to apologize for the unfortunate circumstance. This is precisely why a person shouldn't take unleashed animals into places of business, especially restaurants. Even service animals are leashed, and they typically aren't allowed to roam freely in places that serves food. Zephel exhales deeply while removing the now sticky gloves he was wearing. He was ready to reprimand this person who owns the dove, moving past Rika to face this person properly.

Now he can see it's a cloaked woman, which is strange in these parts. People usually wear these kinds of cloaks when they're hiding from something, thus Zeph is immediately suspicious of her. He tries to peer under her cloak to see her face. However, she's much shorter than him while he's easily 6 feet in his full height, so that's a difficult feat. He can only see the bottom half of her face and does not recognize her at this moment.

"Ma'am, next time, please don't allow your pets in establishments serving food." He chides, wondering to himself how to even logically control birds. "We appreciate your apology, but can you please check if your bird is alright? It consumed some raw dough with herbs in it. I'm unsure if it's safe to eat, even for birds." Zeph steps back from the woman to make way for her to take her pet away from his work area, and only then he can see the face under the cloak.

"Wh-- Mitsuko?" His eyebrows creases as he takes another look at her. "Why are you dressed like that.." He was about to question, but then his thoughts immediately led to worrisome assumptions. "Are you in danger? Is someone following you?" His tone had completely dropped from being a mildly annoyed baker to a concerned friend who can and will scare a few muggers away for her. "Do you need help?"