quality time, c

Oops.

He made himself feel a little silly to assume she'd never heard of what fish and chips were. But the way she said it, she'd seemed like it sounded like a weird idea.

Basil let out a soft chuckle to muffle his embarrassment.

"So that's where you're from... I never would have guessed you to be from the Carribean; that's very interesting to hear. I didn't know you had a brother, either. What's he like?" Basil asked as he started to make a pot of tea. There was a little time before dinner could be started, so why not a little bit of tea to go along with those cookies Hadley was eating and spend some time getting to know each other better?

This whole conversation thing was actually pretty fun to him or perhaps he was being biased because he enjoyed the conversational partner?

"I'm from Brighton, England."

Basil reached up into the cabinets and pulled out a medium-sized tin can, the outside of it decorated in an old-fashioned floral print. He opened it up and sniffed what was inside, making sure it was still fresh. When he was sure, he closed the lid and set it aside, turning around to face away from the counter and look at Hadley who sat across the room.

"Your family sounds very nice... I don't--I mean, I do. I have family, but I might as well not. I don't talk to them. I have a brother, a mum, and a dad. I haven't seen any of them in a long while. My brother is a lazy bum who sits around all the time, grows pot, and smokes it all day long. He's always high and it gets on my nerves. My mum and dad don't care about what he does, so they just pretend it doesn't happen."

Basil shrugged and when the kettle started to whistle, he turned the heat down, dropping the tea leaf basket into the boiling water to let it steep.

"Your family sounds very lively and that's really nice. I'd keep in touch with mine, but I don't really see the need. They don't keep in touch with me, so why should I put forth the effort?" Basil asked, though the question was rhetorical.

Basil let out a laugh as he poured tea into two tea cups, placing those tea cups on a little tray along with a sugar dish, a dish of cream, a few lemon slices, and two spoons.

Gingery, he placed the tray down onto the coffee table and took a seat beside Hadley, picking up one of the tea cups and fixing it just he way he liked it. He offered the other cup to her, sure that Hadley must have been getting thirsty from all the cookies.

"No, I don't ever talk to him, or them, of lately. And you know," Basil answered, setting his spoon aside once he was finished with it, taking a sip from his perfectly prepared cup of tea. "I'm alright with that. I've been getting along fine without them. I honesty don't see the need to bother them with my business, nor have them in mine."

That coldness Basil was used to showing really came out when he talked about his family. Not because he felt the need to shield himself from Hadley, but he felt a sort-of resentment towards them.

"However, it must be nice, having some family that you don't resent or hate. You seem to really be attached to your younger siblings, the way you spoke about them. 'Heaven sent' you said?" Basil continued on with a smile.

He noticed her sudden awkwardness, but wasn't sure how to act on it, so he answered her questions instead, hoping that would've been good enough. The only problem was that her awkwardness was beginning to spread to him, too.

"We, uh, I fry it--I mean...I bake the fries, really. They taste better that way, but I fry up the fish, batter it up and fry it in my frying pan. I don't have a deep fryer," Basil responded, talking with one hand and holds his tea cup with the other.

It was strange, trying to talk about dinner with her. Again, it was that thing he wasn't used to: social interaction. He was actually trying to get along with someone, to get to know them better.

Basil was honestly surprised at himself. He never would have thought that he would be brave enough to do that type of thing again. It was a little pathetic to think that, now that he did think about it, but it was true. Perhaps he really was a loser just trying to break out of that horrible shell.

Hearing those last few words come out of her mouth were a bit of a surprise. The others, not so much.

His eyes widened a little bit from the surprise of them, but furrowed his brows all the same.

"That's really shocking, coming from you. I mean, you're so loud and outgoing--Er, what I mean is... You're very noticeable. You stand out in a crowd. You're so quick to voice your opinion on things that it shocks me to hear that you don't really talk much with others.

"It's not much of a surprise on my end, though. I haven't talked with someone like this in a really long time, either. I tend to push them away with how cold I can be. Nobody wants to talk with a person who's going to snark at them, right?" Basil finally asked with a snicker. "Would you like more tea?"

His own cup was almost empty and he decided since he was about to fill his own, he would be a good host and fill Hadley's as well.

Sometimes he knew that he was doing it, other times he didn't, but he would quickly find out when the person would scoff at him and chew him out on "being a know-it-all" or "acting like he doesn't care". It was sad because, some of the time he did care, but he didn't know how to show it properly. The other times they were probably right in their assumptions that he couldn't care less.

When he filled his tea cup, he sat the kettle back down and fixed his tea how he liked it once more, but he didn't take a sip afterwards. Instead, he gripped the cup tightly, looking down into the caramel-colored liquid.

"Are you... having fun?"

He looked up from his tea cup and the worried expression on his face became more apparent when his gaze met hers, though he started to look a lot more at ease with her response.

Basil smiled, his whole face seeming to light up with everything that she said. She liked his snark, the way he spoke, she was enjoying herself and not only those things, but she was comfortable around him. That alone made him all the happier.

"I'm really glad, then. I was worried that you wouldn't... and that would've been absolutely terrible... Not to mention humiliating..."he replied, rubbing his thumb over the heated porcelain. "I don't think I could ever hate your guts."

Wait... Did that just come out of his mouth? Did he just say that out loud?

His face lit up red like Christmas and he looked away from Hadley, looking anywhere but at her. He didn't mean to say that out loud. Especially right at her face!

Well, he figured it wasn't that big of a deal, but he knew what he meant by it and that was enough to make him self-conscious. What if she knew what he meant by it? What if she felt uncomfortable by it? He wouldn't dare want to make her feel that way, or pressured into anything-- Aw hell, it was just a mention of not hating her. It wasn't like he was asking her to stay the night--

His face reddened even more, if possible, and he was really starting to feel all sorts of uncomfortable just at his own inner voice. He wished it would shut up!