[REG] A Branch, a Blossom, a... what? (Vera, Janice) (FIN!)

[cibarium]

The weather was making this harder than Janice would have liked it to. It was slowly starting to get to the point where it was too cold to go outside unless it was for a really good reason -- then again, this also meant she could pile on as many clothes as she pleased to get the look she wanted. Summer was at a severe disadvantage in that regard. Still, it made her a bit irritated to be trudging through all this snow and dodging all this ice to get from the parking lot of Vera's apartment complex to her actual apartment. She didn't want to risk anything with the delicate package she was handling.

Her long fingers had managed to go numb even through her gloves, she could barely feel her face and the wind kept cutting through her like a knife made of ice. Once she was inside there was going to be tea if she had anything to do about it; whether she or Vera made it didn't matter. It was ******** cold out here.

Janice trotted into the building, galloped up the stairs, and rushed down the hallway until stopping before the familiar number that designated Vera's door. With one frozen set of fingers she gently rapped on the door, and waited.  

[Ithiltari]

Vera had been waiting for Janice's arrival and the door was quickly opened before more than one knock had been made. As warm air seeped out of the apartment, and her friend waved in quickly, it was abundantly clear that Vera Valentine rather disliked cold. Despite the heating system working overtime, the pink-haired teen was still wearing a thick, but plain, sweater with sleeves long enough to cover her hands. "I've already made some tea," she said, anticipating what Janice would likely ask for once she had peeled off at least a few layers. "But I can make some more if you don't want mine." Vera's preferred tea was made with some flower or another that made for a rather sweet tea.

It also smelled like apricots, which had the interesting effect, combined with the warmth, of making the apartment seem much more summery than the weather outside would indicate. "What do you have there?" she asked, noting the package Janice was carrying.  

[cibarium]

A sigh of relief issued from Janice's lips the moment the door opened and welcoming warm air crept out to greet her. She suddenly realized that all this time her body had been tensed up more than usual in order to keep in as much heat as possible, and she let her muscles unwind a bit as she carefully stepped in, mindful to not get any snow inside Vera's apartment. "I'm fine with anything that doesn't have six pounds of sugar in it," she replied while working the buttons of her coat open with a free hand. "You don't need to make anymore if there's enough for two people."

Gingerly, she set the package down on the floor and peeled her gloves off one by one, tucking them into a pocket before shrugging off her coat and hanging it up. "It's colder than the damned subspace outside, I swear," she idly griped. Like Vera, she was wearing a sweater... unlike Vera, it was the correct size, ending neatly at her wrists. The question about the package was met with a bit of an avoidant gaze, and after accepting a teacup and sitting at the coffee table, Janice awkwardly replied, "...it's a gift."  

[Ithiltari]

"There's plenty," she replied after shutting the door and following Janice to the kitchen. Pouring her friend a cup, and topping off her own, Vera sat down and shoved the sleeves of her sweater up, though they didn't stay there long, falling back to roll around her wrists. Her toes curled slightly (at least as far as anyone would be able to tell, covered in thick socks as her feet were) in happiness at the next sip of tea she took; this must have been a particularly good batch in order to elicit such a reaction. "Why do you think I'm staying inside?" she asked after setting the tea down and curling herself up on the sofa. A quick lean forward snared the mug once more, however.

"I, oh," Vera said, looking down at her tea. "It's not Christmas," my birthday, "yet, though?" she said, not looking at Janice. She hadn't got anything for the other teen yet. There was still a canister of tea in a cupboard, forlorn and a little forgotten. Embarrassing!  

[cibarium]

"You should try rolling those sleeves up," Janice remarked, her eyes peering up over her cup to take in Vera's appearance. She definitely looked like she hadn't been outside in a while... it was well into the afternoon, and her rose-petal-colored hair hadn't even been put up properly, instead bunched messily into a lazier ponytail than Janice was used to seeing on her. It almost felt a little invasive to see her without her hair tied up in its trademark bow-like fashion. Vera's guest looked just the opposite, her appearance managing to look as meticulously put together as ever even if the outfit itself wasn't very complicated.

Setting the cup carefully down on a coaster, Janice made her verdict: "You look like you're getting ready to hibernate. Maybe we should order some food for you so you don't starve to death before it's spring again." As she looked around for a phone book, the package made a little noise -- one that Janice was pointedly ignoring. Curiouser yet, there were neat rows of holes worked into the sides of the box that were pretty noticeable on second glance.  

[Ithiltari]

"Mmm," Vera said, making no movement at all towards rolling her sleeves up. In fact, after she moved one hand to brush a stray lock of hair that hadn't quite made it into her ponytail back from her face, that sleeve managed to fall over her hand. Slipping the mug of tea into that hand, she flapped the other to cause that one to cover the other hand, almost in defiance of Janice's suggestion. She was obviously entirely unbothered by her appearance as contrasted with the plum haired girl.

Vera took another sip of her tea to hide a smile at Janice's comment. "There's stuff in the fridge, I'd be fine," she replied finally, once she was sure she had her amusement under control. "But I wouldn't say no to some Chinese food." At the sound the box made, Vera peered at it curiously. She wouldn't ask, though. She'd already asked, and it was a gift. So she would wait until Janice felt like telling her what was in it.  

[cibarium]

Another noise issued from within the box; Janice located the phone book and flipped it open, practiced hands flurrying through to the food delivery menus. "We always default to Chinese, don't we?" she said, in a fairly neutral tone. For once she wasn't complaining -- good food was something she wouldn't complain about. Her finger traced over the menus, making a mental list of items they could get and adding up the totals (she could guess without asking what Vera would like by this point) before digging her phone out of her pocket and flipping it open.

"Aren't you going to open that?" she said, while considering the number.  

[Ithiltari]

"Better than bartering over pizza," Vera countered after another sip of her tea. They didn't like exactly the same toppings, and negotiating who was going to get what and who's turn it was to get what could go on for entirely too long. Any type of takeout where they could order separately was better, in Vera's opinion.

The second noise from the box startled her somewhat; she'd been distracted by thoughts of food. With a wordless shrug, she set the mug on the table and unfolded herself from the couch to pick the box up, causing whatever was in it to make another noise.

Curiously, Vera fumbled to open it before sighing and shoving one sleeve of her sweater up. It was really too bad most things required thumbs to open. She managed, though to get it open and almost dropped the box.

"Janice," she choked out eventually, staring.  

[cibarium]

Vera's gift flinched a bit from the sudden light flooding into its vision, but had its composure back soon enough. The blanket that had presumably been wrapped around it to keep it warm was gradually wriggled off and abandoned, and then it brought itself to a standing position and peered at the hand Vera still had partially reached inside, batting a bit at her fingers.

It was a cat. There was a kitten in the box -- and judging by the lack of anything else besides a couple of cat toys in there, it was evident that Janice had put it in there deliberately.

Janice was also suddenly very busy with ordering them their food, placing their order into the phone with a pressed tone.  

[Ithiltari]

Vera didn't say anything as the kitten batted at her fingers. She actually wiggled them a little bit, something that delighted her apparent gift. With what the cat probably thought was a ferocious growl (but was instead a merely heart-meltingly adorable mew), it attacked one of her fingers, latching on with tiny paws and teeth. The teen winced a bit at the teeth, gently maneuvering her hand around to scoop the kitten out of the box.

"You got me a cat," she said wonderingly, absentmindedly falling back onto the couch and letting the kitten explore her sweater and lap. She had a cat, Vera thought somewhat erratically, except that he wasn't really a cat. Not all the time. Grendel wasn't 'home' tonight and Vera's thoughts darted around, focusing mostly on the cat in front of her with quick slashes of worry about where, exactly her not a cat (and he wasn't really hers, either) was and how he was doing.  

[cibarium]

The tiny feline stumbled a bit over Vera's legs as it began its exploration of this new territory, giving another mew at the disappearance of her hand. It was easy to imagine that it wanted to know where its new toy had went, and wanted to play with it again! However, that thought was seemingly quickly abandoned as the kitten made two new discoveries during its adventure: Vera was warm, and the sweater made her soft.

Immediately it began to bury its head into Vera's front, purring just about loud enough to be heard next door.

Janice had inconveniently lost the distraction she was busying herself with -- ordering food, unfortunately, did not take very long. For a couple of moments she remained stationary on the couch, staring at her cellphone, before quietly setting it down on the table and shifting a little bit in her seat. After another moment of awkward hesitation she finally, albeit simply, said, "Yes... I did."  

[Ithiltari]

Vera's hands had disappeared back into the depths of her sweater sleeves, which made rolling them around for the kitten to dart after and attempt to catch that much more adorable. When it buried it's head in her chest, purring, Vera laughed, delighted. "And do you have a name?" she asked, picking the kitten up to discreetly check gender.

"Does she?" she asked Janice, looking over at her friend finally. Vera's purple eyes were warm and she made a tiny involuntary movement, as if she wanted to lean over and hug Janice but immediately thought better of it. "Thank you," she said instead, returning to staring at the kitten.

This was possibly the best gift anyone had ever gotten her.  

[cibarium]

"No, she doesn't," Janice stiffly answered, her arms folded her lap, the fingers of one hand working over a wrinkle in her slacks. "I figured... you'd want to do that, Vera." There was a very, very brief instant in which her murky eyes flicked over to look at Vera and her new cat before they rushed back to stare at the corner of the table. Her fingers balled into a fist, then relaxed again.

"She's already spayed," she continued, "and there's some food and things for her when we can bring it back up here." Janice's voice was very strained, very controlled, listing out only the very basic facts and not talking very much about what she felt about them. She kept to her spot at the end of the couch, not moving a nanometer besides the idle movement of her fingers and a stray lock of hair that was being pushed away from her face by her breath.  

[Ithiltari]

Vera continued to stare at the kitten as Janice spoke in her stilted fashion; occasionally the pink-haired girl wondered if they would ever be able to speak normally again. It didn't seem very likely most days, and the happy glow in her eyes dimmed for a moment before the kitten did something utterly adorable to restore it.

"I'm not going to want to go outside until spring," Vera said rather firmly, flicking her gaze back over at Janice. "But I suppose if the wind dies down anytime soon, I can help." If only, and Vera bit her lip thinking this, Paul was here. He'd have helped carry any supplies up, probably while smiling. "A name, though," she mused, picking the kitten up and rubbing her cheek against it's head She turned the kitten to face Janice and smiled again. "How about Olive?"  

[cibarium]

"Olive," Janice parroted, turning her head to look the kitten in the eye. After a couple awkward moments of consideration, as if trying to peer into the cat's inner being to see if that name was printed onto her soul already, she slowly, quietly concluded, "...she is cute enough to eat, isn't she." At those words, she blinked a couple of times -- as if surprised she'd actually said them.

The wind picked up again with a nasty, mournful howl intense enough to make the whole apartment building shake a bit. That was enough to make it apparent the weather probably wasn't going to let up anytime soon. Janice couldn't help but pity the person delivering their food, at least a little. With a hand stiffly reaching out to try and beckon Olive over, she then muttered, a bit ponderously, "Well, we could just teleport the rest of her things in here. If we're careful."