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'Hey I'm running a little late jsyk'

Richard hit 'send' on the text and bounced up and down on the balls of his feet as he waited for the light to change so he could cross the street. He hadn't been to To a Tea in a really long time, but neither he nor Seren were really big coffee drinkers. If they were going to meet up and catch up, they were both going to find a coffee shop a bit lackluster. So the suggestion had come up to go to a tea shop instead, and Richard had to admit he was a fan. He could get decaf tea and it not taste weirdly flat.

Hot leaf water over hot bean water any day, honestly.

'I'm gonna be home a little late bc I'm meeting up with a friend Love you <3' A text to Ignacio was the next order of business, as Richard realized he couldn't remember if he'd told Ignacio he was meeting up with Seren. The two of them were so busy lately that sometimes they missed each other the whole day. So, theoretically, Richard had told him, but... there was always a chance he hadn't actually, or Ignacio hadn't heard him. And with Ignacio being so weird and worried about things, he didn't want to give him more cause for concern.

So off went that text, just in time for the light to change and Richard to jog across the street. He could see To a Tea on an approaching corner, so he started looking around for Seren. Had she beat him there? He was late, so probably, so she was probably already inside. Pushing the door open to the jingle of the tiny bell, he squinted around to find her while his eyes adjusted to the inside lighting.

Seeing her arm go up made his go up automatically in a return wave, and Richard gave her a broad grin. Great, there she was! Okay, now he just had to order his own tea. He pursed his lips as he read over the menu. It had been a long time since he'd been here, but it was one of the things that got him through college, so he was still rather familiar with their selection. A rooibos was tempting, but he ended up ordering a passionflower-based one with citrus and proceeded to the table to sit with Seren. He returned the warm, friendly smile with one of his own as he pulled out his chair and folded his body down onto it.

"Sorry I'm late," he chuckled. "I promise I was planning on being here when you got here." Getting out of the studio on time had been a right pain, though. One of the parents had been late picking up their kid, and Richard couldn't leave until all of them were accounted for with the parent or guardian approved to pick them up. He didn't really mind waiting with the kids, but this parent was fairly notorious about it, and to be honest Richard didn't really appreciate it. Especially when there was always a quiet, resigned look on the kid's face whenever it happened, like she was used to it. One of these days, the parent was going to go over the hour-past-close mark, and Richard was going to have to call the authorities to report an abandoned kid, and he really, really did not look forward to that.

Anyway, he was supposed to be paying attention to tea with Seren.

"Were you able to find the place alright?" As he asked that, his phone buzzed and he reflexively looked down. 'Love you too <3', was Ignacio's return text. A brief, small affectionate smile crinkled his eyes and quirked up the corners of Arra's mouth as he read it. He read it again, once, before putting his phone back away and looking up at Seren for her answer, the smile lingering absently on his face for a moment.

"I did!" He liked talking about his job. It was fulfilling and he'd worked hard to get to the position he had at the studio. His mother wasn't ready to retire yet--he was pretty sure she was going to work until forced to stop--but she was already shifting more and more of the responsibility to him. He was responsible for the appointment booking, for arranging new classes, for working with vendors... Richard knew his mother's plan was to transfer most--if not all--of the administrative duties to him, so she could teach until she was actually ready to throw in the towel and enjoy retirement. "There are some little kids in a new beginner's class my mom wanted us to start doing, so most of my morning was spent chasing five-year-olds."

He was envious of the amount of energy possessed by a gaggle of kids. He was tired again just thinking about it.

"So, what kind of tea did you get? How was your day?" Richard awaited her response as he peered at her over the cup of tea he sipped on.

He chuckled when she mentioned not having the energy, amused at the echoing of his previous thought. Now, he wouldn't trade it for the world. He loved what he did. He loved kids, and he loved teaching them. His parents were starting to ask him about if he'd love parenting some, too, but so far he'd shooed away those questions for the most part. Kids were a big commitment, a commitment he wasn't sure Ignacio wanted, among other things. And that was another thing--he wanted to wait until he and Ignacio were out on their own before even thinking about it. Granted, his parents had hinted they'd like to get a smaller place and leave Richard the house, but oh it was a huge house, and Richard wasn't sure he'd be alright with that. There was the upkeep, sure, but... it would be empty, too. A six bedroom house but only one bedroom occupied. It was weirdly quiet already, sometimes, especially at night. His and Ignacio's bedroom was on the second floor, while his parents' was on the first. So they essentially had the floor to themselves, and it was... weird sometimes.

Having Ignacio there helped with that, admittedly.

"You get used to it, and caffeine helps," or so he'd heard, anyway. Richard didn't drink it, himself, if he could avoid it. His mother lived on it, though. "Hey, an indulgence once in a while is good for you." He chuckled again. "And, hey, sometimes you'd rather life be boring, y'know? Less excitement is less stress! Do they let you have a book or something in there?"

It had been a chuckle of understanding, if anything, and Richard listened attentively to her response. He liked Seren, honestly. She was quiet, and--at least to Richard--a bit shy, but it wasn't like he had never encountered someone like that before. Students came through his studio all the time with heavy reservations, so even if this wasn't quite the same thing, Richard was used to being gentle around the more skittish personalities. That also meant that, no, he wasn't going to press if she looked uncomfortable, not unless he was worried it was him making her uncomfortable. Otherwise, it... really wasn't his business, now was it?

And he was curious, but he knew how to mind his own business.

"I don't really drink it," he admitted with a shrug. "Best case scenario, it puts me to sleep. Worst case, when I was younger, it interacted with some medications I was on." Fortunately, he was no longer on those medications. Even for his hyperactivity, he was able to halfway manage it without popping a blue pill or four every day. That he had a bottle for, though, so he could take it on an as-needed basis, but it was still much better than when he'd been younger.

He didn't, admittedly, know what it was like to have to pull the purse-strings that tight. His parents were reasonably well off, and now he was employed full-time, so there was that. He supposed it had been a little tight at some points when he was still an undergrad freshman and expected to use his earnings as an assistant instructor to pay for Ignacio's expenses when his family took him in, but... that was about it. But he knew enough people on scholarships at the school and at the studio who weren't as fortunate, so it wasn't a foreign concept to him, at least.

And he knew better than to offer to pay for her drink, instead just nodding along as she spoke.

"Yeah, I can only imagine if someone comes in and the tutor is asleep at the desk." Another long drink off of his beverage. He was going to need a second one, soon. "Sucks about the no book thing, if you go hours and no one ever comes in." At least she could probably work on homework, or something? That's what the student helpers in the math lab and whatnot did.

He laughed good-naturedly, this time, not really surprised by her curiosity and not minding it, either. It wasn't the first time he had been asked about that, and he knew it wouldn't be the last. It was just... one of those things, and he wasn't terribly private about it. Of all the medications he'd been on as a kid, the little blue pills had really been the least embarrassing. "My ADHD, mainly. My parents used to give me small amounts of black coffee as a kid when I couldn't sleep." Then, they'd gotten him properly looked at, and he hadn't had more than a soda's worth of caffeine every great now and again in probably, oh, twenty years? Something like that. "So when I have to take meds for it, those and the caffeine give me headaches."

"Oh, wow, yeah, that sounds super boring." He gave a low whistle and a slight shake of his head. He would have probably chewed his arms off if he had to do that with nothing to occupy him during the slow periods. Not even really allowed to have a book? That would've been tortuous, honestly. "I'm jealous of that kind of patience!" Well, patience, ability to cope with being bored... same thing, right?

No, he knew they weren't, but still.

Finishing his tea, he pushed his chair back. "I'll be right back--I need a refill!" Richard gave a bit of a sheepish grin as he gently shook his empty cup. "Want anything while I'm up?"

Ah, that was a good point, about getting a pot over a cup. In retrospect, Richard figured he should have probably done the same thing. Oh well--too late now! He was probably only going to have one more cup anyway. Something else she had said tumbled over and over in his mind, however, and he pondered it to himself as he waited in line. By the time he got to the ordering counter, he had a couple different ideas. By the time he got to the payment part of the experience, he was pretty sure which ones wouldn't be of any use. By the time he got back to Seren, he was reasonably sure which one would be useful. Reasonably, because he did have to keep in mind that they had only known each other a short while.

Folding himself down into the chair, tucking long legs under the table, Richard leaned his elbows on the table and gently swirled his cup while he waited for the temperature to equalize. "I mean, my brother cooks some bang-up chili and franks? There's a bunch of foodies in my family, so if you need something more substantial than cup noodles or school food, you can hit me up. My mom would probably adore you, honestly. My dad, too."

Spicy Korean food? "I'll try just about anything once," he chuckled. "My boyfriend likes saimin and udon a lot, so I've gotten used to eating dishes I wouldn't ordinarily think about." It was often easier just to get whatever Ignacio did than try to coordinate two separate dishes when they were short on time but still wanted to eat together. Well, that and Garber's constant home-cooking. Richard's eldest brother was quite the amateur chef, and he liked trying all sorts of new dishes. Often, his family were guinea pigs for new creations. But Richard supposed that Garber's food tasted pretty good and his twin boys weren't dead yet, so it was working out so far.

"And I mean, you don't have to. My family's huge, so you'd be doing a disproportionate amount of work to try and feed everyone." He chuckled, swirling his tea in his cup. "Plus you'd be a guest, so just being there would be all you'd be expected to do." A pause. "If you wanted, of course!"

Richard, himself, was a purely passable cook. He could cook well enough that no one would die from it, and maybe indulge in something halfway fancy now and again like grilled salmon, or something. He could braise a pork shoulder and have it come out pretty okay? French toast was pretty hard to mess up, though, so he didn't really count that. He could make a mean omelette or five, though? A world-class PB & J?