Work Text:
“Uhh...”
Susie stood in the doorframe to her Castletown bedroom, confused by the scene before her. A smaller version of the table Ralsei used for the group’s tea party was set up, fully decorated for another one. Ralsei himself sat in the same chair he did last time, but was dressed in his old butler outfit and was currently serving tea to... her plushie? Her mini-me sat on the seat opposite him, propped up on pillows from her bed to actually reach the table. Despite Susie’s protests, Ralsei had in fact made it a dress: a sleeveless baby blue with a darker blue ribbon around the waist — simple, but still fancy.
The intrusion made Ralsei freeze in the middle of pouring the Susie plush a cup.
“What are you doing?” Susie asked, still processing the sight.
Ralsei fumbled with the pot in his hands as he scurried to straighten up and make things look as normal as he possibly could.
“S-sorry, Susie.” His eyes darted around the room, and he was clearly embarrassed. “I’ll clean up.”
He picked up the silverware in a flash and started to continue packing up.
“Not before you’ve served me,” Susie said.
Picking up her plushie and swatting the pillows onto the floor, she plopped down in the chair. Ralsei was taken aback by this but nervously went along with it.
“Um, would you like sugar or anything in your tea?” he asked as he picked up the teapot to finish filling her cup.
“Nah. Plain’s fine.”
Ralsei sat in his chair once he was done pouring, still visibly tense. Intending to set her plush on Kris's chair, Susie reached for it, only to find that it wasn’t set up. There was only one plushie, so it made sense that Ralsei didn't bother setting up a third chair when he had no intention of using it. She reached over to one of her tossed pillows and gently set her mini-me on it. Finally having both hands free, she grabbed her teacup. Susie smiled as she took a sip of the tea, savoring its sweetness.
“So, what was all this for?” she asked between drinks.
Ralsei paused before answering. “I wanted to try having a proper tea party. The one with you and Kris was more casual, so I wanted to see what fancier ones were like.”
“Well, you’re not getting me in a dress,” Susie joked, sparing a glance at her plushie.
“I kind of figured,” Ralsei said sheepishly. “I still think you'd look pretty in it though.”
The compliment echoed in Susie’s mind. Pretty? Cool, scary, intimidating — that’s how she was often described. Quickly glancing once more at the dressed-up plushie, she contemplated the idea.
“Maybe,” was all she could mutter.
The two continued drinking their tea in silence. While it didn’t bother Susie, she could tell that Ralsei was still uncomfortable. Once she finished her tea, she decided to ask about it as he gave her a refill.
“Are you okay? If you need me to leave, I can head out.”
He was surprised by the question, but quickly responded, “Oh, no! It’s fine.” His face returned to embarrassment. “I just wasn’t ready to serve you for real.”
Susie let out a chuckle at that. “You know me and Kris aren’t going to care if the napkin is on the wrong side of the plate or if you fill our cup two millimeters too high.” Shooting him a toothy grin, she continued, “Just make sure the tea doesn’t burn my mouth and you’re golden.”
Her comment earned a smile from Ralsei. “I know, but,” he hesitated for a moment before continuing, “I’d like it to be proper and fancy.”
Every time Ralsei stated a preference of his, Susie would do everything she could to validate his feelings. She was determined to help him believe that he was real, and supporting his growing personhood was an easy yet highly effective way of doing so.
A fancy tea party wasn't something she expected, but the more she thought about it, the more “Ralsei-like” having one sounded. Despite her reservations, she opted to go along with it.
“You want me to change into something nicer?” she offered.
Ralsei was clearly surprised by the offer and started, “You don't have to-”
“But do you want me too?” she repeated, not letting him dodge the question.
He left out a small huff, before answering, “Yes, but-”
“Alright then.”
He gave her a pout as she got up from the table.
“Suwsie, you should wear what you want to,” he pleaded in the stupid cutesy voice she regretted ever teaching him.
Hearing her name like that made her freeze for a second, but she continued towards the closet anyways.
“I ain’t falling for any of that nonsense," she spluttered, doing her best to hide how much his cute demeanor affected her.
Throwing open the closet doors, she scanned the racks for something suitable. Ralsei clearly understood her tastes with what he put in here, but that also meant that there wasn’t anything befitting a tea party in it. After sifting through her options, the mafia suit she wore during Tenna’s gameshow, while not ideal, was the best thing she had.
“I’ll bring us some snacks while you change,” Ralsei shouted, already outside the room.
Susie changed into her suit, smoothing out the wrinkles and doing whatever else she could to make it look more presentable. She took off the suspenders, finding them tacky, and put the hat away too, not wanting it to mess up her hair. Thinking of her hair, she unconsciously pulled out her axe before remembering what world she was in. She checked the nightstand once she realized her mistake and found a hairbrush tucked away in the top drawer. She quickly combed through her hair, and while she thought about doing something fancy with it, she had no idea how to and left it down like usual.
As if on cue, Ralsei returned with a tower of snacks once she finished. He set it in the center of the table, and Susie nearly knocked her chair over with how fast she sat down again. It was a three-tiered tea tray covered with various fancy foods. It took all of Susie’s willpower to not start shoving the goodies in her mouth and wait for Ralsei to take his seat.
“So, with tea platters, you normally start with the bottom layer which has sandwiches for us,” he smiled as he grabbed one for himself.
Susie snatched a sandwich for herself, tossing the whole thing in her mouth. To her surprise, it was creamy on the inside — something she’d never had inside a sandwich before. And was that... cucumber? She had heard of cucumber sandwiches, but she had never tried one and didn’t really know what was in them. Either way, she liked it and reached for another one. Ralsei was still munching on his own sandwich which was stuffed with a pale yellow filling. Looking at the other sandwiches, besides the ham one, Susie realized she had no idea what was in any of them.
“What kinds of sandwiches are these?” she asked.
He perked up at the question and began pointing out all the different sandwiches to her. The ingredient combinations sounded strange, but she liked the cucumber one, so it wasn’t like it’d hurt to try the rest.
As he continued his ramble, she interjected, “What do you think I’d like the most? Besides the ham one.”
He paused to ponder her question, making Susie nervous as to how he’d respond.
“I’d say chicken salad,” he answered, picking one up and handing it to her.
To be a bit more proper, Susie took a bite instead of eating it all at once even though her bite still covered most of the sandwich. It had a similar texture to the cucumber one but had a stronger taste. Obviously, she could taste chicken, but there were also some vegetables in there such as lettuce and celery. She couldn’t tell all the ingredients by taste alone, but she didn’t really care about that. Looking up from her food, she saw Ralsei watching her eat.
Worried he might get the wrong impression from her slower than normal consumption, she stated, “It’s really good, Ralsei. Thanks.”
He giggled hearing her. “I could tell.” His smile grew even wider as he continued to watch her.
Susie felt a tad self-conscious having him stare at her so intently, but he thankfully turned away to pour himself more tea. She finished the chicken salad sandwich and grabbed a different one to see what it was. To her chagrin, once Ralsei had filled his teacup, he stared at her again.
“You can eat too you know,” Susie said awkwardly.
“I know, but I’d like to save room for the other tiers,” he cheerily replied. “You can have the rest of the sandwiches if you’d like."
She wanted to protest, but his logic was sound — who wouldn’t save room for the incredible looking desserts at the top? Conceding, she gave her thanks and began polishing off the bottom tray. While she used to treasure everytime he looked down to take a sip of his tea, overtime, she grew used to Ralsei’s gaze. She couldn’t read his expression, but Susie knew he didn’t have a bad bone in his body, so it wasn’t something she needed to worry about.
Once she had finished the smorgasbord of tea sandwiches, Ralsei introduced the second layer to her: scones with cream, jam, and fresh fruit.
“Isn’t this a biscuit?” Susie asked as she picked one up, giving it a closer examination.
“They look similar, but they taste and feel different. Try it!”
While it wasn’t like she wasn’t going to eat it, she could never resist Ralsei’s enthusiasm. Tossing it in her mouth, she could tell what he meant. It was denser than a biscuit and wasn’t as sweet, though the cream and jam spread on it easily made up that difference.
“You’re right,” she said as she was still chewing. After swallowing, she continued, “It’s good though.”
“Glad you like them,” Ralsei smiled having just finished a bite of his own.
Sipping from her almost empty teacup, a question she couldn’t believe she only now thought to ask popped into her head.
“Did you really make all this just for you and my mini-me?”
Ralsei stopped himself from taking another bite to reply. “Yeah. I wanted to practice making everything and figured I could give any leftovers to the townspeople.”
She hummed acknowledging his answer and held out her teacup as a silent request for more. He complied, grabbing the pot to pour her more.
“You know you didn’t have to dress up for me,” he sheepishly said to pick up the conversation again.
“Bit late for that don’t you think?" Susie joked, smiling at his embarrassment.
“I guess,” he muttered, “but thank you. You look really nice.”
Even though he had done so earlier, Susie was once again surprised by him complimenting her looks. It was just dress pants, a button up, and a tie — she wouldn’t consider that particularly “nice”.
“You look nice too,” she deflected the compliment back onto him so she wouldn’t have to dwell on it.
It looked like he was about to spit out his tea, but he managed to prevent that. However, he was still clearly flustered.
“Thanks, Susie,” he choked out, cheeks as red as the strawberry he took from the platter.
The two ate in silence — while normally nice, it made Susie’s deflection less effective, letting Ralsei’s compliments strangle her thoughts. Did he really think she looked nice — pretty even? She would never dare to ask him that, but the thought of it being true was... nerve-wracking. That didn’t seem right. Shouldn’t she be happy? Embarrassed? Flattered? Not that she didn’t also feel those things, but fear of... something drowned them out.
Ralsei had taken another scone, happily munching on it oblivious to her mental plight. She wasn’t scared of him, and while the thought was a bit weird, she wasn’t scared of being pretty. Yet his words still had her heart racing and palms clammy. She was overthinking this. Ralsei was just being annoyingly nice and sweet and kind and-
“Are you alright, Susie?”
His concerned voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, stretching over the table to look at her more closely.
“Yes, I’m sure.” She forced a smile.
“We can stop-”
“I said I’m fine, Ralsei,” Susie growled as she leaned forward to emphasize her denial, annoyed by his insistence.
“But-”
“Ralsei.”
Soft warm breaths felt on the end of her snout brought their newfound proximity to her attention. The fear spiked at the realization, freezing her in place. Had she ever been this close to someone? Yeah, she had been hugged and stuff, but this was clearly different. This wasn’t a high-five from Kris or a piggyback ride with Lancer. As a matter of fact, they weren’t even touching right now, yet it felt different in a way Susie couldn’t describe.
“It was just a bad thought,” she said, pushing the strange thoughts out of her mind. “This is actually pretty fun, so let’s move on...” Susie backed up to make a big gesture, “to the final layer!”
Ralsei looked relieved and relaxed in his chair.
“Yes, dessert time!” he cheered.
He stood up to better reach the sweet treats. Scanning them, he picked out a small tart and described the other various tarts, cakes and breads crammed onto the tiny tray. Susie had to resist the urge to dump the whole thing into her mouth. She grabbed a random bread —banana apparently — while he was still talking and wolfed it down to temporarily satisfy herself. Taking note of her impatience, Ralsei giggled.
He abruptly ended his speech, “Eh, you’ll find out what they are when you taste them. Dig in.”
Susie gladly took the invitation and dumped a handful — more than half the tray due to her size — onto her plate. The miniature treats wouldn’t last long, but for Ralsei’s sake, Susie tried to slow down a bit. Just a little bit.
“I’m glad you like the food, Susie,” Ralsei said, still grinning at her enthusiasm for the desserts.
“How could I not?” she responded as she swallowed a cake. “I mean yeah, some sounded weird at first, but you made them, so I know they’re gonna be good.”
Her remark made him blush and try to hide behind the mostly emptied tiered tray. The hilariously stupid attempt at obscuring his face just made Susie focus on it more. Ever since she got to see his true face, Susie found him cute. She even told him that as they explored the cyber world together and regrettably taught him that stupid “uwu” voice. She wanted to see how others would react, only for it to backfire with him exclusively using it on her.
“Thank you,” he murmured just loud enough for her to still hear.
The fuzzy feelings she would get from his cuteness were invaded by the earlier fear. It latched onto them with a vice grip, molding them together into some unholy abomination. Her usual quips felt caught in her throat, leaving her completely speechless. Even though they had the table between them, she felt too close to him, yet couldn’t take her eyes off him. She stiffened when Ralsei seemed to take note of this.
Her eyes flicked to the side, her hope vanishing as she saw no third chair — Kris wasn’t there to make some insane comment and keep things moving. Ralsei wasn’t doing anything, merely staring back at her. Stunlocked, Susie was boring holes into the back of his skull.
“Mleh!”
Ralsei stuck his tongue out and made a silly face, snapping Susie out of her trance. She laughed at him and reached over the table to flick him on the cheek.
“Moron,” she muttered under her breath.
Finishing the remaining desserts on her plate, Susie felt satisfied. Despite how small everything was, when added together, it became a full meal. Ralsei was still eating the small assortment left on his plate. With little else to do, she found herself studying how he ate. The dainty bites he would take, how often he used his napkin, whether he used a fork for something — all the frivolous details she’d forget in ten minutes from now.
Nothing was happening — she was merely watching him eat in silence — yet the fear crept up again as she stared. What was wrong with her? She was having a blast with her friend, but she was feeling worse as time went on. Did she somehow get sick or something? Maybe the tea party food wasn’t as good as she thought if it was causing this.
“You can have the rest, Susie,” Ralsei said in reference to the main tray having finally cleared his plate.
It took her an extra second to realize he was talking to her, but then she responded, “Nah, I’m full,” with a grin. “I’m sure you can handle the rest with how much room you’ve been saving.”
Ralsei was stunned by Susie declining food. “Are you sure?”
“We’ve been over this, Ralsei,” Susie joked, leaning forward akin to earlier, “and you know that if I were hungry it’d be gone by now."
He softly smiled, giving no pushback this time. “Well, so am I. Guess these last few are going to the townsfolk.”
She smiled in turn, but there was something devious behind it. “I think you can finish it.”
Seemingly disheartened by her arguing, he started, “I acknowledged that you were full, so could yo-MPFH!?”
Ralsei was abruptly cut off by Susie shoving a torn off piece of cake into his mouth, cackling as she did so. Seeing his beet red face, her laughter somehow grew louder to the point she was struggling to breathe.
Despite genuinely not wanting to eat anymore, he finished the morsel he was force-fed. It was awkward trying to chew with her fingers still in his mouth, but he was able to manage.
“SUSIE!” he screeched as soon as he swallowed.
She pulled her fingers back and started laughing again. His face was still burning red, but now he had an adorable pout to go with it.
“I said I didn’t want to eat anymore.”
While he said it more playfully, the undertones of genuine hurt cut straight to Susie’s heart, immediately stopping her giggle fit.
“Sorry, Ralsei, I just wanted to tease you. I wasn’t trying to-”
“I know,” he smiled once more, albeit a tad more somber than earlier.
“Want me to help pass them out?” Susie offered in hopes of making up for her prank.
His usual cheerfulness returned at that prospect. “I’d love that. Thank you, Susie.” He glossed over the table, noting its slight disarray. “I think I should clean this up first.”
“We should,” Susie corrected, absentmindedly licking the leftover frosting off her fingers before starting to stack their dishes.
It wasn’t until she had nearly collected them all that she noticed Ralsei stood still. She was about to make a quip about him being lazy, but he spoke first.
“Did you really just...” the words died on his tongue as he stared at her bewildered.
Susie grinned. “Shocked I can stack pla-”
“Did you lick the fingers you put in my mouth?”
Now both of them were frozen in the awkwardness of the moment. Susie tried to push past it and continue cleaning, but the fear from before came upon her. Yeah, it's kind of gross to suck his spit, but it’s not like he’s diseased or something — why was she scared? Wanting to climb out the pit she accidentally dug herself into for both Ralsei’s and her own sake, she tried to clear the air.
“I’m not wasting food, and since you weren’t eating the frosting, why shouldn’t I?” she joked. Furthering her stance, she swiped a bit of frosting she had smudged around his mouth when she fed him and licked that off her finger as well. “Can’t let cooking as good as yours go to waste.”
When she saw that his face was somehow even redder than earlier, Susie realized she messed up. Taking a moment of reflection for herself, the recurring fear came back stronger than ever before. Why did she do that? How on earth was that supposed to make things better? She wanted to defend her absurd choice of action but couldn’t think of anything sensible. Her mind had been sent spiraling since Ralsei called her pretty. Wait, he never said that she was pretty, just that she looked nice and would look pretty in a dress. She wanted to punch herself for even thinking for just a moment that he’d call her of all people pretty.
Why did he suddenly start scaring her? Nothing changed, yet things felt completely different from when she first entered her room. Ralsei felt different. He hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary — certainly nothing she would ever consider scary — but something had to have changed for her to be feeling... this.
Her head started to hurt the deeper she thought about what her strange fear meant, but her thoughts were thankfully cut short by the ruffling of Ralsei folding the tablecloth. He was still blushing a bit, but had chosen to move on without questioning, and Susie decided to follow in his footsteps.
She followed Ralsei as he walked to the door, and with one cohesive thought stuck in her mind, Susie precariously balanced the dishes on one hand to grab his shoulder. He flinched at the touch before turning to face her, readjusting the tablecloth under his arm. His gorgeous pink eyes had her freeze with the annoying fear that wouldn’t leave her be, but she was determined to ask her question.
“Can we do this again sometime?” Her voice was much weaker than she had meant for it to be, so while she tried to speak up for her addendum, it came out even softer. “Just the two of us.”
The nerves Ralsei was poorly trying to hide melted away hearing that.
He beamed, “Of course! That was always the plan!”
Susie had to do a double take at his answer while he strolled down the hall. Always the plan... He was hosting the tea party in her room, the table was too small for all three of them, he had only set up two chairs, he was using her plushie as a stand-in, and he had dressed up both himself and her plushie...
The tea party was always for me.
Susie chased after Ralsei down the hallway. While the strange feeling she could only describe as fear kept her from asking the questions she really wanted to, she could at least ask him where the dirty dishes went.