A New Arrival

Grey offered her a smile in return, then poured each of them a cup of coffee, offering one of them to her. "Here. I don't know if you've ever had coffee before, but trust me, once you have, you won't be able to start a morning without it."

She raised a brow at him, more accustomed to tea --- noble-raised that she was --- but she sat down beside him nonetheless. Out of habit more than anything else, she sniffed at the mug curious;y before taking the barest hint of a sip. Her expression contorted at the bitterness of it, and she quickly put it down, pushing it towards him.

He let out a soft chuckle, folding the paper up and setting it on the table before standing. He first made his way to one of the cabinets, grabbing a glass jar of sugar. Then he went to his clearly at the end of its life refrigerator, grabbing a glass jug of milk. He set them both beside her cup with a half smirk. "Here, try it with these. It makes it taste less bitter."

She did as instructed, slightly wary as she did. Rose tried several times to sweeten it to taste before slowly pouring milk into the cup as well. Satisfied, she seemed to be all but moaning as she drank, though her posture, the pristine mark of a nobleman, did little in the ways of loosening up.

Grey let out a hearty laugh, sitting back in his chair and kicking his feet back up, though instead of returning to the paper he kept his eyes on her. "There you go... How'd you sleep?"

She shrugged, the expression almost delicate. Honestly, she looked to formal, too stiff, but she was wound up tight, expecting to have to summon her blade at any given moment and fight for her freedom once more. "Definitely not what I'm used to..." she offered nothing else, though the already-forming bags under her eyes said that she'd had better, despite the easy comfort he had provided her.

Grey stood up slowly, carefully winding his way around the table to stand behind her. His hands came to rest on her shoulders, kneading gently into her back. "You're too tight... You're safe here, rose. Relax."

Her body stiffened up instantly, as this was not an action she was accustomed to allowing others to do. Nonetheless, she looked up at him, seeming to study his expression before allowing herself to relax beneath his hands.

He offered her a friendly grin in response to her questing glance, fingers trailing lower down her back. Finally, he slipped his hands under the hem of her shirt and trailed his hands lightly up her skin, kneading her back directly rather than through the shirt.

As strange as it seemed, there was not a single mar or mark on her skin, no knotted scar tissue beneath his wandering hands. She kept herself still between sips.

He rubbed her back more roughly, though there was still a strange tenderness in his caresses. He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek, smiling. "How's your coffee?"

"Is heaven an ingredient?" She joked, seeming to shy away from the gesture

"If only, Rose." He said with a soft chuckle and pulling away from him, patting her shoulder with a free hand before returning his attention to kneading her back