The Tea Queen and the Magicain

Angelico sipped the hot tea from her small cup as she looked across the table at Salem. He was staring wistfully into his cup, as is in a far of land. She smiled.
"You are so cute when you dream like that."
"Please do not tease me, milady." He sighed.
"Oh you are no fun at all." She went back to drinking her tea with a sulky look on her face. He laughed.
"Am I that amusing. You, sir, have no class." She huffed and turned away from him.
"I am sorry milady. Please accept the humblest apology from a lowly servent." He said in an over the top, dramatic voice. She looked down her nose at him.
"You are forgiven." She laughed. "Now you are fun."
"That was my intention." They went back to happily drinking tea together in the early afternoon.

It had been a scorching day and the residual heat was nothing to poke a stick at.
Jackson had even taken off his favourite green jacket, which was a fair tribute to the heat of the day. He spotted a tea shop that advertised air conditioning on a large chalkboard and stumbled his way towards it. The door swung open easily and he was greeted by a beaming attendant who ushered him to the only free seat in the building, clearly he wasn’t the only one to notice the sign out front.
His small table was placed very close to another, he noticed that the pair that sat at it were dressed in Victorian styled clothes of which he approved greatly.

"Hi, sorry to interrupt but I just wanted to let you know that you both have spectacular taste in fashion" He smiled widely and picked up the menu in front of him.

Angelico gave a warm smile.
"Why thank you sir."
"Yes. Your compliment is quiet welcome." Salem added. "Don't let it get to your head milady." He smiled cheekily at her.
"Oh do keep your thoughts to yourself." She whinged. Salem laughed.
“Again! I amuse you so?" She retorted. "You, sir..."
"Have no class. I know, I know. You have told me already milady." She huffed.

Jackson laughed behind his menu, not wanting to let "milady" see him and his obvious lack of class. Once he had caught his breath he lowered his menu and called over the attendant

"I'd like a cup of coffee thanks"

"And how would sir like his coffee?" The man said in haughty tones

"One spoon of coffee, two lumps and some milk. No need for the sir" Jack gave him his best disarming smile which fell quickly as the man ignored it and bustled away.

Jack sighed and was beginning to eye off a newspaper on the opposite side of the room when he became aware of someone staring daggers into the back of his neck. He shivered and turned to see "milady" glaring furiously at him with her manservant hurriedly trying to placate her.

He gulped nervously.

"Coffee?" She inquired. He nodded. "Ah." She began sipping her tea again.
"Milady please calm down. It is his decision on what he drinks." Salem tried to reason with her. SHe sighed.
"Fine. You are of course right." She raised her voice a bit. "It is his decision to drink such a foul beverage, if you can call it a beverage. And even if you can it is the most brutish of all beverages. Might as well mix it with tar. That might make it taste better."

Jackson had just relaxed and started to take a sip of his coffee when she started her rant. He put the cup down and waited for her to finish. He was going to enjoy this.

"I think you’re mistaking coffee for something else my dear madam" he said politely "as you see coffee is a fine drink” he motioned to the numerous other individuals drinking their coffee around the room “it is regraded highly in social circles, high enough for many to consider it over tea. There are those that would call tea a watery and lifeless brew. So perhaps you should not voice your one sided opinions of a drink you clearly don’t have a taste for, otherwise some people would have a mind to point out the many varied and colourful issues they have with your own preferred drink"

He turned back to his coffee and took another sip.

The room was very quiet.

Angelico was a regular at this particular restaurant and some of the other regulars gasped at this strange man’s statement. Angelico took a slow intake of breath.
"Coffee? A fine drink? Watery lifeless brew? You, sir have mistaken tea for something else and coffee for an actual drink. Coffee is an addiction, a drug for people who need a boost in the mornings. Tea is a relaxing beverage with many diverse flavours and different types. The kind you may be familiar with is probably the dead tea leaves that are held in little bags. If prepared in the manner it was intended tea is a flavoursome and relaxing brew. And as you can see." She waved her hand over the crowd. "There are more people drinking tea than coffee. And you might want to refrain from calling tea a 'lifeless brew' in a tea shop." She sipped at her tea. Salem looked horrified at the exchange of words between the two people.
"And I ask you to think carefully about your response. After all I am a member of the Falloway household." She gave him a sharp death stare.

He placed his cup gently on the table, straightened his back and adjusted his tie before turning and squarely facing the argumentative young girl.
"Well, as for the majority of tea drinkers, this is in fact a TEA shop and the presence of any coffee drinkers in a TEA shop is nothing less than a testament to the beverage. Now for the issue of a 'drug boost', as you so naively put it, I would care to point out that coffee too has a variety of flavours, more so than tea in fact, as sugar, milk, cream, caramels and many more are often added to create diversity, much in the same way as tea"
He was getting into the swing of things now and leaned forward slightly
"Now as for an addiction ANY substance can be addictive, it is only considered a negative if that substance is harmful to your health and you will find that coffee does no such thing my dear Lady Falloway"
He said the last part mockingly
"I cannot stand people who hide behind their family’s name"

"You have no idea who the Falloways are, do you?" She smirked and pointed to the name of the cafe. 'Falloway Tea'.
"And by the way, coffee has this thing called caffeine in it. Ever heard of it? On average coffee has more caffeine than tea does. Coffee can also be bad for your health and may cause higher risk of coronary heart disease. If drunk in excessive amounts it can cause very unpleasant, or even life-threatening adverse effects. And also..." She was interrupted by a slap to the face. Salem then walked over to the man and slapped him in the face, perhaps a little harder than he had his mistress.
"Both of you are acting like children! Arguing over your preference in drink, you should be ashamed." He turned to Angelico. "Milady how many times have I asked you not to cause a scene in public places, especially ones that your parents own? And you, sir..." He turned back to the man. "You should be very ashamed of yourself! Speaking like that to a lady is disgraceful." He slapped the man again. "That is for the way you addressed my mistress." He sat back down and began to sulk and blow bubbles in his cup.

Jack looked stunned for a moment then laughed, much to both Salem's and Angelico's surprise
"I’m sorry"He said after he regained his composure and held a hand up to his smarting cheek "I don’t actually care about coffee that much, It's just been ages since I've had a decent argument and, well, I couldn't resist"
He gave a hapless shrug "By the way milady"He bowed to show his genuine respect"You had me beaten once you went into scientific specifics, but I must admit that I was genuinely disappointed with your name dropping there, even if it is your shop"
He raised an eyebrow to make his expression slightly more relaxed so that she would hopefully not take too much offence from the comment
"And I apologise especially to you sir, for angering you so much and for winding up your mistress for this debate"

"Well you should be congratulated, sir. You are the only person, aside from Salem here, to stand up to me and you actually made me mad enough to name drop. Most people back of once they learn I am a Falloway, but you just argued harder. It was a pleasure beating you." She extended her hand to him, while Salem continued to blow bubbles.
"Oh do stop Salem. I am truly sorry for the trouble I caused you, but it’s very rude to blow bubbles in your tea." She hugged him. He sighed. "You are forgiven."

"Praisable as it may be you will have to excuse me from making a habit of it, Im not sure if I could handle that sort of scare very often"
He gave a wry smile and dipped his hat


(short post is short :/)

Angelico and Salem laughed.
"Well she can be quiet scary." Salem said jokingly, She pouted.
"So what brings you to this little town?" Angelico asked, changing the subject.

Jack dragged his table nosily towards theirs mouthing sorry to the other customers and making an embarrassed face towards Salem.
Once he had rearranged the furniture to a more comfortable position he sat down and answered the lady's question
"I am here to busk, I hear passer byes tip big at a good performance"
And to demonstraight his performance style he whipped his hand up and in it sat a stage knife, he frowned.
"Wrong pocket"
He whipped his hand around again and this time produced a white rose
"stereotypical I know, but a crowd favourite non the less"

"Nice trick." Angelico said calmly. Salem gasped with amazement.
"How did you do that? It was spectacular." His eyes sparkled and he looked at the rose with awe and wonderment. The man gave it to Salem who fawned over the item.
"It’s real!" He said with surprise. Angelico rolled her eyes.

Jack smiled in her direction at Salem's antics and produced another flower, this time a daisy, from behind Salem's ear. Needless to say the manservet was gobsmacked.
"By the way, the names Jackson Tailor"
He extended a hand for her to shake and fliped a Jack of Spades card out of his sleave as she reached for his hand, she took the card and noticed he was pictured on the card instead of a normal Jack, she gave him an odd look and shook his hand.

"Lady Angelico Falloway. And this is Salem my butler. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance." She looked over at Salem who was now fawning over both rose and daisy.
"How is it possible? How did he do that?" Salem was muttering to himself.

Jack just laughed "A good magician never reveals his secrets, but Im not a good magician so I’ll tell you" He leaned forward conspiratorially and whispered in Salem’s ear "A hint of pixy dust" He said it with such conviction and with such a serious expression that Salem believed him for a moment, until he saw Angelico stiffening a laugh behind her hand, he suddenly realised he was being made fun of and sulkily returned to his tea.

As he slurped his tea, Angelico and Jackson talked.
"So you are a street performer. Do you travel a lot?"
~Slurp~

Jack placed one more flower in front of Salem who brightened up a bit but still refused to make eye contact, letting them know that he was still a little peeved. Although he did stop slurping his tea.
"yes I preform for a living so it means Im nearly constantly moving about, I’ve seen a fair few things in my time too as a pleasant side effect"

"I am a traveler as well. Salem and I have been travelling for 3 months." She looked over at him.
"Do not be that way. If you cheer up, you can choose what we have for dinner. I promise."
"Promise?" Salem looked up at her. "Ok then." He joined in the conversation. "We started travelling on milady's 16th birthday."