Re: [jude & hannah: tea]
Jude hadn't done anything particularly terrible, thank you, scoundrel or no scoundrel but his moral compass had been tossed helpfully out of the window when he was small, formable boy and subject to influence and now he didn't typically think of himself as good or kind or loving. He wasn't, he had (did?) love(d) Oli with the complex simplicity of family, and family and blood came above all else. Jude burned for loyalty, but select handful of people only, and woe betide one on the wrong side of loyalty flexed. Claire (who Jude encountered on the regular at work) had been stung by it, but it was temporary and transitional only; Daniel was a tiny point of influence and consistency in town that rotated frequently on the regular through doldrums.
He looked down at the tea-set in front of them as was inevitable, given turn and flex of conversation and regarded the painted cup in his hands. Jude had long fingers, piano-player's hands and he turned the cup thoughtfully in the palm of his hand, spidery fingers resting against the rim.
"There's an antiques store in town, run by a gentleman of the name of Louis, who'll probably have such a thing, sunshine. Probably with a story to it, I like old things that come with history. Do you?" Jude wasn't dark precisely and the melancholy was dim flicker and expectant shadow waiting like a dog told to stay until bidden. Jude's sunshine was ready-available to be rolled out in the name of good cheer, but he deliberately didn't summon usual patter. There were some things that the carousel had fastened away for good keeping, and Hannah stood on the fragment of glass that kept Jude's Sunday manners clear of Jude-his-own-self.
"It would be very like her to name me after someone I don't know at all," he said, considering it and sipping the frothy substance in the cup, "She was very like that. D'you know why you're Hannah and not ...Tessa or Harriet or Emily?" She didn't look like a Harriet or an Emily or even a Tessa, Hannah who smiled like the town was small and enormous and adventure all at once, Hannah who couldn't make coffee. "It's a palindrome, your name, which I always did like the look of. I don't think they make them for boys."
But Jude laughed loud enough to interest the onlookers, warm amusement curled into his teacup. "D'you think we'd be terribly boring without the staged fight? Please don't throw the chai at me for dramatic effect, I rather like this shirt, sunshine. I can go on bended knee and make it up for the audience, if you'd like."