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Wesley stood in the kitchen, glassily staring at the kettle. He was willing it to boil, which of course didn't work if you gazed at it intently. Still it was worth a try. He'd called the office and gotten Gunn on the line. Who had muttered something un-intelligible but at least Wesley was able to make out that Cordelia wasn't at the office. And that took him only fifteen minutes. Then Gunn went on about a new case they might have and that Wesley *had* to get into the office the next day to work on said case.

Of course he would. A case meant money. And he could always research that book and Cordy's vision inbetween or at night.

Then he'd called Cordy's apartment. Again to no avail. And no he was very worried. Running a hand through his rumpled hair, he looked up startled when the water boiled and at the same time the door opened. Taking the kettle off the fire, he blinked at it and then shuffled to look into the living room. Obviously it wasn't a demon. They didn't have any keys.

"Cordelia?" He looked at her puzzled, hair still a bit of a mess, glasses missing and a tea kettle with boiling water in his hand. "You're here," he pointed out the obvious.

She turned around when she heard Wes' voice. "Wes! What are you..." she trailed off. Asking him what he was doing here wasn't even silly. Only an idiot would ask that question. It was *his* apartment. He was supposed to be here. Only Cordelia hoped he will be asleep, in his bedroom. It would save lots of answering for lots of tricky questions. Like, what was *she* doing here.

She looked at the mints and took them. She showed them to Wes with uncertain smile. "I brought you mints," she tried. It sounded lame. If anyone from high school heard her right now, her reputation would be ruined. Queen C acting like some looser. "I thought that you'd feel better. I always like to eat something dangerous for my figure after waking up."

She watched Wes closer. He didn't look like a person who just woke up. He looked more like someone who never lied down. "Of course, first you'd need to go to sleep," she said doubtfully.

Wesley raised an eyebrow at her exclemation. What was he what? Doing here? Well, he did live here after all so that should be obvious. Or what was he doing out of bed? That would be because he had been worried about the very person now standing in his living room. Apparently she was here to bring...mints?

With a frown he took the mints and looked at the box confused. "I'm not particularly worried about my figure?" he tried. Nor was it very dangerous. It would seem he could eat what he wanted, he was still thin. Or far too thin as Cordy and Gunn liked to point out. That wasn't his fault and had nothing to do with the fact that he forgot to eat half the time.

Blinking, he glanced from the box back to Cordelia. "I've tried sleeping, but that didn't work out so well." Unfortunately. But at least Cordy was safe and sound. And not off doing something really stupid, like trying to safe innocents on her own. "How was everything at the office?" he asked, for lack of anything better to say.

Cordy sat on the sofa. At one point Wesley looked like hell and if she could, she would drug him to bed and lock the bedroom doors. Just to make sure he'll rest. Apparently he didn't get it, that he should care for his own health first. But no, he had to force her into doing this. Why was she doing it anyway? She would feel better if she didn't care.

Without thinking she opened the box and took one of the mints. She took a bite and grimaced. That was why she hated chocolate mints. Chocolate should taste like a chocolate, not like a toothpaste. She put the box away.

"Well Gunn took care of files. Didn't really ask him how it went. I didn't want to risk that he'll pass it on to me. I'm not really destined to the paper work. Being a secretary is so passe. Anyway I organized your books."
She stopped there just to look at Wesley while he grimaced. She played with the though of not telling him the rest, but that would be cruel.
"I don't get it, why you insist on having everything in alphabetical order. It would look better if the books were organized because of the color of the cover," she couldn't resist and she grinned. "But eventually I put everything the way you like. Still, I think it's overrated but hey, I decided to do something new. Just don't run to me because that system won't work."

Oh dear lord no. She tried to organize his books? Please no. If she does that anything like her filing system, Wesley was going to have to re-do everything tomorrow. As if eh didn't have enough to do. And he was so bloody tired.

"Everyone but you organizes by alphabet, Cordelia," he pointed out. "Wait, what do you mean being a secretary is passe? What else had you plan to do at the firm?" He knew she was getting the visions of course. But sitting around waiting for one to hit her wasn't really like her. She *was* their secretary. She did the bills, she did the telephone, she charmed the clients. If they had any that was.

At least Gunn took care of the files. That should save him a lot of time tomorrow. Cordelia should stick to nail filing and that really was it. Filing wise that is. And now he still didn't know what the bloody hell she was doing here. He'd assumed something had happened at the office, but since she had not mentioned that, he was at a loss why she was here.

"Was there a particular reason you came over?" he asked, rubbing his temple tiredly. Well bloody marvelous. Now he was getting a headache too. " I mean...I doubt you came all this way to bring me mints?" Which she was eating by the way. His mints. She didn't even like mints as far as he remembered.

From the corners of his eyes, Wesley kept a close watch on her as she stood there in his kitchen. He went about making tea, a routine so very familiar to him he really could do it with his eyes closed. Probably. But her standing there made him a little nervous.

Not because of who she was, no he was quite used to Cordelia Chase. But because of the way she kept looking at him. Watching him. He was not used being under such close scrutiny. Well, unless it was his father of course. Which made him nervous for entirely different reasons he didn't even want to think about right now. Though, he was slightly amused at as well with her watching him, considering his former occupation.

"What?" He looked up startled, her words tearing him from his thoughts. He blinked down at his tea, the sieve, the boiling water and then back up at her. And by now his look was quite perplex. "Remove the..." And why had he never thought about that? How was it that she would think of such an idea? "I'll have to admit that never occurred to me," he said still rather confused. "I'm not entirely certain if that would work."

He wasn't certain. He never thought about it. There was some wicked pleasure in the fact that she came up with an idea he never even considered. It didn't matter that her idea wouldn't really work. But it was *her* idea. And Wesley was obviously surprised. That meant that her idea was good. At least in Cordelia's eyes.

Besides, that tea affair was interesting. At one point she didn't really see the difference between her and Wesley's tea, but on the other hand it would be nice not to hear any complaints about your tea.

"So it's not about the bags. It's about the tea they put in the bags. It has to be different tea from the one you're using," Cordy said firmly. It was the silliest conversation they had in ages. But at the same time it was amusing. In a way.

Wesley could tell she was getting that smug look again. The one where she thought she'd come up with a brilliant plan all on her own and everyone should fall to the ground and worship her. It amused him greatly. He'd missed that look lately.

Shaking his head at her obvious smugness, he continued to make the tea, stirring the sieve in the boiling water. Retrieving the sugar and the honey for Cordelia, he put it all on a tray and then poured the ready made tea in his royal doultan tea pot.

"I think so," he agreed. "They are obviously putting normally good tea through a process to then squeeze it into little bags so that the lazy Americans and others can make tea without much effort. They obviously have no taste." Grabbing a tin of jaffa cakes from his cupboard he held it out for her.

"Cookie while we wait for our dinner?"

Cordelia frowned. Wesley just insulted her. Not only her, all Americans. Now she knew that it was like it used to be. And it felt right. But of course it didn't change the fact that she had to defend herself. "Hey! American girl here! And if you say that I have no taste, *ever* again, I'll... I'll..." she tried to find a really nasty revenge. "I'll organize your book by the color of book's covers!" She nodded firmly to emphasize the threat.

Threatening Wesley didn't of course stop her from reaching for cookies. Those to cases weren't connected. Cookie is a cookie. Insult is an insult. Without much thinking she took a whole tin from Wesley. "I'll take care of this. You need to have your hands free to take our tea to the living room," she smiled innocently.

It was hard to keep from grinning as he watched the expressions go over Cordelia's face. She'd come to the realization the he'd just insulted her, again, pretty quick. Must've been years of practice with their morning and afternoon snarking. He missed those sessions at times.

"You'd actually be good at that," Wesley deadpanned. "Considering you're very good at color coordinating your nailpolish and your clothes. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you had a blue-print of your closet alphabetized on color."

Frowning, he watched his entire tin of Jaffa cakes disappear and scowled at Cordelia. It was on the tip of his tongue to make a remark about watching her always going on about having to watch her figure. But he figured he might actually want to live another day. Sighing, he picked up the tray and took everything into the living room.

He kept his gaze low, but he watched her from under his eyelashes. Good god, you'd think he'd asked her to perform some impossible task. He'd know she'd been rather spoiled in Sunnydale, not that he saw that back then, but since he'd gotten to know her here she hardly acted that way. But every time she did, Wesley couldn't help but tease her about that.

He'd have shown her regardless, but no on could blame him for trying right? Absolutely.

"There now," he said, waving his chopsticks in her directions. "What that so hard?" She certainly made it look as though it was. "Saying please and thank you really isn't that much trouble, Cordelia." He fished more rice out of the bowl and nodded at himself.

"Alright, let see if we can teach you this. It's not as hard as it looks, promise." He glanced over at Cordelia, then the chopsticks and then back at the bowl of food. How in the bloody hell did one explain the workings of this?

Oh! It worked! Well, of course it worked! It always works. Cordelia's smile got wider. She moved closer to Wesley so he could show her how to hold the sticks. She never got through that lesson. Mainly because all her 'teachers' weren't exactly interested in showing her how to eat with sticks. Maybe this time she'll actually succeed.

"Okay Wes, pass the wisdom," she said with a grin watching him while he wondered where to start.

It wasn't that difficult, right? So why he was thinking so hard? Ha!

On the other hand, one could think that since Wesley was a Watcher back in Sunnydale he was trained to teach things his Slayer should know. Well, okay, so maybe he wasn't really the best Watcher in history, not that Cordelia had so much experience with Watchers. She only knew two.

Wesley chuckled at Cordelia's eager expression and felt himself grinning back at her. He glanced down at his own chopsticks for a moment, wondering where to start. He'd best sit behind her, that would be a good way to show her how to use them.

"Alright, hang on." Putting down his own cartons and chopsticks, he got up with a groan. Oh god, he'd been sitting down for only a few moments and his muscles were already sore. Times like these he wished he had a bath, so he could soak in it for a few hours.

Moving behind Cordelia, he sank down and sat behind her. He wrapped his arms around her and took hold of her hands. "It's quite easy," he said, leaning around her to look at what he was doing. He adjusted the chopsticks in her hands and then moved with her to show her how to use them.

"See? Now you give it a try." He leaned forward a bit more and smiled at her. For a moment he didn't know what to do with his hands before putting them on the floor beside Cordelia with a sight blush.

It felt nice when Wesley wrapped his arms around her. It felt warm and safe. And it was the only reason why Cordelia didn't comment on the sound he made when he got up. Right mister, you're just fine... she thought. She had some ironic comment coming up in that second, but it was forgotten moment later.

Cordy did her best to concentrate on what she was doing, but she found it difficult. She slowly moved the chopsticks to the box and tried to get some chicken. It was half way to her mouth when she lost her grip and it felt back into the box.

"Damn," she muttered frustrated. For a brief moment she blamed Wesley for her failure. She had no idea why, but she was sure it was all his fault. It had to be. She took a deep breath.

"Okay, show me again," she said firmly, "no food will win with Cordelia Chase," she added.

Looking over her shoulder Wesley looked on as she tried to use the chopsticks. He made an encouraging movement with his hand and nodded as she started. She seemed to be doing alright, but she was moving so careful and slow, Wesley had to swallow a chuckle.

He didn't think she'd appreciate the slight humor right how. But it was quite funny to watch her trying to use the chopsticks. Briefly he wondered if perhaps he could try to convince her that it was tradition and highly fashionable to eat soup with them as well. The fact that she was cursing however made him change his mind.

"Alright," he nodded when she asked to be shown again. Wrapping his arms around her, Wesley scooted a little closer. He gave her a shy smile and then proceeded to show her again. This time a little slower. He kept his hands on hers while they scooped up some chicken, bringing it to her mouth. "See? Just keep them like that."