COFFEE

Usually, Jake poured his coffee first, slid his booze out of the hidden compartment in the back of the cabinet, and went about his own business. But this time, as he slipped into the Professors' lounge, he noticed di Piero sitting there, her expression far off as she held her coffee between two hands--one on the handle of the mug, the other supporting the side--in precaution of it falling everywhere and burning her skin.

He gave her an odd look and went about pouring his coffee when his head started to ache. And a moment later, he was putting the cup and pot down to jog over to where she was sitting. "Give me your mug," he demanded.

Natalie--still in something of a trance--looked up at him with wide, curious eyes. "What? Why?"

"Just give it to me, will you?"

She offered the cup to him and he used his wand to carefully lift a cockroach and several of her spawn that had been 'swimming' near the bottom. Her eyes went wide again.

Jake set the cockroach back in the coffee and took the mug with him to dump it out and clean it. He retrieved a new mug and returned it to her--clean coffee, Bailey's, no roaches. "Enjoy your coffee."

Natalie wanted to ask how he'd known it was in there or why he cared enough to rescue her from the horror after realizing he clearly didn't like anyone in the castle besides a select few. And if she was one of these, what exactly did that mean? She mulled over her thoughts with the hot coffee before eventually moving off to hold class. She figured she'd ask Lilah later.