A moment later, Trip's already on it. While Wärter rumbled as quietly as a beast his size was capable of, watchful blue slits of his eyes never leaving Kusakabe, Trip added milk and sugar to Sei's cup in generous amounts. Never anything less than generous. It was the same way he prepared it for himself and not necessarily how Sei would have done it on his own.

"Yaho, Kusakabe." Right, that had been the name. Trip's greeting was a casual one, syllables drawn out just enough to play with the sounds. He didn't miss that scoot of the chair, the deliberate imbalance of space. It put a spark of laughter in his unnaturally blue eyes.

"Any friend of Sei's is a friend of mine."