your evil shadow has a cup of tea

Nether swirls the tea in its cup, staring at the entity sitting across the table from it. It tries not to let its discomfort show on its face, and utterly fails.

Quarz grins back at it, his face an eerie mirror of its own. "So," he says. "I hear you're also affiliated with Ruti?"

"You could say that," Nether says. "I'm his arch nemesis, after all."

Quarz holds back laughter. "You?" He finally says. "His arch nemesis? You?" He ceases trying to hold his laughter back, throwing his head back. "Oh, that's rich."

Nether puffs up its wings defensively. "What? As if you could claim to be any better at it?"

Quarz mimics wiping a tear from his eye. "Sorry, it's just... Ruti considers you a friend. He told me so himself! But me?" He leans in closer to Nether, his voice low, and says, "Ruti's scared of me."

Nether leans back, recoiling away from Quarz, the fear plainly shown on its face.

Quarz snaps back to his normal sitting position, and daintily takes a sip from his tea. He sets the cup back onto the saucer, and shoots Nether a smug look. "Seems like you are, too."

Before Nether can deflect any further, the two are interrupted by the sound of the door opening and a gasp.

Ruti looks at the two of them, then exclaims, "Two of my brothers! Why didn't you guys tell me you were coming over sooner?"

Nether looks around frantically for an escape route, but is unable to find anything before Ruti hits it with a tackle-hug.

After far too long for Nether's comfort, Ruti finally lets go of it. The two look over to where Quarz was previously sitting, only to see no sign of him, only a knocked-over teacup and a conspicuously open window.

Ruti looks a little disappointed, saying to Nether, "Aw, I guess he had somewhere else to be."