Her glance back and overall tone is met with wide eyes and a helpless shrug: he figures she'll understand it wasn't something he knowingly did twice, or knew at all. She's seen how he is with family, and where he's called fickle and a flirt, he's all words, no action.

He sets the hot water container and the folded paper containing the loose leaf tea down next to the teapot. Clears his throat, then offers, "Yes, well, I didn't know about the first two, though the second was more recent, and the third I finally knew what was going on--the Lans have some very specific, not explicit traditions involving their headribbons, it turns out. To my, er, surprise?"

He pours the tea leaves into the teapot. Mostly, he manages to look unaffected. Mostly.