"Well, it's a little late for that, but at least it'll help reverse it faster." Dan makes a small groaning sound as he stiffly drums his fingers around the hot mug. "Don't never start smoking, Miguel. Ain't no good comes of it."

It was the best remedy his seventeen-year-old sister could offer when they were all trying to cope with the worst year they'd ever experienced and suddenly Dan - Danny, back then, sixteen - would start hyperventilating at a moment's notice. If you can drag, you can breathe. It's not that she didn't know that it would curse him for life to start. It's just that they were all already cursed in more seismic ways, and the idea that someday Dan might die of lung cancer or a heart attack instead of as a teenager at the hands of dark magic was wish fulfillment so fanciful as to seem comical.

It's easy to pick up bad habits for the longterm when the longterm seems to not exist.

"Thank you for the kindness. I couldn't have might made it through steeping tea on my own for at least another few minutes. The teapot might have ended up taking the same tumble the rice pack did." He glances at the rice pack, at the hole burned into it, the pieces of rice scorched and popped. "Besides, you rescued the rice pack in time that I'm going to be able to patch it and save it."