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Post by Roland Ferrera on Jan 11, 2010 0:06:40 GMT -5
"She was beautiful," he agreed. "But you're much prettier. To me, anyway."
He still felt oddly nervous, even though he knew he didn't have to impress her or anything. But everything about their relationship had been unorthodox, and now they were doing something so incredibly... normal. People went out on dates all the time. Couples went out to dinner... it was no big deal. But he had never done it before, an, as such, it was really out of his comfort zone. He just didn't want to mess anything up.
"Thanks. I know you prefer me in muggle clothes... I honestly don't think I'll ever wear robes again, except to work."
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Post by Riley Neves on Jan 11, 2010 0:29:25 GMT -5
"Well, I know you prefer me in those robes, but this was the only thing I had clean..." she laughed, knowing that he hated the robes they wore. She had come to find them annoying, too. They were hot and heavy and just got in the way, especially when working, she figured. You could be quicker in muggle clothes... but who was she to argue? They were also to cumbersome to take off in the heat of the moment.
"I'm right there with you, though. All that time in the safe house, not following any rules... it spoiled us. But stop... no talking about work or anything else like it. This is about us."
It was hard not to think of work, or the child they had on the way, or families (his, namely), but she really wanted to try tonight.
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Post by Roland Ferrera on Jan 11, 2010 16:29:07 GMT -5
There was a part of him that was very anxious to return to work. It felt like he hadn't worked in ages, and was still in the middle of a very long vacation. It made everything seem kind of dreamy and unreal.
And yet, he also knew he would be very reluctant to give up all this time he had been spending alone with Riley. After all, the real world, with work and family and responsibilities, would be calling for them soon enough. They were entitled to have this time together.
"OK, fair enough," he said. "The rest of the world can wait."
They were at the lift now, and as the doors slid open, he led her inside, then gave her one of his crooked grins. "I hope you realize how hard I'm trying to play the gentleman tonight," he told her. "I really want to kiss you right now."
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Post by Riley Neves on Jan 11, 2010 16:51:14 GMT -5
Riley smirked, leaning against the back wall of the elevator. "Well, I'm very sorry to tell you, but I don't kiss on the first date."
Her smirk turned into a wider smile, a more playful one. That was some part of this that was ridiculous to her... they were engaged, and yet this really was their first date. They were engaged... sometimes, the thought took her breath away, and she'd look down, just to make sure there really was a ring on her finger.
She did that a lot- little things to check and make sure that things were real. Maybe that was part of the trepidation she had about returning to work... she wondered if they could move their desks.
"Maybe by the second date, if I like you enough."
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Post by Roland Ferrera on Jan 11, 2010 18:54:22 GMT -5
Roland made a face. "I knew there was a reason I didn't do the whole dating thing," he said. "It takes way too long to get to the good stuff."
But this was a kind of a test... not necessarily that she was testing him, but it was a test for both of them. They had become so used to just falling back into bed whenever they wanted, but they were going to have to practice a little more restraint if they were going to go back to work eventually. It just would mean that they would be more desperate for each other when they got home.
"Besides, you know... this is assuming I'm going to ask you on a second date."
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Post by Riley Neves on Jan 14, 2010 1:06:27 GMT -5
Riley pretended to look offended. "You better ask me on a second date. I won't even consider a wedding or anything of the sort until at least three dates."
She laughed lightly and leaned into him while they waited for the lift to reach the ground floor. She kind of liked not being able to touch him the way she wanted to... it would make later so much sweeter.
"I'm very proud of your restraint so far, though."
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Post by Roland Ferrera on Jan 14, 2010 15:19:16 GMT -5
He laughed and curled one arm around her waist. “It’s not easy, seeing you looking the way you do. You smell nice, too. Did I mention that before?”
Indeed, standing with her in the enclosed space of the elevator, the scent of her seemed to wrap around him, intoxicating him. In fact, everything about her was driving him wild. He loved the soft curls of her hair, the way the dress skimmed over her curves, the sight of her shapely legs and the high heels… He had never really thought of her as being a “girly” type, but when she wanted to, she could look positively glamorous. It was almost humbling, how girls could utterly transform themselves, knowing that it would drive men crazy.
“So, for this…. date… did you want to do anything else after dinner? I mean… I feel like we’re all dressed up, so we should do something nice, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to wait that long to touch you.”
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Post by Riley Neves on Jan 14, 2010 20:37:45 GMT -5
"Thank you," Riley said, her smile somewhat shy. "I used girly smelly stuff. I used to use it sometimes when we were first started working together. I mean, not for you... no offense. Just on days when I wanted to feel pretty. And then, for a couple months, none of that stuff seemed to matter, you know?"
She hadn't thought about it, but with things returning to normal... she could do things like this now. Dress up sometimes, smell nice for him, wear make up again... cook a decent meal...
She shrugged at his question. "I don't know what else there is...? I've never really done the dating thing, you know. What are some other nice things we can do?"
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Post by Roland Ferrera on Jan 15, 2010 0:19:35 GMT -5
He gave her a sideways look, smiling his crooked grin. "I used to notice it. Sometimes you would be standing a little too close to me and I would just feel... overwhelmed. And I'd have to move away. Then usually I would start yelling at you to relieve some tension."
He laughed, shaking his head. "When you think about it, I think all of this... us... was inevitable. I don't know how we managed to fight it as long as we did."
The elevator doors opened at that moment, and he took her arm, leading her out into the lobby. "A date... Well, I think the traditional thing is dinner and a movie. But we're too dressed up for a movie. Er... We could go dancing somewhere, but as you know... I don't really like dancing..."
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Post by Riley Neves on Jan 15, 2010 23:23:02 GMT -5
Riley was smiling as he recounted remembering what she smelled like, and then she laughed. "We pretended to solve a lot of things by yelling at each other. We have too much passion between us and we didn't know how to channel that."
"Well... I agree that we're too dressed up for a movie, and I'm not going to take you somewhere you won't like... I don't know. We look to good not to go somewhere. Let's... do something in muggle London. A carriage ride or something like that?"
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Post by Roland Ferrera on Jan 16, 2010 0:52:17 GMT -5
He laughed as they walked out of the apartment building. The night air was chilly, and he instinctively wrapped an arm around her waist, hoping to keep her warm with his body. The might have once attempted to channel their passion into arguments, but he most definitely preferred this way.
"We can do a carriage ride," he replied. "Or... well, I suppose it's too short notice to get tickets to the ballet or something like that. And I'll be honest; I'm not really into that sort of cultural stuff. I don't know if you are..."
He trailed off, realizing with a start that there were still so many things that he didn't know about her. He wanted to know everything, to know her and understand her so completely that they were almost like one person. But there was still so much to learn...
"I want to at least try some of the things you like... And really, I don't hate dancing as much as I thought I did. I don't like fast dancing... like at a club... but slow dancing with you is really very nice."
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Post by Riley Neves on Jan 18, 2010 10:46:55 GMT -5
"You know, I don't really do the club dancing either. I like traditional dances... waltzes and the like. I took a few classes when I was younger, but stopped in my more rebelious days, so I'm not really that good, anyway. And we're not going to go dancing," she said, her voice having a ring of finality to it. "We're going to do something we'll both enjoy."
It was disconcerting to her that she couldn't think of anything that would fit this criteria, and she frowned, squeezing his hand lightly as they left the building. She thought she knew Roland better than this by now... why couldn't she think of anything he'd like to do?
She had the urge to know more, to ask him to just tell her everything. If she knew all there was to know about Roland, maybe she wouldn't be as afraid of him disappearing.
They were dressed up... which lead her to dancing, or going to a show like the ballett or the opera, and he didn't like either of those things. The idea crossed her mind to rent a muggle limo, because she felt like the girls looked in that horror movie Prom Night*, but every where they were going was in wizarding London, so that didn't work as well either.
"Roland," she said. "I usually like to think I'm smarter than this... but I'm drawing a blank."
* The original, thank you.
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Post by Roland Ferrera on Jan 18, 2010 19:12:15 GMT -5
Roland just smiled and pulled her closer to him, pressing a kiss on the top of her head. "Don't panic about it," he said. "This is supposed to be fun, remember? We don't have to do anything. We'll go out to eat, and then afterwards, we can walk around and see where the night takes us. Maybe we'll come up with an idea during dinner or while we're walking."
He was thinking about perhaps branching out beyond wizarding London, going to muggle areas and seeing the kinds of things they did for fun. And, really, he was open for just about anything. If it interested her, he wanted to give it a try.
"I love you, you know," he added, in case she had forgotten.
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Post by Riley Neves on Jan 18, 2010 22:09:07 GMT -5
"I'm not panicked," Riley said, frowning at him and the smile he had on his lips. "I just..." well, she wanted to make him happy, or come with something they could do. Surely they had more in common than liking to sleep together, right? She loved him dearly, but she knew so very little about it.
"Can we talk over dinner? I mean, about everything. I want to know everything there is about you... Because I know you, but I don't know about you. Does that make sense? Tell me absolutely everything about you, okay?"
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Post by Roland Ferrera on Jan 18, 2010 23:36:39 GMT -5
Roland laughed. "Everything?" he said. "That's a tall order.... I wouldn't even know where to start. I mean, you know a lot about me already... More than I've told most people. And we have a whole lifetime ahead of us... surely you don't want to know all of my secrets already."
Although he had never been comfortable with talking about himself, Riley was the exception. He wanted her to know him completely, and there was nothing he would deny her if she asked about it. But just to sit there and talk about himself... it felt awkward.
"But I'll tell you what. You can ask any questions that you want, and I'll answer them. But you've got to answer a few questions for me, too. How does that sound?"
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Post by Riley Neves on Jan 19, 2010 2:52:10 GMT -5
"Yeah, I want to know all of your secrets now," Riley said, nodding. "And then we can spend the rest of our lives making new secrets together, and everyone else can wonder and learn them... but I want to know everything there is to know about you."
It was a little different when he turned it back on her, and she was hesitant to agree to those terms. Roland would, inevitably, ask about her childhood and the Riley that he didn't know that well. But it was fair... and he should know who he was getting, after all.
So she nodded. "All right, that sounds fair. But I'm going to go first. Should I wait until we get to the restaurant?"
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Post by Roland Ferrera on Jan 19, 2010 16:57:51 GMT -5
Roland was also hoping that, despite her insistence about knowing everything about him, there would still be a few things she would not ask about. Specifically, he didn’t want to talk about his past experiences with women. She knew he had them, and he hoped that would be enough for her. He was sure she wouldn’t really want to hear about them, and Merlin knew that he didn’t really want to talk about them. He had put all that behind him, and was fully committed to a life with Riley.
“Why don’t we wait until we get there?” he suggested. “You know, I don’t normally spill my guts for just anyone, and I’d like to be sitting down while we do it. Besides, it’ll only take a few minutes to get there.”
They were outside by now, and it was, fortunately, a very nice night out. It was fairly warm for March, and although the air was still damp from an afternoon rain shower, the sky was clear and a hazy moon was visible overhead.
“Let’s just enjoy the night, OK?”
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Post by Riley Neves on Jan 21, 2010 13:18:47 GMT -5
"But I like watching you get all squirmy," Riley replied lightly, though she nodded and consented to wait until they were at the restaurant. It bothered her, actually, that she knew so little about him. She knew he wanted to be Robin Hood when he was a kid, that he was a vegeterian, that he didn't care for dancing. And... was that all? She knew him, she understood him. It was the facts that she felt she was missing out on.
"I am enjoying the night," She told him quickly, giving him a look. "Why do you think I'm not?"
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Post by Roland Ferrera on Jan 21, 2010 15:45:25 GMT -5
Roland couldn’t explain what it was, but he could sense that there was something… off. There was a heightened urgency in her questions, as if she had to know everything about him immediately for fear he would disappear if she didn’t. And she had seemed so distressed by their inability to come up with anything they could do together on this date. He sort of understood that, seeing as their last attempts to go out and do things together had all ended with them rushing back to make love. Surely there were other things they could enjoy doing together, right?
But why was it so important that she know everything there was to know about him? They had a whole lifetime together.
He stopped walking abruptly and stood in front of her, laying one hand against her cheek. “Riley… You know I’m not going anywhere, right?”
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Post by Riley Neves on Jan 21, 2010 17:44:01 GMT -5
Riley stopped short when she felt the tug on her hand from him stopping as well. She opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, but he beat her to the punch, and his question floored her for a moment.
How did she answer that? He obviously didn't know what was going on in her head, but his question hit really close to home. Part of her wanted to break down and tell him everything, how terrified she was that she would wake up one morning and he'd be gone, terrified to tell him how messed up she was. But she needed to be strong, because that's what he expected of her. That's the Riley he knew.
So she forced a little laugh. "You better not go anywhere. I'd just hunt you down and drag you back."
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