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Thurvishar D'Lorus (thatdlorusbrat) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-11-17 12:37:00

Who: Regina Mills & Thurvishar D'Lorus
What: THEY FINALLY ADMIT TO DATING, Y'ALL.
When: Early November
Where: Regina's Apartment
Rating: PG

It had been enough time after his daughter had left with the others that Thurvishar was able to think of her, willfully. No stranger to multiple timelines, to past-lives half-remembered and experienced, to alternate dimensions, he had been somewhat disheartened when he had not been able to keep himself from loving her. It should have been easy, he thought to himself now, sipping coffee long-since gone cold, to maintain an emotional distance. Perhaps he was out of practice. Perhaps he had been out of practice since Regina had pushed her way into his apartment offering homemade soup with barely-restrained annoyance after he had been so ill following that memory update; she had been a constant warmth wrapped in contempt for his stupider instincts and he had loved that. A weakness, a single stone caught in a shoe.

Not that he hadn’t entertained the idea of children with Senera, once upon a very different time. It had been a game for the quiet hours, a distraction from the pending doom that was constantly foisted at them. Senera would not survive the war, being a traitor to her side and a murderess to the one Thurvishar was on, and he knew with an indifference that he, the face of the D’Lorus family, wouldn’t fare much better.

So Sofia’s presence, in some ways, was almost like a ghost: a possibility, albeit a temporary one guaranteed to no one. It was a lot. Thurvishar had mulled over it with the efficiency of one accustomed to navigating deep emotional waters on his own, and gave Regina the same space accordingly. Not that he’d been avoiding her - he’d seen her for dinner once after Sofia had vanished, and neither had brought her up. It had been too fresh. But the evening had fallen like a rock tonight, the air thick and private and feeling like good times to exchange secrets, and so he had knocked on her door later than usual. Although he didn’t realize it, it was the first time he’d come without food or drink at hand - he had somehow crossed the threshold of not needing an excuse to come see her.

A family. That had always been something Regina had wanted, had craved, for most of her adult life. At first she had imagined that sort of life with Daniel and then, later, Robin, but by the time her feelings for Emma and Neal had emerged and then been dashed when they had started up with each other again, she had grown accustomed to the idea that the only kind of family she was ever going to have was going to be one with Henry.

And that would, simply, have to be enough.

It was, too. The love she had for her son and for the people she reluctantly called friends here in Vallo, was enough. But it was hard not to crave the affections of another, a partner in romance and in life. Still, she didn’t entertain the idea much. Temporary partners, one night stands really, would suffice.

That was, until Sofia had appeared in their lives and had stoked the flame of an idea she had half discussed with Rogue not much earlier than her future daughter’s arrival. But for the sake of keeping things simple, Regina had pushed too much for details and hadn’t pushed Thruvishar for a conversation on the whole subject. She hadn’t even planned to push him about it after Sofia left, had settled into the thought that it was simply a nice idea, but for some other Regina and Thurvishar, but of course Thurvishar went and cocked that all up by showing up at her door.

Upon opening her door - too late for a dinner call - she pulled her night robes more tightly around her against the chill of the night. “Thurvishar,” she said in greeting, slower than normal to step to the side to let him in. “Bit late for dinner,” Regina said, evenly.

Thurvishar had the grace to look abashed, squinting a little at the light coming from within her home. “I hope it’s not a problem. It was a late night in the office; I thought I might pop by. But if it’s too late, we can make arrangements for lunch later this week.” Boundaries, boundaries. He wasn’t going to enter her home without full permission; Thurvishar was not the sort to push such things. He held his own boundaries too dear for that.

He propped up the corner of his mouth, chagrinned, and tried not to shiver pathetically. It was only his second winter in Vallo; being from a tropical climate, he still wasn’t used to the temperature fluctuations.

Her cooler demeanor relaxed at the sudden change in Thurvishar, as if he realized how strange it was at this point in time to come around like this without an excuse. They were friends, that much was obvious to anyone. And they could potentially be something more, but Regina didn’t dare let her mind wander that way often, not until she knew why he was here now after days of distance between them.

Sofia had changed some things for them, but maybe it would yield something positive.

“Come in,” she said, firmly, reaching out to tug him in by the front of his sweater. “And, honestly, are you trying to catch a cold? You need to take better care of yourself.” At least the house was warm, a fire going on in the den where she had been enjoying a book and some wine to unwind from the day. That’s where she led him, after closing the door against the night’s chill and casting a glance up the stairs to make sure Henry wasn’t peeking out of his room to be nosy.

“I’ve got some warming charms on,” Thurvishar objected half-heartedly, shrugging off his coat and hanging it up neatly, but headed toward the fire anyhow, letting his hands get back up to a comfortable temperature. Regina fussing at him was old-hat, anyhow. He turned his head back toward her, his expression nearly shy. For a man who had faked his way for most of his life, he was admittedly unversed in being bare.

“I had enjoyed seeing more of you and Henry in the last week,” he said, choosing his words carefully as he bumped into a subject that neither of them had been historically interested in discussing. “I suppose it seemed silly to ignore the impulse to drop by out of… pride? Maintaining the status quo? I’m not certain.” Thurvishar didn’t shrug as a rule, but his shoulder lifted and lowered, as if unable to contain itself. “And so. Here I am.”

That had been one of the things that Regina had worried about the most - how Henry would take all of this. After all, her son was her priority first and always, but he was also no longer the young child that needed his mother all of the time. And in the words of the older Henry, he just wanted to see her happy.

Yet, there was still hesitation over the whole situation, over the idea that she could have more if she just let herself. Because it didn’t seem like Thurvishar was quite there yet and she wasn’t ready for another disappointment like that. Especially since it seemed like he wasn’t here to make a grand gesture. But it did seem like he was there to keep them on a certain path.

That? That she could work with.

So she attempted to meet him halfway. “It would be a shame for Henry to see less of you because we’re incapable of being adults about this,” Regina offered, before adding, “And I can’t say I hated having you around more too.”

He gave her a long, deliberate nod, staying silent for a few moments more as he took in her words. All right. He agreed with that. Thurvishar was not a creature of grand efforts - he found them manipulative and typically too-little, too-late - but he could be romantic, sometimes, when he was quite sure that the impulse was an honest one.

‘Incapable of being adults’. He mulled over the words, turning them around in his head over and over. “Truthfully,” he said, still with that deliberate care, “I was surprised to reach adulthood. Once I had, every impulse was directed with the notion that I had to use my time in as responsible a fashion as I could - to hinder those who would end the world, and to aid those who might preserve it.” Not, he did not add, to do much for himself. Even with the gaesh removed, relationships were too risky: loved ones were targets.

“I… try to leave space in personal relationships,” he added, “for an escape route. It can occasionally come across as indifference. I assure you,” his black eyes gleamed against the light of fire, “that is the opposite of the truth in your case, Regina.”

Regina knew the man well enough to know that flashy behavior was not in his nature. Her whole life had been full of flashy behavior and grand gestures, so it was what she was accustomed to. But she could make allowances for others and understood that his words now were his equivalent of something bigger, something more.

She could read well enough between the lines. Lips quirking up into a small smile, she nodded and sat back on the sofa she had been relaxing on earlier. “That’s a lot to take in. Might be easier to take in with a glass of wine.”

“Luckily I know right where you keep it.” Regina’s various wine bottles and corkscrew were right where he thought they’d be; he chose a red that he’d seen her drink more than once, and poured her and himself a glass before sitting down beside her, offering it to her.

He gave her time, taking a sip of wine himself as the crackle of the fire sounded across from them. She hadn’t turned him down outright. Thurvishar may not have outright voiced the question, but he hadn’t had to - they were both so used to dancing around this that they both recognized the tune.

“What would you like us to be?” he asked after a moment of relative tranquility, the question posed without flourish. “I would not have us be inconsequential, but I’d like to hear your thoughts.”

“I don’t think what’s between us has been inconsequential for a long time,” Regina admitted, taking a look at the wine she had requested and not lifting to her lips quite yet. “Even before Sofia, I had thoughts about what you and I are to each other.” But she had agreed with herself that maybe now wasn’t the time and place for it. “You and I, we both have our fair share of…quirks when it comes to relationships. I haven’t asked too much about the reasons behind yours and I haven’t offered up much behind mine. And that’s fine because I didn’t think we were ready for that talk. At least, I certainly wasn’t. This…shakeup, it changes things.”

She paused to drink now, wondering how vulnerable she was going to be tonight. Because when it came to relationships, you had to show a side of yourself that most people didn’t see. Was she at that level yet with Thurvishar?

“I don’t want us to force the issue. I think we can allow ourselves some time before we get to the point where we need to put a label on it. But I would like for us to continue on the path where Sofia becomes a part of our reality eventually,” Regina explained, moving closer to Thurvishar and leaning into the warmth of his side.

He switched his glass to his right hand and wrapped an arm around her shoulders with his left, musing along much the same lines as he. Thurvishar was private. His life had largely necessitated it. But it would have been a lie to say he hadn’t craved a romantic partner, someone he could work alongside, and relieve their burdens in turn.

“I’m comfortable with that,” he acknowledged, flicking his eyes toward hers. “I… would like that. She was marvelous. And I like us.”

And he’d have said that even if she wasn’t an overachieving nerd like himself.

He exhaled, wrinkled his nose. “...I suppose the mature thing to do would be discussing the quirks behind in question.”

Mirroring the look on his face, Regina shook her head slightly before leaning it back on his arm. “Respectfully, fuck that. This was hard enough, so how about we pin that for a future talk and just...see where we go for now? Because if we can put those quirks aside for the moment, I don’t see the harm in it.” They were in a good place at the moment and she wasn’t ready to talk about Daniel or Robin or any of the other times her heart had been preoccupied with trying to find a love life. “Though if you really want to dig into it,” she said, chugging the wine in her glass like she was a complete lush with no appreciation for the finer things in life after chugging a $50 glass of wine, “I’m going to need to be a little more drunk.”

“Oh, I absolutely do not,” he answered with the sort of passion he generally reserved for puns in dead languages, and finished his glass as well. “This was nerve-wracking enough. We did so very well.”

Thurvishar knew her past was awful, and he knew she was aware of the same in his. Honestly, it was probably enough of a wonder that the pair of them weren’t so emotionally dead that they had been drawn together anyhow.

Still, he let himself gaze at her a moment more, his face shuttered but warm. “I think I’ll like seeing where this goes with you. Now. Let’s just coast from here on out in self-congratulation.”

They’d get there, eventually. Digging out all those deep seated anxieties and fears, really going into detail about their not great pasts. But thankfully it didn’t seem like tonight was that night and Regina had a little more time to mentally prepare for that particular conversation.

Returning his dually guarded and warm look with one that was pleased with the direction everything was going in, she reached out to take his hand in her own while taking away his wine glass with her other one. She put his glass aside next to her own empty one and then tugged him up with her. “That we can do behind a closed door.”