Going for a walk

[onceaviking]

 He arrives shortly after sundown, looking much like the night before. He's added a coat to his ensemble though. Not that he needs it. 
He has several possible plans in mind, but for now he is waiting to see how Miss Potts will react. 

She seemed like an odd mix of confident and hesitant and that is certainly something he can work with. 

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[onceaviking]

He lets a finger run along her jaw, gently coaxing her to face him again.

"I cannot be the first to tell you this, " he says with a small smile.

[othereight]

She doesn't shiver - although she comes pretty close to it when his finger moves like ice along her jaw.

"You'd be surprised," she says, grateful when her voice doesn't catch.

[onceaviking]

" Then the men of your age are fools," he says, letting his fingertips rest gently against her chin for a second before removing them.

[othereight]

It's been a long time since she didn't have a compliment turned her way that didn't involve her organizational skills or her knack for bidding on a new art piece early.

"That seems to be a well-known fact," she murmurs, smiling briefly.

[onceaviking]

His eyes linger a little bit too long on her lips, before he looksback at her eyes.

He is beginning to enjoy this. It's almost a game of sorts.

" Should we continue? Or is it too cold? "

[othereight]

"Maybe not for you," she points out, though maybe that's an obvious thing to say.

"I could do with a little warming."

[onceaviking]

" Let us go back then. There is sadly little I can do to help," he says apologetically. And then he carefully puts one arm around her shoulder.

" Unless this helps? A little? "

[othereight]

It may be the illusion of body heat, or maybe the proximity alone is helping - the closeness. Maybe she's tricking her body into believing she feels a little warmer when he steps in close and slides his arm around her shoulders.

"A little," she echoes, nodding quickly.

[onceaviking]

" That's good," he says with a smile that looks suddenly very bright.

They start walking back and as he carefully matches his steps to hers, he says, " Can I buy you something to drink when we get back?"

[othereight]

"Maybe tea - with a splash of something stronger," she adds, chuckling.

"It feels like a night for warm drinks." And then she realizes she probably shouldn't be talking about warmth and drinks in front of someone who's just professed himself to be a vampire.

"I'm sorry, do you - you don't drink, do you?"

[onceaviking]

" Not tea, no," he says, looking away briefly. "I can order from the Bar but I do not need anything right now, so I will just watch you enjoy yours."

[othereight]

"I can't say I've ever had anyone watch me enjoy a drink before," Pepper replies, as they start walking back.

Then again, tonight is definitely being host to a lot of firsts.

[onceaviking]

"There are many things I only get to enjoy by proxy," he says.

Many, not all.

[othereight]

"I guess I'll try to enjoy it thoroughly, then," she replies, tipping her chin up slightly.

By the time they make it back inside and over to the Bar it is a hot toddy she orders for herself, her cheeks flushing pink - first with the cold and then from the heat of the drink when it appears and she sips it gingerly.

[onceaviking]

He does watch her drink, taking care not to stare. Especially at her neck and those delicious rosy cheeks.

" It is good? "

[othereight]

"Mmm. Still a little hot," she admits, blowing over the surface of the drink to try and cool it down.

She sets it down on the Bar, keeping both hands wrapped around it.

[onceaviking]

" I remember drinking warm ale, " he says, smiling a little. "This smells better though."

[othereight]

"Is it that you can't taste it or is it that it doesn't taste good?" Pepper asks, curious.

She smiles at the sight of his smile, her own made warm by the drink when she takes another sip.

[onceaviking]

"Both. It was a strange thing to get used to at first," he answers. " Now, I rarely think about it."

[othereight]

"After so many years without, it probably wouldn't make sense to dwell," she murmurs, setting her cup down again as she swivels on the barstool to incline towards him.

[onceaviking]

"No," he says. "It wouldn't."
He too leans a little closer, but not too much. He quickly ends up towering over people.

"And it is not all losses. Many things are beautiful to me now, simply because I see them with sharpened senses. The stars in the sky are so much brighter, the scent of a field dotted with flowers so much more intense. "

[othereight]

Something in his eyes - it sounds cliched but it's there, magnetic, drawing her in slightly. She gazes back at him, resting her chin in her hand as she props her elbow on the Bar.

"Lose some things, gain others," she says, mouth quirking in thought.

[onceaviking]

"Yes," he says. "Exactly so. And so I live with the complications my excistence brings, even in a place like this."

[othereight]

She doesn't resist the temptation to chuckle, looking at him as if she almost can't believe this conversation is taking place.

"You have a remarkably optimistic attitude about it all," she murmurs, taking another sip of her drink and briefly savoring the way it warms her insides.

[onceaviking]

He smiles. "I try to be. And this was a choice I made. That makes it easier as well, I think."

She is relaxed despite the topic it seems. This is good.