I'd left him dreaming [closed]

[deservesadaisy]

Who: Ivan and Ilde
What: He's making a habit of turning up on doorsteps.
Where: Villa Roassieux
When: Shortly after receiving this text
Notes: It's just a one-night stand. That kept happening. Exclusively. And then he took care of her dog. ...you are no longer fooling anyone, guys.
Warnings: None yet, but give it time.

Ivan is not going to dignify that text with a reply. Instead he turns up, very shortly afterward, on her doorstep, expression closed.

At least he brought her purse with him.

Comments

[deservesadaisy]

"I'm glad." It was complicated, and he couldn't help suspecting it would be messy, but he liked her here, curled up against him. It was something he hadn't had in a long time - the easiness of the way they were together.

[rhinemaid]

"Why did you punch Mitchell in the face?"

...there's an abrupt subject change for you. In fairness, Ilde is probably right that there's likely going to be no better time than now to actually get an answer to that question, but it's still a little out of the blue.

[deservesadaisy]

He goes quiet at that. It's long enough it seems, at first, like he might not answer.

"He made a confession he probably shouldn't have, while he was drugged. I took it poorly." He considers leaving it there, but then he adds quieter, "He shagged Daisy, back home. I'd been dead, but not long."

[rhinemaid]

So. That explains that, and-- that sounds messy as hell. On any other day, her reaction here would be very different; their relationship is on uneasy ground already, and Ivan getting into a fight over the wife he assured her he doesn't still consider himself married to wouldn't help, but today there is so much else going on and he's just spent the past hour needing her and wanting her and she just splays her fingers, rests her cheek there, and says, "Okay."

[deservesadaisy]

"It shouldn't matter," he says, closing his eyes against her touch. "It doesn't, really, I just overreacted." It was a complicated mess, and he didn't want to think about it.

[rhinemaid]

"Well, he's not sleeping with me," she murmurs -- though on that note, she has every intention of telling Hasi what she's just unsubtly finessed out of him.

[deservesadaisy]

"I'd do more than punch him once," he says, frankly.

[rhinemaid]

"No hitting," she contradicts him promptly - though presumably she means generally, since the likelihood of her and Mitchell sleeping together is slim to none. "It bothers Hasi."

[deservesadaisy]

"I didn't break anything," he says, automatically. "Am I allowed to hit people that Hasi isn't shagging?"

[rhinemaid]

"Yes." ...Ilde is well aware he kills in Baedal, and that's never been a problem; her morality is selective at best, and has a good deal more to do with 'not bothering her' than actual morals. (It's probably why she's suited to following Sonja around, whose goals coincide with morally right as a genuinely coincidental bonus.)

[deservesadaisy]

"I think I can live with that." He shouldn't have hit Mitchell the first time, in any case. It did no good, and it didn't make him feel better

[rhinemaid]

"So to speak." Because the evening wouldn't be complete without a hint of inappropriate gallows humour about death, surely. Ilde watches him for a few moments, still and dark-eyed, and finally settles on saying, "Thank you. For coming over."

[deservesadaisy]

He smiles a little at the joke, then says, "You're welcome. Though it was at least partly selfish." He'd wanted to see her, regardless of whether or not she was quite ready; it was just luck that she was.

[rhinemaid]

"Everything you do is partly selfish." Most things Ilde does are, too, one way or another; they're just complementary that way, dovetailing neatly when they aren't getting fussy with each other about what they do and do not discuss.

[deservesadaisy]

"Well yes, but it makes it hard for me to make grand romantic gestures when you see that so clearly." At least she doesn't seem to mind.

[rhinemaid]

Ilde lifts herself up far enough to rest her weight (on him) on her elbows to better give him a mildly skeptical look. "What grand romantic gestures are you ever going to make?"

[deservesadaisy]

"I could think of something," he says, half laughing. "If you wanted me to."

[rhinemaid]

"You probably could." It sounds more like 'you have a nasty mind', of course, but Ilde doesn't see that as a flaw of Ivan's.

[deservesadaisy]

He leaned down then to kiss her, slowly. He makes a mental note to think of some romantic gesture, later.