Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I could be persuaded that was a good idea; rather easily in fact," Bereck replied, holding her gaze as his smile crooked up at one corner again. "The second half that is, not the first; I have no desire to be the short old man with the attractive tall young girlfriend.... Though I'm sure if you had Timed it here I could quite easily have been persuaded to change my mind."

And he had gone off on a tangent to clarify an earlier point when she had been inviting hands to become reacquainted with rears. He needed to sort out his priorities. Pulling his hand free of Alina's Bereck slid his arm around her waist... and allowed his hand to wander a bit south of the equator. This was alright, wasn't it? Not that she didn't have really lovely glutes but.... He supposed it had just been so long since he'd done anything of the sort it felt a little odd. He found himself breaking eye-contact and quickly made himself look back up at her.

"So ah... it's been a while since we did this."

Bereck's eyes flicked down again and his cheeks flushed slightly as she reached up to caress his face. "Well... it would appear that I'm full of surprises," he managed a little lamely after a moment, with a glance up and a tiny smile for Alina. To cover his abrupt shyness - awkwardness? Uncertainty? - Bereck had another sip of wine and looked for another topic of conversation. Ah, yes; she had given him one there.

"Yes, I think we were both still sharing with a couple of people at that stage," he said as he lowered his glass. "I remember Morok, do you? Tallish fellow with the desk opposite mine, black hair and eyes, insisted on humming and whistling the whole time. It's a wonder I didn't murder him before he transferred off to the Hall." When in doubt, complain about the annoying habits and failings of others.

Bereck abruptly looked Displeased; lips pressed together and curving down into a grim line, eyes hard and sharp. "I remember her; did she?" He tried to think of something suitably poisonous to call her but words failed and instead he move his hand so that his arm was around Alina's waist again; he gave her a gentle squeeze. "You're worth a galaxy full of women like her," he said with a warm smile. Having had time to think he added; "And she was about as innovative as toast."

Alina's hand would feel what scraps of muscle Bereck had stretched over his bones tense up as she spoke and his face went hard again, angry. While he had been busy convincing himself that Alina wanted nothing to do with him she had been alone, missing him just the same, and people had been treating her like that. It made him furious with himself once again that he hadn't had the courage to approach her, but it made him more furious at the world that was so full of people like Adrine. He knew he himself could be thoughtless, too blunt and yes just plain unkind because he was in a temper sometimes but that? Mocking somebody for fear was never acceptable, regardless of how ridiculous their fear might seem to you.

"Ignominy isn't punishment enough but I suppose it will have to do," Bereck muttered darkly, a slight gravel of a growl rolling through his voice; he would have tugged her protectively closer but that would pull her off the arm of the chair and onto him, and right now he suspected that would hurt. It would also spill his wine, which he remembered and took another distracted sip of. "If I'd known, I would have been hard pressed not to break her nose too," the healer added in the same edged tones; he was not by nature a violent man but some things, some people were just intolerable. In all honestly he knew he wouldn't have done it, he would really have wanted to; the only time in his life he could recall physically lashing out in response to anger alone had been the other instance he had just obliquely referred to.

"Well. I'm glad she was dealt with." Bereck started to relax a little with those gruff grumbled words as he reminded himself that all of this had been a very long time ago and, more importantly, that he had better things to do than think about idiots. "I loved you too, and I didn't either." A small, slightly tight smile and a bit more relaxation. "Have to admit it was satisfying though, and I wasn't even remotely sorry that he spent the next few months hurrying out of the way whenever he saw me."

Bereck sipped his wine again and the noticed that Alina had food and he didn't. Removing his arm from around her waist he stole a piece of cheese from her plate and popped it into his mouth with a look of satisfaction. He then frowned thoughtfully as he chewed; it had looked like a kind of cheese that had been common around Malvren but it didn't taste like it at all. A few a few moments the healer's vivid eyebrows rose and he made a small noise of approval.

"That's rather nice," he said once he'd swallowed, "I shall have to find out what it's called; I thought it would be something like a Namor Nutty, but apparently I was mistaken." Bereck was not always the biggest fan of surprises but that had been a good one.

“Oh? Really?” Bereck gave a sidelong smirky little grin. “Well that’s tragic, isn’t it?” The sly expression remained on the healer’s face as he took the piece Alina had indicated and he added; “I’m sure you can remember what I enjoy. I can remember what you like with excellent clarity.” Innocent statements? Yes. Innocent tone? Not quite so much. Innocent expression? Not at all. Bereck raised the piece of cheese to his lips and then sucked the end of his forefinger lightly, perhaps to get rid of some clinging cheese. This might have been somewhere approaching innocent if he hadn’t maintained extremely pointed eye contact.

She was right; he probably was as awful as she was.

He had to admit to being a bit smug about that too.

Bereck's grin got just a little bit wider.

"Well we'll have to test that, won't we? I hypothesise that you're correct, but experimentation is the only way to prove it." Of course such experiments were going to have to wait for some time yet; he'd probably break at the moment, and he had to admit that he did still feel it was somehow right for them to get familiar with one another again before... well, before they got too familiar with one another.