Akiva didn't speak the language of negatives. He hadn't heard her ever adamantly refuse anything except, perhaps, further questions about her abduction. Akiva spoke on a spectrum of positives and the halting, side-tracked response wasn't a direct denial, but near enough to cause Dreogan to press his lips together, thinking. Nodding to acknowledge that he did know Akiva wouldn't turn a child away in need. He'd been counting on that. It was the same impulse in him that made him make the offer in the first place.

Akiva was now searching for a way out and Dreogan felt his heart sink somewhat. Would they throw him out, did he think? Truly? Really? "No," Dreogan said quickly, easily. There was a horrified moment, back in an untouched corner of his mind, when he considered the effortlessness of the lie. Dreogan knew it was more than a possibility; they had thrown Jacoba out when she was only thirteen. There were a number of other obstacles more significant than Jacoba's rebellion: questioned parentage; wizarding blood; lies of his own. But, she hadn't been the heir. She was never, he had deduced, their darling. Not that that should have mattered, but with people like the Schlagenweits, it did. 

Still, he frowned and took another sip before stating, "Sasha was very concerned about it. It was all he could think about and it was clouding his judgment, keeping him from progress. While clearly his family will be upset at the level of secrecy with which things were carried out--" a twinge of a bitter smile here; Akiva knew precisely his thoughts on this, "I don't think it irreconcilable. But he needs to keep a level head, which he couldn't do with that fear hanging over his head."

He squeezed her hand, willing her with his mind to be reassured. "I've never met the parents, so I'm not certain what they have in mind or how they will react; I only know Sasha's concerns. They may amount to nothing, but I wanted you to know." He gave a cleansing breath. "At any rate, I don't see how we could become legal guardians with the parents and nearest of kin still there. Minors don't usually have the right of election where their guardians are involved. There'll be some godfather, grandmother, someone to have legal sway. He'd just, maybe, need a place to come stay on the holidays." He leaned in further across the table, taking her other hand; none of them were eating at this point. "I promise; it won't let this get in the way of our own family."

She felt slightly better when he admitted that he did not think the possibility was that high.  It was not that she would not want to help the young man – that wasn’t it at all, but she barely knew him and taking in a fifteen year old would be an adjustment shy of catastrophic.  Akiva did not know how well she could handle someone else’s teenage boy – she didn’t even know if she could handle her own teenage boy!  It was daunting, and she wouldn’t want to do anything more to him, especially after a traumatic experience like being thrown out.  She couldn’t imagine doing that to a child, let alone being that child! 

It would trouble her too, if she had had that problem.  Fortunately, she had very understanding parents who would have never even suggested such a thing.  It upset her to know that he was being troubled in such a way, but it was also a very large amount of pressure that resided on the shoulders of Dree and Akiva.  She didn’t want to be selfish, but a little bit of her was feeling that way.  Her cheeks reddened with embarrassment at the idea – she was an adult!  She shouldn’t have felt like this. 

In light of feeling so bad about feeling so… non-welcoming, Akiva licked her lips and nodded, reassuring herself that it was in everyone’s best interest that she put her own worries aside.  The possibility of this actually happening, she reasoned, as Dree told her, were slim, and even then, their likelihood of taking the responsibility was fairly low with other family involved.  She was not counting this as a complete relief, as she felt Dree felt very responsible for Sasha, which she found endearing.  She supposed if in the same situation, she’d demand the same thing from him.

She tried to remind herself of this now, whenever a hint of negativity entered her mind.  It was the right thing to do, and Akiva was ready to take it.  She could handle this, especially with such a slim possibility of coming true.  If he needed a place to stay during holidays, they could open their home to him.  She let out a deep breath, she could do this.  It wouldn’t be a problem.  Biting on her bottom lip, Kiv continued to nod, more to reassure herself than Dreogan at this point. 

Blushing softly, Akiva let him take her hands and she looked at him – it was so fortunate that he could see what bothered her before she would say it.  Sometimes, she wished she possessed the same ability.  “I know,” she allowed herself to say, having full faith in Dree’s ability to balance and manage what they both wanted with what he felt like he needed to do.  She would support him, she assured herself.  “I trust you,” she leaned over the table to give him a kiss, leaning her forehead against his for a few moments.

She relished the time they could be close and kissing him again, she moved to sit all the way back down on her chair, a bit of a smile on her face, “Does this mean I get to furnish the extra rooms, just in case?"

"I trust you," she reassured. Dreogan felt a sense of self-loathing increase just as his love for her did, every time she said this. He was like this: asking people to follow him blindly. He was a man of Faith; it was not hard for him to see the way. But it was hard to ask others. And what right had he to do it?

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I love you so much. I--" he shook his head ruefully. "I want what is best for you; and us. It's just sometimes not that easy." To thine own self be true was good; it was a strong credo. But it did not help to reconcile moral, civil, or familial obligation. "We will make it happen." He wanted to see her in that white dress. He wanted to see her smiling. G-d, he just wanted to see her. That was more than he had been able to accomplish the past couple of weeks.

As she pulled away in order to sit back down, Dreogan rose to his feet, shifting his chair to be on the same side of the table as her. He scowled at the table before muttering facetiously, "Tables are bothers." Now sitting next to her, he wrapped an arm over her shoulder, playing with a lock of her hair. He served up a new forkfull of food, because this was dinner; she'd made it expressly for him and it was getting cold.

He realised, as she spoke, just how long they'd been separated. They'd been together when they could, but conversations were light and meaningless, because it was a pleasant contrast from what Dreogan had had on his mind. He hadn't anticipated entirely . . . that last comment. It took things even further than those on astrological numerology. Just how ready was she for this?

To this, Dreogan had absolutely no idea how to respond. He considered the possibilities laid before him: either she was asking if they ought to prepare a room for Sasha, or she was asking if they ought to prepare for . . . one of their own. The first was a startling prospect that not even Dreogan was quite ready to tackle with as much zeal -- but it did give the hope that Akiva had every certainty that they would find Sasha alive and well -- a hope that the despairing Seer was finding more and more improbable has the hours sped on. It also gave the hope that Akiva was accepting the potential far better than she had moments before. And yet, this was too abrupt a shift for his steady, constant fianceé.

So it was that in case. Well, then. Dreogan had been taught exactly how to respond. He endeavoured to hide his alarm, his desire to wait, to talk about this, to. . . he hid everything and smiled, once more kissing her hand. "Yes," he said softly. "You can decorate any room however you want!" His smile had been manipulated, but not insincere. His laugh now, however, was genuine. He hoped -- that is, he was certainly expecting that Akiva wouldn't take this too much to heart. They were well-off; Dreogan had lived frugally while alone, not having much cause for spending. His family came from money, and he was a high-ranking diplomat in the Ministry. They were alright. But he recalled Milly, his former girlfriend, and her ability to burn through more money in an hour than could be printed in that time. And certainly earned. "Maybe," he said, trying to tactfully remedy the situation, "we could come up with some plans together -- when --" he cut himself off.

When we have a bit of time. There was never a bit of time. Dreogan had come to view  Time as a thief, stealing every last moment he could from beneath him. But Time was also a cruel flirt -- she just flounced before him. He could never quite catch her. "When, maybe, we're married?" he asked. He gave a little, boyish smile. "They don't sell many maternity wedding dresses, I don't think. . ."

It was always nice to know someone wanted to be near you, particularly the someone you always wanted near you.  In the past week or so, they had not seen much of one another.  It weighed heavily on Akiva who felt like she wanted to be near him so much, have the important conversations they needed to have, and also have the silly, meaningless times too.  They had a lot of those, to break up the day and not really give much heaviness to being at home, but she missed being able to sit down with him and really get to the meat of an issue, to talk about something that might not have mattered, but allowed them the chance to just… talk. 

There was also the issue of just not being near each other that much.  They had moments; they got to have lunch together on some rare days when he was not too busy, but the level of personal contact was low, especially with Dree coming home at all odd hours and then leaving early for work – it was lonely sometimes.  Thankfully, the pets in the house kept at least some living and breathing going around.  She had not realized until he put his arm around her and she could lean into him at the dinner table how much she actually missed it.  It was so easy to forget about something like that when you didn’t have it, but the second you did, you wanted to relish every single moment of it. 

Redirecting the fork to her own mouth, Akiva smirked with her mouthful of food, looking up at him with a level of playfulness expected of a woman in love.  She said things freely when it wasn’t a serious concern for the moment and figured that Dreogan took her request with the same grain of salt she had offered to him, one that could be laughed at and shrugged off.  After all, if he was going to suggest that they take in a guest, she had every right to look at the rooms in the house and repurpose for a possible use.  A guest room was really something that they could invest some time in too, she figured; less so than a nursery at this point. 

Maybe Akiva wasn’t the best at reading him, maybe she wasn’t the most insightful, but there were things that a person just knew.  Dreogan’s reaction was vague, he laughed – though she could sense even a tiny hint of tension in it.  She was not anticipating anything in the very near future; they had barely seen one another in the past few weeks, let alone anything else.  She would, most assuredly, tackle the issue in the future, but not now, not with so much on either of their minds.  It had been more than a joke than anything, a lighthearted comment to lift some of the anxiety surrounding the questionable position they had in Sasha’s maybe-life. 

She did not voice anything along these lines though, and leaned her head in the crook of his shoulder, feeling his dark curls against her cheek and his chest lightly rising and falling next to her.  She loved that feeling and closed her eyes, almost hearing the rhythmic beating of his heart through his shirt.  Nodding softly at his redirection of the conversation, Akiva could not help but laugh at him and his comment.  Glancing up at him, she could see the very young smile on his face and a hopeful look in his eyes that perhaps she might be more interested in continuing this conversation later.

But, Akiva decided that she was going to play with him a little.  Maybe it was just the fact that she wanted to get a little bit of a rise out of him, scare him a tad and really knock him off his balance.  She figured she wasn’t very good at it, but she’d try - it was a good moment to make a bit of red rise up in his cheeks and the spontaneous nature of her thought was actually even surprising to her.  Leaning back in her chair, she placed one hand on top of his hand on her shoulder and the other on her lower abdomen, “Mmmm, more than you’d think,” she commented casually, letting out a deep sigh. 

“I’ve always been fond of the empire waist,” she added as a dreamy afterthought, taking another forkful of lamb and took a nibble before holding it up to him, from her spot comfortably cozied up, “I was craving lamb all day, so glad it’s your favorite.” 

Dreogan couldn't recall one dress that Akiva might have had that was Empire waisted. Though, truth be told, he didn't quite know what that was, but she liked those old-movie looking dresses that hugged around the middle. And that couldn't be . . .

It was distressing for two reasons. Firstly, they had only been engaged a little over two weeks. Could Akiva have gone dress shopping already? That it had happened behind his back wasn't too alarming; men weren't usually included on these things, and there was no way that Dreogan would ever be considered for fashion advice. Adon was much more likely on that one. No, it was the idea that perhaps she'd gone dress shopping before.

Secondly, there was the maternity bit. Dreogan suspected with the drawn out "all" that Akiva was, perhaps, having some fun with him. But that wouldn't be very Akiva. No; she liked to calm him down, not . . . not do this. He couldn't ask -- he'd be a poor father if he conceived the idea of conception as a joke. But he couldn't enthusiastically embrace it, either. For one, it was too soon. Much too soon. They'd only been dating six months! They hadn't even been engaged three weeks! They hadn't - well, alright, they had, but they weren't planning on it. And for two, excitement, genuine excitement if it was a joke would make her think perhaps he was ready. And then he'd have to tell her. . .

"You don't . . . usually like lamb, I didn't think," he said cautiously. She'd need to choose whether to carry it on from here or no; if it was teasing, perhaps Akiva wouldn't be able to carry through with it, either from mirth or from -- G-d, didn't she see the look on his face? This was terrifying. If this was revenge for not being around the last two weeks. . .

He felt his heart pulsing more quickly now and he focussed on keeping his breath level, first by taking a deep one, letting it out slowly.

"Ah, so," he began, not sure what he should say. His eyes flickered down to where her left hand rested. He wet his lips. If he were to change the topic, this would never be resolved. If he were to confront it, he would get a direct answer, but the confrontation might either be misguidedly supportive or inappropriately casual. And if he were to ignore it . . . There were too many choices. The one Dreogan had not considered was the path he often took, the course he was taking right now: indecisively panicking. "Er. . . that is. . ." He took another breath before turning his head to look at her directly. "What?"

This was perhaps the first time that Akiva could actually exactly perceive what was going on inside of his head.  The overwhelming silence accompanied by the tightening of his muscles could only mean the slightest bit of distress.  She tried not to giggle, able to keep her smile down to a muted sort of contentment.  She was enjoying the fact that for once she was not being easily readable.  She was not the open book that she normally was.  It was nice to be surprising and throw him off a bit, and though perhaps it was not the best material to do it with, she was fairly sure it was one of the only things she could actually get away with.

Dree was a very smart man, but he was just that – a man.  He would have absolutely no idea what was going on with her body even if she kept a vividly descriptive calendar up in the living room.  It was not something that was actively talked about between them, meaning that almost anything could be possible.  It also made it slightly underhanded, but what was the fun in life if she couldn’t branch out a little.  It made her life a little less black and white, which it tended to be – with her mathematical approach to most things.  To add just a dash of color made things all the more entertaining. 

She did not perceive that Dree was finding this funny at all, however.  His only comment could be made about food, which he noted that she did not typically like lamb, which was true.  It was not a common protein in her diet previous to dating Dree.  It had mostly been chicken, some beef, but very little adventure in what she was used to.  It wasn’t a bad taste, but it certainly wasn’t the first thing she reached for if she was craving something.  Perhaps, in the future, it would be something she would reach for – but until that point, she would probably go back to making regular (by her standards), dinners outside of special occasions. 

The most unfortunate part of this whole thing, she figured, was the fact she could not help but feel bad about what she was doing to him.  It probably wasn’t fair.  Like she had considered earlier, he did have no idea what was going on with her body, and how was he supposed to react?  She couldn’t blame him, and finally decided that it was about time her fun was up and she removed the heavy burden from his shoulders. 

The wild sort of look behind a faux calm exterior on his face, as charmingly adorable as it was, should not be allowed to linger for much longer.  So, Akiva leaned upward and kissed him under his jaw and put her opposite hand on his other cheek, feeling the slight bit of guilt.  She pulled back just in time to see the panic-stricken expression and sputtering question, it sealed the deal.  She was most assuredly guilty. 

Moving from her seat, she shifted in her seat to look at him.  “You can relax,” she giggled softly; “I’m just teasing you.”  She stroked his cheek with an accompanying kiss to completely reassure him that her assertion had been completely falsified.  “You look cute when you’re nervous,” she added with a bright smile, cuddling back up to him like she had before. 

“There are also cupcakes on the counter,” she pointed out, “chocolate with vanilla frosting and chocolate shots." Part of her really hoped that smoothed what she did over, and that he wouldn't be mad at her for it.  She hoped a very cute smile would also soften the reaction.  At least her bombshell had been a joke! She'd have to remember to mention that if he did get angry...

When told to relax, Dreogan instinctively put down his fork and glanced down at his food. He hoped she hadn't gotten any ideas from his mother. Still, the reassurance seemed to even his breath and focus. He compressed his lips as he thought.

Teasing. Was that what this was? Because when Adon teased, he usually knew. ". . . Oh," he said, still looking at his plate. "Oh, well, of course," he tried to recover, using his right hand to rub the back of his neck, giving a tight, choked laugh. If she liked to see him squirm - if this was a new hobby - oh, dear. This could be bad. "I just . . . wanted to be certain." He glanced up as she gave him a soft kiss on the cheek and sighed. Of course she was entitled to have a little fun at him. Just because he never returned the jabs didn't mean--well, but there was so little material to work with with Akiva. She liked math, and that was about the extent of the jokes he could crack about her. That and kissing her on her dad's desk; but that was still awkward.

He may be "cute" when nervous, but that was not, exactly, what he had been wanting to hear. "Cute" for Akiva was the superlative and universal compliment, but if it took winding him up like this to achieve it. . . "Well, but I look dashedly handsome when I'm confident and comfortable, right?" he asked, a hopeful smile on his face.  There was a momentary silence. "Yeh?" he pressed, anxiously.

He cranked his neck to glance behind him, slightly jostling Akiva as he did so, in attempt to see the cupcakes. "So. . ." he said, unable to put the thought from his mind that tonight was, to Akiva, somehow significant. Akiva liked to bake, but she must have gotten off of work early to make this meal and dessert. He ran through the list; there couldn't have even been a two week anniversary celebration; not the right number of days. A birthday? Merlin! Wait, no. That was a couple of months, yet. And not an announcement--at least not of that sort. They'd made that pretty clear by now.

"What's the occasion for all this?"

Perhaps Akiva would have to find another way to make fun of Dree.  She had struck some sort of nerve with him – the way he kept readjusting and nervously moving around, rubbing his neck, drawing his eyebrows in.  Clearly, her subject of joking was not a joking sort of subject with him.  She would have to keep that in mind for the future.  It was a non-touchable area, which she could understand, she supposed.  The place they were in was much more suited to talk of what food would be at the reception rather than what color to paint a nursery. 

She did have to be conscious of some decorating, of course, considering he had just given the possibility of having a house guest, should that house guest return safely and once again be thrust into a world of uncertainty.  She could not imagine it for a moment, not having a reliable source of support, though she supposed that was what Dree was offering to Sasha – if the offer was to be accepted.  She did not have much hope for the poor boy, he had been missing for more than a week.  Dree held out some sort of hope, and she could encourage him, but it certainly did not mean she felt the same way.

For his sake, however, she kept on a positive front.  The worst that would happen would be disappointment – that was much better than the shame of giving up and being proven wrong.  So, when he tried to smile and offer up a more… fitting compliment for his taste, Akiva pulled back to look him over, that slightly questioning look on his face betraying a bit of insecurity.  He pressed, to which Akiva’s blank face broke, allowing herself to giggle, “Dashedly,” she confirmed, reclining back against him once again.  He would have one heck of a time getting her to let him leave this position for a bit.

She could feel him now, looking around for the promised dessert, and Akiva grinned lazily to herself.  She cooked normally, so when he asked what the occasion was, well, that was what was going to get her up, she supposed.  Turning in her seat to face him, she shrugged.  “Just because,” she informed him without a real clue as to what she had intended.  Mostly, it was a bribe to get him to stay home and relax for an evening, hoping that it would work, but beyond that, she had just been… feeling generous. 

“You deserved something,” she added, “and I wanted to do what I do best,” she winked playfully, knowing that food was a specialty of hers.  Of course, the playfulness ebbed for a minute as she squeezed his hand and brought it to her face, rubbing her cheek against it.  “And I figured maybe, just maybe, it might be incentive enough to hang out here… with me,” she smiled hopefully, turning his hand over and kissing his palm.  It would be very nice - and she did work very hard on it... she hoped it would work...

"Dashedly," she repeated, and Dreogan gave a happy, crooning "hmm," in response, a mere hum in the back of his throat. "You're lying, but I'll take it."

His smile spread to his eyes as she gave her reason. Not because he particularly liked the answer--Akiva shouldn't feel like she ought to bribe him. Though, granted, this bribery would be well-accepted. He was smiling, however, because his thoughts were elsewhere, now. Drifting away from thinking about Sasha and wedding plans and prams and more on Akiva's adorable nose. Soft hair. Red lips. . . The depth of Dreogan's blush, which seemed to match his lips, proved that what he was about to say would scandalise even him.

"Hmmm," he hummed once more against her skin, thinking, as he kissed her jawline. "That is not what you do best. . ." He pulled away, grinning. "But maybe, just maybe, I'll--" his blush was too deep now; his own throat was threatening to choke him. He leaned forward, kissing her on the lips before breaking away to look, frowning, at the food. That really wasn't what he wanted anymore.

"Maybe," he continued, "after dinner, we can have dessert." He was being ridiculous now, really. He cleared his throat and tried to go back to his food; there was no reason to let a good dinner go to waste just because he was side-tracked.

“Not lying,” Akiva countered with a bit of a puffed out bottom lip, “You are very handsome. At times it is utterly overwhelming!” she smiled at him with a bit of a wink, alright, perhaps she was joking a bit now – but only about the overwhelming part.  She did find him very handsome, with his dark curly hair, soft brown eyes that were more than usually thoughtful, and even the quirky little smile that sometimes turned into a grin that could make her laugh harder than anything, reminiscing over ‘canyon!’ 

He had come into her life very unexpectedly, just during a normal course of a work day, where she came into contact with hundreds of people a day, but there was Dree – who dragged his feet until he finally asked her out on a real date, something she waited somewhat patiently for, but complained to numerous friends about – they all laughed now, especially her mother, who she had moaned to the most about it.  The past few months had been moving so quickly though, nothing like the slow start up – between moving in, the proposal, everything had seemed to kick up dust, but now it was settling. 

And though he was not the most… spontaneous of people… Akiva’s cheeks flared up in a bright red, a now familiar knot at the bottom of her stomach – a hint of stubble rubbing against her cheek – she giggled without anything to say, slightly shocked at what he was implying, and that blush deepened.  She felt like she must have looked like a cherry, responding happily to the kiss, but averting her eyes somewhat shyly - pushing his shoulder just softly, ”You’re awful,” she confirmed in a small voice. 

But, then he totally bailed.  Even if she was embarrassed, he turned back to food with an indication of later.  He had tried to be scandalous, but neither of them was particularly shocking.   She cleared her throat – trying to kill the tight throat - and laid her against his shoulder, nuzzling to get comfortable and brining one arm behind his back to play with the curled hairs on the lower part of his neck, “If that’s really what you want,” she said with a bit of a flirty tone – able to do so when she wasn’t directly looking him in the eye, something about that made her shrink like a wallflower, but she felt slightly more bold this way. 

“Thank you,” she added after a few moments of silence, starting to knead the seemingly perpetually tense muscles on the back of his neck, really not needing to say anything else - just glad to have this opportunity to be close again.

Her fingers were doing nothing for this cognitive abilities. He smiled happily, though, resting a hand on her knee, his thumb running over her kneecap as he tried to eat. He craned his neck to look at her. "You're welcome," he said softly, eyes shining. He was being sappy--he knew it and she was likely to tease him at any moment, but he also knew she loved moments like these. "It's nothing to compare, Kiv, to everything you do."

He grinned as he took a bite, thinking over his witty rejoinder as he chewed. "Besides," he said, once he'd swallowed, "it's a well established fact that I'm awful and you're perfect. And while I might be dashedly handsome, you're simply stunning." He shrugged. "I get the better end of the deal, I guess." He tapped her nose playfully before giving another quick peck. "I love you," he muttered softly, returning to his usual demeanour.