It being a while is fine by him. He has the answer he'd been wondering at ever since that first kiss, and though he knows very well that the next step is his - to step forward where she's stepped back - but he knows to that to do so too soon would be just as much a violation of the dance as it would be if she stood still instead of backing away. Besides, there's Vienna yet, and that seems as good a time as any to see about the next step in the dance.
And if it happens to give him a bit longer to come up with how to approach the topic so much the better, as far as he's concerned.
So it is that he simply inclines his head a bit, and turns to his own wine for a moment. After all, if he can't enjoy this moment and the smile on her face (something that has been all too rare of late) than what's the point of it all. But she is right in one regard. Now that they've come so literally through the flames and risen again from the ashes he doesn't mean to be anything less than a constant presence in her life. Which doesn't necessarily mean that he'll always be at her side - he always has been prone to wandering off when the mood strikes him - but being a constant in her life... that he has every intention of being, if she'll have him.
(And to be honest, he suspects that's been part of the point of this whole thing.)
He glances to the map when she does, as if by calling attention to it, she's reminded him of the fact that it's there and that they aren't just standing in the middle of an empty room.
"Mmm, time to put this particular genie back in the bottle for now, I think," he answers, and it is - finally - an acceptance of what she offered him, both in the map itself and the apology for what she's made him suffer through these last few months, whether it was intentional or not. The secrets it holds will still be there in the morning, and for now he finds that Helen is the more interesting anyway.
no subject
And if it happens to give him a bit longer to come up with how to approach the topic so much the better, as far as he's concerned.
So it is that he simply inclines his head a bit, and turns to his own wine for a moment. After all, if he can't enjoy this moment and the smile on her face (something that has been all too rare of late) than what's the point of it all. But she is right in one regard. Now that they've come so literally through the flames and risen again from the ashes he doesn't mean to be anything less than a constant presence in her life. Which doesn't necessarily mean that he'll always be at her side - he always has been prone to wandering off when the mood strikes him - but being a constant in her life... that he has every intention of being, if she'll have him.
(And to be honest, he suspects that's been part of the point of this whole thing.)
He glances to the map when she does, as if by calling attention to it, she's reminded him of the fact that it's there and that they aren't just standing in the middle of an empty room.
"Mmm, time to put this particular genie back in the bottle for now, I think," he answers, and it is - finally - an acceptance of what she offered him, both in the map itself and the apology for what she's made him suffer through these last few months, whether it was intentional or not. The secrets it holds will still be there in the morning, and for now he finds that Helen is the more interesting anyway.