Tess wrinkled her nose at the mention of him talking about his fair share of women; it was weird, she knew of his past, it wasn't that big of a surprise but him saying it with such ease, as if talking about the whether kind of annoyed her. But she hid it well, after all, a mask is always on the face of a Black.

She noticed him freeze up, but didn't take it personal, perhaps she was too forward. She didn't want to take it to heart and instead she merely thanked the waitress. She picked at the croissant, ignoring the fact that she hated chocolate and picked around it. His silence was enough for her to not want to do any more spontaneous signs of affection.

"It's good" she commented softly.

Dorian grimaced inwardly. Idiot! He made a memo not to talk about his previous...relationships? No. Whatever they were. He watched her face, noting miniscule changes. She was good, he'd give her that. But no one could top Alec in the blank expression departmant. And for that, he was grateful.

Honesty. Be open. He'd talked to Rhian a lot about Tess. About his confusion. Her advice had been to be completely honest. That way, at least he couldn't say he hadn't tried. He took her hand gently. "Please don't feel you have to hide from me," he said softly.

He ran his hand through his hair anxiously. She obviously didn't like the dessert as much as he'd hoped. But he was happy to see she tried it. Taking the croissant from her hand, he set it down on the plate. He took her face gently in his hands, making his intentions clear. Leaning in, he whispered against her lips, "I'm sorry I froze. I'm trying to figure this all out." He kissed her genlty.

Tess wasn't really a fan of uncomfortable silences, but here she was, picking at a croissant as he was off in space or something. She inwardly sighed, and simply picked up her coffee to give her something to do. Every time they got together it seemed like something went minimally wrong.

When he took her hand, she tensed for a second, not expecting the contact and lifted her gaze to him confused at his comment. 'Hide things' why wouldn't she keep things to herself? She had no idea she had similar traits as Alec, in the idea that sometimes things were best kept to oneself.

"I'll try not to" she murmured wondering if that was the right answer.

But he kept fidgeting and it made her iffy; he was either frustrated or nervous from the way he touched his hair. She dropped the pastry and tilted her head, before she noticed the signal. Her cheeks reddened automatically as he leaned closer.

"Quite al-"

Before she could finished her comment, he was kissing her. She immediately reciprocated, wondering when they could act normal for once. Maybe it just wasn't for her and she was glad that he was careful, but wished he'd be open too.

Dorian wanted to lose himself in her kiss, but he knew he couldn't. Not yet. He pulled back slightly, running his thumb along her jaw to her lips. He looked at her softly. "Tell me what to do here, Tess. I...I really don't know. Do you want me to stop? I just..."

He knew he sounded like an idiot. Stammering over his words. But he was so out of his element. With Rose...She's not rose, dumbass! No. She wasn't. She was better. She made his blood sing just with a look. Made him grin like an idiot with her wit. She was so much more than she appeared to be.

Sighing, he pulled back, but took her hand in his, not wanting to seem like he was saying no. "I'm sorry if you don't want this, but it's hard for me to stop. You've no idea what you do to me."

Tess looked at him and nibbled her lip as he kept stuttering out phrases. It confused her too, for a moment she just wanted to stay and just be happy, but just thinking of Alec and Victoria...she would just want to jump ship on whatever this was. Still, he was like a drug, the way he pulled her towards him.

"Stop over-thinking it" she murmured before pulling him to her once more.

He was smoother when he wasn't stuttering, or questioning them. For a second she even felt like the guy, and she wasn't use to all the power. Questioning was hard, and she just wanted to seize the day and not promise a forever because then the promise is broken. She learned from the mistakes of others, and she cared too much for him to just promise him the world.

"You think you're so easy to resist" she whispered against his lips.

This was not the appropriate place and she reluctantly pulled back, cheeks red from their display.

Dorian was falling. Hard. And Merlin help him, he couldn't resist her. As Tess pulled, he laughed softly at her comment. "I'll try." He really was overthinking. No string, Kraine. He sighed, happily. He could at least be happy here and now.

He took her hand. That blush made her look more alive. He knew he should be embarrassed by their public display, but they could all go to hell for all he cared. But it was something with these Blacks, scared of public displays.

"Where were we?" He tried to think back on their original topic. Before his emotions got the better of him. Not really remembering, he decided for a different route. "What made you want to become a healer?"

Tess knew it was hard, but she had fears, and could not voice them, not to him. Who is to say that they wouldn't be the same as Victoria and Alec. She'd never cheat, but then again Victoria wasn't the type either, so she had that looming over her, not to mention that he had a reputation too...it was just too imperfect. But they fit, in a weird way they fitted like pieces of a puzzle. Both were injured and imperfect just in different ways.

As he held her hand she squeezed it and smiled. At the mention of where were they, she shrugged, smiling at him. It was nice, just the two, not worrying about serious issues. But his following question was that surprised her.

"Well...growing up, I wasn't the strongest girl in the world" she said softly. "Father always knew, always reminded me, but once I got older and went to Hogwarts, I was enthralled by the differences of magic. I no longer had to run from my dad's attack to work on my defense, now I was working on offensive spells"

She chuckled knowing she was bringing the mood down. But with healing came the real story of how incompetent she felt.

"When I wasn't with Victoria, I remember hanging out in the Hospital Wing just watching how healing worked. Healer Henley taught me all about how to heal and how powerful it was. Slowly I started getting stronger when it came to magic, and ironically enough Father started noticing me then. By seventh year he was ready to get me to be an intern to be an Auror. But by then, I was ready to be a Healer. And well...I felt strong then I suppose"

She trailed off and frowned at the memories.

"Sorry"

Dorian loved hearing Tess talk about her love of healing. He'd always pictured it as a profession passed down through families. Similar to the Black's being Aurors. He had never really imagined someone being drawn to it like she was discribing. But it all made sense.

Smiling, he placed a quick kiss on her knuckles. "Don't be sorry. You obviously love it. And you're a wonderful healer, Tess." With his free hand, he patted his leg, indicating his old injury. It had been a deep cut, and ached in bad weather, but it would have been a lot worse if he'd tried to patch himself up. Not to mention the pain.

He frowned at her assessment of her past self. He'd never been a fan of Mr. Black, thinking he was too harsh on Alec and Tess. Too domineering. "You aren't weak. And just because you weren't who they wanted you to be doesn't mean you were weak then. Like I said before, it takes a strong person to go against their families wishes." And he admired that.

Tess waved off his compliments; no matter how much people would say that her "iceman" father was wrong, it felt fake. She knew that they had good intentions, but for her, she'd heard it enough times not to make an impact. Her father was a brilliant man, a genius to some, but for her, he was the man that she'd never get approval from. It hurt a bit, but the pain had numbed a bit. From there she learned that you can't always be loved, but at least respected.

"Thank you, and I do" she said smiling softly.

She simply squeezed his hands ignoring his comment about her not being weak. Compared to other members of her family, she was weak. She wasn't too violent, too scared to take charge, and let herself pushed around. But she was working on it still, not wanting to give up.

"How did you know you wanted to be an Auror?" she asked not wanting to talk about her and her vulnerabilities anymore.

Dorian simply nodded. He could tell by the slight emotions flitting across her face that she really didn't want to talk about this anymore. He understood more than some how her family was. Like most pureblood families, Dorian had grown up with a level of distance between him and his parents. But he was lucky enough to know that they honestly cared about him on some level. But Mr. Black...he'd always given him the creeps.

"Well...at first it was to make sure Alec didn't get himself killed. But once there, I got bored of the tedious paperwork and filing that went with the usual cases, the boring ones. So Alec and I decided to do it our own way. We're a little bit rash with our methods, but we're good and we get the job done."

He furrowed his brow. That really wasn't an answer to her question. "I guess...I like the freedom of it." It was odd to say, but true. "I get to do crazy things with my best mate. I like the companionship of it. The idea that we're actually doing some good." He laughed a little. "I almost forgot about all that, what with Alec going on hiatus. But Rhian's got enough spunk for all of us." He wondered what trouble she was getting into now.

Tess was grateful for him not pushing the situation all the more, she couldn't handle the idea of pouring her heart out to him in a coffee shop. Most of the problematic parts of her was that she kept everything in, and she wouldn't even think about knowing it wasn't comforting to really talk about it.

She smiled at him always mentioning Alec in his plans, it was nice and comforting to know that Alec had such a reliable person beside him. She never really got a deep answer from Dorian, but it fit, because it had to be fair. At his mention of freedom, her smile widened, understands it to some degree (she didn't have the most exciting life). Rhian...again..she sighed subconsciously, her smile still in place.

"You like her don't you" she said softly.

She didn't mean it in a negative way, just a comment about it.

Dorian was glad to see Tess smile again. He wanted to learn all he could about her, but some things were darker than others. Especially talks about her family. He was glad she was willing to talk about it a little, though. Trying to comfort her, he lifted their joined hands to his cheek, moving his stubble across the back of her hand with a small smirk.

At her question, he laughed softly. "Honestly? At first she bugged the shit out of me. She's so...hungry. Knowledge, experience, adventure. Anything. It was exausting!" After a week with her constant questions, he'd wanted to come back home and sleep for a month.

"But after a while I got used to it. She reminded me why I want to be an Auror. The thrill of it all." He wasn't sure if they'd work together again, but he hoped so. It was an interesting change to Alec, though he would never choose her over him.

Tess smiled softly and ignored the pang at the fact that he spoke so positive about that girl. She was never jealous; rarely really. It seemed so frivolous, but there she found herself wanting to make him stop talking so positively about some girl who she had no connection to. She could have been lovely, but she found herself disliking her.

'Ugh so primitive' she thought ashamed of herself.

She simply pulled one of her hands back to drink some coffee and smiled softly at him.

"Well I'm glad you're back, and back with a new found passion for your job...I missed you."

Dorian furrowed his brow. Something shifted across Tess's eyes, some emotion, but he couldn't place it. He took a moment to just look at her. She was gorgeous, really. But he could see so much more. Her eyes twinkled with the intelligence he knew was there. And she loved the people close to her, even if they hurt her. Something inside of him burned to be one of those people.

"I missed you. More than you know." He tried to pour all his feelings into his gaze. Yes, Tess had wanted to keep it casual. But Dorian didn't want to. He wasn't going to push her into anything, but he'd be damned if he didn't make his feelings clear.

Brushing a stray hair behind Tess's ear, he played with a loose strand. "I actually have you to thank, really. Before you, I hadn't really noticed how much of a rut I was in at work. I was just going through the motions. But...ever since I saw your passion for what you do...I don't know. I just wanted that again."

Tess was surprised and let out a coy smile as her cheeks reddened. His gaze was something she wasn't expecting, and if she wasn't so scared of confusing him, she would have just clung to him. He showed her a lot of emotions that she wasn't used to...it had been a while since she felt like someone really cared.

"Good" she finally managed to murmur.

She leaned forward and smiled softly as he moved a few strands of hair from her face. He was so lovely to her, she couldn't help but want to just throw caution to the wind. She was surprised by his confession and leaned forward to kiss his cheek.

"And you" she murmured close to him. "I know you care in a way that I can't fathom."

She admitted it, as much as she hated to. She hated not understanding but he was too sweet and she squeezed his hand.