<span style="font-size: 15px"><span style="font-family:Open Sans">“Well, I don't know how much more different you and I could be,” Eivind pointed out. They obviously saw the world differently, so perhaps there was merit to the theory that being bilingual altered peoples way of processing. It wasn't a bad thing though, either way. For some reason, he and Blue just seemed to work. Eivind liked the way his eyes lit up when he spoke about something he was passionate about.<br/>
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“It seems like instinct for you,” he compared it, the only thing he could really relate it to. They moved on, and Blue talked about what he was like as a child.<br/>
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“You don't know that. There is some part of me that believes I would have been nurturing. The same way that part of me says to nurture you now. I can't say that comes naturally to me in the slightest, but when I look at you, I know that I must make sure that I do nothing to hurt you. I would have wanted to shield you, most likely. Perhaps felt a responsibility to you. I've never seen this much age difference between pairs. I don't really know how it would have worked,” Eivind explained.<br/>
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“I do think it was better that you didn't grow up with wolves. They would have been very hard on you. They don't like weakness, and that's how they might have seen all of that. I don't necessarily think it to be true. Your characteristics have made you what you are, and you're not weak. Just someone of a different strength. A man of conviction. I can envy you that. I've always been lacking in that department. Being around you more is making me see how very one sided wolves are in what we see as a strength. It doesn't always have to be physical,” he continued on.<br/>
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“I don't know what I would have thought about you in your teenage years. I was coming into my own just as you were turning fifteen. I think you would have driven me crazy, and I wouldn't have touched you for a long time. Maybe I just would have tied your hands up and asked one of the ladies to look after you,” he said with a grin, unable to comprehend a bratty Blue teenager. He wouldn't say that this was better, because he still hated the notion that it was their connection that put Blue in danger in the first place. That they were meant to meet this way, under these specific circumstances. Eivind still blamed himself. He didn't believe in fate. He believed he and Blue were meant to be together, and that he fucked up by now finding Blue sooner.<br/>
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The waiter returned to them, breaking up their thoughts, and Blue conversed with him in French. Likely explaining to him in greater detail what Eivind couldn't. He had no idea what a lot of the things were on the menu, and so that came as some of a relief. By his comment, Eivind assumed he had went on with their orders, or was either very specific about their appetizers. Eivind tried the wine, finding he liked it about as much as everything else.<br/>
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Blue admitted that his parents hadn't met any of his past boyfriends, and he explained a scenario where they had run across one leaving a theater. Eivind didn't like the idea of Blue dating an older guy when he was much younger than he already was. His description didn't help his case. Eivind had even told Blue, any younger, and he likely would have waited. Perhaps he was a man of more conviction than he though. He would never have hoped to take advantage of Blue. That was the difference. He trusted himself, even if he became overzealous at times. He didn't trust this older fellow that had only ever met Blue's parents by chance, but it wasn't his place to comment anything about it. It was in the past. Blue was older, wiser, and Eivind was there now.<br/>
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“I don't know what my father would have thought. I suppose he wouldn't care if I produced strong offspring. I think he would have liked the fight you bring out in me. He always said I was lacking in motivators. He would have used you to test me, I'm sure. I wouldn't have liked that at all, but that would have been his point. He was always trying to provoke me when he was alive. More than once, he fucked someone after I did. I had never particularly cared,” he answered, thinking back, shrugging.<br/>
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“With our claim being proper, he'd have to learn to live with it. He might not respect it, but he'd learn. I would have made him. Eventually, I think he would have thought you were good for me. I <i>know</i> you're good for me.” <i>You make me want to be a better man</i>, he remembered himself saying to Blue. He still meant it.<br/>
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Their appetizers were brought out, and Eivind was happy to have food put in front of him. Happier even to note the tuna hadn't been cooked to oblivion, but was actually just seared around the edges. He ate a lot of what he could catch himself, and saltwater fish were a rare occurrence for him.<br/>
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“What are these?” Eivind asked, unsure what else Blue had ordered. They smelled buttery, and with a slight hint of seafood. He tried one first, picking one up before Blue could fully answer him.<br/>
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“I like them.” But then again, Eivind liked anything.</span></span>