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Hands against her skin were a welcome distraction; Natalie rolled her shoulders to the contact, daring to inch just a little closer. Because a heavy conversation made her heart race in a different way, and physicality spiked it. She'd take the reply as a compliment as she finally closed the distance between them with a second step, form pressing lightly against the lawyer's.
"I'll have to take notes if I want to keep up with you," she replied with a light laugh, letting the air dust against Teddy's lips before catching them.
She had offered those words more as a point to what she was trying to say, but admitting it out loud lightened a weight from her shoulders. In part because she deserved to know the light she brought you Natalie's life. And when the concept of happiness had been reciprocated, she felt the draw of a warm smile take over her features.
"I'm not a lawyer." She pointed out, voice dropping like it could have been some sort of secret. A hand filtered upward, fixing a few strands of dark locks that had been out of place.
Natalie's eyebrows shot up at the idea of it being stupid; she thought to quickly clarify that she never wanted to use the word, but as a laugh escaped her counterpart's lips, she found herself letting that settle. It allowed her own smile to grow, at least a little bit. And as palms settled against her face, it drew a breath out of the trainer. It was a curious statement that the lawyer offered, one that Natalie didn't quite follow so easily.
"I'm happier here with you right now than I thought I could be," she explained. Daring to assume she dove into talk about sexuality. "I wouldn't change that - or myself." At least with that, she felt like she could speak with confidence. She offered Teddy's shoulders a little squeeze. "And I think that's what it's about. Happiness."
Natalie kept hugging Teddy, even as she spoke. It wasn't until she had finished that she had even considered otherwise, and even then, it took her a few extra moments to pull herself away, offering a little squeeze before she took a half step back. Enough to make an attempt to catch those bright eyes. Her hands stayed on Teddy's shoulders, hoping to bring comfort rather than any sort of distraction.
"And so you think dating lawyers will fix that?" She asked, the corner of her mouth twitching upward just a little bit. She wished she hadn't found humor in the fact, but it was hard not to. For someone so brilliant, it seemed like the fear of hurting someone else had clouded her mind. "I don't believe that's how it works."
Hearing this story was heartbreaking; Natalie had been fortunate enough in her life to not know of such a loss, if only because she had been blind for so long. And although she couldn't relate to it on a personal level, she listened carefully. Each detail deserved the utmost attention; she deserved to be heard. There was genuine pain like it was a fresh burn, despite how a hint of a timeline suggested it was years ago.
When she lost the lawyer's eyes, she still looked at her. She let a moment of silence fall before she finally shifted. The glass she carried was quickly abandoned before she took steps closer. Briefly, other intentions were lost as she wrapped her arms around Teddy's form, a hand resting behind her neck to offer the support of a friend. It was absolutely necessary.
"It sounds like she placed all the blame on you," Natalie began softly. "But sometimes people need help seeing things for themselves. That's not your fault."
Natalie was a little surprised to hear she was right, if only because she didn't entirely look at it as being right or wrong. It was more the thoughts that developed and wanted some form of clarification. Her eyebrows quirked upward and she brought the glass to her lips, letting the lawyer continue. She certainly didn't expect her counterpart to go into vague details of a past relationship, especially her longest one.
What caught her was the particular phrasing Teddy chose to use. "I'm sorry to hear that." The way she frowned offered honesty, because as happy as she was to be seeing the lawyer now, it sounded devastating. "Was she the only person outside of your field that you were in a relationship with?"
As if to further keep herself from getting distracted, a black cat jumped up to the back of the couch, face rubbing against Natalie as she drew a hand away from her glass to scratch his ears. It was encouragement to keep talking - to offer reassurance that she wasn't crossing some strange social line by talking about this. "It's not a bad thing." The disclaimer was necessary as she let her gaze break from those bright eyes. It was a danger to look, but she couldn't help it even as she continued.
"You sounded so sure that wasn't what you wanted - or needed. I think, because it sounds like a good idea on paper to be with someone in your field, but in practice it isn't so simple. It's almost a guarantee you'd find someone that understands the importance of your work, but you had said that having one lawyer in a household was enough as a child. I think that's what stuck out to me the most." She offered a little smile when her gaze met her eyes again. "But you also said there's power in not entirely knowing what you want, and I suppose that could be said for not knowing what you don't want, either."
The idea of a drink sounded ideal in that moment, and though she would often have no issue with sharing a glass, they were on the same track. She needed something in her hands. Because she was asking her to leave clothes behind so that she could stay any given night - and better was the agreement that seem to come from it. Both of her hands delicately held the stem of her glass, the corner of her mouth rising up into something a little goofy at the thought.
And somehow, the conversation took at turn back to a point that Natalie was sure Teddy was trying to avoid. She had to be thankful it did. Humor lit up her eyes as she was called out for exactly what it was. At least she found it funny too. "It is a little hypocritical."
A kiss was enough to keep her silent, because there were fear in the words that could escape her when emotions were this high, and it was only the desperate need for air to break her away from the lawyer, as she stood upright. Natalie watched as she moved around the couch, gaze following the hand that reached for the glass of red she had all but forgotten about. Rising to her own feet, she moved to the kitchen, finding herself a second glass and pouring herself some while her dogs sniffed at expensive heels.
It was only after a sip did she find her voice again. "You could keep some of your clothes here." Natalie let her focus settle on, returning to her counterpart. Though, it felt cheap in comparison to the way Teddy had just opened up. "You're so wonderful, and I selfishly want all the time I can have with you."
It must have been obvious to some extent that Natalie wished she were the favored of the two; it was selfish, and verbalizing the admittance only further deepened the color in her cheeks. Perhaps that was exactly why people often didn't talk about these things. Still, there was relief in knowing she wasn't being compared to the woman Teddy worked with, and before she could say anything on the matter, Teddy offered more.
Her eyes remained wide, though for an entirely different reason now. Complements fell from the lawyer's mouth with such ease. It completely halted any sort of airflow to Natalie's lungs as she just stared her, even as she tried to open her mouth to speak and failed. It was probably best that she did.
A hand left her own lap to rise up and press to the back of Teddy's head, drawing her in for a kiss that had been put off for far too long.
Those perfect lips were a tease when she couldn't properly catch them. Distance had been created, and there was a definite strain on her attention, pulled in two very different directions. She almost wanted to call the lawyer out for it, were it not for the way her skin burned under her touch. The way she moved to try and gain a little more from her was hardly cunning.
But those dark eyes immediately snapped open at the question, feeling the rise in color in her cheeks. "I wasn't-" Instantly, Natalie was flustered. "I didn't mean to imply that I was." An explanation fumbled forward, and it hardly felt solid. "Not to say that I don't want to be."
When Teddy turned, it took a moment for the trainer to force her eyes up, and even then she barely had gotten them before she was moving out of sight. Familiar hands found their way to her shoulders, and Natalie let out a little sigh at the contact. Attention was welcome, and as the lawyer would have put it - Teddy was being a difficult distraction. It was effective in stalling her thoughts.
Dark eyes drew shut when she felt lips against her cheek, and she instinctively turned her head, hoping to catch them against her own, if even for a moment. The contact wanted to make her talk about anything but the other woman her counterpart was seeing, but stubbornness got the better of her. "Is that the case with her?"
It wasn't entirely her place to pry, and briefly she believed that Teddy wouldn't have any of it when she lost her hand. It immediately brought the corner of Natalie's mouth downward to lose the connection, but as the lawyer stood she realized that she was settling to stay for a while. It was a welcomed turn of events, having had no idea how long she had planned for. Fortunately, her own night was open, and she was all too willing to give her time to the lawyer.
When a jacket slipped off her form, it was hard not to look. Not to stare, especially when she had lost Teddy's eyes. She sucked in a slow breath. "You described two people in a field as your own as potentially tempestuous." She said finally, knowing well she took a few seconds too many to answer at all.
Despite the fact that Natalie wasn't bothered by the idea of Teddy seeing other people - especially considering their own undefined relationship was still relatively fresh - she was particularly curious about the other person that had taken up her interest. Her eyebrows quirked upward in response, because she had honestly expected a different answer. Something to explain.
The cold nose pressing into her leg offered a little bit of a push. "I'm really okay with you seeing other people." The need to make that as clear as possible felt important, given the reason why Teddy had explained herself in the first place. "I just think it's... interesting that you'd be seeing another lawyer after what you said the first night we met."
There was comfort in having her fingers intertwined with hers; a squeeze drew a little breath out of the trainer as she offered one in return. Because although Teddy's response wasn't direct, it offered a security in knowing that at the very least, she didn't want her to stop over this. There was difficulty in knowing that a very particular set of eyes would inevitably be on her in any future visits, but it let her mind linger on the woman who would ultimately be judging her over it.
