Dorian Torres

"Oh, I'm ride or die for my friendships, don't you know?" she replied. "Oh definitely," Ophelia replied, and then gave a small laugh at his later statements. "I wouldn't want to be on any of their bad sides. Not gonna lie, they all kinda scare me, just a smidge."

"That is good to know." Dorian spoke with a bit of a chuckle at Ophelia's words. "Nice to know you won't just drop me if you don't like something I say." At the mention of the team though, he nodded his head. "I can completely understand why you might feel that way. They are a force singularly so as a team it makes them formidable and very intimidating."

"I'll hold you to it then," she told him with the ghost of a smile on her lips. Laurel always liked feeding into her competitive nature and to feel like there was a semblance of that banter between them again felt really nice. While she knew she still had to work to get any sort of trust or friendship from him again, it didn't feel as impossible as it had before. "Hey, Torres, uh– thanks," Laurel added quietly, not wanting to ruin the tonal shift but wanting to get it out there nonetheless. "For the talk and hearing me out... I appreciate it."

It felt like their conversation was coming to a natural and surprisingly comfortable close. He'd been moving to head off when he heard his name being called out and he paused in his tracks, waiting silently for whatever it was that the girl wanted to get off her chest. Surprisingly, he'd not been expecting that. "Yeah, well... maybe I needed it more than I thought too." Dorian admitted after a moment. "I appreciate you waiting for me to be ready too."

Him saying he didn't expect her to felt oddly freeing in a way. While Laurel still harbored the guilt and – with all this time to think it over –also believed it was good for her to have been faced with the consequences of her own actions, it was nice to know he wasn't holding this over her head forever either. It seemed like Dorian was open to moving past things too. It probably hurt too much to think about on a regular basis for him anyways.

There appeared to be a moment where Laurel seemed to gain her usual spark back. He could see it in the way her posture straightened up and the look in her eyes. It wasn't' that the burden of what had happened between them had been lifted completely, but more that the weight of it had been lessened at least a little bit. It really brought home to Dorian just how much this had also had an impact on her. There was no question in his mind now just how much regret she felt for the whole situation. Whilst he'd not exactly been eager to resolve things originally, he was glad now, it had happened organically and that felt so much more fulfilling.

"I think she'd have a good laugh if she heard you say that," Gabe snorted lightly as Dorian proceeded to compare his girlfriend to a black widow spider. "She is most certainly not as scary or violent as you seem to think– but she's certainly got intimidation tactics down if she ever needs to use them," he considered with a laugh. "And if you two mated it'd be me biting your head off, I'll have you know that much," Gabe added in good humor, knowing that wasn't actually a potential threat. "I'll make note of that. Luckily it hasn't been much of an issue for myself but I can easily see how it could cause some waves."

"Well in that case she simply has the ability to appear that way." The woman knew how to throw a look, that was for certain. So far he'd not had to endure more than a slightly suspiciously judgemental look on one occasion and that felt soul bearing enough in his opinion. "She must be alright though given you're dating her." Dorian added with a little shrug though he was left laughing a moment later. "Really? Now you... I wouldn't have expected the threat of physical violence from you. Damn... I'll keep my distance, scouts honor." Dorian joked, doing the little move that came with that term. "Yeah, it's not the best situation to be in."

"I'll see if that is the same a few months in." Dorian responded, a little smirk on his face. He supposed the answer didn't matter too much and he didn't particularly want to raise suspicion so after Ben's answer, Dorian didn't make a comment on it. "I suppose we'll found out if it's worth a visit at another point. Shall we?"

"And what if it's a little bit of both?" Gabe chuckled in reply to his friend's questions. "I can miss you and miss the business you bring at the same time, can't I? Or does that not fly in your book?"

"If you wanted a date, you could have just asked. Though I think that girlfriend of yours might have something to say about it. Honestly I'm not sure if she'd kill me or ask me to join in. She gives me black widow spider vibes... like she'd mate me and then bite my head off." Dorian spoke frankly, a chuckle falling from his lips. "I'm not sure how you handle her. But a bit of both? I would warn you about mixing business and pleasure. It's not boded well for me in the past."

"I know," she said softly. There had never been a moment that she'd even considered Dorian was doing this to sabotage her. Not only had she been the one who'd insisted in the first place, but it also seemed far from his nature to do something of the sort. He was too good of a human being to do something manipulative like that. You weren't a mistake. That however struck something deeper within her. Something about it almost scared her. "Thank you for saying that," came out even quieter than the words she'd said before. It took Laurel a moment before she managed to speak again, finding herself lost in her thoughts about all of this for longer than she probably would've liked. "Look I'll never be able to say sorry enough for how everything played out but I just want you to know I genuinely wish you the best. Like I said, the Tornadoes are lucky to have you playing for them."

He didn't really know what had compelled him to say it, only that it was the truth. Of course, how things had ended had definitely soured the memories somewhat but they were still good. Right up until that point they'd probably been some of his best. Whilst he might have regretted making the decision to get involved with a member of his team, he didn't regret Laurel at least. Hell, in different circumstances he'd probably not have put up so much of a fight. However, he'd been hurt by her, deeply so but the frankness of their conversation now; now that he was finally able to hear her out without his bitterness getting the better of him was allowing him to see the truth of the situation. She'd been a scared little girl who had acted on impulse. Like him, Quidditch was practically everything to her and she couldn't see a life without it. Faced with the possibility of that being taken away from her, it had caused her to act foolishly. Selfishly even. He could forgive her for that, even if forgetting it would prove more difficult. "No you won't, but I don't expect you to." Dorian answered after a moment. Her actions could have done irreparable damage despite that not being her intentions. "You may have shot yourself in the foot a little there though..." He said, offering up a small smile to show he held no ill will in his words. "It's far better to have me on your team than against you. As much as I admire the Holyhead Harpies, I fully intend to take you all down."

"I suppose that's fair. What's important to one might not be important to another." Dorian admitted, giving a nod of his head. "I suppose a good choice is just to go for toppings you enjoy. I don't think there are many pizza's I would consider bad but I never do enjoy the seafood ones for instance."

"Does she have any favor flavors or anything like that? It might help narrow down your choices," she suggested, shrugging a little as she tried to offer him a hand in his decision-making. "I know chocolate's usually a safe bet. They've got lots of different options there."

"She has lots of flavours she enjoys but you're right. Safe a bet as they are, they might be the right choices." Dorian hummed lightly, letting his gaze drift over them again. "I can make decisions on some things in no time at all and yet I struggle with something as simple as this."

"A wide berth? Well maybe don't be so averse. Love can come around in the most unexpected of ways," she replied with a soft smile. "I'm sure she'd have her opinions, per usual. But we'd all laugh about it in the end," she considered in good humor. "Be my guest," she replied with a smug grin when he joked about using this conversation against her if things turned out differently. "I know I am good on the promises I make," Rosa shrugged back.

"Well that happening was certainly unexpected so I can't say I am too excited about the prospect of anything unexpected happening again." Dorian explained with a shrug of his shoulders. "I also know you are good on all the promises you make too." He assured her, never doubting that about Rosa.

"Not in so many words I didn't." Dorian chuckled, shaking his head at the woman's assumptions. "I assure you, no medical assistance is needed. I've seen enough of the insides of the hospital to last me a lifetime. I'll let you pick the food of choice however."

"Mmm, I guess I would be happy and sad at the same time," Ophelia replied with a light laugh. "Good, I'm pretty sure half of them would get pissed off if you even tried going easy on them."

"I mean, that's understandable. I'm glad it's at least not just sad or I'd be wondering about our friendship." Dorian said with a little amused smile. "But you're right, they would. That would be even worse than losing to me."

"An event planning business? That's a change of pace." He mused but he didn't seem overly surprised by it either. "I see. Is it just a thing you two do together?" In a round about way, Dorian was trying to figure out the likelihood of running into her there.

"Or we should do anyway." Some people didn't enjoy it and they still played because they had a talent for it. He couldn't imagine that though. He was who he was because of his love of the sport and because he chose it every single day of his life. "I can't promise I'm not competitive off the field but it's at least used in a constructive manner." He admitted with a little chuckle.

"That they do," Laurel nodded, saddened by that truth. It was hard to live a life under the spotlight, but to have every little thing you did to be sensationalized was a whole other thing that nobody deserved. And it only complicated cases like this further. The ghost of a smile reached her lips at his comment, knowing he was right to say she'd most likely would've never admitted this about him when they'd been part of the same team. But after everything, Laurel was able to set her pride aside for this. Especially when, in her opinion, he was so deserving of the recognition for what he could do in the Quidditch world. "And that doesn't matter. I deserve every bit of it," she insisted plainly when Dorian confessed to not being very kind to her lately. She'd find it more surprising if he had been. It'd probably even hurt more if he'd tried to show her compassion at a time where she was not deserving of it. "Despite the impact that my past actions might've had, I... I don't have any interest in dragging your name through the mud or anything of the sort," Laurel said apologetically.

The silence seemed to stretch between them for several moments as Dorian let the words sink in and he watched the woman with the kind of intense curiosity that suggested he was trying to figure out whether or not her intentions were genuine. His conclusion seemed to come in the slight nod of his head, relenting slightly to her words. "I hope you know I never wanted things to go this way either." Dorian eventually spoke up, words quiet but calmer and softer than any other of their interactions they'd had since the incident. "I never wanted to impact your career. You weren't a mistake."

"You sound almost like you have shares in this establishment." Dorian said with a little grin on his features. "But I'll bite. Honestly, I'm hungry and the smell here is already enticing me anyway." He just hoped that the others judgement was good, though he didn't see any reason not to believe him.

Ophelia smiled lightly. "I'm so happy for you," she said. She wondered what that was like, she was still working at feeling like her again since leaving France and leaving her ex. "I'll definitely be out there rooting for you. Unless it's against the Harpies, don't take it to heart, but I always have to root for my cousin in that sense."

At the mention of her cousin, Dorian was careful to school his expression. He was fairly certain that Ophelia still assumed that they had a rocky relationship at best, but that didn't mean he wanted to be questioned on it because of something he said or did. "I'd expect no less. Though I would hope you would be happy for us if we did win against them." Because he knew that it would be tough competition. He had faith in his team but he also had seen the best of the Harpies too from working with them. "And I won't take it easy or be nice to them up in the air just because I worked with them. If anything, it'll make me push more."