[ pushing down his instincts doesn't come so naturally to him when there's not much more than his own reasoning keeping him in line. he doesn't hold out against looking at Caroline for long because despite only knowing each other for a short amount of time, there's nothing else standing between them. there's no real barrier stopping them from seeing where it goes and he's comfortable with that. ]

Is that so? [ his chuckle is like an outburst he can't control, pulled from him because she makes him feel light and joyous in ways he hasn't in awhile. ] If there isn't a boxing ring in the city somewhere, I'd be surprised. I bought a gym back home and more or less re-purposed it into a living space. I kept the ring, though. I could do it again. [ he downs the last of his beer and discards it on the bar but it leaves him feeling more forward than he probably should be. ]

As for your first concern, if we found a pool table, I wouldn't exactly have any intention of using it for pool. [ Dyson isn't backing down when he says that even if it makes him feel flushed. there's a very real risk that Caroline will storm off. it's an offensive implication if he's reading into the what's passing between them all wrong, likely even if he isn't. if he's learned anything in his centuries of life, it's that the chance not taken is the one that's always followed by regret, not the other way around. putting a fraction of space between them hasn't lessened his curiosity or his desire at all, which is why he won't stop gazing at her until she figures out what she wants to do now that the ball's in her court. ]