I'm not stalking you or anything

When he had declared his statement about Venom, Maverick had no idea how what sort of painful memories he would be dredging up from the Empress' past. Though the topic of her family seemed to be a heavy subject, he had managed to make her smile with his playful toast to her deceased sire. This time, however, the answers he received did not seem worthy of a jesting poke. Venom let him peek into her past, into the life she had been given and led, the choices she'd made and the consequences of each. She told him of her mother's incestuous breeding with her uncle that resulted in her half-siblings Chimera and Siren. Almost on reflex, Maverick glanced back towards the castle. The giant black and white brute that had been glaring at him and had taken Venom aside for a private conversation—no doubt about the ruffian that was currently courting his sister—was the product of incest within the Klein-Abraxas family. But that hadn't been the end of her story. Beyond her mother's extramarital relations with her own brother, Venom had also been forced to fight her own sister when the woman challenged Venom for her and her children's family name. Maverick stared at Venom, brow creasing with concern as she explained how she'd been forced to use violence to subdue that rebellion in her sibling.

Venom concluded her story with a sip of her drink, and Mav gave a hefty sigh and a shake of his head. "No way in hell I'm letting you drink alone after that one," he remarked, lapping at his own drink along with the Empress. Misery loved company, after all, and drinking in good company always made the bitterest of pills easier to swallow. Venom made her own statement then, declaring that she was not the first lady he had tried to seduce. Once more his roguish grin crept across his face with a husky chuckle. "Guilty," he confessed, then gave a quiet yet pensive hum when she claimed he loved fast and hard. "Guilty again." But then she asserted that he had loved a girl once before—truly loved her—and that she had left him and broken his heart. Maverick's grin shrunk a touch, still lingering like a ghost on his expression, but his teal eyes had shifted, glossing over with long distant memories. Without a word, the navy and white brute brought his cup up to his lips and drank away the memories. "Guilty," he murmured for the third time, less mirthful than the first two utterances.

Well, Venom had shared the painful details of her own past, so it was only fair for him to do the same. "I was younger… stupider… Thought I’d found ‘the one’ when I met her. Her name was Reina, and she was every bit as wild and reckless as I was. I thought that meant we were going to run off together, have a lifetime of adventures and be totally free to burn as hot as we wanted." Maverick released a sigh as he took another drink just for the need of more alcohol in his blood, already beginning to feel the warm and wobbly effects hitting his body. "Turns out we were just doomed to burn out instead. I woke up one morning and she was gone. No note, no explanation, not even a scent trail to follow. She’d covered her tracks when she decided she’d had her fun with me and it was time to cut me loose." The dire brute gave a sardonic little laugh and smirked at how foolish the younger, naive Maverick had been, how recklessly he’d left his heart unguarded. But that was one harsh lesson he would never forget—nobody could hurt you if you never let them get close.

The game came back to his turn, and now Maverick had the opportunity to shift the mood of the game back into a more fun topic, one he thought would bring a lovely shade of red to the monochrome fae’s features. "All right, Ven, let’s kick this up a notch." A wolfish grin crept over his lips as smoldering, tipsy-glazed eyes peered into the sunset depths of the Ashen alphess’ soul. "I’m betting that despite all your love for him, your ex-husband never truly satisfied you when you were sharing a bed. I’d wager there’s a whole side to you that you’ve never showed anyone, things you want to explore and do, but you keep it repressed for fear of how that might make others see you, when really you've been yearning to let your inner animal loose and explore yourself since you discovered romance." That playful grin shifted to an even more naughty smirk, his sly gaze briefly dipping to the end of her muzzle. "I bet you could do some wonderful things with that tongue." Was he trying to fluster Venom and make her flush? Yes, yes he was. But there was also a genuine curiosity behind the statement. How long had Venom been inhibiting herself for the sake of duty and appearances?

"Maverick"