Work Text:
From the corner of your eye you could see Astarion walking directly towards you. Usually it would be difficult to not break out a goofy grin at the idea of him coming your way, but it wasn't difficult this time, because tonight there was a clear expression on his face. He wanted something. Something that you couldn't give him.
As he sat down next to you by the fire, you recounted the past couple of weeks and wondered if you came on too strong. Maybe your flirting implied you were after something more - which subconsciously you were, but not the thing that grown adults were supposed to want.
"Good evening, darling." He placed a chaste kiss on your hand while maintaining eye contact. The act made you blush, maybe that's what gave the impression you wanted something else, "how are you doing on this fine night?"
"Hello, Astarion." You withdrew your hand and traced the area he kissed, this didn't go unnoticed, "I'm perfectly adequate tonight, I'd ask you how you are but I don't think you're here to make small talk."
He raised a brow, "can a man not simply want to have a conversation?"
"Not when that man could be sleeping or hunting, no I don't think he could want to."
"Alright, you've got me, I have an ulterior motive for talking to you," he placed a hand on your knee, "but just so you know, conversing with you is much more enjoyable than a lot of other things, and if one day I did decide to strike up a conversation just for the sake of conversation, I don't think it would be too far a stretch."
You patted his hand, "I am ever so sorry for doubting your intentions... even if I was right."
He leaned back and looked like he was trying to gauge a reaction, "Speaking of which, I have a proposition for you."
Your stomach dropped. This would mark the end of the little fling you had going. It was nice while it lasted and you were sad to see it go.
"Run away with me."
"Huh?" That wasn't what you expected him to say, but you weren't out of the water yet, "is there some hidden meaning there or...?"
"No, it's exactly as I said: run away with me... for the weekend."
"So we're not just up and abandoning everyone? Got it. Still gonna need a bit more information."
"And here I was thinking I could tell you to run away with me and you'd just follow me to the ends of the earth, it's a shame, really." You gave him a look. "The truth is I think we both could use a break, and there's a nice, isolated river I know about nearby."
"You want us to leave everyone... to go to a river?"
"Branching off from the group for a couple of days will hurt no one, we'll catch up and it'll all be worth it in the end. Besides, don't you want to relax?" Astarion sat up straight and cupped your hand with both of his, he seemed quite eager.
"I was relaxing before you showed up."
"I mean truly get a chance to unwind, to recuperate from this journey. You can't hide those dark circles from me."
"Why ask me? You could've asked anyone."
It was like Astarion's whole body froze, "you know why."
Suddenly your stomach erupted with butterflies and the skin Astarion was touching started to burn, but in a good way. Maybe he wasn't implying what you thought, but you weren't going to ruin the perfect illusion so you opted not to question him further on the matter.
"How long does it take to get there?"
His eyes lit up and he kissed your hand again, this time with his eyes closed, "I knew you'd agree." He kept planting kisses on your hand and didn't show any sign of stopping.
"Astarion," you pulled your hand away mid-kiss which earned a little whine from him, "I haven't said yes yet. How far is it?"
"It's a mere forty-five minute walk from here, so you won't have to worry about aching feet, and if you find yourself getting sick of me - which is impossible by the way but hypothetically speaking - then you can easily scurry along back to camp." His fingers were crawling across the ground to yours, trying to go unnoticed.
"And what is it we will actually be doing there?"
His pinkie brushed your own, "I thought that would be obvious, my dear."
Your stomach dropped again.
"We're going to a river, we will quite clearly be swimming... you do know how to swim, don't you?"
Yet again, his response was not the disappointment you were expecting, "yes, I know how to swim."
In one swift motion, he reclaimed your hand and kissed each finger between sentences, "under the sun we shall swim... then laze about... then swim some more... and get fat off the local wildlife."
You tried to get your hand back but he wasn't letting go, "how do you think the others will react to us leaving?" It was a struggle not to burst out into a fit of giggles.
He stopped kissing your hand and gripped it even tighter, "so that means you'll go?"
"Alright, yes. It sounds rather nice and I could use a break," you had to yank your hand to free it from his grasp but he just went and stole your other one and started trailing kisses down the side, "but seriously, will the others be okay with it?"
"They'll have to be okay with it... I'll make them be okay with it." He murmured into your hand.
"How are you doing that?"
"Doing what? Looking so dashingly handsome everyday?"
"It's like you can speak and kiss at the same time, how do you do it?"
Astarion looked at you fully and smirked slightly, "Let's just say, I'm pretty good with my mouth." His eyes scanned your face like he was awaiting some kind of reaction.
The innuendo didn't fly over your head but you chose to ignore it, "well I'll say, I may not kiss as many people as you but that'd be a neat skill to have. Make it really easy to speak with your mouth full." Instantly you felt your face heat up as you realised what you just said, "when you're eating, I mean."
"Hm." He raised an eyebrow, "well, anyhow, it might be good to get some sleep, it's an early start tomorrow."
"It's always an early start." You were desperately trying to focus on something else, "but perhaps retiring for the evening is a good idea, I can feel myself tiring more and more by the minute."
"Of course, I shall leave you be now," he got up to leave before immediately kneeling back down again, "but not without one final, goodnight kiss." He kissed your hand again.
"Goodnight, Astarion." You watched as he turned to leave before coming back again.
"But now I have to do the other." He kissed your other hand again.
"Hmph. Goodbye, Astarion."
He didn't even try to pretend to leave, "but-
You cut him off by pulling him in by the sides of his shirt and kissing him on the lips. Being the experienced rake that he is, he soon kissed back, but you were partially shocked by your own spontaneity and froze for a second before you realised it was really happening.
His little hand kisses were nice, but they didn't compare to actually kissing him. Your head was swarming and you felt like you could float away any moment now.
He didn't push it any further, in fact he didn't move his body at all but you'd felt you'd made your point so reluctantly you pulled away, "there. A proper goodnight. Are you happy now?"
Astarion sighed, "I suppose that was adequate... for now."
You let go of his shirt and patted his chest, "jolly good, now if you don't mind me, I'm off to get some sleep." Leaving him on the floor, you didn't even look back at him as much as you wanted to, you needed to seem cool.
Despite your mind reeling as you tasted a hint of brandy on your lips, your emotional exhaustion outweighed your buzzing thoughts and you actually managed to doze off, an image of the white-haired vampire being the last thing you pictured.
-
The trek to this river was only forty-five minutes but Astarion failed to mention that it was practically all uphill.
"It's a river, they flow, at some point it will go downhill, why couldn't we go to the bit at the bottom?"
"The river doesn't flow this way, we'd have walk all the way around to the other side of the hill to get to it and that would take hours. Besides, I'm pretty sure it goes underground so there'd be nothing there anyway."
"Maybe Gale was right."
When you'd explained what you were doing to your companions, the reception was surprisingly positive - most just envied you. However, Gale did try convincing you that Astarion was secretly plotting to kill you but after persuading him that if there was any funny business you would push him into the river, he let it go.
"What? Gale was not right! Why do people believe I have ill-intent so easily?"
"Well I did say I'd push you into the river, maybe there is no river. Maybe that was a lie and your actually taking me to some ritual where you can sacrifice me to the gods in exchange for immeasurable wealth."
"Maybe, you have an overactive imagination."
"Maybe, we shouldn't be climbing a hill on a day as hot as this one. I bet that's how you're going to kill me, heat exhaustion!"
"It's not my fault it's this hot, I don't control the sun. Look on the bright side-
"I am looking on the bright side, do you see how brightly the sun is shining? There is nowhere to look other than the bright side."
"That attitude will get you nowhere with me," you stuck your tongue out at him, "yes, very mature of you." But he was obviously biting back a smile.
"Go on them, tell me what the bright side is."
"Oh, so now you're interested in what I have to say are you?"
"I mean, if climbing this hill isn't worth my time, I will just turn right back around and go back to camp."
"Always so dramatic with you," you let out a scoff at this, "the good thing about it being so hot is it'll be all that much more rewarding when you get in the river."
"When I get in the river? Tell me, is that after we've slaved away pitching our tents in this heat?"
"Well, there's an obvious solution to that, my dear."
Of course he would want to share a tent with you. It wasn't something you were against necessarily, it was just the expectation that comes with sharing a tent that you didn't like. Even in the heat you were willing to pitch your tent just to stop that from happening.
"Why bother putting up tents at all, let's sleep under the stars."
"Oh," somehow Astarion always managed to pleasantly surprise you with his words, you really needed to stop overthinking things, "would that be safe?"
"This high up there aren't many wild animals that we'd need to be worried about, and if any do come our way, I will be more than happy to bleed them dry."
"Such a way with words, I'm swooning so hard right now I may pass out."
"That's the heatstroke, darling."
"Aha! So you are trying to kill me that way."
"Oh damn it all, it seems I've been caught, my ingenious master plan has been foiled. Whatever shall I do?"
"Good, he's distracted, now's my chance to escape." You ran pretty fast considering the steep incline, and somehow you pushed yourself even harder when you heard rustling from behind.
"No, the subject's getting away!"
You never stopped or slowed down but when you reached the top of hill, Astarion caught up and crashed into you, hugging your body to his to protect you from the fall. The momentum made you roll around on the grass first before coming to a halt with Astarion above you.
If you were being honest, it was comforting having his full weight on you, but you didn't want him thinking there was some unresolved sexual tension because of this so you tapped his shoulder, "I think you're crushing my lungs." You wheezed.
"Oh come off it, I'm not that heavy," but he got off anyway and held out a hand to help you up, "here we are anyway, do you think it was worth it now?"
You wouldn't say it was worth it, but you had to admit it was a very lovely place. The river was perfectly clear and slow and ran straight for as far as the eye could see with grassy banks and big, flat rocks along the edge. Open fields stretched on for miles, and the sun beamed wonderfully warm up there.
"It's alright, I guess."
"Oh don't be coy, darling." Astarion poked you in the back, "I know you like it, don't you?" The last bit sounded much more sincere and hopeful.
"Yes, Astarion." You turned around to face him and cupped his face, "I think it's very beautiful."
"Like me?" His expression was still sincere.
"Of course," you squeezed his cheeks, "you are very beautiful too."
"Thank you, not enough people mention that." Astarion grabbed your hand, "now let's go for a swim."
"Wait, with all our clothes on?"
He was dragging you towards the water. "If you're suggesting we go skinny dipping, I wouldn't be against it."
Your face turned bright red which earned a chuckle out of him, "Um, that isn't what I meant."
"No? How disappointing, oh well, I'll survive." You reached the riverbank and dropped your bags on the floor, "however we will still need to undress down to our undergarments unless you want your armour getting soaked, this sun is hot but I don't know if it's that hot."
"You're right, I know." You waited for him, "aren't you gonna turn around?"
"You first."
"I need to make sure you turn around."
"As do I for you."
"Well we could either put our trust in each other or we could turn at the same time." You both raised your eyebrows in unison.
"Turn at the same time." Both of you decided.
"That was easily settled, okay on the count of three: one, two, three." You turned away from him, but you were pretty sure he hadn't turned away from you. If you kept at it you'd be there all day so you decided to ignore it and hope your blush didn't spread to the back of your neck.
When you were down to your undergarments you immediately jumped in, without even checking if Astarion was ready.
"Hey, what in gods name are you doing? I wasn't finished undressing!" You pushed wet hair out of your face and saw half of Astarion's clothes drenched from the splash radius, "look what you did, my clothes are all wet now."
"Oh heavens no, having wet clothes, on what feels like the hottest day of the season, such a nightmare." You placed a hand on your heart and pretended to care.
"It will be a nightmare when a group of bandits show up and we have to make a quick escape while I'm half naked."
Your face dropped, "You told me it was safe up here."
"It is, I was jesting. You really overthink too much." He jumped into the water after you, splashing you with water.
For a couple of seconds you couldn't see while you rubbed water out of your eyes, in that time, Astarion managed to grab your legs and pull them out from under you, plunging you into the water.
Quickly you pushed your way back up to the surface and began to swim away, kicking your legs as hard as you could hoping the water would stop him catching up to you. It didn't.
Astarion found your ankle and pulled you towards him, using his other hand to grab your waist to turn you towards him. He wrapped your legs around his waist, holding you by your thighs and you instinctively draped your arms over his shoulders and ran your fingers through the wet hair on the back of his head.
For a moment you both remained silent as you let the water flow past you and listened to each others breathing, but eventually Astarion leaned in closer and you rested your forehead against his, "I have good reason to believe that you can't open your eyes under the water, am I wrong?"
You shook your head, "It stings too badly."
"You've been through so much pain and in the end you get bested by a bit of water."
"I wouldn't call a whole ass river 'a bit of water', what if there's like, rocks that get in my eyes?"
"The water is perfectly clear, you can literally see everything, even the leeches - watch out for those by the way."
"You're the biggest leech here, if I can deal with you I can handle anything."
But Astarion looked deadly serious, "no, there's actually one on your shoulder."
"What?" Your expression morphed into one of terror, "get it off! Get it off!"
"Now, now, stay extremely still."
You stayed as still as you could, slowing your breathing as much as possible. Astarion carefully drew closer to your shoulder and bit you. "Ow!" This earned a laugh out of him, a beautiful sound accompanied by a beautiful smile that reached his eyes.
"It's not funny," you swatted him and tried to get a glimpse of your shoulder, "you haven't drawn blood have you? Then the leeches will definitely find me."
"There aren't even any leeches in these waters," he placed kisses around where he bit you, "but no, I didn't draw blood, my darling."
"What happened to this being a nice, relaxing - emphasis on relaxing - break away from our stressful lives?"
"Are you not relaxed? I'm feeling perfectly tranquil."
"I bet you are."
"How about to make up for it, I teach you how to open your eyes underwater?" When he gazed at you with his big, sweet eyes, it was hard to say no.
"... but that will leave me open to attack, how can I trust you won't try something funny again."
He removed his hands from your thighs so you had to wrap your legs tighter around him to hold on. Astarion held one hand in the air and placed another on his heart, "because we're such trusting... friends. On my honour, the only thing on my mind is helping you become your best self. There is absolutely nothing up my sleeve, look I'm not even wearing sleeves." Astarion used every possible opportunity to show off, so he flexed his biceps.
"Okay, where do we start?"
"Well I find it best to have something to focus on. So - and now I sincerely promise there will be no tricking you here - if you keep your eyes on mine," his gaze was intent as he placed a hand on your back and slowly leaned forward, lowering you both, "I'll slowly lower us both in. Don't look at anything else just focus on me."
As your back hit the water you grasped onto his hair, still never averting your eyes. You held your breath and tried your best to focus on the crimson through the water as you went in. It wasn't so bad but you didn't think you'd be able to move around all that much.
Astarion followed you in and set your legs down on the riverbed. You crossed your legs on the floor and he did the same, sitting opposite you. The water was so clear, you could see every detail on his body. He reached out a flat palm and you did the same, meeting in the middle. Both of you stared at your hands pressed against each other, before you needed oxygen and rushed to the surface.
"How long can the living breathe underwater before they need to come up for air, on average?" He watched you amusedly as you gulped in the air.
"Um... about two minutes I think... why?"
"That was thirty seconds, my dear, surely you can do better than that."
"Maybe my breathing capacity is smaller than other's."
"Come on now."
"Leave me alone." You kicked your legs in his direction as you climbed onto the riverbank. As you laid down and closed your eyes, you heard Astarion follow you out.
His hand found yours and you laid together under the scorching sun, "I think you should try holding your breath for longer when we're dry."
"We'll be dry in ten seconds, have you felt that sun?"
"Well," he leaned on his elbow and peered down at you, running his finger up and down your bicep, "is there anything else you'd like to be doing?"
"What do you mean?" You placed your elbows behind you so you could see him better, "like what?"
"We're on our own in the middle of nowhere, with no one around who can hear or interrupt us for at least two miles." He held your hand and placed a kiss on the back, then squeezed it, "an opportunity like this doesn't come around very often, I think there's something obvious we could be doing right now."
When Astarion squeezed your hand again, you didn't squeeze back, keeping your guard up, "which is?"
Suddenly Astarion let go of your hand and jumped to his feet, "SHOUTING AT THE TOP OF OUR LUNGS."
You very nearly jumped out of your skin and your hand flew to your chest, feeling the rapid heartbeat beneath the sternum, "Astarion! You almost gave me a heart attack."
"My apologies my dear," he lent a hand to help you up, "we're wasting precious time, you run along over there, I'll run in the opposite direction and we'll play the world's biggest game of marco polo. We can just keep going until we can't hear each other anymore. Ready? Go."
Before you had time to process what was happening, Astarion started running off, so you ran too, in the other direction.
"Marco." You heard him call from not too far away.
"Polo." It was hard to form a coherent word when your chest was beating a thousand miles a minute, you were running as fast as your legs would carry you and you simply couldn't stop giggling. It was exhilarating.
It continued like this, with you calling out to each other as loud as you could, voices getting fainter and fainter each time, until you reached a point where you could no longer hear Astarion anymore, so with nothing left to do you turned back and headed for your belongings.
With your voices, you managed to run for fifteen so the walk back would be kind of long. You hoped Astarion was going back and not continuing in the same direction, you hadn't decided on a way to end the game.
Back at the makeshift 'camp', which consisted of your bags and clothes strewn everywhere, you sat down and dipped your toes in the water. You couldn't see Astarion yet but you also couldn't hear him, so you wondered what would happen if you started shouting again.
"Marco!"
There was no response for a few seconds. "Polo."
You waited before shouting "Marco" again and as you expected the next "polo" came from further away.
This continued for another ten minutes until you couldn't hear him anymore and everything went quiet while you waited for him to get back.
The grass was quite soft but not soft enough to disguise his footsteps before reaching you, so when he grabbed your shoulders to try to scare you, you didn't flinch one bit.
Astarion sat next to you with his back facing the river, "you got here quickly, did you run back?" He raised an eyebrow and eyed you suspiciously.
"No, you must've been really slow." You shrugged sheepishly.
"It's really interesting, I was halfway back here, thinking the game was over when all of a sudden I hear the game start up again."
"You're imagining things, it's heat I suppose."
"That's certainly plausible, though it would be more plausible to believe that you came back here and started the game up again to make me go back."
"Well about that," you cut yourself off by kissing him to distract from your shenanigans.
He didn't waste a second, lifting his hand to cup your jaw, pulling you closer to him before deepening the kiss. Then he slid his fingers from your jaw to your chin and pulled away by a fraction of an amount so his lips still brushed against yours when he spoke, "so you admit you did do it? I believe I deserve better, and I know the perfect way you can make it up to me."
Before you could speak you were shoved into the water. You came out spluttering and confused and yelled, "Star!"
"Star? Mm, I do rather like that." He'd backed away from the riverbank so he was nice and safe on the grass.
Your face had turned bright red, all previous emotions forgotten, "um, I didn't mean - that just came out. Can we forget I just said that?" You put your face in your hands, "oh my god, I cannot believe I said that."
"No, no, my dear, please, call me that as much as you like."
An eye peaked out from behind your hands, "you just want me to call you it because it boosts your ego, don't you?"
Astarion grinned and nodded, "I just want you to call me it because it boosts my ego."
Dropping your hands, you sighed, "look, it's midday already, let's get some proper swimming in."
"Very well, but after you're learning how to hold your breath for longer." His entrance into the water was much more graceful than yours.
"It's not like I've got a very good teacher to help me."
"I'll have you know, I'm fantastic at holding my breath, you could say the best even."
You rolled your eyes, "you know what I mean."
-
After messing around all day, the sun finally set, though it was still too hot for your liking. Since Astarion insisted on sleeping under the stars, that was what you were doing.
Laid on the grass in each other's arms you understood how good of an idea it was, "thank you." You spoke up after a few minutes of silent star gazing.
"You're very welcome," he planted a kiss on the top of your head, "not that I know what you're thanking me for, but I'm sure I did something great."
"Thank you for taking me out here, I needed this, it's been nice." You buried your face into his shoulder as he ran his fingers through your hair.
"Thank you for coming. In all honesty I thought my offer would sound too much like a honeymoon and scare you away."
You lifted your head up and peered at him, "Astarion, what are we?"
"Well we haven't put an official name on it yet - and we don't have to - but if you want, I'd like for us to be together... for you to be my partner." He returned the equally strong gaze.
"I... are you sure this is something you want? With me?"
"I'm positive, my darling."
"Astarion..." you sat up, you couldn't face him. Every nerve in your body was urging you to keep your mouth shut, but you couldn't keep pretending, not when Astarion wanted this kind of commitment, and you wanted it too, "There's something I must tell you."
He sat up with you but you still didn't look at him, "oh shit, I've come on too quickly, haven't I? It's not a big deal just forget I said anything. Really it's-
"It's not that. It's not you. You've done nothing wrong, it's all me. I'm... wrong." As you took a moment to sigh, you really hoped he wouldn't butt in with an argument, "There's something inherently wrong with me, I've always been like this. I don't... want people like I'm supposed to. I don't want the things normal adults are supposed to want..."
"You don't want this?" You could hear his voice becoming more guarded.
You faced him and grabbed his hand, "I do want this. I absolutely want this."
"Then... I don't understand what the problem is."
"It's just... I," with lack of a better way of phrasing it, you ripped the bandaid off, "we can't ever sleep together."
There was a moment of silence. You couldn't gauge what his reaction was because he was like a statue. A few seconds past before his face morphed into grin and he started laughing.
"What? What's so funny?"
After some more laughter, he calmed down a bit, "was all this really about sex?" He placed his hands on the sides of your face, "darling, I already know."
"You... know?"
"I've seduced many, many people in my lifetime, most of them easy, some more difficult but a few were impossible. At first I just thought I wasn't trying hard enough - I mean how could you not want to have sex, and with me of all people! But I soon realised I'd met my match. I picked up on the same traits in you very early on and I need you to know," he leant closer and shook your head, "there is nothing wrong with you, you're one of the most normal people I've ever met."
"If you knew that early on then why did you keep saying suggestive things?"
"Ah, now I might've been a little mean..."
"Astarion...?"
"So half the time, it was a force of habit, I'm not a monster," he averted his gaze, "but for the other half, I will admit, I did do it on purpose just to see you squirm."
"I do not squirm!"
"You do squirm and it's hilarious."
"That's beside the point, I can't believe you knew and kept saying weird stuff all this time."
"Well, it was very presumptuous of you to assume I even wanted to have sex in the first place, what if I were the one worrying this whole time?"
At the realisation of his past and it's influences, your face dropped, "oh Astarion, I'm so sorry."
"Don't worry about it, I'm messing with you again." he rested his forehead against your own, "now, I think there's a question you need to answer."
"Yes."
"You'll sleep with me?"
"Yes, I will be your partner."
Astarion gave you a small kiss, "can I refer to you as 'my love' now?"
"You may." You jumped into him, wrapping your arms around his neck and placing little kisses all over his face, "would you prefer it if I called you 'Star' then?"
"I would."
"Fine, but only when it's just us two."
"I can live with that."
"Star?"
"Mhm."
"I'm sleepy."
"Alright, my love, go to sleep on me. I'll stay very still for you."