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"You were injured, love." Astarion explained softly, the mere memory of it aching in his soul. "I’m almost certain your skull was fractured." |
"Oh. That explains the blood in my hair. I suppose I should thank Halsin, then." Tav looked down, nervously fiddling with the soap and rags in her hands. |
"No, he didn’t heal you either." He sighed, removing his shirt. "I will explain, darling, but first, you had a wonderful idea and I will absolutely take you up on that." |
"Aster?" She asked, smiling brighter than the sun. He should burn before that bright purity. |
"Let’s get me clean." |
Some time later, Astarion found himself scrubbed clean, lying naked, face down on a pile of blankets as his amazingly sexy drow love sat astride him and massaged oil into his back. She had somehow sweet-talked him into the vulnerable position, he loathed exposing his scarred back like this, but here he was. Her gentle ... |
Her hands swept over his scarred back, ignoring the lines and whirls of the infernal writing to clinically attack his muscles. His body wasn’t a patchwork of torture to her, it was simply his body. Knowing she held no judgment or pity for him felt incredibly foreign but - |
"Gods yes, that spot right there." He groaned as her thumbs dug into the particularly tense knot in his shoulders. He’d carry her everywhere if this was the treatment he got afterwards. |
"Right there?" He could hear the smirk in her voice as her thumbs dug in harder. |
"I will chain you inside this tent," He threatened with another long groan. "Stay here forever and massage me." |
Tav gave a dulcet laugh. "Astarion’s Personal Masseuse. I guess, when this is all over, my plans are set. No returning to Norrs d'Linath, just massaging you every day. |
"We can go to this... Norrs?" |
"The Mouth of Song. It’s in the Moonwood. North of... um... some city what did they call it... Silver-something." Tav explained, getting lost trying to explain the unfamiliar geography of Faerûn’s surface. |
"Silverymoon?" Astarion asked. |
"Yes! There. I don’t know where it is compared to where we are, though." |
"It’s a long way, darling." Almost two month's hard travel at least, and that was assuming he could still walk in the sun. Could he even go with her? Would she leave? She should leave. |
"Hmm. Perhaps I’ll just send them a letter, then. It’s warmer here anyway; I like that." |
Relief relaxed his body almost as much as her massage did. |
Once the massage ended, Astarion dressed himself and snuggled with Tav in their nest of blankets. He began explaining the extent of her injuries from the Gnolls and the story of how she was healed. |
"Falduna ilta ssussun," Tav breathed the words out as a prayer, "You heard the song, you saw her?!" |
"I saw light, if that’s what you mean." Astarion responded "I wasn’t about to look at it, do you know how many monsters glow in the dark?" |
"They do that up here too?" |
"Well, no, not a lot of them but enough that I was worried. And you were almost dead in my arms, love. I had bigger priorities." |
"Almost dead seems a little over-dramatic." |
"Your goddess personally showed up to heal you when Halsin wasn’t fast enough to find us, darling. I’m sure she wouldn’t do that for a broken toe." |
"She might; hard to dance with a broken toe." |
Astarion burst out laughing. "You little blasphemer!" |
Her lopsided grin was everything. His chest ached, a hollow space where nothing beat and didn’t deserve to. |
Tav slowly comes out of reverie, a comforting weight spread across half of her body, legs tangled with hers and a heavy arm thrown over her midriff. Her neck is cool and wet as Astarion licks at her pulse point. This increasingly familiar way of waking with him warms her heart. She stretches slightly against him, tilti... |
He growls softly and holds her tighter. |
There are rules to this relationship. A big one seems to be "no moving until the possessive Vampire wakes up’. Which would be sweet, if her body wasn’t burning with hunger for him. She was healed, rested and wanted to fuck her heroic saviour into the ground. She needed him awake. Now. |
"Astarion?" She whispered. |
A fang knicks her neck. Maybe. It’s so slight. Gods, she wants him to feast, wants the pain and pleasure of it. Her hips push back into him. |
Well. Part of him is awake. |
"Astarion, are you hungry?" |
Fangs scrape down her neck as his hips push back into her. His body is awake, which isn’t good enough. |
"Astarion?" She asks, raising her above a whisper. "You have to wake up." |
"Hm? Yes. I’m awake." A sleep-graveled voice rumbled in her ear. "Are you ok?" |
"I’m fine." Tav assured him, "I just really want you and I wasn’t going to touch you like that while you were asleep. And I would love to feed you. Or just the feeding. Whatever you want." |
"Whatever I..." Iron-strong arms pull her back into his chest. "Do you know, no one has bothered with what I want for so long I can’t even remember? No one has made sure I was awake before they did whatever they wished with my body? Gods, you’re incredible." |
"It’s basic kindness, Astarion." |
"No, It isn’t." He argued, rolling her onto her back and mouthing at her neck, drawing her hands to his back with one hand, the other playing with her breasts. "You’re the only one. Other people don’t have a heart like you. You’re... you. There is no "basic kindness’ in the whole world. Just you." |
The hand on her breast began tugging her nipple just the other side of too hard. Her eyes rolled back and she moaned. Tav bared her neck to him, showing off the bite marks covering her neck. The sight brought a strangled sound to his lips, before he bent his head down and kissed her, licking at her mouth with driving h... |
"Gods, please," She begged, "Please bite me." |
"Pervert," He teased softly with a crooked grin, kissing his way down her body. He stopped to take a nipple in his mouth, fangs almost piercing the soft flesh. A sudden chill of air hit his back as their clothing vanished, her nails drove small pinpricks of pain into his back. He wished she could make new scars back th... |
Astarion moved her hands to her breasts. "Play with these for me, love." He whispered before sitting back to take in the sight before him. Her fingers tugging at her own nipples, her core glistening with desire. Well, she did want him to feed, and he was ravenous. He bent down to hook his hands under her thighs and spr... |
Her body built up and up, the pressure of it all mounting. She was a dam about to burst. His fingers slipped inside her, pressed against a secret spot and she saw stars. His fangs bit hard into her inner thigh and the world shattered. |
"Still with me, love?" Astarion was above her again. When did that happen? His mouth was smeared with blood. |
"... Maybe?" Tav replied, still gasping for air, still not entirely sure what her name was or what plane of existence they were on. |
"I’m not done with you." Scarlet eyes bore into hers. "Ok?" |
"Xas." She agreed. |
And then he was sinking into her, long and slow, stretching her body until she thought she couldn’t take any more, then pushing just a little more. Freshly fed, Astarions thrusts were slightly inhuman in their strength and speed. Tav reveled in feeling so vulnerable to his abilities; he could snap her neck, he could dr... |
"So tight," Astarion murmured as he buried his head in her neck. She struggled to meet his thrusts, absolutely couldn’t reply to anything he said, his words washing over her, coiling her ever tighter. "Made for me. Made to take my cock." |
"Xas!" She sobbed, clawing at his back as pleasure washed over her so hard it was on the edge of pain. It was perfect. |
"Fuck... fuck!" Smooth words were lost. Their rhythm became feral, erratic. Her nails drew red ribbons in his back. So close, so close, and then white-hot pleasure. A crunching sound and exquisite agony as he bit hard at her neck. |
"Just you." He sighed, licking the latest marks on her neck closed. "Only you." |
She gave him a chaste kiss on his cheek. "I care for you, you know." |
"I know." I love you. |
This couldn’t go on. |
When Tav finally stumbled from their tent seeking to break her fast, cheers erupted from the camp. Halsin gave a belated whistle after Shadowheart dug her elbow into his side. Shadowheart’s attempt at vengeance was unsuccessful, however, as Tav bowed with all the flourishes and grace of a bard. |
"Thank you! Thank you!" She grinned, unrepentant. "Anyone want an encore?" |
Wyll groaned loudly and refused to look her in the eye over the campfire. |
"You seem much improved," Halsin observed, returning to his own meal. |
"I am!" Tav replied, "Ready to face the next leg of our journey and, hopefully, spend at least four hours in a hot bath once we make it to Waukeen’s Rest." |
"Hear! Hear!" Gale and Shadowheart cheered at the same time. |
"Would you...?" Halsin asked quietly, gesturing at his own neck. |
Tav thought about the bites all over her body and how her neck, in particular, ached. She wanted it to stay that way, but perhaps not a good idea for the rigors of the road. |
"Siyo," She acquiesced, before narrowing her eyes at the druid. "Lotha, Halsin." |
"Just a little." The Druid agreed, clapping her on the shoulder. Tingling heat spread from his hand through her body and she felt improved. Walking for miles would be much easier without an open wound on her thigh. |
"Thank you." Tav said. |
"I won’t tell him," Halsin replied with a wink. |
She laughed, thinking of Astarion’s probable reaction to her having his bite marks healed and the many daggers he kept on his person. "Probably for the best." |
Tav ate her meal with a voracious hunger, considering her Dream Visitor from the day before. Was it the deranged hallucinations of a head wound, or an actual vision? She needed to think on it more before talking to everyone. Once her meal was completed, she swiftly returned to their tent to begin the process of packing... |
"Vendui, can I come in?" Tav called into the tent flaps, still unsure how everything worked now that it seemed they were "living’ together |
"Yes." His response was oddly terse. Tav felt something was increasingly off about the morning. Natural instincts told her that she had done something wrong, as she so often did. Was she too clingy? Should she separate their tents again? Gods, relationships were strange things and she didn’t understand what to do. Mayb... |
She ducked into the tent to find Astarion washed up and fitting himself into his Spider Silk armor. She rifled around the tent for clean clothing and her own robes, Astarion oddly silent all the while. Something was off. |
"Do... Do you have a moment?" He finally asked once they were both put together for the day. He sounded hesitant. "I think we need to talk." |
Oh. This didn’t sound good. She had done something wrong, hadn’t she? Ruined a good thing. She was good at that. |
"Are you alright?" She forced out, sounding casual. |
"Oh, yes, I’m fine." He assured her, too quickly. "I just... feel awful." |
You fucked it up, Tav’ryneer. Way to go. Couldn’t keep a relationship for even a tenday. |
"Look," Astarion sighed, "I... I had a plan. A nice, simple plan - seduce you, sleep with you, manipulate your feelings so you’d never turn on me. It was easy ...instinctive. Habits from two hundred years of charming people kicked in. All you had to do was fall for it." |
Oh. This... hurt. This hurt a lot. Didn’t fuck it up because it was never real to begin with. |
"And all I had to do was not fall for you..." Astarion was still talking, getting it all off his chest while her heart crumbled to ash. "Which is where my nice, simple plan fell apart. You... you’re incredible. You deserve something real. I want us to be something real." |
"We haven’t been real?" Tav’s voice cracked around the question. She busied her hands separating, then rolling up two very separate bedrolls, busied her eyes focusing on those bedrolls no matter how much they swam when she couldn’t blink tears away fast enough. |
"Of course we have. That’s the problem." Dying in the Gnoll camp may have been preferable to this whiplash of emotions. She didn’t understand what he was saying; they weren’t real, but they were? He had manipulated her feelings, but felt real things for her? |
"I just don’t know what "real’ looks like. Not after two hundred years playing the rake. Being close to someone - any kind of intimacy - was something I performed to lure people back for him." Astarion explained "Even though I know things between us are different, being with someone still feels... tainted. Still bring... |
Feelings were real but also she disgusted him. Asking the Gnolls to bash her head in again was definitely preferable than experiencing this talk. He was obviously pouring his heart out and needed to say these things; he deserved the safety to be heard because everyone did. Even if they were manipulative assholes someti... |
Tav had seen what became of the long-term slaves in Menzoberranzan. Those lucky, or unlucky, enough to survive their servitude at the cruel hands of a drow house became like flesh golems after enough time. All resistance beaten out of them, they were trained to respond to the whims of their masters on the instant, and ... |
She just wished his emotional growth wasn’t at her expense. |
"I... I thought we were real." Tav finally answers. "I cared about you, deeply. I still do." |
"Really?" The hope in his voice was almost painful. She wanted to crawl off and lick her wounds, not comfort the man who hurt her. But he needed it, he needed comfort and reassurance. He wouldn’t have said anything at all had he not felt safe enough with her to make this confession. Perhaps they wouldn’t recover from t... |
"I want us to be real. More than anything." The words erupted from her unbidden. Oh, gods, she was crying. Her face was going to get splotchy and everyone would ask questions. Not knowing what else to do, acting on pure need, Tav launched herself at Asatrion, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him tightly. He did... |
Then his arms slowly snaked around her and clenched her tight. |
"You... you are full of surprises, aren’t you?" He murmured. |
"Are we still real?" Tav whispered into his shoulder "We don’t have to have sex to be real. Not if you don’t want. Or we can be friends? I’d like to be friends." |
"I want us to be real, Tav." He pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head. "Honestly, I have no idea what we’re doing. Or what comes next. But I know that this? This is nice." |
You disgust him. |
She let him go to keep packing up their tent, babbling nervously to fill the too-quiet space. "Um... You can still feed from me, if you need. Maybe wait until I’m asleep and go for a wrist. That’ll be less... um..." Their bags were packed beside the bedrolls. Everything was done and waiting for Gale’s magic. |
He hadn’t answered her about the feeding. |
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