Gotta Feed The Tadpole

— gale trying to explain some ancient weave theory while astarion lounges across furniture like an overfed cat, interrupting every five minutes with “you’re very pretty when you’re pretentious, you know.”

— astarion pretending he doesn’t care about magic until gale casually lights candles with a flick of his wrist and suddenly astarion is staring at him like he personally hung the stars over waterdeep.

— gale being one of the first people to compliment astarion in ways that aren’t transactional. not “beautiful,” not “seductive,” but clever. funny. observant. things attached to personhood instead of performance.

— astarion absolutely abusing prestidigitation once he learns what it can do. gale walks into camp and all his wine has been chilled perfectly and there are dramatic rose petals everywhere and astarion’s sitting there acting like he has no idea how it happened.

— gale reading aloud at night because astarion likes the sound of his voice even when he claims the books are “terminally boring.”

— astarion stealing gale’s clothes specifically because they smell like parchment, cedar, and expensive spell components.

— the first time gale sees astarion genuinely, uncontrollably laugh, he forgets what he was saying mid-sentence because he’s too busy staring.

— gale, who spent years loving a goddess who felt unreachable, falling disastrously hard for someone painfully real and sharp-edged and frightened.

— astarion acting smug whenever gale gets flustered, only to completely short-circuit the second gale starts flirting back intentionally.

“careful, my dear,” gale murmurs, leaning close enough for candlelight to catch in his earring, “you do realize wizards are capable of learning patterns.”

and astarion just. visibly bluescreens.

— they would either spend the entire evening making out dramatically over a study desk or arguing over semantics for three hours straight. sometimes both simultaneously.

— gale kissing astarion’s hands like they belong to something holy.

— astarion, who spent centuries being consumed, discovering what it feels like to be adored. slowly. reverently. without expectation.

together they become absolutely insufferable in the most romantic way imaginable.

I couldn't manage to draw anything pleasant these days, nor make progress on anything 🥺😭

(with background below cut)

The boys getting a much needed wash. What they didn't expect to see were twin hills rising from the lake.