#8db

“I wanted to show you the ‘Fen’Harel’s Tracks’ constellation from that book Loranil lent me,” Lavellan continues before letting out a discontent sigh. “It won’t be visible for another six months now!”

“It seems that we’ll just have to content ourselves with staying indoors this evening,” Solas replies gently, unwilling to tell her that he’d seen that specific constellations more times than he cared to remember, and he wasn’t very eager to see it again. He wouldn’t have minded in exchange for spending the night stargazing with his love but that didn’t matter now either, since the weather apparently had its own plans.

A deeper, darker part of him also holds back the fact that he himself had been the one to coin the name for those particular stars in his youth. So arrogant he’d been.. But he doesn’t want to dwell on those thoughts right now, and instead, Solas just slips his arm around Lavellan’s waist, smiling when she turns to lean her head against his chest with another soft huff. “Are you so disappointed, vhenan?”

“Yes,” Lavellan mumbles crossly, and Solas chuckles as he leans down to press a soft kiss to the top of her head, and the furrow in her brow lessens at the gentle brush of his lips against her hair. He lets the kiss linger for a moment, enjoying the warmth of her smaller body pressed so close to his, and he breathes in her familiar, comforting scent before finally drawing his head back.

The rain, despite having ruined their evening plans, is still a pleasant enough sound to listen to as it patters down against the castle grounds around them, and after a few long moments Lavellan has relaxed back against him completely. Solas smiles to himself once more; his heart was never one to hold onto her anger for too long, at least not over something so minor.

“You know, Solas,” Lavellan finally speaks up at length, and Solas raises a brow when she straightens up to grin up at him. Oh, he knew that look.. “Everyone’s cleared out of the yards now. We could always strip down and go dancing in the rain again.”

“Of all the potential ways for us to pass our free time together, vhenan, that is the one you suggest?” Solas asks her, unable to keep the amusement out of his voice, and Lavellan just shrugs her shoulders at him, still grinning that cheeky grin of hers.

“What? It’s not like we haven’t done it before,” she reminds him, and though Solas manages to keep his expression neutral he wonders if the soft blush darkening the tips of his ears is as obvious to her as it feels to him. But this game was best played by two, and Solas smirks as he tucks his index finger under Lavellan’s chin, gently tilting her head back a little as his gaze burns into her own.

“Yes, and as I recall the two of us were then caught in a rather compromising position, thanks to the poorly-timed arrival of our companions,” Solas says, feeling a small rush of satisfaction from the sight of her pretty face flushing from the more vivid reminder of the evening. “I had to endure the sight of Dorian leering down at me over the railings for a week afterwards.”

“True, but I was stuck out in the Hissing Wastes with Sera and the Iron Bull for that week! Believe me, after listening to all their running commentary I would’ve loved to get nothing but a few leers.” Lavellan replies before she reaches up to wrap her arms around his neck, and Solas leans forward obligingly to accommodate the difference in their heights. “Still, seeing the way you blushed and stammered when we got caught was definitely worth it..”

“I did no such thing,” Solas protests, though they probably both know that he’s lying about that, especially since he can feel that warmth in his ears starting to spread across his face and along the back of his neck, and it only gets hotter at the sound of Lavellan’s laughter.

He frowns down at her, pretending to be cross, and it has the desired effect when Lavellan immediately leans forward to press a soft kiss to his lips as if in apology. It’s clear that she doesn’t really fall for his ploy at all but he still leans into the kiss, and as he starts to lose himself in it he’s tempted to take it further. 

The youthful, vigorous side of him that she so effortlessly brings to the surface just wants to press her back against the closest wall he can find before fully claiming her and her mouth for his own, but he reigns himself in for the moment because this is a soft, playful moment and he wants to keep it as such despite the growing longing to do the exact opposite.

Still, she looks rather dazed when they finally break away from the kiss, and he can’t help but feel a little cocky then. Nice to know he still had it.

“Fine.. No naked dancing under the rain then,” Lavellan says with a nod as if they’d still been debating the option, and she draws back from his embrace to take both of his hands in hers. He smiles as she gently tugs him forward, no doubt to lead him through the Main Hall and towards the door that would take them up to her quarters. “But maybe a trip together into the Fade would be more to your liking anyway?”

“Perhaps it would,” Solas agrees as he follows after her, glad to see that the Main Hall was mostly empty, aside from a few dining stragglers and Varric, who actually looks up from his writing long enough to wink at them as they pass by, and Solas only humors the dwarf with a quiet huff before he returns his attention back to Lavellan. The eager, youthful shine in her eyes as she holds his gaze fills him with such warmth, and his hands are quick to find her hips as soon as the door to the Inquisitor’s wing shuts behind them. “But it may be a long night, and we could find other ways to pass the time in this world first, ma vhenan..”