@mageunderground
Of course Zevran notices the change in the island's decor -- it is difficult not to, wintery-themed festivities now being paired with pink and red lights, hearts, flowers, chocolates. Heart's Wake, someone tells him, although he has no idea what that means until a giggling young maiden shoves a small box into his hands, gushing about this holiday dedicated to strengthening bonds. A day for lovers. Zevran finds the idea charming. The little bottle of perfume he produces from the girl's giftbox is charming, too, when he is finally satisfied there's nothing wrong with it. It's a floral scent. Sweet, but not overpoweringly so.
He does not feel unusual in the slightest when he smells it. Not at first.
It is only when he is sitting on the couch of Anders' apartment with the ridiculously named Ser Pounce A Lot 2 curled and purring in his lap -- his Satinalia gift to the mage, a sweet orange cat who'd taken a liking to him off the street -- that he begins to feel...different. Not a bad different, necessarily. Just. Different.
In the time since Anders had offered the proverbial olive branch in the form of a home-cooked meal the two had begun working to repair the rift between them. They both seem content to leave their affair in Kirkwall behind them; or rather, Anders seems content. Zevran is not so sure. He has tried, of course. Tried to be willfully ignorant, to ignore the obvious, to make excuses, but he can no longer deny what he knows to be true -- that somewhere along the way he had begun to develop something for the mage. He had felt it with Taliesen and then Rinnala, long ago. Something he cannot put a name to, something that makes his stomach lurch and his heart feel full. He had been in no great rush to share this epiphany. Ever.
Now he feels like he must say something or he might explode.
"There is something I must tell you." Zevran's hand nervously busies itself with scratching behind Ser Pounce's ears. Why does his throat feel dry? "Not something terrible, I promise." Well, it has the potential to be terrible. It has the potential to undo all of their progress.
