#say please

POV

thanks to @missfortunetherogue & @optimisticgrey for the tags 💕

I think everyone I know is already on the tag lists 😅 will tag @michanvalentine @mercymaker @saylofwaterdeep and @litsenn anyway. No pressure.

I keep stalling out switching between early days storytelling and postgame 🙃 very different dynamics to explore. Here’s a snippet I’ve been working on from Astarion’s first “romance” scene. It’s a challenging one with a lot of layers. I often see people write that their characters know that Astarion is manipulating them, which I think stems from an understandable need for control. But it’s not very interesting imo. On the other hand, it’s clear something is going on with this freak. So I tried my hand at writing that.

Writing it from durge’s perspective alone actually made me insane and now I’m writing half the fic from Astarion’s perspective, heh.

tl;dr Astarion is performing and Nerys is confused.

“Maybe," Nerys said to Astarion now, trying to keep her face neutral. She'd been trying for nearly a tenday now to pretend she didn't understand his flirtatious comments, but it was difficult because they kept making her laugh. She wasn't the best pretender, anyway. It was more like willful misunderstanding. It was driving him mad. 

"If you say please," she added, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

"What?" Astarion asked, tone lightly incredulous. As if he couldn't believe someone would dare—and yet beneath the playful arrogance, there was something else she couldn't quite catch. A breathiness, a vulnerability. It was there in the timbre of his voice and the way his ears drooped ever so slightly, and then gone.

"Say please," she repeated, quieter this time as she stepped a pace closer. His eyes rose to meet hers as she loomed over him, or so it seemed—more like his gaze was hovering closer to the tip of her nose. 

"Please," he breathed, those delicate fangs only just peeking out from behind his full lips as he rewarded her for her impertinence with a terrible little smile. For fuck's sake. 

With that, she was done for. She was nothing if not reckless, as they all loved to tell her. She promised to come find him. 

"Cheeky little pup," was all Astarion said, and her chest tingled alarmingly despite the laughter that bubbled up at the thought of anyone calling her little. Especially this waif. 

"You're cute," she said, and left.

The vampire was true to his word, easily discovered when she took the path they had tread into the moss into the forest, before the river crossing. He slipped out from behind an oak tree like a shadow, already bare chested and gleaming in the moonlight. The contrast of his paleness against her dark skin was striking as he wrapped a hand around her wrist and tugged her closer. She went without complaint. 

"There you are. I've been waiting since the moment I set eyes on you. Waiting to have you."

Nerys scoffed, brows raising to her hairline. "You have n—"

He shushed her. "I don't think you want to talk," he said breezily. "I think you want to be known." His eyes were flat and hard as chips of garnet as they met hers. Nerys frowned and opened her mouth again to speak—but then he was kissing her, drowning her thoughts in the cool sensation of his tongue exploring her mouth. She couldn't suppress a small, appreciative sound as their lips met, and he laughed as they broke apart briefly. "Don't deny your desires, paladin," he murmured, tugging at her lower lip with his teeth. 

“Oh, shut up.” Despite the pleasant feeling of his lips pressed to hers, there was a distinctly mechanical aspect to the way he was pressing himself against her. The drow grabbed a handful of his ass and lifted him onto his tiptoes, and he made a strangled, surprised noise and went rigid. Oops. Surely he wasn't…nervous? This guy? Nerys pulled back and he seemed to recover, then surprised her by leaping into her arms.

"Are you alright?"she asked, tilting her head. It was strange to be looking up at him for once. 

"Whatever do you mean, darling? I'm precisely where I want to be," Astarion purred, leaning forward to flick his tongue over her earlobe until she shuddered.