Chapter Text
"Tell me, do you believe in love at first sight?"
Anouk snorted, almost scoffed, deep in the back of her nose and mouth when Isobel asked. The query had been part of a lengthier answer about the resurrected cleric and her history with Dame Aylin. Their love was palpable, and the tiefling wanted to hear a story of romance to lighten the weight of their adventures.
Isobel had caught her off guard with the question, so of course her reflex was to make such a sound while her cheeks pinkened considerably. Though, the sorceress's snort was hardly one of derision, nor of refutal. No, it was a little funny to Anouk, almost ridiculous, that someone would ask her such a thing when Astarion was just over there, in clear view thanks to candlelight, standing and reading a book in his comfortable clothes. Astarion, who looked as though an unpainted marble statue had been granted life, more beautiful than anyone else, blessed with garnet eyes and full lips and faint freckles. The incredibly complex and emotive elf who made undeath look nearly glamorous. Her heart and soul, standing outside his eccentrically decadent tent. His confession of.. romantic interest, love without saying the word, had only come a night before, and she found herself both elated and relieved.
Of course I believe in love at first sight, her gaze behind them toward the fire explained. One glance at that elf and you should understand. Falling for him was easier than breathing.
It had been quite a while back now, the sorceress supposed. Months and a tenday since she and their little group- most of them, anyway- had survived not just a spelljammer crashing on the banks of the Chionthar, but the infection of tampered illithid larvae. Months and a tenday since she and her companions met; since her life had changed, oddly, for the better.
Since she met Astarion.
Remembering their first meeting, her heart raced; her blood ran cold, yet she felt herself flush so hot she could nearly sweat. Other than a wriggling headache, Anouk had felt suspiciously fine after the initial ordeal, and had found Shadowheart easily, almost immediately. It had been the cleric's idea that they stay together, but it had been all Anouk who decided they needed to check the area around the crash for any more survivors. And more importantly yet, clear the area of any more illithid.
The two women had climbed a hill after doing their much needed murdering, and Anouk spotted something glittering in the sunlight at its top. Platinum ringlets illuminated the form of the second survivor she'd encountered, and she wasn't about to leave such a beauty uninvestigated. Sure, they were in a horrible survivalist situation, but that didnt mean they couldn't also be heroes and maybe get lucky.
Once the women found themselves close enough to make out more than the vague colors of an outfit in the backlit wood, once Anouk's black and fuschia eyes were able to make out that the form was beckoning for her help, Anouk had only one thought.
Oh. Oh no.
Her stomach sank, heart rate began to increase as she realized she was in trouble. As she kept advancing, seeing his face in better detail, she knew she would forever be weak to him. He was beyond beautiful. He was... Everything she'd previously thought she didn't like in a man, brought together with acute precision to make a fool of her. Slim, with sharp and intelligent eyes. Even though he was tall, he clearly wasnt the hulking himbo she was used to.
No, he had hair of spun silver and broad lines that emphasized any frown or smile on his thick lips. He had cutting angles and eyebrows that showed every subtext.
Neither his emotive face nor his hair were the sole reasons she instantly found him beguiling, but the grace in which he moved, even though it was a sort of rehearsed wave over, and then his voice..
It wasn't too deep, but capable of range, with a specific accent and lilt to it- a man of breeding, probably the son of a patriar. A Baldurian snob. She found patriar types the most delicious, despite herself. More than one rich mother's son had taken her to bed before, only to awake to cold sheets and empty purses. They were the type to appreciate in small bursts, but lacked the charisma that kept her interest.
Truth be told, everyone lacked it. That's why she'd never been in love.
But once he spoke, she knew she would do anything to make whatever this man's dreams were come true. She wanted to see every expression imaginable dance on those brows, to make those full lips broaden in a thousand smiles and laughs. She was lost in him from the moment he said "brain things."
It was silly, but she was soaking up as much information as she could at a glance-clothes, though pretty and well kept, were protective in case of a fight. His gaze was keen, he was alert and surefooted. That meant he had a weapon.
Of course he would, being that slight and beautiful would be a danger in the streets.
She would know.
When he asked her to kill the intellect devourer her parasite couldn't find, Anouk turned on her heels and told him he was perfectly capable of handling himself. It had been a honeypot to gauge his reaction, and oh.
Oh did he respond. Better than she could've fantasized.
A sweep of her ankles and a tight grip led to a dagger on her "pretty throat," as he called it. And even then, on the floor and restrained, the first actual thought she had wasn't that he could kill her. No. Anouk noticed that the strange and beautiful man wasn't as thin and waifish as she assumed. He was solid. He was solidly built and doing exactly what she'd have done to a stranger.
Anouk grunted and struggled against his grip. Her heart was thrumming at a hummingbird's pace as she took a deep breath while he spoke. Rosemary, brandy, and... something else. It spiked her heart rate even further. Struggling against him, back to chest on the ground, would have felt positively suggestive if not for the blade pressed against her skin.
"I saw you on the ship, didn't I? Nod."
Anouk nodded. Whatever else he said was lost to memory, but she did remember headbutting him, and how his curse at her led to a pleasant introduction.
The minor scuffle saved both their lives ultimately, and as she remembered such, Anouk snorted again. He had shouted so loudly when he had been bested that it made her laugh. And he hadn't yet caught on, she thought, that she was besotted.
When their tadpoles resonated in greetings and acknowledgement, Anouk had ended their pleasant little altercation and grinned, hands on her hips. She didn't know that Astarion had been able to peer back at her, to the flash of a fantasy her mind had of him.
Her imagination went to thoughts of reverent kisses and being pinned against a wall, her unguarded mind betraying her by giving the visual to Astarion immediately. Not that she, nor anyone else, noticed. It was simply a treat for the undead high elf to hold onto, a promise of strategy for a later time.
Or at least, that first time it was.
As it turned out, every tease he gave her sent a thrill through her body, her mind. Her heart. Literally. Astarion noticed straight away that her pulse always fluttered, just a bit, before she could control herself when he was near. When he made eye contact, when he looked at her after slitting a particularly sanguine throat... When he laughed, that bark of outrage he had, the woman was nearly giddy.
He found it odd, and fascinating. Occasionally, he found it to be annoying , but he couldn't really begrudge her. After all, he was playing his role perfectly. Stolen glances, whispering into her ear when he had something catty to say, it was all part of his seduction.
At the time, Astarion thought he had been seducing her, wrapping her around his finger. In retrospect, as he eavesdropped on Isobel and Anouk, Astarion realized that he hadn't needed any of it. He could have been himself, the whole time.
What a fucking pity that he couldn't have seen it before, he thought.
She loved him as soon as she saw him, and from the way she whispered to the resurrected half elf, she had truly seen him, a prototype of the free man he had only become. Anouk saw all his potential, craved all his thoughts, his opinions. She never asked for anything back, even then.
His stomach sank, as it usually did. Guilt, shame, repulsion- all his normal emotions began to creep in, bleeding into his attraction like tears on handwritten parchment. He had preyed upon this perfect being like she was a common mark, and she'd loved him, with all her weird little heart. He had lied and deceived with half truths, he had taken her heart, her body, her blood. At every opportunity, he had exploited her sweetness, her mercy, generosity, attraction. Hells, he'd even exploited his own attraction to her, utilizing his base impulses to lay her twice. Astarion had hated himself for it, hated that his cold heart wanted her in any way. The relief that he felt when she accepted his confession, when she embraced him, when she said they didn't need sex to be together... He didn't deserve a drop of it, but he was going to spend the rest of her life trying to rise to the occasion. He would work on himself, his issues, and give Anouk all the affection she wanted. He would bathe her in all the love he could muster, for as long as she would allow.
It gave the vampire an idea, the way the two women were now talking in hushed tones, giggling and averting their eyes from himself and the aasimar. Quietly, he closed the book he'd been pretending to read and slipped inside his tent, closing the flap behind himself in one cautious and elegant motion.
It was just in time for Anouk to turn and see.. nobody standing in front of the puce and maroon tent. She had so wanted to stare him down, admire the planes of his shape and the way he swayed at the hips just a little when he was enjoying a passage from his novels. Girlishly, Anouk pouted, and turned to her new ally.
"I-he... It was this that did it. His unpredictability. Hes always been so..."
Strange? Feral? Exciting?
Dangerous?
Isobel gave a soft smile, a breathy chuckle. "I understand what you mean. A little bit of, shall we say, danger, can be great comfort." She nodded over her shoulder to her paladin lover, who was wiping brain off her metal boot. The cleric was about to say something else, but her brows furrowed as she inhaled. "Do..do you smell rosemary, Anouk?
Rosemary. Brandy. Bergamot. His perfectly sweet and herby perfume.
With a glint in her mismatched eyes, Anouk took a deep breath, and spun with a grin just in time for Astarion's invisibility spell to wear off; not that she wouldnt see him through her enchanted prosthetic if she'd turned the other way. Of course , Astarion was already giving her a fanged grin, a hand already at the small of her back to tug her close.
"Evening, darling," he cooed, garnet eyes scanning her face. Her features were so full, so pretty as she gave all her tells. Dilated pupil, a surprised little breath as he felt her vibrant, delicious heart thrum against both of their chests.
Anouk was beaming now as his sweet and bright smell flooded her senses. She was relaxed by his touch, and rolled her shoulders.
Still, she put on a little fuss, grinning as she laughed, "Astarion! You can't sneak up on me. I can see you with this new eye." Her slender fingers pinched his arm, a little harder than she had to.
"Oww!" He hissed, all for show. Astarion was still chuckling, his face nearly buried in her hair. "Have you no taste for showmanship? Besides, you seem positively stirred by ny presence," He joked, finally looking up to the Selunites as he spun the woman in his arm gently. Now, they were both facing the other couple.
The women were beautiful, and well, terrifying, considering the battle they'd just won. But even the daughter of a goddess and a pixie of a moonlight cleric didn't hold a candle to his strange tiefling. Still, if he could make the little one and Anouk blush, maybe the big one would be even less likely to smite him off the planet.
Besides, Dame Aylin had mentioned taking succor in one another's words and bodies, and the thought was welcoming, had made him ravenous.
"It's been lovely to meet you both, Isobel and Dame Aylin," Astarion said, with his haughtiest gentlemanly airs. "But you see, our dear hero promised to be my dinner... ...date. You see, its impossible for me to dine alone."
He could feel her body warm in a flush, and it brought a more genuine smile to the vampire's features. It broadened as Dame Aylin gave him a nod, her own hand hooking the hip of her lover in the same manner.
"Indeed," the large woman chuckled, her pale eyes drifting to Astarion and his lover before gling to Isobel's, "may your bodies provide all the nourishment you crave from one another. There is much delight to be taken from... Supping on the goodness from the body and soul of one's heart-mate."
Before Isobel could chide her beloved paladin, it was Anouk's turn to speak. She grinned. "Oh, he'll be supping," she teased suggestively, and gave the smallest of nods in farewell.
As they moved toward Astarion's tent, the tiefling bumped him with her unheld hip. "You surprised me. Were you getting jealous?"
"Jealous?" He chuckled incredulously, "darling, no. Perish the thought. I simply couldn't resist grabbing a bite when you were so adorable, blushing and giggling. Especially since you had such an invigorating topic of conversation," he said knowingly, opening the tent for her to pass.
"Oh, I see," she tutted, taking her familiar position on his pile of pillows, looking him over as she unbuttoned the top of her blouse. It was so cold in the shadow lands, the usually holding scantily clad woman had bundled up in a full shirt with bishop sleeves, high boots and long bloomers. She would have looked positively adorable, he mused, were she not also spattered in blood and viscera. The contrast of gore and the soft floral colors of her clothes, the verdant tones of her freckled and barbed skin, made her even more irresistible. She was surprise after surprise, and her soft, smoky voice took him from his brief reverie.
Eyes downcast as she leaned back on her elbows, she giggled. "If you wanted to know how long I've loved you, you could have asked," she interrupted, an air of shyness to her words.There was her heart again, doing a tapdance in its cage as she realized what she'd spoke. Gods, shy in front of Astarion? After all this time?