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Everything felt off. Things that should be taken as flattery had bristled at the tiefling, like ant bites sending little shots of venom under his skin. Nothing had hurt him or offended him in any way but he felt unsettled, for lack of a better word.
Whenever he caught Gale’s eye he could see it there too, though it was obvious the affliction was theirs alone. The rest of them barely noticed at all, Karlach hollered with delight as Jaheira recounted tales of past exploits. Astarion and Lae’zel seemed to be arguing over the best way to kill someone with a fish knife. Gale was cooking, as always meticulous in his preparation and methodology but considerably less loquacious than his usual self. He would smile and laugh and reply to any comments or questions thrown his way, though Dreuer had grown to know him well. He wasn’t adding his own commentary to his actions, wasn’t inserting his opinions into conversations he hadn’t been invited to. He wasn’t being particularly annoying at all, and that was most out of character.
The wizard however said nothing. His dark eyes flicked up to Dreuer rather frequently, and found Dreuer staring back every time. The tiefling kept to himself, ever afraid of his own nature, withdrawn as ever to sit at the peripheral with his long, polished pipe packed with tobacco, sending silver-white smoke curling into the night air.
They ate together, while Halsin recounted a tale about a novice druid in wild shape and a particularly amorous badger that had peals of laughter pouring over the campfire. Gale laughed along though it didn’t quite reach his eyes, something distant lingered there that Dreuer would call apprehension. The same hesitation he had seen in his eyes the first night they had channelled the Weave, and Gale had seen without inhibition that Dreuer was falling. Everything had ground to a halt that night, and it was no small concern that it might happen again.
The night stretched into greater darkness and one by one their band began to break apart, returning to their tents to rest before another day on Wyrm’s Crossing began. Dreuer remained awake, as he often did. His dreams were disturbing and had the capacity to be lethal, he did not wish for any chance to repeat his actions in assassinating Alfira, or attempting to rip apart Gale. Sitting awake had become an impassable habit, so he sat at the far side of the broken barn and looked out across the sprawl of refugee tents. He didn’t look around when he heard familiar footsteps - he would know Gale in the pitch dark.
“I thought I might find you here.” His words were lower than usual, as if he were guarding himself. Dreuer turned to look as the wizard took his place beside him.
“Hmh… I think I-“
The tiefling’s words were curtailed immediately by the collision of Gale’s mouth against his own, and his pipe rolled away spilling its smouldering contents across the stone. The wizard’s breath came hot through his nose and he made a desperate, almost pleading sound as they deepened, hurtling immediately into the thrill of each other. It clouded Dreuer’s mind, stripped his prior thoughts from his tongue, replacing them with Gale. He tasted of wine, but then Dreuer tasted of smoke. Their combined vices meeting in a swirl of rapidly rising desire.
“Tell me you want me.” Gale’s words came with a gasp, shuddering in the narrow breach between them.
“I want you.” Dreuer’s reply almost sounded like a threat. The dark and dangerous growl of his low, rumbling voice. A tone he once reserved for drawing the final shuddering pleas from victims now to be used at the whim of the man he so easily bent for. Gale kissed him again, almost aflame, his fingers carding through Dreuer’s loose curls to clutch at his scalp and draw him in deeper still.
“Promise me.”
“Fuck-…”
Their words came quickly, no more than gasps for air between the clamour of their lips. Dreuer reached underneath Gale’s shirt with slim fingers, cool from the night air, to press under the waistband of his pants and grip the flesh of his buttocks. His shoulders hit the flagstone with a muffled thump as he drew their bodies together, the unsubtle grind of their hips causing the prone tiefling to gasp, and catch his teeth against Gale’s bottom lip.
“Please, promise me.”
Dreuer paused. There was something familiar in the way Gale’s voice shook. The same way he fell into uncertainty when he asked for aid in a battle. As if he was not quite convinced anyone would truly help him. The plea of a man who felt unworthy, and that others saw him as unworthy too. He moved to kiss Dreuer again, but Dreuer drew back.
“Gale talk to me.”
All the rumbling, snarling anticipation of before fell away, leaving Dreuer’s voice a low and almost inquisitive purr. He pulled his hands free instead to settle steadily at the wizard’s hips. Gale closed his eyes, his brow furrowed with a sorrow still too shrouded for Dreuer to truly see. He bowed his head as if submitting, and slowly drew back. Dreuer followed him, holding himself up on one hand and reaching the other to cradle Gale’s jaw.
“Talk to me.” He repeated.
Gale laughed, almost no more than a breath. “It’s alright.” He spoke quietly into the space between them. “I was chasing validation, it’s hardly important.”
“Why?” Dreuer’s thumb pulled over Gale’s cheek, across the tainted veins that ran like tears from the corner of the man’s eye. “You don’t need to chase it, you already have me.”
Dreuer smiled softly, and Gale smiled back. There again was that undercurrent of sadness. Of resignation.
“I suppose I feel… perhaps as though I ask too much of you.” Gale confessed. Dreuer chased every micro expression across his face, every shift of muscle, every twitch of his nerves. It wasn’t anxiety, it was defeat.
“In what way?” Dreuer asked.
“I heard what Halsin said to you last night. It was rather difficult not to, what with the proximity, and I can’t help but think-“
“What?”
Gale paused. As if taking the time to choose his words with care.
“After learning who you are… what you are capable of? You could choose to break apart the world if you wished. You could have whoever you want, you should be able to have whoever you want.” Dreuer watched Gale’s larynx dip as he swallowed his nerves before pressing on. “You turned away Halsin’s offer without a thought. And again, this evening… those drow? I thought-“
“You thought I would take what was mine without even a thought for you.” Dreuer finished for him. The threat returned to his words, a rumble in his throat.
“Well… Halsin is quite the specimen. It would be hard not to be at least interested in his offer.”
“I was not interested in his offer.” Dreuer leaned forwards, but this time Gale pulled back.
“Those twins, too. That they would open their bedchamber to the both of us, I’m quite certain their talents would be beyond comprehension, and yet still you said no.”
“Because I was not interested, Gale.” Dreuer affirmed again, sitting up as Gale peeled away from him to rest back on his heels.
“I know I should be… more open I suppose. Let you taste whatever fruits this world has to offer.”
“And what makes you think you have any command over me to do such a thing?” Dreuer arched a testing brow, and Gale looked back almost nervously.
“I didn’t quite mean it like that…”
“Then say it.” Dreuer frowned, letting his fingers fall to run along the faint lines beneath Gale’s skin and rest against the scar of the orb.
“… you deserve everything that you want. And that includes the things I cannot give you.”
Dreuer sat silently, the soft breeze kissing at the grass below them almost like whispered laughter. As if the cause of this damage were listening in… oh Dreuer would scream and curse the name of that goddess into his dying days.
“You do not think you are enough for me.”
“I suppose not. Maybe we could reconsider Halsin’s offer to you-“
It was Gale’s turn to be silenced by the crash of lips. Dreuer pulled him forwards with both hands diving into his hair, clutching at him as though nothing in this world or any other could be so precious. He kissed him hard, with all the fire in his heart. The blazing trail left by every memory that had settled in their wake, leaving a map across their recent lives that scorched the very ground they had trodden. Dreuer poured all of it into his kiss, and when they broke apart Gale’s hands shook as though he were freshly wounded.
“I don’t want Halsin.” He purred against his lips. “I don’t want him, or those damnable drow, or any other soul cursed to keep walking across this bloody earth.”
Dreuer pressed his forehead to Gale’s, closing his eyes. He could hear his erratic breathing.
“Listen to me now. I love you. I have loved you since the first night at the Emerald Grove, and I do not need anything from anyone, unless it is you.”
His own breathing was beginning to shake now. Rage at the ones who had hurt Gale, fear that he might have given him any cause to doubt what they had. Sincerity that he carried on his chest as clear as Gale bore his folly.
“You are enough. And if I were to break apart the world it would be for you, Gale Dekarios.”
He found his back hit the stones again, and felt Gale’s weight above him. They fell once more into kissing, lighter and unburdened. It was clear enough that Dreuer meant every word he said; it was an inescapable truth that he had been bewitched by Gale entirely, what could possibly be sweeter?