#imagining tav nudging star to get him to laugh | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

oh-yeah-i-exist · 7 months

Text

A Partner, An Equal (Astarion x Durge!Tav)

Synopsis: The first night of Astarion's second life, free from Cazador and with her by his side.

Author's Note: This is technically written with my Tav (named Eiji) in mind, but I didn't name her in the text so it's pretty much up to you to imagine 'her' as you will. Also, a great song to listen to while you read this is:

Because of the line, "I'll make you a star in my universe..."

Content: Astarion x Female!Tav. FLUFF, tooth-rotting fluff, because my sweet boy deserves only love and safety and comfort and everything nice after, and I quote, "two centuries of PURE shit."

Warning: Might contain SPOILERS for Act 2 and 3!

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───

Perhaps a graveyard was not the best place for their first night since Cazador's defeat, but the idea of having her there with him at the very beginning of his new life felt right to Astarion.

"We'd better get back before the others start fearing the worst," She says, zipping up the side of her under-armor. They are getting dressed together in the shadow of a large oak tree.

He doesn't jump anymore when she reaches for him. "Here, let me," she readjusts the collar of his undershirt to fold properly around his pale neck. With the little gesture done, her hands linger at his jawline as her gaze trails up to study his face.

"Something's the matter, my love?" He raises an eyebrow when she softly brushes her thumbs across his high cheekbones.

A dreamy smile spreads across her face, a distant look in her eyes. Oh, how she adores the lines around his lips when he laughs, the faint mole on his right cheek, the way his silver hair curls delicately over his ears. He once asked for nothing but shallow praise from her; it is as plain as the sky is blue that he's a beautiful man, a creature meticulously groomed to be the very object of everyone's desire. But that's who Cazador made him to be. That's not why she loves him.

"I didn't ever get a chance to tell you..." She begins slowly, as though she is trying to pull herself out of some reverie. "But I'm so sorry, for everything that happened to you. You didn't deserve any of it. I want you to know that you're perfect, just the way you are."

For a moment there, he was getting worried that she might be having second thoughts. But this incredible woman keeps taking his breath away, keeps exceeding even his wildest dreams. Without hesitation, he bends down and swiftly scoops her up in an embrace, holding her tightly against his chest. Bittersweet tears gather in the corners of his eyes, and he buries his face in her hair - during their intimacy, she let her hair fall out of their usual buns and cascade over her shoulder, as dark and silky as the night sky. She smells of lavender and campfire, a bouquet he has committed to memory a million times over. He all but melts against her as she gently places her arms around his shoulders, her fingers ghosting over the upper ridges of his scars to stroke the hair on the back of his neck.

"Thank you," He murmurs, pulling her even closer.

"You never have to thank me," she replies. "I love you."

"I love you, too," he nudges his forehead against hers, grinning like a fool. Precious, unadulterated bliss fills his cold, dead heart for the first time in centuries.

And he could have stayed like that for centuries more, had it not been for the sound of the crypt keeper coming around the corner.

"Come on, lest we get accused of desecrating someone's grave," she whispers, pulling him behind a tree and towards the exit.

"Oh please, it was my grave, and that gives me permission to do whatever I want on it," quips Astarion, even though he follows her back into the walkways of the Lower City. He knows these streets like the back of his hand, knows every out-of-the-way alley and hiding spot, knows exactly where the poor and naive can be found. His accursed brain won't let him forget the faces of those he met in this city, those whose lives his vampiric touch has ruined. Seven thousand in total, all innocents who had the misfortune of falling for him. Guilt threatens to engulf him once more, but the feeling of her fingers entwining with his own guides his attention back to the present.

"It's strange, you know," she looks around as they walk. Her dark brows crease together with a hint of frustration. "Something in me feels like I know this place, but for the life of me, I cannot recall. I try to reach into the darkness of my past but keep coming up empty."

Ah. Nearly everyone who looks into her brain comes to the conclusion that it is damaged beyond repair. Astarion was there when the party had encountered that frightful hack doctor in the Mindflayer colony, back in the Shadow-cursed Lands. Kressa Bonedaughter was her name, the vile wretch that took a bit too much pleasure in retelling how she had operated on his beloved. They couldn't have put that woman down sooner. But they did figure out that the Mindflayers were not behind the damage - she had arrived on the Nautiloid with her mind already in tatters. And from what 'Archduke' Gortash implied, Bhaal's Chosen, Orin might have something to do with all of it.

"If it is what you wish, I will not rest until we have your memories restored," says Astarion, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.

She is unsure that there is anything to be done, but she is touched by his sincerity all the same. Looking away from her surroundings, she pauses for a moment to think.

"In a way, I don't regret it," she shakes her head, much to his confusion.

"How so?"

"Well... Whatever happened in my past, whatever it was that has landed me here," she explains. "It has led me to you. I wouldn't change that for the world."

"My, my..." he teases, though his lovestruck smile betrays the maddening giddiness that has befallen him upon hearing her words. "Aren't you quite the hopeless romantic?"

"It's the truth..." she mumbles, the tips of her ears growing red from the embarrassment. She begins rushing them towards the Elfsong Tavern before he can make another sly remark.

When they finally make it into the party's rented chambers, they make a beeline for one of the empty bunks. As quietly as two mice in a barn, they slip under the covers. Her body fits against his perfectly, her steady heartbeat luring him to slumber better than any meditative trance. And he knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he could go to the Hells and back, battle a gargantuan, all-powerful floating brain, and do damn near everything if it means he gets to spend the rest of his nights just like this.

#astarion x tav #bg3 astarion #astarion #astarion romance #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 oc #bg3 tav #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #astarion ancunin #baldurs gate 3 #astarion x mc #astarion fluff #Spotify #bg3 dark urge #astarion x dark urge

75 notes · View notes