#he's such a flirt | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

nocanonhere · 1 year ago

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Happy Wyll's Week! Day 4/7

-There Is Hope Yet (SFW, but has more kissing): Tav (Aiya) cant help but tease Wyll about how big of a flirt he is. Anything to brighten the mood. (there is some angst here though) (centered around my Tav, Aiya. Elf-Dragon Sorceress)

He’s certainly attended more parties in the time frame of this journey than he would have expected.

They have a long way to go, but cleansing Moonrise Towers was the beginning of the road to victory. Jaheira encouraged them all, after their proper burials of the Harpers they’d lost, to have a drink and socialize. They were all to be allies from this point forward.

And here he is again, not participating.

The water sloshes against the docks quietly. He wonders just how much life is left in there; if anything of the aquatic variety survived this curse. He wonders how long it will be before the land heals. Halsin seems to have dropped a weight off his shoulders. He was practically glowing about having saved Thaniel and Oliver. Wyll has witnessed many things unheard of, but the personification of nature being present in those children was going to stand out in his mind forever.

They had been a step behind Gortash and Orin, and his father had been infected. What Wyll feared had arrived. With the Duke under mind control, the time clock for their necessary intervention had been cut by a third.

He has a drink in his hand, and another bottle set by his feet. He had hoped a little wine would ease the anxiety swirling in his stomach.

He had hoped for a lot of things. He knows he is the one always toting to never give up, because nothing was over till it was over. But now, he wonders if his opportunity to reconcile with his father had been decimated.

He hears steps, and is in a bad enough mood that he feels annoyed about having been disturbed. He just wants a few moment to himself. How hard can that be?

“Wyll,”

His annoyance evaporates and is replaced with something else. That feeling she generates in him every time they have a moment together.

Perhaps he doesn’t mind, if it’s her.

He turns around to greet her, plastering a half smile on his face for appearances. She doesn’t seem to be buying it.

She seems stiff, and when she’s at his side, he can see her hands pressing into her lower back.

She notices him watching, and shakes her head. “If we make it out of this, I know I’ll have to live with the life-long injuries I’ve gotten on this little trip. I swear I’ll never recover.”

He hums in agreement. “I’m certain I did something to my right shoulder that will haunt me terribly in ten years or so. Maybe less.”

“From this or from your Frontier days?”

“Both,” he shrugs.

It goes quiet then. He wasn’t really in the most festive of moods, and it didn’t want to bring anyone else down with him. He admires everyone so much, especially when they chose to celebrate in the darkness. Grief was forever, but true joy was temporary. It was important to create it where they could.

But he’s not feeling so chatty. And this doesn’t feel like one of their moments where they just sit and enjoy the silence.

“Wyll, I’m sorry.”

He snaps his head to the side then, not expecting that and not understanding what in the world she could be apologizing to him for.

“Whatever for?” he asks, crouching down to set down the wine bottle.

“That we couldn’t make it to your father in time,” she answers. Her hands are still on her back, but her head has fallen forward. She had taken her hair out of her standard braid, so the tresses were blocking her face.

Water droplets started hitting the dock, and for a moment, Wyll foolishly thought that rain had returned to the land, but quickly realized it was Aiya.

She was crying.

“Aiya,” he breathes. He’s a little unsure what to do, he’s never seen her quite like this. “You have nothing to apologize for. It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault.”

“I know, but” she strains. “I promised you we would save him.”

“And there may still be time yet,” he assures, walking over to her and gently placing a hand on her shoulder.

But that touch only seems to make her worse. She shuffles her shoulder and steps away, prompting Wyll to remove his hand. Something painful grips his throat for a moment, before he clears it.

“My apologies,” he said, bowing his head slightly. “I should have asked if that was okay.”

“No, Wyll. It’s fine. I just-

She lifts her head, and when her hair falls away, Wyll can see the moisture on her face, and the tears brimming in her eyes.

She begins to sniffle. “Sorry. I just don’t…like being touched when I’m upset. It makes me even more…upset.”

“Of course,” he nods gently. “I will make note of that and act accordingly in the future.”

She lifts her hands and wipes at her face, pressing her palms into her closed eyes hard enough to blur her vision.

The tears seemed to have stopped falling, but the sniffles are still there.

“Would you like to sit?” he offers, gesturing to the edge of the dock. She nods and gets closer to him, both of them sitting down and dangling their feet over the edge.

Oddly enough, he finds that the brooding feels better with company. More evidence giving weight to the age-old adage about misery.

Or maybe it’s less misery and more so that he’s just happy to have time with her, even if it isn’t as pleasant as their other shared moments. They had not touched or kissed since their dance, and he did not ask her why. He wondered, of course. But things had become incredibly busy and bloody once they had to defend the portal for Halsin the following day.

In the meantime, he hadn’t been able to find any items worth gifting. The flowers here were mainly things she used for ingredients, so he wasnt sure if those would suffice as a romantic gift. He thought about writing her something nice, a poem perhaps. But he wasn’t sure what to say just yet. He didn’t want to record one he already knew. He wanted to be original for her.

“So,” she begins, trying to make conversation to lighten the moment. “Any recommendations for places to visit in Baldurs Gate? Giving that it will be left standing.”

“Oh absolutely,” he answers, smiling. “I used to sneak off to…well, I probably wasn’t sneaking; my father probably knew. But I would go to a lounge in the lower city near the harbor. I would go with my friends Nasina and Yudi. Yudi’s dad was a high ranking Fist before he was forcibly retired. Him and my father still remained friends. And Nasina was the daughter of our seamstress, Kali.”

He sighed. “We were no more than sixteen, and Yudi was the one who started dragging me there anyway. But it was like a tavern, and the age ranges were close enough to ours. It mainly seemed to be younger students. But the barkeeper clocked our ages the second we sat at the bar, telling us to take these waters and go somewhere else.”

She laughs, and he smiles at the memory.

“It’s the music that I enjoyed the most. Some people would play and sing for fun. Some for coin. I ended up there on the stage more than once singing quite off key with my friends. Lots of good memories in that place. If it’s still standing, I would like to take you there. And this time, we can get a bit crocked.”

He looks at her, and it seems that she has calmed down some. “That sounds great,” she says. Then she cocks her head. “Did you have a lot of friends, before?”

“Truthfully, only a few friends. The rest of the nobles in my age group were acquaintances because of family and money. I may have been popular, but Yudi and Nasina were my crew.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. The popularity part. You’re quite the catch. And quite the flirt.”

“Hah,” he laughs. “That last bit isn’t exactly true.”

“Oh please,” she moans, rolling her head with it. “You have been the biggest flirt on this journey!”

“How so?”

She opens her mouth in shock. “How…how so? You’ve complimented literally everyone in this camp.”

“People should be appreciated.”

“Yeah, but when Lae’zel tried to make good on it, you backed out.”

He sits forward quickly. “She told you about that?”

“Of course she did,” she bubbles with laugher. “Don’t be upset with her. She didn’t mean anything by it. There are quite a few discrepancies between social conduct here and among the Githyanki. But then there’s Shadowheart. Who shot you down very quickly.”

“Yes, but I wasn’t making an attempt, exactly. She’s just…beautiful.”

“Then Karlach-

He interrupts her. “Now, even you know.”

She bites her bottom lip before laughing again. “Yes. Yeah, that one is completely understandable,” she says, staring off in the distance before snapping back to the moment.

“You called Halsin a thick hunk.”

“Was that a lie?”

“Then there was that comment about Astarion’s tongue.”

“Which you all took out of context.”

“You made that joke to Gale about his magical touch.”

“Now that was meant to be suggestive, yes,” he points.

“You’ll probably start complimenting Jaheira in a moment, since she’ll be joining us.”

“Have you seen her?”

“Wyll!” she laughs. “The point is, whether you mean to or not, many things that you say and do come off as flirtatious. And I refuse to believe teenage Wyll wasn’t making the ladies swoon with his words. Maybe some of the gentleman too.”

He doesn’t have a defense. Not at all. So he just banters. “You think you have all the answers, don’t you?”

“No,” she wheezes out, still full of giggles. “Tell me I’m wrong. How many did you recite poetry to?”

“A few.”

“Exactly, Wyll.”

He shakes his head. “But I truly wasn’t that bad. A few recitations here and there, and of course there were the dances, but there was someone in particular I was interested in at the time. And I was serious about showing her.”

“Ooooh,” she teases. “What’s her name?”

“Uh, well. It was Nasina.”

“And did Nasina know this?”

“Well, yes. We were together, after all.”

“Ah,” she says, nodding slowly. “You were going to omit that little fact.”

He grimaces. “I didn’t mean to. We were friends, over everything. And together only for a short amount of time before we resumed our friendship. ”

“Relax. I’m teasing,” she assures. “But that’s really cute.”

He looks at her, and shakes his head in disbelief. “I’m glad you find it so.”

She looks away, smile still on her face. He thinks he’d let her pick and prod at him all she wanted if it made her laugh.

“And what about you?” he asks. “I understanding Elven lifespans are measured differently, as are Dragonborns. But what was the equivalent of your teen years like?”

By the way her smile falters, he knows he asked the wrong question. He tries to regroup the moment quickly.

“Of course, you don’t have to answer.”

“Oh, it’s fine,” she sighs, shrugging. “But it was…hard, I suppose. I didn’t exactly get a proper coming-of-age experience. Or life, really. But I did have a few friends. I left quite some time ago, though. I haven’t kept up with anyone.”

He nods, ruminating on her words. He still knows so little about her. About her home, her family, her upbringing. But from the small things he’s gathered, like her aversion to talking about it, he supposes it’s not something she really wants to discuss.

When he thought of home, it was painful because he missed it. But it seems when she thought of hers, it was painful just because it was painful.

“And what about now?” he asks. “I mean, I know you weren’t in Baldur’s Gate when you were captured. But where you were, did you have friends there? Or any family?”

Or a partner, perhaps?

“Not really,” she says, not elaborating. “Sorry. It’s probably so rude to not really answer any of your questions when you freely answered mine.”

“That is not an issue,” he adds. “Although I do hope to learn you, in time.”

She looks at him in exasperation. “That. That right there.”

He looks the other way, sees nothing, then turns back to her. “What?”

“What you just said!” she points, then smiles. “You cannot just say things like that.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that,” he tries to convince. “Or, I didn’t mean it in a flirtatious way.”

His explanations only send her back to laughing.

“Gods,” she sighs. “This has been a day.”

He nods. “That it has. You should rest.”

“I should.”

It goes quiet again, and the expression on her face becomes curious.

“I should,” she says again, and Wyll notices her eyes flick down momentarily. He exhales.

“Now who’s being the flirt?” he asks.

She leans closer then, looking up at him. “I’ve been spending too much time around you, I suppose.”

They linger there, neither moving any closer. But Wyll feels the air charge, rolling with tension.

“May I kiss you?” she asks.

He doesn’t answer her verbally, but he does close the gap and press his lips to hers, gently.

They separate and do it again. Then again. Then again.

He wants to keep going, desperately. But the moment was boiling to a temperature he wasn’t braced to reach yet. He was still committed to working this process slowly.

There is a soft, searching look in her eyes. The same one she gave him after their first kiss, the night of their dance. He hates to pull away from her again, but it’s for the best.

“Would you like me to walk you back?”

“Oh, no. That’s okay,” she answers him quickly, agreeing to end the moment. “I’ve done enough this evening. First the crying, then the laughing. Then that.”

And when she’s to her feet, she sways just a bit.

“Aiya,” he begins, smile beginning to bloom on his face.

“It’s Karlach’s fault,” she says, confirming his suspicions. “She’s an enabler. I’m not drunk. Honestly. I think the exhaustion, plus the healing potions, then the wine was a bad trio. No, it absolutely was a bad trio.”

“You probably are just tired,” he stands, grabbing the two bottles he brought back with him. He’s going to return them to their storage because he no longer needs them for what he brought them out there for. The anxiety that had been eating him earlier had been blanketed with her presence, her jokes.

Her kisses.

“But knowing that you are under the influence, I will walk you back for safety purposes.”

“We have killed everything even remotely within this radius.”

“Just go with it,” he encourages, holding out his free arm for her to grab onto.

“My lady,” he nods.

They start walking back, footsteps cutting through the silence, and laughter ringing through the air.