Work Text:
Death was not a new concept for Astarion. When you’re a vampire spawn and you’ve just helped stopped the world from being dominated by a Netherbrain you have both seen and experienced your fair share of death. Death didn’t seem quite so bad a fate when you have a mysterious, undead being freeloading at your camp. Who, for just a small fee, would resurrect any companion you asked for, no questions asked. Or if your lover happened to be a cleric who could bring you back as soon as the battle is over. That worked just as well, too. No, death didn’t seem that bad at all when you had those options in your back pocket. Except now, the Netherbrain had been defeated and their small band of friends and allies had all gone their separate ways to continue on their own adventures. Leaving Astarion and Tav alone to begin their own, together.
Now death was suddenly a very real and very terrifying concept.
Shaking, blood covered hands desperately clawed at Tav’s armor, trying to remove it to get to the source of the bleeding. A neck wound was a lovely thing, Astarion mused, when it was caused by him during quiet moments of intimacy. But now, as the clatter of heavy armor being tossed aside filled his ears, the wound on his love’s neck was the last thing he wanted to see. He pressed his hands firmly against the wound in a desperate attempt to slow the bleeding. Words started coming out of his mouth, unbidden. Words of comfort, gentle ministrations, telling Tav that everything was fine. The bleeding would slow down, they’d get him all patched up and they could go home. They would come back and look for the ring another day. It was all lies, of course. Pretty lies that he refused to admit. The wound was too deep and too close to the carotid artery. Astarion felt the blood gushing around his fingers, causing his hands to slip as he tried to keep the wound covered as blood pooled on the ground. He heard his love’s labored breathing start to become wet and blood began speckling his lips. Tav’s eyes found Astarion’s, once bright and full of life now glazed and fevered as his life slipped away. Tav’s lips moved, as if he was trying to say something but no sound came. Astarion watched in silent horror as Tav’s eyes lost focus, the last speck of life dimming as his head rolled to the side, body becoming limp under his hands.
A broken scream filled the air as Tav exhaled his final breath.
“Is that what you want? Is this what you want? I would understand if you wanted to go your own way,” Astarion asked Tav. The two of them stood in the room Tav still had rented out in the Elfsong Tavern. The Netherbrain had been defeated only a few days prior and the citizens of Baldur’s Gate were still picking up the pieces after their lives were nearly ended by mind flayers and cultists alike.
Moonlight filtered through the curtains as Astarion waited for his partner to answer. The two had met up to talk about their future. What was next for them now that the world wasn’t in immediate peril. They had met under extenuating circumstances, grown closer together through shared trials. Now that the world didn’t need them to travel together Astarion needed to know where they stood, so he asked as much. What was next for the two of them? Tav offered to help look for a way to let Astarion walk in the sun again. To go on another adventure together as partners, equals. There was nothing Astarion wanted more than to stay with him, but he needed to make sure that staying with him is what Tav truly wanted. That he wasn’t staying with him out of some sort of obligation. With the tadpoles gone, Astarion belonged to the shadows once more. He would understand if Tav didn’t want to live that life. Being stuck roaming the streets in the dark of night just because his partner could no longer walk in the light of day.
“No, this is what I want,” Tav replied, a soft smile on his face, holding a hand out. Astarion sighed, letting out the breath he hadn't noticed he had been holding.
“Good, because selfless as I am, I really did not want you let you go,” he said, accepting Tav’s hand, pulling himself forward and wrapping his arms around Tav’s waist. “We are rather excellent together, you know. And united, there is nothing we can’t do. I can’t say what the future holds for us, but I know we’ll be facing it together. And we’re going to have a lot of fun.”
And they did have fun. Amidst all the reading and researching, the traveling and socializing with strangers who know a thing or two about rare artifacts. To following any lead they had, no matter how small, or if it led to a dead end. To the quiet, lazy mornings where they were wrapped in each other’s arms, fingers ghosting across bare skin, soft whispers of love and adoration being the only thing to break the silence. To the long nights full of raw passion, the desire to know and feel each other in the most intimate and sacred ways possible. To be connected body and soul in each other’s embrace and satisfy each other in ways only the other knew how. To simply walking hand-in-hand through the night as they traveled from one town to the next. It was all fun to Astarion. It was new, exciting, something he had never dared to dream about when he was under Cazador’s control. But here he was, free, traveling the world with the first person he has truly cared for. The first person who he has truly loved and who, by some miracle, loved him back. Even if all of their adventuring never bore fruit, if they never found a way to help him walk in the sun again, he wouldn’t trade any of it away for the world.
Weeks of adventuring turned into months, months turned into years and they were not any closer to finding an artifact that would let Astarion walk in the sun. Once, they had been on the trail of a very promising artifact, the Cloak of Dragomir. It was last known to be in the possession of a vampire named Hexxat but the leads quickly went cold. It was almost as if she had simply vanished into thin air. Astarion didn’t mind though, while the cloak would have been nice it would not have been the same. He wanted to be able to stand out in the sun, arms stretched wide and soak in the rays as they danced across his skin. The same way he did the morning after his first night with Tav. A cloak would not have allowed him to do that. Astarion expressed as much in bed one morning, after the leads went cold for the cloak and Hexxat alike. Head resting on Tav’s chest as he laced his fingers with his partner’s, holding his hand.
“What kind of artifact are you hoping to find?” Tav asked, fingers from this other hand carding through the Astarion’s hair.
Astarion hummed, “Well, if I can get anything I want. How about a ring?”
The elf felt Tav move under him, raising his head a little to look at him. “A ring?”
“Yes, all these years together and you haven’t offered me a single one. I’m slightly offended you know, I thought that you would have tried to propose to me at least once by now Darling,” Astarion said, mock offense in his voice. “If the only way to get you to give me a ring is to have it be magical, then I’ll take it.”
Tav laughed, his chest rumbling underneath Astarion, “Alright Love, I’ll see what I can do.”
“Good,” Astarion replied, shifting so he could be face to face with Tav, kissing him.
When Astarion had told Tav he wanted a magical ring to be able to walk in the sun, he hadn’t expected the man to actually find a lead.
“The Ring of the Sun-Walker. It’s said to look just like an ordinary iron band with a ruby inlaid in it. To any normal person that’s all it is, but if it’s worn by a vampire you would no longer take damage from the sun,” Tav said, opening a worn scroll he traded off a rare artifact merchant just that morning and handing it to Astarion.
“Darling, when I asked you to get a magic ring, I assumed you understood that a normal ring would do,” Astarion said, eyes flitting across the page, full of excitement. “But this is even better, where are we heading next?”
The first lead towards the ring was only a tenday journey away, deep into the forest. The merchant Tav got the scroll off of heard that a band of mercenaries were hired to escort and deliver a shipment of valuable, possibly powerful jewelry, to Baldur’s Gate. The most sought-after piece was a simple ring that was rumored to give the wearer unimaginable power. The shipment never arrived to its destination and the band of mercenaries were never heard from again. The group had supposedly decided to take a less traveled path but it would have greatly cut down their travel time, if they had made it. Many treasure hunters had searched the area with no luck of finding any sign of the missing mercenaries or the shipment. Now it was Tav and Astarion’s turn.
The journey to the approximate last location of the mercenaries was relatively uneventful. A couple of owlbear encounters, mingled with some undead here and there. While it was nothing the two of them couldn’t handle, it did take a hit to the supplies that they had brought. While Tav was a cleric, he liked to have some potions of healing and a scroll of resurrection on hand in case things took a turn for the worse. Astarion made light of it every time he saw Tav check their bags before they traveled. This time had been no exception.
“I don’t understand why you insist on bringing all of that with you. It’s just weighing you down since you can do all of that yourself, for free,” Astarion said, gesturing towards the scroll of resurrection on the desk.
“You can never be too careful, Love,” Tav replied.
“Well, I guess it’s fine. In case, by some ungodly amount of bad luck, I end up having to save you for once,” Astarion joked. “Just make sure that doesn’t happen. I don’t think my heart could take it. Plus, we both know I wouldn’t know a single thing about how to use that scroll. You clerics and bards like to make everything so convoluted.”
Tav had laughed at Astarion’s joke at the time, but he wasn’t laughing now as he set up camp for the night and looked over their remaining supplies. They had enough rations to get them through one more day before they ultimately had to begin the journey back home, hands empty, to restock and try again another time. They had one potion of healing left and the resurrection scroll he had meant to pack away had stayed on the desk at home, forgotten due to Astarion’s jesting during packing.
A snapping of branches under foot brought Tav back to the present as Astarion returned to camp after scouting the area. Before Tav could say anything, the elf was already talking, excited about what he found while out.
“Darling, I found a cave. It was tucked away in a nice little nook, completely taken over by vines and absolutely unassuming. I wouldn’t have noticed it at all if something in the cave hadn’t been glinting in the moonlight. This could be what we’re looking for.”
Tav glanced down at their packs before standing and gathering his weapon and shield. A slight shiver ran down his spine accompanied by a feeling that they were being watched, but he shook it off, “Alright, let’s see what we can find, shall we?”
The cave wasn’t far from where set up camp, but Astarion was right, even if it hadn’t been covered in vines the cave opening would have been hard to notice. It was small and tucked away in small crevice of the rockface. Pushing away the vines, Astarion led the way, eyes scanning the area for any sign of danger before venturing further in. When he deemed it safe, he moved forward, Tav close behind him. The inside of the cave wasn’t anything special on the surface, dark, damp, bones and other debris littering the ground, but Astarion was looking for something specific. His eyes scanned the ground for the item that had drawn his attention to the cave originally. It didn’t take long before he found it, a few feet in and mostly buried in the dirt was a hint of silver. Digging it out he found himself holding a bracelet, a very nice one if it was cleaned up and polished. Definitely something someone of the higher class would appreciate.
“Love look, do you think this could be part of that shipment?” Astarion asked, turning to show Tav his find, but found himself dropping the bracelet instead, eyes widening in surprise. Behind Tav, shrouded in darkness, was a bandit, slinking towards them, dagger ready to strike. They had probably been watching them as soon as they entered the area, following them as they searched, on the hunt for the same treasure as they were.
Tav turned to follow Astarion’s gaze, hand reaching for his weapon but was too slow. The bandit struck, dagger sliding between Tav’s neck and his armor. Striking him just above his collarbone. Tav stumbled backwards, dropping his weapon as his reached up, grasping at his neck. Before the attacker could turn their attention to Astarion, he was already on them. Dagger striking blow after blow in a frenzied rage, ending the bandit before they had a chance to defend themselves. The bandit collapsed to the ground in a crumpled heap, dagger embedded deep in its chest, forgotten, as the elf ran to his partner. Astarion fell to his knees next to Tav as he lay motionless on the ground, blood pooling quickly from the wound in his neck.
“No, nonono, you can’t die here,” Astarion pleaded, hands clawing desperately at Tav’s armor. Shaking fingers finding the clasps and pulled the chest piece away, tossing it unceremoniously to the side.
As soon as Astarion saw the wound his heart sank, there was nothing he would be able to do. The wound was too deep and too close to Tav’s carotid artery for a simple health potion to fix. Tav needed a proper healer and unfortunately the only healer around was the dying man himself. The only thing Astarion could do was put his hands on the wound in an attempt to slow the bleeding as best he could. He cursed himself for not accepting Tav’s offer to teach him basic healing spells. He had gotten comfortable. Tav rarely went down in battle. His heavy armor protected him enough that he was always able to heal at the end of a fight. Not once had Astarion thought that one well aimed dagger strike would be what took him down.
“You’re going to be alright Love,” Astarion said, panic tinging his voice. “Everything’s going to be fine. The bleeding will slow and you’ll be able to patch yourself up with that fancy healing magic of yours, alright? We’ll head back home so you can rest up and we can come back another day to look for the ring. I’ve gone this long without being able to walk in the sun. What’s a few more days?”
Astarion’s hands slipped on his lover’s neck, the flow of blood not slowing no matter how hard he tried. Tav’s labored breathing became wet as blood began speckling his lips with each breath out. Astarion watched Tav’s face as the color quickly drained from his cheeks. The pulse under his fingers was beginning to slow and breath was getting shallower. Tav’s eyes found Astarion’s. Once bright eyes were now dull and glazed over. Tav’s lips moved, attempting to form words but no sound came out.
“No Dear, don’t try to speak, conserve your energy, alright,” Astarion pleaded, pressing down harder on the wound as the pulse underneath his fingers continued to slow. Tav let out what could have been a laugh but it ended up being a small huff, a smile formed on his lips just before his head rolled to the side, hand reaching for something before his body went limp.
“No. No damn you! You can’t do this to me, wake up!” the elf cried, cupping Tav’s face between his hands, forcing him to face him. Blood streaked across the cooling skin as Astarion held his lover's face in between his hands. Blank eyes stared up, unseeing. Any life that had been there was now gone.
Astarion screamed. The cry ripping through him, powerful and raw, burning his throat, as he gathered Tav into his arms. Sobs wracked his body as he pulled his lover close. Hands practically tearing the fabric with how tight he was holding on. He doesn’t know how long he sat there, gently rocking the two of them back and forth as he wept. Head buried in his lover’s neck as his hand gently carded through Tav’s hair. Time had stopped for Astarion as soon as Tav had taken his last breath. This was his fault, he told himself. Tav would not be dead in his arms if he had not joked about not being proposed to. If he hadn’t suggested a magic ring as a replacement for a wedding band, Tav would still be here. He should have known that Tav, with his stupidly, beautifully, caring heart, would take it literally. He didn’t care if they were married or not. Being together had always been more than enough for him.
He should have seen this coming. His life had been too good for too long. He was stupid to think that he was allowed to live the rest of his days happy. Now his happiness had been ripped from him without a chance for him to even fight to keep it.
Too absorbed in his grief Astarion didn’t notice the glowing coming from Tav. It wasn’t until Tav’s body jolted in his arms, heaving as he inhaled, followed by coughing as his lungs spasmed at the sudden intake of breath that Astarion sat back. His eyes wide and full of disbelief as looked at his lover, now very much alive in his arms. He took in Tav’s face, still pale, covered in his own blood from where Astarion had held it, but color undeniably flowing back into his cheeks. Astarion’s hands still clutched tightly to the fabric of Tav’s shirt as his eyes wandered lower to Tav’s neck, the place where the fatal wound had been was now smooth. As if the wound had never existed at all. Lower they went still, until they reached Tav’s hands and that’s where he saw it. Held loosely in Tav’s right hand was his weapon.
The Blood of Lathander.
Astarion remembered the day they found it. It was shortly after venturing into the artifact and meeting the being that had been protecting them from the Absolute all those years ago. They found a hidden passage in a side room that lead to the weapon. Tav had insisted that there had to be a way to take the mace safely, but Astarion urged him to just reach out and grab it. What was the worst that could happen? Turns out the building being target by a laser powered by the sun was it. Their group had barely made it out of the creche before it was destroyed. Mace still in Tav’s hand.
Once per day, if the wielder dies in battle, the mace can bring them back to life.
Astarion had never been a religious man. None of the gods and goddesses had answered him when he called out to them during his darkest years, but now he may just turn to Lathander. Even if it was just to ensure the mace never stopped working.
“Hi Love,” Tav whispered, drawing Astarion’s attention back to him. A soft smile adorning his features as he wiped a tear from the elf’s face. “Did you miss me?”
Astarion said nothing. Instead, he cupped the back of Tav’s head and brought him in for a kiss, lips crashing together. It was a desperate kiss, full of fear, anger and most of all, relief. Astarion would have kissed Tav until the end of time if he could, but unfortunately, his lover needed to breath, unlike him. Pulling away Astarion rested his forehead against his Tav’s.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again,” Astarion hissed, voice and hands shaking as he held Tav close. Afraid if he let go now Tav would simply disappear. “I wouldn’t be able to handle losing you like that again.”
Tav didn’t speak as he wrapped his arms around Astarion. The warm embrace, reassuring the elf that he was there and, as long as Tav had a say, he wasn’t going anywhere.