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They were gossiping. Whispering behind him like a couple of school girls. He did his best to ignore them, but he had a suspicion they were talking about him.
He glanced over his shoulder at one point to see what their whispering was about, only to find their eyes on him with their heads practically knocking against each other. When his eyes met theirs the whispering stopped and they straightened up. Like that wasn’t suspicious.
Shadowheart and Astarion. He’d forgotten how insufferable they could be together.
Wyll by his side gave a sympathetic smile, but didn’t comment on it. Just kept on walking forward to their destination.
They would periodically giggle, or one would give a low noise of exclamation that was shushed by the other, and every time Gale tried to sneak a glance at them he was caught because one of them would already be looking at him.
Wyll tried to distract him with conversation, but it was hard to focus on it when Wyll had half his attention on navigating their course and Gale was trying to listen in on the scheming going on behind them.
It left him tense. On edge. Tempted to pry into one of their tadpoles just to confirm either way if he was right and they were talking about him. It didn’t help that their gossiping sounded like it was becoming closer to bickering.
It came to a head when he overheard Astarion bite out a snappy; “shut up.”
He looked over to them again, this time with luck. They were wrapped up in each other, her gesturing wildly as she whispered at him with her face so close to his that their cheeks would brush with one wrong move. Neither of them noticed, not at first. For once they weren’t looking at him. He felt a brief moment of triumph that when he spoke the pair of them jumped apart with wide, guilty eyes.
“Are you two having fun back there?”
He nearly missed it. They way that Astarion’s face flickered through a moment of panic. His eyes widening, his lips parting. A split second that could have been easily missed between arguing with Shadowheart and giving Gale a placating smile.
Nearly missed. Gale caught it, though.
“We are, why? Are you both feeling a little left out?”
Gale narrowed his eyes on the honey sweet smile.
“Don’t worry your pretty little head, darling. I assure you that you would find it all very dull.”
The lie was obvious, but Gale decided not to press it. Not yet, at least. He wanted Astarion a little more ruffled before he battled the rogue in a match of deception.
“I’m sure,” he muttered. While he was prepared to let it go, he did want them to know he didn’t believe that in the slightest.
Shadowheart surprised them all.
“Actually, Gale, we were talking about you.”
That caused Astarion to falter. Gale kept his eyes on the path ahead, but he heard the way that Astarion spluttered out a weak protest.
“And what, pray tell, could you possibly be talking about me for?”
“I was inquiring about the nature of Astarion’s relationship with you.”
It set off an alarm in his head. Coupled with a burning desire to know what that answer had been. “I see. And what did you manage to gleam from your oh-so-secretive conversation?”
“That he’s either being coy with me, or he doesn’t actually know.”
Wyll to his right coughed in an attempt to cover his laughter. Gale braced himself and fought his every urge to turn his head and meet Astarion’s gaze.
“ Well?”
He feigned ignorance at her probing. “Hmm?”
“Seeing as Astarion failed to provide me any insight, perhaps you should shed some light on the nature of said relationship?”
“I would like to point out that you also failed to define the nature of your relationship with our beloved fighter,” Astarion cut.
“I didn’t fail, there’s nothing to define,” she snapped. “I barely consider her an acquaintance.”
Gale latched onto the thought. Raised a finger as he spoke. “That reminds me, actually, I’ve been meaning to talk to you, Shadowheart. I had the most interesting conversation with Lae’zel the other day, which gave me an insight into githyanki courting rituals. She implied to me that when you intend to enter a more intimate relationship with someone in their culture there is an assertion of physical dominance over the other.”
“I'm… not sure why you wanted to talk to me about this?”
He looked over his shoulder to give her a friendly smile. “In the same way that you appear curious about the interpersonal developments of your companions, I feel the same curiosity. Seeing the combative nature of your and Lae’zel’s, ah, ‘not-relationship’, I thought perhaps it would be fitting to warn you.”
She bristled. Wyll by his side had a badly hidden smile on his face as he asked; “what’s the purpose of asserting physical dominance?”
Gale, however, did not hide his smile, nor how smug he felt. “A simple case of deciding on who is in charge. The loser is expected to submit.”
Shadowheart remained silent behind him. So, he decided to keep talking. Just to really drive the point home.
“I get the impression that relations between the githyanki tend to be more of the physical nature than the emotional.”
Astarion, oh so helpfully, chimed in with, “he means they like to have sex.”
Shadowheart bristled. “ Yes, Astarion. I gathered.”
“On the topic of romantic endeavours,” Wyll started without a hint of shame, “I was actually thinking of finding a gift to take back for Karlach. I am open to suggestions.”
The tension between them ebbed away. Shadowheart was the first to respond after clearing her throat with a smile.
“That’s a marvelous idea, Wyll. Did you have anything specific in mind?”
“Ah, no. I was hoping something might just stick out to me as we went, but so far I’ve come up short.”
Shadowheart stepped up to Wyll’s side as she started to discuss their tielfing and what sort of gift might be appropriate to take back to camp for her. As they did so Gale found himself stepping back to fall in line with Astarion, who merely smirked at him as he did so before the red eyes settled on the pair in front of them.
“Seems we’re back to each other’s company, then?” Astarion asked.
“Certainly seems that way. I’m sure Shadowheart would be a better fit at helping decide what would be an appropriate gift for our dear Karlach.”
“Not confident on your present picking abilities?”
“Oh, I am, but she seems so enthusiastic. I couldn’t take that away from her.”
Astarion hummed quietly, but didn’t argue the point. They walked together like that in silence for what could not have been more than ten seconds before Astarion was speaking again, knocking the back of his wrist against Gale’s arm as he moved it about while speaking.
“You know, I couldn’t help but notice how well you deflected Shadowheart’s inquiry. Not trying to hide something, are you? I appreciate that you can be a little secretive at times.”
Gale - somehow - managed to retain composure despite Astarion’s teasing, probing words. “I merely continued what you’d already started. You’re rather the master of that situation over me. I suppose we’re both used to hiding rather serious conditions.”
“Still, first you deny any knowledge to Lae’zel, and now you deflect Shadowheart? You’re lack of enthusiasm hurts, my dear.”
He found himself quite at a loss for figuring out exactly what Astarion’s game was, here. Was he confirming that there was something going on between them, or was this just a ploy to get Gale to embarrass himself? Gale himself had been pretty confident that there was… something going on between them, but at he had previously said to Wyll; it was hard to figure out exactly what Astarion wanted. What he thought. Sometimes it just all felt like a game to pass the time. Right now, it felt like a game to pass the time.
Gale wondered if he wouldn’t perhaps like something a little more than just a game.
“You’re rather good at playing your cards close to your chest,” Gale admitted. He kept his eyes on the two ahead of them as he carefully chose his words. “I feel like playing my own hand too soon would somehow leave me at a disadvantage.”
Astarion made a teasing noise of exclamation. “Here I was thinking you rather enjoyed a good game of the mind.”
“There are games of the mind, and then games of the heart.”
Astarion fell completely silent. Gale couldn’t help but peer out the corner of his eye to try get a read on what his reaction.
The red eyes were still fixated on Shadowheart and Wyll, but the teasing smirk that had been on his face when Gale had joined him had vanished. There was something all too melancholic about his expression now.
Gale nudged an elbow into his side. Astarion shot him a dirty look.
He put on his kindest smile. “No need to look so upset about it.”
“I don’t look upset.”
“Sure you don’t.”
Astarion elbowed him back with a roll of his eyes. “Maybe you’re just not as perceptive as you think you are.”
They continued on as normal, Astarion recovering from his blip and making fun of Shadowheart’s reaction to what Gale had said about Lae’zel in a low enough voice that she couldn’t hear. Gale realised now he was on the side of the gossipers.
He was left feeling no further forward than he had been before. He still couldn’t get a read on the vampire spawn. If anything, he felt like perhaps he took a miss-step. Some form of faux pas.
Perhaps for Astarion the heart didn’t come into play.