Work Text:
Karlach decided that she loved the rain.
After so many years trapped in the oppressive heat of Avernus the feeling of cool water pattering against her skin was one of relief. There was something so sweet about the soft fizzle of water droplets as they slowly evaporated from the torturous heat of her body.
It almost felt as if it were the soft caress of well… someone in particular.
As their party had exited the Underdark, Gale and Shadowheart groaned when they saw the grey clouds stretching to the horizon. The cleric particularly, bemoaned how the water would inevitably soak through their armour as they marched back to camp. Arian (their erstwhile leader) had recommended they stay beneath cover until the storm let up, arguing that harsh squalls off the Sword Coast meant that the rainstorm would be short-lived but brutal to navigate. Yet while the others were ventilating their complaints and planning their route, Karlach stood there, frozen at the sight before her.
Gingerly she reached out her hand, watching the droplets fall and fizzle slightly against her palm. At this otherworldly sight, Karlach couldn’t help herself, she laughed out loud.
In Avernus there wasn’t really ‘water’ per se. The geography was scattered with lakes and rivers but they were filled with boiling tar or lava, not any liquid fit for mortal consumption. The closest thing to normal water in the underworld was the River Styx which had been tainted by the blood of all those slain in the perpetual war that had engulfed (and was still raging in) the Lower Planes. Oh, and it was also cursed so that everyone who drank from it would forever forget their past lives.
It was safe to say that she hadn’t really had the opportunity to touch, let alone drink water in a very long time.
Before she knew it Karlach was running through the treacherous downpour. It must have been raining for a while because the dirt squelched (what a word!) beneath her boots as she pushed through the muddy ground. The rain itself, was gradual rather than instantaneous, how the water seeped into her clothes and how the droplets tingled pleasantly against her open skin. The idea of something gradual, something cooling and soothing had become absolutely foreign to her after so many years in Avernus.
Sensations, emotions were all or nothing in the hells. There was either the rush of battle, the searing pain of hellfire or the quiet desperation of the moments in between. And all the while you were trapped in a pit where even the balmiest the temperature could only be described as ‘unpleasantly hot.’ So, to even exist on a plane where something as beautiful and life-giving as water simply fell from the sky was so sublime that she couldn't contain her excitment.
Karlach felt ecstatic as she danced back and forth, twirling through the rain, mud and water flying everywhere. She was confident that never in her life had she been so happy as in this moment. Even as the downpour came to a crescendo and the water finally soaked completely through her clothes, Karlach couldn’t stop herself grinning.
When the crescendo peaked and the rain slowly began to peter out, she was stuck by a wonderful idea. Karlach opened her mouth and let her tongue fall out to try and catch the last errant drops of the storm. Yet so few they were she knew she would have to try something different. So Karlach began to run backwards and forwards, tongue lolling about like a madwoman, catching more water on her face than in her mouth. It was so worth it.
Eventually she exhausted even her massive reserves of stamina and caught herself panting, hands on her knees, so satisfyingly tired. Kalach looked up to find her companions staring at her with varying expressions.
Shadowheart looked vaguely disapproving while Gale was wearing a knowing smile, but it was Arian’s eyes that truly made her heart stop. He was looking at her in way that she couldn’t quite describe, in a way that she had wished that someone would look at her for so very long.
Would that she were so lucky.
***
Arian decided that he was a fucking idiot.
He hadn’t meant to stare. He had of course watched with much amusement (along with Gale and Shadowheart he would add) as Karlach ran into the pelting rain. Yet as she swayed from side to side as if trying to catch all of the water on her skin something had begun to stir within him. The way she moved her body, smoothly flowing through the falling raindrops, it stuck him as surpisingly elegant, almost artistic in quality. He simply couldn't tear his eyes away.
Arian wasn’t an idiot, he knew that most people would use the word ‘lumbering’, or if they were feeling generous, ‘powerful’ to describe Karlach rather than 'elegant'. Yet he had never been able to completely grasp that perspective. Yes, undboutedly she was powerful and tall, but there was something else to her, an aspect that defied such simplistic labels. To him there had always been something beautiful about her, above all about the way she moved, even (or especially) when she was bored, during the moments in between. How her hyperactivity would cause her to dance around on the balls of her feet as he was picking open a chest or how she would stretch her arms and swing them around while he was trying to negotiate with merchants.
So, when she gaped open her mouth as if she was trying to catch the last few raindrops on her tongue Arian could feel the tugs against his heartstrings. He had never seen something so adorable.
There was something so pure about the act, about a woman who had been deprived of so much in her life taking pleasure in something so small. Arian had never been one for self-indulgence, for the grandiose pleasure that nobles gorged themselves on. The sight of such a beautiful soul immersing herself in something so simple struck a chord within him, becuase it was in such stark contrast to the languid pleasure that everyone else was so focused on. It made him feel things he didn’t know how to describe.
Yet, if only it had been left at that. If only he could have simply admired her from afar.
For in that moment, Karlach had turned around - and fell - just catching herself with her hands on her knees. And then she brought her gaze up to lock eyes with him. And it, this feeling he couldn't describe, became so much more than mere admiration. The sight of Karlach, bent over at the waist, breathing hard and staring right at him made him feel as he had never felt for anyone else before. He knew in that moment that he couldn’t escape what this feeling, that one day he would have to confront it.
But not today.