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Gale realises he’s beautiful when he makes Astarion laugh. He knew of course, in the way you know trees have green leaves and the sky is blue, but it was just a fact of life, not something that affected him. Then Gale makes some pithy remark, he can’t even remember what, and Astarion cackles, actually cackles and his whole face lights up. His face crinkles, laugh lines appearing around his eyes, his fangs flash in the sunlight and he gives Gale this look he can’t decipher. He is breathtaking and Gales chest hurts so much he can barely stand it. He wants to make Astarion laugh like that over and over. He wants to trace each laugh line around his eyes. He realises he wants to kiss him.
He pretends nothing has changed despite everything being different from five minutes ago. Astarion keeps talking with him, is smiling at him, gives him a playful bump of the shoulder. Gale wonders idly if he laughed a lot before. Vampires are frozen in time after all. He does not have the face of a man who frowned too often or furrowed he brow, he has laugh lines, smile lines, eyes that would sparkle in any colour, and a laugh so dirty Gale can’t help but chime in. He can’t help the way his face softens either, or the way he leans towards Astarion as they talk.
They watch the sun go down, talking all the while, and suddenly Gale finds Astarion is leaning against him, a head is on his shoulder. He lets a bubble of hope rise in his chest, maybe, just maybe, Astarion thinks he is beautiful too.