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Bloody hells, Karlach felt like she was going fucking insane.
Seriously. For reals, this time. Actually, factually, insane.
She never pictured it going down like this, though. In fact, if she’d bet money on it, she would have picked any time during the ten year stretch in Avernus, or during the nearly three months immediately afterwards, on account of the tadpole scrambling up her brains. But definitely not now: two years out of Avernus for the third time— for good, thanks— and almost eight months of that spent as Mrs. Karlach Cliffgate-Dekarios.
And yet, here she was: in the sitting room of the fancy wizard’s tower she now called home, staring off into space and feeling like she was going to claw both of her eyes out because she didn’t know when she turned into the kind of person who even knew what a sitting room was, let alone used one.
She also didn’t know where this feeling had even come from, clamping its jaws around her like it was some kind of fucked up mimic of the emotional variety. She’d been fine this morning, spending a few hours chatting with and doing little tasks around the house for Morena, Gale’s mum. And Karlach’s too, now, come to think of it— but she still wasn’t used to that and didn’t know if she ever would be. But she really liked Morena, liked how funny and feisty the older woman was, and she liked making herself useful when she visited over there. Especially because Gale’s mum was an itty bitty thing and couldn’t reach the top-most cabinet in her kitchen without clambering up onto the counter first.
But now it was afternoon and Karlach felt all jittery inside with no real reason for it, felt like the normally-familiar quiet of the tower was about to smother and swallow her whole.
Meanwhile, Gale seemed to be every bit her opposite, looked like he was in his natural fucking habitat, because he was. He’d come home a little early from one of his lectures, and after giving her a greeting hug and a kiss, and politely asking about her morning, he’d settled nearby into his favorite chair by the window, reading a book by the slanting golden light that streamed in through the clean, clear panes of glass. He still wore the deep purple slacks and white shirt he’d picked out to wear under his robes for work, but he now had the long sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows, and the collar unbuttoned enough so that half of the brand-like scar of the stabilized orb on his chest peeked out. He sat with one leg crossed over the other, hunched over slightly as he read, his long brown hair streaked with gray tumbling like a waterfall over his shoulders, the rest of it kept out of his face and tied back in the half-pony he favored nowadays. And he was completely focused on whatever he was reading, sitting in relative stillness except for when he turned the page, or occasionally adjusted the frames of his adorable little reading glasses because they kept slipping down the bridge of his nose.
“Hey,” Karlach said in a loud whisper. She slumped down into her chair and stretched out a leg to poke at one of Gale’s shins with her bare toes. “Psst. Bookworm. Hey.”
“Hmm? What do you need, my love?” he asked, only half paying attention, his eyes still on the book in front of him.
“I was just wondering,” she said, now at her regular volume. “If you ever miss…” She trailed off, trying to figure out what she was even asking.
Gale frowned, and actually looked up from his book this time. “If I ever miss whom, exactly?”
Karlach shook her head; no, that wasn’t it. That wasn’t it at all. “Not a who,” she said. “A what. I just mean…” Shit, what did she mean? “If you ever miss how it was. Before. You know, during all of that fuckery with the Absolute.”
Or in Avernus right after that, she realized, though she didn’t think she could ever admit it. Just fucking up devils with Gale and Tav and Wyll, while they all searched for a way to stabilize her engine permanently.
And they’d found it, thank the gods. And life was good, life was really, really good. But she knew that a lot of her friends were still out there, still adventuring and stirring shit up along the Sword Coast or even beyond— and maybe it was because she was getting soft here in Waterdeep, but that time spent fighting for their lives surrounded by the people she cared most about in the world… It was almost fun in comparison.
Oh.
Maybe Karlach was just bored.
Gods, she couldn’t remember the last time that had even happened.
“You mean, if I ever miss when we were all constantly under the threat of injury, or dismemberment, or death by any number of horrible ways, including— in the particular case of you and I— spontaneous combustion? No,” Gale said, and he snapped his book shut in his lap for emphasis. “Can’t say that I do.”
“Hang on, I think I figured it out,” Karlach said. She grabbed both arms of the squishy chair she was still slowly sprawling out of in order to hoist herself back up into the seat of it, her tail tucked in close and wrapped around one side of her so she didn’t sit on it. “I think I’m bored.”
“Oh. I’m sorry,” said Gale, his face falling a bit more as he picked up his book and set it on the little table next to him. He uncrossed his legs and angled himself in his chair so that he was facing her directly, leaning forward a little into the space that separated them and resting his forearms on his thighs. “And how can I help you remedy that?”
That was one of the things she loved most about Gale: when it came to solving problems, big or small, he almost always wanted to solve them together. Sure, she’d been the one to ultimately talk him out of going after the Crown, and he’d begged her on hands and knees to go with him to Avernus so she didn’t burn up on that dock, but they worked best as a team, and they both knew it.
Plus, it made her feel included and cared for, made her feel special— and a girl liked to feel special every now and again.
Karlach felt like a part of her engine did a little whirly twirl-about in her chest when Gale looked at her over the round frames of his reading glasses with those big, soulful brown eyes of his, and the light that shone from the center of her chest and through the thin fabric of her shirt glowed blue instead of the usual orange as she smiled at him.
“I dunno,” she said. One of her feet started to tap out a rhythm against the wooden floor, joining the tip of her tail that was already doing the same thing against the leg of her chair as she thought it over. “Maybe… Ooh! What would you say to taking me out for a night on the town?” It’d been a while since they’d gone on a date, and while she would probably need to figure out a longer-term solution to her boredom, she kind of didn’t want to think about that right now.
“I would say that it’d be my genuine pleasure,” Gale said, a soft smile on his face now, too, the dreamy little tilt of his mouth and the crinkles at the corners of his eyes making her engine tumble over itself again. “What would you like to do? We could go for a walk around the Market at sunset, perhaps, maybe take in a show, or—”
“Ooh, no— sorry, I know what I wanna go do,” Karlach interrupted him excitedly, drumming at the arms of the chair on either side of her with both hands. “I want to go to a really seedy pub. Drink a little, maybe get into a fight, but we’ll see.”
Gale just looked at her like she’d said the most outlandish fucking shit in the world— which, honestly, to Gale, it probably was. But his expression was like that just for a couple of seconds, and then switched over to the one he usually wore when he was thinking about something. “Hmm,” he hummed, stroking a little bit at his bearded chin with two of his fingers. “It’s been quite some time since I’ve frequented such an establishment, but I’d be surprised if Felzoun’s Folly isn’t still standing. It’s a few minutes’ walk from the Yawning Portal but it’s much older— I’ve told you before about the Yawning Portal, of course—”
“Hang on, hang on.” It was Karlach’s turn to just stare at him; she hadn’t expected Gale to know the name of a place right off the top of his nerdy little head like that. “You’ve been to a seedy pub? No fuckin’ way.”
“Several, even,” he said. “More than once, but Felzoun’s Folly was always my favorite to sneak off to when I was at the Academy. And afterwards, really.”
“You’ve got a favorite seedy pub?” Good gods, somehow this magical little man always managed to find a way to surprise her. “Nuh-uh. Who are you and what have you done with my Gale?”
“I was young once, you know, Karlach,” he said, sounding a little unimpressed with her teasing. He frowned again, removed his glasses and set them on top of the book he’d been reading, then crossed both arms in front of his chest. “Is it so surprising a thing to learn that I have a preference for which dive bars I spent my time in?”
“‘Is it so—’” Karlach repeated in disbelief, then shook her head and began again. “No offense, darling, but look at you. Are you kidding me? Of course it’s surprising.”
Gale scoffed at her, and then turned his head away and tilted his chin upwards with a pouty little hmph , his silver earring swaying with the movement, his arms still crossed in front of himself defensively.
“It’s also kinda hot, I’m not gonna lie.”
He grinned shyly, looking at her from out of the corner of his eye. “Is it?”
“Mhm.” Karlach stood then, taking a step forward and planting both of her hands on the arms of Gale’s chair on either side of him, looming over him for a few seconds before she lowered her face down to his for a kiss.
“Well, far be it from me to argue being hot,” he said softly when she pulled away, and Karlach snorted in laughter.
“I love you,” said Karlach with a toothy grin, glowing blue again. “My surprising little magic man.”
“I love you, too,” said Gale, his brown eyes sparkling. “So much.” He reached up with one of his hands to gently rest it against her face, and craned his neck up slightly and puckered his lips for another kiss. And of course Karlach wasn’t going to say no to another kiss.
“Mm. That’s good, let’s keep that energy going for date night,” she said when she pulled away from him a second time, savoring the brush of his hand against her cheek as she slowly straightened up to her full height again, her whole body tingling. “I’m gonna go get ready, okay? Oooh, I’m so excited!” she squealed, and clapped her hands a few times before practically running out of the room, leaving Gale alone with his books and his startled laughter.
“Getting ready” meant throwing on her new favorite pair of black leather pants and an off-white cotton shirt that Karlach didn’t particularly care whether or not it ended up with beer or bloodstains on it, with a black leather vest over the top of that.
Gale decided to stay in what he was wearing, slinging the little crossbody bag that he carried his spellbook in pretty much everywhere they went over his shoulder. When Karlach lightly gave him shit about his choice of outfit for this particular outing of theirs as they left the tower, he said, “You don’t like it? I like it, it’s comfortable.”
“I do like it, but you better not complain if it gets all gross,” she told him.
“I can just clean it with magic.”
She just wiggled all the fingers on her right hand and stuck out her tongue at him.
“My love, you’re… not actually serious about getting into a fight today, are you?” He sounded slightly anxious about it.
“I know we’re a little out of practice, but I think we can handle a bar fight.”
“That’s not the point I was trying to make,” said Gale as they walked down the street side by side. “I know you said you were bored earlier, but is there something else driving this, or… Are you unhappy…?”
Was she unhappy? She didn’t think so, but sorting through all of this wasn’t something she wanted to do right now— hence wanting to go drink about it. Karlach didn’t want to just leave that question hanging there though; talk about putting a damper on date night. She let out a long sigh, and scuffed one of her boots against the pavement, miming kicking at an invisible piece of garbage because they were in a nice part of this already prissy city, so there was no actual garbage to kick at. “It’s not that. I dunno I just… Feel sorta restless, is all. And you know I’m not used to that. I guess I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with myself now.”
Gale nodded, and tentatively brushed his hand up against hers, asking a silent question which she answered by decisively grabbing at his hand and lacing their fingers together. “Well, perhaps the long walk over will help,” he said.
“Maybe.”
“And then, perhaps tomorrow, we can figure out something to point all of that restless energy of yours toward?” he suggested. “Or multiple somethings.”
Karlach smiled down at him, and squeezed his hand a little tighter where it rested snugly against hers. “I’d like that, yeah.”
They did end up in the Market around sundown, mostly because it was on the way, but also because Gale insisted that they eat something of substance before going out to drink.
“You’re so cute,” she’d laughed at him, but did end up ordering two of some sort of spicy, slow-roasted meat served on a warm piece of flatbread. They sat on a little bench near one of the guildhalls while they ate, fending off the occasional bold seagull and watching all of the people that flowed past them like a chaotic river through the maze of colorful shops and stalls, the setting sun tinging everything with an orange glow almost the exact same shade as the one Karlach’s engine gave off— though the flames that used to cover her skin, hair, and horns weren’t present anymore, except when she got really pissed about something.
It was nice, really. This part of Waterdeep reminded Karlach a little of being in Baldur’s Gate, though of course it didn’t smell as, well, smelly. It wasn’t a sad sort of reminder, though; if she hadn’t wanted to be here in the first place, she wouldn’t have agreed to come, simple as that. And though she’d been living in this city permanently for over a year now, she was still getting used to it, and she found that she did miss aspects of her hometown— but she probably always would. That was fine, though. It was kind of exciting in its own quiet way, setting down roots somewhere brand new to her, building a life together with her love. They were both so lucky to still be alive, for so many reasons; it was kind of amazing that they were even sitting here now, enjoying the sunset together.
No, not kind of. It was. It was amazing.
Gods, thinking about it all like that, Karlach felt a little silly that she’d been bored in the first place.
“I think the walk did help,” she said, when Gale stood up from the bench and stretched a little bit, swiveling about and trying to pop his back.
Gale stopped what he was doing and smiled at her warmly. “I’m very glad to hear it.”
“I still wanna go drink, though.”
He laughed, and leaned down to press a kiss to one of her cheeks, his beard tickling her. “Then follow me.”
Once they were on their way again, Karlach asked, “Hey, do you think we could go visit Baldur’s Gate sometime soon? It’d be kind of nice to see Jaheira and Minsc again.” Hells, it would be nice to see all their friends again, but with everyone so far-flung now, she doubted it would happen anytime soon. Even everyone showing up for the wedding eight months ago had felt like a bit of a miracle.
“I think we could probably do that, yes,” said Gale. “Although, ‘nice’ is not a word I’d personally use to describe seeing Minsc again.”
“Oh, come on, he’s harmless.”
“I’m afraid you and I have very different definitions of the word ‘harmless’. He doesn’t qualify for that descriptor at all, even if you completely ignore the incident at our wedding.”
Karlach laughed. He was never going to let that go, was he. “Well, you can’t say it wasn’t memorable. Plus he’s a fucking hero! ‘We should be so honored to be his friends,’ or whatever,” Karlach said, in her best imitation of Gale’s voice and body language.
Gale sighed. “We’re heroes too, now,” he pointed out. “But I know he’s important to you, so of course we can.”
Karlach squeezed his hand again where she held it in her grip, and grinned down at him, pleased as fucking punch. “I knew I liked you,” she said. “In fact— Oy! Watch where you’re goin’ there, mate!”
She’d been interrupted by someone walking in the opposite direction running into her, their shoulders colliding as they moved past one another. And instead of just shrugging it off, apologizing, or even continuing along on his merry fucking way, the stranger instead turned back around and looked like he was about to shove at her until he more than likely thought better of it.
The douchebag in question was an elf with long, dark hair that he wore in loose, wavy tendrils, slightly tan skin, bright blue eyes, and an expression on his face that looked like someone had strung up a clump of dog shit to dangle permanently under his pointed nose.
“You watch where you’re going,” the elf practically spat at her. “They’ll let any piece of muck into this city nowadays,” he said as an aside to one of the three other people who’d stopped walking when he did.
For the first time in the two years since leaving Avernus again, Karlach felt the dormant ember of her barbarian rage spark to life, the flames of it roiling in her gut, under and all over her skin. It roared its battle cry in her ears, making her hands shake and her engine purr in savage, well-oiled delight.
She’d wanted a fight when she’d left the tower. And now, one was suddenly, stupidly, staring her down in the face. Perhaps— as Gale would say— she was about to get what she’d wished for.
Karlach opened her mouth to say some choice fucking words to this asshat, but before she could Gale had already taken a step forward from where he stood at her side and said angrily, “Excuse me? That’s my wife you’re speaking to like that.”
“So? What are you going to do about it, pipsqueak?” The handful of other people who seemed to be traveling with this guy all laughed.
Karlach’s blood boiled even further at that, but the only thing keeping her from completely losing her cool was the fact that she didn’t think she had ever seen Gale as angry as he was right now. His whole body was practically vibrating, there was a gleam of something alarming in his normally doe-like eyes, and his fingers kept twitching slightly where his hands hung down at his sides, like he was barely stopping himself from casting a spell in response.
“How dare you, do you even know who you’re—” Gale cut himself off with an impatient shake of his head, and bit down on his bottom lip as he drew in a deep, steadying breath before speaking again. “Apologize to her,” he said, his voice low and dangerous in a way that Karlach had never heard from him, quavering from the sheer intensity of his fury.
“No,” the elf said. “I’m not apologizing to you, or your big, ugly— Hey!”
Quick as lightning, Gale made a precise gesture with his hands and spoke a word, and then suddenly all four of the strangers in front of him tumbled to the ground, slipping and losing their footing because of the puddle of slick grease that Gale had conjured immediately underneath them.
“You apologize to her this instant, or the next spell will be even worse,” said Gale. The strangers frantically tried to scramble up onto their hands and knees to get away from him, but kept slipping, coating themselves even further in the gross, magical oil. “Last warning.”
“Whoa! Hey, Gale, take it easy—” Karlach began. She’d wanted a fight, sure, not horrible fiery murder in the middle of a street full of people.
“What’s going on over here?” an unfamiliar voice called out from across the street, and Karlach looked up to see a couple of armed guards making their way over to them, pushing through the small crowd that had assembled to watch. Shit. Ohh, shit, shit, shit.
“This man attacked us!” the elf yelled, pointing up at Gale as he attempted yet again to get to his feet, and failing completely.
“Bullshit,” Karlach said loudly. But she knew that this looked bad— Gale had not only escalated things, but he’d threatened them, too, in front of a whole bunch of witnesses.
“Okay, break it up, move along,” the guard said sternly, to get the crowd to disperse. “Sir, are you responsible for this?” he then asked Gale, pointing at the puddle of grease.
“Yes, I am,” said Gale. He was breathing hard, still angry. “These cretins insulted my wife, and then refused to apologize.”
The guard sighed. “As unfortunate as that is, you can’t just be slinging spells in the middle of the street.”
“And just what do you intend to do now, arrest me?”
Well, as it turned out, the answer to that was a big ol’ “yes”.
Karlach was almost surprised that Gale had agreed to go willingly, just because he was still so riled up. But he seemed to deflate a little when one of the two guards clapped his wrists in irons, the other quickly taking a statement from the four strangers who’d started this whole thing. And when the guards started to escort him to the nearest guardpost with a holding cell, Gale looked over his shoulder at her uncertainly, his brown eyes wide and pleading, as if it had finally dawned on him just how much he’d fucked up.
Gods, this was gonna be the funniest fucking story in the world, just as soon as she could get him out of there. Karlach grinned at him and signaled two thumbs up before mouthing, “It’ll be fine,” silently at him.
Gale frowned, but nodded all the same, and turned to look straight ahead again, not putting up any resistance as the guards shepherded him through the street. Karlach followed casually behind them, keeping back several paces just in case these two got especially jumpy about it.
Luckily, nothing else unexpected happened on the way. Once inside the guardpost, the two took Gale into the back, one of them dropping a piece of paper on the desk of a woman who looked like she would rather be doing anything else other than talking to the man on the other side of it.
With a sigh, Karlach took a seat in one of the uncomfortable-looking wooden chairs in this front area, and waited, bouncing the heel of one of her feet up and down repeatedly out of nerves.
While she was waiting, she noticed one of the guards from before drop another piece of paper onto the desk before he headed out of the door of the place, back onto the street.
It would be fine. It would be fine. It would be fine. Gale hadn’t even done anything wrong— well, technically he’d broken the law, but it wasn’t like it was even that bad, and no one had gotten hurt aside from some bumps and bruises from falling.
And as ridiculous and impulsive as it had been, Karlach couldn’t even be mad about it, because she really liked that Gale had immediately stood up for her like that. She could count on one hand the number of times that had happened to her before now. And it wasn’t like she needed him to, of course. Obviously she could take care of herself but… still. It was nice that she didn’t have to, at least in that instance. That she could, in fact, rely on someone else, which was still so strange to her.
He really did know how to make a girl feel special, huh.
“Next,” the woman behind the desk called, finally.
Karlach practically sprang up from her seat, her tail catching slightly on the chair behind her and making it wobble in place a bit, and she looked back at it uncertainly for a moment before stepping forward, approaching the desk.
“Um, hey, hi,” she said. “So, my husband just got arrested— crazy, right— and I’m here to see about, um. Un…arresting him.”
“Name?”
“He’s Gale Dekarios,” Karlach said, pointing in the general direction of where they’d taken him. “And I’m Karlach Cliffgate. Er, Cliffgate-Dekarios. Sorry, I’m still not used to that hyphenated bit.”
“Hang on… I recognize your names,” the woman said, peering up at her with obvious curiosity now shining in her grey eyes. She was pretty, with her round, freckled face, somewhat pale skin and curly auburn hair tied back with a pink ribbon, though it didn’t fit with the rest of her uniform. And her soft appearance was at even more odds with the particularly nasty-looking scar that started at the side of her neck before disappearing under the collar of her jacket. “Didn’t you and a group of people save a city or something a few years back?”
“Yeah, something like that,” said Karlach with a little self-conscious laugh, running a hand over the close-cropped hair of her side shave. “Look, he’s a good guy, he doesn’t usually pull shit like this.”
“I can see that,” the woman said, pulling a third piece of paper out of a little folio on the desk in front of her to join the other two the guard had dropped off, and reading over them all quickly. “No criminal record prior to today.”
Oh, thank the gods. Karlach didn’t know how she would have reacted if this was how she’d found out that Gale had gotten into trouble or something as a kid, same as she’d done. “No ma’am.”
“And I have his statement here… Hmm.”
Karlach waited, not daring to say anything else, one of her clawed fingers starting to tap out a rhythm on the side of the desk before she quickly stopped herself.
“Well, taking all of that into account…” The woman trailed off as she gathered the three sheets of paper in front of her into a stack and set it all back inside the folder. “He’s all yours tonight if you can pay the bail.”
“Great! And… how much is that, exactly?” Karlach asked with a worried frown.
“A hundred and fifty.”
“How much?” Karlach said, completely gobsmacked. She knew that wasn’t anything in comparison to the amount they’d all been lugging around a few years ago, but now that they’d settled, it was a lot. Good gods, were they running some kind of racketeering gig in this poncy city, or what?
“A hundred and fifty gold,” the woman repeated.
Karlach let out a long, frustrated sigh, rubbing at her hair again. She had some gold on her, obviously, but not that much. And of course the bloody counting houses were all closed up for the day by now. “Hey, look, um, I don’t have that much on me right now,” she said, untying the laces of her gold purse where they connected to a belt loop on her pants, and retrieving the small pouch from one of her pockets to set it on the desk between her and the other woman. “But I swear we’re good for it. If you let me take him home, I can be back first thing in the morning with the rest.”
“Hmm,” the woman said again. Karlach didn’t want to get her hopes up, but it actually sounded like she was considering it. “You know, I met my partner while I was adventuring, too. We didn’t save a whole city, or anything, but I know the bonds you make out there are something special. Nobody else gets it, you know? Trial by fire, and all that.”
Karlach nodded. “No kidding…” She paused for a moment, then asked, “So how’d you end up chained to a desk in a place like this?”
The woman laughed. “Oh, my partner wanted to settle down,” she said. “Adopt a kid, all of that. I mainly do this to keep myself busy.”
“Hey, good for you,” Karlach said. “Domestic life is… kinda weird, if I’m being honest.”
The woman laughed again. “Good weird, though, right?”
“Yeah, definitely. I don’t think I’d trade it for anything, though,” she said, and as she did she realized that she meant it. “Oh! Uh, speaking of,” Karlach continued, an idea suddenly occurring to her. “Here, I can leave this with you as collateral, if you want.” She started to remove the wedding band she wore on her left ring finger. Gale might be upset about it, but if it worked, he couldn’t complain too much.
“No, no, that won’t be necessary,” said the woman with a resigned sigh. “Just come back in the morning with the rest of the gold. I’ll make a note and go tell them to let him out.”
“Really?” Karlach gasped, excitedly. She hadn’t anticipated this actually working out in her favor; but then again, today had already been full of surprises. “Oh, thank you, thankyouthankyouthankyou—”
“One condition.” The woman held up one of her index fingers, and Karlach noticed for the first time the shimmery pink varnish painted on her nails.
“Sure.”
“You take him straight home,” she said, pointing her finger at Karlach admonishingly. “No detours.”
“Yes ma’am.”
The woman smiled at her. “Good. Wait here, please.”
It didn’t take very long— a few minutes at most. Gale clutched his little book bag to his chest and looked uncertainly around the front room, but then practically lit up when he saw Karlach standing there, waiting for him.
“They have an anti-magic field back there,” he said, eyes wide. He sounded vaguely impressed about it, but then he shuddered.
“Come on, jailbird, let’s get outta here,” said Karlach, draping an arm over Gale’s shoulders when he joined her at the doorway.
“It was nice to meet you!” called the woman at the front desk with a little wave as they walked out of the building.
Karlach stopped and turned, doing a little wave of her own. “You too! Hey, good luck with everything, adventurer.”
The woman smiled warmly at the pair of them. “You too.”
“What was all of that?” Gale asked as they walked away, obviously puzzled by the whole exchange. It was after nightfall by now, the lamps lit along the city streets, still busy with people going on their way.
“Oh, you know, just making friends while you were in prison,” she grinned at him, and hugged him a little tighter to her with the one arm, so he would know that she was joking around.
But Gale looked down at his shoes as they walked, avoiding her gaze. “That was… extremely foolish of me,” he mumbled. “I’m sorry. I— I don’t know what came over me.”
“I do,” said Karlach. “It’s called righteous fucking fury, baby. I’d recognize that anywhere.”
Gale picked his head up then, and looked over at her, curiosity glimmering in his eyes. “Is that what it feels like, for you? When you rage in battle?”
Karlach nodded. “Pretty much.”
“Oh, it’s awful,” Gale sighed, shaking his head, a few strands of his long brown hair falling into his face when he did. He immediately reached up and swept them out of the way, tucking them back behind one of his ears. “I could barely think straight.”
Karlach shrugged, and grinned at him again. “Pretty much.”
“Gods, Tara is never going to let me hear the end of this,” Gale said with another pitiful little sigh. “Mother, too.”
“What, getting arrested because you were defending your lady’s honor?” Karlach joked, squeezing affectionately at the shoulder under her hand when he let out an embarrassed groan. “I dunno, I think they’ll be kind of proud. I know I am.”
“You are?” He looked up at her almost wonderingly. “But— Karlach, I ruined date night.”
Karlach laughed. “Well, that’s true. Oh, and we owe the city guard a hundred and twenty-eight gold by tomorrow morning.”
“What?? Oh dear.”
“But I’m gonna be honest with you, magic man,” she said, and then leaned her face down in close to his ear to whisper, “I don’t think I’ve ever found you more attractive than I do right now.”
“Oh!” He turned to look at her again, eyes even wider than before, lips still parted slightly, his face starting to warm with a blush.
Gods. Adorable. She slid her hand down from his shoulder to pinch playfully at his ass, making him jump. “I think you look pretty good in handcuffs, actually,” she said quietly. “Maybe we should get some of those.”
“Karlach, please,” Gale hissed, his face now completely red.
“All right, all right, I’ll give you a break.” Karlach smiled at him, and then reached out to hold his hand, savoring the reassuring warmth and familiarity of it. She still remembered when she hadn’t been able to do this, and rarely, if ever, took it for granted. “For now,” she continued. “The night is still young, after all.”
Gale tugged at the collar of his shirt idly, as if he was suddenly too hot in it. “Let’s just get back home, first,” he said, giving her hand a squeeze.
“Yeah,” Karlach smiled a little wider as she looked around at the bustling nighttime street of this still relatively-unfamiliar city. It wasn’t Baldur’s Gate, but that was okay. And she’d already known deep down that she could probably be happy anywhere, so long as Gale was there with her. But it was nice to have the reminder, all the same. “Let’s go home.”