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Davrin enters the dining hall, lost in thought. As he helps himself to some ale, he goes over the day's events. He woke up and trained with Taash, then went truffle hunting with Assan, Rook, and Emmrich to wind down. However, that's where things had gone off-script. Pensive, he grabs a sweet roll and takes a seat at the table.
Going over it in his head, it wasn’t a big deal, simply a let-down. Something he's come to know well over the years; life is never what you expect it to be, no matter how well-prepared you think you are . The sweet roll is delicious as expected; at least one thing is going that way. Davrin sighs and takes a swig of his drink.
It isn't that he thinks he's... any less desirable , of course, that would be ridiculous. It is more of an opposites don't attract enough situation. Like meets like. He’d made the mistake of starting to imagine something like a new future. It was Davrin's own fault for getting fanciful , of course. He is a Grey Warden. You don't get to fall in love outside of the order.
It isn't fair to them.
The door opens before he lets the thought spiral out of control, and he's relieved to hear the perky voice of Bellara greeting him. "Oh! Hey, Davrin! Do you mind if I join you?"
"Please, take a seat," he waves a hand across the table.
Davrin and Bellara made fast friends, perhaps surprisingly on both their accounts; there was, of course, their Dalish upbringing to bring the two together initially, but they soon came to realize that they had quite a bit of fun talking about their companions.
"So," Davrin starts, a smirk playing on his features as he looks up from his cup across the table. "Rook and Emmrich, huh?"
Bellara lights up at this piece of gossip and leans in, grin on her face. "Aren't they the cutest?!" She exclaims with a little squeal, clasping her hands in front of her. "The professor adores him, really. He's way more romantic than you'd think at first, looking at him-- I mean, not that he looks bad ! He looks really good! Uh-- not like that ." Bellara attempts to salvage the sentiment but she senses a tension building in the room.
There's an unasked question in the air between them- ' What does he have that I don't?' Bellara is polite enough not to draw attention to it, and Davrin is too irritated to admit to this line of thought. It isn't as if it were an outright competition, but isn't everything ? It's bittersweet, the realization that what he'd thought could become something solid was... well, it doesn't matter anymore, does it?
"Didn't take Rook for a grave robber; he is Mourn Watch, after all," Davrin remarks, and Bellara waves a hand at him in mock-defense of their friends' honor. Yet, he continues. "What're they going to do if Emmrich breaks a hip?"
"I thiiink we have more strenuous outings than sex, Davrin." she counters, a flicker of amusement in her eyes.
"Still! You have to be mindful of antiques, he should know that." he argues, voice a little higher towards the end.
Bellara notices and can't hide the smile that erupts before she hastily puts on a poorly drawn neutral expression.
She starts laughing a moment later.
Humor, a perfect blanket for masking hurt feelings and coping with them. What he’d thought had been developing between Rook and himself had only been fleeting, nothing but a chase as his quarry had been caught in another’s trap. He shouldn’t have broken his own rule for him to begin with, but the irritation that bristled starts to fade at the sound of her laugh.
Davrin joins in, hesitantly at first, and then lets it out in full force as he shakes his head. It’s freeing in the moment, to let go. He missed out on someone who chose not to take him seriously; Rook's loss . He looks across the table with a loose smile at Bellara, grateful for her friendship that was a more than agreeable consolation prize.