A Simple Silver Band
From @dichotomous-dragon to @eugenideswalksintoabar
Bull wants Dorian. Dorian wants Bull. It should be that simple, and predictably isn’t.
Tags:
Mutual pining
Misunderstandings
Sera
Krem
The Bull’s Chargers
Happy ending (?).
It wasn’t the first thing he noticed.
The first thing Bull noticed: the man…no, the mage, was poetry in motion, staff cutting down demons in as martial a display as Bull himself had provided cutting down ‘Vints on the Storm Coast. Bull could smell the ozone in the air that meant ‘magic’ but the man in the Chantry wasn’t using it. Either tapped out or holding it in reserve, didn’t seem to matter. The bladed end of the staff tore into a demon as he spun, smashing an attacking shade with the focus stone at the apex of the same movement.
The second thing? He was fucking gorgeous. Chiseled jaw, broad shoulders, well-muscled, if the chest peeking from below the white silk cloak was any clue. His skin was a rich golden shade even in the eerie green light of the rift, his hair somehow perfect despite the rigorous activity. High maintenance and higher breeding stock, Bull snorted. What was it about Redcliffe that seemed to be drawing Alti these days?
The third was the voice; pleasant in timbre, cultured in accent. It resonated in the wrecked building, the tone easy, almost relaxed. But there, underneath the eloquent mannerisms and obvious flirtation was a cadence of desperation, maybe of sadness and betrayal. Bull wondered at the ease with which the mage swept from fighting to flirting; from one to the other in a blink. He was good, better than good, and knew it, every iota of his expression and movement calculated to produce the most stunning effect.
The ring was, in fact, the fourth thing Bull noticed. Thick silver and unadorned, noticeable on his left hand amidst the intricate gold on most of his other digits, it flickered in the sickly green glow. A wedding band. It was a shame Dorian of House Pavus was married, the Bull thought, as the five of them leapt into battle with the demons. He might be a double-agent, one more back-stabbing ‘Vint in a damn sea of them, but something about the mage was alluring in a way that had nothing to do with how hot he was.
“Watch yourself. The pretty ones are always the worst.” Bull growled it out loud, as much a warning to the others as to himself. He had an unhelpful weakness for ‘pretty’ and it wouldn’t do to forget it.
Even if Dorian was on their side, he was clearly off-limits.