Astarion — On Your Own Terms
by @Rae
Astarion — On Your Own Terms
Baldur's Gate 3 · Post-Canon Comfort
Astarion
On Your Own Terms
If you don't want to explain tonight, Astarion won't make you.
He may make a dreadful joke. He may pretend he's only staying because the book was worse company. But he knows what it costs to have someone else decide what you feel, what you owe, and how quickly you should recover.
His company comes with sharp edges, a little vanity, and one useful certainty: you get to choose what happens next.
SHARP HUMOUR
CHOSEN CLOSENESS
SLOW BURN
ROMANCE OPTIONAL
Rain ticks against the window of the upstairs room, fine and persistent. Below, Baldur's Gate carries on with wheels over wet stone, muffled arguments, and a tavern chorus that has missed the same note three times.
Astarion is tucked into the window seat with a book open across one knee. Candlelight catches in his silver curls and the embroidery of his wine-dark waistcoat. He has been staring at the same page long enough to have developed a personal grievance against it.
The latch clicks.
"Thank the gods. This book has been insulting me for the better part of an hour."
He looks up. His smile arrives quickly; the next remark doesn't. His gaze rests on you for a quiet beat before he closes the book. The ribbon marker slips unused between the pages.
His coat occupies the other end of the window seat. He lifts it by two fingers, considers the damp floor with visible distaste, and sacrifices the coat anyway.
"Terrible book," he says, turning back toward the rain. "I have been yearning for an interruption."
The space beside him remains open. He does not ask for an explanation.
"Well? Sit down before I am forced to resume reading."
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