Honestly at this point Shadowheart is starting to think they’re simply destined to be unable to go on one day without something ever happening.
One day. Just one!
Just stay behind at camp instead, they said. We’re just going to buy more supplies at that caravan we passed by so there’s no need for the cleric to tag along, they said. Reluctant as she’d been to concede, of course Shadowheart had agreed to it. She’d barely ever left Tav’s side ever since this nightmare had begun for more practical reasons that she would have liked (apparently, dating a self-sacrificial idiot requires a great deal of healing magic if you could believe that). Shadowheart couldn’t say no to getting a well-deserved rest day for once.
And it’s nice being able to catch up on her morning prayers (it’s tricky, trying to reorient yourself in faith with a goddess you thought would bring you ruin), and indulging Gale when he’d approached her with a new spell he’d wanted to try. Astarion had been present too, of course, if only because he hopes something would explode or some other excitement. Shadowheart had only rolled her eyes – Gale has his many moments, but his magical prowess is something to behold.
Besides, Karlach and Wyll are sensible enough companions that Shadowheart could rest easy, even If Lae’zel being stuck with shopping duty of all things does not leave much to be desired – she’d dared hope the other three would keep her from outright stabbing some poor, haggling merchant. She would have also cast her suspicions on potentially being poisoned sometime during dinner, but she supposes they’re long past empty threats and petty fights now that there’s so much more at stake.
It’s a good day on the road and she’s glad Wyll had the idea to camp near a cliff overlooking the horizon where Baldur’s Gate sits. There’s a sense of peace, no matter how hollow, and Shadowheart closes her eyes to the sound of Gale’s muttered incantations and–
The thundering hooves of a horse hurriedly making its way to their camp breaks through the illusion and Shadowheart sighs. Honestly, why does she even bother?
“I told you something would happen,” Astarion says with an all-too pleased smirk. Shadowheart ignores him and approaches their friends.
“Well, you lot are back earlier than agreed,” Gale observes, a furrow to his brows even as he smiles, “I dare hope such haste to your travel does not bring news that some horde of goblins is on your tail.”
“No goblins, I assure you. I think we’ve had enough of those.” Wyll stops their only horse, a beautiful brown mare Karlach insisted they get. Of course, Tav had been all too happy to indulge her as if any of them could ever say no when she gives them those eyes. He laughs nervously, “though perhaps we might have an angry mob come tomorrow morning.”
“A mob?” Astarion laughs, “what in the gods name did you four do to summon an entire mob?”
“Only fools would dare storm a camp that hosts a githyanki warrior in its midst,” Lae’zel says as she stands up, hair disheveled and dirtied but the usual sneer on her face is tainted with some form of excitement. That’s usually not a good sign. “Let them come if they’re so eager to taste my blade.”
“Here’s a thought: how about we don’t do any fighting, yes? We wouldn’t want to get into trouble with any of the locals long as we intend to camp here for a while.” Lae’zel glares at him but Gale doesn’t buckle under the stare, even if he swallows just a little bit. “Really, I’ve heard there’s this interesting bookshop just a ways ahead and I don’t want to lose my chance as a potential, honest customer.”
“If they slit your throat in your sleep, wizard, do not come begging for my help.”
“Well, that’s a little dramatic, don’t you think?”
“Bah! I do not exaggerate when it comes to matters of the blade.”
Before Gale could come up with a retort, Wyll steps in to mediate their bickering and Shadowheart passes them by to give focus to the two other occupants of the wagon attached to the horse. Shadowheart frowns at the state of them. Karlach is sporting a nasty bruise to her right eye and cheek, a few speckles of blood lining her teeth from the cut on her lip but grinning in a way only warriors do after a good fight. But her focus zeroes in on Tav sitting on the wagon’s floor, disheveled and dirtied like they’ve been rolling in dirt, and holding what looks like a broken nose with her fingers.
When their eyes meet, Tav offers a weak grin and then regrets it with a wince, “hey, you.”
“Do not hey me. What in the Hells happened to all of you?”
“In our defense, we definitely didn’t swing first.”
“That does not help, Karlach.”
“I’ll explain later, I promise.” Tav interjects, getting up. Karlach is quick to support them when they stagger. “I’m just, you know, kind of bleeding right now.”
It’d be so easy to fix the problem – just a flick of her wrist, really. But Shadowheart is in an interesting mix of disbelief and worry that she decides to hold off on the magic just yet until she finds out more to story and make her verdict. She doubts Tav deserves getting a broken nose, but sometimes they have their moments of idiocy and Shadowheart refuses to be the one to indulge it. “Fine. We’ll talk in my tent.”
“Good luck, soldier,” Karlach pats Tav’s back and it almost makes her kilter off the wagon had Tav not put a steadying hand on her shoulder, “and thanks for that. I appreciate it. I’m sure Lae’zel does too even if she won’t admit it.”
Tav smiles and squeezes her shoulder, “anytime, Karlach. You know that, right?”
Karlach grins, “I adore you.”
“Yes, well, can I have my darling lover now? I’d have a hard time competing with you, Karlach.” Shadowheart teases and Tav only rolls their eyes, red coloring their neck. She offers a hand and helps down Tav. “Do you want me to look that over, too?”
“Nah, it’s cool. I’ll just ask Gale to put some magic ice on it.”
“If you insist.”
Karlach runs off to where the rest of their group is still bickering and slings an arm around Lae’zel’s shoulders who immediately shoots her with a glare so intense it would have scared anyone other than Karlach. Gale breathes out a sigh of relief and of course Astarion only looks disappointed that a fistfight didn’t happen. Lunatics, the lot of them.
Tav follows her to her tent and to their credit, they at least have the decency to look sheepish as they make themselves comfortable on Shadowheart’s bedroll. There’s already a deep purple-blue forming on the broken bridge of their nose and blood has streamed passed their mouth and dots parts of their neck. Tav smiles, a little confused when Shadowheart rummages her pack for a spare medicine kit, “not going to just magic it away?”
“That depends on the explanation you’ve prepared for me.” Shadowheart kneels in front of the other and readies the kit on her lap. She raises a brow, “I may not follow Shar anymore, but I’m still a believer of a pain well-deserved.”
“You think I deserve to have a broken nose?”
“Of course not, unless it involves you indulging Lae’zel again then I’ll leave you to your misery.”
“Ouch,” Tav laughs but they wince at the action. Shadowheart starts washing her hands in a bowl and prepares a towel to catch the eventual stream of blood. She swats Tav’s fingers away when she keeps trying to help her nose and places her own instead, gently palpating the area to assess the damage. Hmm. At the very least, it’ll only take a simple realigning. “Breathe deep. This will hurt.”
“You don’t say– AH, FUCK!”
“I did warn you.”
“I didn’t think you would do it so fast!”
Tav manages to keep herself still and not recoil, which could have complicated the process, and Shadowheart frowns at the sickening crack of bone straightening itself. Blood immediately starts pouring and she presses the towel against the nose. Feeling a little bad, she mutters something underneath her breath and casts a simple Healing Word if only to numb the pain somewhat.
“Gods, that sucks,” Tav whines, “I’m never getting into a brawl again.”
“You’re a magic user – what even were you doing in a fistfight?” Shadowheart lets Tav hold the towel while she goes to clean off the bits of dried blood sticking to their skin. She gives them a pointed look, “well? And it better be a reasonable excuse.”
Tav frowns and starts to fidget with the peeling leather of their gloves – a habit they like to do when they’re upset or pissed about something, as Shadowheart is beginning to notice. She lays a comforting hand on their knee. “It’s just…” Tav sighs, “I just didn’t like the way those merchants were treating Karlach and Lae’zel.”
Shadowheart raises a brow. Lae’zel she can understand gaining the ire and mistrust of most folks they come across with because… Lae’zel, even if nowadays she’s a far cry from the githyanki they’d first met. But Karlach, despite her appearances, you would quickly learn would never hurt a fly. “Did something happen?”
“That’s just it: nothing did! We’ve barely stepped foot into their space and suddenly we were getting stink eyes everywhere.” Tav grits their teeth, “I tried to ignore it even when Karlach was getting uncomfortable but then they just had to start calling them names.”
“What exactly did they say?”
“I… I’m not too sure, and I don’t want to repeat them. They sounded like slurs.” Tav shakes their head, “at some point I must have lost it because suddenly my hand hurts and all hell’s broken loose. At least Lae’zel looked happy knocking people out.”
Shadowheart rolls her eyes. Mentally, she’s glad that Lae’zel had the time of her life beating up people who had it coming. “Of course, she was. Wouldn’t expect less from her.”
“I really wished you two got along,” Tav teases, the anger fading from their eyes as a smile finding its way to their face. Shadowheart tucks a stray hair behind their ear and finds she prefers this more over the frustrated anger of knowing you can’t change people. “You’re a lot more alike than you think, you know.”
“Say that again and I’ll have you sleeping next to the skeleton man in our camp.” Shadowheart wrings a clean towel from the excess water and goes to finish off wiping down the remaining dirt sticking to their skin. “And us not killing each other is our definition of ‘getting along’ I would say.”
“That’s fair.”
“Now, back to the topic at hand. While I do find you fighting attractive, I’d rather you don’t go around picking fights if you’re just going to come back with a broken nose.”
Tav grins, “what’s this? Did you just admit to finding me attractive?”
“Oh yes – rather dashing, actually. That one time you slipped on ice made me swoon.”
“Ha, ha. It’s literally not my fault Gale suddenly decided to freeze the entire floor while I was running.”
“In his defense, he did warn you.”
“In my defense, he has eyes that could clearly see me – hey, ow!” Tav pouts when Shadowheart might have purposefully pressed a little harder than she should have against the gash on their forehead. She cheekily smiles. “Now that’s dirty. You can’t do that just to win an argument!”
Shadowheart tilts her head in faux innocence, “I don’t know whatever you could mean.”
Tav narrows their eyes at her playfully and, before Shadowheart can react, arms are suddenly around her waist and Tav twists them both around so that she can gently push Shadowheart down on her mattress. An undignified shriek leaves her lips, but it turns into a laugh when fingers start prodding the sensitive spot in her side that only Tav knows about. “S-Stop! That’s cheating!”
“Oh, I don’t have the feintest idea whatever you could mean.”
“I yield, I yield!”
Tav grins above her, still tickling her side, “hmm? What was that? Did the proud Shadowheart just concede defeat?”
“Yes!” Shadowheart chokes out between laughter, trying to swat Tav’s fingers away, “stop, you heathen!”
Mercifully, Tav did stop and allows Shadowheart to catch her breath from laughing so hard. She wipes the tears that has gathered in her eyes, the last of her chuckles fading away. Above her, Tav is only staring with that adoring expression Shadowheart has seen so many times but never fails to make her feel wanted.
“Exploiting my weaknesses, are you?” Shadowheart says once the last of her laughter disappears, “how uncharacteristically cruel of you.”
Tav grins, a hand coming up to brush away the strands of hair falling over her eyes, “well, I did learn from the best.” Her hand comes down to cup her cheek, thumb lightly pressing down on her bottom lip, “have I told you you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met?”
“Once or twice before, amongst other things,” because she’s feeling cheeky, and because she simply can, she darts her tongue out to playfully lick at Tav’s thumb, enjoying the way their mismatched eyes get a little unfocused at the action. “I might be able to recall you saying that, yes.”
“Might? Guess I’ll have to say it more often then so you don’t forget,” Tav lowers their head, just enough that they can brush their noses together. “You’re absolutely breathtaking, Shadowheart.”
Shadowheart smiles, “oh, I know.”
“It doesn’t hurt to be a little humble now and again.”
“Why should I? I know my worth.”
Tav’s eyes twinkle, “that you do.” They draw even closer and Shadowheart can’t help but flicker her eyes to their lips. “Would the lady deem it worthy enough for me to kiss her?”
“Hmm,” Shadowheart snakes her fingers through her hair, “perhaps you will do.” She puts a finger against Tav’s lips when they’re about to close the distance between them, “but on one condition.”
It’s deeply amusing to see the impatience in Tav’s face as they nod for her to continue.
“You really need to stop coming back to camp bruised all over. I do quite like looking at your face.”
Tav grins and kisses her nose, “I promise I’ll try, but I’m afraid I can’t give you any assurance. We are rather fighting for the fate of the entire world here.”
Shadowheart, “I suppose that will have to do.” She wraps her arms more firmly around their neck and pulls them down, “now come here and kiss me.”
Tav laughs and it sounds like someone who’s a little in love, “gladly, my lady.”