Warning: Yaoi/boy-on-boy
Pairings: ZevranXmale!Grey Warden, one-sided NathanielXmale!Grey Warden
Story: There's no rhyme or reason to love, there's no way to predict its precarious path over ledges and across rickety old bridges, but sometimes... There's a reason it hurts so much. Because your love is already loved by another.
Disclaimer: Characters (c) Bioware
Elador (c) Me
A/N: So, second installment of my dragon age one-shots! w00t! I'll have more up by the end of the week, seeing as how I'm back to being obsessed with it again. Wish me luck!
His eyes had been straying, his gazes lingering a few seconds too long on that lithe body, his heart catching when that brilliant smile lit up his smooth features. His guard was dropping much too often around the warrior, his childish giggles setting the elder man at ease. Nathaniel was falling, hard, for a man whose lover had left him.
"Nath! Hurry up!" Nathaniel quickly looked up to see Elador waiting for him, waving happily. The elf was much too happy for someone chasing down two warring sects of darkspawn. Nathaniel smiled slightly, hurrying to catch up with the small traveling group.
So far, the young elf had managed to collect a small group of people, well, small compared to the group he used to travel with. Nathaniel had become used to seeing Oghren and Elador in deep conversation, probably because they knew each other better than they knew the others.
"So, Nathaniel," the rouge frowned when a lithe arm draped itself over his shoulders. He turned his head to see Anders on his right and Sigrun on his left.
"Alright. What do you two want?" Nathaniel sighed, his shoulders sagging under Anders grip. The mage and dwarf rouge grinned devilishly.
"Well, we noticed that you were… taking in the sites," a pointed glance towards Elador. "We thought you could use some company! It is amazing you are just noticing that our dear Commander's… radiance!" Anders supplied happily. Nathaniel spared a glance his way.
"He is quite handsome…" Sigrun giggled quietly, attempting to hide the blush that had stained her cheeks. "It is amazing he hasn't noticed the looks you give him."
Anders snickered. "You look like a starved lion zoning in on his prey!" the mage was having much too much fun with this, Nathaniel noted. "Why don't you just tell him, already? Worst case scenario, he says you guys should just be friends. Best case, you wake up in a bed role that ain't yours!"
"Shut up, Anders. He told you already, he's got someone," Nathaniel muttered, running a hand through his hair.
Sigrun raised a brow. "Really? Who, who! Commander never told me anything! Oghren either!"
Nathaniel chuckled. "Apparently his name's Zevran. He's someone we found out about the night I was made a Warden. King Alistair snuck into the Commander's room, then Oghren and Anders burst in. I always forget that Oghren was part of the team that saved our world."
"Hm, and how did you get into the Commander's room?" Sigrun giggled, gently nudging the tall human.
"Don't get your hopes up, Sig, this idiot passed out after his joining. The Commander didn't want him out of his site, so… he got to sleep in the Commander's room!" Anders finished the last part with a smirk that looked as if it belonged on a cat about to pounce.
"Mhmm, I woke up when these guys were talking about Zevran. He was the Commander's lover during the Blight. Turns out he was a Crow-"
"You mean like those guys who attacked us?" Sigrun gasped, thinking back to when Vigil's keep had been invaded by a group of scavenger's known as the Crows.
"Yup!" Anders eagerly exclaimed. "He was sent to kill the Commander originally, but when the Commander kicked his ass, he asked if he could travel with them! He says it was the only reason he had given the Howe a chance."
Nathaniel sighed, glaring at Anders out of the corner of his eyes. "I hate you. But yeah, the Commander fell for an assassin. Zevran was apparently so in love with the Commander, he left him when Zevran was being targeted by the Crows for leaving their ranks."
The small group of gossipers stopped suddenly when a young man came running towards the Commander, smiling widely. He looked to be a messenger, from the Keep. It must have only been a bit further ahead. The boy came to a halt before Elador, handing him a letter happily. The lithe elf smiled, patting the boy's shoulder before sending him back towards Vigil's Keep.
Once the boy was out of sight, Elador was tearing at the letter, trying to get at the message written within. Once he did, Sigrun, Anders, and Nathaniel raced forward, for their Commander had fallen to his knees.
"El! What the stone's wrong?" Oghren asked loudly as the three others joined him.
Elador slowly looked up, tears in his eyes and a smile that could light up the tunnels of Orzammar on his face. "He's coming home, Oghren… He's coming home!" The teary-eyed elf handed the letter to Oghren.
"… 'Especially the naughty ones.' Ha! That ol' Antivan whore!" Oghren laughed, handing the letter back to Elador who jolted to his feet and spun around like a school girl, giggling.
"He's coming home, he's coming home!" The Warden-Commander chanted happily, holding the letter to his chest.
"Now all you have to do is stay alive long enough for him to get back, Commander!"
Three sets of eyes turned and glared at Sigrun as Elador stopped his bouncing and twirling. "What?" the young dwarf muttered, looking between the three males who gave her the most vicious glares they could.
"That's the first time the Commander's been happy in weeks," Nathaniel muttered, massaging his forehead. Elador chuckled, setting a hand on Nathaniel's shoulder with a smile.
"No, she's right. We need to focus on the darkspawn, not my love-life. Besides, Zevran will already be pissed enough when he comes back to see I've been running around the country again without him and that I've got some new scars. Best not to die on him," Elador chuckled. He glanced at the note once more, his eyes lighting up before he folded the letter and tucking it into a pocket.
"You haven't told us much about this Zevran, but he sounds protective," Anders muttered as the group began walking again.
"Nah, he's open. When it's his idea," Elador laughed, tilting his head to take in the group he had gathered so far. "And when he's here. He doesn't like it when he's not here to "protect" me, which I must point out he's only done twice!"
Anders and Oghren snickered, while Sigrun looked like she wanted to coo how cute that was! Nathaniel was beginning to hate this Zevran all the more. Elador just smiled slightly, realizing he had begun to rant a bit.
"You know, assassin's out to get me and such," the young Commander laughed.
Three sets of eyes turned to the resident assassin. "Hey!" Nathaniel complained. "I didn't succeed!"
"And you wouldn't have had I even been there," Elador snickered. "You have Zev to thank for that. He decided I needed lessons on how not to get my throat slit or poison in my cup. Amazingly, I'm now immune to almost all the known poisons in the world, and a few Zevran came up with."
"You're, ah, boyfriend is… paranoid," Oghren muttered.
"Better that than dead," Anders defended with a shrug. "Hey, tell us what it was like when Zevran thought you were dead!"
Elador laughed lightly. "So, you remember me talking about that, huh? Well, Alistair and I hadn't told anyone about the Grey Warden's big secret. Mainly cause it's a big secret. Sigrun, since you're not a Warden yet… eh, I guess I can still tell you! Against an Archdemon, killing it kills the Grey Warden as well. Self-sacrifice and all that."
Sigrun's eyes widened slightly. Oghren chuckled, nudging her with his elbow. "Wondering why our Commander's still here?" The younger dwarf nodded slightly.
"Well, we had a mage travelling with us. Two, technically, but… Morrigan. Anders, you would not have gotten along with her," Elador muttered when he saw Anders about to make another racy comment. "She offered Alistair and me a way out. I didn't agree with it, but… Alistair knew I wouldn't let him sacrifice himself, and he wouldn't let me die… So, I had to sleep with Morrigan."
A bright blush tainted Elador's cheeks. Four sets of eyebrows shot up. "But… I thought you, men, only?" Oghren muttered. Elador knew a jealous dwarf when he heard one. Oghren had been trying to get into Morrigan's skirt ever since the two met.
"Yeah, uh, I do only go for guys, really only Zevran-" Nathaniel felt a stab delivered to his heart. "-so, uh… Morrigan hated me for this. I couldn't get… it… up."
Anders and Oghren waited only a moment before bursting out laughing, Sigrun was blushing brightly as she giggled, and Nathaniel was looking as if someone had made him swallow a jalapeno he was so red. Great imagination.
"Shut it," Elador growled. "I literally had to go into a trance to do it. It was unpleasant. But Alistair wouldn't sleep with the wench so that left me. Even if I am in a committed relationship!"
"How did Zevran take it?" Anders asked between gasping for breath.
Elador looked away, his blush lessening. "He wouldn't talk to me for a week. It took Alistair and Leliana explaining everything to him for him to finally realize I did it for him… so I could stay by his side."
"Mhmm, now, back to the embarrassing part of Zevran thinking you were dead!" Sigrun exclaimed with a giggle.
"Well, it was right after I had stuck my sword through that damn dragon's head. The blast that accompanied it blew me back and made me hit my head on a rock. I was knocked unconscious. I woke up to sobs… 'Please, you can't do this to me, you promised me forever! I swear to the Maker, if you don't open your eyes I will storm even the Fade to get you back! I love you, my Warden, Elador, please! I love you, I love you, I lo-'"
Elador stopped, letting out a giggle. "What happened then?" Sigrun gasped, completely entranced by the tale.
"I kissed him," Elador murmured with a blush. "'I love you, too, Zev. But right now my head hurts and I'm tired. Can we do the vows tomorrow?'"
"You didn't!" Sigrun gasped, her eyes widening.
Anders snickered. "You told him off after that confession? Didn't know you were such a sadist, Commander."
"It was… mushy…" Oghren growled. "We got any ale?" He looked as if he wanted to wash away the memory and the taste it had left.
"So… what did he do?" Nathaniel murmured quietly.
"Zevran hugged me so tight I thought I would choke. Then he told me to rest as long as I wanted as long as I damn well woke up."
"Just a question, but did the Antivan stop his skirt-chasing after all that?" Oghren muttered.
"Skirt-chasing?" Anders asked.
"And pant-chasing," Elador said with a smile.
"And here I thought our Commander had morals!" Anders laughed.
"Eh, I'm just a sucker for anyone who flirts with me," the lithe elf murmured with a blush, rubbing the back of his neck. "He was… very charming when we first spoke. When I expressed my want of a commitment, Zevran was hesitant. And then the Gauntlet…"
Oghren visibly shivered at the memory. "Damn ghosts… shouldn't be allowed to look into yer' mind…" The dwarven warrior muttered disdainfully. "It's cheating."
Elador smiled slightly. "The guardian of the Gauntlet looked into each of our minds, asked… personal inquiries. It was unpleasant, for all of us. Some of Zevran's past was revealed, I confronted him about it later, and… he finally gave me a commitment." Elador grinned widely, looking as if he wanted to twirl once again. "But, yeah… after he saw how sad it made me, his eyes didn't stray again."
Nathaniel sighed nearly silently, only receiving a look from Sigrun at his side. The look held the one thing he didn't want right now: pity. He wanted anything but that. Pity made him feel weak, like he couldn't even guard his heart against those he knew would hurt him.
"Hm… on a more personal note, Commander, I've been wondering something," all eyes turned to Anders. Nathaniel and Sigrun glared at their mage counter-part. They knew this question was either going to be dirty or… well, dirty.
"What is it?" Elador asked innocently.
"How far down do your tattoos go?"
Elador stopped in the middle of the road, slowly turning his head to glare at Anders. "The fuck is wrong with your mind?" the elf muttered, blushing brightly as he began walking again. "And for the record, only Zevran gets to know that. And Alistair…" The last part was a whisper, accompanied by a smirk.
Now it was everyone else's turn to stop and stare.
"You and the KING?" Anders asked in disbelief. "No way, I thought he was straight!"
"He is!" Elador giggled. "Oghren, remember when me and Alistair were stuck in prison? Well, they stripped us to our underpants. Poor Alistair kept trying to hide his poor virgin eyes. Zevran must have rubbed off on me, cause I kept flaunting the tattoos. He's never forgiven me for it."
Nathaniel and Sigrun began giggling together while Oghren just shrugged with a sigh. Anders was probably trying to wipe that image of a naked King Alistair from his mind.
"Zevran and Morrigan rescued us… Morrigan was my best friend by the end of the journey… she loved making fun of the fact I was making goo-goo eyes at Zevran all the time," the young elf giggled. "Of course, she never mentioned he was making them back!"
"You must really love him," Nathaniel muttered, disheartened.
"Yeah… yeah, I do. But, enough of this! We've got to focus on the darkspawn for now!"