A/N: This was supposed to be a fluff chapter, but I'm full of demons. Also, shut up Gale.

"I didn't know you had drow in you," Astarion said, remembering what Tav had told Karlach last night and looking up from the novel in his hands. He had assumed she was mostly half elf and was curious to learn more about her.

The sun had risen and brightened their room, providing perfect reading light. No one had knocked on their door to bother them.

Tav raised her eyes from her own book and looked at Astarion.

"I don't right now. You want to find one for me?"

Astarion rolled his eyes, ignoring Tav's chuckles.

"Sorry, dear. Yes, Lolth-sworn," she apologized. "My grandmother kidnapped my human grandfather for some fun and wound up conceiving. She gave birth to my mother and my grandfather stole her away before dearest grandmother could feed her to the spiders."

"Oh dear," Astarion said. "Quite a tragic lineage for you."

Tav shrugged.

"I wasn't there for it."

"What about your father?"

"Charming story. Grandfather on that side raped a peasant girl in the fields during his travels and left her with my father in her belly."

Astarion cringed.

"Ask me how my parents met."

"Do I want to know?" he sighed. "I do. How did they meet?"

"In a whorehouse," Tav laughed. "My mother tried to rob one of the whores and my father helped her get away from the guards."

Astarion shook his head, chuckling to himself.

"Oh? How did we meet? Was that much better?"

Astarion sighed, remembering Tav standing above him and scowling.

"You were standing over me and I was ready to slash your throat," he laughed. "You looked like you might kill me first."

"I might let you now," Tav said dreamily. "Let you ride me and just end it all."

"I'm not letting you go anywhere," Astarion frowned. "As long as I'm here, so are you."

"I wouldn't actually, don't worry," she purred, placing her hand on his chest. "I enjoy your company too much. Could you imagine though?"

He could. He had. He swallowed hard. He loved how she just let these words fly out of her mouth.

"Of course I have, you know me well enough," he replied. "Don't like imagining you gone, darling."

"Nobody to tug your cock the right way?" she smirked.

He rolled his eyes again.

"It's more than that, and you know it. I wouldn't let just anyone watch me fuck myself."

"Tell me. What else is there?" she asked, rolling on her side and looking at him. "You can't talk about my cunt."

Where to start?

"You've never lied to me," he began. "Whatever you're thinking comes out exactly as you mean it. If you don't have the words, I can tell by how you move. I don't have to play mental gymnastics to figure out what you want."

"You're absolutely fucked in the head, in the best way possible. I've seen you pull a man's liver out and cram it into a jar without blinking. I don't have to explain why I've done what I've done to you. You already know what goes into slicing someone's throat in a dirty basement. I'm still trying to learn how to bring the words out, but that's my own fear. I could say anything and you'd understand without raking me over the coals in your mind."

"You're not afraid of me. You already knew what I was by the time I worried about you finding out. You tell me to shut up when I talk nonsense and laugh when I make fun of the stupid wizard."

"Every time you want to try something new, you ask me. You remind me I can say "no" and end the conversation without consequence. You give me power and control."

Leaning on his side, he took a deep breath and looked into Tav's eyes. He rejected the desire to hold his words back.

"You told me you loved me, and you meant it. I could feel it. We were engaged in something absolutely disgusting but your love was there. It was there before and it was there after. If it ever goes away I will fall apart but right now… everything is perfect."

"I'm not going anywhere," she promised, a sad smile on her lips. "I don't know how to express that or quell the fear you have, but the only thing that could tear me from you is death itself. If I can find a way to cheat it, I will."

She brushed her nose gently against his.

"What about you?" Astarion asked, chuckling. "What else is there, besides my cock?"

Tav exhaled slowly.

"When we're together like this, not making a mess of each other, you're not rushing. You speak slowly and listen. You remember things. I ask you to remember things when we're being vile and even in that state you can recall word for word what you said. My presence and interactions are important to you and hold to your memory."

"You've never made fun of me for not being able to put my damn tent together. Every evening you come over and say "darling" and offer your help, as if the notion of me being a clumsy fool was impossible."

"You include me in your hunting. You don't hide that part of yourself, or any part. You let me watch and learn so I can understand you better. Books are one thing, but you're a living breathing person. If I didn't pay attention to you as an individual I'd be a horrid person and awful lover. You let me explore you from a distance that doesn't scare you, and that is all I can ask for."

"You try my cooking, even though you know it's going to be too spicy for you every time and that food serves no purpose for you."

"I do like it," he swore. "It's just too hot."

"I know. You drink with me and have never made me feel bad for it. You understand that a bottle of wine before bed is the only thing that will bring sleep. You believe in my patron, and my patron feels it. My heart warms when I think about you, and my patron feels it. I don't know how to explain that relationship, but the good feelings are cyclical. I still have to do my weird little rituals but things feel different. The magic comes easier and stronger. My mind is more clear and colors are brighter. Sounds are sharper."

"I forget you have another person in your head sometimes," Astarion mused. "Does he hear everything?"

"If he's listening or if I call to him. He's not listening right now," Tav explained. "Did you want me to deliver a message?"

Astarion nodded and Tav closed her eyes. The voice of her mind echoed, wordlessly but with intent: Are you there? May we speak?

It answered.

"I'm listening."

Could you hear this man in front of me if he spoke?

"Yes."

"Say your piece," Tav spoke softly, her eyes still closed. Her patron's voice was comforting.

"Thank you. Thank you for protecting her and guiding her so we met. Thank you."

Tav was silent for a moment, then smiled and opened her eyes.

"He says you're welcome and not to bother him again."

"Is that bad?"

"No, we'd be dead if it were. Probably the best response you could have gotten," she laughed.

"How did you come to… serve your patron?"

"When I was about 15 years old I tried to conjure a nymph. I kept getting in trouble for feeling up the girls in the village and wanted a way to do so freely," she explained. "I fucked up the spell badly."

Astarion laughed.

"ANYWAY, my patron sensed the broken magic and found me there, kicking and screaming at the heap of boneless flesh I'd brought into the world. I was so angry and so sick of being yelled at for what the boys were allowed to do. He asked me what I had been trying to do and I told him, not knowing the man who wandered into the woods was simply him taking a form."

"He raised the nymph from the ground, filled her form with the right bones and muscles, and she stood before me. I didn't want to do anything in front of him and I was ready to grab her hand and sprint into the trees, but he held me on the spot."

"He told me he could show me how to do that, and asked me if I knew what a pact was. I did. He explored my mind from across the way and felt the chasms of depravity waiting to be filled by the right acts. Had I said no, I would have wound up like my mother: beating her husband and children, unable to control a desire she had no idea she had."

"He explained he worked on the fringes of death, weighing the number of the living against the dead. He said he expected a tight balance between the two, and asked me to help him. He warned he would have to take something from me to seal the pact."

"I thought about offering my mother, the boy who found it amusing to shove me into dirt, or my spineless father. Instead, I offered another gift of death: my womb. I told him to take it, dry it up, let it die. No children would crawl from me. He snapped his fingers and I felt a twinge in my stomach, and it was done."

"You can't bear children?" Astarion asked, puzzled. Women often lamented this, but Tav was smiling as she told her story.

"Nope, you think I'd be letting you cum in me if there were a chance I'd swell up and pop out a baby?" Tav teased.

"Guess I hadn't thought about it…" Astarion said, trailing off. "I assumed you were taking care of things on that end."

"Men always do," Tav laughed, knocking her shoulder against his. "Anyway, I've been serving him ever since. I haven't figured out how to put the bones back in something yet, but you've seen me play around with corpses. My patron has been very kind to me as far as patrons go, but I tend to go above and beyond with anything I do."

"I'll say," Astarion scoffed, feigning shock.

"Do I ride your cock too well, darling?" Tav teased, tweaking his nose between her fingers. "Was it too much when you blew your load into your doppelganger?"

"You know it wasn't," Astarion huffed, before smiling. "I wouldn't have it any other way. Couldn't imagine it. If you weren't prone to going above and beyond I probably would have drained your blood in those woods and left you there for the wolves."

"I'd like to see you try, pretty boy," Tav murmured. "I'd have you torn to shreds by ghouls before you could put your cock away."

"Oh, you know I love a good time," he said dreamily, leaning his head against the wall. "Only, I'd hate to have the ghouls do it instead of you."

"I could have them hold you down, their disgusting fingers wrapped around your wrists and ankles," Tav purred, running a gentle finger down the side of his face. "You'd squirm as I got one of my daggers out."

"I'd be paralyzed in fear," he sighed. In his mind he saw her standing at his feet in the middle of the woods, dagger in hand and smile over her teeth. He could imagine the stench of the rotting ghouls. "You'd give me to your patron?"

"Absolutely," she hummed, bringing her lips to his ear and lowering her voice. "Everyone loves a pretty corpse."

Astarion shuddered.

"I think I'd start by cutting your clothes off of you, so I could see what I was working with," she began. "I'd have to stop and stare at you before lowering the knife again, your beautiful skin too enticing. I'd nick my blade up and down your ribs over the bone, hitting every nerve along the way. I'd go back and widen the cuts, watching your pretty lips quiver as I opened you to the air."

Astarion had begun stroking himself under the blanket. He could almost feel the tip of the blade slicing through his skin.

"I'd be hard as a rock by then," he whispered.

"I know you would be, and I'd move there next before you lost too much blood for me to have fun," Tav replied, watching his eyelashes flutter. "I'd sit on your face and make you taste me as I scraped the dagger across your pinned arms, just hard enough to break the skin and bring blood to the surface."

"You'd be feeling the wounds on your ribs dripping, tickling as the blood trailed down your side. You'd be able to smell it if I hadn't smashed my cunt into your face."

Astarion finished into his hand, biting his lip and much sooner than he wanted to. He began stroking himself, sticky and over sensitive but afraid to miss a single word. He spoke.

"I could die happy like that."

"I know, but you won't this time."

Astarion sighed. He loved hearing her say that. Taking control of his death.

"I'd have the ghouls holding your ankles run their vile tongues over your legs. Have you ever been licked by a ghoul?"

Astarion shook his head.

"Their tongues are ice cold and slimy as they race up and down your calves and thighs. If you could smell it you'd retch. I won't let them near your pretty cock, but…" Tav spoke slowly into his ear. "You're thinking about it."

Astarion nodded. He could imagine those horrid tongues winding around his shaft. Putrid with decaying flesh. The points of their organs prodding into his tip.

"But I wouldn't let them dirty you like that. I'd scare them off at this point because I know you wouldn't run from me. You could have fought against me or the ghouls but you didn't want to. Do you think you would know what was coming for you?"

"Yes, I'd be excited," he whispered hoarsely, pumping himself. "Excited for you to snuff me out and end it all… I didn't know you then… happy for you to do whatever you wanted…too much of a coward to do it myself…"

With that last confession, he whined a little. He was a coward. He could have offed himself at any point after Cazador had cursed him. His cowardice, however, had paid off. He lived to meet Tav. He squeezed himself harder in gratitude.

"I'd be delighted to do it for you," she purred. "You could tell how delighted I'd be to slit your throat by how hard I'm riding your face. I slice into your chest bit by bit, sloppy with the knife. Your tongue is eager to be inside me and taste me. I cum against your lips and you make that wonderful noise…"

Astarion whined. He could almost feel her cunt around his tongue, her nectar on his lips.

"That's the one. You think I've forgotten what I was supposed to be doing," Tav said softly, stroking his chest, "As I climb over you and slide you inside me. I take all of you and claw my nails down your chest, ripping open the cuts. Don't cum yet."

He whimpered but stroked himself slower.

"You move your hips against me, the good little boy you are, eager to please and eager to feel my cunt around you. You don't know if you're going to cum before I end you. Do you care?"

He shook his head.

"No. Doesn't matter."

"I ride you," Tav murmurs, kissing Astarion's ear. "And you feel me reach my peak around you. I keep grinding my hips against you, forcing you into the dirt. You made me so sensitive but I can't stop myself. I see you look at me with pleading eyes. You don't know what you're pleading for. I cum again, rubbing the tip of your cock against my sweet spot. How does it feel?"

Astarion spoke, shuddering.

"So good. So tight. I can almost smell you."

Tav slid her fingers between her legs and brought them to Astarion's nose. He inhaled, a strangled sound escaping his throat, before wrapping his lips around her fingers.

"I bring myself up and down your cock, and you can see yourself disappearing inside me. You see me raise my dagger and bring it to your throat, hovering over your most vital artery. It would only take one stroke for your blood to cover me and your life to end."

"Do it," he moaned.

Tav climbed on top of him, not interrupting his self stimulation, and pressed her fingers against his throat, mimicking the dagger. She dug a fingernail in, replicating the feel of the tip of the dagger. In reality, she was far from willing to part with him and refused to engage in knife play like this. She felt him jerking himself violently beneath her, smearing her stomach with precum.

"I swirl my hips around you, bringing myself close again. You can feel the dagger slowly pushing into your skin," Tav said, gently pushing her nail deeper. "You feel the blade heavy on your neck. Are you ready to let go?"

"Yes, yes, yes."

"Yes what?"

"Kill me. Slice me open. Play with my blood," he moaned. "Please, please, please."

"I squeeze myself around your cock, feeling you getting harder. You're so close and I can hear you whining and moaning."

Astarion groaned.

"I feel myself tighten and can't stop myself. Your pretty face is too much, and your noises so beautiful. I cum all over your cock again. I ask you if you're ready again."

"Yes. Please. Please. Yes."

Astarion was a mess. His arm pumped his cock without his mind being aware of it. He was in that forest under Tav, her cunt clenching around him and the knife to his throat."

"I slice your throat open," Tav whispered into his ear, slicing her nail across his flesh. "And you begin to cum inside me. Your blood splashes me and covers my hands. Get yourself ready to cum."

Astarion nodded.

"I put my fingers in my mouth and taste you as you die. I ride you again, the last thing you feel before slipping into oblivion is my cunt gripped around your dying cock, using you one last time."

He came. Loudly. Gale pounded on the wall behind them but he didn't care. He couldn't have stopped himself anyway. He lurched forward as his body seized, gasping for breath. He came all over Tav's stomach.

If she tells me to lick it off, he thought to himself, I really might die of happiness.

"Lick it off," Tav said gently.

His eyes rolled to the back of his head as he lowered himself beneath her and licked himself away.