She warped the world around them with her magic, and he didn't bother to hide the thrill shining in his eyes and brightening his smile like an eager boy. His Luster was full of surprises. Such powerful surprises, as she wrapped them and hid them from view. He almost asked, it was on the tip of his lips; why hadn't she done these things to him when he'd come for her? But it dropped heavy in his chest and silenced the joy he'd found in her magic just a moment before. Shame and guilt darkened all the bright.
The question still burned, but she turned to him then and he watched the fire in her eyes die out. The weight in his chest consumed itself into concern for her, bearing down on him as if his own heart was breaking. Again. He was drawn into her as she returned to him, meeting her in the middle and filling the space between them as though he could wrap his arms around her and pull her close. His eyes closed over the flare of heat as she brushed along his jaw, pressed her cheek to his neck with a soft sigh. Had he warned her not to touch him? He couldn't remember. He should do it now, but something stopped him.
He should have told her, though.
She reached for him, passed her tongue gently across his tattered flesh where the bone plates protruded out of him. Every finest detail of that touch shuddered through him, zipped through his shoulders, up his neck, shot down his spine, along his legs, and he turned to smother a moan into her hair. Fuck, he should've told her not to touch him. It took all his effort, every bit of willpower, to force himself out of her reach, just a shift of his hips so that he could still face her, still press his chest against her. He couldn't give up touching her.
There was a silent question in those impossibly caring eyes, and he ignored it. She didn't need to know how badly it hurt. He didn't want the sadness in her to be for his sake.
He found comfort in their silence together. And in the way she slid under his neck and against his chest. His head bent to her in reflex, gently dragging his mouth along her as she moved. He was perfectly content in listening to her body. Perfectly content to do whatever he could to soothe that shattering ache in her heart, if there was anything at all he could do. So often he was the one putting it there, the cause of it. Maybe she could show him how to right it.
She touched his neck, his shoulder, lipped at his mouth and his chin and made his heart race. He should have told her by now. Why wouldn't he just tell her not to? Except that it felt so good. And she wasn't the only one with a bleeding heart. He was so selfish, so that must have been it. He must have wanted her to fix him too.
Luster, he whispered softly, a careful caress to this tender heart he'd once torn into. Could he ever right that wrong for her? Could he ever right all the wrongs done to her. He probably shouldn't try.
He thought he was getting better control of this, calming the firestorm within him. But damn, then she had to go and kiss that spot of blue at the corner of his mouth. And not just a peck, but something else, something deeper and full of her pain, full of her ache, full of her sadness. It stole his breath away with a stuttering exhale, his eyes falling helplessly shut, and he laid his face gently to hers. Listened to the roar of his pulse in his ears and felt it thundering against his neck.
"Do you think that maybe I can know your name yet?" The quiet amusement in her voice, brought a smile to his lips and he breathed a soft laugh, brushing a kiss to the top of her nose. But he couldn't help it. She pulled a desperate groan from his throat as she drew her lips along his jaw again, followed the line of bone from the plate masking his face. Damn, he should have told her. Should have warned her not to touch him.
She dropped from his face uncertainly and met him with perfectly deep, worried eyes and a quiet "Don't leave me this time."
Not until you tell me to, he promised quietly, smiling and placing a light kiss to the corner of her mouth. Unless you come with me this time. His eyes flashed with his amusement, placed another kiss further up, and another to her cheek. He still hadn't given her his name though. Just as with Leliana, he was reluctant to soil her with the blackness of it, the darkness he brings. Afraid, too, to hear it on her perfect tongue.
He pulled back to look down at her with a startling warmth in his black eyes, to give her a little space if she wished it, but he couldn't quite relinquish his hold and kept himself pressed close to her. I can't give you my name, he admitted, still smiling softly with a quirk of humor in the corner of his lips. He bent to her ear, kissed just below it before whispering, I won't be able to stop until you're moaning it.
Fake it like you love me, come on baby touch me
Show me where it hurts, this dirty little curse
