driftfleet | Video + Action | So a mage and a Spirit wake up in the same body...

Who: Anders + you
Broadcast: Yes
Action: Málum
When: 8/10, the day after this post

//Video//
[When the video clicks on, it's to show Anders in the Three Twins med bay, this time awake and clearly a lot more awkward about adressing the network than he'd been a week back. On top of that, he's ten years older than he was a week back, although for all his gauntness and heavily apparent exhaustion, he might as well look an extra thirty years older.

Time has not been kind to the man who once shined his charisma and humor on the fleet.]

Hello. Sorry, apparently I've been in one of those comas that happen here, although mine was one of those that came new memories. So, if we had an appointment of any kind, I'd appreciate the reminder I'm...still a little scattered on...well, everything. It's been a while, but also hasn't. [It was an attempt at humor, but his tone falls flat and the smile that hesitantly tries to stretch his lips doesn't seem to know if it even belongs there and dies quickly.]

For those on the Three Twins, I apologize for being unavailable. The clinic will be up and running as it should be, erm, well, tomorrow. Tonight, I'll be at the Málum. [Maker how he wished it could be getting drunk instead of simply appeasing Adalwolfe's overprotective concern.]

Sorry to anyone who I might have caused concern.

[He clicks off the transmission with another awkward half-smile and then sets about contacting those he needed to the way Adalwolfe had shown him.]

//Private to Fenris and Marian//
[Can he get away with not talking to them? Probably not. Which is why he contacts them with voice only, not quite willing to look either of them in the eye when his memories, thoughts and emotions were still so jumbled and confusing.]

I remember Kirkwall. [And the hole in the sky, but that was far less important when it came to them.]

//Action-Málum//

He'd told Hawke he'd follow him as soon as he'd sorted some things at the clinic. Well, now those were sorted and he'd come as promised to the bar his boyfriend worked at. He certainly didn't mind being close to his fellow mage while he worked, in fact he took some solace in Adalwolfe's nearness, he just wasn't sure he wanted to be out in public just yet either. How long had it been since he'd even been in a crowded place? Three years? They'd been on the run for so long, if it weren't for their village they'd adopted, he'd almost be afraid he'd completely forgotten how to talk to other people.

Anyone who might happen upon him or come looking for him in the bar would find him sitting at the counter, something strong he wasn't drinking and food he wasn't touching placed in front of him. His eyes occasionally darted up to follow Hawke with clear affection and adoration in them, but they'd inevitably fall back to the bar's surface as though attempting to memorize the patterns in the grain there.

He so wished he could call Justice up just to tell him to sod off for one night. Maker damn him, he just wanted to get drunk one last time. The things you don't appreciate when you're younger and not hosting a spirit who chases all the alcohol from your system before it can even settle in.

There were a lot of things he didn't appreciate ten years ago.

Only a week ago.

He sighed. Even without the booze, his head was swimming.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The brush of Anders' fingers makes him look up and he smiles, snatching those long digits up and peppering the knuckles with kisses. When Hawke smiles, it's usually bright and blazing, unbridled because why shouldn't he, if he's feeling happy? This smile, though, is more of a slow rise. Dawn breaking over shadowed cliffs and the first rays of the sun touching upturned cheeks. This is happiness in relief, and he's just not sure what to do with it.

"Even when you didn't know me, you still did this." He slips his palm under the pendant with his free hand, voice a bit more mastered now. There are no tears, but its a close thing.

He wants to be certain he would do the same. That of all the Thedases out there, each and every one has a Hawke and Anders desperately in love, ready to fight to protect one another. Unfortunately he can't know that. Marian is him and he has no idea where her affections lie. Well, alright, some idea, but he hasn't asked her to confirm it.

Fenris, of all people.

Maybe it's just male versions of him then, or even if it's just him, it doesn't really matter, does it? He's here and now and so is Anders and they're so stupidly, perfectly matched that Anders wanted to woo him with gifts even before he really knew what they'd had. Would have.

No, do have.

Those butterflies in his chest really need to calm down.

"How did I get so lucky to find the person who could fall in love with me twice?"

His smile holds an emotion Anders has never seen before in their 7+ years of knowing each other and his heart clenches in a strangely pleasant way to see it. He's patiently quiet as his love recomposes himself, though emotion still hangs heavy in Hawke's voice.

His words twist Anders' stomach into knots even as his heart flutters. It didn't matter to him if there was only one Thedas in which Hawke loved him because he was lucky enough to be that Anders. As long as he had this, the rest could go hang.

He squeezes Hawke's fingers in his own and pulls them to him, pressing one lingering kiss to the back of Hawke's hand. He shakes his head and smiles at Hawke. "I'm afraid I'm the lucky one, my love. You fell in love with in spite of everything, what I am, what I've done, the fact I pushed you away. You've somehow always stayed. Now, you've seen me when I was at my best and you still love me now that I'm back to this. I've never done anything to deserve you and the luck that brought you to me." The fact Hawke stepped into his clinic that day, the fact Hawke ended up here with him, it was so much luck, Anders could scarcely believe it.

That voice in his head, the one that coiled and strained in his mind long before he'd ever tried to escape the Circle, whispered he might not be right. Hawke might still love him now, but that didn't mean he didn't prefer the shinier, lighter, better Anders now gone. The one with a quick smile and bubbly laughter and a gold earring in his ear.

His fingers curled a bit tighter in Hawke's.

"I hardly consider that your best," he brings their hands back towards his mouth. It's not a kiss really, not as such, but he brushes his lips against Anders' hand, his knuckles, what of his fingers Hawke can reach, caressing with lips instead of fingers.

"I learned some things about you, but it would have been a rockier road had we first met like that. You were a bit... um..." He's loathe to say anything negative, especially right now when everything feels new again, and somehow fragile in its newness. "It doesn't matter. What does matter is you remember now and thank the Maker I don't have to pretend I don't know what you look like naked."

He smirks, knowing Anders will see that for the deflection it is, but hoping to get a bit of a rise out of him anyway as he banishes his own discomfort with the torrid of emotions he hadn't expected to feel in the past several minutes. He's grateful, almost enough to make a prayer to the Maker over it, but nearly shedding tears - in public no less - even if they're happy tears, is not something he aspires to.

Anders laughs, something he couldn't remember doing in quite a while, and gave Hawke a small smirk, eyes shining with amusement. "No, you don't, and you can get a refresher on that whenever you like."

His expression is gentle, loving, and he doesn't try to move his hand, letting Hawke keep it; it was his, after all. "I was more wild when I was younger. My priorities were...different. But things were less complicated." He gives a chuckle as a memory runs through his head, a decade old now. "I remember, in Amaranthine, I told the Commander there were only three things I wanted in life: 'a pretty girl, good food and the right to shoot lightening at fools.' None of his plans really worked out, I'm afraid. I suppose, I figured you'd appreciate his humor and vitality more."

"Oh, can I?" Hawke leans in closer, going for a proper kiss instead of the ones he's been giving Anders' hand. He stops short though, Anders' expression changing and he shares just that much more of himself, together with a worry Adalwolfe can understand quiet well.

"You did get good food, for a time at least. And we shot quite a lot of lightning at fools. I suppose you settled for a pretty boy instead, though." He'll have that kiss now, thanks, then rests his forehead against Anders' with a smile on his face. "I did appreciate those things, but they're not gone, just tempered, but you're the man I fell in love with, the you I met in Kirkwall who was ready to take on a fellow apostate, Varric with a crossbow as big as himself, Carver and his monstrous sword, and Aveline in full guard regalia just on the off chance that we were there to cause trouble to those in your care."

His expression softened and it was there, in his face, the question of what exactly he could have possibly done to have Hawke in his life and by his side for so long.

"I don't deserve you, my love." He leaned in to steal another kiss and smiled against Hawke's lips.

"I suppose you're right, I'm certainly living the life now. And I do have a very pretty boy all to myself. That's a dream in and of itself."

He tucked some of Hawke's hair behind his ear and kept their foreheads pressed together. "When are you off?"

Edited 2016-09-06 01:12 (UTC)

"That's for me to decide," they kiss, and he wants nothing more in life than a thousand more like that.

"Hmm, let me think... now is good."

He chuckles into the kiss and pulls away, brows raised.

"Now now, behave. Naughty champions who don't finish their shifts don't get rewards." He smirked even wider, his expression threatening to turn into an outright grin.

"Now, bartender, I'd like another tart, if you please."

"Ohh c'mon, it's not as if they need me." He pouts but gets the tart, glad to see Anders' appetite returning.

"But alright. I can wait. It will just make the... 'reward' that much sweeter." Adalwolfe winks and leans in for another quick kiss, though a moment later he's called back down the bar to deliver a drink. He rolls his eyes where only Anders can see and forces himself to turn away.

Even so, he keeps his boyfriend in his sights for the rest of the night, even after they leave the bar.