[Astarion's redirect is sharp. Agitated in the worst way and already rearing up to bite like a cornered animal: the warning wetness in red eyes that narrows to a gleaming point as it jerks Fenris' way—
Only to meet that amendment head-on.
(Only to soften at the seams, for it's the whirling lunge to bite that inevitably shows Ataashi that it's no assailant's hand across her nape, but the packmates she adores. No different than Leto startling awake in the dead of night, warm from the covers he'd been under and yet shivering out of his own skin, wide eyed and wild to the last heaving gasp; no different than the startled look Astarion wears now, only marking what's before him by the slow draw into focus half a moment too late to save composure.) Leto can't be so blind that he doesn't see right through it. Doesn't know, intimately, what's ticking underneath the surface.
It takes so long for Astarion to find his breath, false though it may be.]
For now.
[Thin as paper. Damp, small, limp within his emptied hands.]
If he thinks I'm not dead, it's only a matter of time. [Slow start, exhale thready when it leaves his throat.] Today was close enough.
no subject
Only to meet that amendment head-on.
(Only to soften at the seams, for it's the whirling lunge to bite that inevitably shows Ataashi that it's no assailant's hand across her nape, but the packmates she adores. No different than Leto startling awake in the dead of night, warm from the covers he'd been under and yet shivering out of his own skin, wide eyed and wild to the last heaving gasp; no different than the startled look Astarion wears now, only marking what's before him by the slow draw into focus half a moment too late to save composure.) Leto can't be so blind that he doesn't see right through it. Doesn't know, intimately, what's ticking underneath the surface.
It takes so long for Astarion to find his breath, false though it may be.]
For now.
[Thin as paper. Damp, small, limp within his emptied hands.]
If he thinks I'm not dead, it's only a matter of time. [Slow start, exhale thready when it leaves his throat.] Today was close enough.