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[CLOSED] Oh, you tell me to hold on
WHO: Bruce Not-Banner and Tony Stank Antonio Stark
WHAT: Bruce tries to do something nice and it backfires spectacularly
WHEN: Backdated to around the beginning of Firstfall, 9:42 Dragon
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Losers being losers
WHAT: Bruce tries to do something nice and it backfires spectacularly
WHEN: Backdated to around the beginning of Firstfall, 9:42 Dragon
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Losers being losers
For a while Bruce had left the gold in his bag, never allowing himself to use it (not that it was hard, honestly) and just--well, keeping it. After that somewhat terrible first meeting after all this time Bruce wasn't quite sure what to do at all. For better or for worse his work with the Inquisition kept him busy enough to not think about it, but now that he had to take something of a break because of his fractured arm--
Bruce found himself staring at the gold maybe one too many times in these last few days. Eventually, it was clear that he needed to do something about this before this got even more out of hand.
Taking the gold, Bruce made his way from his tent towards where the nobles were staying. Stepping in there always felt like he was in another place entirely even though it was all within Skyhold - Bruce could feel the weight of the nobles staring at him, turning up their noses at the sight of his too-thin shirts and generally rumpled appearance. The fact that he was a mage probably didn't help either.
It was the same old story everywhere, really. Bruce had done this enough times and so easily ignored their gazes as he headed towards the room where Antonio resided in. Unsurprisingly, there were guards at the entrance, and they stopped him to asked why he had come over. Bruce began to explain, but when he took out the gold that Antonio had passed to him all hell broke loose was an understatement to what happened next.
Before he even registered what was going on the guards were ganging up around him, shouting in his face about thieves and robbers. Bruce tried to explain but they weren't willing to listen, and as the commotion grew more nobles started to take notice, watching the unfolding drama before them.
no subject
"Ser!" The guards stopped in order to attend to their lord, turning around and giving him a salute. "We caught this mage trying to get away with your coin! Permission to have him be detained, ser!"
Bruce on his own end simply tried to make himself smaller. Not exactly the easiest thing to do right now however since he was holding said bag of coin in his right hand and his left arm was currently still held in its sling. Last thing he wanted to was to somehow set his own recovery back.
no subject
"Alright, show's over folks, nothing to see here but stupidity from our finest." He chose shooing people away first over dealing with this because he still couldn't believe it. Only once people had dispersed or was being a lot more subtle about their rubbernecking did Antonio address the guards.
"Your services aren't required because that was payment. As in I gave him money for doing something for me. As in there was no theft here. Now get out of here and be grateful you don't work for me."
That only left Bruce, but he didn't know where to start with the other man. The list could go on forever. "And I'm not finished with you yet."
no subject
He stays quiet as Antonio shoos the nobles away - as well as the guards, and the one who reported him gave Bruce a brief glare before heading off as asked. Not the first time Bruce had been on the end of those kind of looks, and he shook it off easily. He's dealt with the hatred and distrust of strangers many times, but when it came to people he knew much more personally--well, that was another story entirely, and something Bruce didn't want to dwell on right now.
Quietly, Bruce held up the bag of coins - the very same one that Antonio would remember as the one that he all but pushed into Bruce's hands back in their previous meeting. "I'm just here to return this," he said, voice still soft. "I'll leave once you take it back."
no subject
"You can turn around and go back with it."
He knows what would happen if he took it. By the end of the day there'd be all sorts of rumours that he tried to ply Bruce and got rejected and while he cared little for his reputation, he knew what would get certain people from back home zooming over purely to drag him back to Antiva.
"Don't insult me by giving it back."
no subject
(So why was he still trying here? Bruce didn't even know the answer himself.)
"I don't need it," he replies, still stubbornly holding the bag of coins for Tony to take. "The Inquisition pays me enough." More than enough, really - he has unintended savings now from having been here for so long and Bruce doesn't know what to do with them. "Take it to use on somebody else." Somebody more deserving.
no subject
"You can do it yourself without trying to humiliate me."
Maybe for others it didn't apply, but for Antonio everything he did in public was meant to be analysed and gossiped about. So for this to happen right here was taken as an attempt to cut him down.
i realize Bruce never knew his real name from earlier lmao
He continues to keep holding out the bag. "People will talk if I give it away." It would be easy to link it together, and while Bruce had little care about his reputation (what reputation would a monster like him only ever have?) Antonio was--it was different with him. He lived in a world of secrets and gossips and rumors and words that meant so many things. A life he knew that Antonio wanted little of, from what he knew of him. A life he wanted to get out of. So what he was doing now was just...
He really was never going to understand nobles.
"--I'll leave it at your door." He starts to walk towards the door to Antonio's room as he says that. "You can decide what to do with it after I leave."
good job not asking around bruce
"I know how little you think of me, you can stop rubbing it in my face." If Bruce continues to insist, he's going to heavily consider calling someone to throw him out. He can't get it back if the other man can't get near him.
He should be handling this better, he's been in worse situations before. But it's never been this personal before.
pretend all internal monologue of 'antonio' is 'the noble' or whatever
"I'm not thinking little of you." Seriously, how did anything he was doing now equate to that? "I don't need you to owe me anything, especially me if its in coin. I don't know why you're the one who's suddenly treating me like a charity case."
The last thing he wants or needs is pity from others. Everything he's done is due to his own choices, his own mistakes. He doesn't need people to come in and try to fix them for him when he should be doing it himself.