[closed]

[slipshot]

WHO: Gavin, Zevran and Bruce
WHAT: Zevran, Bruce and Gavin take a supply run back to the mire.
WHEN: Nowish
WHERE: On the road to the Fallow Mire
NOTES: Ridiculousness? probably ridiculousness.

Supply runs were never the most fun. The baggage train inevitably meant that the pace was not even a third of what Gavin would keep on his own, even though they were mounted, and they had to spend a good deal of their time making sure the animals carrying the supplies didn't somehow wander off. Usually it bored Gavin to absolute tears until he just sort of started making up reasons to go scouting ahead.

This time, though, there were only the three of them - so he really couldn't afford to take his eye off the bags - and the other two happened to be friends, so it wasn't nearly as bad a journey as it could have been otherwise. That didn't stop Gavin from being as restless as all hell, from being unable to sit in his saddle or to keep him from singing (badly) to himself to just past the time, but it helped.

It would take two days, to march down there, leaving just after dawn on the first day, camping just after nightfall, and leaving at dawn again. That would see them getting in to the camp in the Fallow Mire just a few hours after dusk.

When they camped for the night, Gavin was all too happily to be doing anything other than riding a damned horse, so set up the tent all too happily and then dragged a bunch of dry wood back for the fire.

"We should probably take some of this wood with us - there's so little dry stuff in the Mire."

Comments

[amygdalae]

After many days of travel Bruce was glad to finally have a chance to be able to bathe - he's never been the most conscious about himself, but as a surgeon he had his limits to how long he could withstand the lack of personal hygiene. After spending so much time in one place (Haven, then Skyhold) Bruce admittedly had to take time to get used to being out in the wild like this again. That as well as the idea of travelling with people.

Right after he had stepped out of the bushes with the intention to bathe Bruce quickly backed away once he realized that Zevran was out there. The elf had only begun to strip but it was enough to send Bruce to begin hurrying away. He should just return to the tent and wait for Zevran to be done first - that would be much easier for all.

[slipshot]

Gavin was more than ready to swim, (though he was a very competent swimmer, thanks for the vote of confidence, Zevran), and had stripped down to his small clothes back at the camp, making his way down to the water after the other two, only to be nearly run into by Bruce hurrying back. He blinked.

"Bruce? Everything alright?"

[amygdalae]

Gavin more or less appeared from seemingly nowhere and Bruce nearly crashed into him, but he stopped himself before that could happen and looked visibly startled at the other elf's appearance and subsequent question.

"Yes, I just--" A reason, he needed a reason-- "I just remembered that I--forgot. Something. Back at camp. You go ahead first."

With that being said Bruce quickly brushed by Gavin, quickly making his way back without another word.

[slipshot]

Bruce looked like he had seen a ghost, and Gavin gave him a sympathetic smile, which turned bemused as Bruce just continued on past him.

"Alright! See you in a few minutes," He called after him, shaking his head before humming and heading down to the water. Catching sight of Zevran he grinned to himself. "Well? Am I going to freeze, if I get in?" Gavin asked as he approached.

[ombranera]

"Perhaps a little." Zevran smirks over his shoulder, busy scrubbing grit from his legs. "Or perhaps a lot. You are going to have to take that risk all on your own."

Half the fun of traveling: Listening to Alistair yelp when pushed into the water. It was the simple pleasures in life.

"Did Bruce opt to stay behind and watch our things?"

[slipshot]

"He said he forgot something," Gavin said with a shrug, "But that'd he'd be right back." Okay, maybe he hadn't said that so much as Gavin had inferred it, but that was the same thing, right?

He walked up to the water, thought about dipping a toe in to check it, but instead ended up just taking a bit of a run and jumping into the deepest part of the marked off water. He came up again, spluttering and laughing and much too cold.

[ombranera]

"Somehow? I doubt that." Humans were so sensitive about nudity sometimes.

Of course Gavin's grand entrance splashed a fair bit of water on Zevran- dousing him in the frigid water enough to earn a low string of Antivan. Not entirely kind- but not angry. Gavin is young.

he must remind himself of that frequently.

Gavin is young.

[slipshot]

He scrubbed at his face, still laughing to himself, until he got all the water out of his eyes and looked up at Zevran. It was possibly the only time that his hair actually lay flat on his head - when dry it stuck up at every odd angle it could made.

"Risk accepted," he teased as he splashed through the water towards him. "You need some help?"

[ombranera]

"Wringing out my hair that I was attempting, valiantly might I add, to not get wet in the first place?" He snorted a soft laugh and motioned for Gavin to hop up on the boulder next to him, taking his braid over his shoulder and squeezing some of the water out.

[slipshot]

Gavin hopped up, shivering as his skin complained, and slid into place beside Zevran.

"I'd apologize, but then I wouldn't get a chance to play with your hair," Gavin teased, grinning. "Though I can't blame you - how long does it usually take to dry?"

[ombranera]

"When it is not damp out? About an hour." He unbound the tie at the end of his braid and flicked it back, permitting Gavin his opportunity to play. "At least you did not rinse the oil from it. I do not have much left with which to replace the treatment."

[slipshot]

"Is that what keeps it so nice?" Gavin wondered aloud, gently sliding the braid free with a finger, and then combing through Zevran's hair. He really did have gorgeous hair. Gavin's was soft, but not like this, and it was forever ill tempered.

His toes slid through the water aimlessly as he worked, careful to wring out as much of the water as he could. He wanted to ask if Zevran was feeling better than the other night, but he didn't.

"Should I dare ask if you brought a pumice stone with you?" Much safer topic of discussion. He could worry quietly to himself, but if Zevran didn't talk about it, he wasn't going to bring it up.

[ombranera]

"That and careful minding, yes. Apparently I have my mother's hair." The gloves the Crows might have taken, but the hair? They could not keep forever. He'd fought all the harder to keep it by performing well or at least performing well enough to not warrant that particular punishment. The trick of oiling it- that came from Isabella. Before it had been a question of a cream he'd work thorugh it once a week.

This? Was easier.

"Mmm? Yes. Do you need one for your toes?" He pulled it from the small, canvas bag he held all his traveling toiletries in.

[slipshot]

"She must have been very beautiful," Gavin replied, but it was no line - just an honest thought that he barely realized he spoke aloud. He tried to picture her - blonde and fair... And young. Young, and alone. The thought discomforted him, and he shook it from his mind, reaching down to borrow the stone.

"Creators, Zevran, you're a life saver. Yes. My soles are going to turn to leather, otherwise."

[ombranera]

"So I have been told." It was part of why he did so well in the crows, being pretty. It could have been worse and- he's well aware of that. Better not to think of it. Zevran passed back the stone and turned enough to quirk a brow at Gavin. "You should purchase one of your own when we return from the Mire."

[slipshot]

"Maybe," He said, in the tone of voice that implied that he would immediately forget about it as soon as he was done with his toes right now.

He already had a few ideas of where his meager coin should go.

He pulled one foot up onto his knee and started to scrub at it in a completely ungraceful manner. "I heard there was even a hot spring in the castle somewhere. I bet someone could make a lot of coin setting up some kind of real bath there."

He looked up as he suddenly remembered. "Where did Bruce get to? I thought he was coming back."

[ombranera]

"You are going to shred your skin like that." Seriously, did he know nothing? He knew nothing. Zev batted at his hands and took the stone, pulling it along in a slow stroke. "One direction. You are cleaning your skin, not grating cheese."

The idea of setting up a proper bath house did come to mind- he wasn't certain who to speak to for it to become a reality. Krem he'd made mention of the notion, but Krem did not handle the coffers.

"He is not going to return, Gavin."

[slipshot]

He raised his hands in surrender as Zevran took over.

"My feet may as well be cheese, for how they smell these days," He quipped back, before scanning the river bank, and then looking back at Zevran seriously.

"Did something happen between you two? I keep thinking my fingers are going to get frostbite whenever I'm between the both of you."

[ombranera]

"Then you are not washing them as often as you should." Do none of these elves know how to care for themselves? "Mm? No, not as such. A slight disagreement that was forgiven- though I do not think you should ache for his approval so desperately."

[slipshot]

"Well I'm here now, aren't I?"

He took the pumice stone back to start stroking his foot in the way that Zevran had done, but he was more impatient, and so wasn't really doing it slowly enough (but he didn't care).

"I don't ache for his approval," Gavin replied, grinding away at his feet. "I just prefer to get along with the people that will be responsible for keeping me from dying if that dragon suddenly shows up again." Healers were good people to have on your side, Zevran.

"That, and these hikes are long enough as it is. He's usually not nearly as awkward company as this."

[ombranera]

"Mhmm." Gavin could keep telling himself that as much as he liked. "Gavin, you ache for everyone's approval. There is no shame in wanting to be liked."

Being dishonest with oneself over it, now- the Elf's capacity for self delusion was slowly becoming more and more apparent to Zevran. Still, it was not foolishness that would see him dead personally and thus there was no true harm in it. For now. That may change.

"He is hiding something. Several somethings. Moreover he is human and far, far too kind to elves to the point of being overly kind. I would not go so far as to call it condescending or patronizing just yet- but give me time. I will find the truth of it."

[slipshot]

Gavin gave Zevran a sheepish grin. "Well if you put it that way, I'll admit to it, but I still think the word 'ache' is a little much."

It really, really wasn't. It was the perfect word.

The rest, though, made him frown.

"I wouldn't be surprised that he was," he admits. "I don't really know that much about him. But does it matter? Everyone here has secrets. They all have pasts they don't want to admit to, or face. If you found out that in his past he abused a hundred elf servants, and that was why he was kind to us now, would that change anything?"

[ombranera]

"No, no it is not." But Gavin was welcome to protest from now until the end of days.

Zevran settled back with his own picks, cleaning under his nails with deft little flicks of the tool. "Everyone has secrets, to be certain, knowing them is a large part of keeping one's skin intact. Or at least knowing what they might be about. He is so skittish- moreso around elves than other people. And honestly I am sick to death of human guilt bringing us kindness."

[slipshot]

"You can be as sick of it as you want," Gavin said wryly, leaning over to dip the pumice in the water to clean it before using it to gesture at Zevran. "I'll take it over being punched and kicked repeatedly. But you're right about the skittish... I just didn't really see it until I saw him around you, I guess. He's usually more relaxed with m--" He cut off mid word, frowning.

"No. He isn't. That time in his tent he nearly crawled out of his skin when I asked him what colour of blanket he would like, if I picked him up one."

[ombranera]

"If he were merely full of human guilt he would not be quite so skittish. There is something else at work here and I would know it." Something quite pervasive, something that would likely get either Bruce or someone else killed.