[closed] beside the seaside

[onlyhymns]

WHO: Cade and Alistair
WHAT: Let's Talk About Girls and Almost Die and Learn About Friendship
WHEN: while all those other scrubs are in Minrathous
WHERE: the Wounded Coast
NOTES: warning for too much cool guys

They recently bonded over illicit cookies, which makes Alistair worth asking-- especially since Simon is off in Tevinter and so is everyone else to whom Cade might go for advice. So yes, maybe he's the last resort, but they also used to be friends. Maybe it's time to remember that.

Being a scribe means you're limited to the number of inks you're able to purchase-- and wait for-- officially, but there are some pigments that can be found in the world around oneself, including among shells on the beach. So Cade asked Alistair to come with him on an outing, partially for protection, partially just-- and one can imagine it was extremely awkward when he added this-- companionship. Buddy?? Buddy.

With his boots left in the tall grass far enough away that the tide won't bother them, Cade is traipsing through the shallow surf, trying to find shells of a specific blue, and has instructed Alistair to do the same. It's deeply uninteresting work, but at least they have conversation.

"So, um..." Cade murmurs, straightening to inspect a specimen and pointedly not looking at Alistair, "...Sabine's an elf, right?"

Comments

[byblow]

Alistair, crouched down with both hands in the shallower water to move sand and white shells aside, raises his head to squint.

It’s not that it’s a secret, exactly. He’s said something somewhere on the crystals, or let other people say something and not told them to shut up about it. It’s just not something he thinks of most people knowing about, or caring about, and he generally prefers it that way, so it’s a bit—whatever.

“Yyyyes.”

Wary. What is this about. Are they going to have to fight. But he shifts it into something smirkier.

“Hard to tell sometimes with all of her hair, but the ears are under there somewhere.”

[onlyhymns]

Ah, good. Great. A confident start. This will be easy.

Cade opens his mouth to say something else and instead drops the shell he was holding, fumbling it once or twice before it plunks into the water and he thrusts his arms in after it, trying in vain to get a grip before it can drift away. Not really the cursing type, he mutters something under his breath, but it's probably family friendly. Aw, beans.

"I mean--" he stammers, and stands back up, holding the shell (is it blue enough?) triumphantly, even though his trousers are now soaked, "I ask, um. Because."
Suddenly he's standing there holding it and just staring at Alistair, trying to make the words come out, but the harder he tries, the longer the silence goes on, and the more awkward it gets.

"...is it. ... hard?"

[byblow]

That was a long silence. Alistair had returned to looking at the water—outright kneeling in it, now, because he is after a shell and doesn't care about getting wet, and because, with no idea why Cade was asking in the first place, it seemed most reasonable to decide he was asking for a stupid reason and had realized it in time to stop himself—and the completion of the question makes him pause and slowly look up.

"Nnno," he says. (He is not Zevran, or anyone else who would make an inappropriate joke here. Cade is welcome.) "Not for me. Maybe for her. But it isn't as if she wears a sign that says ASK ME ABOUT MY SHEM around Orlais. Why?"

[onlyhymns]

This is why Cade keeps him around.
"Oh," he laughs faintly, tucking the shell into his belt pouch, "I just. Um. Wondered." As with all things Cade says, there's obviously more to it than that, but he's not entirely likely to go around shouting that he and a Dalish elf are awkwardly trying to date each other.