faderift | (no subject)

WHO: Warden!Felix and OPEN. (Starters for Kaiden, Bruce, Dorian, Ellana, and Adele. If you want your own starter just ask!)
WHAT: Felix returns after his Joining and looks much better. Also he's hungry. (The Kaidan thread is during training, set before they return to Skyhold.)
WHEN: About a week or two after Felix's Joining.
WHERE: His training took place at the remains of Haven, the rest is at Skyhold.
NOTES: None yet!

Less than a month ago, Felix had been a dead man. Now, he's at least upright. Things aren't prefect. He still has the taint and he has the ever present fact of the False Calling to contend with, but he's not wasting away anymore.

People who had seen him before will know that he's doing better. His cheeks are fuller and he isn't stumbling. He's able to move without aid. Despite the less than perfect circumstances, he thinks it's wonderful. If it weren't for the fact that he was trying to put on a good face as the newest Warden, he might have tried to dance around like an idiot.

He's still acting a bit like an idiot, but rather than dancing he's trying to get food from the kitchens. The servants might be a little annoyed that he keeps pestering them, but at least he knows how to apologize and thank them. He pesters politely which is likely a nice change.

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Felix approaches him carefully and offers him a small smile as greets him. "Bruce?" he asks. He tilts his head a bit to look at the healer. "Is this a bad time?"

The sound of footsteps is what gets Bruce's attention first, and from there he glances upwards and quickly notices Felix approaching him. Unlike the last few months now he looks in the pink of health, up on his feet and walking and looking pretty good, in general. Seeing him like this now, it was hard to imagine that not so long ago he was right at Death's door. Whatever it was that the Grey Wardens did...

Well, he was just glad that Felix was alright. That was the important part.

"Of course not," he returns with a smile of his own, putting his journal and writing materials aside. "Is something the matter? Did you need something from me?" Was something still wrong with his health? Bruce isn't entirely sure what it was that happened to Felix, but surely a miracle cure like this wasn't without its side effects.

"Oh no, nothing the matter." At least there was nothing that he could talk to Bruce about. The False Calling was frustrating but it was a Warden matter. "I wanted to thank you for all that you did for me."

He moves the book from under his arm and offers it. "I don't have much, but I wanted to offer you this as thanks. It was my mothers."

--oh.

Bruce blinked, looking clearly surprised, totally having not expected any kind of gift from Felix, let alone something as important as this.

"You don't have to," he quickly says, one hand coming up to gently push the book back towards Felix. "I can't accept a gift this important."

Felix frowns a bit. "Oh, no. Don't worry. I can't really travel easily with it and traveling is something Wardens do very often." He tries again. "Please, I want to give it to someone I trust."

Its portability really wasn't the issue here, but Bruce doesn't say that. Its obvious enough what the main problem was for the both of them to see.

"Wouldn't Pavus benefit more from this compared to me?" Sure, he didn't really know what the book was about, but if it was his mothers then it was most likely Tevinter in nature - and Dorian knew Tevinter best aside from Felix, being from there and all. And really, Bruce didn't think he should have anything like this. It's not as if he did anything to deserve such a gift.

"I'm giving Dorian something far more important," he explains. "And he'd loathe being overburdened with that much sentimentality in one night." Slowly, though, he tucks the book under his arm again.

He looks a little disappointed but he can understand not wanting a gift. "It it really bothers you I'm sure I can find somewhere else to store it." Then, after a moment, "I hope I haven't offended you by offering it." He thinks perhaps Bruce wouldn't want anything from Tevinter, which he can understand. Having things like that could get a person killed in the wrong place down South.

"Give it to him some other time then, when he can't complain about it." Honestly, he just thinks that Dorian would deserve it more, since he and Felix were much closer. It would probably be better, too, in the long run.

Still, the fact that Felix would be worried over something like that has Bruce quickly trying to reassure him that it most certainly wasn't the case. "No, nothing like that - I just think you should give it to somebody who deserves it better." After all Bruce had only been doing his job, what he felt was necessary and right; there was no need to be thanked for that, much less be given something so clearly important to him.

Felix sighs a bit and then bites his lip for a moment in thought. He isn't sure that Bruce understands how important what he did was.

"Do you mind if I ask, when did you figure out I had the Blight?" he asks. It might seem like changing the subject, but he does have a point.

"..." Bruce is tempted, for a moment, to lie his way out of this - but then again its not as if he benefits by lying and he owes Felix a little, so...

"After the first few times I visited you," he admits, voice soft. "I've been in the Anderfels in the past, so seeing the Blight taking hold of people is something I'm not unused to."

It's something that doesn't get easier, no matter how many times he's seen it.

Instead of seeming offended, Felix smiles. "And yet you still tended to me, still brought me food and offered it to me, still touched my skin to check my temperature. You may think that's a small thing, but for me it meant everything. The fact that you knew and didn't instantly shy away from me meant the world to me then, and still does now. That's what I'm thanking you for. The fact that you didn't let panic overtake you and that you never treated me as less."

Felix's very obvious gratitude confuses Bruce quite a fair bit, and it shows on his face as much as tries to hide it at the same time. "Of course I wouldn't treat you as less. The Blight is a terrible illness; the people who go through it always need all the help they can get." So of course he'd give that. Why would he do anything else? It just didn't make sense to him.

"And yet servants that had tended to me my entire life still shyed away from touching me when I returned home," Felix points out. He didn't blame them, of course. The Blight was terrifying. "Will you accept my gratitude for now? Your presence meant the world to me while I was sick."

Well when Felix put it that way... it certainly was hard for Bruce to turn it down. He nods after a pause and gives a small smile. "...I suppose I can manage that."

He's still very unused to people being this grateful to him for anything especially since he was only doing his job, but its not like he has much of a reason to deny it either. If it made them feel better too, then all the more reason not to turn it down.