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The Iron Bull ([personal profile] aban_aqun) wrote2019-10-26 05:46 pm
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[personal profile] bestdressed 2020-03-26 05:12 am (UTC)(link)
Well, there's little arguing with that. This may be the most spectacular greeting he's ever received. Despite being so clearly disobeyed, he cradles Bull's face in his hands when he's kissed again. And even when he shrinks a little at the sound of a whistle--clearly directed at them--he determinedly does not let go. It's still difficult for him to see the difference between friendly teasing and ridicule, but he's trying to learn. He hasn't had many opportunities before.

"Well, I don't think you want to fuck me fresh from the road," he says with amusement, just low enough to keep it between them. His thumb traces the line of Bull's cheekbone. Sweet Maker, he'd missed this face. "Or perhaps I shouldn't assume, given your tastes."

Bull's utter refusal to let go of him reignites feelings that Dorian has been attempting with great effort to smother over the last month. Apparently, they weren't buried very deep.

"I had intended to bathe," he continues, "and check on the library. Food, drink, and sleep would also be welcome, though apart from the bath, I'm not particularly attached to the order in which these things happen. So if you aren't going to allow me basic the basic dignity of letting me walk on my own, the least you can do is call for a tub and water."
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[personal profile] bestdressed 2020-03-26 05:47 am (UTC)(link)
Rather than answering directly, Dorian merely mutters, "Kaffas, you're incorrigible," swats Bull playfully on the arm, and gladly lets himself be kissed again.

It certainly doesn't escape Dorian that this is the first time the nature of their relationship has been made clear to others. While it's common knowledge already through the rumor mill that they're sleeping together, this display has made it obvious that it's more than that. Bull had expressed before that he wouldn't mind it if people thought that about them, and Dorian had, at the time, been confused and hurt. The way he'd responded had led to their most serious disagreement to date.

They still aren't together. Not like so many will probably now assume. That was what had hurt so badly the first time; that Bull would say something like that even though no true relationship was possible between them. At the time, it felt like he was being toyed with. But Dorian finds that he doesn't care now the way he did back then. Perhaps it's simply because they've grown closer, and he can see now what Bull meant. Let people who don't know them think what they like. What's between them is their own business; they don't have to hide it for that to still be true.

"You're still insisting that I come up to your room, I take it?" Dorian questions, and though his feet are on the ground again, he doesn't move any further away from Bull. His voice lowers, lips pulling into a coy smile. "Will watching me bathe make it all the more satisfying when you get me dirty again later?"
Edited 2020-03-26 05:48 (UTC)
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[personal profile] bestdressed 2020-03-26 06:32 am (UTC)(link)
"Fine, fine," he sighs, affecting exasperation. "Yours, then." He'd been fully intending to go to his own--resolved, even--but all of that had changed the moment Bull had come to greet him. They're attached now, and Dorian can't bring himself to deny Bull anything that makes him happy--particularly not when it's something he wants as well.

So he walks with Bull's arm around him all the way across the courtyard, past Lavellan and Cullen--who he rolls his eyes at, just to show how absolutely put-upon he is by Bull's behavior--and through the Herald's Rest, mostly empty at this hour, but with a few afternoon revelers and late lunchers whose eyes follow them curiously, and then up the stairs to the Bull's door.

Telling, probably, that this room is starting to feel more like home than his own.

"Find me a tub," he repeats again, this time with a flicker of a playful smile. "I'm going to undress."
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[personal profile] bestdressed 2020-03-26 04:42 pm (UTC)(link)
It is presumptuous, which is the first thing Dorian huffs to himself when he turns to find the tub already there in the corner. How long has Bull been anticipating this? How long has been Bull waiting for him, hoping that when he arrived he'd choose to come here to wash and relax?

Unsure whether to be flattered or miffed, Dorian decides to dismiss it entirely, and merely be glad for the tub's presence. He drags it closer the center of the room before he begins to undress. By the time Bull returns, he's halfway out of his last layer, the soft leggings he wears beneath his robes and his leathers, which he's laid out over the end of the bed. He pauses for just a moment to watch Bull empty the huge buckets into the tub. Surely only Bull would be able to carry them when full.

"I suppose there are some tangible benefits to fucking a Qunari," he notes aloud, smirking Bull's way as he pulls his leggings the rest of the way off and lays them with his other things. His smalls are last, of course, and nothing special for unexciting travel, or else he might have taken a little longer in removing them, with Bull's eye on him. Bare, he draws the appropriate fire glyph on the side of the tub to heat the water inside. Within several moments, steam begins to rise from the surface. "Wash my hair," he says, "and you can hear whatever you like."
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[personal profile] bestdressed 2020-03-26 06:10 pm (UTC)(link)
For the first time in weeks, Dorian relaxes. The hot water loosens his muscles, the steam soothes his throat, and of course, Bull's big hands in his hair, the scratch of blunted claws against his scalp, are better than anything. His eyes slide closed, and the only sounds he makes are satisfied sighs, or the occasional word of instruction to Bull about what he should do next. In the end, Bull washes his back for him as well, and Dorian has to finish the rest of his bath up quickly after that to avoid falling asleep in the water.

"And now to bed," he yawns as he steps out of the tub and into a towel. "I think I'll need that nap before anything else." He hesitates a moment before he asks, "Will you stay with me?"
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[personal profile] bestdressed 2020-03-26 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Wearing something clean--his housecoat, of course, kept more often than not in Bull's room, and thoroughly washed since he'd worn it that night on the balcony in Val Royeaux--Dorian settles into bed, gladly breathing in Bull's familiar scent on the sheets and pillows. There had been no hesitation on Bull's part when he'd asked if he'd stay. As it is, he's undressing, carefully removing his boots and brace. Sneakily, a bare leg slides out from beneath the layers of his housecoat, and he brushes a foot over Bull's thigh.

"My feet are quite sore," he mentions, seemingly innocuously. "I did far too much traipsing through fetid swamp water. It ruined my boots, I think. Who calls a place the Fallow Mire, anyway? Surely that can't be what it says on the map. Who would want to live there?"
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[personal profile] bestdressed 2020-03-26 09:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Dorian passes the little bottle, recognizing it as his own as he does. He really does keep quite a lot of his things in Bull's room now. It makes sense. When they're together in Skyhold, he inevitably finds himself sleeping here at least half the time.

As Bull takes him up on his unsubtle hinting with apparent ease, Dorian relaxes back into the bed, making a low noise that sounds dirty even to his own ears as Bull's fingers dig into the arch of his foot.

"Well, whenever the name came about, it was apt," Dorian grumbles, and proceeds to tell Bull of their experiences there--demons, corpses, and Avvar included, but especially all of the inconveniences to him personally. By the time he circles back around to Varric's snoring, however, he's already trailing off, falling asleep gradually as the comfort of the bed and Bull's presence lull him.
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[personal profile] bestdressed 2020-03-26 11:02 pm (UTC)(link)
When Dorian wakes several hours later, he's pleased to find the indent in the bed beside him where Bull had lain still warm. He rolls over slowly, blinking away sleep, and his bleary eyes find Bull's shape immediately, setting trays down on the table. It was the smell of the food, probably, that woke him.

"I know I've been away too long when food from the Rest starts smelling edible," he sighs. It smells very good, as a matter of fact, and he'll gladly eat it. But the complaint is almost second nature. He sits up slowly, then swings his legs over the side of the bed. "Did you go downstairs to get it?" he wonders. If so, he'd missed that entirely.
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[personal profile] bestdressed 2020-03-26 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
"I see. Thoughtful of you." That's his way of saying thanks, anyway. "And here I thought you only lived above the tavern for its proximity to the bar. Now I understand that it's both the bar and the kitchen." He smiles slyly up at Bull, and adjusts his robe, pulling it closed and retying it around his waist.

His hair, however, remains an artful mess, as it dries into its natural waves on top of a case of bedhead. His moustache is unstyled as well, though his face has been freshly shaved. He settles into the chair, pulling a plate over for himself. "Did he send beer as well? Or will I have to venture downstairs for that?"
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[personal profile] bestdressed 2020-03-27 12:11 am (UTC)(link)
"So Cabot does care about me," Dorian concludes with satisfaction, and takes a deep drink from the tankard immediately. How something so objectively terrible could taste so refreshing remains a mystery.

Another mystery: the parameters of this thing with the Bull. Dorian had assumed he'd stay, but now that Bull is asking, he feels unsure. "I'd like to," he admits, though he's looking at his food when he says it. "It seemed you had some unmentionably obscene plans for me." Of course, that doesn't mean he needs to stay the night, but the last time he'd actually left after having sex was months ago.
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[personal profile] bestdressed 2020-03-27 01:28 am (UTC)(link)
Because Bull's smile makes heat spike along his neck much sooner than Dorian is ready for that sort of thing, he averts his gaze quickly, though it's probably too obvious. He cuts his food, pretending nonchalance.

"No, you didn't. As I recall, we had other things on our mind." He's certainly replayed that encounter in his mind more than once over the last month. "So long as you're gentle with my ass, whatever you have planned should be fine," he says archly, far too imperious for essentially admitting that he's a bit saddle sore. The ride back wasn't pleasant.
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[personal profile] bestdressed 2020-03-27 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
For some reason, that statement makes Dorian flush more than Bull's grin had--and for an entirely different reason. Bull is very sweet. He hadn't expected that, in the beginning.

"I know," he says quietly, and smiles, matching Bull's warmth. The way he trusts the Bull is unlike anything else. How ironic that is, considering how suspicious of him he'd been when they met. If he'd known a year ago that he would trust a Qunari spy more than anyone else alive, he certainly would have questioned his life choices. But how could Bull be anything but genuine?

They talk a little more as they finish their meal, and when Bull assures him that the library hasn't gone up in flames in his absence, Dorian agrees that a visit can wait until tomorrow. "But I would like another drink," Dorian muses. "I suppose I should dress and make myself presentable, shouldn't I?" He's just sat here having dinner with Bull in nothing but a robe and a fresh face, and hadn't felt self-conscious about it at all.

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