New.Solas has to deal with some changes in his perception.#feral verse, 1k words. on AO3.Solas had n

New.Solas has to deal with some changes in his perception.#feral verse, 1k words. on AO3.Solas had never expected he would ever need to know how to mend fishing nets, but Adaar was rather insistent that it was a useful skill to possess. He had not argued otherwise as strongly as he might have—he had always enjoyed observing someone skilled at their craft work or teach. Despite everything, that still held true.“Hold on, that one doesn’t look quite right—”Solas held still while Adaar bent over his section of the net and eyed the current knot; she muttered something under her breath and hooked her claw into the knot, unravelling it with ease.“I think you forgot the last loop. Want me to show you again?”“Far be it from me to deprive you of an opportunity to show off,” he said, but he couldn’t entirely stifle a smile. Adaar was confident to the point of arrogance—Solas could admit, however grudgingly, that he gained a strange, nonsensical enjoyment from watching her prove that arrogance was wholly deserved. Even if it concerned only something as banal as tying quick, competent knots into a damaged fishing net.She grinned and took the net from him. “Careful, I might get the impression you actually enjoy that, one of these days.”He said nothing, only watched her demonstrate the proper sequence of motions, although the urge to confirm it burned on his tongue. As before, his attention strayed from her fingers to the way the tendons in the back of her hands moved, to the minute tensions this caused in her bared lower arms, all the way up to her shoulders, thick with muscle—Solas swallowed and forced his gaze back down.“I have never seen you fish with nets such as these,” he said, a hint of a question, as much distraction as genuine curiosity.“No, these’re meant for river fishing. You remember Tybal?”“I believe so? If you’re referring to the rather pale vashoth.”“They’ve got a place further north, where the river’s a proper river. The nets belong to them, but they have a kind of tremor in their hand?” She gestured with her own to mimic the problem. “Makes work like this difficult. So a few years back we made a deal, I fix the nets when necessary, and we get fish in return.”“That is… kind of you.”“I guess? The fish is really good. You can see for yourself next time.” She shrugged, and—This was ridiculous. Solas closed his eyes, breathing slowly, opened them again, then opened his mouth to reply… and still nothing sensible came out: “You will need new clothes, soon.”As if it was in any way relevant at the moment. As if it was any of his concern. As if it should matter to him.“What? Why?”Reluctantly, he pointed to the seam at her shoulder, where the thread was straining to hold the fabric together.“You’re growing broader. At this rate you might end up tearing them if you’re not careful.”Adaar stretched out her arms in front of her and rolled her shoulders, watching the cloth cling to her biceps.“Hah, you’re right.” She smiled, clearly pleased. “I hadn’t noticed.”Solas had noticed.He couldn’t stop noticing.The arc of her shoulders, the flex of muscles in her back, her arms, her thighs, the sheer ease with which strength came to her. It stole his focus, his damned breath. They had been surprised by rain while wandering back from a ruin recently, and he had nearly bitten his tongue not to make a sound at the sight of her drenched back. She had watched him so intently, as if she was perhaps aware… And every time she decided to pick him up for some more-or-less baseless reason, as she was so fond of doing, he wondered if this would be the occasion when he would betray himself. How effortlessly she could lift him was yet another thing that he didn’t dare consider in detail, nor how often she would touch him more than in passing.To make matters even worse, the aspects of her that hadn’t changed found their way beneath his skin as well. The toothy glint of her smile, her long-fingered restless hands, the determined set of her jaw when she was after something, the way her pitch-and-amber eyes lit up when she cast magic…Now, all of her made his mouth dry out. The sensation was far from new, but it was… it had been a long time. The world had been different. Whole.If Ghilan'nain could see him now, she would be insufferably pleased with her handiwork.“You’ve filled out, too, you know,” Adaar said, pulling his thoughts back into the present. She tapped his sternum with her knuckles, then danced her fingertips rib by rib up to his collarbones. “I used to be able to count your ribs just by looking.”Solas’s heartbeat fluttered up to somewhere in his throat, but he held her gaze. If he imagined her touch to be more deliberate than it was, with an intent beyond the careless affection she doled out to anyone within range, it would not matter beyond this moment.“Is the number of my ribs so variable that it requires regular quantification?” he asked.“Oh, yes,” she said in a tone of great seriousness, although her lips twitched. “Sometimes you’re missing one on the left side.” She was still touching him, the edge of her palm resting high on his chest. Solas couldn’t bring himself to move away.“You are wonderfully strange,” he said, without quite meaning to. Before he could quantify or retract the statement, Adaar’s face broke into a smile.“That’s rich, coming from you.”“How so?”She patted his collarbone—another simple touch that seemed as nigh a caress to Solas’s starving skin—and returned to her work. “You’re wonderfully strange too, forest sprite.”Oh, dear.Solas cleared his throat and tried, fruitlessly, to ignore the gentle heat spreading inside his chest. -- source link

More pics about