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renegade-skywalker · 3 months

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A Soft Proposal

Summary: Gale's first proposal doesn't go as planned. Neither does the second, and nor does the wedding. But in the best way possible. (No real plot just romantic cozy vibes enhanced by some even more romantic bit of magic).

~~~

The sweetest dreams were the ones where she’d wake up smiling.

This morning, the sun happened to be nudging her begrudgingly awake, its bright rays interrupting the culmination of one such dream by intruding on its simpler pleasures, unjustly wrenching her out of her imagining’s conclusion and into the early morning. But before Merit could grunt or complain, she suddenly found herself unendingly warm, wrapped in serenity and being kissed very softly awake.

The nosy sun was cast out of her field of vision by Gale’s sweet and still-sleepy face, pressing kiss after ardent kiss against the crest of her cheekbone and and then her temple before descending upon the corner of her jaw, smiling against her skin as if charmed to find Merit murmuring agreeably into waking life instead of grumbling against it in its now-unavoidable presence.

“Morning, my love,” he murmured, the sleepy vibrato of his voice sending a pleasant shiver down her spine. “How are you feeling?"

Merit used to hate mornings. It usually meant she had to leave the wealth of her dreams and get to work, the bakery unable to open on its own. Business was never one for a holiday, so any notions she had about leisurely playing her lyre or working on a song would have to wait. But mornings with Gale were decidedly different, and often the stuff of what her dreams were made of.

Unlike her shabby bed above the bakery, their four-poster here was furnished generously with the coziest of surroundings: warm pillows, a down blanket, and an endless sense of well-being - the very embodiment of the indulgent feeling of staying in bed eternally with nowhere to go and nothing on the agenda, its comforts eternally present for the taking and for the express purpose of relishing in. Even if they got up at a reasonable hour, every dawn with Gale felt like this - unendingly easy and dreamlike in its simplicity.

“Morning,” she echoed with a lazy smile, wrapping her arms around his neck and tickling the top of his naked back with the delicate edge of her fingernails. Merit pressed a kiss to his mouth and soaked in the taste of him. “And better, now that we’re laying like this.”

Gale smiled against her lips, pulling her closer until they were utterly chest-to-chest, his skin charmingly warm where it met hers. Merit hooked one of her legs around his, their bodies ensconced in the blanket draped about them, trapping their shared heat as if promising them safety from the day beyond. Gale urged them even closer as he drew her into an even deeper kiss, his hips digging deliciously into hers. Merit’s breath caught in her throat at the sentiment and the sensation, now more awake - yet more dreamily so - than she had been a moment ago, both jolted yet soothed as if firmly pressed between two worlds and now existing peacefully between them.

Just as Merit felt as if Gale were about to speak again, he kissed her instead, his lips insistent against hers as she sighed against him. It was a pleasant way to greet the morning, one Merit would never begrudge no matter how good her dreams were beforehand. But what Merit was unsure about was whether or not she’d want to leave this bed at all afterwards.

Merit ran a hand through Gale’s hair as his hands roamed over the back of her, one tucking itself between her nightshirt and her skin as the other raked at the small of her back as he pulled her forever closer. He parted her lips with his tongue, an errant, tired hunger overcoming her at the feel of it. But after tracing her mouth for a beat, Gale almost reluctantly pulled away and looked at her with a yearning almost unknown to Merit. Which was certainly saying something.

The hand Gale held at the small of her back traced an unseen pattern against her skin, as if in lieu of a question, resting his forehead gently against hers as his eyes searched her own. Merit wanted to ask what was on his mind, her brain instead only capable of admiring the way he looked at her before pressing a pleading kiss to the corner of his mouth. Apparently, this was all it took to wrench the truth out of him, even if the words were not at all what Merit was expecting.

“Marry me,” Gale exhaled simply against her lips, his mouth still close enough to hers to share breath. His voice was still gravelly and deep from only just waking, slow and sweet but rough enough around the edges that even the mere sound of it made Merit blush, let alone the contents of his words. Even if the request itself was not new to her.

“You already have my answer,” she said softly, kissing him again, careful this time to lightly, lovingly bite his bottom lip before pulling away. Teasing, affectionate. Gale only looked at her hungrily through heavy-lidded eyes. “A thousand times yes.”

It had been so sweet, the way he asked her. Having played through the scenario so many times in his head before voicing his question, Gale had somehow forgotten to actually ask her to marry him before posing a quipping query as to whether Baldur’s Gate had room enough for two Dekarioses, thus spoiling the surprise and leaving him red-faced as he owned up to the slip and asked her anyway.

Gale only blushed again at the recollection of it, even if Merit found him all the more endearing for it. She pressed another kiss to his cheek now, his skin almost searing-hot against her lips, leaning into her as she then kissed his mouth again, playing nicely this time. One of Gale’s hands threaded itself through her hair, his thumb lazily caressing the side of her neck in a way that made Merit shiver pleasantly again.

“I had it all planned out, you see-” Gale admitted through a flurry of kisses, “-meticulously detailed down to the second. Another proposal, a proper one, and the wedding of course, but-” he allowed no moment between them for a reply, instead kissing her again and even more deeply this time as he threaded his unspoken want into the way his mouth met hers.“I’m not entirely sure -” he said again, pulling away to drink in the sight of her before eventually kissing Merit again, “I don’t think I can wait a moment longer.”

They’d agreed to stay in Baldur’s Gate, for now, at least until Merit’s part of the city was rebuilt somewhat, still wracked with guilt for leaving just before the cult of the Absolute infiltrated her stomping grounds, but she’d heartily agreed to taking his name when they eventually reached Waterdeep with the intention of settling there. It was only a matter of days until they set off, in fact, their tickets to sail aboard the next passenger ship heading there sitting on the desk not a few feet from where they lay now.

“Shadowheart’s a cleric, and Astarion was a magistrate once, no? Though I suppose his license has long since expired,” Gale proffered again into another hungry kiss, “We can ask them over for lunch, see which one might be willing, or perhaps able to-”

“Marry us?” Merit finished for him, smiling as she simply let Gale kiss her. Gale nodded fervently against her mouth, slowing his kiss this time until it was syrupy sweet and utterly sating.

“Precisely,” he exhaled, his voice still low and husky. He paused just-so, his lips brushing against Merit’s as his eyes locked with hers, his gaze ever-loving and filled with a longing that Merit knew well even if it still managed to set her heart ablaze.

His sudden earnest desire to entwine his life with hers without his already more-than-half-planned wedding nearly stunned her completely. But perhaps this was his grand gesture, his impassioned plea of love for her, so overcome with ardent affection that he simply didn’t need anything else. Nothing other than her, only that he wanted her now. And the way he kissed her then only seemed to prove her theory all the more correct. Not that she would say no to any further coercing…

Merit wanted to believe it to be true, once upon a time consulting their matching tadpoles to bridge the gap between their minds and confirm her hypothesis before jumping to conclusions. But with the tadpole long-gone, Merit resorted to reluctantly pulling out of Gale’s kiss and searching his eyes instead. His brown irises were honeyed in the morning light, his hair more chestnut than deep brown too, as if his every feature were laced with spun sugar. She soaked in the moment and committed it to memory as she awaited Gale’s response, eager to hear his inevitable elaboration.

Merit knew it was forthcoming, she could see it on his face. Plain as day. I am many things, he’d once said. But coy’s not one of them. She smirked at the memory as well as in anticipation, her expression blooming into a full smile by the time the gleam in his eye betrayed his ulterior motives and his usual fervent excitement whenever he had the chance to explain something reared its endearing head.

He pressed one more kiss to her lips and another along the crest of her cheekbone before eventually reaching towards the nightstand nearest his side of the bed, the blanket falling from his broad shoulders in a way that had Merit yearning to pull him back towards her if only to run her fingers across the pleasing edges of his back. She bit down the desire as he retrieved a small, cerulean pouch from the table and presented it to her with one hand, his other hand grasping both of hers and silently instructing that she hold her palms out for the catching. Gale’s eyes were fixed on the small satchel, though hers flickered over to his face, watching on as a familiar anxiety plagued his features, his grip on her faltering only slightly as two small pieces of metal dropped from the velvet casing and into the plush of her palms. As if rehearsed, one fell into her right hand and the other in her left, each of them glittering with morning light. Rings.

Rings. Merit gasped, the realization dawning on her.

“Remember when I was late the other day? Returning from the High Hall?” he asked in a quiet rush, his words almost tripping over themselves. “Well, I’d found a Waterdhavian jeweler by chance, someone displaced by the battle. Apparently they’d had a rather well-to-do shop just inside the gate, not sure if you were ever familiar with it, though why you would be - I don’t know, perhaps your parents had gone there, or, you’re rather a fan of jewelry though so perhaps you’d already-” Gale shook his head, flustered. Merit only bit back a smile, admiring the lines in his face as he tried to get to his point. “Anyway, I’d run into them before, and they mentioned something about… well, maybe it would be best I just demonstrate.”

With a slightly trembling hand, Gale plucked the ring from her left palm and held it up in the shafts of light filtering in from their bedroom window, somehow both gold and silver in the early morning haze. Merit’s eyes fixed upon the ring, soon recognizing that the warring gilt and argent tints were not due to the dawning sun alone.

“‘Tis a Waterdhavian tradition, to halve rings belonging to those betrothed. The non-matching halves are then fused to create a new ring, each one to fit the wearer as needed. I wanted it to be a surprise, so I measured your broken ring of warding first and-”

As if testing his own theory, but also miming the ceremony of it, Gale gently placed the ring on Merit’s finger, the sliver of a smile overcoming his face when it settled snug against her skin. A perfect fit.

At a loss for words, Merit’s eyes went wide at the sight of it: Gale’s careful hand eclipsing hers as the fitted ring caught the light again as if like a far-off star or a planet paling in the moonlight, fading just before the dawn but growing strong again against the sun. Whatever she was dreaming of earlier, no matter how pleasant, it could never compare to this.

Merit’s breath caught in her throat, her eyes finally looking away from her hand to Gale again. Like the night she errantly shared her desire to kiss him in the Weave, like the night he confessed his ill-timed love for her, and when he asked her how she felt the following morning, Gale’s eyes were wide as they met hers, a certain brand of uncertainty painting his features that made Merit melt a little.

In lieu of responding, her tongue unable to utter words, she took the ring from her other hand and reached for Gale’s. His eyes went wider if possible, soothing only when she placed the matching ring on his respective finger.

She had a quip poised then, something both clever and romantic on the tip of her tongue, but instead Merit was overcome with an unexpected rush of glowing heat and assuring stillness, something not unlike the sun filtering down on their waking forms now only she felt it through her the entirety of her body as well as within the depths of her very soul. She looked at Gale again, her own eyes wide with mild trepidation as it was now his turn to smile and draw her close.

He took her ringed hand in his, fanning his palm beneath hers until both rings lay side-by-side with their fingers splayed, each one glinting in the early light glowing about them, still wrapped in their bedsheets.

“It’s perfect,” Merit exhaled in an exalted whisper, the words falling from her mouth before she even got to think them, the sentiment truer than true. “Even if we manage to get someone to ordain our vow today or in a tenday, next month, or even next year, you already know I’m yours.”

Merit threaded her fingers through Gale’s, their rings chiming lightly with the motion. Gale pulsed his grip on hers, as if setting the sentiment in stone and reassuring himself that she was earnest.

“I’m yours,” she echoed again, looking him in the eye this time. He stilled beneath her gaze, his expression softening. He leaned over, tucking his other thumb and forefinger beneath her chin and pulled her face close to his, pausing just before their noses touched.

“You are the happiness I never dreamed I could deserve,” he uttered, the awe of it clear in his voice as well as his expression, though Merit had no time to soak it in because Gale pulled her into yet another hungry kiss.

And with that, they dissolved back beneath the bed sheets, sinking against the mattress as their limbs entwined around each other more fervently now, drawing the other further against them as if they could never be close enough. Merit was about to drink all of Gale in when she felt an errant pulse against her newly christened finger, a shudder running through her at the recognition of it. Gale only smiled shyly against her, holding his hand up against hers again, their rings chiming once more like glass cups clinked in cheers.

“I enchanted them, as well,” he said, his face growing a delightful shade of pink. Merit’s head sunk delectably into the pillow beside her as she watched him and drank in his fervent expression, always tickled to see him talk so animatedly about magic, or anything really. “So long as we wear these, we can… sense, so to speak, each other’s heartbeat. What the other is feeling. Or thinking, even, so long as it’s simple and earnest.”

Gale placed a timid hand against Merit’s chest, bringing her own hand towards his. Their eyes locked as Merit’s breath caught in her throat again, and within a second she felt it: their respective heartbeats thrumming as one, each reflected and reverberated in the ring each of them wore. Merit’s mouth opened again, about to voice some inner thought, but Gale stopped her with a careful but eager finger placed gently to her lips.

“Wait,” he instructed reverently, closing his eyes this time.

Merit’s brows furrowed, a knotting confusion pooling at the center of her. But then she felt it, no, sensed it. Or perhaps something else…

As if both detecting the thought as well as hearing it in her mind’s eye, like a conjured memory, she gleaned an indisputably simple but heartfelt I love you from Gale. Followed quickly, fervently, by an ever so much, until the end of time. It was as if he’d spoken it, thought it, and willed it into being, all rolled into one, impelling the thought into her mind as if not quite reading it but instead as if he’d placed a note there for her leisure. It was like the tadpole but kinder, more consenting. And ever so sweet.

Gale’s expression softened as both of their eyes opened, silently expressing a friendly now you try.

Merit focused her thoughts on the ring around her finger, imagining its twin around Gale’s and thought, I am so utterly in love with you, Gale Dekarios.

Her finger thrummed as it relayed its message, soft but insistent in its delivery. Somehow she knew that the sentiment was sent and that it was received in kind, the verification only making itself known to her as Gale’s soft gaze met hers once more. The smile that slowly overcame his face then was a sight that instantly reduced each of Merit’s limbs to jelly, melting against him as if he were the sun itself and she the quiet morning come to greet him.

Gale’s hand finally brought her chin towards his, their mouths meeting in a kiss that could eclipse all kisses. Merit’s knees buckled even though she wasn’t standing, lovedrunk against Gale’s reclined body as she dissolved even further into a sentimental mess beside him, her chest brimming with a well of affection that encompassed everything she’d felt for him from the moment they’d first met until now, and each of her errant daydreams in between. She was about to wonder whether this impression was enough for the ring to handle in the delivery of her devoted directive when she suddenly felt the same emotion in kind, emanating from Gale both in the way he kissed her as well as in the way the ring enigmatically explained to her without words.

The closest thing to this Merit could fathom was the night Gale spent with her in the Weave, and yet it still wasn’t quite the same. This somehow bridged the best of both worlds, the corporeal and the incorporeal rolled into one, both separate from yet in complete complement to each other. Just as they were, together.

Gale’s kiss intensified, his every sigh against her another plea to hold her closer, his every tug another petition to prayer, to worship at the altar of her. His tongue probed hers in a way that made Merit whimper into his kiss, his hands spiriting over the skin of her back before slowly moving to the front of her, his thumbs tracing the outline of each of her breasts. Merit wriggled out of his tempting grasp and smiled into his kiss, laughing lightly as she caught him in the act.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she teased, though she had no intention of making him stop. She kissed him again, one of her hands descending down toward the crux of him, idly thinking two can play that game.

But before she could feel too playful about it, Gale responded with an ardently uttered, “Making love to my wife,” in such a quiet and earnest admission that Merit stilled. She pulled out of his kiss for just a moment, relishing in the way his hands felt on her skin as well as hers on his. His eyes met hers in a half-lidded and utterly heartfelt way that made her heart sing. The way he looked at her now, the way he felt against her, and the way their respective rings echoed their inner and outward desires in kind was beyond any dream Merit could ever deign to even hope to have.

It wasn’t long before Merit enveloped Gale in yet another kiss, one she did not intend to end any time soon, both of them descending again beneath the bed sheets as if they might never breach the surface even for breath.

Waking life was proving to be much sweeter than anything Merit’s mind might have otherwise conjured in sleep, her life shaping up to be a dream she never need wake from.

#bg3 #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #gale x tav #gale x oc #my writing #tried finding a line from this for the title but went w/this one #even if it reminds me of that stucky 'we deserve a soft epilogue my love' quote lmao #I think it fits though

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