#basander

[inkstaindusk]

Happy birthmonth. Can you write tired smiles exchanged between your favorite ship? I will read any of them!

You're getting an oc ship since my dear Bastian has been on my mind. It is so important for you to know that these two are not dating at this point. Keep this in mind as you read.

Bastian is vaguely aware that he's awake. Somewhat awake. His eyes are too heavy to open; he drifts in half-sleep darkness. It's an unknown amount of time before he registers the touch through his hair, gentle and soothing. He leans into it, peeling his eyes open and blinking a few times to wash away the waking blur.

Lysander meets his gaze with a gentle smile, not pausing in his ministrations. "Good morning, my love."

"Morning," Bastian murmurs in return. His eyes flutter briefly against his touch, then open again as awareness starts to flood back into him. "Wait, it's morning?"

Lysander gets that look in his eyes, the one he wears when he wants to shield Bastian from something, like Bastian is a child who needs looking after. But he doesn't say it, instead confirming, "Sun's going to rise soon."

Bastian sighs. "Right."

"Beloved—"

"I can't take a day off." Bastian sits up, rolls his neck, then frowns. His head was pillowed in Lysander's lap, which means Lysander had been sitting up all night. "Lys, seriously, you need to stop letting me fall asleep on you like this. At least wake me up so you can move."

"You need the sleep," Lysander protests, like he always does.

"I am quite aware, but I can spare a few seconds. You should be able to sleep comfortably." Bastian rolls his eyes, but as he gets to his feet, he presses a kiss to the top of his head. Exasperating it may be, he does appreciate Lysander's care. "Maybe I'll give you this morning off so you can lie down for a bit."

As expected, Lysander immediately refutes, "Absolutely not."

"Mm, I knew you'd say that. In that case, let's get ready to head back before anyone realizes I'm missing. Again."

Lysander shudders, also remembering the chaos of the last time Bastian had slept at the guild overnight. He hadn't managed to make it back before one of the maids realized his bed was empty. When he returned, what seemed to be half the household were carrying weapons and Lysander had been accused of kidnapping. Bastian still doesn't know how it escalated that far, but the accuser had apologized tearfully later, saying the tension had simply gotten to them.

Bastian heads for the closet where he keeps his spare clothes. Lysander says, "We can go back and you can still take a rest day."

It's been a while since Lysander has been this insistent.

He does want to go back to bed, honestly. It's taking a bit of effort to keep his head up, and it would be nice to simply lay down together and give himself time to clear the sleep-fog still clouding his brain. He doesn't even remember having fallen asleep, which means he's been pushing through work for longer than he realized. In a normal world, running on normal logic, he wouldn't have gotten to this point. He once took good care of his health, and when he failed, he trusted his loved ones' reminders.

But this isn't a normal world; a duke's son can only afford so many indulgences.

"Lys." Bastian turns back to him, and smiles. There's no point in trying to hide the tired edges of it. "Thank you. I'm sorry." He thinks of saying more, but Lysander knows what all is tucked inside those words.

He can see him biting his tongue, swallowing arguments that won't get anywhere. Lysander returns his smile instead, mirroring the exhaustion. He doesn't like that. He hates that he makes Lysander look like that, and that there's nothing he can do about it. It's not up to either of them really.

Lysander says, "It's okay, don't apologize. My love has never done anything wrong in his life." His tone is joking in an attempt to hide his absolute sincerity.

Bastian is never quite sure how to react to his wholehearted belief in him, so he just says in a similarly light tone, "Why, I didn't know you had a love other than myself. You must introduce me." And before Lysander can scramble up a response, he adds, "Go get changed. I'll give you ten minutes to meet me downstairs or I'm leaving without you."

[inkstaindusk]

Hello! I loved your snippet about Bastian and Lysander. You've previously mentioned that it took them a long time to get together, but they seem, uh, pretty close in the most recent piece 🤣. Is this a mutual pining but they're both stupid situation? A mutual pining but Real Life things are getting in the way situation? Or does one of them solidly not realize they're in love until /years/ after everyone else knows?

Also where in the timeline does this story take place in terms of when they get together? Like is this shortly before or do they still have a few years to go?

Have a great day!

Hello again, thank you!!

Seeing as you sent two asks, I'll answer both in this one:

Ohhh-kay so I think of events in this verse in terms of where they occur in relation to what we refer to as the Divorce Arc (referring literally to Hellena and Albert's divorce and broadly to the guild's collective divorce; I'll be happy to get into that later lol). Bastian and Lysander don't get together until after Divorce Arc, so that scene takes place vaguely some time pre-divorce.

The situation is that Lysander, as I've said, is terribly in love with Bastian but content to be at his side in whatever form that takes while Bastian simply doesn't consider romance in general and is the only one who doesn't perceive Lysander's behavior as genuinely romantic. Even when Bastian does become aware of Lysander's feelings, it takes some time for him to be able to respond, but though he doesn't really think of his feelings in terms of romance (#aspecthings lol) Lys is very much important to him in a way that's different from everyone else and that, at least, is something he's well aware of.

But if you squint, you can see in that snippet that Bastian is actually somewhat uncomfortable with Lysander's opinions (not necessarily feelings, just opinions) about him. He knows that Lys has placed him on a pedestal and that's... not what he wants, from him or anyone. They still have a long journey ahead of them RIP

The staff are very fond of the family as a whole, they all have their favorites, usually whichever member of the family they've known longest. And yes, some of them (mostly the older ones since they watched Bastian and Cassidy grow up) don't quite approve of the duke's behavior as a father, though as a duke and a boss he's great. Estella's adoption doesn't really change any of that.

The duke isn't a terrible person, just a terrible father. He's great at his job and the people of their territory love him, very much a "my people are my priority" kind of guy. The problem is that Bastian and Cassidy aren't inherently more important than anyone else in his mind just by virtue of being his children. He doesn't know how to place that importance on them, though he does respect and care for them as "his" regardless and trusts them more than anyone else. (His wife was much the same, great woman terrible mother. They were very in love before she died.)

So he would notice Bastian's disappearance and put his all into finding him, but that time Bastian was late in returning home was literally just like, an hour. Not everyone was freaking out but those who were completely jumped to conclusions bc they weren't used to Bastian being gone on unofficial business.