Ascended Astarion comes home from a meeting with the town leaders one day and finds that Tav is nowhere to be found. He does not catch their scent outside, indicating that they did not leave, and tearing apart the palace yields nothing.
Furious, he grabs one of his fanatics, who tells him that Tav is in their shared bedroom. They've been there the entire time. They hadn't been feeling too good lately, citing the intake of bad blood which made them stay home. Astarion believes this to be impossible since he has already gone through their room. He drags the fanatic to the room and practically throws them in, demanding they point Tav out if they are so sure. The fanatic stares at him out of fear and points up to the high ceiling. The glare on Astarion's face melts upon seeing something small and silver in the corner of the room.
Surprised, he quickly begins climbing the walls, his eyes fixed on the spot. He slows when he realizes he's looking at a small fuzzy bat sound asleep, much smaller than his own bat form. Tav's scent is all over it and Astarion is now convinced that this is his beloved consort.
"Tav...?" he whispers in astonishment. "You... You figured out how to...?"
He wipes his hands on his chest before carefully reaching out and gently scooping the bat up. It chatters some as he jumps down and starts looking it over. Its small body feels hot in his cool hands, perhaps a fever. He moves to the bed and lays the sleepy creature down, tenderly rubbing its small back with his thumbs. When it opens its eyes, it gives something akin to a small hiccup and in a puff of black smoke, Tav lays before him in their humanoid form with wide eyes.
Before they could speak, a wide smile spreads across Astarion's face and he scoops them into a hug, excitingly talking about how they could now go for nightly flights and how cute they were as a bat. He prattles on about how they must be able to learn other abilities while Tav feels sick and heaves the contents of their stomach onto the floor beside the bed. Astarion pauses and clears his throat.
"Oh dear... First things first. We'll bring you fresh blood to replace that..."
Fly through “The Fifth Day” in a new Batstarion update to “Antics of the Newly Ascended”
Ascended Astarion x f!Reader | M | 1.2K of fluffy bat fluff
Summary: You wake not quite yourself… and your Lord will be the one to guide you this time into the night
CW: cuteness, fluff, toothrotting fluff, bat sex teased, garden ruins, one Ascended Vampire that’s really just his idiotic, ambitious self.
Previous ch | Ao3 link | Masterlist
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It’s a quiet evening for once… you decided to lounge in your rooms, leaving Astarion to have to mingle bereft of your presence. He had pouted, but having you beg so prettily for a moment to yourself, he granted it to you. When you are happy, he is too. And of course he wants you rested, eager and willing for your nightly activities… You had scoffed at the implication in front of the rest of your party, even as your thighs grew hot and your body quivered with the promise of his adoration.
Your body had grown exceptionally heavy, the pull of sleep too great, despite your vampiric powers, your own as his consort that seemed to grow more every day. Your dreams are sweet and soft, like you are wrapped in the plushest of furs, cloaked in a blanket of your bond with your lord.
You can feel his approach even in your dreams, his silken voice tickling your ear as he speaks to you.
“How adorable you are, my pet,” he rasps right in your ear. You yawn and stretch, his caressing touch weaving through the top of your head…. But as your eyes open, your stomach drops.
Your world hangs upside down… or you do. You flail your arms, body shaking as you realize Astarion’s smirking, sharp and handsome face looms below you. It isn’t his hand in your hair… it’s his single digit scratching at the top of your head.
Suddenly, you plumet, arms… no wings flapping wildly as you fall.
Until he catches you in the palms of his hands. “And just when I thought you couldn’t get any more darling… my darling,” he croons quietly, your sensitive ears thankful for his consideration. “Seems the extension of Mephistopheles’ gift has granted you even more abilities as well, my love.”
You try to reply, but all that comes from your little throat are the same squeaking chitters your love has made in this same… form.
“Hush, my treasure,” he smirks. “Now it seems to be my turn to guide you in how to use your powers. And one who has supped on my blood, it seems only fair I be your teacher.” He sets you tenderly down on the bed, careful to let your feet settle first. It’s a strange feeling, claws for feet and wings for arms and fingers. You stretch them out, looking to see the thin skin pulled between your fingers, a soft blue-grey, the same color you see down your belly.
Your fur.
He cocks one hip, his expression one clearly savoring your discovery. Amused. “Think of all the possibilities this adds, my consort… all the new positions and forms we can… experiment with that might just bring us together in new and… exotic ways.”
“No way,” you push your voice into his mind, irritated. “I’m trapped as a bat, and all you can think of are the endless possibilities of fucking in this form?” Your annoyance takes over your body, your wings flapping in rage as you suddenly feel yourself lift from the bedding.
Flying.
“I will not be allowing you to fuck me as a bat… my lord.” You add his title just for formality, just to emphasize you vehement opposition.
Astarion gives a low, rumbling chuckle as he watches you dart around his face. “Well, my pet, we have an eternity for you to change your mind. But at the very least, I’ve spurred you to take flight.”
He crosses to the window, opening the lead-paned window into the cool night. Flashing that look of purest seduction, of ravenous desire in the twist of his smirk and the cant of his brows, he crosses back towards where you fly. A tingle of power pierces the air as he shifts. He swoops at you, the fluffy white bat you have held and pet and chided for being naughty. “Shall we?” he smirks on his pointed face, his voice like velvet even inside your mind.
He flits around you, running the claws of his feet through the fur on your back. It makes you… tingle—warm and molten.
“Dammit, I said no…” you dart away.
“Just a little flight, once around the City, my love. And I promise to be on my best behavior. No fangs or cock until we’ve returned, I swear.”
You give a high-pitched huff, flapping out the window and into the starry sky. You swoop and swirl through the air, following his fluffy white tail and outstretched wings. Diving through garden after garden, park and park, you can’t help but feel the rush of these powers, the way your bond with Astarion hums, vibrating like your membranous wings do as you fly. Flapping, he banks quickly to the side, you follow as best you can, realizing he’s led you back to the Lower City walls, and you instantly recognize these outer palace walls.
The Crimson Palace. Astarion’s old… new home….
He slows himself, an ancient garden enclosed by the palace’s walls, your destination it seems. A grand, stone arch, shadowed by the moonlight, is where he stops. Flipping himself around, he hangs from his own clawed feet in its pointed pinnacle.
You try to do the same, missing it by that much as you stop, fingers and toes clinging into the stone so you can scramble beside him. His body is still bigger than yours, wings wrap tight around you, his white fur that warm blanket you recall from your restful dreams. Nose twitching he holds you just so, the night darkening before dawn now. The garden is derelict, rotting bushes and broken stone figures. You wonder how anyone could think that C— that the former owner of this palace held any affluence.
Though you know the legers in the Counting House speak otherwise.
“Once the brain is defeated, this will all be ours, my treasure…” he purrs wistfully. You can feel the centuries of longing seeping into his thoughts. As if he had stared into this same garden countless times before.
Longing.
Begging for freedom. For light. For growth.
“Needs some work,” you hum in reply. “Some improvements, to be sure. Blooming flowers for one would be nice.”
“Whatever you desire, my love.”
You feel just a tickle, a brush of his head between your twitching, pointed ears. His little snuffles of breath warming your fur and making you spine tingle to be so close to him.
He seems to pull you tighter, wings clutched hard on your body to make you face him once more. “Now, unless you’ve changed your stance on experimentation… I would very much like to… return to our bed, little love.”
“Camp it is,” you laugh into his mind, pushing off him with your little claw feet to launch you back into the night.
“One day…” you hear him chuckle into your thoughts, distantly. Half to himself.
A series of flashes cross from your mind to his…
One day, this will be yours, your palace… One day you’ll fly home here, not some Inn with rooms to share… One day, this garden will bloom, and one day he will fuck you in it. Bat or no, you will be his in his palace. As he will be yours.
With the introduction of Bat Spawn!Tav comes the idea that whenever Astarion has plans and his sweet dark consort doesn't feel up to going or doesn't want to wake up, he has them pop into bat form and places them in his jacket, opposite of his heart. That way, anyone who is aware that he is a vampire and goes to stake him, his consort is safe regardless if the idiot hits or misses. It doesn't matter if they want to go or not now, where it did before when they didn't have another form, they are to be with him at all times now.
From time to time, he'll reach in and gently pet them and chuckle if they start chittering at him, telling them they'll be heading home soon. They weren't exactly dressed for public appearances when they changed into a bat to come out in humanoid form. Once at home, they fly out of his coat and change back, still in their sleepwear.
In the beginning, he'll coax Tav into going flying with him to see how well they can handle it. Starting small, it would be around the palace before adventuring out into the city. When they arrive at the party in the epilogue, they actually land as bats and change back before greeting the others.
