So I had a hard time with this one… See, I have a grand total of five (5) Modern AU Solavellan stories that I have outlined and started, (and a few others in the brainstorming process,) but zero (0) that are actually posted anywhere. I’ve been using a separate Lavellan for my canon prompts, but this is the first specifically modern prompt. So, do I a) create YET ANOTHER Lavellan, or b) spoil one of my unpublished stories?
Which did I choose? Well, that’s for me to know! (I’m kidding, it’s a spoiler, but it’s for a smutty one shot, so)
This is probably not quite what you meant. @dadrunkwriting
Guadalupe parked her car outside the restaurant, and took a moment to remind herself to breath. She shouldn’t be so nervous.
Grabbing her purse and climbing out of her car, she rubbed the stained-glass style tattoos along her forearms as she tried to warm herself against the chill of the night. She felt ridiculous in her black dress and boots… She and Solas had known each other for years; he would know she didn’t normally dress up.
When she entered the building she didn’t so much as have time to address the hostess before she saw Solas at a table in the corner jumping to his feet. She let out a breath and smiled at him, and saw him return the smile shakily.
Good. She wasn’t the only one that was nervous.
She went to him, and he hugged her awkwardly. “I’m so glad you came, Lupe. You look so beautiful.”
She blushed, and he shyly held out a chair for her. “Of course I’m here. Have I ever missed an appointment before?”
Sitting across from her, she saw that he was a bit dressed up at well–he was wearing a button up shirt, when she’d never seen him outside of a t-shirt or undershirt before. His eyeliner looked freshly applied.
The waiter appeared immediately, and took her drink order. Solas already had his drink. “I would have ordered for you, but I didn’t know your preference,” he stammered. “It seems odd… I feel I know you so well from our sessions, yet there are so many everyday things about you that I’m not familiar with.”
He wasn’t wrong. “Well, maybe next time I’ll get my order tattooed on me. Not that there’s much space left,” she joked. More of her was covered in his handiwork than not. She was covered in personal images, and he’d been there to apply all of them, covering her skin as she bared her heart. Well, he’d done most of them, anyway. Not her vallaslin, obviously. “It is kinda weird to see you outside the studio. I’ve never seen you out in the real world before.”
“Admittedly, I do spend most of my time there,” he replied.
The waiter interrupted again, dropping off her silver margarita and attempting to take their dinner orders. She hadn’t even glanced at the menu.
They patiently left again, and her conversation with Solas stalled as she perused the menu. It was a nice place. Everything was really overpriced. Solas assured her she could get whatever she’d like, and she told him that she would. When the waiter returned again she ordered the cheapest thing on the menu.
In Dread Wolf Studio they could sit for hours in comfortable quiet, only the sounds the hum of the tattoo machine and her occasional wince. Here in the restaurant the silence was awkward. She couldn’t think of a thing to talk about; all of her usual first date questions, age, profession, schooling, she knew the answer to already.
She stared at her hands, twisting her fingers around each other nervously until Solas reached across the table and took her hands in his, his thumbs caressing the word ‘LAVELLAN’ inked into knuckles.
Lupe looked up at him through her eyelashes and smiled, and then rolled her eyes. “This is ridiculous,” she decided. “It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours since we hooked up, why are we acting like strangers.”
She stood just as abruptly, and pulled her chair around the table, next to Solas. She reached over and playfully tugged on one gauged ear.
He laughed, and smiled at her sidelong. “You are right. This is much better.”
“I thought so,” she answered, and held out a hand. He took it in both of his, raising it to brush a kiss over the back. With her other hand she reached over and skimmed a hand over the swirling tattoos of his freshly shaved scalp, for no other reason than she had always wanted to. “You know, I had the biggest crush on you when we first met,” she told him.
“'Had’?”
She nudged the cocky elf with her elbow. “Well, there’s a reason you’re the only artist I go to, and why I get so many touch ups,” she admitted. “What about you? Did you like me?”
He cleared his throat. “Well, you were a bit young back then…” he answered evasively, and she laughed.
“That’s fair,” she assured him. She had met him on her eighteenth birthday, after all. “Though you’re only a few years older than me, you know. What do you think of me now?”
“I think you grew up to be very hot,” he murmured huskily into her ear before tugging on a piercing with her teeth. Lupe giggled as his breath tickled her neck.
The night went much easier after that, the waiter dropping off their food and the conversation flowing easily. When they heard a crash from the kitchen he told her stories from his time spent working in a diner until she was crying from the laughter and had long since given up finishing her meal.
“What about you?” he asked. “What’s the worst job you’ve every had?”
“Uh… Being First,” she answered, and they both laughed, well aware of the stress she was under. She wiped her eye carefully, to avoid smearing her mascara, and then dropped her hand to his thigh. Distracted, she skimmed up his thigh a bit.
She heard his small intake of breath, and he asked quietly, “What’s on your mind, heart?”
“Oh, just wondering what tattoos you have that I haven’t seen yet… I never really got to see you with your pants off,” she murmured. “I mean, I know about the tattoo on your dick, obviously…”
She grinned at the noised he made as she fondled him though his jeans, trying to see if she could feel his piercing through the thick denim. When the waiter asked if they would like to order dessert, Solas answered with a very emphatic “No.”
Lupe continued to tease him as they waited impatiently for the check so they could go somewhere more private. She knew Solas didn’t drive, but she was more than happy to give him a ride.
