@scarletcorruption spoke: a kiss to resolve suppressed romantic/sexual tension .
What were they? What did they want from each other? Faenethra, as much as she struggled to understand her own feelings at times, couldn't figure out what she wanted from Astarion. It had been complicated for a while now... He said he had feelings for her back in the shadow-cursed lands, but was that another act? Or did he mean it? And Faenethra felt such a pull to him... She felt comfortable around him like no one else. It was different than with Verathandi...there was something there...
But they had much more pressing matters to attend to than sorting through their own emotions. Orin and Gortash were still fighting for control over Baldur's Gate, the Netherbrain was a ticking time bomb of devastation, and Cazador nearly sacrificed Astarion in the ascension ritual. Astarion nearly ascended. But he didn't...and that thought lingered in Faenethra's mind, a tension hovering in the air. It made her see him differently. It let her know...he wasn't the same as he was when they met.
They hadn't had a moment alone since. Not until now. Faenethra had been quiet the whole walk out of the castle, going over her thoughts again and again. Astarion looked different. He looked...free. Simple, nowhere near all-powerful, but free. And this drumming in her chest... She had felt it for quite a while now, but it had grown into something she couldn't ignore.
She didn't know what to say to break this tension that lingered over them. So many thoughts and feelings bubbling to the surface, no clue how to voice them... So, she acted. She had always been better at that anyway. No words were spoken as she leaned in and pressed her lips against the vampire's own. A soft, chaste kiss... Her very first. But she hoped it spoke to him. She hoped he knew that she had made up her mind.
