A Straight Line to the Heart (4/?) - Neve x Female Rook (de Riva) | Dragon Age: The Veilguard
I started writing a Dragon Age: The Veilguard fanfic! This is my first DA game and I'm pretty happy nothing much has been spoiled to me, other than a friend telling me that a romanced Neve calls Rook Trouble, lol. I'm still playing through the game, but my Rook is already so smitten with Neve, lol. Here's a snippet of Chapter 4. Next chapter will have me caught up to where I'm at. So far it's a team of rogues and mages with Rook, Harding, Neve, Bellara, and Lucanis. Also ended up featuring a bit more Viago and Teia since my Rook is an Antivan Crow. Chapter 4: Birds of a Feather (snippet - read the rest on ao3)
Silence had washed over them as Neve sipped on the tea Teia prepared for the three of them to drink. Viago was seated by his desk, looking over some paper, possibly plotting and scheming, while Teia watched Neve curiously.
“What is it?” Neve found herself asking, curious to why Teia was staring.
“Nothing,” she replied innocently. “Thank you for helping us,” she then noted. “Rook at least seems to fulfill her contracts seriously with you around.”
“I’m not the one to thank. Lucanis was the one who was mostly her partner in crime,” Neve remarked, a bit of bite to her tone that somehow slipped passed her own restraints and self-control. Teia didn’t seem offended though, she looked at her sympathetically.
The comment, however, made Viago chortle.
“I wouldn’t worry over the golden boy, detective,” he gave as a dry remark, barely looking up from the sheets. He sounded fairly confident in his words. Practically bored of it, even, as if he had already seen the answer.
It was surprisingly reassuring for her.
“I’m not worried,” Neve lied. Reassuring or not, even with Viago’s words, she was, in fact worried over Lucanis. She knew it even when she wanted to ignore it. But she wasn’t about to open the can of worms that was about why she was worried.
“You could at least try to sound more convincing,” Viago noted before finally looking up from his papers to address her properly with a chortle.
“I don’t know, Vi, he asked me earlier what Rook’s favorite flowers could be,” Teia teased. “Unfortunately for him, I’ve never seen Rook receive any flowers. She’s mostly the one giving them.”
Neve took a sip of her tea. It would seem she and Lucanis had the same idea, and they had both struck out. “I’m surprised he hasn’t asked Viago,” Neve then replied, mostly to Teia.
“And if he values his life and new found freedom, he would know well enough not to,” Viago commented before turning his attention back to his papers. “But if ever you would like to know the answer, Teia,” he then said. He was referring to the other Talon in the room but Neve could tell it wasn’t addressed to Teia at all. If anything, Teia’s suppressed giggling gave that much away. “I will ever only tell you once I’m satisfied with your reason for wanting to find out about it.”
“Ah, so you do know the answer,” Teia then clarified, mostly for Neve’s benefit. It was painfully obvious.
“I do,” Viago responded. “It was one of the things she would sketch when she was younger. She’d even ask me to buy some for her as they were hard to find.”
Neve, not wanting to be a part of this charade any longer, and definitely not wanting to address the reasons Viago wanted her to give, decided to change the subject. “She’s quite a talented artist, Rook.”
“You’ve seen her work?” Teia asked, genuinely curious.
Neve took a sip of her tea before setting it down, she couldn’t help but smile as she remembered seeing Rook’s sketches of Treviso, loosely falling from her sketchpad, after falling asleep on her sofa, with the last of the sketches nearly finished. She couldn’t help but notice the silhouettes and their resemblance to the two of them. Neve then gave a nod in response to Teia’s question. “They were lovely, quite detailed. She was working on them until she fell asleep that time we first came here.”
“Well, did she draw a flower?” Teia pressed on and Neve shook her head.
“No, Treviso,” she replied honestly. They didn’t need to know the other details in them.
“Just Treviso?” Teia then asked with a chuckle. “We already know how much she loves Treviso, how boring.”
“For the record, detective,” she then heard Viago say. When Neve looked up to where he sat on his desk, he had his full attention on her, a knowing smile on his lips. “Other than when necessary for a mission, Rook only sketches things she’s fond of. If you want to know the things she like, or say, what occupies her heart, just flip through her sketches. You’ll find your undeniable proof there.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Neve replied, making a few mental notes. “May come in handy one day,” she absent-mindedly added as she thought of her options at beating Lucanis in this unspoken game they were both in. Well, unspoken game for Neve. Lucanis was sadly an unwitting participant.
It all felt very childish for her part, but Neve felt a need to win here. If only to stop herself from obsessing over Rook and the details of whatever her relationship was with Lucanis. This was all so she could focus back on doing more important things.
She knew she couldn’t possibly sneak into Rook’s room at the Lighthouse to try and snoop. Neve didn’t want to contend with the disappointment to find pages upon pages filled with Lucanis’ profile.
But if she were truly being honest to herself about things, she wasn’t quite sure what she would do or how she would feel if she found pages upon pages of herself drawn from memory by Rook’s skilled hands. She didn’t want to think about it.
It was better this way, to stay in the stasis of not knowing.
She knew by now that she was quite attracted to Rook. It was hard not to. In fact, Rook made it very easy to like her. But that was as far as Neve was willing to concede.
She didn’t want to burst the bubble or cross the lines. Not when nothing was certain, not when the stakes were this high. She found flirting to be harmless, but anything more?
If the situation they were in were less end-of-the world and more mysterious case of the week, she could see some casual fun with Rook. See where things go.
Oh, who was she kidding.
Even then, Neve would be trying to fight for control of her heart.
Those blossoming feelings she was doing her best to bury very deep inside to stay buried, those feelings trying to melt the safety of the ice-cold exterior of her heart, was all the damning evidence she needed. She can’t let herself get too close to Rook. She can’t get too attached.
Because something deep within her knew, Rook could really break her heart.
She knew it the first time they met, when she shrugged it off. When she believed they’d never see each other again after they stopped Solas.
She knew the moment their eyes met.
Neve Gallus, you’re in trouble.
But now they were here. Rook has suddenly become a constant. An unavoidable presence she enjoyed to keep.
But she would have to contend to do so from a safe distance.
Neve didn’t want to disappoint herself. When have things ever gone her way? At best, she’d get a neutral result.
Catch the perp, close the case, only for them to escape.
Solve the mystery, save the day, only to face some kind of loss.
Tables always turned. There was always a price to pay.
She settled on the small things. The little moments she could treasure and take comfort with.
