Anders (crazycatman) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-04-24 11:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, anders, tinkerbell |
Who: Tinkerbell and Anders
When: April 12th
Where: Mostly at the camp site
What: Camping and flying for Anders' birthday.
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 for FTB sexy times
Status: Complete when posted
Tink had a wagon. It was a special wagon, though. She’d developed it to be aerodynamic, but there were still wheels so they could roll the thing on the ground, too. She’d packed one of those double sleeping bags, a tent for two, food, water, and some other fun things. Marshmallows, deck of cards, etc.
And she had plenty of Pixie Dust to get them there and back again, and to float their wagon full of camping goodness. Tink was in the garage now, next to her car and her bike, looking over the things she had packed and wondering if she’d forgotten anything. Matches? Check. Lighter? Check. Sweatshirt? Check. What was she missing?
Anders could not believe his luck when he woke up in his own body that morning. They had pushed back the camping trip by a day because of his sudden case of femaleness, and that had made him nervous that they might have to cancel the whole trip in general, but nope. He had woken up with all his parts attached, and he could not be happier.
He had brought some beer to Tink’s place, and placed the cases in the wagon. It really wasn’t a whole lot - enough to have a few beer throughout the days and possibly get drunk on his birthday. He had also brought some cooking gear - some skweres for hot dogs, a bush pie maker, and a couple of other things.
If he was completely honest, he was looking forward to this camping trip a little less than he had been when they planned it. His Dreams involved a lot of camping lately. Camping and killing darkspawn and giant possessed trees. But he was pretty sure he didn’t need to worry about possessed trees, and he was excited to spend the weekend away with Tink. A whole weekend, just the two of them. That was enough to make the trip worth being super excited about.
“I’m so happy to be me again,” he said, for approximately the thousandth time that day. “Just in time to take a weekend away with my beautiful girlfriend.”
They'd been planning for the trip, but could absolutely put it off by another day. If Anders wasn't Anders for another day. When she found out he was himself again, she'd been ridiculously relieved. Not that she didn't like the woman he'd shared a body with, but she was very fond of all of his parts in his male body, too. His hair, and his legs and his arms. And. Well. you know.
Tink chuckled softly. She turned to wrap her arms around his middle, pulling in close to hug him tightly. "I am, too." She responded, for probably the nine hundred and ninety-ninth time that day. And she pressed her face into his chest.
"We could put it off. If you want some time to re-adjust to being you again." The trip could definitely wait. He was back in his own body. As much of a relief as it was, Tink knew that he had Dream stuff he had to take into account, too.
“Put it off?” Anders asked, feigning horror. “Why would I ever want to put off my first weekend away with my wonderful girlfriend?” Hopefully, it was the first of many. He’d be lying if he hadn’t daydreamed about taking longer vacations with Tink already. They could go to Brazil, and Peru, and Thailand.
But first, they really should see how they vacationed together with shorter trips, and camping was a good place to start on that.
“Besides, we already have the fancy flying wagon already packed.”
...Tink might have to get a passport. She'd never left the country. Not that she was opposed, she'd just never had reason. And her folks had quite a few kids to care for, it never really came up. She was sure she would love it, though. Exploring new places sounded like so much fun.
"Okay." Tink released him and shipped around the wagon. She was really proud of her invention. "Just making sure you're up to it," she added, grinning. "You'll be stuck with me for some days, you know. I hope you're ready for all Tink all the time."
“I don’t see that being a problem,” he said. “If I could have all Tink all the time all the time, I’d be a very happy man.” He looked down then, and was, once again, relieved not to see breasts. “And as an actual man, no less.”
She felt an almost overwhelming urge to tell him she loved him. But she swallowed that back. It was too soon, she wasn't sure it was true. Not that she wasn't a very loving person, but... well, she didn't want to throw those words around. She wanted it to mean something. And she didn't want to turn him off. They had fun, they liked one another, they had great sex. She was his girlfriend. But love meant more than that, right?
"It's almost as much of a relief to me as it is to you, I guarantee it." Tink responded with a grin in his direction. "We can leave whenever you're ready. I think I'm all packed."
“I’m ready when you are,” Anders said. “So, does the pixie dust really work on things that can’t think happy thoughts?” It was fascinating, really. He didn’t expect her to know the inner workings of her pixie dust, of course.
"Yeah, actually." Tink said, giving him a bright smile. "They don't, like, fly on their own, though. It just makes them neutrally buoyant." She pulled a pouch of pixie dust out of her pocket and sprinkled some on the wagon. It started to glow, glittery, and float about an inch off the floor.
"So I put the handles on it. Either of us, or both of us, can pull it along." She said, giving Anders a bright smile. "And now it's your turn." She flittered up, wings flapping so quickly they became a blur, and started to sprinkle pixie dust on him, too.
Anders wasn’t sure what his favourite part of flying was. Okay, no, that was a lie. Anders knew exactly what his favourite part about flying was, and that was the flying. But the pixie dust was pretty high up there too.
He let himself hover a couple of inches off the ground because he could, and looked out the garage just to make sure that no one was on the streets. While he still had his little glowing magic problem, he had plans to cast Haste, a spell that made someone much faster, on the two of them so they could pull up to the sky faster. It probably wasn’t too hard to miss two people flying around, but it would be a little harder to miss two people flying around with a wagon.
Unfortunately, with Tink’s wings, she couldn’t wear a backpack. In her Dreams she’d used a Hot Air Balloon--kinda. It was more like a dirigible airship? She’d doused cotton with pixie dust, trapped it under a blanket, and tied that to a basket. Then she’d put together steering controls and… well. That was in the Dreams. Harder to make a Pixie-Dust Hot Air Balloon human-sized than Pixie-sized.
Her wings were freed, she was flittering about. One of her hands came down to the handle of the wagon. They’d looked together at the map and decided where they wanted to camp, so now they just had the flight to get there. It probably wouldn’t take more than an hour or two. And flying was fun, so that was no chore.
She kicked off from the ground after the Haste spell, and shot straight up into the sky--clicking the remote for the garage door to close behind them as they went.
Thinking happy thoughts really wasn’t much of a chore, and he shot off after her. Okay, flying this fast was fun. A lot of fun. Once they were away from the city, he might consider casting it again, though right now the whole glowing thing might draw too much attention to them. He really hoped Elaine would be able to whip something up for him. He had meant to go see her before the camping trip to at least do some experimenting, but going in Peggy’s body with no magic to speak of was pretty pointless.
He did a loop-de-loop in the air, and then, flying on his back, pulled up underneath Tink. “Hey gorgeous,” he said, grinning at her. “What’s up?”
Tink couldn't help beaming down at him underneath her as they flew. It was true. Flying was fun. For a moment, she simply pushed the wagon to fly ahead of them and zoomed down and around with him, making a double helix shape. So long as he could keep up with her. Figure eights and lazy loops were fun. But she had to keep going back for the wagon, to make sure it stayed on track.
The way he called her gorgeous made her insides twist in a very pleasant way. "Enjoying the sunshine. Ooh, did I pack sunblock?" Tink asked, though she didn't really care. They could find shade. Or something. She was having too much fun to care.
Anders was getting better at flying, but he still wasn't as good as Tink. He gave it an honest shot though and almost managed to stay with her.
"I have some in my rucksack," Anders said. "I suppose I could be persuaded to share some with you." He winked at her.
“So long as you don’t mind smearing it on my shoulders,” Tink added, giving him a smirk.
Anders was doing surprisingly well, actually, for someone who'd only been up a few times. Tink was proud. And she liked watching his body move through the sky. (Hey, could you blame her? It'd been a whole week that he was in someone else's body. She'd missed his backside. And his hair.) They flew on for a long time, enjoying the wind and the sun and the loop-de-loops and twists and turns.
She swirled once around him, then grabbed the wagon and pressed farther, moving toward the hills. There were plenty of places to camp out there. Small lakes, streams, campsites, hiking trails... all of that. Tink was thrilled. "Almost there!" She called out and pointed.
It was the longest flight that the two of them had taken, and even still, Anders was a little loathe to land. He knew they’d probably be flying more throughout the weekend, and there was still the flight home to consider, but flying brought about a kind of freedom that Anders had thought he could only dream about (even if it turned out his Dreams much less freeing than real life ended up being).
The campsite looked beautiful though, from the air. He couldn’t wait to go swimming in some of those bodies of water with Tink. And to celebrate his birthday with her, and only her.
“It looks even better than the website,” Anders said as the approached, and, reluctantly, began to descend.
Tink landed first, bringing the wagon in behind her. They'd reserved the campsite. It was the farthest one from any road, so they weren't going to be bothered by anyone else. But they'd also looked at the map and found the nearest place to buy supplies, the nearest restaurant. Just in case.
Tink turned around and held a hand out to him to help him down to his feet. "Do you want to set up camp first?" She asked. There was a firepit, and a flat, clear space for their tent. That was a good place to start, wasn't it? It was still early, they wouldn't have to sleep too soon. But it would be nice to be able to just crash later.
“Setting up camp first thing is definitely the best way to do it,” he said, though even as he said it he was walking around the perimeter of the campsite, since really, making sure the campsite was safe was the first thing that should happen. He hadn’t seen anywhere that would work well for an ambush from the air, but sometimes these things weren’t visible unless you were on the ground. He hadn’t walked far before he stopped and rolled his eyes at himself. They were in a campground. In the real world. No darkspawn or bandits were going to jump out and attack them. And he and Tink weren’t going to have to switch sleeping shifts to keep watch.
He really hoped Tink hadn’t noticed.
Luckily, whoever had used the campsite last had left a pretty big pile of firewood lying around, and Anders had been pretty sure that he had seen the campsite pile while they were flying in not too far away. He was getting pretty hungry after the flight, so he could start the fire and then help Tink tent if she still needed help after.
He set up the logs in a pyramid, and for the fun of it, reached for the Fade. He had been trying to figure out how to do his elemental magic ever since his creation magic had come in, but he hadn’t been able to figure it out. Still, there was no harm in giving it another go. Just a little fire would do it.
He did not expect the huge fireball, almost an explosion, that shot out of his hands and into the firepit. Luckily, it was all contained to the fire pit, and once the excess fire cleared, there was a small fire crackling merrily away. Anders stared at it, mouth hanging open.
Apparently, that was something that needed a little more… control.
Tink was working on the tent. She had it all out, and was putting the poles together, sliding them through the sleeves. This wasn't a heavy duty, mountain hiking tent by any stretch of the imagination. This was a family-going-for-a-camping-trip kind of tent. Moderately priced, big enough for two grown adults, but not a whole lot else. And Tink could put it all together on her own.
She jumped, though, and spun around at the sudden heat and light of the fireball. Before she even knew what she was reacting to, she felt her heart jolt with surprise and fear. "What was that?" She asked, breathing hard. "...did you just... make fire?" She was awed. That was so cool.
Anders was still looking at the fire, slack-jawed, when Tink spoke. He turned towards her, looked at his hands, and then broke into a wide grin.
“I made fire!” Anders exclaimed. He knew he’d eventually be able to - he had been dreaming of doing so almost since he started dreaming, but to actually do it in the real world was still very cool.
He went forward to embrace her, intending to lift her up a little and spin her around. He might not like the dreams very much, but he did love the magic that came with them.
Tink's face broke into a bright smile and she was about to say something--okay, probably not something awesome or even remotely cool, since it was, Tink we were talking about here. But she was about to say something when he picked her up and spun her around. She laughed, hugging him tight, and couldn't help but beam up at him.
"Wow. Wow! You... you're really impressive, you know that?" She teased, still a little unable to believe it. "Sexy man make fire."
“Fire good,” Anders joked, and then laughed. He almost, almost went to snap his fingers and will a little flame to appear above them, but he was awfully close to Tink, and as he had just demonstrated, he didn’t have much control, so he refrained.
“It’s still not as impressive as being able to fly,” he said. That was something he definitely couldn’t do in the dreams, though he wished he could. But, he had Tink, and that was more than good enough for him.
The fire good comment made her grin a bit more brightly. Caveman speak. Sexy.
"Yes, but I need dust to do that," Tink said, raising an eyebrow. "You made fire out of thin air. That's... amazing. That's like magic." She added, brightening up a bit. As if her pixie dust wasn't magic. As if her wings weren't magic. She finally pulled back a little out of his arms. She had to finish putting up the tent!
"You think we can roast marshmallows over the magical fire? Or will it make them turn funny colors, or something?" Tink asked, moving to finish with the poles and canvas or whatever, putting the tent together.
"That's not like magic, Love. That I see is magic." He winked at her. "Though, if we're being technical, I'm pretty sure magic pixie dust is magic too."
"I can help you with the tent, if you would like," he said. "The fire took far less time to build than anticipated, and I have some experience with putting up tents." Mostly in the dreams, with different styles of tents, but the information would probably carry over, wouldn't it?
Tink couldn't help the grin on her lips. She nodded, conceding. It was magic. He was magic. Everything about him did magical things to her.
"Okay. Here, take the pole." Together, they got the tent up in a couple of minutes, without even arguing or poking someone somewhere they didn't want to be poked. Now that was magic. Tink had never put up a tent without one or both of those things happening before. She unrolled the sleeping bag inside, complete with pillows.
"That took considerably less time than I thought it would." She said, dusting her hands off. "You said something about being hungry?"
"It's because we make such a good team," he told her, smiling. He actually was pretty impressed with how well they did. In his dreams, they sat up camp most nights, and they still bickered about it. Oghren half the time was too drunk to stand by the time the setting up camp part came around, and when he wasn't he was drunk enough that he just made everything difficult enough that the Commander would send him to gather firewood, Anders and Velanna would ignore one another or fight until the Commander gave them clear and defined tasks. Nathaniel would usually wander off on his own to hunt dinner. Now that he thought about it, Sigrun and the Commander were usually the ones who did most of the work. He actually kind of missed all of them, including Velanna the Bitch and Nathaniel the Stick In The Mud, he was surprised to discover.
"I'm a little hungry, yeah," he said. "Would you like to roast hot dogs with me? And in answer to your last question, it's just a normal fire, even if it was made by manipulating reality. Still great for making smores."
Tink was no stranger to missing people from the Dreams. She was so tightly knit with her group of fairy friends in Pixie Hollow that it hurt when she remembered they weren't around in this world. Iridessa would be especially interested in Anders' fire trick. And Fawn would be so proud of Tink for taking such good care of Lady Widge. (And befriending Sir Pounce.) Silvermist would say something silly. Rosetta would likely be upset that she was getting dirty. And Vidia... well, she'd just complain about everything.
"Yes. Hot Dogs and S'mores." That sounded like the perfect way to spend the evening. Tink collected the supplies from the wagon, and brought them over to the fire pit. She settled on the ground close to the fire, but not close enough for burning. "I have some zucchini, too. Have you ever tried roasting zucchini on a stick before?"
Anders sat close enough to Tink that once he placed a couple of hot dogs on his roasting stick, he could wrap his free arm around her. His appetite had calmed down in the last couple of weeks, so while he still ate a lot more than he used to, at least he wasn't eating a carton of eggs and a tall stack of pancakes for breakfast anymore.
"You brought vegetables? On our Camping trip? I'm sorry Tink, but we're going to have to break up," he teased.
As soon as the arm was wrapped around her shoulders, Tink felt the comfort that came from being in Anders' arms. She leaned her head against his shoulder almost instinctively, cuddling close against him. He was warm. She had to fold her wings down, put them away, but that didn't bother her.
She'd designed some collapsible food-roasting-sticks that started at six inches but would extend to about two feet long. The better to sit back and relax and not worry about singeing fingers while cooking a meal over a campfire. There were a handful of them around for hot dog and marshmallow roasting.
"Hey, this is an experiment," she argued after giving a scoff and a grin. "I have to make sure that my sticks are working properly with all kinds of food."
“Oh, well, if it’s in the name of science, then who am I to refuse,” he said, grinning. “I suppose I have no choice but to try these strange roasted zucchini.” Actually, it sounded pretty tasty. It definitely wasn’t something that he would have thought of himself, and he was glad that Tink had.
"Exactly." Tink unfolded the sticks, and set the hot dogs and zucchini on them, then handed one over to him so they could cook together. She didn't want to leave the comfort of his arm around her shoulder.
"I got the good kind of hot dogs, too. No the cheap stuff." Tink liked good food. Even though she didn't really know how to cook it. Hopefully this would be good. "There are buns in the wagon. And ketchup and mustard, too." She'd thought of everything.
Anders didn’t particularly want her to leave the comfort of his arm either, but he did get up briefly to grab some buns and condiments. When he sat down again, he repositioned his arm on Tink’s shoulders.
“So, how do we know when the zucchini is done?” he asked, holding his stick over the fire.
"Honestly? I have no idea." Tink said, giving him a bright grin. "When it's... roasty on the outside and soft on the inside?" She pulled the stick out of the fire--it had two prongs, one for the sausage and one for the zucchini. She poked at the vegetable. "I might just put them both on a bun and call it 'Tink's Campfire Sandwich'..." She was inventing meals, too. Look at that.
Anders brought a creative streak out in her. Okay, everything brought out a creative streak in her.
"Who needs cooking lessons when we've got ingenuity like that," he said, kissing the top of her head.
It wasn’t long before his hot dog and zucchini were done, so he took them off the fire and put them in a bun. While he was at it, he might as well try Tink’s Campfire Sandwich. “Have you ever tried bush pies? We can make some of those for supper.”
Tink chuckled softly. "Well, it's hard to ruin something as simple as a sausage and a zucchini." Though, the latter could probably use a little seasoning. That's what the condiments were for, right? Tink loved ketchup. Actually, she liked most sweet things. And there was enough sugar in ketchup to give a walrus diabetes.
Okay, horrible hyperbole.
"No," Tink said, following suit and putting together a TCS(tm) for herself. "What's a bush pie?"
Anders enjoyed ketchup on his hot dogs and burgers, but if he ever saw her eating ketchup on zucchini he’d probably retract his ‘no cooking lessons’ comment.
“Bush pies are great. They’re like these square irons on sticks, and you put buttered bread on them, like you’re making grilled cheese, and just fill the sandwich with whatever you want. Jam if you want something sweeter, or cheese if you’re in the mood for grilled cheese. They’re absolutely delicious.” Anders had only gone camping a handful of times in college, but bush pies were one of his favourite parts of it. Well, bush pies and beer darts. If Tink had never played beer darts before, Anders was going to have to introduce her to the game tomorrow on his birthday.
"This sounds like something we absolutely must do." Tink said, grinning brightly. She was imagining a waffle or panini press on long sticks that you could stick into the fire, and was already making improvements on the design in her mind. That was the kind of thing she'd like to make. And improve.
"I think this is the perfect dinner." She said, and then started in on her sandwich. It was like a hot dog. With zucchini. And all the fixings. Only better because she'd just made it herself. She beamed as she held up her sandwich in a toast.
Anders tapped his own sandwich against hers before he took a bite out of it. "To Tink's Campfire Sandwich," he cheered. "So Ms. Tink, are you already thinking of new designs to try for the bush pie makers next time we come out here?" he asked her.
Tink burst into a bright laugh, lifting a hand to cover her mouth so she wouldn't spew partially-chewed sandwich all over the campfire. She grinned as she turned to look at him, hopefully getting all the food down with a swallow before speaking. "You know me so well. I don't know what the thing's supposed to look like, but... yeah. I could probably improve it." She beamed. Her heart filling with the idea that he knew exactly what she was thinking when she was thinking it.
Anders loved Tink’s laugh. It was adorable, just like the laugh a fairy should have. “I’m pretty sure there’s always ideas going around in your head,” he said. “Not that hard to figure it out.” Though he was actually incredibly pleased that he had thought correctly.
He finished off his sandwich - he was beginning to miss when food lasted longer than a few short seconds when it was put in front of him, looked over at the beer, and then sighed. He stood up and got one. “Man, I wish I was like those guys in Star Wars,” he sighed. “The one’s who can move stuff with their minds. There isn’t magic like that in my dreams, but man, would it ever be handy. Do you want one, Love?”
That made Tink grin. "What, you don't have the metachlorians to be a jedi?" She asked, playfully. Growing up in such super geekdom as Tink's house meant that she knew all sorts of Star Wars trivia that other people probably didn't even know existed.
"Yeah, I'll have one. You want me to make you another sandwich?" She asked, only a tiny bit concerned about how fast he was inhaling food. She knew it came from the Dreams, but she was still concerned.
“The meta-who?” Anders asked, raising an eyebrow. He hadn’t even seen Star Wars until he was in his twenties (and then only the original trilogy. His friends wouldn’t let him watch the prequels), and while he had liked it, he certainly hadn’t looked into much of the lore.
He grabbed a couple of beers, and then looked at the sandwich that Tink was still working on. He was still a little hungry, but it wasn’t that bad and really, he was almost always hungry nowadays. “No, that’s fine,” he said after thinking about it. “We only have so much food, and if we can avoid making a run into town for more I’d rather do that. I can hold off until supper.”
Tink chuckled. "Nevermind. Sometimes I forget you're nowhere nearly as dorky as I am." She said, then took another bite of her sandwich. She chewed, watching him with the beers, then held a hand up to accept one when he came back over. She swallowed hard. "Okay. I brought soup for dinner. Or whatever. And marshmallows and stuff for s'mores."
Then she finished the last bite of her sandwich and leaned back on her elbows to look up into the sky. "I wish it was nighttime. You can wow me with your knowledge of the constellations." She teased, assuming he knew more than she did on the subject.
“Ah yes,” Anders said. “I can dazzle you with my knowledge of the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, and, if we’re lucky, I might even be able to show you Orion’s Belt.” Those were really the only ones he could recognize on his own. Still, looking up at the stars with Tink, even if he couldn’t name all of the constellations, would be very nice. “Being out of the city will give us a great view of the Milky Way though.” He took a large drink from his beer. “Have you ever made love under the stars?” he asked.
Tink could probably pick out Orion. And definitely the Moon. She could get the moon for sure. But the rest of them? Probably not. Funny, because she was so into science and science fiction, but she didn't know much of anything about the constellations in the sky. They didn't put that kind of thing on Cosmos with Carl Sagan or Neil Degrasse Tyson.
Anders' question nearly made Tink choke on her beer. "I don't get many opportunities to make love under the stars," she turned to him wearing a sheepish grin. But also a cheeky one. "Is that in your plans for tonight?"
"Only if it's in yours," Anders said. "I wouldn't want you to do anything you're uncomfortable with. But it could be fun. Lay down a blanket and all that."
Tink reached a hand over and took hold of his free one, lacing her fingers with his. "I think that's the perfect plan for tonight. And probably tomorrow night. And... how long are we camping?" She asked, playfully.
"I'm glad you think so," he said, and leaned over to kiss her. This really did seem to be the most perfect way to end off a week of being stuck in someone else's body.
Kissing Anders was fun. As were going on hikes, exploring the area, setting up camp, and fixing supper. Somehow, Tink and Anders kept themselves busy for the rest of the afternoon, then stoked the fire when it started to grow chilly, the sun setting in the west. Tink grabbed a blanket and moved back over to the fire to cuddle up. The fire would die down soon, and they could lay back on the blanket and look up at the stars.
Tink and Anders had done a lot that afternoon. A couple a months ago, that would have been enough to make Anders a little tuckered out, but since becoming a Grey Warden, he found that he was still filled with energy no matter how busy his days tended to be. Killing darkspawn all day did take a lot out of someone, so having all the extra stamina in Thedas was probably a blessing, but in the real world it wasn’t nearly so necessary.
The stars were remarkably bright outside of the city. He always forgot just how much the stars lit up the sky away from the light pollution. “I can’t believe how beautiful out is is tonight,” he said.
Tink settled the blanket down so they could lay back against it, finding that the fire wasn’t blocking out much of the view. She’d been a little worried that it would make it hard to see the stars, but they were all so… bright. And beautiful. It was dark, but they could still see enough.
“It is, isn’t it?” Tink said, moving in close against his chest and cuddling. She’d always been a cuddler, even when she was too awkward to know how to get the hugs she so desperately wanted. “All right, show me the constellations, then.” She added, playfully. “There must be one up there that shows a guy celebrating a birthday by camping with his girlfriend.”
"Ah, yes," Anders said, and gestured to a vague body of stars. "This one here is known as The Secret Embrace, and symbolizes Aphrodite and Ares having one of their secret trysts, by firelight, shortly after drinking much beer and hot dogs," Anders said playfully, in a voice that was too fake-pompous and scholarly to be serious.
"Ah, Aphrodite would be jealous to see us lying here. She'd probably turn you into a shrub for being more beautiful than her."
Tink cuddled in even closer, leeching whatever warmth she could get from him. The air was growing chilly. Maybe they'd have to grab the sleeping bag. It was big enough for two adults, provided those adults didn't mind being pressed close against one another. "Weren't Aphrodite and Ares brother and sister?" She asked, crinkling her nose up.
Then she laughed. Her cheeks went pink, and she laughed gently. "You're so cheesy." But she loved it. Don't stop, Anders.
“I think that it depends which mythos you’re going with,” he said. “They could be half-siblings though. The Olympians didn’t seem to let silly things like being blood relations get in the way of who they boned though.”
He ran his fingers through her hair. “Cheesy like a fox,” he said playfully. “Though, I don’t think it’s cheesy if it’s the truth.” A pause. “Are you warm enough, love?” Which may have seemed like a slight change of topic, but he was beginning to notice how cold her skin was getting.
"Well, that's true. Those incestuous bastards," she teased, grinning softly. But her eyes fell closed at the feel of his fingers through her hair. "I'm fine," she whispered, moving even closer to him. She nuzzled her nose into his neck. "I've got you to keep me warm."
“Mm,” he said, and cupped her chin with his hand so he could raise her face into a kiss. “Well, I have all sorts of ideas about how to keep warm,” he said, voice a little heavy.
"Oh?" She couldn't help the smirk on her face. Try as she might, Tink often flopped when it came to being sexy. At least she wasn't self-conscious tonight. "I would love hear them." But then she kissed him, and there was really no to talk after that. Her arms lifted wrap around him, savoring the warmth of his body against hers. Sleeping bag? What sleeping bag?
Tink was always sexy as far as Anders was concerned. Especially the smirk. “How about I show you instead?”
It was a little chilly outside, but Anders hardly felt it as he and Tink kept each other warm. Making love outdoors was remarkably freeing, and Anders demonstrated the legendary Grey Warden stamina to the best of his capabilities.
Show her he did. All night long. It was absolutely amazing. Tink was in awe. She wasn't used to his Grey Warden stamina, but boy did she like it. When it was over--however many hours later?--they were both sweaty and panting, curled around each other in the chilly night. Tink gave a shiver, feeling the cool air against her damp skin. But she didn't want to release him so one or the other could get the sleeping bag. "Wow," she breathed, and a puff of white air came from her mouth at the sound. "...that was different." She was happy. Very, very happy.
Anders grabbed the edges of the blanket that they had been lying on, and wrapped it around them like a burrito to shield from some of the cold. They would have to get up eventually to actually stay warm, but he had no intention of getting up just yet, and it would do well enough for now in keeping them warm.
He grinned at her. “One of the perks to being a Grey Warden,” he said, attempting to pull her closer to him, though he wasn’t sure if it was possible for them to get any closer than they already were. “They sing songs in Thedas about the legendary Grey Warden stamina.” Crude drinking songs, mostly, but songs nevertheless. “Also, prominent figures in trashy harlequin romance novels. To be completely honest, I wasn’t entirely sure that the songs were true, but I suppose we’ve laid that mystery to rest.”
"Holy cow." Tink grinned, snuggling in against him, kissing whatever part of his neck her lips would reach. That was probably the best night of sex she'd ever had. Her legs felt a little numb. Pleasantly so. Her body was absolutely relaxed, absolutely satiated. And she was cuddled close against him both for warmth and emotion. God, emotion. She was feeling it more than she wanted to, and really hoped she didn't slip and say something stupid.
"Well, glad to dispel any of the mystery in those legends,” she smirked softly. “Wait, Thedas has trashy romance novels?”
Anders laughed. “Oh yes, people love their trashy romance novels, no matter what the world is.” Anders didn’t know it yet, but the man who would become Anders’ best friend wrote some pretty bad, smutty novels. “I’m pretty sure that print media was created in all worlds just so people could write about how the handsome mysterious stranger screwed the hell out the beautiful, naive milkmaid-slash-farm hand.”
Tink grinned. "I don't think there are trashy romance novels in my Dreams. Any of them, really. Save the ones that happen in this world." After the curse, the Storybrooke ones. She kept those in a separate compartment in her head, as they felt so very different from all the others.
"Wait. You're a big fan of these books about handsome strangers and milkmaids?" She would have to tease him about this forever.
“You have dreams that take place in the real world?” Anders asked, trying to remember if she had ever told him of them before.
“Well, in the dreams I am,” Anders said, and only a little bit of the embarrassment crept through into his voice. “It’s not like we have any other form of porn in the dreams.” In the real world, he was really not a fan at all of those terrible wastes of paper. He was glad though that Tink hadn’t found out about his secret love of rom coms.
"Yes. Sort of." Tink responded. "In some of my Dreams we start in one world and end up in another. That's how I knew Neal." She didn't talk all that much about Neal, did she? "I knew him from Neverland in the Dreams, and then I followed him and his... rather strange family... back to this world. Or, the world that looks a lot like this one." It was confusing. Tink wasn't sure she was describing it right.
She yawned. "...oh. Well. Yes. I can see how that might make it... popular." She had her own fair share of erotica. But it was all on her computer. And it was... different.
“That sounds…” Anders thought for a moment. “Very confusing, actually,” he said. There really only was one Thedas, which was actually a Godsend because the idea of there being more places like that was pretty terrible. “So Neal wasn’t in Pixie Hollow with you?”
“Very popular. Among the literate, I suppose. Not a high literacy rate in Thedas, if I’m being completely honest.” Anders didn’t think his parents that he had dreamed about could read. The Circle taught all of it’s mages to read, and the nobles could obviously read, but not a lot of people who were outside of the Chantry, the nobility, or the Circle had that skill. “Though, and I didn’t think it was possible, I think they’re actually more poorly written than the ones you read here.”
"No." Tink shook her head. She couldn't help but smirk a little at the idea of Baelfire being in Pixie Hollow. That just... wouldn't work. Unless he was one of the pirates on the ship that'd convinced Zarina to make the duplicate Pixie Dust tree. Hook, man. What a dick. "No, I only knew Neal in Neverland. In the one with the bad Pan." There was also a Neverland with a good Pan. How confusing was it all?
"I think I was born with the ability to read," Tink said, frowning a little. "In Pixie Hollow. I don't remember learning to read. I think I always could." She gave a tiny shiver. The chill was seeping in through their blanket. She turned the shiver into a chuckle. “I don’t know if I’ve ever read one off the shelf here.” Tink had very specific taste in her erotica. It wasn’t mainstream enough to make it into paperback.
“The Neverland with the bad Pan?” Anders asked. “There’s more than one?” He couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, say what you will about Thedas, at least it’s somewhat straightforward.”
“Really? That’s handy,” he said. “If only that was a thing that carried over to this world. I wouldn’t bother with the trashy erotica novels.” He and Karl had found a couple that had managed to find their way in the orphanage library (perhaps one of the nuns wasn’t screening them properly), and they had read them aloud to one another when they had been kids, but they had done it in an overly dramatic fashion because as hilarious as they were, they were even funnier when the person reading them took it completely over the top.
He didn’t miss the shiver, and he rubbed Tink’s back. “I’m getting pretty cold,” he said, though he wasn’t really. “What’s say we put on our pyjamas and take this cuddling into the tent?”
"Ah. Yes. Well. That's a long story," Tink said, giving him an apologetic smile. "Hey, straightforward is good. Even though it's ... dangerous?" She would take Neverland with the bad Pan any day over what she'd heard of Thedas.
"Hey, maybe my kids some day will be born knowing how to read. Or with fairy wings. Or both." She said before she even though to censor that thought. It was a strange thing to bring up with the man she was currently dating. Currently sleeping with. The idea that the pair of them could make babies together. It made things more real, somehow. Grounded in reality.
"Yeah, let's go to bed." She said, and leaned in to kiss his lips once more. Gentle. Romantic. Then she climbed up out of the blanket burrito to dash quickly into the tent, leaving her discarded clothes behind. They could clean up in the morning.
“Born being able to read, with wings, with a gorgeous and kind mother?” he asked, grinning. “Those kids would win the genetic lottery, I think.”
Losing Tink’s body heat definitely drove home how cold it had gotten, and Anders followed right behind her into the tent.