tɦɛ iɳquiรitѳʀ (freemarched) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-03-15 18:57:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, maxwell trevelyan (the inquisitor), nasir |
Who: Max & Nasir
What: Max tries to pop the question, shenanigans interfere, but then he does ask eventually
When: Tonight!
Where: A restaurant with a tree in it, in Costa Mesa
Rating/Warnings: Pretty low, lots of schmoop
Status: Complete
Pizza was comforting. Pizza was good. He and Nasir had pizza on frequent occasions, but there was something different about the place they were at now - something different enough to make it special, Max hoped. It was one of the OC’s best restaurants, on Baker Street, the interior a distinct surprise when you walked in and saw the giant tree surrounded by candles; that alone made it warm and welcoming. The pizza was cooked in a wood oven, cooked to perfection, and the roof of the lounge opened up to allow a view of the stars above. Very romantic too. Again, Max hoped that was the general idea. They’d had drinks in the lounge with the incredible view already - maybe Nasir didn’t consume alcohol, but Max did, and he needed something strong to calm his nerves - and were now at the table, after their reservation was fulfilled. Trevelyan made those reservations a couple weeks in advance because, damnit, nothing would screw this up. He had the ring with him, right? Things were fine. Things were okay. “So I’m guessing you want a pizza, but their steelhead salmon is good too - or we could just get a bunch of those small plates for sharing, you know, like artisan cheese and grilled shrimp or something, I don’t know, what do you feel like?” he asked, and was he sweating? Max was sweating. Nasir had definitely been surprised by the presence of a tree in a restaurant, but he was rather enjoying the ambiance. He wasn’t quite sure what prompted this - though he’d never argue with good food and company, especially when he got to steal kisses from Max’s alcohol drenched lips. He may not drink himself but he didn’t mind getting a little taste every now and then. Although Max seemed to be enjoying himself considerably less than Nasir was. He seemed, almost, nervous? Nasir didn’t think Max had been this nervous when demons had been falling out of the sky and they’d been facing down death. Not even spiders got him into such a state. He had, for the briefest moment, a flash of fear that something was wrong. Max did know to ply him with food when there was going to be News; the last time had been about the lyrium prosthetic, but this was decidedly a few steps up from Taco Bell. What could be bigger than ‘I’m going to get a new arm that allows me to cast but it might kill me just as an FYI’? ...maybe the lyrium had affected him despite how careful he’d been, or something else had gone wrong. Maybe he was sick some other way, some totally mundane and completely terrible way - cancer? Was that outside the realm of possibility? Great. Now Nasir was nervous too. He picked up his menu to hide behind it, under the pretense of considering their options (like there was any other option besides pizza - Nasir was a simple man with simple tastes, this was true). He did his best to school his face into something neutral that bordered on happy rather than terrified. Had to stay strong no matter what Max was going to tell him, no matter how bad. Had to be strong and help him through it. They’d survived demons, literally and figuratively, so no matter what this was they could make it through again. Nasir took a deep breath and put the menu down, forcing a smile. “Whatever you want, but I was kind of sold on pizza, honestly.” “Pizza it is,” Max smiled too, also doing his best to not look like he’d just been electrified. Though he could pick up on Nasir’s nerves because clearly Max must have transferred his own somehow - so it was a circuit of nerves, ping-ponging back and forth and maybe he should ask already and stop being a chickenshit, and just do it. Except he realized he came out here at this super romantic restaurant and had no idea how to ask. Ambiance, check. Actual speech? Not so much. “I was thinking something sweet and spicy - unless you want the mushroom and leek as toppings,” he went on, just kind of barreling ahead, this was awkward, why was marriage a good idea again? He’d already asked Nasir’s parents for permission and they had given their blessing, though Trevelyan had a feeling that if he backed out Nasir’s mom would literally kill him. She was a tiny force of nature. “No anchovies though. I love you,” he added, because that wasn’t random or anything. “So much,” and he reached across the table to take Nasir’s hands, in both the flesh and blood of his own and the regular prosthetic. “I’m good with spicy, though maybe not sweet if you’re thinking pineapple.” Nasir wrinkled his nose. Fruit had no business on a pizza. (Tomatoes didn’t count no matter what anyone said.) He scoffed at the mention of anchovies. Fish had no place on a pizza either. “Definitely not. Do I look like a godless heathen to you?” The sudden declaration of love was...well not actually all that sudden, they told each other that all the time, But it was nice to hear considering some of the bad thoughts Nasir had been having, a niggling voice in the back of his mind that kept whispering ‘he’s breaking up with you and trying to be nice about it’ - he hadn’t come up with a reason why yet but the voice was still persistent until Max shooed it away without realizing. Max was good at banishing demons. He squeezed Max’s hands back. “I know. Love you too. But is something wrong? You’re acting…” He didn’t want to say weird but, well, it was the truth. “Are you okay?” What was wrong with pineapple on pizza?? It was sweet, savory, and delicious. Oh well, Max loved Nasir anyway. Even if any potential marriage was going to be gone into knowing they disagreed about certain pizza toppings, the horror. “I’m fine, I just. I wanted to talk to you about something. Ask you something.” It wasn’t the best lead-up, but Max was kind of flying by the seat of his pants here. He’d just keep going, since obviously he was worrying Nasir with his spastic behavior. “I - “ Pulling his hand back for a moment, he reached into his pocket for the box that had the ring he decided to give Nasir. It was actually one that had dropped through into this dimension from Thedas, somehow, but he was grateful because the timing was perfect and it was the perfect ring. It was then he realized that he’d left the fucking ring box in the car. All the color drained from his face. “Um.” What was he supposed to do now?? Abort the mission? Keep going? Maker’s cock. “I’ll be right back.” “Uh - “ Nasir had been about to tell Max that of course he could ask Nasir anything, secrets in their relationship never lasted for long. But there Max went again, acting weird and off. Nasir considered following him to make sure that everything was really okay but he was already gone. Okay then. Nasir sat back down, feeling awkward and like everyone was staring at him. He looked like he’d just run his date off somehow. Great. The waitress came over with a sympathetic look and refilled his drink, leaving him alone after he nodded her off. Nasir wasn’t sure what was going on with Max but he’d be back, he was confident. Until then he’d just...sit there. Sure enough, there was the ring box. In the glove compartment of Max’s car, because Nasir never went into the glove compartment - no reason to, really - so he knew that the precious token of affection would be safe there. Plus, he thought he was being clever and ensuring that he’d always have the ring with him, should they go somewhere and take his car - this way even a spur of the moment proposal would work. Except he hadn’t anticipated forgetting it in the car when they were at the restaurant. Sigh. The box now securely slipped back into his pocket, he shut the driver’s side door and then headed back to the restaurant. Except of course because karma and the Fates and the OC and whatever else were just great, that was when disaster decided to strike. A miniature disaster, in the scheme of things, ironically very mundane when you considered that giant spiders came from the sea here - but definitely detrimental to Max’s plans. On his way back, a cigarette butt flew into a crevice between the bar and the takeout area - immediately causing debris in the wall to smolder. But with a restaurant that featured a wood ambiance, with candles, that meant smoke and a spark spread pretty quick. Didn’t take long for complete pandemonium to set in, and figures the restaurant would catch fire the night he was trying to propose. “Wait, what?” Max was trying to go back in, against the crowd of people coming out. “Nasir??” As soon as the startled screams and shouts started, Nasir jumped to his feet, eyes scanning the room for trouble and hand going for the knife he kept in his pocket (because like hell was he going into battle without a weapon, and apparently it was frowned upon for him to carry his spear around). But seeing the smoke, he cursed, pretty liberally, and grabbed Max’s stuff out of his chair. Everyone was shouting and pushing trying to get out, and Nasir got caught up in the crowd until he heard a small voice. “Mama! Daddy!” Shit. Nasir elbowed his way over to the kid, a young girl crying in panic and put a hand on her shoulder. “Come on, we can’t stay here, okay? We need to go.” “But I lost my parents!” Nasir could sympathize, he remembered being a scared kid wanting his parents, but smoke alarms were clanging now and they had to move. “We’ll find them outside, they’re probably waiting for you. Come on, I’ll help you find them.” He held out his hand for her to take, but she sniffled and whimpered and held her arms up to be carried, and Nasir was only human. He got her settled on his hip and then hustled out after the rest of the crowd, trying to peer over everyone’s heads to find Max. Knowing him, he’d be trying to go back in, probably to help get the last stragglers out. “Tell me about your parents?” he asked the girl as he was looking. “Mama’s wearing a red dress and Daddy’s wearing a pink tie, I picked it out for him,” she mumbled into his shoulder. “I ran away ‘cause Mama wouldn’t let me have cake but then I got lost and then everyone was running and I was so scared!” Nasir did his best to comfort her, finally spotted Max through the crowd, and pushed through towards him. Being caught up in situations and then helping them get resolved, yes, that was pretty much Max in any life. It defined his life, during the Inquisition. He didn’t fight the onslaught, just assisted with getting people on a path away from the restaurant so it wasn’t just a huge clusterfuck in the parking lot. That way, the fire trucks that approached could have room to pull up too. Without running anyone over. What a mess. It wasn’t a huge fire, but evacuating a public space was never a simple thing. Especially when humans tended to panic en masse at the slightest provocation, then it was a domino effect. He saw Nasir, breathed a sigh of relief, and hurried over to him while he still had a little person attached to his hip. “Hey, who’s this?” Trevelyan asked, unable to help the smile because so cute. “You two are alright?” Oh thank god, Nasir had never been so happy to see Max’s face. Well, he was always happy to see it, but at that moment it was particularly good to see him. He rested his head on Max’s shoulder since his arms were currently full of tiny person. Tiny person who he did not know the name of. “Uh, sh - “ right, kid, no cursing, “shoot. Forgot to ask. Hey, kid, what’s your name? And your parents’ names?” “My name’s Jenna. And my mama is named Mama and my daddy is named Daddy.” Great. “She lost her parents,” he said, turning to Max. “She says her mom’s wearing red and her dad’s got on a pink tie, can you be tall for me and see if you can find them?” Jenna (and Mama and Daddy, how fucking adorable was she?), alright, well. Max wasn’t about to press for more information - the kid was probably barely potti trained, or was she even at all, hell if he knew - so he’d just work with ‘pink tie’ and ‘red.’ That was simple enough. “No problem, we’ll find them,” Trevelyan assured. He scanned the crowd quickly, motioning for them to follow to a sparser area where they’d have more room to see everything and wouldn’t be blocked by a fire truck or other bodies. There was a bit of a commotion just up ahead, and he thought he caught a glimpse of pink in the midst of it. It took a secure man to wear pink, so Maker bless that guy for doing so and for being recognizable. “Is that them?” he asked tiny person Jenna, pointing to where the pink-and-red couple were. Nasir held her up so she could see over the heads of the crowd and she shrieked, wiggling until Nasir grabbed her again so she wouldn’t fall, tucking her into his side. “Mama!” she shouted in his ear. “Mama, Mama!” “That seems to be them,” Nasir said, grabbing Max with his free hand so he wouldn’t lose him in the crowd again. Being short fucking sucked when it came to crowds. Indeed, in the midst of the commotion were a man in a pink tie and a woman in a red dress, both visibly panicking. A police officer was preventing them from entering the restaurant and trying to explain that the fire department would get everyone out and that he’d told them to keep an eye out for a young girl. The woman was crying, up until Jenna shouted (in Nasir’s ear, again), “MAMA!” The parents turned around and both shouted, rushing over to their little girl. Nasir relinquished his hold so her mother could take her, pressing kisses all over her face, and he stepped back to Max’s side. “There’s my good deed for the month done.” Although now that the excitement of mass panic and a lost kid was out of the way, the nerves that he’d pushed away were back. He swallowed and instead turned to survey the crowds, the firefighters, the emergency vehicles. “Looks like we’ll have to get dinner somewhere else, huh?” “You’ve got such motherly instincts,” Max teased, giving Nasir’s hand a squeeze. But really, that whole thing was a spot of cuteness in an otherwise heated situation (no puns, he wasn’t allowed to make puns right now). For the first time since they’d gotten in the car to even drive to the restaurant, it felt like he could breathe. Maybe because his idea of the ‘perfect’ proposal was kind of screwed over, and he would just have to do the best with this whole memorable experience. “Dinner can be somewhere else,” Trevelyan agreed. “Wherever you want. But first - “ He pulled out the ring box, presenting it sheepishly. Inside was something distinctly Thedosian - it was called The Hand That Cuts, a special ring, a rare ring, something unique and what it did was also unique. It made the wearer a little more faster, gave their attacks a little more oomph; putting it on, the ring would feel warm and like it even pulsed in time with the wearer’s heartbeat. “I was trying to ask you to marry me,” he coughed, voice thick with emotion. Or maybe it was the smoke inhalation - probably both. “But things always turn out weird here, I should have known. Despite all that, the question still remains.” Nasir rolled his eyes - he was the exact opposite of mothering, thanks - and jabbed Max in the side with an elbow. Still, there was a bit of a smile on his face. “Piss off,” he mumbled, pulling them away from the touching reunion. He was about to propose that ‘somewhere else’ should totally be tacos, perhaps from a certain Bell (teasing, of course, Max seemed to have a certain ~ambiance in mind for tonight and far be it from Nasir to ruin his vision, whatever the reasons behind it), but Max had a slightly different proposition. Nasir stared at the box for a few moments, then took it and opened it. Inside was a ring - not a diamond, nothing like that, something totally different. Even he could feel the magic around it, the same kind of static electricity that surrounded Max’s lyrium arm, but that was the least of his concerns. It was a ring, and, distantly, over the roaring in his ears, he heard the words ‘marry me’ leave Max’s mouth. His heart was beating double time and his hands started to shake. “What?” he asked, finally tearing his eyes away from the ring. “I - what?” He couldn’t believe it. The answer was obviously a resounding and enthusiastic fuck yes but he just had to wrap his head around the situation first. Blindsided by an opponent in the ring, or the Roman armies in his dreams? Sure, he could handle that, no problem at all. Being proposed to? Totally flabbergasted, needed a minute, brain must restart. No diamonds on this ring, or even any gemstones at all - it was a simple, silver-colored band and nothing more. But compared to how it looked, wearing it was a whole other thing entirely. Nasir hadn’t exactly said no, so Max would take that as a...kind of good sign so far? Maybe he just needed some time to figure out how to turn down the proposal. “I know you’re still in school and I thought about waiting until you finished but - “ Max stammered, his face having taken on a lovely shade of crimson. Like the firetrucks that surrounded them, how romantic. “But then...why wait? If it’s something we both want. I mean, I do, but if you don’t, that’s fine - I mean, I already asked your parents and they gave their blessing though I think your mom would kill us if we did a Vegas Taco Bell drive-through wedding so we might have to do something else.” He was babbling. Maker, just strike him dead now. Brain finally coming back online, sensors lighting up, speech returning… “How in the hell did you convince my mother to keep a secret?” Nasir asked. Okay, that hadn’t been quite what he wanted to say (that was more along the lines of “yes of course I want to marry you, I don’t care about the timing, holy shit you asked my parents you’re serious about this”), and he didn’t intend to let out the nervous laugh either. Did manage to hold in the tears that wanted to come out of his eyes, so he was chalking that up as a win. Nasir closed the ring box and shoved it back into Max’s hands. “Think you’re supposed to be the one to put it on me,” he said, grinning. “She cried a little, it was cute,” Max was grinning too, rather goofily in fact, and he felt like he was floating on cloud nine when he took the ring from the box and slid the symbol of love and devotion - and the symbol of ‘kick their ass and make it hurt’ - onto the third finger of Nasir’s left hand. “So that’s a yes?” He was wearing the ring now, which meant it was on and basically soldered to his finger. Okay. not really, but. “Might take some time to get used to wearing it, because of how it feels. It was found in an abandoned manor in Orlais, two years after the Inquisition defeated Corypheus. I killed a few demons to get it. But it’ll help you fight harder, and move a little faster too. I thought - well, I hope you like it.” Of course she cried, his mom cried if a cat video was too cute, Nasir was glad he hadn’t gotten that from her. Although the tears that had been threatening were definitely spilling over now, whoops. He bit his wobbling lip and nodded. “That’s a yes, that’s a lot of yes, come here - “ And he pulled Max into a kiss. The ring was indeed strange to wear, pulsing and warm as soon as it touched his skin - almost as if it were alive - and with the distinct aura of magic still around it. But it also felt safe, particularly when Max explained it. “I love it,” he said, raising his hand so he could see the ring again with a grin, and a laugh bubbled out. “I feel kind of lame, though, the only thing I can offer you is a handful of ornamental dicks.” Max would take a lot of yes, that seemed pretty good to him. Despite the chaos around them he was happy, and he kissed Nasir in return. “Ornamental dicks sound romantic. I know how many bodies you looted for those,” he chuckled. “Well - “ Surveying the scene, he let out something of a fond sigh. Oh, Orange County. Not like he would ever understand what forces were at play here, to just add little twists and turns to life, but maybe that was alright. Things had turned out fine. “We really do need to go somewhere else for our celebratory dinner though. Any ideas? I’d even make a run for the border, I guess, just for you.” “Murder dicks,” Nasir said with a chuckle. “I earned them, fair and square.” He couldn’t tear his eyes away from Max to take in the chaos around them, the sirens and crowds barely even registered. “How about this?” he asked, leaning into Max’s side and giving him his best bedroom eyes. “We go home, we celebrate, and afterwards we order in instead.” He narrowly avoided making a ‘you can eat me’ joke, but the raised eyebrows definitely implied it. How could he resist those big brown bedroom eyes? Max couldn’t, alas, it’d be pointless to even try. “Sounds like a plan to me. Probably should have gone with that all along, but at least this whole thing was memorable,” he pointed out. Yes, there was that. Hard to forget a botched proposal wherein the ring was forgotten in the car and the restaurant caught fire, and yet he probably wouldn’t have it any other way. |