Chapter Text
When Zevran felt the younger human assassin's hands scrabble over his as he crushed her air pipe, he knew the Crows were getting desperate. She was barely out of training and nowhere near ready to take him on directly.
His work of dismantling the Crows was working better than expected, but that didn't mean he couldn't recognize a distraction when he saw one.
Too late, he realized when the air shifted behind him.
"No sudden moves, Arainai."
He smiled when he turned his head with bloodied hands raised to see one of the lesser Crow masters flanked by two other assassins. Sword and dagger in each hand while the guards trained their poisoned arrows at his neck.
"Master Ingrosso. What a pleasant surprise. How is your sister?" Zevran had left her on the bottom of the river running through an Antivan village a fortnight ago. Ingrosso's face twisted into a snarl.
"Shut your filthy mouth before I cut your tongue. You finally die here like the dog you are."
The air was musty in the warehouse, and the pebbled ground dug into his clothed knees where he knelt over the still body. It would be a bad place to meet his end.
The shadows shifted near the far wall, and Zevran grinned warmly.
"I shouldn't be so concerned with little old me, as much as the man with his weapon aimed at you over there." The blond elf nodded behind his company.
"Pathetic." Ingrosso scoffed. One of his guards glanced behind them nervously.
They didn't have time to call out before their throat was pierced by a barbed arrow.
Ingrosso called out in alarm, whipping around as the second guard fell with an identical arrow between the eyes.
Zevran seized the distracted Crow leader by his oily dark locks, dagger poised at his throat as his weapons clattered to the ground.
"Send Aquila my regards." Zevran purred, feeling the man quiver before blood arced from his opened throat.
He wiped his blade on the cooling body's clothes as footsteps crunched over the floor and stopped next to him.
When he stood up to meet his lover's eyes, Galion crossed his arms and glared at him.
"They were smarter than I expected to not take the bait of your bluff, but I'm very upset at you for the risk of exposing me just then." The dalish archer scolded, hazel eyes hard.
Zevran entered the older elf's space, blinking his big brown eyes doe like with a wicked grin.
"Come now, amore. I wouldn't have pulled such a stunt if I did not believe they would fall for it. Te quiero." He kisses the taller elf softly, Galion's expression softening into a warm, sleepy thing as they part.
Zevran smiled as a tanned hand cupped his jaw. Galion leaned in once again, lips ghosting Zevran's when he stopped.
"You're still sleeping outside the tent tonight."
"Brasca."