An Evening at the Wounded Coat

Inktober Day 4 - “Underwater”

You can read the ficlet that was written to accompany this art by Lisakodysam: archiveofourown.org/users/lisa…

“Come on, it’s not far.” Garrett tightened his grip around Fenris’s arm, assisting the elf to step over large roots and the organic debris that littered the forest floor.  “We’re almost there.”

“Are you certain you know the way back to camp?”

Garrett shrugged, his mouth twisting into a smirk.  “Probab—”

“Probably?  That is unusually decisive for you.”

Garrett drew to a halt and turned to Fenris, who’d dug both thumbs into his belt, his lyrium-marked arms like moonlit wings as they bent at his sides.  “Sarcasm does not become you, dear,” he said to the elf.

“Oh, but it does.  After all, we’re half a mile out of camp with no clear sense of which direction we’ve taken.”  Fenris pushed his chin out, an indication that he was not only annoyed, but sure of himself.  “I thought I would warm us with my sarcasm, as we also have no means with which to make a fire.  Tell me again where you intend to take us? And for what purpose?”

Garrett frowned a little.  “It’s a bit late to be asking that, isn’t it?”

“Truly?”  Fenris took a sharp intake of breath, which he let out in a chillingly controlled manner.  “Have I not asked you that at several points along our journey, only for you to change the subject with, ‘Ooh, that’s a pretty flower’, or ‘get a lungful of that forest air!’  The forest air smells of dung and rotten leaves!  I do not wish to ‘get’ any more lungfuls of it than I must!”

The mage held his hands up.  “All right, I admit I was a tad evasive.  I wanted it to be a surprise, that’s all.”

Fenris sighed and tried not to show his annoyance.  “I understand that and I’m grateful for the thought, but you’ve been saying we’re ‘almost there’ for the past fifteen minutes.  Isn’t it time to admit we’re lost?”

“No it isn’t, because we’re not.”  Garrett pointed ahead.  “See?  The trees are starting to thin out.”

“And?”

“And… listen.”

“Listen to what?”

“Shh!”

Accustomed to indulging Garrett’s flights of fancy, Fenris rolled his eyes but did indeed pause to listen.  “I hear nothing,” he said after a moment.

Garrett gave a melodramatic groan.  “Oh, Fenris, you’ve no magnificence in your soul, have you?”

“My soul is too cold and lost in the forest to even think about such abstract and whimsical entities as ‘magnificence’.”

Garrett started to walk away.  “Oops!  He’s brought out the big words.  I think I’m in trouble.”

Fenris, not wanting to become even more lost (if that was possible), started jogging after Garrett.  “What was I supposed to be listening to, by the way?”

“Hm?  Hey, look at this!  A SEASHELL,” Garrett said loudly enough to wake the dead.  “Have you noticed the ground’s getting a bit flatter?  And sandier?”

“Will you do me the courtesy of giving me a straight answer for once, mage?”

“Mage!”  Garrett chuckled.  “Now I know I’m in trouble!”

“For the love of—ugh!  Will you slow down?”

By now, Garrett was way ahead of Fenris, but he stopped and frantically beckoned to the elf.  “Here!  We’re here!  Come on!”

“Where else would we be but here?”  Fenris huffed but went after his infuriatingly-bouncy lover–he had nowhere else to go, after all.  When he arrived at the mage’s side, he looked around, his brow crinkling. “We appear to be at the Coast.”

“I know!  Look over there–the sun’s about to set!”  Garrett slung an arm around the elf’s shoulders, a huge grin on his face.  “Isn’t it brilliant?”

Realising this must be Garrett’s surprise, Fenris decided he’d better muster up some enthusiasm, as much as he’d prefer to be seated around a fire with a fur draped over his shoulders.  “It’s… nice.  Thank you for bringing me here.”

“I thought you’d appreciate some privacy and quiet.  That’s why you’ve been grumpy, isn’t it?  I know Izzy and Varric have been a bit boisterous.  Uh… I know I’m boisterous, too, but I figured one was better than three.”

At this, a genuine smile graced Fenris’s face.  “You shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble.  I appreciate it, though.  No one’s ever given me the sunset before.”

Garrett placed a soft kiss on Fenris’s temple.  “I’d give you the moon if I could.  Might be a bit heavy, though.”  Garrett beamed at Fenris’s ensuing chuckle.  “I do love it when you laugh.”

Fenris looked up at the mage, snuggling against his broad chest.  “No one but you can make me laugh.  Not really.”

“It’s a gift.”  Garrett kissed Fenris again and released him.  He then began unbuckling his pauldron.

Fenris watched for a minute or two as straps, leather accoutrements and pieces of metal were cast to the ground.  “Um… what exactly are you doing?”

Garrett did a double take at the elf before pulling his tunic over his head. “We’re going skinny dipping!  Why else d’you think I brought you here?”

“Skinny dipping?  What’s that?  And why are you…”  Fenris gulped as Garrett unbuckled his belt and, in one movement, pulled it off and threw it down.  “Why are you…”  Fenris’s mouth gaped open, his tongue dry and sticky.

Garrett’s boots were kicked off and he slid his hands down his hips, taking his trousers with them.  “I’m afraid this is the only moon I can give you for now.”  The trousers fell and the curve of muscular buttocks was silhouetted against the setting sun.  “Prepare yourself!”  Garrett warned.  “I’m about to unleash… The Beast!  Behold!”  He spun around, giving Fenris a full view of his meat and two veg.

The elf immediately sprang forward to preserve his lover’s modesty.  “There are bandits and Tal-Vashoth in these parts!  What do you mean by exposing yourself in this fashion?”

“I already told you!  We’re going sk—ohhh.  You’ve never been skinny dipping before, have you?”

“Of course I have,” the elf protested.  “Danarius regularly held skinny dunking tournaments—”

“Dipping, not dunking.”

“Oh.  Skinny dipping tournaments at his estate in Minrathous.”

Garrett crossed his arms.  “You don’t know what skinny dipping is, do you?”

“No.”

Garrett nodded, biting down a smile.  “Well, usual procedure is to get naked.  That’s the ‘skinny’ part.  You know, skin?”

“Skin.  Of course.”  Feeling a little foolish, Fenris looked over his shoulders.  “As I was saying, we are likely not alone here.  You know my feelings about disrobing in public.”

“Look, I told you I was drunk that night, and Varric egged me on.  He wanted to check the statue of me at the docks was in proportion.”

“Only, the statue at the docks doesn’t have its wedding tackle out.”

Garrett shrugged.  “Not my fault if the sculptor was a prude.  I did offer to model for her.”

“Of course you did.”

Garrett bent down to pick up his staff.  “If you’re worried about the Tal-Vashoth screaming in terror at the sight of your willy, I have the perfect solution.”  He raised the staff to the heavens, directing a buzzing blue arc of electricity at the clouds over the forest and hills.  Then he dropped his staff and raised an arm above his head with a flourish, providing him and Fenris with a barrier against the rain that suddenly started falling in sheets.  “There.  No one’s going to see us in this rain.”

“Well, when you put it that way, I suppose I have little choice.”  

“I suppose you don’t.  Now get those clothes off.”

With a long-suffering sigh, the elf started the laborious process of removing his armour.  “And the purpose of skinny dipping is… what, sex?”

Garrett spluttered a laugh.  “Well, sometimes, but not always!  It’s just… fun, you know?”  He grinned at the elf’s blank expression.  “Oh, I forgot… you’ve never had fun before either, have you?”

Fenris pulled his leggings down and stepped out of them before holding them out to one side.  “Are you saying I’m…” He let the leggings drop, “… dull?”

Garrett noisily cleared his throat and exhaled.  “You’re as dull as dishwater my darling, but by the Maker, you’re naked!” He lunged at Fenris and scooped him up, roaring with laughter as he carried the wriggling elf towards the shore.

“Unhand me, you unconscionable oaf!”

Garrett winced.  “Ouch!  That was a really big word!  Well, if I’m in trouble, I may as well make it worthwhile!” He ran the last few steps to the water’s edge and powered into the ocean, waiting until he was thigh-deep before hurling Fenris forward, shielding himself from the impressively large splash the elf created.

A few seconds later, Fenris surfaced looking like a furious drowned rat.  “Now I’m all wet, you swine!”

“Well, that’s the point, isn’t it?” Garrett dashed the water out of his eyes and scanned the water’s surface.  “Love?  Where are you?”  He turned full circle, his eyes darting here and there, but the elf was nowhere to be seen.  “Fenris?  I’m sorry?  Love?”

At the same moment there was a swell of water behind Garrett and, like a majestic elven marine god, Fenris surged out of the water and latched himself onto the mage’s back, sending him off-balance.  

“Oh, no!  I’m going to…” At the last second, Garrett bent at the waist and threw Fenris over his shoulders.  Both of them crashed into the water, but only one of them was laughing when he surfaced.

“Bastard!” Fenris hissed, charging through the water towards the mage, not knowing what he was actually going to do to the man who stood almost a foot taller than him. Stopping in front of Garrett, he opted for a hard chest shove to save face.  “I’m bloody frozen!”

“Hey, don’t worry!  Our clothes are over there and… and…” Garrett’s face fell.  “Oh, shit.”

“They’re in the rain.”  A few tiny wrinkles formed on the bridge of Fenris’s nose.  “Of course they are.”

“This isn’t exactly going to plan,” Garrett said good-naturedly, rubbing the nape of his neck and grimacing.  “It was supposed to be fun, but you look like you want to murder me.”  He cringed a little.  “I’m sorry.  I just wanted to get you away from everyone.  You look adorable, by the way.”  He slicked Fenris’s sopping-wet hair away from his eyes.  

Fenris’s nose wrinkles receded slightly, but his frown remained in place.  “I… I know what you were trying to do.”  He sighed.  “Perhaps you’re right. I don’t know how to have fun.”  He looked away from Garrett, his frown deepening as he looked beyond the mage’s barrier to the surface of the water, which was being lashed with rain.

“Fen?”  Garrett moved closer to him.  “Are you all right?”

“The water… it’s… dancing.”

Garrett looked on in delight at the elf’s awed expression.  “You like it?”

The elf slowly nodded, his eyes moving to the horizon as the sun went down in a blaze of red and gold glory.  “It’s like a lake of molten lava. It’s… wonderful.  I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“This was entirely planned, you know,” Garrett said from behind the elf, his insides glowing when he saw the tiny vibration of Fenris’s shoulders.

“Of course it was.”  The silent vibration grew to a quiet snigger and he let his head fall back against Garrett’s chest as a pair of large, hairy arms wrapped around him.  “I believe you, even if no one else would.”

“And that is why I love you.”  Garrett pressed a kiss to the crown of Fenris’s head and gently turned him around so they were facing each other.  “And the reason you love me is because I give you such amazing memories.  We’ll look back at tonight and you’ll say, ‘Oh yes, the night we saw fire dancing on the water, walked naked back to camp and caught hypothermia.  Good times.”

Fenris bowed his head, laughter wheezing out of him.  “If it were anyone else but you…”

“Now, come on, love.  There is no one else like me.”

Fenris rolled his eyes, but he was still laughing.  “Isn’t that the truth.  What are we going to do about the clothing situation?”

Garrett looked into Fenris’s eyes, the dying sun reflected against emerald glass.  “You know, at this moment I don’t really care.  Maker, you’re beautiful.”

They kissed, the fiery rain pattering against Garrett’s barrier.