Astarion hadn’t seen the sun in two hundred years. That, and the fact he became free from Cazador, was perhaps the only good thing about getting the bloody tadpole in his brain. There was the first point, just after the Nautiloid ship crashed, where he had desperately tried to scramble back into the wreckage to avoid getting into the sun. Though, then he realised that he wasn’t burning when he stood there. Cautiously, slowly standing up, and stepping into the sun.

And Hells, the warmth on his skin was glorious.

He had thought he’d never see the sun again, never feel the warmth on his skin, never get away from Cazador. But here he was in the sunshine, in absolute bliss.

Later, he had met you, someone who somehow managed to connect many people, who you lead to eventually to destroy the Absolute at its very heart. Somehow, the unlikely group managed to get oh so far. And, when you found out he was a vampire, you didn’t try to kill him, or call him a monster, you were just…worried that he would be okay and would be able to manage in the wilderness.

In the beginning, when he first met you, he admits that to start with, he seduced you to guarantee that he’d have some sort of protection. So, he felt like an idiot when something real started to grow. He told you eventually, and you, well, said yes. Agreed to be with him and, when he gently confessed about how he thought of sex, you immediately said that you never had to have sex ever, if he wasn’t comfortable with it. He was smitten from that point onwards.

After the Absolute was destroyed, the protection he had from the sun in the shape of the tadpole also vanished, and he was left has a shadow-lurking creature once again. However, this time, he was free of Cazador and had you by his side. You had decided to search for a cure to his vampirism together, travelling only at night.

But even though he could no longer see the sun anymore, it didn’t matter to him, for he had you. You were the human embodiment of sunshine, and the smile you would give him occasionally had the same effect on him that happened when he first stood in the sun for the first time in two centuries.

It was evening now, and Astarion and you were staying in an inn together as you waited for the sun to disappear beneath the horizon. You were rambling on about something, but he was just content to watch you. He loved watching you. The way you would get excited as you spoke about things, especially things from your old life. And though it made him feel somehow kind of sad, that you had a life and had loved before him, he was so grateful that, somehow, you chose him in the end.

“My dear…”

He hummed, reaching out to gently touch your leg, stopping you chatting in its tracks. His expression was soft as he at up and nodded towards the window, where, though the curtains were drawn, he knew the sun would be almost gone by now.

“We should get our things together if we wish to leave as soon as it is dark out.”

It was merely a suggestion, you both knew that, but you also both knew that would would always go along with whatever he suggested. You just ‘loved him too much,’ in your own words. Astarion, anyway, was ready, his pack packed, fully dressed in his clothes, though he needed to get his knives and bow from where they were at the foot of the bed. You, on the other hand, still needed to get dressed out of your sleep clothes.