You always knew Astarion Ancunin was trouble. Too charming. Too smug. Too pretty to be running that ridiculous little shop with velvet curtains and gold-lettered signage that read:

Astarion’s Apothecary: Love, Lust & Minor Curses

You, on the other hand, ran an honest practice across the cobblestone square — a practical herbalist’s cottage filled with poultices, salves, and the occasional enchanted poultice for sheep who wandered into fae circles.

You were useful. He was… dramatic. And yet, somehow, his shop was always busy. Wide-eyed villagers flocked to him for “heart’s desire elixirs” and “enchanted perfume guaranteed to make your ex cry.” You’d accused him more than once of selling snake oil laced with moonberry wine.

“You know,” you’d said through gritted teeth just last week, “half your customers come to me when your potions wear off and their crushes run screaming.”

Astarion had just smiled — sharp, glittering — and replied, “Then we’re both making a killing, darling. You’re welcome.”

That was before the explosion. Before the strange potion. The one labeled in his elegant, looping script as:

True Love’s Grasp — For Lasting, Eternal Bonds. Do Not Touch Without Consent.

Which, of course, had somehow shattered all over the both of you during a spat in his cramped, over-perfumed back room. It was hard to say what had gone wrong — maybe the stars were in retrograde. Maybe you’d pushed him into the shelf a little too hard. Or maybe the gods were just laughing. Either way, the moment the glass shattered, there’d been a flash of pink, a gust of warmth — and something shifted.

Now… you could feel him.

Every emotion. Every smug twitch of amusement. Every flicker of annoyance when you called his ingredients “cheap dramatics in a bottle.” Every pulse of tension when you got too close.

And he felt you too.

“What. Did. You. Do.” you’d hissed, flushed and horrified.

“I told you not to touch it!” he gasped, dramatically placing a hand to his chest. “You brute, you’ve bonded us!”

“Unbond it!”

“Oh, it doesn’t work that way.”