[OPEN]

[noble_son]

Who: Nathaniel & OPEN
Where: On the grounds, close to the front door
When: April 26th
Rating: PG-13 to be safe
Summary: Just a guy playing with a cat. Because cats are great for stress relief. And mun wanted to write a dumb self-indulgent narrative about a cat.


The Story: If a year ago, six months ago, you would have told Nathaniel Howe that he would be spending an afternoon watching a stubby-legged ball of beige and white fluff exploring in the short grass not far from the front door of a magical mansion in some blighted other realm... the only part he might not have believed entirely would have been the part about the cat.

As it turns out, the rumours about cats being good for stress are entirely true, and since the conclusion of Wonderland's latest 'event' he has been giving more attention to the little creature, finding that it seems to enjoy that as much as it enjoys leaving fur all over the carpet and scratching the bedposts.

When the little creature comes close, making a beeline for the toe of one of his shoes, he reaches a hand out and tips it over onto its back gently, ruffling his fingers across the soft fur on its belly. Never, ever will he admit to Anders that cats actually aren't that bad. Even when they're trying to bite at his fingers.

Comments

[noble_son]

"I knew it."

Maybe it was age and experience, maybe it was just this place, but Nathaniel remembers losing too many people over his time as a Warden to not have his feelings softened towards those friends he still has. Even if those friends are always chatty, often annoying mages. Anders is his friend, and he is fond of him in his own gruff way.

"It might shock you to hear it, Anders, but I don't actually dislike you," he says, setting his little kitten on his lap, where it curls up with a clear intent to fall asleep. "As far as my attitude might go to say otherwise."

[circlejerked]

Eyebrows raised, Anders rewards the other man with a congratulatory look that says good for you, you've finally figured it out, cat's officially out of the bag.

His gaze drifts to the very real cat making itself comfortable on its master's knee, looking pleased as punch as it does, but Nathaniel's admission gradually draws it back up to his face. "I know that." And just before Nathaniel gets his hopes that Anders is about to accept the remark earnestly and seriously, he adds, "Of course you like me. How could you not? I'm a likeable person. And someone has to remind you life's about more than simply getting down to the brass tacks."

He's welcome for the kitten, though he knows Nathaniel too well to expect a 'thank you'.

[noble_son]

He wouldn't have done Anders the indignity of expecting him to take any remark of that kind seriously. Still, it was said in earnest and he simply has to trust that the mage took it to heart despite his dismissive response. Nathaniel snorts and chuckles in his usual short, gruff way, shaking his head.

"'Getting down to the brass tacks' is a necessary evil," he replies with another wry smile. "But a little levity doesn't hurt, either."

Nor does having a pet, in fact. He's going to keep that part to himself.

"I can't say I've missed the constant threat of darkspawn."

[circlejerked]

Unprovoked compliments don't factor into Anders' day-to-day operations--they're an oddity, something he hasn't dealt with enough to know what to do with. There's usually a string attached. A catch. An ulterior motive for stroking his ego. They're not said just to be said.

Anders is content to chase after snide banter until the joke is over and the "snide" has overtaken the "banter," but sincerity when he can't identify the aim behind is uncomfortable. Nathaniel's comment leaves a ripple of surprised pleasure in its wake, but not enough for Anders to look too closely at it. That's always where a person runs into trouble--looking too closely, reading into things.

Easier to run his fingers through the grass and nettle the man in front of him some more. "Who are you? You're talking like someone who actually has interests outside of polishing family heirlooms and sighing in the direction of other Wardens. I'm beginning to think you were body snatched some time when I wasn't looking."

[noble_son]

"How much do you actually know about me, Anders?" he asks then, the words coming suddenly after a few moments of thought. This has been a constant topic of needling since he arrived, and it's been prompting him to think back to just the kind of person he was when he first met the Warden-Commander. Not the most welcoming of people, he knows, but he was sure he displayed more of a personality than constant sour brooding.

Nathaniel leans back on his hands, looking at the mage with a kind of calculating curiosity. Maybe time has dulled the more irritating aspects of Anders' personality, but he can't recall that they ever really came to blows and his current level of friendly fondness is genuine.

"Honestly. I do remember us having actual conversations in between you driving me to distraction."

[circlejerked]

"Relax, I was just having fun with you," he says around a laugh. The tone of Nathaniel's reply makes him think his joking had been taken more seriously than intended. "I can't resist sometimes, you make it so easy."

There's more to Nathaniel than just being their resident cantankerous Howe, he knows, just as there's more to him (though how much they're willing to show has always been in question). The sum of Nathaniel's parts--both the ones he's aware of and the ones he isn't--amount to a companion he's trusted with his life more than once before.

In their line of work, having certainty that Nathaniel will fight with him to the last dead darkspawn or bandit or until they themselves fall needs no words. It's enough. And it's enough to consider him a friend after weeks getting to know the man and Warden.

"We talked some." An idle admittance. They'd all talked here and there, though some members of their party tolerated it with more ill humor than others. Nathaniel, for his part, had always seemed to get along the best with the Warden-Commander. "There wasn't much else to do while we were camped in the Deep Roads. Why, is there something you think I should know?"

[noble_son]

The rogue rolls his eyes, just a little, at the reassurance. Anders is just as easy to worry sometimes as Nathaniel is to rile, and he wonders if the mage is really aware of it. It's touching, in its way - at least it shows that he values Nathaniel's opinion.

He'd found a lot of his time spent with the Warden-Commander, and Velanna once she had come around to the idea that he was not trying to insult her with genuine compliments. Oghren had always been just the wrong side of crude for extended company and Justice.. well, Justice was something else entirely. Sigrun had made him laugh at the same time as making him more aware of his various privileges, and he respected her for that. Anders, though? His was a different kind of needling.

"Nothing pressing," he replies, realising that he might have made that sound more dire than it really was. He pauses, then a smile ticks up one corner of his mouth. "You know, I think Cullen has been avoiding me since I shot him. Fancy that."