Archive of Our Own ^beta

So. Valentine's day. This... this was new and Tybalt didn't entirely know what to make of it. Oh, he knew the theory and that, for some period leading up to the Valentine's day the world seemed to explode in pink and hearts and chocolate. He knew that for the days after, said chocolate was very cheap, mostly because Anders usually dragged him along to help stock up on said cheap chocolate. But this year it was different.

This year, he had Fenris.

He'd never dated someone during Valentine. Oh, he'd dated people before Fenris, but those relationships always seemed to peter out after a month or two. His longest standing pre-Fenris romantic relationship had lasted seven months.

Those seven months had ended in November.

He'd asked Mahariel what he was doing for Valentine's day, since his boss was a reasonably well-adjusted adult with a long term partner. Mahariel had given Tybalt one long look before simply saying one word: Zevran.

Tybalt had decided that he would be better off without asking further questions.

His next option had been to call Aveline, her being an another reasonably well-adjusted adult in a long-term relationship seemed to make her a good source of information.

"Tybalt," she'd said with a sigh, "you remember just how I proposed to Donnic, don't you?"

"Yes, well, but I think Fenris and I have both had enough of people with guns," Tybalt had answered. "And where am I going to find one who's willing to let me hit them over the head with half a door?"

There had been a long, long silence on the other side of the line.

"Let's just say that I'm not the best person to get romantic advice from," Aveline had said.

Upon further consideration, Tybalt was inclined to agree.

Tybalt had briefly, very briefly, considered asking Anders about what he usually did for Valentine's before rejecting the idea out of hand. Tybalt didn't really know how Anders's relationship with Karl was going, but it involved a lot of theoretically discreet packages delivered to his door -- the discretion kind of failed when Yarrow had taken off with one of the packages -- and long Skype calls.

Isabela? No. Nope. He genuinely liked her but no. So very much nope.

Varric? Just as much no with the added risk of ending up as yet more story fodder.

Merrill was a safer option, Tybalt thought, but she was spending a lot of time at Isabela's as of late and he didn't want to run the risk of Isabela finding out that Tybalt might sort of kind of have plans before he managed to inform Fenris of those plans.

He just needed to come up with plans.

Tybalt paced through his living room, closely followed by Yarrow. He almost tripped over the large dog at every turn he made.

Maybe they should go out to dinner. That was a thing people did, right? Except... so very, very many people would be going out to dinner. Restaurants would be crowded and loud and chaotic. At least a handful of people would make grand, unexpected romantic gestures, chaos would be everywhere and, to be honest, the last time they'd gone out to dinner things had ended poorly. Mostly with a shutdown for Tybalt and Fenris disappearing for days.

Tybalt raked a hand through his hair and huffed. He turned on his heels, right into Yarrow.

The dog whined.

"Well, I don't know why you're pacing. Dogs don't have Valentine's day," Tybalt said. "Or maybe you do. I'm not up to date on canine celebratory events."

Yarrow enthusiastically wagged with his entire back-half.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, boy." Tybalt patted Yarrow on the head. At least he still had a few hours to figure this all out. Fenris still had two classes to go before he could even come over.

In the end it was Carver, surprisingly enough for Tybalt, who saved the day. Or evening. He did so by sending a simple text: 'Just cook him a nice meal and light some candles or something. And DON'T tell me the details.'

Tybalt could quite happily agree to all of that. He could cook up something worthy of a restaurant meal and woo Fenris from the comfort and safety of the apartment. There would be wooing. He would woo Fenris's socks off.

If Fenris wore socks that day.

Either way, there would be wooing regardless of the state of dress of Fenris's feet.

He had soup and steak and baked potatoes and those chocolate lava cakes that he had been meaning to try and bake and now had the perfect excuse for. He wasn't certain if it was an appropriate Valentines-y meal, but they both liked the food and that was what counted. He'd dug up some candles and even found a bouquet of roses at the nearest flower store -- Merrill could never know of his treachery or she would pout at him for days -- that had seen better days, but given the time when he'd bought them, Tybalt thought that he should count himself lucky that he had found flowers that could pass for semi-alive at all.

All in all, he figured that this wasn't a bad attempt what with this being his first time celebrating it.

Now all he needed was for Fenris to arrive. Well, that and if he could just cut these strawberries into something that vaguely resembled a rose that would be just grand.

Pinterest was a filthy, filthy liar was what he was saying.

These did not look like roses at all and it certainly wasn't easy either!

Just as he was about to admit defeat and simply start slicing the strawberries into parts to put on top of the chocolate lava cakes, he heard the door to his apartment open. Even though Fenris technically didn't live with Tybalt, Tybalt had still given him a key.

Yarrow scrambled up from where he had dropped down in the kitchen and ambled over to the door to get his good boy scritches from Fenris.

Tybalt heard the familiar thud of Fenris's bag hitting the floor as Tybalt abandoned his strawberry rose attempts in order to go and greet Fenris as well.

He found his boyfriend staring at the set table, with the candles that hadn't been lit yet and the vase with roses that looked only partially excited to be there.

"Did I miss something?" Fenris asked, not yet turning his gaze from the table.

"It's... uhm... it's Valentine's day?" That had not been meant as a question.

"Valentine's day?" Fenris managed to put so much confusion into those two words that Tybalt worried for a moment that he had made the entire tradition up.

Just for a second. Valentines was real, or at least all the pink and hearts and chocolates and 'you need to buy all these expensive things to prove to people that you love them' stuff was real.

So perhaps Fenris was just confused about Tybalt's participation in the tradition.

"It's... uhm... I haven't celebrated before so I thought... Don't you like Valentine?"

Fenris tore his gaze from the table and turned to Tybalt. His confused frown eased away into little wrinkles of a smile at the corner of his eyes and the slightest of lifts to his lips that gradually widened.

"I have not had cause to celebrate in the past," he admitted. "Though it looks like today will be different."

Something went a-flutter in Tybalt's chest and he fervently hoped that it wasn't an actual, literal flutter. He'd hate for the day to end in the hospital before they'd even had dinner. He needed to know how those chocolate cakes turned out, okay? He needed to know.

"I made us dinner and there are candles and stuff and- and I'm going to get get dinner. Yes. That's what I'm going to do." Tybalt took off to the kitchen. His palms felt all cramped up and sweaty and his heart was slowly clawing its way to his throat. He knew that being nervous was ridiculous. They'd been together for months now. They'd been through hell together. One poorly planned dinner was not going to change all that.

Calm. Just be calm. Fenris knew him. There was no reason to stress.

One deep breath in, one deep breath out and Tybalt set to serving the soup. The steak was still resting. The potatoes were starting to cool to a temperature that wouldn't cause blisters. See? Everything was going fine. What was the worst that could happen?

He could spill the soup over Fenris and cause him burns.

That would be bad.

Why had he asked himself that question? Now that scenario would be all he could think of while serving the soup, dang it!

Tybalt counted himself lucky when he managed to carry the plate with the two bowls of soup on them over to the dinner table without tripping over his own two feet, spilling anything or having aliens crash land into the building.

Fenris had taken responsibility for lighting the candles and appeasing Yarrow with a treat. Or two. Or, knowing Yarrow's shameless scamming ways, probably five..

Yarrow wasn't what caught Tybalt's attention, in the end. Instead, his eyes found two little potted plants where his dinner plate should be. They were small, little more than seedlings. One of the pots was silvery white like Fenris's hair, the other red like the beads Tybalt carried on his wrist. The glazing had a few cracks and the silver one was chipped at the top. The leaves looked a little rumpled, almost as if they had been carried around in a bag for the better part of a day.

Oregano, Tybalt realised. And mint.

He almost laughed, remembering the very first plant Fenris had bought and then the one Tybalt had gifted him. Fenris had remembered. Of course he had.

"I thought that you didn't celebrate Valentine," Tybalt said and carefully put the platter down on the table.

"I have not had cause to," Fenris corrected him. "But I... I felt the need to show you, but I was uncertain as to what to get you and then I... is it alright? Did I..."

There was a little waver in Fenris's. Tybalt looked up from the plants, a smile so wide on his face that it hurt his cheeks.

"They're perfect. I love them." He loved Fenris. He loved this gesture. He loved that it wasn't traditional for the day, from what he could tell at least, but it felt like... it felt like it was them. It felt easier in his chest. His limbs felt like his own again, all the jitters and nerves forgotten. Tybalt looked at the plants one more time before circling the table to get to Fenris.

Tybalt paused just long enough for Fenris to reach up, clasp his hands behind Tybalt's neck and drag Tybalt down to meet him in a kiss. Soft and teasing at first, then hard enough to leave Tybalt's lips tingling when they pulled apart. Fenris's fingers lingered over Tybalt's string of beads and rushed against the tender skin at his wrist. Fenris's eyes were soft and warm and home for a moment, before Tybalt's gaze wandered and settled on the three dots on Fenris's forehead.

"I am so grateful to have you in my life," Fenris said.

Tybalt's smile softened. "I love you too."