"Oh, perfectly." Three days is enough to heal almost anything, although sometimes his injuries are frustratingly non-linear, relative to severity; once he was shot in the chest and the knees, and his knees were still twinging after a week while his heart was just fine.
"Hakkai moved in with me a few months ago. And I thought it's a bit silly to have a perfectly good warden cabin standing empty. He sometimes uses it as a private space to meet his inmate in the afternoons, but it's always empty in the evenings."
Jedao tosses him something small and metallic: it's a key.
"I meant to ask him about it as soon as you ruled out changing your cabin, but," Jedao waves a hand. "Barge nonsense, you know. Anyway, you don't have to use it, but I wanted you to have the option."
"Maybe I want you to have something that's better than fine," Jedao says mildly. "And you're very welcome. Like I said, it's literally been empty for months, so please don't feel like we're making some great sacrifice."
No. Just waiting for someone so neurotic, so pathetic that he couldn't
just ask for more than he was given. So naive and helpless that he had to
have someone else define 'good enough' and then insist he accept it.
The bile is in his throat but it doesn't show on his face, in his voice.
"...I won't. But I can still appreciate it," he says quietly. "I...don't
have much experience with people making space for me. Certainly not this
literally."
"I'm assuming you had some reason for doing that, and, separately, reasons for not wanting me to change it. I definitely don't know what they were, and I'm not letting myself speculate. Maybe this room will be useful for whatever that reason was. Maybe it's already resolved, and you'll only use this to set up an inmate-only black market to rent out the private bathroom and collect favors from people, I don't know. But if you still have a reason - any reason - to want to sometimes sleep somewhere else, while under the shield of of a cabin threshold, now you can."
Jedao shrugs.
"Like I said. I just wanted you to have the option."
He's not letting himself speculate. He's also not letting himself ask,
and it's hard not to find that frustrating. To be treated so damned gently
by someone who's literally begged to be beaten to the point of bloodshed.
As far as Jedao is concerned, Astarion has been gentle with him, in the ways he's needed, the ways he's asked for.
Astarion didn't ask for this; Jedao knows it's a lot, knows it's presumptuous and maybe a little destabilizing. He certainly isn't going to push on top of that. Jedao is sure Astarion could be a very good liar, which is all the more reason not to put him in a position where he feels the need to.
"Anytime."
Jedao gives him a playfully sloppy version of the Kel salute, and slips away down the hall.
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"Hakkai moved in with me a few months ago. And I thought it's a bit silly to have a perfectly good warden cabin standing empty. He sometimes uses it as a private space to meet his inmate in the afternoons, but it's always empty in the evenings."
Jedao tosses him something small and metallic: it's a key.
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Astarion catches it on reflex alone, then turns it over in his hands for a moment.
Takes a moment to think.
"This is...extremely generous of you. Both of you."
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He closes his hand around the key, then lifts his gaze to meet Jedao's.
"...My cabin really is fine, you know. But - thank you."
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No. Just waiting for someone so neurotic, so pathetic that he couldn't just ask for more than he was given. So naive and helpless that he had to have someone else define 'good enough' and then insist he accept it.
The bile is in his throat but it doesn't show on his face, in his voice.
"...I won't. But I can still appreciate it," he says quietly. "I...don't have much experience with people making space for me. Certainly not this literally."
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"When I first came here, I didn't either," Jedao says quietly. "If it's useful to you at all, then I'm glad."
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Astarion nods, and pockets the key.
"Does your...awareness of mass extend into this space?"
Will he know whether and when he's spending time here?
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Some greater-than-human senses, but not with that kind of precision, and especially not when he still wears his limiters most of the time.
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"Right. I...well. I'm sure you would prefer that I not say this, but - I'm indebted to you, Jedao."
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Part of him is tempted. Astarion would be such a good agent. But it would be unforgivably messy, and being kind to Astarion is more important.
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It's also something Astarion finds so completely incomprehensible that he's going to kinda just...ignore it?
"In that case, I will do my best to accept this in the spirit that it was intended."
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Astarion nods.
"I'll be seeing you again soon, then, I'm sure."
He takes a step back, towards the door. Time to go. Though he does briefly hesitate.
"...I assume that you think I'm lying about my cabin because I wasn't using it, for a while."
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"I'm assuming you had some reason for doing that, and, separately, reasons for not wanting me to change it. I definitely don't know what they were, and I'm not letting myself speculate. Maybe this room will be useful for whatever that reason was. Maybe it's already resolved, and you'll only use this to set up an inmate-only black market to rent out the private bathroom and collect favors from people, I don't know. But if you still have a reason - any reason - to want to sometimes sleep somewhere else, while under the shield of of a cabin threshold, now you can."
Jedao shrugs.
"Like I said. I just wanted you to have the option."
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He's not letting himself speculate. He's also not letting himself ask, and it's hard not to find that frustrating. To be treated so damned gently by someone who's literally begged to be beaten to the point of bloodshed.
"As you said. I'll - see you soon, then."
He opens the door.
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Astarion didn't ask for this; Jedao knows it's a lot, knows it's presumptuous and maybe a little destabilizing. He certainly isn't going to push on top of that. Jedao is sure Astarion could be a very good liar, which is all the more reason not to put him in a position where he feels the need to.
"Anytime."
Jedao gives him a playfully sloppy version of the Kel salute, and slips away down the hall.