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Achoo!
"Bless you." Three people spoke at once, himself included. He only glanced back afterwards to see who had sneezed and was met with an abashed look from the dark-skinned pretty boy following behind them.
"Thanks," Dorian said, a little thinly, hand cupped around his nose as he fumbled for his handkerchief.
Bull shrugged and turned back to the front, keeping in step behind the Inquisitor.
"Don't tell me you're getting sick, Sparkles."
"Not to worry, Varric. I wouldn't do something so silly as to get laid up so soon."
There was a dirty response, right on the tip of Bull's tongue. It was so easy. He didn't say it, and didn't get the chance to, anyway; the Inquisitor rushed ahead in having discovered something, and Bull had to make sure he stayed with her.
Achoo!
"Ergh, get your snotty man juices away from me!"
"My apologies, Sera." Dorian sniffled. "Although I wouldn't exactly call them ‘snotty man juices’."
"Sickness, sneezing, next thing ya know, you're hacking up a lung. Don't have time for that shite."
"I'm not sick."
"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" the Inquisitor asked, looking at Dorian with concern in her eyes.
Her concern seemed to unsettle Dorian, who smiled slightly, nodded. "I feel fine. Just a bit of a tickle, that's all."
"If you're sure... make sure you tell me if you're getting sick, I don't want it getting worse."
For being so flambouyantly, well, Dorian, actual concern seemed to make the mage not nervous, but something similar to it. Uncomfortable. Like he didn't know what to do with people worrying about him. He got this sheepish look about him.
... It was kinda cute.
The wet noise of Dorian trying to hide his sniffles was not. Bull had to draw the line somewhere.
Bull was all for charging the camp and taking every last one of the bastards out, but Evelyn was more cautious. Maybe rightfully so, he didn't know. They were surrounded, outnumbered with their three-person party today, but he wasn't the best judge for ‘tactics’. His choice tactic was just to kill them.
Dorian was looking uncomfortable next to him, pressed back against the rock with this weird look on his face. He was still for a moment before his hand flew to his mouth and nose, pinching his nostrils between his fingers.
Bull stared. "What are you doing?"
Dorian rubbed his nose roughly. "Trying not to sneeze," he hissed, "and accidentally give our presence away."
"Oh." Bull's eyes flickered towards the camp, and then back to Dorian. "You're full of this, Dorian. Been snotting since you joined up."
"Not all the time," Dorian said. "It just flares up now and again. It depends on where we are, really."
"What does that mean?" Bull smirked. "Are you crying because you're so far from your blessed Imperium?"
That was as close to a glare Dorian could seem to get right now. "I haven't been back to the Imperium in ages. And I'm not crying."
"There," Evelyn hissed. "Go, both of you, now."
That conversation was going to have to wait. Bull caught their clear path and took the lead, the mages falling into step behind him.
As soon as they were away, Dorian dissolved into a series of violent bursts of sneezing, half doubled over with the ferocity of them. "Oh, Maker."
"You're sick," Bull said critically.
Dorian huffed into his handkerchief. "I am not sick."
"You look like crap."
"Thanks so much."
Bull rolled his eyes. Stubborn Vint. Boss would make him sit out next time if they managed to get out of here without incident, and it didn't matter how many times he said he wasn't sick.
"It's this shit, isn't it?" Bull gestured to the field around him. "You're allergic, aren't you?"
"No." Dorian's voice was muffled by the crook of his arm and the nasal congestion. And his red eyes and runny nose wasn't really helping his argument. "I'm not."
"Then why're you hiding your face and looking like you got hit in the face with a blast of fire?" Bull quipped. "Your nose is even red. Actually, that's kinda cute."
"Vishante kaffas." Dorian swore under his breath, thumbing his fingers beneath his eyes.
"We can try to find a way around..." Evelyn started, but Dorian was already shaking his head.
"That would waste us precious time," Vivienne interrupted. "If we go out of our way for him, we run the risk of more lives lost. It's not worth our time."
Dorian scrubbed at his nose. "I'm okay. I can still fight. Don't worry about little old me."
Bull punched Dorian's shoulder gently. "You want me to carry you? You can climb up on my back-"
Dorian squawked indignantly, waving him away. "That would have no effect, in any case!"
"You'd be further away from the stripweed," Bull remarked. Red nose and red face. This one was a keeper. Bull had figured that out awhile ago, of course, but, yeah, he was a Vint, and Bull was Ben-Hassrath. It was in his nature to be wary - of everything - to begin with.
Well, he wasn't wary any longer. Not too much. And, no shit, he knew Dorian had all kinds of problems he needed to work through, but he hadn't asked him for a relationship. He'd invited him to his room.
There was a difference, after all.
"Here."
"Why is this happening?" Dorian swiped the handkerchief from Bull's fingers, turning away to blow his nose. "I swear it hasn't been so bad in my entire life."
Bull watched him idly, keeping an eye on Cole nearby in the meantime. The Inquisitor had broken off to talk to someone, and in the few short moments that had passed, Dorian had started to sniffle and scratch again. "It's that time of year for allergies. All this wandering in nature is messing you up."
"I'm not allergic," Dorian mumbled, and damn if he didn't sound sullen and pouty. He probably had a cute face, but he was watching Cole now, too, twisting his fingers into Bull's handkerchief, so Bull couldn't see it.
In truth, though, Dorian was more than a cute face. Bull had only initiated things between them with the thought of having some fun, and getting the Vint to have some fun, too, but... that baggage. Bull actually wanted to help with that baggage, now. He didn't need any more problems than he had, but he had discovered he wanted to help Dorian with his problems now, too.
This was more relationship, and less fun. It hadn't been what Bull had intended.
Dorian sniffled, shoulders hunching into himself.
Ah, hell, how could he complain? Look at that guy. Bull wanted to wrap him in his arms and have long, sappy conversations and slow, sensual sex, and stay with him forever. Hadn't quite told Dorian that yet, though. Soon, maybe. Maybe when he wasn't having an allergy attack.
"Let's go over there with the kid," he suggested instead. "Maybe it's something here."
Dorian shrugged a little listlessly and tromped over to join Cole, clutching the handkerchief tightly in his hand.
"A clear sky, a beautiful view, and... yes! Fields and fields of stripweed as far as the eye can see!"
Bull raised an eyebrow. Familiar, familiar. He hadn't heard it for a long while, in between their moonlit meetings, but it was something he had gotten used to hearing. "You bring your handkerchief?"
"I'm not... allergic."
Oh, what was that? That slightly breathless little tone to his voice? Evelyn didn't seem to notice, conferring with Cassandra about the Qunari, but Bull noticed those things. Like how those allergies he knew about so well were already kicking in.
"You always say that," he said aloud, "and a half-hour later, you're taking mine." It wouldn't even take a half hour now, not if Bull knew Dorian well enough.
And he did. Oh, he did.
"Amatus," amatus, in that familiar nasally voice, one that Bull knew too well that Dorian was trying to hide, trying to hold back the sneeze that was bound to happen, "can you not fuss like an old..."
Achoo!
There it was. "Aha!"
Dorian's irritated look over the pass of his hand to his nose was spectacular, as he said they should move on, and Evelyn ushered them inside to continue their search. Bull let him sneeze twice more, in quick succession, before rifling through his pockets to find the handkerchief he carried mostly for these situations.
Dorian huffed and grumbled, but took it from him, and Bull smiled down at him serenely as their fingers brushed and lingered, too long, but he didn't care, he loved it.
"Ugh, lovers," Cassandra said dramatically, but he didn't miss the way that the Seeker shared a smile with Evelyn because she was secretly pleased about it. (Every one of their friends seemed to be, and Bull was glad. Not that he cared, but Dorian? Dorian did.)
"You'd better not try to hold my hand with your snot all over it, kadan," he said.
"You've had much more than that all over you and you never minded before," Dorian quipped right back.
Cassandra's ugh seemed a little more genuine this time, and Bull laughed out loud, slinging his arm around Dorian's shoulders. "Of course I don't mind that, kadan!"
"Get off of me, you great brute!" All stuffed up and smiling too.
Bull could never explain how happy he was that their no strings attached had gone beyond that; he could never explain how happy he was that he got to share in Dorian's life.
"I'm sorry, amatus..."
Dorian's voice was congested, which gave him that adorable nasally tone, but the puffy red eyes, mussed hair, and rasp in his breath downplayed it.
"Don't even worry about it, kadan." He handed over the mug of some herbal shit Dorian had asked him to make. It was supposed to help. "We'll just focus on getting you better," he continued, sinking onto the edge of the bed.
Dorian took the mug, curling his fingers around it. He smiled weakly and breathed in the steam, closing his eyes. "We haven't seen each other in awhile, I wanted..."
"I'm fine taking care of you, Dorian," Bull interrupted, smoothing Dorian's hair. "So long as we spend time together, it doesn't matter what we do."
Dorian laughed, a scratchy noise from the round of coughing he'd only come back from not fifteen minutes ago. "Sap," he gasped, fingers seizing around the mug.
Bull grinned. "You love my sappiness, kadan. Don't worry; when you feel a little better from your allergies, I'll be the one to take your breath away," he boasted.
Dorian laughed, softly now, sipping at the drink. "I don't have allergies," he murmured.
Still as stubborn. Wow, he loved him. "Guess you're sick then," Bull threw out.
"I'm not sick."
Bull laughed and pecked a kiss against Dorian's temple. "Just catch your breath, kadan. I'll get a compress for your eyes. You look like you've been crying. Like you missed me or something, over there in the Imperium," he teased.
"I did," Dorian said quietly.
Bull smiled. Seriously loved him.
He'd missed him, too.
Bull wanted no one else in the world, puffy eyes and all.