Overgrown

This was their paradise. Their secret little hideaway, away from gossips and nagging elders. They could do and say whatever they wanted.

"Come on, Orest!" Tamlen called out from ahead, laughter ringing about in his voice. The sun behind him lit his golden hair up like a crown of sunshine, shining into Orest's eyes and dazzling him. His warm, sun-kissed skin shimmered like a candlelight on water.

Creators, Orest was in love.

"Coming!" He ran forward, soft earth squishing beneath his toes.

"You're so slow," Tamlen laughed, reaching out and grabbing Orest's hand.

His hand was so warm. So wonderfully warm.

"I can't believe we found this place," Orest marveled, his dark brown eyes wide in excited wonder.

"Let's go," Tamlen said, pulling Orest forward.

They had found the abandoned ruins last month. Overgrown Tevinter ruins—or maybe even elven ruins or maybe both—sat nestled in the forest, and nobody in the Clan bothered to go explore them. Even if they were elven, elves nowadays didn't have a use for them. That meant they were left to whomever felt like playing in them.

That just so happened to be two sixteen-year-old elven boys.

"Don't you think it's amazing? What this must've been?" Tamlen was looking up at the giant, crumbling archway. They had climbed up on a mass of vines and rusted metal. It reminded Orest of the bell one of the elves had gotten from a travelling human salesman. But way bigger, of course.

"What do you think it was?" Orest asked. "I think it was a temple."

"A temple?"

"I mean, like, look at all the arches and this big bell-thingy and stuff. That wouldn't be a house, right?" He shrugged. Ever since realizing he had an all-consuming, heart-wrenching, stomach-flipping, cry-at-night-while-Ashalle-is-sleeping crush on his best friend, he couldn't think straight around him. All of his thoughts involved Tamlen.

"You could be right," Tamlen said, nodding. He moved to sit on the giant, overgrown maybe-bell, and Orest followed suit, straddling it with his legs.

Neither of them had their vallaslin yet. They were still babies, really. Well, babies wasn't a good term. Babies didn't pine after their best friends and feel things like love and lust so intensely. He was consumed in a fire of way-too-in-love-to-function and it was quickly burning him up.

"Hey, Orest?" Tamlen's voice shook him out of his head before the thoughts became too loud. They did that a lot, get so loud he couldn't help but blurt them out loud. That usually got him into a lot of trouble. "You okay?"

"What do you mean?" Orest tensed. "I'm fine. I'm always fine." He leaned back on his hands. "Why would you even ask?"

Tamlen narrowed his beautiful, captivating, prettier-than-anything, sky-blue eyes. "You've been..." He huffed as he tried to pull together his thoughts. "I don't know, you've been weird."

"Uh..." Orest felt his face heat, thankful that his complexion was just dark enough to hide most of it. "Aren't I always weird?" He asked, trying to laugh it off.

"Not like this, lethallin," Tamlen said, shaking his head. "You... you spend the same amount of time with me but... you don't act like you used to." He leaned forward to look at Orest, who could feel a bead of sweat rolling down his face. "Did I do something?"

Orest impulsively leaned closer. One of his stupid hands reached up and cupped the side of Tamlen's face, and the other followed suit.

Before he could scream at his body to stop, he was leaning forward to kiss his best friend.

And then his lips were on Tamlen's.

And then he was kissing Tamlen.

And then Tamlen was kissing back.

Instantly, Orest sputtered and fell back, face on fire and holding a hand over his lips. The feeling of lips moving against his own had thoroughly shaken him out of his stupor.

"You kissed me!"

"You kissed me!" Tamlen's face was turning red.

"But- but you kissed back!" Orest was gaping like a fish.

"Why wouldn't I?" Tamlen looked like he was being accused of stealing undergarments, his ears were so red at this point.

"Because- 'cause I'm a guy! And I kissed you! And that's gross!" Gods, Orest felt like he was going to cry. That did not fit with his carefully crafted not a stupid child persona that he was still working so hard to make real.

"It's not gross!" Tamlen bit back, looking indignant and offended. "And- and if you think it is...!" He got quiet. "Why'd you kiss me, then?"

Orest's brain seemed to sputter and break. He was surprised it wasn't leaking out of his ears. He couldn't say because I love you. A lot. He just couldn't.

"I- I just..." He couldn't speak.

"Do you like me?" Tamlen asked, voice so soft and gentle. Soft rays of sunlight poured through the canopy behind him, lighting up both Tamlen and the overgrown ruins.

"I- Yeah," Orest said, the answer leaving his heart and scraping up his throat on the way out, leaving his voice rough and raw. "Yeah, I do."

"Orest-"

"I'm sorry!" Orest blurted out. "Just forget it! We're- we're- lethallin, right? I'm sorry!" Okay, he was starting to actually cry now. Emotions ran rampant though his body, suffocating him and squeezing every organ until they seemed to pop.

"Orest." He was sharply pulled back to the present moment when Tamlen's hand grabbed his bare shoulder. "I've been thinking, these past couple of months, and... and I realized I like you as, as more than a friend."

"Tam..."

"Orest, I- Gods, I wanna run my hands through your hair and kiss your stupid face and tell you how pretty you are and do all that stuff bonded people do and, Creators, that isn't very best-friend-y of me, is it?"

"I don't think so," Orest mumbled, dumbstruck. "Fuck. Me, too."

Tamlen smiled nervously. "Wanna kiss me again?"

Orest didn't hesitate this time, wrapping his arms around the back of Tamlen's neck and kissing him like his life depended on it. It sure felt like it did.

Rough vines scraped at the insides of his thighs and he could feel mud drying, cold, on his feet, but they were easy to disregard. Tamlen's lips were soft and his hands were on Orest's bare back, slowly working their way up to tangle in his mass of wavy black hair. Gods, he would give anything to have Tamlen's hands in his hair and his lips on his own forever.

"We should do that again," Orest said once Tamlen finally pulled back to breathe. "Like, a lot."

"Agreed," Tamlen said back, nodding. A warm spring breeze blew through the archway they had found themselves under, rustling the leaves and stirring up the usual strange sounds of the Brecilian. A low, spectral ringing came from somewhere and echoed around the ruins. "We should go back," Tamlen said, nodding toward where the Clan had set up. "Don't want people to get suspicious."

Orest sighed and nodded shallowly in agreement. "Hey, Tamlen?"

"Yeah?" They started making their way down the side of the vine-covered metal.

"We shouldn't mention this to the elders, right?"

Tamlen's lips grew tight, and he nodded. "Yeah, probably." There weren't any boys their age that liked boys. Sometimes, an older member of the Clan would hint at liking someone of the same gender, but they kept it to themselves and bonded with someone to have as many Dalish babies as they could.

They held hands as they walked back, and Orest couldn't help but smile. Before they were within sight, he snuck in another kiss on Tamlen's cheek.

They'd be okay.

So long as they had each other, they'd be okay.