Taran had been looking for Astarion for twenty minutes when she finally found him. He was perched on a precipice overlooking the cloud-covered valley, hands on his hips.
"There you are," she said in exasperation. He looked over his shoulder as they approached, hands falling to his sides. She started to lay her hand on his hip, if only to assure herself he wasn't going to fall, but stifled the urge. He didn't seem to enjoy casual touch that way - he'd tolerated it the few times she'd done it, but only after going stiff for a moment first. She'd made an effort to change her own habits since. "You disappeared without saying anything; I thought you bit off more than you could chew and got mauled by something."
That got a little laugh out of him. "It'll take more than that to get rid of me, darling. Besides, there's nothing up here worth eating." A smirk crossed his face. "Present company excluded."
She gave a little mock bow as a response, a smile on their own face. "You do realize it's raining."
"Yes, I'm very aware." He scowled out at the offending weather.
"We could…go back," they said, gesturing towards the camp. "And get out of the rain."
"I mean, yes, I just…" He trailed off for a moment before sighing heavily. "I wanted to see the sun."
The admission was low and quiet, and it seemed to cost him something, though Taran couldn't have named what. His expression was still irate, but it was more…inward-facing, now.
"The sun?" they ventured gently.
"Yes. The sun." He gestured out over the valley with an irritated flick of his wrist. "Everybody always goes on about mountain sunrises, and who knows if I'll ever get the chance to see another. So yes, I came up here to see the sun. And it's fucking raining."
An idea struck Taran, and she chewed on her lip for a moment before she spoke. "…come with me."
"What?"
Taran offered their hand out to him. "Come with me."
He just stared at them for a long moment before gently, almost hesitantly laying his hand in theirs. "Lead the way."
The grumbling stopped when they exited out onto the plateau.
The mountain peak was above the cloud layer, and the sun cast the grey-blue clouds in iridescent ripples as it played over the tops of them. It was warm here as well, the stone around them trapping and reflecting the heat to create a comfortable little bubble around the plateau.
"It's not a sunrise," Taran said apologetically. "But it is still the sun."
"It…it certainly is." Astarion wasn't looking at her, instead staring out at the sight - the vibrant blue sky fading around the edges of the sun's rays, the colors dancing over the tops of the clouds, the way the valley opened up before them like a storybook illustration. Taran could feel the static in the clouds themselves, a billion tiny little sparks that she could set off in a crescendo of electricity with the slightest touch of magic. But no, her friends were down there, and she was fairly certain they wouldn't appreciate the lightning raining down over them the same way she would.
They glanced over at Astarion; he had closed his eyes to let the sun warm his face, the same way he had the morning after the tiefling party. But the smile he turned on her her this time was real, or at least far closer to it than before.
"Thank you," he said softly. "Truly."
Taran just shook their head. "Not at all," she replied, looking out over the valley. "You shouldn't miss the chance to see something beautiful just because we got here on a bad day."
They could feel him looking at her, but they didn't look back over. She didn't want to analyze his expression, or feed the nagging doubt in the back of her mind. She just wanted to share something beautiful with him, to make this memory with him.
The two of them stood there almost long enough for their clothes to dry before Taran reluctantly broke the silence. "We should get back," they sighed. "Before the others think we both got mauled."
"You're probably right." Astarion sounded as reluctant as she did, and his eyes roamed over the sight like he was burning it into his memory one last time before he turned away.