[ Ah, there it was-- the usefulness.

He could not help the slightly unsettled feeling that brought about. He'd been useful to Mystra up until his curiosity got in the way of things; and he was fairly certain that Mystra was currently with her next wizard flavor of the moment; and when would he stop being useful to Astarion?

Something shifted in Gale's demeanor, from being happy for the intimacy to feeling the weight of what he brought to the literal table (dinner) for Astarion. But he supposed that was his lot in life and that he deserved such a thing, he had been a tool for as long as he could remember and tools did not just turn into things that could be loved, now did they? They were objects with functionality.

He reached up to rub his thumb over the marks that were left by the feeding. He had not exploded and that was a good thing however he did shift once Astarion pulled collar back into place. ] I should probably ah, eat something and then go to bed however I will be more than happy to be of service to you if you cannot find any other arrangement.

[ Service, he could speak in those terms-- he was good at acts of service, wasn't he. ]