"I really think you could," Alistair says, and—and this is very frustrating. Maybe they don't avoid talking with sex, maybe that's great, but there's still something to be said for physicality. As an ameliorative if not a distraction. Zevran can't keep his spine so straight or his eyes so hard when Alistair has him in a bear hug or shoves his face into his shoulder, and Alistair knows it, and if it weren't for the damned horses and the damned audience he'd give it a go.

Instead, he takes another drink of water.

"It will be all right, Zev," he says. "Even if you—you could beat him. You could end that way."