When Fate Summons (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

Go Your Own Way

Thora opened her eyes to see the grey light of early morning coming through the window. She sighed, stretching languidly.

"Hey, don't move yet," Alistair protested sleepily. He curled around her, nuzzling the back of her neck.

She wiggled against the hard ridges of his muscles.

"Well, I suppose you could move like that," he murmured. He drew her closer into his arms, his teeth grazing her shoulder as one warm hand caressed her belly.

Thora rolled onto her back. "This is my favorite way to wake up," she sighed.

"Mine, too," Alistair whispered, bending to kiss her.

It was sleepy, and sweet, and hot. They rolled around in the tangled covers, giggling and kissing and stroking until at last they were joined, moving together in short, frenzied thrusts. Thora cried out first, then Alistair. He kissed her softly, smiling.

"Let's start every day off like this from now on, okay?"

"Okay," Thora sighed.

Alistair got up, stretching widely. "And now, love," he said, "I need breakfast. Two breakfasts!"

"You and your appetite," Thora groused, climbing out of bed. Her stomach rumbled, and she grinned. "Apparently me and my appetite, too."

Thora collected her clothes before noticing that Alistair was standing in the middle of the room unmoving.

"What's the trouble?" she asked.

He turned red, grinning sheepishly. "I left all my clothes—er, Anders's clothes—in my room." He motioned to the flimsy pants he was wearing. "This is all I have."

"I guess you'll have to hurry back to your room and hope no one else is awake at this hour," Thora said, stifling a giggle.

Alistair's face turned serious, and he caught Thora by the shoulders, his eyes darkening. "This is real, right? I mean, I've dreamed of this so many times, and it's always— It never ..."

Thora took his face between her hands. "This is real," she assured him. "I promise."

He held her tight, burying his face in her hair and breathing in her flowery, coppery scent, filling his senses with it. With a parting kiss, he was off, heading for his room and Anders's clothes.

For a few moments after he'd left, Thora stood motionless, a dreamy look in her brown eyes. Then her stomach growled again, and she headed for breakfast.

When Anawyn came to breakfast, she could tell something was different. Her mother and father were sitting next to each other, laughing and joking, and they kept giving each other goofy looks that seemed to amuse Leliana and Xandros and irritate Morrigan. About halfway through the meal, Morrigan put down her fork with a clatter.

"Honestly, 'tis just as though we never stopped traveling," she snapped.

"I think it's cute," giggled Leliana.

Thora looked at them both, all wide-eyed innocence. "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."

"Exactly like the Blight," Morrigan said, but there was a hint of a smile on her face.

After breakfast, they got ready to leave, saying their good-byes to the Tower's inhabitants. Petra, her eyes still red-rimmed from grief, and Irving, looking as though he had aged a decade overnight, saw them off down the stairs. Dagna led the way through the Tower. At the bottom, before they went through the great doors out into the entry area, she handed Thora a specially made satchel that clinked.