Dragon Age One Shots

Her Tree

Surprise! I've got an adorable short story with Kristen and Cullen for her first Christmas out of the Inquisition. Characters taken from my modern a/u DA story, Dragon Beat. Click the external link to read it on AO3.

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Voices crying, carousing, and calling faded to a distant roar like an ancient waterfall buried deep in the forest. She instinctively moved to cinch her pack tighter, but only found the cord of her coat to grip to. The bitter cold struck the naked skin on her remaining hand, causing Kristen to cram it back into her pocket. The prosthetic left dangled free in the frosty weather. It could withstand the chill.

"Where are we?" she called. Even with her gaze focused straight ahead, her eyes kept slipping to the side noting every blind spot between the unending rows of foliage. Anyone could be hiding in there.

"It's..." he began, before turning fully in his tracks to face her. A furry hat with adorable ear flaps hid away his dusky blond hair. He'd bundled his strapping body up in a coat that belonged on a mechanic fixing tractors in the field. And, draped around his neck, was a scarlet and cream scarf with massive holes and dropped stitches on nearly every row.

He didn't have to wear her very first attempt at knitting from part of her physical therapy. But he did anyway, which made her flush every time she saw it.

To his other shoulder, Cullen hefted the axe he'd been carrying since they left the car. "I was about to tell you, but you already know."

A tree farm ten miles out of the city. Advertisements for it lined the highway and a cringe-worthy jingle filled the radio station that switched to all Christmas fare two days before Thanksgiving. They sold hot cocoa and pumpkin pies out of a stand beside the entrance to the maze of pines.

Simple information she gathered out of habit. Over a year out of the game and Kristen couldn't stop concocting full dossiers on movie theaters they'd visit, or small drugstores he'd stop at for cold medicine. It didn't give her peace, but she could pretend it did.

Breath puffed from her lips, the steam crystallizing as it struck the unholy cold of late December. Trying to hide her shivering, she walked closer to Cullen. "I meant why are we out here? In this bleak midwinter."

The hand not cradling his axe handle swept across the small of her back and he tucked her tighter. At home, she'd greedily stretch across his naked body, lapping up his heat with nothing between them but a smile. But even his natural male furnace couldn't compete with the sharp sting of a wintry forest.

She felt his chin graze the top of her head and he tried to half envelop her in his arms. "I thought you...delivery types were trained to handle every situation."

It was a silly code. Anyone who knew she was a spy wouldn't be fooled for a second. But it made her feel better, as if she could pretend that in her previous life she did nothing more than move freight from one place to another.

Another blast of wind blew up her coat, sending Kristen scampering deeper into his arms. "J-j-just because I can survive in this cold, do-doesn't mean I wish to."

"Well..." Cullen dropped the axe to the frosty ground. He used his two good arms to wrap her fully up and his lips placed a kiss to her shivering forehead. "I'll be sure to heat you up later," he whispered as if nothing more than the scent of his body, the comforting embrace of his muscles, and the low rumble of his voice could start a fire in her veins.

Kristen risked a glance up into those whiskey amber eyes and a sigh slipped from her. All right, that would be enough if it weren't for the bitterly cold wind rolling through her marrow. Her shivering took her out of his arms and she bent down to pick up the axe. "The sooner we get whatever we came here for..." she said and hauled the maul up to place against her shoulder.