Dragon Age: Coexist

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The sound of leather pressing against earth interrupted my self pity; a shadow appeared before the canvas. "Zetheria?"

I sighed, recognizing the voice. "Come in."

Alistair immediately opened the flap, bringing his head inside. "Thank the Maker you're okay!" He gasped, grinning. "Leliana was running out of stories."

I looked up at him, and gave him a soft smile. Patting the small empty space beside me, I invited him all the way in, silently. He hesitated.

"Um…are you sure? Is it big enough for the both of us?"

I shrugged, wincing once more; if nothing could break my habit of shrugging, the pain would. "Just barely. C'mon. It's all right,"

The templar looked behind him, cautiously, then brought himself in, keeping his hands awkwardly close to his person as he sat beside me, body seeming to recoil from my presence; I raised a brow. "Are you all right?"

Alistair looked at me, then, realizing how close our faces were, backed away. "Yes, I'm…..fine…"

I gave him a questionable look, then looked away. He was a human. And he was sitting next to me, so close that I could smell the tea on his breath, see the fine hairs that stood up on his arms. At the sight of that, I inwardly cringed; I'd never seen body hair before. Elves couldn't grow hair anywhere but on their heads. It was…odd, to say the least. But what was more odd was that I'd never been as close to a human as I had been then, yet I felt no discomfort. I'd accepted the fact that Alistair was the only tolerable male in his entire species, besides Duncan, of course.

I clicked my tongue, deciding to change the subject, murder the awkwardness. "I heard Leliana was entertaining you and Jaiden to get your mind off of me. How was that?"

He grinned again, teeth exposed, skin still flushed. "Quite…fun, actually. She told us stories, legends, mostly. And she sung….she has the most beautiful voice, Zetheria…you should hear her. I think Jaiden liked it a little more than me, though. Morrigan was not happy about that. Is there something going on there?"

I rolled my eyes. "What was one of the stories she told?"

He pushed his lips out, eyes slit, hand brought to his chin, like a child struggling to remember what his mother had told him to do that day. "Mmm….let's see….which one would you like? Oh! About the warrior, Aveline," His eyes brightened, filled with glee and childish wonderment; I was taken aback by the sight. "But Leliana could tell it better than me. Maybe you should have her tell you?"

I shook my head. "You're here. Tell me."

And he did.

It was a fairly interesting story, but the truly entertaining part of the entire thing was the storyteller. Alistair would often forget exactly what happened when, who said what, when Aveline did something. Usually I would find such absentmindedness annoying, but with him I found it…endearing; it suited him.

I smiled at him, when he'd finished the tale. "That was a nice story, Alistair," I wanted to keep the tone light, but the question was nagging at me. "I'm surprised you were that worried about me."

His elated expression immediately faltered; the air had suddenly grown awkward, tense, with just one swift movement. "Um…yeah…" He trailed off. "Well, it was….scary, I'll admit. You should have seen yourself, Zetheria, I mean really. I was terrified," His hand began to tremble; he brought it to his neck, clearing his throat. "Everyone was. Well, except for Sten. You know how he feels about mages. He just muttered something about leashes and walked off. And Morrigan. But don't feel bad that your near death-experience didn't melt the Ice Queen's heart."