Zevran first notices it one warm evening in the camp. A fluttering feeling in his stomach when the Warden catches his eye and gives him a small, wry grin. And, although it starts sending off a small symphony of warning bells (because Zevran Arianari is no stranger to love, thank you very much), he opts to ignore it. After all, he's not one to deny a beautiful woman the company of his bedroll. Besides, being a grey warden is a stressful job, and all he's doing is providing stress relief. It's just a favour to her, really.
But, then, it gets worse, and worse, until it feels like there's something actually fluttering in his stomach and Wynne tells him he just has food poisoning. Which, he supposes, is really their fault for insisting the Warden cook for them. She had told them, many times, that life in the Cousland estate didn't leave much time for cooking. It's a small consolation that Warden is alternating between profuse apologies and throwing up with the rest of them. But then a few weeks later, when they've made a quick stop in Denerim for supplies, she shows up at camp with a variety of sweets and the fluttering feeling returns with a vengeance. She is almost frustratingly nice. Morrigan has certainly lamented her kindness many a time. And Zevran begins to think, and these are slightly worrying thoughts, that maybe what they have is more than just fun. It's hard to tell, however,because even though the Dalish boots she leaves in his tent one morning are a very thoughtful gift, it seems to be the kind of thing she does for everyone. Alistair's gotten amulet that the Warden 'borrowed' from the Arl of Redcliffe, Morrigan's received a glittery mirror, and it seems as though the Warden is on a one woman mission to provide Wynne with enough wine to open her own tavern, so maybe then the boots are nothing special. So he ignores that too. He probably shouldn't, but he does.
And he starts almost obsessively listing all the reasons why they are a Bad Idea. Namely, she is a grey warden who is trying to save the world (it is a very big job), he's just an assassin who is apparently not as good at as job as he thought he was. And, he tried to her kill her once. That's a tough one to bounce back from. He only fully realizes he's in deep trouble when the Warden goes to Orzammar. She leaves with Alistair, some scruffy dwarf named Oghren, and Wynne, and it's probably a favour to him to leave him behind. Zevran is not overly fond of the idea of traipsing about dank, darkspawn filled caves with smelly dwarves. Or a smelly Alistair, for that matter. But it's then he realizes he's maybe in deeper than he should be. Because the longer she's gone the more his stomach seems to twist itself into all kinds of knots, and while there is no shortage of work to be done around camp he can' thelp but find himself glancing towards the steep cliffs of the Frostback Mountains. In spending so much time around her, and it was a lot of time together, he had grown used to the stomach fluttering and blushing and the strange warmth that spread over him whenever she was close to him. Honestly speaking, really any chance they got they were alone and racing to see who could get the other naked first, so her being away was a bit of a change. She's gone for weeks, and when she finally returns he's the first person she seeks out. And the sheer amount of relief he feels at seeing her; her smiling if tired blue eyes and her small laughs,that settles the matter for him. And, while it feels like something is tearing apart inside him for reasons he really doesn't want to think about, he has to tell her this thing they have has to stop. And, bless her heart, after a bemused look and a joke about food poisoning, she just nods and presents him with a little trinket from Orzamar that reminded her of him.