Disclaimer; I don't own Dragon Age.
Love
"I love you."
He whispers the words into her hair as she sleeps, because he's too much of a coward to say it to her face.
He wonders why that is. He can say almost anything else - I want you, I need you, I can't live without you. But he has never said it to her, not when she can hear him. It's too heavy, he thinks. Too important. He can't say it to her - it makes him too vulnerable. Too exposed.
Love, he thinks, has too many implications. Friendly, familial, romantic. A joke, and a confession, and a doorway. And he means them all, because it's the only way he knows how to love her.
He kisses her, and she curls deeper into his chest, making a soft noise in the back of her throat. He's bothering her, he's sure. She's never been the type to sleep soundly, and the awkward craning to reach her forehead requires a lot of shifting.
"I..." He can't say it again. So instead he wraps his arms around her more tightly, and kisses her hair, and waits for the moment when he has the courage to tell her the truth.