Today
(Author's Note: This is inspired by a photo by Mage & Mercenary Cosplay; the image stuck with me, and I had to write this!)
"I don't know how it all came to this." She sits at the foot of the bed, elbows on her knees and her head buried in her hands. Her armor pieces are scattered on the floor about her, and it's not that she doesn't how to arm herself for battle, it's that she doesn't want to. She wants to fall into bed with Anders in her arms and the dog at their feet. She wants Kirkwall and Meredith and Orsino to just disappear.
Anders sits at her feet. He rests his hand on her leg and she feels a bit calmer. "Don't do that," she says, looking at him with a warning twinkle in her eye.
"I'm sorry," he says. He leaves his hand where it is, but he withdraws the faint tendrils of calming magic he'd been sending into her. "I worry."
"I know. I do too."
"But we've gotten this far. We can see this through."
His words are calming and strong, and have a magic of their own. She believes him. "What was it you said?" She asked with a smile.
He returns the smile. "Someday, someone like you will love someone like me and there will be no templars to tear us apart," he says, rubbing her calf.
She reaches for him and he kneels on the floor, hands on her waist and gazing up at her. She sees the intensity in his amber eyes, the passion and the complete and utter conviction that has spurred her own fight against the injustices of Kirkwall since the day she met him. She takes his face in her hands, his skin warm and his faint stubble scratchy under her hands. She leans down and kisses him, and there is no stemming the flows of magic that mingle between them.
He pulls away, his straw-colored hair falling into his face. He sinks back to the floor, sitting cross-legged. He hands over her gauntlets and she fits it to her forearm, then holds it out for him to buckle it in place. His fingers are warm where they brush her skin. Anders reaches for her greaves. Wordlessly he begins to fit them to her shins, his hands deftly buckling the armor on. He's watched her and helped her do this so many times, but today it's more ceremonial.
She rises and he helps affix her breastplate, then hands Hawke her glowing staff. He pulls her in as close as her armor allows and searches her eyes. "Let's make 'someday' today," he says breathlessly.
Her armored boots thud down the stairs and through the foyer of the manor. She stops at the door and turns to him, taking his hand. "Today."