"You think this is a scandal?" Lavellan asks one frosty Skyhold morning, breath a wisp of foggy air in chilled mountain air, because the door everyone has been nagging her to fix has blown open during the night, long since extinguisher the flame of the hearth. "Do they whisper of it in Orlais behind fancy masks and ridiculously expensive wine?"
"The only thing scandalous here are your frozen feet on my back." They were truly like slight blocks of ice, up under Josephine's shirt and pressed against her shoulder blades. How Lavellan managed to contort her wiry body in ways that jammed her freezing extremities against various parts of Joesphine's body was beyond her. It might have been impressive, were they not so cold."I'm hiring someone to fix that door, Ryan."
"But you love my freezing feet." Lavellan curled closer into the small ball she'd scrunched herself into, reaching her hands under Josephine's night shirt and pressing cold digits against her ribs.
"Lavellan!" Josephine gasped, jerking away from her touch, and pulling most of the blankets with her.
"Josie, don't leave me like this. All alone. In the cold. I'll behave." Lavellan managed to swallow her laughter, though a grin commandeered her mouth. After a moment of no response, she began, "Day 35 on the mountain, no signs of life. I've run out of food. My teammates have not returned. I can only assume they have abandoned me or succumbed to the elements. My travels have taken me far, but I fear I'm still lost. I've yet-"
"Lavellan, don't be so melodramatic." Josephine turned back to face her, a small smile between her reddened cheeks. She tossed the thick blanket over the elf and brought it up to their shoulders. "I don't know why the cold doesn't bother you."
Lavellen unwound beneath to sheets, stretching out her legs and wriggling her toes. "I'd've expected some part of me to snap off by now, but I guess I'm made of hardier stuff. Or maybe it's all that whiskey."
"You're incorrigible."
"And you're lovely."
"That was not a complement, Ryan."
"But you sounded happy when you said it," she responded, tucking her hands beneath the pillows. "I was serious though. Do you think they talk of us? Outside Skyhold, I mean?"
"Most certainly, yes. Does is bother you?"
"Only if they leave out how gorgeous I am. I mean, you'd have to be a bard to do this body justice. This perfect skin. The superior cut of my jaw. The awesome planes of my cheeks-"
"Lavellan, please."
"-Such perfectly styled hair. Tasteful scars that give me a rugged, handsome look-"
"Lavellan."
She frowned slightly at that and blinked. "Sorry. Serious. Right." Lavellan sighed, then, a huff of steamy air that traveled in lazy circles in its slow dissipation. "It doesn't bother me. Because they don't know me. They don't know anything at all. Does it bother you?"
"Only in so much as the ugly rumors," Josephine admitted after a moment's pause. "They're so distasteful and horrid, I don't know how they can stand themselves for saying such things."
"Fuck 'em, but not literally," Lavellan said, shuffling closer on the bed, tossing a skinny arm over Josephine's waist. "Cause they're unworthy."
"Crude, but the sentiment is appreciated."
Lavellan grinned, and pressed a kiss to Josephine's clavicle. "That's what I'm here for. Also, I've got a wicked glowing hand. So that too."
"Ryan."
"Mmm?"
"We've dawdled in bed long enough. There's much to do."
Lavellan whined, as expected, and made quite the show of getting out of bed, pushing off the bed covers as if it were the most dramatic thing in the world, or rather, like pulling teeth. But she was coaxed out none the less, in nothing but her smallclothes and skin, oblivious to the cold mountain air circulating about. And she marched right down the stairs and out the door without putting on her armor or looking back.
Scandalous indeed.
XXX
A/N: Inquisitor being a little shit? Check.