The words were starting to blur on the parchment and Evelyn rubbed her eyes in frustration, feeling the twinge in her skull that typically heralded a headache. Even after the defeat of Corypheus, after Leliana's coronation as Divine Victoria, there was still so much business to attend to, made only harder by the loss of their spymaster.
"Inquisitor?"
She looked up from the reports she was studying and grimaced as her muscles painfully protested the movement. With a groan, she heaved herself to her feet and contemplated hiding; leader or not, she would scream if it was another messenger with a coded note from one of Leliana's scouts, or, worse, with yet another invitation sent to Josephine for a ball celebrating the end of Corypheus where she and their Commander simply must attend as the guests of honor. The thought of another night spent entertaining nobles made her head throb.
When she heard the creak of her door opening, she whipped around with an angry "Get out!" It took her a moment that the man entering was not a messenger after all, though he did carry a scroll that was quickly set aside.
"Evelyn?" His voice was hesitant, worried, and she sighed, one hand pressing against her temple in a futile attempt to keep the pain at bay.
"I'm sorry, Cullen," she said as calmly as she could. "I'm just… busy." Inwardly, she winced at how bad the lie was, but pressed on doggedly. "Is that…?" She trailed off, eyeing the new missive cautiously.
"Bull managed to decipher a message from Leliana's agent, Harper. He said something about it being doubly encrypted?" The discomfort on the Commander's face when confronted with the subtleties of espionage was almost enough to make her lips twitch.
Instead, she exhaled noisily and moved to read it, her mind already working on plans to give the former Ben-Hassrath other messages that needed decoding. Perhaps he could help step in and take care of some of the translating; he was once a Hissran, after all.
After a few moments, she realized that Cullen had still not left. "Yes, Commander?" she asked testily. Maker, the brightness of his armor just made her head pound harder and she bit back a groan as she averted her gaze back to her work. She didn't have time for a headache. She still had so much left to take care of.
The sound of metal clanging caught her attention and she sighed again, audibly this time, and tried to fight down the irrational wave of disappointment she felt at his leaving. He was the Commander of their military forces and couldn't just keep her company, as much as she may want him to, especially when she had so much work to do.
The touch of his bare hand against her face, brushing back a stray curl, made her jump and she turned to look at him. He was dressed only in his shirt and breeches, and she realized belatedly that the jangling she heard had been him taking off his armor. "Are you all right?" he murmured in her ear.
When he moved his hands to her shoulders, pulling her back from her hunched position, Evelyn let herself relax, and, noticing the concern in his warm eyes, smiled weakly. "Just busy and tired."
"You work too hard," he informed her, fingers massaging her tense muscles in a way that made her whimper in relief as he worked away the knots and her headache eased.
"Why, Commander," she retorted with a small grin, "have you ever heard about the pot and the kettle? How many times did I have to draw you away from your office in the past year?"
His low chuckle made her laugh as he grabbed her hand and led her to the couch on the other side of the room. "Do you have a moment?" he quoted, pulling her onto his lap with a swift movement.
As his hands resumed their task, she gave a happy sigh and turned to kiss him warmly. "For you, always," she whispered.
A/N: Originally written for dear-miss-adair on tumblr. This can also be found on AO3.