This is a test piece for a possible upcoming AU dragon age story. The time frame here isn't specific and neither is any character except Loghain. I'm looking to see the feedback before I start anything more substantial. please R&R.

Much love GP


The tent was far too small. It wasn't meant for two but in that moment, it mattered not.

It was a tiny sliver of peace and tranquility in a world, a time, when such things were far from tranquil.

Calloused fingers ran methodically through thick, weathered hair, dark strands pouring over themselves through his fingers before falling back against the milky, freckled skin that was pulled taut over a genteel collarbone.

She'd fallen asleep after their fevered love making, her mind just as exhausted as her body.

They were all exhausted. All the soldiers, all the officers, the nobles, the common folk. Everyone. But they were winning. Eventually they all hoped they'd be able to sleep without having to wake every few hours for their next watch.

They'd sleep in real beds with pillows and thick furs in the winter months, a fire crackling in a stone fireplace.

All these things would replace the hard ground they currently lay on, sleeping bags spread out on top and close to one another to keep the warmth in as the winds whistled outside their canvas shelters.

Loghain, despite his exhaustion, fought sleep. He wasn't expected on watch for hours yet. Others were far too willing to jump to his rescue nowadays and take shifts on watch so he could return to his tent.

His pale eyes roamed the equally pale face, framed by ropes of dark hair, loose and flyaway against the rough material on which she slept.

It made him feel sick.

Not her. She didn't make him sick. But the churning in his stomach when he looked at her was threatening.

He still couldn't shake the feeling he'd had since the day she'd made her intentions clear toward him. The feeling that he was stealing something valuable. That he was getting his dirty, common fingers all over something that should never be touched by a half illiterate, thuggish farmer's son who was only ever good at drawing blood from others, by hand or sword or arrow.

His breath caught in his throat as he thought. As he over thought… That's what she'd say if she opened her eyes and saw him staring at her in the dim light.

Even after everything he'd done. They'd done. He still didn't deserve her. She'd reassured him time and time again after the first time in Crestwood.

He still couldn't bring himself to believe it though, no matter how much he tried.

Her lips parted slightly and she sighed wistfully in her slumber. Loghain swallowed hard and tried to force down the ache in his chest at the sound. He saw beauty in every tiny thing she did, down to the smallest unconscious sigh.

She'd terrified him at first. He'd never had a lass come onto him so strongly, so quickly. He wouldn't have expected it from someone like her either. Not that she was anything like the others to begin with.

Another slight shift in her sleep, a brush of skin against his own bare skin. It sent a thrill through him, however unintentional it was.

Perhaps he was over thinking. A smile twitched at the corners of his lips. He should be thanking the powers that be that someone as beautiful, as powerful, as superior to himself, would ever want him.

He couldn't even blink as her hand lifted and idly rubbed at her nose and then her closed eyes before the lids fluttered, the long, dark lashes quivered against her cheek and then she cracked an eye open, ever so slightly, the green orb blurrily swiveling round before it rested upon him.

A relaxed smile spread across her lips and Loghain's heart beat just a little faster.

The hand lifted from her face and she stroked her fingers against his cheekbone with a tenderness Loghain hadn't known since his mother.

She didn't say a word as he shifted and settled closer to her in the too small tent. They were both too tired and neither of them wanted to disturb the peace and tranquility that blanketed them both amid the chaos outside their canvas shelter.