A/N: Hey! This was wrote initially for Deviant Art's 'TheDragonAges' monthly contest! The challenge was 'Romance the unromancable' and I immediatley thought of this pairing! (Being the little MaharielxTamlen geek that I am) Anywho, hope you like it, tell me what you think of it! (:
"Run! Quickly now!" Lina hissed through the trees, glancing back behind her at the panting but running form of Tamlen as he followed. His face was scrunched up, and one hand was clutching at his stomach, although not in pain. He was attempting to run and follow Lina whilst laughing, causing his stomach a great pain although well worth it in his eyes. Lina giggled softly, the fast and consistent crunching of their boots on the forest floor betraying the quick beating of their hearts as they sped further and further away from the clan camp.
"I think… I think we lost her!" His voice called out to her, and although he showed no inclination of stopping Lina knew he desperately wanted to. Lina ignored him, dodging through the trees until the shouts of the clan totally dispersed and the stillness of the forest took over. Then she stopped. She titled her body sideways, just in time to see a skidding Tamlen narrowly miss her body as he failed to realise she had stopped, trip over her leg and fall face first into the dirt of the clearing they had just arrived in.
"Now we lost her. Who knew Merrill could run so fast? And in those robes too!" Lina giggled, holding her hand out to pull Tamlen up from the floor and grinning as he brushed himself off.
"Was… she the only… one who didn't… eat the stew?" Tamlen asked between heavy pants, attempting to catch his breath back in case Merrill decided to show up again. Lina laughed, giving him a push on the shoulder and nodding.
"Merrill and Fenarel. Merrill suspected something so she didn't touch it, and Fenarel isn't feeling too well lately. Other than that, everyone ate it."
"I don't blame her for suspecting something; you had the most suspicious grin on your face as you served everyone their food. I'm amazed even Marethari didn't suspect anything, or Ashalle!" Tamlen answered back, straightening up and rubbing at his temples.
"It's their own silly fault anyway. They should have known that putting you on cleanup duty and me on serving duty for putting the aphrodisiac in the Halla trough was a very stupid thing to do. It was obvious you were going to lace the cutlery with the liquid and even more obvious that I was going to put it in the evening stew and water bucket!" Lina protested, rubbing at her arms and glancing behind her.
"It's okay for you; you can be blamed for your young and sixteen youth. They don't understand that I'm only a few days over seventeen, and therefore still liable to pull pranks!" Tamlen crossed his arms over his chest, clearly unhappy although a grin broke onto his face at surprised shouts from the distance.
"I think it's kicked in… Which one did you use?" Tamlen asked her, feeling a tiny bit scared when Lina flashed him a wicked grin from where she was stood near a tree.
"The one in the small blue bottle, from the forbidden box in Marethari's tent. It took me a good half an hour to get in there unseen, so I figured that I may as well pick the most efficient and most powerful one for my efforts." Lina told him through giggles, her cheeks hurting from laughing so much.
"Oh creators… they'll be lustful until midnight!" He hissed through his teeth, stomach uneasy when she flashed him another wicked grin.
"Oh no, they'll be like that until morning. I heard Marethari telling Ashalle once that she added a special herb to all her aphrodisiacs – a herb that increases stamina and makes it build up as you lose it… They're not going to be able to stop until it wears off. You're only supposed to put a drop in to make it work, but I used the whole bottle." She cackled at the thought, ignoring Tamlen as he tipped his water pouch upside down in disappointment. He glanced over at hers, where it was resting unopened on her belt.
"I'm feeling ill… Have you drunk any of your water, yet?" He asked, feeling oddly warm even in the cold evening air. Lina shook her head, unhooking hers from her belt and tossing it towards him.
"Not a drop. Have mine if you want it so badly." She gave him a confused look as he practically pulled the top from the pouch, downing all the water in a few quick gulps. She shrugged the odd feeling she got and turned to look out at the forest in front of her, looking for any signs of approaching life.
Tamlen screwed the top back onto the water pouch; however he was hit with a wave of warm, fuzziness. He shook his head, attempting to get rid of the feeling that had been plaguing him ever since they stopped in the clearing, unsure as to why his stomach was protesting against him standing still. His entire body wanted him to move, and the male elf had no idea why.
The wind blew fiercely towards him, shaking the trees and rustling the bushes and sending a sweet scent of vanilla his way. The scent was covered with a tiny hint of mint and herbs, although the most prominent was the sweet vanilla smell that infiltrated his nose and immediately made him feel grateful that his tunic was long enough to reach his mid-thigh.
Knowing he shouldn't – creators he knew he really shouldn't – he allowed his eyes to wander over Lina's body, the smaller elf still eyeing the path they'd run to the clearing on and still wearing her Dalish armour. She was oblivious to his wandering eyes as they took in every part of her body like a drug.
When she turned to give him a grin when another shout of surprise was heard in the distance, that was when he could stand it no longer. He gripped her shoulders, spun her around quickly on the spot, and crushed his lips to hers.
Lina gave a squeak of surprise at being handled so roughly, followed by a groan that was half from pain and half from pleasure when Tamlen pushed her against the tree at the same time that he bit down hard on her lip and not-so-gently slipped his tongue into her mouth. Her knee's buckled underneath her, her eyes slipping shut as her heart pounded against her chest. His hands were settled on her hips just above the leathered skirt she wore, stopping her from sliding down the tree as her legs kept on trying to buckle her to the floor.
Hesitantly, Lina placed one hand slowly onto his shoulder, her other snaking up around his neck and burying itself in his blond hair, fisting it as he pushed against her with a need she never knew he would have had in him. When his hands roamed away from her hips and up to the straps on the back of her armour, a small sliver of 'he never acts like this' flitted across her mind, and made her eyes snap open quickly.
Stop right there
He never would have had the guts to do something like this to Lina, and although she desperately wanted to let him keep going, she knew it was something he wasn't doing on his own terms and therefore was something he would definitely regret the next morning. She winced as she thought of a solution to get him off her without him being able to pull her head back up for a kiss, and then acted.
Sharply she pulled her knee up, right into Tamlen's groin and hearing the horrible noise it made as it connected with his nether regions. He immediately let go of her, keeling over in pain, and Lina used his keeling position to quickly stand behind him and kick the back of his knees to make him fall forwards to the floor. He fell, groaning in pain from hitting the floor and whimpering from being kicked in the groin. Lina licked her lips, freezing when the taste of mint, cinnabar and a taste she couldn't identify hit her taste buds.
The taste in her mouth was the same as the scent of the aphrodisiac she had slipped into the water bucket and the camp stew. It had been watered down considerably since the taste had only been on her lips from Tamlen's rough kissing, although it was identifiable nonetheless. She knelt down next to Tamlen, gripping his arms tightly and pulling him up, holding them behind his back tight enough so that he couldn't get out of the grip.
"The water that you used to fill up our water pouches; which water bucket did you take it from?" She asked him, ignoring his noise of pain as she tightened her grip. Her cheeks were flushed red, part from the kiss and part from the realisation of what she'd almost allowed Tamlen to do. Tamlen struggled against her grip.
"You did this to me, and you are going to fix it!" He hissed through clenched teeth, the effects of whatever it was in the water he'd drank making his mind a fuzzy haze with a want for only one thing.
"Which bucket, Tamlen, which one?" Lina spoke harshly through her teeth, pushing him against the tree to make it more uncomfortable for him.
"I don't know, Lina… The- the one directly next to the campfire, near the cooking pot." At his words Lina groaned, releasing him but pinning him against the tree to stop him from doing anything to her. She wasn't sure if she could stop him a second time.
"Damnit Tamlen! I specifically told you to get the water from anywhere but that bucket! Why do you never listen to me?"
"You told me to get it from that bucket! You planned this, I know you did!" Tamlen replied angrily as Lina ignored him and pulled him from the tree before slamming him back against it, attempting to beat him back to normal.
It wouldn't work; she knew it wouldn't. That aphrodisiac was powerful in a single drop, and he'd drunken two pouches of water contaminated with the stuff. She'd meant for him to only take a small drop once they'd arrived back to the camp, and never in her wildest dreams would she have thought it would be this powerful!
She dragged him all the way back to the camp, fighting off his attempts to grab her and kiss her again. When she arrived, she ignored the smug look from Merrill and the bewildered look from Fenarel, and approached the keepers Aravel. It had a space in there for the tables and benches that the Dalish would use, and it was large enough for two elves to hide. Lina let go of Tamlen, pushing him inside and locking him in until the next morning.
Next time, she'd use only a droplet.