Cheesy Love

The Warden had noticed very well that her mabari had chosen a new favorite. Throwing a glance over her shoulder she could see Fang prance around Alistair, his eyes fixed on the man. The dog smacked his lips in anticipation, throwing the warrior love-sick looks from under long lashes. Rolling her eyes she turned to look back forward, but could easily hear the excitement in her hound's bark and knew without looking that he was jumping around his new victim like a little puppy.

"You just like me because I have cheese", Alistair accused after some moments, a grumble in his voice. "Don't think I'm that stupid. I realize very well that you're only friendly when I have food. As soon as my hands are empty, you'll return to your mistress, pretending nothing happened between us."

At that Fang gave a low whine in protest.

"No, don't even try it. You'll just use me – and then leave you'll me behind, lonely and depraved even of the comfort of cheese", the warrior answered and managed a choked snuffle to accentuate his emotional pain. Her mabari whimpered intently, probably etching closer to the man by now, nuzzling him in the side with his cold nose.

"I have feelings, too, you know. You hurt me, every time you – ACK!", his sentence ended abruptly with his cry of surprise and before the Warden could turn around, she heard a loud thud and a suffocated groan from her fellow Grey Warden. As she moved to see what happened, she had her hands already on her daggers, ready to fend off any attackers. The only problem Alistair had, however, was a gigantic mabari on his chest, licking his face with utmost care.

"Stop it, Fang! Ewww! Stop it, I said!" She listened intently to the man's desperate screams and could not help but chuckle. Her faithful hound had his big paws on Alistair's shoulders, holding him down with his weight, and his tiny tail was wagging so hard that his whole hind quarter was yanked this way and that. Trying to stifle her amusement she raised a hand to cover her mouth, but Alistair had already heard her. He had his arms up in front of his face, trying to defend himself against the slobbery onslaught, but whenever he was able to fend off one attack, Fang would go for another weak spot. By now he had carefully rearranged the warrior's hair and his mistress' chuckle only egged him on further. He gave a happy bark and licked over Alistair's nose with enthusiasm.

"Ewww!", the man uttered again in disgust, "What have you been eating? Were you at Oghren's small cloths again?" At that he blanched visibly, shuddering with the mental image. "Oh Maker, please…", he began, but his prayer was cut short when his comrade burst out in laughter unable to contain herself anymore, holding her sides and blindly reaching out with one hand in search for something to help steady her. He scowled at her with narrowed eyes.

"He wants to show you how much he loves you, Alistair," she said, only just suppressing her laughter, "He'd never just cast you aside like a cheap tavern wench, isn't that right, boy? Yes, Alistair needs some love, yes he does!", she cooed and Fang's ears perked up at that. He straightened up and glanced down at the warrior he had at his mercy, his eyes big and excited. A string of drool slowly detached itself from his muzzle, dripping down ever so laggardly until it hit Alistair's neck with a wet sound.

"Ew. If he loves me so much, why does he try to drown me…?", he asked with a deep sigh, giving up his struggle and letting his arms sink. Fang took that as invitation to lick his face again until he reached one ear, where he proceeded to sniff intently until the warrior started to squirm.

Finally, taking mercy, the Warden stepped closer to put a hand on her hound's back, gripping his fur softly and giving it a tug. "Enough, Fang, I think you made your point. Let him get up", she said and almost made it until the end of the sentence, before she burst out into another fit of giggles. Only almost.

When the mabari finally moved back to sit on his haunches, watching his humans intently, she reached down to give Alistair a hand in getting back up. Her comrade grasped her hand and pulled himself up, his lips curled into grimace as he tried to wipe his face – a task that was rather difficult with gauntlets made mostly of metal. "So I need some love, eh?", he asked dryly, turning his gaze at her.

She giggled and lifted a hand to try and smoothen his hair a bit, the mischievous twinkle evident in her eyes. "Can't let him deprive you of cheese and love."

xxx

This is the first piece I have fabricated - and again I want to thank BeautifulApparition for beta-reading this. =) Thanks, honey! It is really, really appreciated. I hope to update this with more little scenes of how Fang interacts with the group members. In this one I still did not name the Warden, because I think it might be easier to make her your own that way and because I myself often stumble over names that sound so much unlike my Warden that I need time to get into the story (Plus, I despise the name Elisa, because it just doesn't fit. Fergus, Bryce, Aedan - all these names are Irish or Gaelic and have a meaning, but Elisa does not. In fact, Elisa does not fit into the picture I created in my mind, to me personally it just has no ring, but that is just a pet-peeve of mine, I guess.) As long as she is not a center point, she can stay the faceless and nameless Human Noble Rogue that she is, I guess. I might however decide to write the one or the other piece with my very own Warden in there and do sincerly hope that this will not put you off, should I indeed do that at some point. *coughs* In any case, I would be happy to read reviews, as always and hope that you enjoyed reading this. =)