A/N: So this little guy came to bug me while I was driving home from work the other day, and just wouldn't stop pestering me until I wrote it down. It's not entirely how I thought it would turn out, but I'm happy with it. Everyone like's a fluff piece now and again!

Disclaimer: No, not mine. Sigh…

"No," he said furiously, turning his back towards her.

He heard her sigh. "Alistair, please, you're acting like a child throwing a tantrum!" She said. He could tell that she was holding back. She was growing tired of his unwillingness to listen but knew that yelling at him would get her nowhere. Still, he felt like he was a child being scolded by his mother, and that was not improving his mood.

"Throwing a tantrum?" He whirled around on her and saw that she was massaging her head as if she had a headache. Oh lovely, he thought, she's trying to force the weight of the world on my shoulders, and she's the one with the headache. "Do you realize what you're asking? Do you realize you're asking me to do what I least want in the world?"

"I thought what you wanted least was to allow Loghain to join the Wardens?" She said, raising an eyebrow at him.

Well, damn it that was a low blow. "You know what I mean," he huffed, turning away from her again. He certainly felt like he was acting childish, but he was putting his foot down on this. He would not be made king.

"Do you really want Anora on the throne? After what her father did? Do you truly believe she is not a monster?" She asked incredulously.

Alistair sighed but did not respond. She had a point there. He did not like the idea of Anora on the throne either, but better her there than him. "Well, you're just going to have to find a third option, then. Maybe Morrigan will agree to be the queen. I am a Warden, and I want nothing more than to start rebuilding them."

"Alistair," she whispered quietly from behind him. She put her hand gently on his arm to remind him that she was on his side. He didn't feel that way, though. All he wanted to do was start travelling from city to city, to find new recruits, to talk to the Wardens from the other lands to find out the best way to rebuild. "As king, you would have more power than anyone to show how important that the Wardens be rebuilt. You could have everyone back you in that regard." He huffed, knowing she was right, but not wanting to admit it. She continued on before he could say anything. "Alistair, you would make a phenomenal leader. You know what it's like as a commoner, as a Templar, as a warrior. You are compassionate and loving. You'll have advisers to help you explain foreign policies and taxes and all of those things that you fear, but the people will love you. You will treat them right and protect them, far more than any noble could." She walked around him and gently grabbed his face. "It would be my honor to serve you as my king."

He came very close to rolling his eyes at that one, but held back the urge. He sighed, knowing that all of her arguments were right, and that perhaps he could make a great king, but would that mean losing her?

Suddenly, he realized the solution. A large smile stretched across his face. She backed away, looking at him curiously. She didn't think he would be that easy to convince. "All right, I'll be your king. On one condition."

Elissa raised her eyebrow at him again. "Which is…?"

"You be my queen."

She jumped back, her face perplexed, but Alistair continued to smile. "Alistair, what…? I… what on earth are you saying?"

"Elissa, damn it, we're the people who bloody saved the world, are we not? So don't we deserve to get what we want?" She didn't answer him, still backed off and looking incredibly confused. "Well, I want you. I'd rather be your second-in-command as a Grey Warden, but hey, compromises. If you would have me be king, then I will have you be my queen."

She shook her head. "The people will think that I forced you into the throne so that I could rule myself. They wouldn't respect me. And besides, someone needs to start rebuilding the Wardens…"

"I don't care what the people would think on that note. You're the hero of Ferelden, the people already love you. I think they would rejoice if you became their queen. And besides, who better than the royal family to start rebuilding the Wardens?" He repeated her argument to her. She tapped her foot impatiently, looking away. "C'mon, what else have you got? Why shouldn't you be queen?"

She glared at him, and he was very happy that looks could not kill. "Alistair, if you want me to be queen so that I could rule instead of you…"

"Oh, please," he scoffed. "You already knew you would be my top adviser. I trust you more than anyone. If I were to become king, you essentially would be ruling, because I would never make a decision without running it by you first."

Elissa's face flushed pink with the compliment, but she still wasn't done. "If I were to marry you, you realize you're stuck with me, for the rest of your life?" She asked quietly. He grinned again. She was almost saying yes. "I won't have you sharing a bed with any other woman. That's it. It would be just me. Are you sure you want that?"

He took a step towards her, gently running his hand down her cheek, smiling more broadly as she leaned in to him. "That's all I wanted," he muttered. She smiled and looked down at her feet. "I was going to ask you to marry me once we figured out how we would start rebuilding the Wardens. I've always wanted it to be you and me. There will never be another woman who could possibly do more than you."

She looked back up at him and chuckled. "You know, I never had a man ask me to marry him before. Not that I really ever dreamed of it, but this is not how I thought I would be proposed to."

He felt his stomach dropped. Oh bugger, this was supposed to be some romantic thing, wasn't it? He thought. And I just went ahead and practically forced her to say yes. "Elissa, I'm sorry. I… I knew I wanted to marry you, but I didn't think I would ask you so soon. I didn't think you would want me to be king… I…"

Elissa just continued chuckling. "Alistair, I wouldn't have you any other way."

"I'll get you a ring, I promise." He swore under his breath and ran his hand through his hair. He shouldn't have asked her like this. She was laughing at him, and he was angry. This wasn't supposed to be how you asked the love of your life to marry you. Then he remembered what was in his bag.

Digging around carefully in his pouch, his hand closed around the item he was looking for. Elissa was looking at him curiously, the ghost of a laugh still etched on her face. He turned to her and placed the necklace over her head. "To remind you that I want you, Elissa, the woman who has been beside me since the beginning, the woman who was there for comfort and support when I needed it most, the woman who I want to spend the rest of my life with, to marry me for love. Not just because she would make a wonderful queen."

Gently, she picked up the amulet and looked at it, turning it between her fingers. "Alistair… this was your mother's….."

"It's my most prized possession. I think in the nobility you're supposed to give your mother's ring to the woman you want to marry, and it's been passed on through hundreds or millions of generations or something like that. Well, that's the only thing of my mother's that I have." He tucked a lock of stray hair behind her hair, and she looked back up with tears in her eyes.

Oh no, he thought. Now I've made her cry. How did I screw this up so wonderfully? "Elissa, please, don't cry. You'll still get a ring, I…"

She giggled as a tear fell from her eye. Alistair wiped it away with his thumb, and she reached up and grabbed his hand. "These are happy tears, you fool," she said, smiling.

Alistair breathed a sigh of relief. She was happy. He made her happy. She was going to marry him. "Your fool," he muttered, leaning his forehead against hers.

She leaned up and kissed him. "Always."