So...I have fallen in love with Dragon Age I and II. I am sooo in love with female romances with Leliana and Isabela BUT I decided to try my hand at writing a romance with Leliana first to gage reactions. I want to make this into multiple chapters but if reactions are not good, then this is all you get :P. Characters are slightly OOC and dialogues don't follow the game completely but I thought by changing things around just a bit, it adds a sense of reality to the story. Anyways, I hope you enjoy. 3
I remember the past in fractured shards that make up a puzzle I can barely understand. Each memory bleeds into each other and all that I can make out are the numerous battles we fought together. I wish I could remember just catching my breath and enjoying the tiny remnants of silence between every violent encounter but I was too focused on my path. My tunnel vision kept me blind from the one person who asked me to stop and enjoy the smell of the flowers that crossed our path. The day my heart stopped within the tumultuous chaos of the moment; I fell in love with a white flower with a red center. I fell in love with the cunning, beautiful flame of Orlais.
Leliana quickly stopped in her tracks, causing the rest of the group behind her to abruptly stop and nearly collide into the flame-haired bard. Morrigan stamped her foot into the ground, to show her irritation while Wynne quietly crossed her arms and peered questioningly at the Orlesian. The Grey Warden pursed her lips and carefully approached Leliana.
"Is something wrong, Leliana?" The Warden asked gingerly.
Leliana's eyes were focused on a white flower with a reddish-orange center that grew solitarily beside a rotting tree. The bard focused her eyes on the Warden and smiled peevishly. "Remember what I told you about my mother? About what I could remember about her, that is." Leliana began in her sweet, lilting voice.
The Grey Warden's gold-flecked, green eyes focused on the flower and she slowly nodded her head, making her gold and black Warden commander's armor clink gently as she searched her memory. "So, this is Andraste's grace."
The bard smiled tenderly at the Warden and giggled softly. "I never thought I would actually come across it-" Leliana was quickly interrupted by a snort from an angry mage.
"So, you thought it would be appropriate to stop us in mid-run whilst going after werewolves just to smell the flowers? Infuriating!" Morrigan scowled as she threw her slender arms up into the air.
Leliana's face took on a slight look of pain but she recovered from her embarrassment from the broad, childish smile the Warden gave her. "Morrigan just means that she thinks the flower is beautiful too." The Warden said through a giggle as Morrigan began cursing in the background.
"I really am sorry but it's just that the flower caught my attention and I wasn't really thinking." Leliana's eyes fell on the flower again and the subtle scent of the flower pulled at the scarce memories of her mother.
Wynne carefully made her way to Leliana's side and placed a hand on the Bard's shoulder. "It is perfectly fine to stop and smell the roses every now and then. We can't be tough and bloody thirsty all the time." The elder mage said in her usual wisdom.
"Perhaps we should keep moving then. Let's go." The Warden said just as Morrigan set the nearest bush aflame to end her tantrum.
"So, how beautiful was this 'Lady of the Forest'?" Zevran asked Leliana as he wiggled his eyebrows.
The group had made it through the day by unearthing the true tale of the werewolves, getting the Dalish to acknowledge the Grey Warden treaty, and they now reveled in the sweet time they had back at camp before another day of unexpected excitement were to occur. Leliana, Alistair, and Zevran were gifted with the task of making dinner that night and the three sat around the spit as they prepared the freshly killed dinner to be roasted. "She was practically naked and she wasn't quite human but she was still attractive all the same." Leliana said as she swirled a ladle through the soup that was gurgling happily over the fire.
Alistair stuck bits of meat on a spit that hung precariously over a second fire. "Zevran, didn't you have enough of women today? You slept with three different travelers who accidentally came upon our camp today while they were running from Lothering. Honestly, that takes talent to bed women who were running for their lives." The blonde templar said in a flat tone.
Zevran seemed overly proud of himself as he leaned back and stretched his legs. "I was merely comforting them when no one else could."
"You mean you were taking advantage of poor, distraught women during their most vulnerable moment?" Alistair smiled slyly as Leliana smacked her palm against her forehead.
"It was mutually beneficial." Zevran grinned.
"Well, how about you try and be mutually beneficial to our cause by stirring the soup." Leliana said in an amusing voice as she rose from her seat.
"Where are you going?" Alistair asked as Leliana began to walk away.
"To make sure Victoria is alright guarding her post." The bard's voice slowly faded into the darkness, leaving the rogue Elf and the templar alone to their mischievousness.
"I highly doubt she needs to be checked on; you think our Orlesian spy has a thing for the lonely, dark-spawned poisoned noble?" Alistair said through a toothy smile.
Zevran laughed. "My friend, you could write a sappy romantic novel with two characters like that. You can title it 'The Griffon and the Orlesian flower."
"Or how about 'Conquering the Spy of Love'!"
"I think there is one already named that. Perhaps go with something simple like 'One Night in Orlais'."
"How about 'If our dinner burns again, I will put you both into the damned pot." Morrigan's sharp voice cut through the dark as she entered the aura of light emanating from the fires.
Zevran and Alistair gulped and gloomily went back to their tasks of managing a somewhat edible dinner.
Victoria Cousland was inspecting her family's old sword again. She did this every night when given time alone. A part of her did it to make sure that the family sword would be kept in fairly good shape but it was mostly vengeance that kept the sword's upkeep as a hobby; she planned to use it to slaughter Arl Howe and everyone around him for the murder of her family and the people of her House. When Leliana soundlessly approached the warrior, her blue eyes fell upon the Warden carefully polishing her family's sword. The bard felt a pain course through her chest at the sight for she knew that the Warden kept the hurt of the fall of her House within her and the only way Victoria felt some relief through her sorrows was to keep her revenge alive through the sword's existence. She wished desperately to comfort the woman but how could she possibly do so without crossing lines. "That sword doesn't need to be coddled so much." Leliana teased playfully as she carefully sat down beside the Warden.
The Warden seemed to have been caught off guard but she cleared her throat and placed the sword across her lap. "Shouldn't you be making sure that Alistair and Zevran do not ruin dinner again?"
"They are doing fine; I just came to check up on you. I know guarding usually gets boring so I wouldn't want to find out that you fell asleep on the job and were attacked by ravenous squirrels or anything." Leliana smiled and the Warden smiled back at the Bard's cute attempt at a joke.
Silence over came the two but the comfort still remained. Then, Victoria reached into the side of her boots and pulled out a folded piece of paper which she shyly handed to Leliana. The bard's eyes were wide but she said nothing as she accepted the paper and gingerly unfolded it. Inside was a dried and pressed flower; Andraste's grace. The bard looked up at a furiously blushing Warden. "I grabbed the flower on our way back earlier and my mother's ladies in waiting said that if you ever wanted to preserve a flower, you should dry it and keep it in a book or folded in paper." Victoria said as she kept her eyes focused anywhere else but Leliana's face.
The bard felt a warmth bloom from her chest at the beautiful gesture from the equally beautiful Warden. It had been some time since Leliana had felt the pulls of love and here she was, about to entangle herself into its web once again. "You thought of me, it has been so long since I have felt anyone think of my happiness. Thank you for being so genuinely sweet, Victoria." Leliana placed a gentle hand on the crook of the Warden's arm and forced the Warden to look at her.
"You deserve more than what you've received, Leliana. I wish there was more that I could do for you but..." Victoria's voice trailed off as she rested her jadeveyes on the flame-haired woman beside her.
"There is plenty that you can do for me but there is only one thing that I wish from you."
"What could that be?"
Leliana carefully leaned up and planted a gentle kiss upon Victoria's cheek. The Warden's eyes grew wide as she began to blush hotter than the sun. "I have always loved the tales of chevaliers and their maiden loves and I have always longed to have the romance of such songs. Perhaps, you and I could create our own song, a ballad of sorts?" Leliana said as her hand cupped the side of the Warden's blushing face.
Victoria summoned up her courage and pulled Leliana closer to her by her slender hips. "Perhaps we'll create an epic poem, one that will be written in the stars for future generations to never forget." The Warden said through an arrogant smile and Leliana kissed the lips that beckoned her.