All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal and the right to shoot lightning at fools.

Anders - Dragon Age Origins: Awakening.

He didn't believe in the cold. Cold could be defeated with fire. Unfortunately fire required fuel, and the only fuel they had left was the single blanket. He'd never been quite as annoyed with mage robes as he was at the moment. They were hopelessly inadequate against the current weather. And the presence of the commander did nothing to take the chill out of the room. She radiated ice.

Four weeks now, he'd been a grey warden. He still felt like he'd been set free, but he was beginning to miss the simple rhythm of escape and capture he'd been working on. Trying to understand this woman was like trying to contain a volcano.

At the moment she was standing staring out the frosty glass window, frowning at it as though she could stop the snow with the power of her will alone. Anders wouldn't be surprised if she could. She seemed to be able to do pretty much anything else. Eventually she kicked the wall with a booted foot.

"Much as I'm sure the cabin feels the sting of your unhappiness, Commander," Anders said. "Your violence is unproductive."

"I don't see you doing anything to help," she snapped back at him. "What's the good of magic if you can't keep us warm? Where are your destructive forces of nature now, huh?"

He sighed. "Magic requires power. And power requires lyrium. And if you didn't notice, when we were forced to flee the campsite we didn't have time to pack anything. Or pick anything up. Or..."

"Shut up," she said. "I'm truly beginning to regret conscripting you, mage."

"And here I thought you were just overwhelmed by my manly charms," he replied. "In any case the only thing my magic could do to keep us warm would be start a fire. And we have nothing left to burn. Except ourselves."

"Don't tempt me."

He eyed the blanket. It was a big blanket. But if they both wanted to use it they were going to have to become a lot closer than they were at present. He looked back up at the commander. She was also eyeing the blanket.

"I'm hoping you haven't read the same survival manuals I have," Anders said.

"If you mean the one about having to be naked under a blanket to keep warm in a blizzard..." she said.

He groaned.

"We could never be that cold," she said. "Here." She picked up the blanket and sat next to him, as close as she could get without touching, and wrapped it around them. It wasn't big enough. Freezing air was coming from under the door and creeping under the gaps in the blanket.

After a few minutes of fruitless adjusting, Anders got to his feet. "Andraste's knickers," he swore. He searched the cabin for something to put over the gap under the door. The cabin was empty. "Who builds a hunter's cabin with only one blanket, no firewood and no food?" he asked.

"Probably the Dalish," the Commander said. "They take delight in showing the rest of the world how tough they are."

Anders snorted. "Pointy ears and all talk, I'll bet."

She rolled her eyes. They got back under the blanket, this time Anders encased her in his arms so that it would completely fit around them. She was prickly and fiery and...

...very, very attractive.

Even through the leather armour he could feel the heat of her body against his. It wasn't enough to take the chill out of his bones, but it was certainly enough to make other areas begin to wonder about her and he cursed to himself. It had been a long time, he realised. Not since before Rylock and the other Templars had caught him on the road. And even though the Commander had acted like a cold fish to him ever since she'd recruited him he couldn't deny he'd been attracted to her from the first.

"Why do you hate us so much?" he asked, as much as to distract himself from their position as anything.

"Hate who?"

"Humans. You hate us. You're not as bad as Velanna, but you can hardly stand to be in the same room with me - or Nathaniel."

"Why do you care?" she said.

"Indulge me," he said. "I'm not used to being hated. Even the Templars they send after me like me. I heard Rylock actually fought for the right to come and get me this time. Any way, I thought you fought the blight with humans, didn't you like any of them?"

"Not much, no," she said. "They were three parts foolish, one part crazy and one part sanctimonious. I preferred speaking to the golem."

"The King seemed to like you pretty well," Anders said.

She snorted. "Alistair liked everyone. Except Morrigan. Damn fool even gave me a rose once."

"The king gave you a rose?" Anders said, spluttering a bit. He'd not thought the King was that lacking in perception. "Just what you would have needed."

She grinned fiercely. "See, that's what I told him," she said. "Then he got all puppy-dog eyes on me and sulked for a week. Anora's got her work cut out for her."

"So why did you stick with them the whole time?"

"I needed their help against the blight," she said simply.

Practical. She was that. She'd conscripted him because she needed him. She'd said so as plain as plain could be after they'd cleaned up the Vigil. She'd even let the dwarf become a warden, despite the risks - despite the fact that he was married with a child.

"You still haven't told me why you hate us so much. What did we do?"

She sighed and shifted against him, trying to get comfortable, or warm, or perhaps trying to stop him from asking stupid questions. But he was curious, and Maker knew it was always hard not to probe into the mind of a pretty woman. Especially when she's so deliciously pressed against me, he thought.

"Come on," he said. "What harm will it do to tell me? I'm just a shem, right? It's not like you care what I think."

"A human lord raped my cousin and killed my promised husband on my wedding day," she said bluntly. "Reason enough for you?"

"Huh." he said. There was an awkward silence.

"I assume you killed him?" he said finally.

She grinned again. "Of course."

"That's my Commander."

She started to rock under the blanket, rubbing her hands together. He enclosed her hands with his and tried to add more friction. It was getting even colder as the night wore on.

She made a disgusted sound and pulled away from him. "This isn't working," she said. "I'm still freezing. We'll die if we don't find a way to get warm." Her teeth were chattering - as were his. He noticed that her usually pale lips had a bluish tinge to them. The ends of his fingers were starting to go numb.

He looked at her for a long moment, then pulled his robes over his head. She pursed her lips in anger, then started undoing the buckles of her armour.

"We can put the robes around us as well," he said. "Once we're under the blanket. It should do some good."

"I think it would be better for both of us if you didn't open your mouth again, mage," she said harshly as the last of her armour fell. She was down to her smalls, as was he. There wasn't enough light for him to properly admire her, but he could see enough to set his heart racing. Maker's breath, he thought. This is going to be torture. He didn't think the cold was going to be much of a problem. In fact he was amazed the cabin hadn't warmed up yet considering the amount of heat he was producing.

Lying on the floor on their sides, wrapped in the blanket with his arms around her shoulders, he had never felt more awkward with a woman. There was no question they were both warmer - comfortable for the first time since the blizzard had started, if it hadn't been for the unfortunate proximity of their almost naked bodies he would have been quite content. She was all edges, tense in every muscle yet delightfully soft everywhere else. Her white hair tickled his chin. "The last time I was this close to a naked woman it ended quite pleasantly," he breathed into her neck.

She grunted. "Don't get any ideas," she said. "My daggers are right next to us."

"If you kill me you'll lose all of this wonderful body heat," he said.

"Yes, but the satisfaction of watching you bleed might keep me warm enough to get to the morning."

"Ouch."

He occupied his mind with reciting bits of the chant. Then he tried to remember all the different spells in the entropy school of magic. Then he started trying to remember the exact lines of that song Oghren had been singing.... None of it was working.

It didn't help that he was certain he could feel her fingers tracing patterns on his arm. If he didn't know her better he would think she was exploring him with something more than warmth on her mind. When she shifted a little closer, rubbing her backside against him, he had to clamp his lips down on a groan. There was no way she didn't know what effect she was having on him. He reasoned she'd just found a new way of teasing him, considering his almost complete lack of magic at the moment there was no question which of them would win if it came to a fight.

The fingers that had been tracing patterns on his arm reached down until her hand rested on his hip and he drew in a ragged breath.

"Um.. Commander...?" he said, mortified to hear the squeak in his voice.

"I thought I told you to keep your mouth shut," she said, and he felt a shiver run through him at the tone. It seemed to scrape down his back and lodge directly in his libido. Damn the woman. Her fingers crept further along and around until they brushed against him and he jumped. "Better still," she said, turning to face him. "Keep your mouth shut and don't move."

Her hands reached under his smalls and started to do things to him that drove all concept of language from his brain. In the half light from his spell wisp he could see her eyes were closed and there was a slight smile on her lips as she tilted her head and moved her hand just so until he had a very hard time not bucking his hips.

No talking, eh? He thought. I suppose I'll just have to think of something else to do with my mouth.

He leaned forward and pressed his lips to the base of her earlobe, running his tongue upwards lightly. He'd been with enough elven women to know exactly the sort of effect that usually had on them and he wasn't disappointed when she gasped and pulled back, mercifully dropping her hand. He ran his tongue back down her ear along her neck to her collarbone, one of his hands running down to her hip as he gently pushed her onto her back, carefully making sure the blanket didn't shift enough to let in any air.

"We shouldn't do this," she said softly as he continued to trail kisses across her chest, reaching his hands down and under her smalls, intending to tease her exactly the same way she had teased him. "I said...."

"I heard," he said. "But you ordered me not to speak, remember?"

"I believe I also told you.." she gasped as his fingers moved to a particular spot. "Not to move..."

He stopped his hand. "You'd like me to stop moving?" he said.

"Mage, if you stop now I will tell Oghren you're a schleet and set him loose on you with an axe. After I've gotten him drunk."

He laughed and dipped his head to her lips, kissing her fiercely as he continued his ministrations. She moaned against his lips and ground her hips against his hand. He pulled back and grinned at her. "Well, I'm warm now," he said, pulling his hand away. She bit him on the neck.

"Ow!" he said. "You'll pay for that!"

She laughed.

He raised an eyebrow and started to ease her smallclothes over her hips.

"Bloody hellfire," he swore as his movements let air in from the outside. "It's freezing!" He clamped back down again until they were completely pressed against each other. "Now.. how do we get these out of our way without letting in any more cold air?" he said.

"We could just push them out of the way," she said, her back arching against him. He groaned.

"I've got a better idea," he said. It would take a lot of concentration, but very little power, if he did it just right... "There!"

"Andraste's arse!" she swore as the flash of lightning neatly burnt away the cloth that separated them. "That hurt, you nughumper!"

He grinned. "Not much, I'm sure," he said, positioning himself. "And you have to agree, it was a little exciting as well."

She wriggled underneath him. "When we get back to the Vigil, you'll be paying for that out of your robes."

He slid forward slightly and she gasped. "Promises, promises, Commander," he said as he sheathed himself in her warmth.

They did not feel the cold again.

The blizzard had blown out by morning, but they were in no hurry to leave. When Sigrun found them they stuck to the story that they'd had to strip in order to keep warm.

They had a hard time explaining where their underclothes had gone, however.