Summary: Rhys does something foolish in an attempt to make a friend smile.
a/n: Drafted for dadrunkwriting Friday Night 2017.04.01
Flowers for Friends
Rhys tucked the small bouquet behind his back. The bunch of wildflowers tied with a blue ribbon had been stolen with great cunning from the garden at Skyhold. There wasn't much to choose from yet, but there were some lovely, out of control, climbing wild roses. With the way they seemed to take over the columns and spread up the walls, they reminded him of Cassandra. Thriving despite adversity and abandonment, though he would never say as much to her.
"Stop trying to cheer me up," she growled at the sound of his footsteps.
He'd barely gotten halfway up the stairs before she called out her warning. He stopped and peeked through the railing at her. "And why would I do a thing like that?"
"You don't think I've seen you? Bringing flowers to widows and sitting with the sick. I do not need your pity."
"Then I guess it's a good thing you don't have it," he replied, a similar sharpness in his tone to match that in hers. He continued up the stairs, flowers at his side rather than behind his back.
"Hmpf." Her arms crossed and eyes narrowed. "Then what are those?"
He lifted the bouquet, holding it in both hands for a moment. "These are wild roses I found in the courtyard. I dangled out of a window to cut some prime blossoms for a dear friend because I thought they might make her smile."
Without another word, and without waiting for her to reply. He set them on the table, then took two steps to the banister that opened to the floor below. With a careful hop, he was over it in the blink of an eye. Moments later, he closed the door behind him.
He understood why she was upset. Varric had withheld the truth from her, not only in their interrogation, but after. What he did not understand was her taking her irritation out on him. Perhaps, she merely needed more time alone, to think, to come to terms with the fact that she was stuck with the lowly last son of the Trevelyan's rather than the renowned Champion of Kirkwall or famed Hero of Ferelden as her Inquisitor.