Ok. This is my first story totally in English. Isn't my mother language, so, if you find any mistake, please, tell me and I'll correct it.
Well...
I'm a Cole fan. And I'm very sad that he isn't a romance option (crying like a baby). My hopes are that he will be almost like Cullen in the end LoL
Good reading!
Edit: Nicknames and a lot of stuff corrected thanks to PashN. I didn't alterate/correct everything she suggested because... Hey! I need something that I'll read in the future and make me so ashamed that I'll want to crush my head into the closest wall.
BetaReader: Arquivista da Guilda
Proofreader: PashN
Dragon Age and all the characters belongs to Bioware, with exception, in a way, of Skadi, my Inquisitor.
Of Balls and Wreaths
Varric looked at the elf girl on the other side of the room. A smirk show upon his face while his hand picked up a glass of wine, his mind wondering of how the green eyes of Skadi seems to be screaming for help.
"Correct me, Dorian, but that isn't the fourth guy attempting to court Skadi?" the mage turned his face, chuckling when the Inquisitor tried to run away from the guy that Varric had pointed; she almost fallen into the ground thanks to her long red dress.
"It is." Dorian nodded, his eyes following the Skadi's dark-orange and curled hair above the guests' heads; she was tall for an elf, even taller than some humans on the ball room, easy to be followed. She stopped at one of the serving table, carefully looking around. "I think that her innocent eyes and Dalish tattoos are the guilty, don't you agree? Perhaps the freckles too…"
The dwarf just nodded in accordance, turning the glass before looking around. He narrowed his eyes when he saw that Iron Bull and Solas were alone and remembered that Skadi had asked them earlier to become with Cole.
"Dorian… I'm not seeing the Kid…"
"What? He isn't with Bull and Solas?"
The pair became worried; last time they had lost Cole from sight, some weeks ago, he had spilled a bottle of wine in the hair of a Bann. Cole never explained exactly why he did this, and since the episode happened and Josephine said that they almost lose the Bann's support, Skadi take careful that the lad became at the side of the elf mage, the qunari or even her when they were in the middle of nobility.
Taking a deep breath, predicting problems, the dwarf and the human walked toward the other two; Solas was looking around, his eyes narrowed, probably trying to find Cole, while Iron Bull was watching Vivienne and Cassandra, constantly swallowing, worried that the two scary women would realize that they were not with Cole.
"What's happened?" Varric asked in undertone, looking at Vivienne and Cassandra too. Maker's breathe, but the women would scalp them if they discover the missing lad.
"The boy was here minutes ago. So, when we look again, he had gone." Solas' voice came out in a monotone tone, not seeming as worried as the others.
"Bull, you gave him something with alcohol?" In other side, while Solas was a bit stoic, Dorian's voice was almost a scream; Cassandra would put them to sleep in the stables for a week if they find a drunken Cole.
"What? No!" The giant qunari seemed scared. "Skadi swore that if I do this, she would kick my ass into the Fade." Bull shuddered, looking again to the Chantry mage and the Seeker. None doubt of his declaration: Skadi was a dangerous warrior who kept her promises. "Oh, crap, they are coming…" he shuddered again, probably thinking that Vivienne would herself put him into the Fade once she discovered that the problematic spirit had vanished under his eyes.
"Let this with me, boys…" the dwarf said before the two women reached them.
Cassandra looked at them suspiciously, standing a step away from Vivienne; the Fereldan keep her eyes on Varric, the dwarf two steps forward the others, with a confident smile.
"Where is Cole, my dear?"
"He said something about a kid lost in the gardens and went to help." Bull held his breath when heard the lie told by Varric, the moment when Skadi said that would kick him into the Fade repeating in his mind a thousand times.
"Stop lying to me, Varric-" Vivienne could not end what she was saying: some kind of horrified scream interrupted her.
The group turned to see the rest of the room. They just stared at the vision of a man with his pants missing. In fact, the scraps of cloth were lying in the ground, like if the seam had just popped.
Vivienne's eyebrows lowered, but before she could talk something, the wig of another man flew to the chandelier, while another one received a slap of a woman yelling that she had discovered her undergarments in his belongings, and, like Varric said later, the cherry cake: a mabari, that owned to a man that came from Ferelden, just appeared in the middle of the ball from the gardens, run toward the room and sank his teeth in the calf of another man.
Jaws just dropped, while the chaos was introduced, the mabari's owner trying to make the dog let the man go away, the mother of the girl yelling at the slapped man, and laughs around the man without wig – no one warned the man about.
"Where is Cole?!" Vivienne turned to them suddenly, her eerily impassive tone scarier than a shout.
"I'm here…" the lad's softy voice was heard, and when they looked, he was holding the hand of a little girl who was clearly crying earlier. In front of the garden's door. "She was lost and a lot scared." He looked a bit confused by the anger in Vivienne's face, while the guys, with Solas' exception, seemed relieved. Bull and Dorian even sighed, attracting a suspicious glare of Cassandra.
The little girl pulled his hand, and Cole looked to her. Her other hand was pointing to a couple that was talking with Skadi.
"They're my parents."
"Let's go." He smiled to the kid, guiding her to the woman and man.
The two women followed him with the eyes, and, before left, Cassandra just looked to the men with a scary face.
"You escaped this time." And then followed Vivienne to where Leliana, Sera and Josephine were. Leliana and Sera seemed to have a fun time with all the things that happened in the last minutes. Josephine looked as if she were having a heart attack. No amount of diplomatic charisma was going to save them this time.
Someone nudged Varric's shoulder, and when he looked, it was Dorian.
"The men that had this embarrassing moments… They aren't the ones that were flirting with Skadi?" He asked in a softy and conspiratorial tone.
"Yes, they are..." Varric chuckled. "I just had to ask Ghost Boy if it was because Freckles needed help or because he was jealous… Oh, and be thankful that I saw him walking to the gardens…"
"Thanks, Varric. And… You will cook his brain with this kind of question, you know…"
"We'll see, Sparklers…"
Cole approached the trio, holding the little girl's hand, seeing a smile opening in Skadi's face; he felt something that was like butterflies flying in a strange way in his stomach, making him confuse. It was something happening more frequently every time the elf smiled to him.
"I think that this girl here was a bit lost…" he joked; the child smiled to him, letting his hand go and then running to her parents, laughing with joy when the father hugged her.
Skadi approach him, her arms crossed while watching the parents and daughter with a softy smile in her face that made the butterflies going mad.
"Hey, big hero of the day…" She said when looked at him.
"Hello." Cole watched Skadi's eyes, seeing happiness and something that he did not recognized, smiling in return.
The Inquisitor, forgot by the couple, looked around in a suspicious way, before grabbing his hand and dragging him through the room until they reached the garden's door.
"What are you doing?"
"I didn't saw the garden yet! You, yes, so you will guide me!" Skadi opened the door and breathed deeply on the other side. "Fresh air," She paused, staring at the plants and flowers. Dozens and dozens, some prettier than other; lots of different smells reaching their nostrils, better than the smells' food on the ballroom. In Skadi's opinion, at least.
Cole watched her, a subtle smile as a reaction to the happiness in her face. It was a feeling that he always saw in Skadi's face when they were in middle of nature, and he always liked to observe her face in these moments. In a way, she seemed more relaxed, more opened, as if she was in a place that she could call home without reservations.
"All right, Cole, show me the garden." The young man smiled with her enthusiasm, before grabbing her hand and pulling her with him through the garden. He could hear her laughing at his back, until they reached the garden's center, where a stone bench was, different flowers lying around; it was a gorgeous place, in deed.
"What do you think?" he asked, seeing her sink her nose in a rose, eyes closed, breathing deeply, a delightful expression in her face.
She took a steep away from the rose bush, and then looked at him, still smiling.
"Wonderful. Not like real florests, but, wonderful." She answered, walking toward him. "Sit down and wait, I'll be back in a minute." And, without any further explanation, she turned and walked between the plants.
Cole smiled and make like she said: sat and waited.
Skadi come back some time later, a lot of different flowers in her arms. Cole left and eyebrow lift up when he saw the scene before opening space so she could sit with him in the bench.
"What are you doing, Skadi?" He asked in a soft voice, seeing her let the flowers lie in the stone before grabbing two of them and starting intertwine them.
"A wreath. It's Spring Equinox. In the clan, it's a tradition make wreaths, and then, giving them to special persons to us." With ability, she put another and another flower in the crescent crown, making the object a mix of colors and forms. "Why don't you make one?" She looked at him with those big green eyes, a smile furrowing both the skin around them as the freckles.
"I don't know how to make a wreath…" he felt a bit ashamed of not being capable of participate in the tradition, shrugging his shoulders.
"Oh, don't worry, I'll teach you!" She undone her wreath, give him some flowers and then restarted, showing him, with slow movements, how to intertwine the flowers one to another.
Cole was surprised with Skadi's patience. She taught him with a soft smile, grabbing his hands carefully and the correcting something he had made wrong, slowly, so he could see how the right way was. That made him felt warm on the chest, and whenever she take his hands between hers, he felt his heart beat so fast and without rhythm that he thought it would jump through his throat, like when he saw that stupid men making Skadi uncomfortable, but in a different way: now was sweeter, better; made him more anxious than angry.
They finished the wreaths at the same time. The Skadi's wreath was a pretty thing, firm and full of colors and different flowers. Cole liked, and, when he did not expected, she put the wreath on his head after kissing his forehead; she moved away, watching the confuse expression on his face with a discrete smile.
"Fits with you." She said, before taking Cole's wreath.
The colors and flowers were well chosen, but the crown was loose and larger than the ideal. Cole looked to it, feeling his cheeks blush, thinking that it was a horrible thing in comparison with the one made by Skadi.
"It seems I need practice…" he said in a very small tone of voice. Skadi laughed, looking at the wreath carefully.
"Yes, you need. But…" she put the wreath on her own head. Even if the crown was not so well made, it fitted well with her voluminous hair, as if was custom-made. "I think that fits with my hair, and you?"
Cole smiled softly. Apparently, being loose let the wreath sit comfortable on Skadi's head.
"I agree. It fits."
She smiled too, grabbing more flowers.
"Let's go. We need to make wreaths for the others. Will you help me?"
Instead of giving an answer, he took some flowers and started another wreath.
"And, Cole…" he lift his head, looking at her. "Thanks by what you've done inside there…" he felted a bit lost with the luminous smile she gave, with so many emotions in it, and lowered his head again quickly, so she could not see, by the second time, the color red on his cheeks.
The dwarf laughed with the scene, writing something on the parchment. Although nothing had happened at all, Varric was smart enough to notice that something was happening, and none of them were noticing.
He just hoped that whatever it was would end well. He did not want to see none of them suffering, not with that damn thing with the Fade happening.
With a sigh, he thought that perhaps, just perhaps, would wait a little more before asking Cole if he were feeling jealous of Skadi that night or not.
Varric almost felt sorry for Cole…