"What is that?"

Alistair stopped poking at his hair to look up, shocked to realize it was Morrigan looking down at him with a shocked expression matching his own.

"What's… what?" he drawled out slowly, registering the words but not understanding the question.

She pursed her lips.

"The thing you have in your hand," she pointed a single long purple fingernail at it.

"Oh, this?" He twirled the medium-sized golden mirror in his hand delicately. "I bought it from a stand in here. It was…" he looked around, trying to remember the direction of the vender he got it from. "..over there." He pointed a chin to his right. "Though I only saw one of them there. Doubt the person would have another." He continued twirling it in his hand, loving the way the lights bounced off of its shiny coat. "I thought I could use it. Easier to fix my hair and shave now, since I no longer have to have to use my shield or a pond to look at myself," he grinned up at Morrigan, but it immediately faded when he saw her expression.

She was looking down at it with… longing and… was that sorrow? Her brows were knit together, her lips parted, golden eyes a bronze color now. To Alistair, she looked like she was close to crying. For a mirror?

Do girls obsess over mirrors? Alistair thought.

"It's… so close to that one…" he heard her mumble, but Alistair almost fell off the bench he was sitting on when he saw her bottom lip quiver.

"Woah! Woah!" He immediately stood up, raising his hands in defense. Defense for what? Making her cry over a mirror? It didn't matter, she looked like she was about to cry, and if the other party members saw her like this, fingers would be pointing at him. "Are-are you trying to manipulate me into getting this mirror? Cause if you are-"

"Don't be foolish," Morrigan spat, quickly turning her head to the right, her thick bangs shielding her face from him. "I…" she paused for a moment, angry voice dying down, but when she spoke again her voice was dripped in poison. "I have no need for that ridiculously girly mirror, you blubbering buffoon."

Alistair's eyebrow twitched. Immediately, he forgot that just a moment ago Morrigan was gazing at his mirror like it was her night and day. Right now she was insulting him.. and the mirror! He felt his temper rise, and he made no attempt to calm it.

"If it's so ridiculously girly," he mentally high-fived himself for making his voice sound equally angry. "Then why were you looking at it before like it was your very reason for living?"

Morrigan actually looked taken aback by his words. He mentally braced himself for an insult that's sure to be twice as deadly. What she said literally made him stumble backwards into the bench.

"I… apologize," she said in a low voice, startlingly devoid of any anger or frustration.

Alistair had to sit back down on the bench again. He placed a hand over his heart and yes, he could feel it thumping erratically. Was this Morrigan he was talking to? His expression must have voiced as much, for she quickly spoke.

"J-just… just forget it," now Morrigan was stumbling over her words. Sweet Maker...

Giving him no chance to say anything, Morrigan began walking away- not before one last brief glance at the mirror however. Alistair stared at her retreating back for a few moments before looking down at the mirror still in his hands. He looked at it for a while before something clicked in his mind.

Could it be that…

Alistair mentally slapped himself. At that particular moment, he let himself believe it when people said he wasn't the most cunning person in the world. Because right now, he felt that was all too true. He, of all people, should know how someone can feel so attached to a mundane object; how their eyes get glossy and their palms start sweating when they're standing so close to it.

Oh, but of course, me being the oblivious fool that I am, wouldn't have realized it.

Sighing, he stood up and began walking in the direction he remembered Morrigan walking away to.

It didn't take long for him to find her buying some goods from a stand. He saw her eyes look to the right, catch his eye, flick to the mirror (damn did she really love this mirror) then quickly look away. He sighed. Morrigan was nowhere near as subtle as she liked to believe. The raven-haired woman turned to leave.

"Morrigan," he called out, voice loud enough to make her stop in her tracks.

Alistair quickly strode up to her, until he was standing right in front of her. He was looking down at her, but Morrigan refused to look at him, instead focusing her attention on the molting lava and rocks to her right.

"Is there something you need," she said in her regular calm-yet-exasperated voice.

"Not what I need," he said as calmly and flatly as he could manage, but he could feel the beating of his heart quicken pace just a bit.

Then, he quickly grabbed her empty left hand and placed the golden mirror in it. She jumped immediately, and if it weren't for the fact that he was gripping both her hand and the mirror tightly, it surely would've fallen to the floor and break.

"What-"

Alistair quickly cut her off.

"It's what you need."

He allowed the woman time to calm down and regain her composure. When he felt her long, slim fingers curl around the stem of the mirror, he let go of both of them.

"Hope you like it," he whispered to her softly before he quickly turned and walked away.

He'll never know the searing look the witch gave to his back.

Am I the only one that finds Morrigan to be absolutely adorable when she's close to tears? I really hate how people make Alistair so oblivious. He's really not.