He could do this. He could. He'd just walk right up to her and hand it to her. A pretty flower for a pretty lady: simple as. That's what he would do.

But she wasn't just a pretty lady, she was a Cousland. And whilst he wasn't exactly farmer Joe, he was raised in a stable, not a castle. She was practically royalty! (He was actual royalty if you thought about it, but that was beside the point). She was probably use to men throwing themselves at her with riches and ponies.

And here was Alistair pacing back and forward with the rose he'd been carrying around since Lothering hidden in his hand.

For Maker sake man, just do it! Just walk up, drop the flower in her hand and run away. He could do that. No problem. He was Alistair, he fought darkspawn. Those other men had nothing on him, with their ponies and their castles. See how much help they would be during a blight; their ponies would die and their castles would burn. Not Alistair though, oh no. He'd fight the darkspawn, and he'd do it for her. But he couldn't tell her that, because the thought of her rejecting him, laughing at him, when he laid himself bare made him feel physically sick. She wouldn't do that though, or would she? Morrigan would. Morrigan would probably set him on fire when she did it too. That bitch.

Hayley was nothing like Morrigan though; she was sweet, and kind, and funny, and she laughed at all his jokes; even when they weren't funny. She wouldn't reject him; or she wouldn't set fire to him when she did it.

Alistair look down at the rose in his hand; softly pressed between a folded piece of cloth. It was still red; still beautiful. Like her. He may not be able to tell her just yet what she meant to him but he would give her this rose and she would know. Women took meaning from senseless gestures all the time, or so the Wardens had told him. She'll get it.

Confidence renewed, Alistair looked up at the object of his affections; Leliana was making her way across the camp; away from Hayley and towards him, grinning knowingly.

C'mon, now's your chance! He'd been waiting what felt like forever for Hayley and Leliana to stop talking, but that Bard just went on, and on, and on. She did make Hayley smile though; she had a nice smile. He didn't mind waiting too much if she was smiling.

"Just tell her how you feel," Leliana whispered softly in his ear when she reached him. "This is a piece of cake compared to what you usually do, no?"

"Yeah." He replied gratefully, "Piece of cake. Thanks."

He could do this. Gathering his courage he made his way over to Hayley. Oh Maker, my hands are sweaty. When did my hands get sweaty? It was too late for him to go back though. She looked up from the fire as he approached.

"Hey Alistair." She greeted him amusedly, "How's it goin?"

Oh no, she'd definitely noticed him staring like some creepy...stalker. How embarrassing.

"Here." He said shoving it at her. "I got this for you."

"Oh," she replied; looking from the cloth in her hands to his face quizzically. "Cloth. That's very...kind of you Alistair. Thank you very much."

"Wait, no." He looked down in her hands; his face scrunched up in confusion. There was no flower. Where was his flower? Andraste's flaming knickers, he'd just handed her cloth.

He wanted to die.

"There was a flower!" he said, frantically swinging around scouring the ground between where he currently was and where Leliana and Zevran now sat speaking quietly across the camp. He couldn't see it. "I had a rose! I've had it since Lothering and I've been trying to give it to you for weeks, and now it's just disappeared." He could feel himself beginning to panic, and all the while Hayley stared up at him with that amused, slightly confused grin of hers. "I had a plan! I was just goina give you the rose and you'd understand what it meant, cause you're a woman and you seem like you'd get it, what you mean to me." He let out a frustrated sigh; I'm not doing this right. " Maker I'm doing this wrong." Why am I such an idiot?

He was pulled from his inner turmoil by her soft, warm lips pressing briefly to his; telling him quietly, without words, that she felt the same.

He looked down at her in shock as she stared up at him confidently.

"I get it Alistair," she told him quietly her hand coming up to lie gently against his cheek. "I actually got it before you spent half an hour trying to find the confidence to come over here. I thought sending Leliana over might have helped."

"It's just, I've...I've never done this before, I've...never felt this before," he admitted quietly; leaning his forehead down to touch hers.

"It's ok," she replied softly, "we can take things as slow as you need. No pressure. I'm not going anywhere Alistair."

Maker she was perfect, this was perfect. More so because he didn't need the rose after all, he managed to tell her how he felt all on his own.

Now only if he could find out where it went.

A/N: Anyone guess what happened to it?

So, yeah, this is me back. Had a pretty long break, but my old laptop broke and it had a few chapters done out on it which I lost. That added to the fact I didn't get any reviews last chapter kind put me off writing for a while. But I'm back now and will hopefully get more chapters out when the inspiration strikes. I'll probably be focusing more on my other story Noble Intentions truth be told. So, leave me a review and let me know what you think; who knows, inspiration just might strike more often.

-The Lieutenant Sarcasm