M.B.C.R says: I'm very surprised that I wrote most of the dialogue and stuff on skype last night and most of this thing is dialogue. But yes, I mentioned last chapter that they're going to be a conversation about past sexual histories... so here it is.

Quick point to make before going into this:

-Redcliff then left before they found out about anything going on ("We should go look for the urn just in case he's really sick" and Alistair approved)

-Went to the mages instead/also found out about Alistair's sister before they jumped into the fade.

-this happens.

He had just came down from the whole sex conversation and the one thing that he just couldn't shake was the soft little smile on her face when he rejected her offer to join her in her tent. Who smiles after a rejection?

Alistair took a seat on the log that they had rolled over close to the fire when they were setting up the camp. "Back—" he hesitated, what do you say when you want to ask about why the girl you like start smiling when you rejected their advances? Was there even a proper way to go about it?

So I saw that you were smiling when I turned you down for The Sex—yeah, that sounded sooo great Alistair, so great. He rolled his eyes at his own thoughts.

Vyal took his hand in hers, their gauntlets clinking and scraping together as she adjusted her hold. "You know, I admire you." She smiled almost shyly at him. His breath caught in his throat—the fire, the light, her, this night... everything about it danced and reflected off her and her armor and it was beautiful. She was stunning; it hits him in the weirdest of moments.

She was covered in blood a few days ago and Alistair remembered thinking that she was the most beautiful woman right at that moment—then again when he stumbled upon her naked as she scrubbed the blood off, but she didn't know he saw that and he'd very much like it if it remained that way.

"It's sweet that you want to save that first time for a special person and time." Alistair furrowed his brows in confusion, "no really. It's sweet." She pressed a kiss against his cheek and clung to his hand all the more tighter. "Wish I thought of it as something special rather than... well, rather then what I did."

She untangled their fingers and reached over to toss another piece of wood into the fire. "So you've...?" he had assumed that she had but he didn't feel right just... asking. She was a noble woman after all and he remembers the stigma that surrounds a woman of the court and any bed partners they take. He's heard the mumbling, not that he understood it at the time but he heard the mumbling.

She huffed out what could only be described as a bitter laugh. She watched him out of the corner of her eye before focusing her attentions back to the crackling and popping wood. "Yeah, I've partook in the pleasures of the bedroom."

He was sensing a bit of a story, and he was correct. It was like the flood gates were coming down and a simmering rage was sweeping out over her expression.

"My parents tried to get me to marry." She laughed at this, like the thought of the ordeal was something so ridiculous that it was laughable. And in a way Alistair could see why she found it like that. She was stubborn—headstrong and very much a woman who didn't enjoy the lifestyle that most noble women were subjected to. "They tried to match me with nobles from here to the Free Marches. Anywhere but Orlais, Father was animate about that even more so after Fergus married and had a son."

Alistair is watched her lips as she spoke. She'd turn her lip up in disgust at the thought, or snarl, and at one point a crooked little grin began to form. Vyal's brows furrowed when she paused and a scowl began to harden on her lips.

"Even after I made a fool out of my parents that one day—" she stops to huff at whatever memory flashed in her mind, "they still hoped that if some lords would visit the castle even if they didn't openly invite them to court me I'd just suddenly change my mind and start swooning over these idiots."

Alistair thinks he knows where the next part was going. He's heard a tale or two of these in his time in the Chantry. Someone turns to sin in their desperation, though the topic of lust and bodily pleasures always made Alistair question if it was truly wrong to want to engage in such actions. Sure, maybe if someone did it a lot then maybe. But... well, who was Alistair to judge?!

"A noble woman's virginity is a fantastic selling point to most noble houses in arrange marriages," Vyal's face paled even in the fire's light, "and until I got that out of the way Mother would keep dropping that little selling point and those lords and their sons would still line up." Alistair took her hand in his again and she glanced down at it. "So I did what I had to—" She continued in a near whisper, like this was the only part that she could bare to hate. "Talk up some women at the pleasure houses to see what I was getting myself into, prepared and decided that one of the little lordling's that came calling was a decent enough face to sleep with."

"So that's what I did. I invited him up to my room and the problem was taken care of. Mother of course was furious, so was Father. Actually, even my Brother was disappointed in my actions—he had no reason to be he's slept with plenty of women before his marriage."

Alistair opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before settling with not speaking up. He didn't know what to say. What do you even say to that? Is there a right answer to reply with?

Damn those double standards? Or maybe even... no, never mind he was drawing a blank.

Vyal turned to Alistair and threw him a tight-lipped smile, "after that though it was fun." She fiddled with his covered thumb wiggling it as she spoke. "Stuck mostly to knights and soldiers. Lordlings are all soft hands and air of superiority; their pricks aren't much to feel superior about though so I guess it's true what the people say about compensation."

He choked on his spit; coughing up a lung as she tried to keep the grin from breaking out over her face. He swallowed staring at her when a dark and amused look crossed her features, "but then again here you are, a royal bastard. I have to wonder now..."

Alistair's cheeks fluster and he jumps from his seated position, all but throwing her hand away from him as he tried not to trip over his own two feet."I'm going back over-over t-there. Until the blushing goes away. Again. Just... yeah, I'm going to do that... like, right now." He pointed and stuttered, tripping on grass as he stormed away with her howls of laughter sending a new wave of redness up his neck and spreading to his ears and cheeks.