Stone and Grace

by FloridaMagpie

I always felt there weren't enough M!Aeducan stories, nor enough M!Warden x Leliana stories, so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. This is based on the hero of my first playthrough, and his relationship with everyone's favorite lay sister.

11. Slow Burn

The Deep Roads, somewhere west of Orzammar

They're rushing to keep up with her. She's carving a path through the darkspawn with sharp, angry, efficient movements, not even bothering with the bow. Everybody is avoiding looking at her directly, but even as they rest between fights they can feel the uncomfortable pressure of her smouldering anger. Even Sten seems mildly discomfited. Eventually of course, she makes a careless mistake, and Alistair catches an arrow in the shoulder covering her, and afterwards, Zevran grabs her by the elbow and marches her off down a recently-cleared side passage for a short, icy lecture while Morrigan and Wynne work to extract the arrow and heal the wound. They're back after a minute or two, Leliana's face a thunderous mix of banked anger and humiliation. She apologizes to Alistair, who shrugs it off, clearly uncomfortable with the whole situation.

Duran never takes his eyes off of her.

She doesn't look at him once.