When Hadrian woke up he looked around the makeshift room he was in. The large earthen walls were standing proudly three quarters of the way t the corridors ceiling. Sten was resting against the wall with his hammer close at hand. Alistair was sleeping curled up beside Nria with his arm protectively across her waist. Morrigan was pressed against Hadrian's back. He took a few moments to feel the warmth of her embrace. It was truly odd, not even three months ago he was worried about being touched by people he didn't know. Only Hermione had hugged him and he had stiffened so quickly that he could feel her gasp. He had seen how close to tears she had been when she let him go. Neither had mentioned it. But she hadn't tried to hug him since.

Now though he was being snuggled by a relative stranger. And what's more he liked it. She seemed genuinely to worry about him. He didn't know how he had reached this point. It kind of disturbed him in a way. He wasn't very trusting of adults since the treatment of the Dursley's he hated them. But here was a woman who didn't even know him three months ago who was treating him like he had always been hers. And he quietly admitted that he liked it.

He gazed over at Hedwig who was perched on one of the ingrown tree branches. Hedwig seemed content to watch over him. He switched his gaze to Leliana who was sitting by herself. However unlike Sten, who enjoyed solitude except for Hadrian's company, she didn't like being alone. She was a very people person. Hadrian lifted Morrigan's arm off of him, after an intense battle to get her to release him, and made his way to here Leliana was watching the campfire. He sat down beside her, which startled her out of her thoughts.

"Oh hello Hadrian." She said politely. "Not sleeping well?"

"Actually I slept fine. I just sometimes can't sleep more than a few hours, due to how the Dursley's treated me. It actually helped out a lot with extra homework." Hadrian said with a small smile.

"That's terrible!" Leliana protested with a look of rage.

"I don't really care." Hadrian said emotionlessly. "I have a mother now. And if I have to go back to my world I'll make them pay for being cruel to me."

"The maker teaches forgiveness." Leliana said softly.

"I don't know what my gods teach. I never got to go to a service." Hadrian said nonchalantly.

"I am sorry to hear that everyone deserves to find peace in their god's embrace." She said sadly.

"I don't mind I am just supposed to be another person who dies fighting a madman." Hadrian said emotionlessly.

Leliana grabbed his shoulders and spun him around so they were looking directly into each other's eyes.

"Don't you ever say that. You are a delightful young man who has every bit as much right to be alive as anyone else." She said in a fierce whisper.

Hadrian barely heard her. He was captivated by her face. Or more specifically the make-up.

"So pretty." He mumbled looking at her brown eyes highlighted by green eyeliner.

She arched and eyebrow before saying. "I'm sorry I hadn't thought that you liked girls given the manner of your dress."

"I don't really know what I like." Hadrian answered truthfully. "I like to wear my mum's old robes because they feel nice against my skin, and I like that I look pretty but I don't feel like I could be a girl. Just a cute guy in a dress."

"yes well guys who like wearing dresses aren't as uncommon as you might think." Leliana said before explaining that in Orlais the men who dressed as women were treated as such. They tended to live lives like women and that even included getting married and in some cases adopting children to raise.

"Can you teach me to put on makeup?" Hadrian asked in a small voice, looking down at his feet. Leliana smiled at the boy and said that she would love to.

x-x-x-x-x x-x-x-x-x

Morrigan woke to find that Hadrian wasn't in her arms as he had been when they fell asleep. At first she rose up close to panicking but found him over beside Leliana, who was braiding his once again waist length hair into a tight rope braid. Morrigan felt a sharp pang of jealousy in her chest. He is mine she thought ferociously before stalking over. She was about to say something harsh when she noticed that he was wearing makeup. He had a light sheen of blush on his alabaster cheeks, his lips had a midnight black coating, and his eye's practically popped out due to the green eye shadow around them.

She stared in awe at the child before her. Whereas before if you looked hard enough you could just make out the boyish features of Hadrian, now there was truly a stunning little girl in front of her. She was at a loss as to what to do now. She wanted to be mad at Leliana so trying to steal Hadrian away from her, but she realized that this would be unfair to Hadrian. She couldn't teach him about makeup and things of that nature. She was truly at a loss as to how to handle this.

"Look mum, Leliana is teaching me to put on makeup. Do you think I look ok?" Hadrian asked when he saw her looking at him intently. She smiled softly before nodding and saying. "Beautiful."

"Dear why don't you go show Sten I have something I need to speak to Leliana about." Morrigan said kindly.

"Ok I can do that." Hadrian said looking at them confusedly. He got up and wondered to where Sten was watching the whole thing. Morrigan then turned to Leliana with a gaze as hard as diamond. She gazed at the other woman for a few minutes before her gaze broke and she said. "Thank you. I don't know anything about makeup, and I don't care to learn but that also means I couldn't offer advice. So for his sake thank you." With that said she stiffly turned around and walked to Sten and Hadrian. She never saw Leliana's smile.