Thank you so much for the reviews!

A/N: I actually like Velanna. What happens here is not a reflection of that. Anders just doesn't forgive a slight easily.


Blessed are the righteous, the lights in the shadow.
In their blood the Maker's will is written.

-Canticle of Benedictions 4:11


"Do you ever stop whining, human?"

Anders was getting sick of the dalish elf. He had spent most of his life being derided by the templars for being a mage, now he was getting it for being human.

A mage just couldn't win.

He had a sneaking suspicion that if he'd been an elf, she would still hate him. The rare dalish elf in the Circle weren't considered dalish anymore, and most elves had been brought from the city. Not that he should care, but she seemed to love picking on him specifically. Anders noticed that she didn't try and antagonize Aedan too much, or Sigrun. Nope, it was just handsome, jovial Anders that she seemed to dislike.

If it was possible, he would've strangled her with her ears.

"I'm not whining," Anders shot back. "We've been wandering this place for hours now, and there's been no sign of Garrett, just more darkspawn-which is lovely by the way. We need to admit we're lost." Anders pointed to a skeleton spread out on the ground, its clothes in decay. "And I'm sure we've passed Arl Crushed Skull a few times already."

Sigrun giggled. "You named the skeleton? Do you always do that?"

"Sure," Anders said. Velanna and Aedan were walking ahead of them. If she didn't know to walk behind the big warrior in plate if you were a mage, then Anders wasn't going to tell her differently. "There's Lady Broken Sword in Chest, Ser No Arms, and my personal favorite, His Majesty, the Great Ripped in Two." He smirked to himself when he saw Velanna's shoulders tense in agitation. Good, maybe if Anders annoyed her enough, she would drop this silly idea of becoming a warden.

Anders felt sorry for her sister and all, but he still couldn't believe that Aedan was going to allow this homicidal elf into the wardens.

He couldn't wait until she met Oghren. That'd be a show that Anders felt he should sell tickets to.

"Would you be silent?" Velanna spat over her shoulder.

"Why? So the darkspawn won't know where we are? I'm pretty sure all they have to do is follow the trail of darkspawn corpses. Unless they're that dumb, which means it won't matter what we do." Anders widened his eyes, the picture of innocence. "Of course, if you aren't comfortable with being with us-what with me being noisy and all-you could always go on your own."

Aedan drew to an abrupt halt and whirled around on Anders. He grunted and shifted his pack over his shoulder. They had found Garrett's armor and weapons with the rest of their stuff. It had given Anders hope that he was still in the mines—alive. But now Aedan had the dubious honor of carrying the heavy lot. Already forced to walk around with the weight of his own armor on his body, Aedan had to drop his pack whenever they ran into darkspawn. Anders winced whenever it crashed to the ground.

"Anders, I know you're worried about Garrett, so I'm going to let this slide, but you really need to reel it back a bit."

Anders saluted smartly. "Ser, yes, ser! Is there anything else you'd like me to do, Warden-Commander Cousland? I could lick your boots to a lovely shine."

Waving him off, Aedan shook his head. "You're impossible sometimes, you know that?" He turned and surveyed the hallway they found themselves in. The labyrinth of corridors and chambers vacillated between the silverite mine and ruins. Whatever the miners had dug up was old—very old.

And something lived here, something intelligent.

Anders held his staff high so that the light at its tip could shine further into the corridor. "I don't think we've been down this way yet," he said as he pointed the light towards the left.

Aedan nodded, "Let's go. And could the two of you keep the bickering to a minimum until we find Garrett and get out of here?" Without waiting for a reply, he and Velanna moved through the doorway on the left.

"I think you're funny," Sigrun assured him.


After finding the doorway out of the pit, and prying it open with his stolen sword, Garrett found himself in a series of hallways. Since he had no light, he had no idea where he was going. His bare feet were slick with blood, the soles slashed to ribbons from the rubble scattered on the ground. He forced himself not to think of what he was grinding into the wounds with every step he took.

Infection was the least of his worries.

He had his left hand on the wall, and used it as a guide. When he came to an intersection, he would touch the right wall with the tip of his sword, and move his left until he felt stone under his fingers again. At least this way he could be reasonably sure he was going in some sort of a straight line.

Or so he hoped.

His stomach rolled and he paused to dry heave. It was happening more and more often. He had nothing left in which to vomit up, and his ribs and stomach muscles ached from the effort. Something was wrong with him, but like his feet, he couldn't worry about that right now.

None of it would matter if he couldn't find his way out, and he died of starvation and thirst.

He walked for what seemed like an eternity in the dark. His ears, hypersensitive to any noise, picked up scrabbling sounds from all around him.

How many times in his life did he need to almost die before he got the point? He had to stop living the way he had been. Nothing in life was certain-he should know that by now. What you did with those uncertainties, were part of what defined you. Garrett had never thought himself a coward, but he knew differently now. It was simple to face down a foe with a blade in your hand. It was much harder to face down your own doubts and fears.

It occurred to him that Bethany had been propping Garrett up all these years, and he hadn't ever seen it. As much as she had needed him, Garrett had needed her far more. Focusing on Bethany and his family had given him the excuse to do little to no introspection. His mind had been filled with them.

Things were going to be different, he promised himself. When he got out of here and found the others, he was going to come clean with Anders. No more hiding what he felt or the things he had done. If the mage was serious about is pursuit of Garrett, then Garrett needed to let him know what he was getting into—the good and the bad.

He would write to his mother in Kirkwall, and explain what had happened and why he had distanced himself from her. He would beg for forgiveness. He knew he had hurt her by his silence.

He would even write to Carver, and tell him how proud he was of his younger brother for taking care of their mother and Bethany when Garrett couldn't. He would mean every word.

He would tell Bethany how proud he was of her for surviving. How strong she was for leaving the Circle and braving the Deep Roads. Garrett knew he couldn't blame Carver for that. Bethany was stubborn, and if she hadn't wanted to go, then there was nothing carver could have done.

Garrett's toes slammed into a rock, and he bit back an oath as he stumbled forward. He stopped himself from hitting the ground just in time, almost impaling himself on his sword. He straightened and carefully placed his hand on the wall, his heart pounding. It didn't stop until his palm met stone, and he breathed out a sigh of relief.

As he shuffled forward, he could have sworn he heard voices. He paused and held his breath, unwilling to believe it at first. But no, he heard it again, and his heart sped back up. He turned his head in order to discern where the voices were coming from. The sounds echoed down the corridor, and seemed to be all around him. He gritted his teeth in frustration and kept moving.

Calling out was out of the question. He didn't know who was speaking, and the wardens were not the only sentient beings capable of it here. His hand tightened on the hilt of his sword. Although Garrett wouldn't mind running into the Architect again, he wasn;t going to be foolish. He was nude, and had a single sword. But whatever the darkspawn was doing in the mines, it needed to be stopped. Something was very wrong in the Deep Roads under Amaranthine, something evil. Garrett could practically taste it in the air. There was foul magic that permeated the stones, old magic best forgotten. With every brush of his fingertips on the walls, the taint of it seeped into his flesh. Garrett had never felt anything like it before.

It was old and corrupt.

Up ahead, Garrett could see a small patch of light. Just like with the voices, he thought at first that his mind was playing tricks on him. But as he and the light grew closer to each other, he knew it was all too real.

He ducked into a side passage and flattened himself against the wall. He gripped his sword tightly, and his body tensed. The light was almost blinding as it approached, and he blinked slowly to adjust his eyes. As soon as the light became almost level with the side passage he was in, he darted out of it, his sword swinging.

Too late he saw Aedan's astonished face. The Warden-Commander lifted his own sword with a startled cry, and blocked the blow that Garrett couldn't stop. The two men stared at each other, breathing heavily.

"Oh, another naked human… How wonderful. You can stop whining now, we found your friend."

Aedan's face broke out into a smile. "Garrett! Thank the Maker we found you." There was a loud crash as Aedan dropped his pack in front of Garrett, narrowly missing his toes. "When we found your armor with no body, we didn't know what to think."

For the first time, Garrett felt just how naked he really was. His sword fell to the ground with a clatter, and his hands shot down to cover himself. Aedan gave him a huge grin. "We all woke up that way. Just be glad Zev isn't here, he'd have a field day."

"See, he need more than two hands to cover himself," Velanna pointed out.

Garrett looked over Aedan's shoulder to see that Sigrun was covering her eyes, and that Anders was staring at him. Garrett fought the urge to shuffle his feet like a young farm boy. He was a grown man for Maker's sake, and Anders had seen him nude before when he had been wounded. But Anders hadn't been looking at him with that sly grin on his face he had now.

"He sure does…" Anders said slowly, and his grin grew wider.

Garrett rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "Maker, help me."

Opening his pack, Aedan began pulling out Garrett's clothes and armor. "What happened to you? We woke up locked in a cell." He glanced up and ran a gauntleted finger over Garrett's side, tracing the edge of the large bruise that formed there. "You're wounded."

"Good eyes, Aedan," Anders said as he pushed his way to Garrett. "We'll make a healer out of you yet. Now, do you know what it means when red liquid comes out of tears in your skin?"

"Ha ha, Anders," Aedan said dryly. He straightened with Garrett's clothes in his hands. Quickly, he explained what had happened to them after they had woken up.

Garrett tried to pay attention, he really did. But Anders was running his hands over Garrett's body, his long fingers brushing over every bruise and scrape, sending healing magic through him. As soon as Anders was done healing his feet, Garrett snatched his leggings from Aedan and turned his back so he could slip them on. How much more embarrassing could this get?

"I see you peeking through your fingers, Sigrun," Anders teased.

Garrett abruptly straightened as Sigrun's cry of indignation. "I was not. And how would you know anyway, you weren't even looking at me."

"And how would you know that unless you were looking?" Anders laughed at Sigrun's shriek of protest.

Holding out his hand behind him, Garrett wiggled his fingers at Aedan. "Tunic please." As it was handed to Garret and he pulled it on, something occurred to him. He had gone out of his way to prevent anyone seeing his body for so long, that he was never naked in front of another if he could help it. He absently rubbed at the scars on his chest through his tunic. Had it really been about anyone else seeing and the evitable questions he didn't want to answer, or had it been more about his own vanity? Garrett had never thought himself vain, but now that he was…

How foolish.

How incredibly foolish.

The pain in his body was gone now thanks to Anders, but he still had a livid bruise on his face. He turned back around to see Anders already reaching for him.

"Stay still," Anders whispered. He gently placed his palms on Garrett's cheeks, and his thumbs lightly smoothed over the hair above Garrett's lip. Anders was so close. The two men stared at each other, neither one of them saying so much as a single word. Anders' lips parted, and the mage's eyes flicked down to stare at Garrett's mouth.

"They're watching us," Anders muttered.

"I don't care," Garrett replied. Had that come out a bit breathless? Oh, Maker, yes it had.

Anders' lips quirked up in a smile. "I thought you might be dead, or worse."

"There's something worse than dead?" Garrett's head tilted up, and his eyes became hooded as Anders drew closer.

"Yeah… But I can't think of anything witty in reply right now."

When the kiss came, Garrett sucked in a deep breath through his nose. His eyes slid shut as his arms came up to wrap around the mage's waist. Even with the others watching, even with the fear and uncertainty of where they were and what was going on, even with the smell of blood still of Garrett's skin, filling his nostrils and underlying Anders' scent, even with the way the kiss was uncoordinated and awkward at first, even with all of that, it was perfect.

"If you end up having sex in front of us, I'm leaving," Velanna said, breaking them both from the kiss.

"You know," Anders muttered to Garrett, "for the first time since we've met her, I don't care what she's babbling about."

Garrett laughed under his breath and made to move back, but Anders head his face firmly between his hands. "Nope. " He pressed a quick kiss on Garrett's lips. "You have a nasty bruise on your face." With a warm smile, the mage trickled magic through his hands. The ache in Garrett's cheek eased, and then dissipated completely.

"There you go," Anders said. "Right as rain, now…" He trailed off and frowned. "Something's not right." He tilted Garrett's head back and peered into his eyes. His eyebrows drew down sharply. "You feel… different… It's strange, it's almost as if—"

Garrett abruptly pushed Anders to the side, almost knocking him to the ground. He bent over double, one hand braced on the wall. His empty stomach heaved as his body attempted to vomit. Garrett vaguely heard the sound of metal crashing to the ground, as he broke out into a sweat. Hands touched his back, helping him to straighten. Instead of Anders like he had been expecting, it was Aedan.

Aedan's bare hands tilted Garrett's head back and he peered into his eyes the way Anders had. "Shit," he mumbled. "Fuck, shit, damn it. How long have you been vomiting?" Aedan demanded. "How long, Garrett?"

"Since I woke up, why?" Garrett didn't like the grim look on Aedan's face.

"It's the taint. It's subtle, but there." He glanced behind him. "That's what you were feeling. You haven't been a warden for very long, so you don't quite feel it as much as I do."

The taint? No, no… Garrett wrenched away from Aedan. "He did this to me, didn't he? He told me that there was something different about my blood. It's the lyrium and the taint… I…" Garrett scrubbed his hands over his face. His fist lashed out, slamming into the wall.

"What are you talking about, Garrett?" Aedan asked.

Quickly Garrett explained what had happened to him since he had woken up. He told them about the pit, and the Architect, and finding his way out into the dark. "That thing, he was experimenting on me. You should have seen how he looked at me, like I was some sort of specimen he couldn't quite figure out." Garrett had known that look all too well. He had seen it on the face of mages in the Circle. Experimentation was encouraged, but only under very strict conditions. Study of the human body was forbidden, and anything that had to do with the Fade or the nature of demons.

"He's probably never come across a templar before. We have to get you out of here." Aedan bent down and scooped up Garrett's breastplate. "I'll help you get this on."

"But what about my sister?" Velanna cried. "Are you humans as fickle as they say? Will you go back on your word?"

"You should have a care for yourself as well," Aedan pointed out as he and Garrett hurried to put his armor on. "I know you wish to be a warden, but this isn't how you want it to go down. The taint is different with everyone in how it reacts, but the end result is the same. You'll become a ghoul, and then no one can help you." He turned to touch her face, but she reared back in a flinch. His fingers hovered above her skin. "I don't feel anything now, but we need to be careful."

She glanced at Garrett and then back towards Aedan. "Fine, but we will be back. I'll have your word."

"I've already given it to you once, and I shouldn't have to do it again. We'll find your sister and get to the bottom of this. Too many have died already."


Garret sat with his back against a tree trunk, set apart from the rest of the camp. It had taken them hours to get out of the mines, and they had ran into the Architect one last time. Aedan had been angry when he had spoken to the darkspawn, hurling accusations at him. The creature in turn had hurled a dragon at them, fleeing after they had defeated it.

When they had emerged from the mines, no one had known just for how long they had been down there, but the sun had been shining high over them. They had walked well past dusk, getting them as far away from the Wending Woods as possible. By the time Aedan had called a halt to set up camp, they had all been exhausted.

Garrett opened his palm and looked down at the dragon's tooth he had pried from the creatures head after Aedan had severed it. It was as long as his index finger, the tip sharp. Maker, he had never seen a warrior go after something the way Aedan did, it was almost frightening in its intensity. When he had been recovering from his wound given to him by Rylock, Anders had confided that he suspected Aedan had some berserker tendencies, spurred on by Oghren.

Garrett was inclined to believe it.

The templars were taught to fight mostly with sword, shield, and the unique skills they were given. They were protectors, the wall between blood magic and the rest of Thedas. Garrett looked for openings and took them, whereas Aedan went full tilt, shouting obscenities at whatever he was fighting, and sometimes, even laughing.

His stomach rolled and he clenched his hand around the tooth as he fought off the nausea. With Anders' help, the sickness had abated, but he had informed Garrett that he wasn't able to stop or slow the corruption, only alleviate some of the symptoms. Aedan had said that Garrett was lucky in a way, some people go blind, or even mad.

Garrett had wanted to ask him if he went mad, who was to know the difference?

The crunch of dead leaves was all the warning Garrett had before Anders plopped down to the ground next to him. "Hey." Anders settled back against the tree trunk. "How are you feeling?"

Anders had been asking him that on and off since they had left the mines. Garrett smiled to himself. It was strange to have someone so openly worried about him. Oh, he knew his mother and sister, and even Carver worried about him, but they always showed it in a roundabout way.

"No change. I think I'll be able to make it back to the Vigil for the Joining."

Anders scratched the back of his neck and looked away. "About that… I know you didn't want this, but I'm… I'm glad."

"You might be, but I don't think Aedan is. I asked him to let me attempt the Joining before, and he turned me down. He said I needed to learn to stand on my own first. Can you believe that?" Garrett's head dropped back against the tree trunk and he peered through the branches at the stars. "He was right, but that didn't make it sting any less."

"Wait… When did this happen?"

Garrett glanced to his side to see Anders looking at him in astonishment. "Before you went to Knotwood Hills. He told me I couldn't come because there might be darkspawn there. I asked to join, he turned me down."

The mage pointed a finger at Garrett. "You… You wanted to join because your sister showed up, didn't you?" He poked Garrett in the chest. He wasn't wearing his armor and it jabbed hard enough to hurt.

"Well, yes," Garrett started. He didn't understand why Anders was so upset. "At first. But after Aedan turned me down I did some thinking, and—"

"So a month of cajoling you to join-of all of us asking you to join-did nothing, but your sister shows up and," Anders snapped his fingers, "suddenly it's a good idea? You're unbelievable, you know that?" He got to his feet and started to walk away.

Garrett stood and raced after Anders. The mage had moved into the trees, further away from camp. He grabbed Anders by the upper arm and spun him back around. "Why are you so angry with me?"

"You want to know why I'm angry?" Anders snorted and ripped his arm free from Garrett's grasp. "Because for a moment there, I thought you had wanted to join because… because…"

Realization dawn and Garrett drew in a quick breath. "Because of you."

Anders shook his head. "This is ridiculous. I'm beginning to think your sister lied to me. I actually thought…"

The dragon's tooth cut into Garrett's palm as he clenched his fists. "What did she say?" Bethany wouldn't… She wouldn't have told Anders about what he'd done, about spying on him like some pathetic voyeur. That should have come from Garrett, or not at all.

But that's exactly what she had done.

"She told me that you used to sneak down to where I was kept in solitary. She also said you had given me a cat so that I wouldn't be lonely, or go insane, or any of the other wonderful things that can happen when you can't see or speak to a single soul for a year." Anders pulled out his hair tie in agitation. Golden locks fell around his shoulders and face, and he raked the mass back with his fingers in quick jerks. Some of the strands slipped out of his fingers and he combed it back again, anchoring his ponytail with the tie.

"When she told me that, I thought that you… Was I wrong, Garrett? Am I wrong in thinking that you and I… that this thing between us is real?" He stood in front of Garrett with his hand clenched, a mirror of Garrett's own posture. The light from the full moon filtered down through the trees, highlighting Anders' face.

He looks uncertain, Garrett thought. Andraste, he feels as uncertain as I do.

"I don't… I don't know how to do this right. I keep thinking I just need to do what I always have, but it feels wrong. I want to feed you the same lines I fed everyone back at the Circle, the ones I know will get you into my bed as quick as humanly possible. I… I don't deny that I want you. You're so," he waved his hands in up and down in front of Garrett, "you. I mean, look at you. I look at you and I just want to…"

"What?" Garrett whispered. "What do you want to do?"

"Everything," Anders admitted. "And it scares me. You're so fucking intense Garrett. Everything about you is intense-the way you love your family, the way you fight, even how you kissed me. If I let myself, I could get lost in you. I'm afraid of that, and I'm afraid of not having it."

The dragon's tooth fell to the ground, sinking into the leaves as Garrett grasped Anders by his shoulders. "Don't you understand that I feel the same way? Bethany didn't lie to you. I listened to you talk every day for a year. I listened to every joke, to every story, to every tear you shed."

He had to made Anders understand how the mage had changed his life. Just how much he had turned everything Garrett had thought about himself on its head. "When I was in the mines, stumbling around in the dark, you know what I asked myself? How many more times do I need to be close to death before I realize that nothing in life is certain, and that I have to take what I want while it's being offered. I did everything for my family, and never for myself. That's not on them-that's on me.

"I ignored the things that I truly wanted out of life, because I thought that was how things were supposed to be. When I first saw you in the Circle, you were being dragged through the main hall in chains. But even then, you were still defiant. I've never known anything like that before, not since my father. I had to know more… I had to…"

Anders stared at Garrett in shock. He touched his cheek, tangling his fingers in Garrett's beard. "Garrett, I—"

"No, you need to let me finish. I need you to know. A truth for a truth, you deserve nothing less." But Garrett tilted his face into the caress. "I think I fell a little bit in love with you then. It became an addiction sneaking down to your cell. It was dangerous. If I'd been caught… But Bethany knew, and put up with me peppering her with questions about you. And when the tower fell, when I gave in and let them take me because I just wanted the fucking pain to stop…" He heard Anders suck in a sharp breath. "You realize it now, don't you? What I thought I had done to you? Afterwards I had even convinced myself for a time, that I had only acted that way in the Fade because you had done something to me—some sort of spell. But I couldn't get the look on your face out of my mind. I couldn't stop dreaming about your screams, and how you begged me for mercy. I—"

He was cut off when Anders crushed their lips together. The kiss deepened and Garrett groaned, his tongue slipping into the mage's mouth. He could taste the rabbit that Velanna had caught for them, and the tang of the lyrium potions he had drank in the mine. Garrett thrust his tongue in deep, sweeping inside Anders' mouth. The mage stumbled, and his back hit a tree. Before he knew it, Garrett had wedged his thigh between Ander's legs, and the mage's robes rode up his legs. Garrett rocked his hips, pressing his thigh into the erection he could feel through Anders' robes, and rubbing his own straining cock against the mage.

Anders broke free from the kiss to gasp, tilting his head back against the tree. Garrett nipped at his exposed throat, licking a long line up to the mage's ear. Garrett might not be good at seduction, but this he knew. He didn't have Anders' way with words when it came to sex, he was usually more crass and crude with his sexual partners.

"If you want to do everything with me then think on what I want to do to you?" he whispered. His voice had deepened and grown husky. "For years I've lain alone in my bed, my cock in hand, imagining what I would do when I finally got my hands on you."

Anders shuddered. "Oh, Maker…"

"Do you want me to tell you, Anders?" Garrett took Anders' earring in his teeth and pulled gently. He removed his thigh from in between Anders' legs, and pressed fully against the mage, stepping in the spot his thigh had vacated. He rotated his hips in a small circle, pressing their cocks together through their clothes.

Anders clutched at Garrett's shoulders. "Yes," he hissed out between clenched teeth. "Tell me…"

Panting in his ear, Garrett gave Anders a small smile, even though the mage couldn't see it. "My favorite one was when I would find you in the tower Chantry. I would pull you into one of the confessional and bend you over the bench inside. You'd do it too, for no other reason than because you would get off on the thought of a templar needing you so badly that he had to have you, right then, and right there. Not just any templar, but me. The rest of them disgusted you, but for me, you liked to tease, you liked knowing that I was walking around the tower, aching and hard for you."

His hands braced against the tree, Garrett rutted against Anders. He could feel wetness seeping through his leggings as his cock became almost impossibly hard. Anders was moaning in his ear, his hips rolling in sync with Garrett's.

"Sometimes I'd have you suck my cock first," Garrett whispered harshly. "I would never know if you were in the mood for a little teasing, or if you just wanted my cock down your throat, choking on it." Garrett slid his hand up Anders' neck and jaw, the mage's stubble scraping his palm. "I'd go in deep, and you'd take every inch of me." Garrett pressed two fingers to Ander's lips. The mage opened them, his tongue darting between Garrett's fingers as they slipped inside. He turned his head just enough to watch his fingers slid in and out of Ander's lips. His cock twitched dangerously at the sight.

"Just. Like. That. Maker, do you know what you do to me?"

Anders hands scrambled for purchase on Garrett's shoulders, and the mage's body tensed. Garrett sped up his movements, breathing harshly through his nose. "Fuck, I'm going to come," Garrett gritted out. Anders was moaning around the fingers in his mouth. His eyes had slid shut, and the movement of his hips became frantic. With a strangled cry, Anders came, his whole body trembling with the force of his climax.

"Oh, Maker, that was beautiful…" Garrett gasped. "Your face… it's—" He sank his teeth into Anders' shoulder, muffling his cry as his orgasm exploded through him. He pushed against the mage's body to draw it out, inhaling Anders' scent. He could see the pulse in Ander's neck jumping franticly, and he turned his head to place a kiss on it.

Anders' legs gave out on him and they both slid slowly to the ground. They clutched at each other while their heart beats slowed, neither saying a word. All around him, Garrett was suddenly acutely aware of the sounds of the forest, of the insects buzzing and the night creatures calling to each other.

Pulling back, Anders gave Garrett a weak, but warm smile. "See…" His voice sounded hoarse. He cleared it a few times and tried again. "See, you're a bit intense."

Garrett grinned. "Is that really a bad thing?"

"Oh, no, I'm not complaining. I just realized that we're a bit close to camp."

Garret groaned and dropped his forehead onto Anders' shoulder. The mage winced and Garrett placed a kiss where he had bitten him. "Sorry, I—"

"Don't… Don't apologize for that. There's nothing to be sorry for." Anders drew back far enough so that Garrett could see his face. "About anything."

Something inside Garrett loosened at the implication. Here in the forest, there were no darkspawn, no templars, no mages, no taint or impending Joining. There was just Anders and Garrett, two men who were trying to feel their way through something neither of them had had before.

Garrett leaned forward to give Anders another kiss, when he froze.

"Are you two done yet?" Velanna called out. "Some of us are trying to get some sleep!"

"Maker, I hate her," Anders muttered.

"No you don't. You just don't like the fact that she is a little bit like you. She has an understandable hatred of all things human. She uses her words to lash out."

"Well, pardon me, Ser Knight. I'll endeavor to change," Anders expression turned mulish, but with the light of the moon, Garrett could see the laughter in his eyes.

Garrett brushed his lips along Anders'. "No, I think you're perfect the way you are."

"You'll regret that," Anders warned.

"Never," he whispered back.