Mature Content Warning - Read at your own discretion.


The first rays of early, morning sunlight warmed an earthen floor, streaming in through a dust-filmed window and throwing oddly shaped shadows across the room. Cullen did not even notice them as he lay in his bed listening to the steady breathing of the woman resting alongside him with her face pressed to his chest. His arm had fallen asleep long ago, but he ignored the tingling pins and needles sensation in favor of letting Solona rest a little longer, instead reveling in the warmth of her as she drew closer to him.

He wondered to himself in sheer amazement, was this truly happening? If the fever dream the demons in Kinloch had shown him had been anything like this picturesque scenario instead of the depraved, lascivious images they had tried to tempt him with, he may actually have fallen victim to them like many of his fellow Templars.

He took a long moment to admire Solona's sleeping form and the soft tendrils of wavy, flaxen hair winding every which way that lay splayed across the pillow behind her. She looked so peaceful. He craned his neck to plant a gentle kiss on the top of her head breathing in the scent of her, and she sighed contentedly in her sleep, gripping him more tightly.

"Mm, Alistair," she murmured drowsily. The name hit him like a sharp slap to the face, jarring him from his meandering thoughts. Suddenly, he found he no longer wished to while away his morning in bed. Being careful not to wake the sleeping woman, he rose, still fully dressed from last night, save for his boots which he now tugged back onto his feet.

In her wine-soaked condition, Solona had been unable to keep awake on the dock for very long, so, to spare her any embarrassment at the tavern, he had carried her back to his home. He'd had every intention of giving her the bed to herself, especially since he hardly slept anymore, but she had grabbed his wrist as he walked away, and, staring at him plaintively beneath long, dark, sleep-laden eyelashes, had asked him not to go. Now he wished he had been less foolish and ignored those pleas. None of this was real, just a haze of bad decisions made after a night of one too many tankards.

He took a moment to clean himself up a bit and then went to the kitchen. Taking care to be as quiet as he could, Cullen built a small fire in the stone hearth and set a kettle full of water to boil over the flames. He was sorely short on creature comforts. Residing in a mostly abandoned village in a simple, small, wattle-and-daub house had made for a rather austere lifestyle, but he did have tea and oats for porridge. After the many, many tankards of wine the Warden had consumed, some hot food to settle her stomach would help her get started on her way back to wherever it was she would be leaving to go.

'Back to the other Grey Warden…Alistair,' he thought bitterly, as he hunched over the fire adding more kindling to keep it hot, so lost within his thoughts that he didn't hear the soft patter of footfalls upon the bare floor behind him.

"Domesticity looks good on you," Solona remarked sleepily. He could hear the gentle smile in her voice, but he didn't turn to face her. "Is there something I can help with?"

"No," he replied succinctly, rising to his feet and moving to the cupboard, his back still towards her. "I hope you like tea and porridge, because that's all I've got. Should be enough to get you started on your journey back."

"My journey back?" she repeated his words slowly. He could hear the confusion evident in her voice.

"You did say yesterday that you'd stay for a night and then be leaving in the morning," he answered gruffly, not bothering to turn and look at her as he dug around searching for the jar of dried tea leaves.

"I suppose I did," she murmured thoughtfully. "But, I was thinking that I might stay for a few more days after all… Unless it would be an imposition...I..." she trailed off. Cullen had turned to face her, two wooden tankards gripped tightly by the handles were in his large hands. A muscle in his jaw twitched as he set the empty vessels down roughly onto the table and then placed his large hands upon either side of them, fingers taut as his fingertips pressed into the rough wood in agitation. He stared down stonily into the dry tankards for a moment, a tense silence hanging thick in the air.

"What reason do you have to stay longer?" he asked her softly, eyes still trained upon the table. He took a deep breath before lifting his gaze to meet, tawny eyes filled with an inscrutable intensity. He slammed his hands upon the table, sending the tankards toppling, a hollow wooden clatter echoing around the room as they bounced upon the tabletop.

"What reason did you truly have for coming to Honnleath in the first place? You didn't know me during our time in Kinloch," he spat with an angry sneer, "and I didn't know you. You were a pretty face, an untenable fantasy, but little more than a stranger. I don't even know what I was to you, but it can't have been much. And now you're here to what? Tempt me further with the idea of something I still can't have? I'm still a Templar, you're still a mage. The blight did not change that." A pained expression crossed his countenance, and he spoke more quietly, his tone now flat as he continued, "And you belong to another man. So why did you come here?"

Solona stood in shocked silence for a long moment, mind reeling as she considered his sharp words. He wasn't wrong. They really had been almost nothing to one another at the Circle, a mutual attraction that had resulted in absolutely nothing and never could. And there was Alistair to consider. Just thinking about her fellow Grey Warden sent pangs of guilt throughout the entirety of her being. He truly loved her, and she, him. So why had she come?

"I don't know. I don't know why I felt compelled to see you. I don't know why I've always felt drawn to you, but I have. And, I belong to no one but myself and the Maker. Maybe it didn't mean anything to you, but last night didn't didn't feel like nothing to me," she snapped at him in irritation, her expression fiery. He could tell that his words had hurt her, but he could not seem to keep himself from continuing on.

"Last night was a pair of drunken fools thinking they could cheat their lot in life." he rejoined thunderously. "Let's not try to pretend it was anything else."

"How can you say that?" Solona demanded, marching angrily to stand opposite him in front of the table, small hands balled into fists. "Just because this was impossible for us at one time doesn't mean that it is now, and it doesn't mean that it was nothing! I've never stopped thinking about you, never stopped wondering what could have been. You're still in my prayers to the Maker each night and in my dreams when I sleep. I knew I loved you the very first time I saw the kindness in your eyes when we exchanged our first smiles."

"You knew nothing about me!" he roared, swiping at the toppled tankards and knocking them to the earthen floor. "You know even less now!"

Without flinching, Solona retorted, pale, green eyes glistening with unshed tears as she stared unblinkingly up into his blazing, amber gaze. "I knew you were kind, and gentle, and shy. I knew you were overeager and earnest and everything a devout, young Templar ought to be. And I know now that you are haunted by the things that have happened to you, just as I am, and that you are lost and angry and in pain, but you are still the same man that you were before, even if you refuse to admit it, even if you don't believe it yourself. And I know that I still feel that connection, that love for you, despite everything that has happened between our first shared smile and now."

Before Cullen could stop himself, he had crossed the few steps to where Solona was standing in front of him, nearly knocking his table over as he did so, and taken her by the arms, his huge hands grasping her slender limbs hard enough to bruise. He pulled her to him, head angled downwards as he pressed his lips hard against hers with a desperate need that was beyond all reason. She gasped in surprise, and he took full advantage of the parting of her lips, sliding his tongue between them to find hers. They stood like that, mouths pressed together, tongues fiercely entwined for what could have been seconds or hours. The concept of time was lost on the pair.

When they pulled apart, Cullen's hands dropped from her arms to the backs of her thighs almost of their own accord, cupping the perfectly rounded flesh he found at the tops of those thighs as he pulled her into the air. She eagerly obliged him, wrapping her long legs tightly around his hips. Taller than him now, she bent her head, swollen lips finding his once again, behind a curtain of wavy blonde hair, and rocked herself against the hard, wanting flesh that pressed against her through his woolen trousers. He pulled his mouth away from hers in a moan of heated passion as he stumbled his way out of the kitchen and back to the bed, leaning down to set her on it, before thrusting himself against her in retaliation, eliciting a breathy gasp from the Warden.

As soon as she was settled upon the bed, Solona pulled herself away slightly, pushing Cullen back to standing as she tucked her knees under her. She reached frantically for the lacing of his trousers, working them until he sprang free. Deftly, she wrapped graceful fingers around velvety flesh, slowly stroking his arousal a few times before she took him in her mouth, suckling at his tip as her tongue worked swirls around it. He groaned lustily, hands burying themselves in her silken tresses and tugging gently. After a few more moments, Cullen wasn't sure he could take much more attention from her. He gently pulled himself free of her mouth and finished undressing. Solona sat back on the bed, approval evident in her hooded eyes as they raked over his chiseled form, and he couldn't help the surge of pride that swelled in his chest.

"Well, this hardly seems fair," he remarked, one eyebrow raised in a perfect arch over smoldering, copper eyes. She worked her plump, bottom lip between her teeth fetchingly and stared up at him from beneath long, fluttering eyelashes, then, ever so slowly, started undoing the lacing at the neckline of her tunic. Cullen had never known anticipation like this as he waited impatiently to see more of the milky flesh hidden beneath the garb. After she, mercifully, pulled her tunic over her head, she tugged off her boots slowly, one and then the other, taking her time as Cullen watched her hungrily. She then shimmied out of her dark brown trousers, leaving her in only small clothes. Solona lay there, exposed, and gave him a seductively challenging look, almost as if to ask, is this sufficient?

Cullen could feel his heart pounding hard against his chest as he kneeled upon the bed, moving to rest himself over top of her, lips pressed against the hollow of her neck, fingers searching clumsily for the easiest way to remove the band from the breasts underneath. Finally, he was rewarded as the pert mounds of pale flesh greeted him with erect, rosy buds. He wasted no time in lavishing them with attention, alternating between laving them with his tongue and gently sucking. She arched upward at each new sensation panting with wanton desire. Slowly, he trailed his fingers down her stomach, tracing the raised scars he found here and there until his fingertips reached the top of her smallclothes. He pulled at them gently, working them down her hips, until they were somewhere on the floor with the rest of her clothes.

He worked his fingers through her soft, damp curls until he found her entrance, slick with her need for him. She pressed herself against his hand, and as he placed gentle kisses all along her collarbones, he slipped a finger inside of her. She moaned in contentment before she began working herself against it, yearning for more. Cullen smiled into her neck as he nibbled the flesh, and then began to trail his kisses down her body, hand pumping all the while. When he removed the digit from her, she made a sound of intense disappointment then squealed in surprise when she felt his breath hot upon her.

Before she could pull away, he ran his tongue up her slit until he found a little nub that caused her entire body to stiffen with pleasure. He continued to circle and flick and suckle at it with his tongue, lapping at her as she writhed and mewled lasciviously, her hands tangling in his coarse, golden curls, fingernails gently scraping against his scalp. It wasn't long before she reached her peak, thighs clenching around him as she shuddered in ecstasy. He moved himself back atop her, kissing her once again.

"Cullen, I need you," she panted breathlessly. He didn't hesitate to sheath his rigid length in her slick folds, slowly pressing forward until he was seated up to the hilt. She began to move beneath him, desperate for him to thrust within her. He obliged, slowly at first, but the pace she was setting was urgent, frantic with pent up longing. He could feel her walls clenching around him as she approached another climax, and he could feel himself reaching his as they moved together, her back arched wantonly, lithe legs wrapped tightly around his waist, pulling him into her more and more deeply. He was drowning in her as she shuddered blissfully once again, and he wasn't far behind, a few stuttered thrusts bringing him to his end.

They lay there breathlessly, reveling in the afterglow of their activities, Solona snuggled tightly in the crook of his arm. She grinned up at him, a sheen of sweat glistening upon her brow, intoxicating olive eyes sparkling.

"I'm not sure there are words adequate to describe that. You are incredible," Solona murmured breathily, satisfaction written plainly across her delicate features. She chewed at her lip before giving him a mischievous smile. "Shall we go again?"

He gave a deep, throaty laugh, his amber eyes crinkling at the edges warmly, before pulling her back to him. Then they were kissing, bodies tangled together, once again lost in each other. It was the best possible way Cullen could ever have imagined spending a morning.