The Soldier:

The insistent buzzing in Kaidan's pocket jerked him out of a sound sleep and a delightful dream. Blearily Kaidan registered the time-just after 0600-before staring at the number for a moment in puzzlement. It didn't pull up an entry in his contact list, but this phone's number wasn't listed anywhere, not even in the Spectre registry. Daring to take a chance, he swiped up to answer and put the phone to his ear, speaking quietly out of caution for Cullen's slumbering state. "Yes?"

"Kaidan?"

His blood chilled. He knew that voice. "Liara?" he whispered, pushing himself to his feet.

"Oh, thank the goddess," Liara said, sounding unusually anxious. "I don't have much time, but listen to me: you have to get me out before Saturday."

Kaidan hurried to the door. "That gives me only two days." He didn't have to say he knew she was in the outskirts of Kont-arr, a Rivaini city still under the shadow of Qunari influence, but from her tone, she assumed he knew.

"I know, I know, but I found out-Oh, it's too horrible to contemplate," Liara said with a sigh. "Kaidan, they know you infiltrated the Antivan compound. They don't know you were looking for me, but whatever other information you acquired has made you a marked man."

Mind racing, Kaidan eased his way into the hall and shut the door quietly behind him. "What did I get that was so hot?"

There was an odd pause before she replied. "I...I don't know exactly, but it's something to do with an apostate they killed over a year ago. Whatever they think you know, it's enough to put a death sentence on your head. And you know who they're using to carry out the executions."

Kaidan's blood chilled. "Shepard."

"Please, Kaidan. For all our sakes. hurry." There was a pause, and then she whispered, "Like a shadow."

Before Kaidan could reply, the call ended, and he lowered his phone to stare at the screen thoughtfully. Everything had sounded almost like a genuine call-right up until the end.

Like a shadow.

It was an old code phrase, used between himself and Shepard while on the field. He wasn't surprised Liara knew of it, of course. Shepard had probably told Liara all the phrases just in case she or Kaidan ever needed corroboration on a Spectre report if only one of them returned from the field. But to hear that one in particular, in this circumstance…

It's a trap.

Taking a deep breath, he frowned as his mind raced. If he didn't show up, Liara would be moved to somewhere in Par Vollen, and he would have lost his chance to extract her from the clutches of the enemy-and Shepard's best chance to be free from them as well. But if he did go in, especially alone, his chances of emerging alive were minuscule at best.

He needed help-and his best ally couldn't even hobble to the bathroom without aid.

"Well, shit."

He nearly jumped when his phone buzzed again, this time with another unknown number. Steeling himself for the worst, Kaidan tapped the button to answer and set the phone to his ear. "Yes?" he asked with even more caution than the last call.

"Is this Kaidan?"

Kaidan's blood chilled at the unknown voice. A stranger with this number, calling so soon after that call from Liara… "It is," he said, trying to keep his tone neutral.

"Cullen sent me a weird message saying that I needed to call you," the man said. "What's this about?"

Cullen sent- "Is this Hawke?" Kaidan asked, surprised. "He said he was going to tell you to accept my call, not to call me directly."

Hawke snorted. "I'm not a very patient man. Besides, I've got time now, and I definitely won't have time once bath time arrives."

Something about the man's tone made Kaidan's ears burn, so he pushed past that comment. "Cullen and I have been working on a mission involving the Qunari," he told Hawke. "And we came across information about a woman named Adaar. Cullen said you'd have more information about it."

There was a long silence on the other end of the line, long enough that Kaidan started to wonder if the signal had been lost. Finally Hawke said, "All right. Let's talk."

After five minutes, Kaidan knew that this was the man who could make the difference between life and death for himself and Liara in the next phase of his mission. It was clear that the man had dealt with the Qunari before, and had intimate knowledge of Adaar and her whereabouts, as well as the reason her father had been marked for death by the Qunari. Despite the man's seemingly glib manner of talking in a jaunty, sideways sort of way, but a careful listener could hear the layered meaning behind the man's words. And, if he worked with Cullen, he'd be no slouch in a fight.

The trick, of course, was in getting Hawke to agree to work with him on such short notice.

Kaidan gave it his best shot, given what was at stake. Luckily, his aim was almost as good as Cullen's.

The Assassin:

When Cullen awoke to find Kaidan's chair empty and only a folded piece of paper with his name on it, his world came crashing to a halt for a moment. He teetered on the edge of the same rage and fear and longing he'd felt the last time he'd awoken to find Kaidan gone from their hollow of an apartment. Squeezing his eyes shut, Cullen forced his breathing to slow, to remind himself that then was not now, and that he wouldn't find the same note or the same sentiment on that piece of paper no matter what.

Still, his hand shook as he reached out to grab the note, and his heart pounded loudly in his ears while his eyes scanned the hastily written message.

Five minutes later, his pulse was racing for another reason entirely. They were in the endgame. Quickly he grabbed his phone, then pounded the call button to summon medical assistance even as he shoved his blanket aside. Dr. Chakwas found him cursing at his own inability to stand unaided, and rather than opting for a lecture, she simply turned around and left. Before he had a chance to get upset at her reaction, however, she returned with her assistant and a bundle of his equipment, and five minutes later he was on his feet with a cane to help him walk. She arranged for a special cab to take him to the address in Kaidan's note and helped him into it with only a few words of caution against overexertion-well that, and a bottle of pain pills. He left Dr. Chakwas behind with a veritable pile of his gratitude and a promise not to walk too much in the next few days.

The next couple of days passed in a blur. Tucked away in Kaidan's trashy-seeming trailer, Cullen found an array of equipment that would have intimidated him had he been anything but a Spectre or the Unseen Hand of the Chantry. Even Hawke would have salivated at some of the items Kaidan had squirreled away in his bunker. After a flurry of closely coded texts and sufficient drags of his special cigarettes to sharpen his mind, he had the entire rig operational and ready for the mission just in time for boots to hit the ground.

And unfortunately for the Qunari, Hawke's boots could hit very hard indeed.

The ensuing activity ended up making the news, of course. Large scale explosions, even in the remote reaches of northern Rivain, were bound to attract the attention of the media. In the post-mission haze of blue-smoke-tinged bliss, Cullen read the various conspiracy theories with amusement, making notes of the ones which had even a smidgeon of truth to investigate later for leaks before realizing that that would be a job best left to the Spectres.

Especially now that Shepard was no longer a threat to anyone but Sovereign and the Qunari. They , of course, had better find the deepest hole in the ground to cower in, because once Liara was as safe as she could be, Shepard wouldn't rest until someone had paid for endangering her wife.

Not that the process would be swift. Both Sovereign and the Qunari had plenty of bite left, so both entities would still be around to plague civilization for a while longer. Still, given the way things had turned out, Cullen couldn't help but be pleased. Liara was safe with her wife, Hawke had returned to base, and Kaidan had told Cullen that he was in the clear to contact his 'someone.'

Cullen leapt at the chance to call Dorian, sorely in need for the soothing sound of the man's voice. When he heard the cheerful sound of Dorian's greeting through his phone, he smiled and closed his eyes as he replied, "Hello."

"Cullen." Oh, sweet Maker, how Cullen had missed that. The way Dorian spoke his name sent a shiver down his spine, and it wasn't even completely sexual. It was just... home -something Cullen had been thinking a lot about in the last week or so. "You're safe?"

"Yeah. A bit bruised and battered, but you've seen me like that before," Cullen said with a chuckle. "How are you? I've missed you."

"Oh, enjoying our little retreat in Mae's winter estate. It was lovely of her to offer a surprise vacation to the entire firm, wasn't it?" Dorian asked. "Though I'm still not quite sure what prompted it."

Cullen chuckled, since he knew very well why Mae had all but bullied Trevelyan to take her family and employees to a remote estate in the more fashionable parts of the North. "I've heard her brag about it before. Is it every bit as fabulous as she claims?"

"Every bit and more," Dorian said with a chuckle. "In fact-Oh, hold on a moment." Cullen strained to listen as he heard Dorian talk with someone nearby, but the sound was muffled, as if Dorian was covering the phone with one hand. The only word he could make out was boyfriend. "Sorry about that. A new guest arrived just today, and Mae seemed quite enthusiastic about his arrival."

Kaidan, probably, Cullen said with a mental nod. They'd told Mae to keep Trevelyan and her guests safe and sound while Spectre 'took care of a problem', and Kaidan's official credentials had been enough to convince Mae to do so with enviable grace. For safety, she'd agreed to keep her guests at her estate until Kaidan returned and assured her in person that it was all right to let everyone return to the real world.

If they wanted to, of course. Mae's estate was, according to rumor, beyond fabulous.

"It's funny," Dorian said in a musing tone, snatching Cullen's attention back to the call. "When I went to investigate, it turned out her new guest is an old friend. An old boyfriend, actually, from my university days, for that lovely year Father allowed me to flee the nest and go south."

Cullen's jaw dropped, and for a long moment he wondered if it were actually possible. No, he said, physically reaching up to close his mouth. It couldn't possibly- "Oh?" he asked, keeping his tone light. "Why haven't you told me all the juicy details?"

Dorian laughed. "Maybe I should," he teased Cullen, then lowered his voice as if to avoid being overheard. "Riding his cock was my favorite way to pass the time. A pity Father called me back home after that year, though honestly it was probably because he caught a rumor that I was spending all my free time riding my boyfriend's cock."

"Does this amazing cock have a name?" Cullen asked, feeling an odd sensation in the pit of his stomach.

"Oh, of course. Kaidan Alenko. He also came from abroad, but I couldn't tell you from where," Dorian said. "He's still as handsome as ever, the devil. It's unfair, really. I always wondered what path my life would have taken if I'd been allowed to actually stay with him. But then, I wouldn't have met you, so I suppose I really don't have anything to complain about." Even as Cullen sat in his chair in stunned silence, Dorian gave a wistful sight. "Speaking of cock, I miss you. Our anniversary is coming up. You will be home in time for Satinalia, won't you?"

"Ah...yes." Cullen shifted in his chair as some very tantalizing possibilities flickered through his mind. "In fact, I think I'll come up and join you at Mae's estate. Why don't you see if you can keep your old boyfriend around until I arrive? I admit to some curiosity."

"Hmm. By any means necessary?" Dorian asked archly.

For a moment, Cullen forgot how to breathe, so he forced himself to chuckle. "If that's what it takes."

Dorian laughed. "All right. But if you arrive and find me riding his cock, you'll know you took too long. You have been gone for almost two weeks, you know."

He knew Dorian wasn't serious. He knew Dorian wouldn't actually do that. Yet the treacherous image flashed through Cullen's mind without hesitation, and it took him a moment to recover enough to speak. "Oh, believe me, I know," he said fervently. "I'll be there tomorrow."

"You'd better," Dorian said. "Or else I'll be forced to-"

The incredibly detailed explanation which followed did nothing to ease the heat rising in Cullen's body, or lessen the bulge growing between his legs. By the end of it, Cullen cried mercy and let Dorian extract a promise from him that he'd be there at the estate tomorrow or suffer the or else- Or, given the nature of the threat, be there at the estate tomorrow or suffer a total lack of the or else. Either way, Cullen had a lot to think about-and, perhaps, an item to add to his Satinalia list.

Hopefully Kaidan and Dorian would both be amenable to a surprise.