Happy Friday! I thought it was Thursday for some reason, almost forgot to post. I really enjoyed writing this chapter. It's one of my favorite little filler chapters. Enjoy!

Solas didn't often eavesdrop, but conversations tended to echo throughout the rotunda, especially those between Ellana and Dorian. They made no effort to keep their voices down. Solas often wondered if it was done on purpose in some misguided attempt to keep him up to date on the gossip going around Skyhold.

He'd been kept up to date on the near incidents between Hawke's possessed lover and a few suspicious Templars, Sera's newest prank on the Ambassador and her noble guests, Varric's last attempt at trying to play match maker with Ellana, and he even heard about Bull's plan to create havoc by launching Krem's stuffed nugs into the air on the battlefield. All in all, Ellana and Dorian kept Solas thoroughly in the know about all that happened within Skyhold. Though, this conversation in particular stopped Solas' painting dead in its tracks.

"So, you have a thing for former Templars? I would have never guessed."

Solas' brows furrowed. Was she sleeping with the Commander? He'd thought she knew better than to mingle with humans. Even the Dalish had enough sense to warn their people away from humans.

"Templars? What are you talking about, Dorian?" Ellana asked, absent was her usual playful tone. She sounded serious and rather offended. Solas let out a sigh he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Maybe she hadn't lost her mind after all.

"I saw you and Cullen having a lovely hushed conversation in the gardens, for the third afternoon in a row."

Now, that was news to Solas and by the crashing of an inkwell from the third floor, it was news to the Spymaster as well and she had eyes and ears all over Skyhold. Ellana was a discrete woman, but apparently, no one could hide gossip from Dorian.

"Wait, you think there's something going on between me and Cullen? You're absolutely daft, Dorian."

Solas gazed upwards to see Leliana peaking over the railing on the third floor. She was obviously just as interested as he was, but for completely different reasons of course. She would need to know if her Commander and Inquisitor were in any kind of relationship, as well as tease the ex-Templar mercilessly for his love interest. Regardless of how this conversation ended, Solas had a feeling that the Commander was never going to quite hear the end of this from the Spymaster. She would at least lecture him on being more discrete in the future when meeting with Ellana alone.

"So, you aren't sleeping with the Commander?" Dorian honestly sounded a little put out.

Figures.

"As much as you'd love for me to tell you what he looks like without all that ridiculous armor, I have nothing to tell. So, no, I haven't been trying to seduce him in the gardens. I've actually been giving him courting advice. Though, admittedly human courting is a lot different from Dalish courting, but the end results tend to be the same. He has his eye on a lovely Inquisition member, who he doesn't quite know how to talk to without sounding like a complete fool, so I've been giving him pointers."

Dorian began to laugh loud enough to disturb the crows on the third floor. "He must be desperate if he's asking you for advice," he told her between gasps and squawking birds.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Ellana snapped, nearly shouting at the Altus. Solas could picture her hands on her hips, the pure picture of righteous indignation.

"Ellana, dear, you just don't seem like the person who has the most experience with…romance. For Andraste's sake, you didn't even realize when Bull was flirting with you when you first met him."

Solas heard a snort from above and Leliana was covering her mouth with her left hand. Dorian wasn't wrong. Ellana could be rather dense about that sort of thing. The idea of anyone starting something romantic with her seemed to just sail right over her head.

"So presumptuous, Altus Pavus, I'll have you know that I'm…." her sentence trailed off and Solas tilted his head hoping to hear more, but it seemed that the two had moved further into Dorian's little alcove and were actively trying to be quiet.

That's a first.

It made Solas wonder what they were talking about. They were always rather open about their gossip.

Whatever she was sharing had to be personal, and therefore Solas felt that he needed to know. Despite knowing Ellana for months, he really didn't know too many personal details about her life. She didn't speak of past lovers (if she'd had any), her clans location (besides vague descriptions), how she was trained or even specifics about her family. She was shrouded in mystery, less so than Solas himself, but still enough to make him curious.

Though, he doubted that he was going to find out what they were talking about anytime soon. Dorian wasn't going to share the details of what he and Ellana discussed. Despite Dorian's many faults, loyalty was not one of them and the Altus would take Ellana's secrets to his grave. Solas sighed and returned back to his work, waiting for the next round of gossip to rise from library balcony.

The rotunda was quiet for a while, it was about an hour later that Ellana came down the stairs and into the main part of the rotunda.

Her steps were light and her breathing even, so she hadn't ended up in tears over whatever she had shared. That was always a good sign that he'd be able to get some kind of information out of her.

"Did you enjoy your weekly gossip?" Solas asked, never taking his eyes off his work, but he could multitask well enough.

A small chuckle came from behind. "Weekly? Here I thought this was nearly a daily thing. I hope Leliana enjoyed it. We need to team up on Cullen with Josie in the war room. Asking me how to romance a mage, silly man. Just because my brother is a mage, does not mean I know how all mages wish to be romanced."

Solas frowned, not that Ellana could see, but it was reflected in his voice. "The Commander is interested in formally courting a mage?"

If anyone was ill suited to romance a mage it was the Commander. The man was terrified of magic. He tried to hide it, but Solas saw the distrust and genuine fear whenever he casted near the human.

"Don't sound so shocked, Solas, stranger things have been known to happen, like Darkspawn Magisters rising from the dead with an ancient Elven artifact to destroy the world," she replied and took a breath, Solas could picture her waving her hands around in exasperation at his lack of "forward thinking" as she put it, "Cullen is a good man and needs all the help he can get when it comes to the opposite gender. You'd think he'd never seen a woman naked before with the way he blushes and stutters at everything that doesn't have to do with war."

The Commander of the Inquisition was a lot of things, but Solas never pictured the Commander as someone who shied away from romance. Interesting.

"So the Commander went to you for advice?"

"Now you just sound like Dorian. Cullen and I play chess every now and again and we're not allowed to talk about the Inquisition, so we talk about our families and other personal matters. He confided in me, nothing to get worked up about," she responded, waving a hand dismissively.

Solas barely resisted the urge to laugh as he stood up, his back cracking as he straightened. He had been hunched over for far too long, his work on his frescos done for the day.

She whistled and clapped for him when turned to face her. His latest fresco dedicated to her fighting Corypheus at Haven. "Why haven't you spoken of your passion for painting before? Surely it should have come up in our travels?"

"The same way your sewing did?"

"Touché. But, I did sew your tunic back together multiple times. One would think you'd never had to fix your clothing before with how clumsy you were with a needle and tread."

Oh, how close she was to the truth. He had his own personal tailors thousands of years ago that made his clothing. What Myna had been able to do with the fade and a needle and thread was magic all on its own.

A short pang of longing went through him thinking of his old friend. She was a long dead confident, one that Ellana had nearly replaced with her easy smile and quiet nature.

He'd never mended his own clothing and he never even imagined fixing fabric as something he'd need to learn to do. It had been a little more than embarrassing to have Ellana point out that his tunic had ripped after a battle and he had no spare thread to fix it or that he had not idea on how to do it himself. It was a skill that Solas had never bothered to learn. He never had the need or want to. Thinking back on it, that had been an odd skill not to pick up in his extremely long life.

"It is why I am lucky to have you around. Without your talent, where would the Inquisition be?"

"Without a leader and you, lethallan, wouldn't have a shirt, or trousers at this point, if we're being honest. You are very lucky I know how to tailor clothing made for elves or your pants would be a mess. Shems tend to have issues around the way our claves and thighs are structured, we're lithe, muscled and rather thin, all at once. It is hard for them to figure that all out, not to mention the holes in feet for you daft mages, running around with no shoes."

Solas looked down at his feet and wiggled his toes, his mouth down turning. He found nothing wrong showing his feet. He turned back to see that she had a broad grin on her face.

"Yes, well magic tends to protect your feet from things like cold and heat. No matter how daft the mage. Human mages could probably do the same thing if they wanted to," he told her honestly. He doubted that human mages would ever willingly walk barefoot, but it made Solas feel more connected to the earth and magic around him.

"Doesn't their Maker forbid going barefoot or was Sera just pulling my leg? I can never get all their religious rules straight?" Did she read any of the holy texts that her Spymaster and Ambassador had given her the past few months?

He raised his eyebrow at the comment, but she looked sincere enough. He supposed she hadn't read anything they'd given her, more than likely out of spite than anything else. "I don't think it's a religious rule, but a social one."

"Knew it. Anyway, I never did thank you for saving my box from burning in Haven, did I?"

Solas felt his cheeks heat up. He hadn't wanted her to know that it was him that had saved her precious box. Solas had left it in her room anonymously between healing sessions after the Inquisition's original trek to Skyhold.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, da'len," he replied with a wry smile. He was getting too attached to her. Ellana was something between a trusted friend and a daughter to Solas. Despite what the dwarf claimed, the two of them had nothing but mutual respect for one another and Ellana was far too young for him physically and emotionally.

She rolled her eyes fondly, that teasing smile was back again. "Of course you don't, hahren. You're beginning to forget things in your old age."

Love was not something someone like him deserved. He'd already destroyed everything he loved once, he wasn't willing to get attached again, no matter how tempting.

It's always a little difficult to really show case Ellana and Dorian's lovely friendship while telling the story in Solas' perspective. He's such a pessimist. Also, I think it should be considered cannon that Dorian and any Inquisitor literally just gossip loudly in the library for Solas and Leliana to hear and more than likely amuse any and all Inquisition members in the area.

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. The next two, I think, are going to be starting Hawke's POV. It's going to be something different for everyone. So we all get to see Solas' pouty expressions from a new perspective. =D

Thank you to all the lovely readers that have reviewed, favorite and followed. It really keeps my spirits up. I dropped a small hint this week in the chapter for my big plot twist. Though, a lovely reviewer last week was real close in one of their guesses. =3 They're not quite there yet though, so keep thinking and guessing. I love reading them.

See you all next week,

Animerocker