All right, I figured I'd give a heads-up for this chapter. It bounces around a lot, as it is a collection of times the two have touched (not NSFW) or cute/sweet things they've done. Lots of fluff for once. All the angst was getting to me. They're all from Leliana's POV. Oh, and thanks for the reviews. I figured I'd stick that in there now so I don't have to go make another AN elsewhere. I'm glad you guys are enjoying Aedan and Leliana as much as I am!

I'm sitting at the campfire my second night from Lothering, watching the Wardens as they go about their nightly business. They seem to have a routine, dragging logs and the like around a fire while the Chasind-looking woman, Morrigan, collects and removes the stones lying around the campsite. I'm the only one besides the dog not doing anything, and I feel useless. So I occupy myself with scratching said dog's ears while he lies next to my leg, watching his owner go about her business with the other blond Warden, Alistair.

My thoughts wonder from my uselessness to trying to figure each Warden out. Alistair is a rather simple problem I've already solved, but the other two...the siblings...they're another matter altogether. Neither seem particularly happy, let alone social, and the woman, Elissa, has made it clear she's got the typical Fereldan dislike for Orlesians. I don't say much to her on purpose. She spends her time giving me glares when she thinks I'm not looking, or questioning what little I do say, or even outright telling me she doesn't like that I'm Orlesian. Aedan, the man, however, seems more tolerant, although I do see him agreeing with his sister about the Orlesian topic more often than not. So they've been raised like normal Fereldans. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but it does. By the way they know quite a few things about the Game and Orlais, I get the impression they've either been to Orlais, or come from nobility. It would explain the ingrained dislike of Orlais and anything Orlesian, but last I checked, Orlais was trying to come to peace with Ferelden. One of the two teyrns just went across the border not too long ago... Cousland, I think. I don't see the famed Hero of River Dane tolerating any Orlesian long enough to cement a friendship between the two nations.

Aedan is the first to join me, dropping onto one of the moved logs rather lazily, and pats the spot next to him. "Why don't you come sit with me? Wolf doesn't make good company all the time, you know." The mabari growls at him in response, but he only laughs. "Shut up, dog. You're so soft that you could be a nug." Wolf's growl turns to a soft whine of hurt and Aedan rolls his eyes. "Elissa, your dog is being a wuss again."

"He's not a wuss!" Elissa says defensively. "He's just...soft. But hey! He's my dog. Shut up you ass." She walks over towards us and crouches on his other side, farthest away from me, and ruffles his ears. The warhound gives a contented bark as she stands. For a brief moment, her eyes meet mine in what I can only describe as a challenge, and her entire expression darkens. But she says nothing to me and beckons her dog after her while she walks off to join Alistair.

"Leliana," Aedan says. He waves at me. "Come on. The least you can do is sit on the damn log. It's probably more comfortable than the ground."

"Probably," I say. "The ground is softer." I get up to sit next to him regardless, if only to irritate his sister. She doesn't seem to like that Aedan's being polite, but I get the feeling Aedan doesn't like how close Elissa is with Alistair either. It might just be they both want to keep the other in a box for the rest of eternity.

As I sit, my shoulder brushes his and he cringes, shying away awkwardly. I sputter out an apology as quickly as I can, far from eager to have him dislike me as much as his sister does. But after a minute of stuttering and cursing, his face softens, and even though he doesn't smile, I get the feeling this is the first time he has relaxed in a while.

I've never felt so nervous going into bed with someone as I do now. It isn't like Aedan and I have not been together before, but it feels...different. I feel like something has changed between us since he proposed, and I've been driving myself crazy to figure out what, but I just...can't. I always feel so close to figuring it out, only to have it slip away just as I'm about to get it.

Aedan must notice my hesitation. His hands run up and down my spine slowly, tracing the bone in lazy patterns through my shirt. The gentle brush of his fingertips is calming enough to make my eyes drift shut as I lean back into him. His other arm wraps around my waist and pins me to his chest. I couldn't move even if I wanted to. Other people have done similar things with me, tried to take it slow or rush through it all so fast that neither of us really knew what happened, but it never feels...forced with Aedan. I don't have to tell myself I want him. I don't have to think about what I really want. It just...happens. It's simpler, easier, far more natural than it has any right to be. Only he can touch me the way he does; only he can make tickling my spine soothing. All those other people...this would've made me sick and I would've killed them to get away. But not with him. No, the way his fingers feel is far too different.

And I love every second of it.

Aedan's eyebrows furrow and he points at another. "And that one?"

I crane my head back to see the constellation he's asking about. "That one?" I ask for clarification. He scoots closer, reaching behind me so that the hand he was leaning on is now on my left. His chest presses against my shoulder and his cheek presses into my ear as he tries to see what I'm seeing. My heart beats a little faster and I swallow to keep myself together.

"No," he says, grabbing my wrist to shift my aim. "That one. What's it called?"

"We haven't gone over this one before?" I frown. "I thought we did. I swear I told you about him yesterday."

He shrugs. "Tell me again?"

"That's the Hunter," I say. "One of few constellations named after something elven in origin. He saved a Revered Mother who later went on to become the Divine. In turn, she named the pattern 'the Hunter' in his honor." I stare at the stars for a while, watching them twinkle and sparkle, ever-changing, and smile. When I look back to Aedan, he's staring at the stars, too, but with a thoughtful expression on his features. "What is it?"

He shakes his head and looks at me, plastering a rather goofy grin to his face. "I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"Nothing really. Just thinking about everything. Do you ever do that? Just...drift?"

I nod. "I think I know what you're talking about."

He laughs. "Of course you do. You're always drifting when we're not talking." I start to object, but he only laughs harder before leaning over to press his lips to my temple. "It's all right, Leli. I love you anyway." He says it into my hair, breathing heavily, as his arms wrap around my waist. Aedan seems content to hold me like this, unfazed by the awkwardness of the position. "Do you think I've told you that enough today?"

I crack a small smile. "Tell me again?" I repeat.

Aedan chuckles at my own use of his question earlier. "I love you."

My smile widens and my heart flutters. I don't know what it is about those words that set me off, but they do, and the way Aedan says it like I should already know it, like it's a fact, is probably the sweetest thing anyone has done for me. "I love you too." I tilt my head to the side and lean up to press my lips to his in the softest way I can manage. I try to convey just how much I love him into that kiss, and he does the same. I never knew it could be this simple.

He has a thing for hands. Playing with them, I mean. Aedan likes to run his fingers over my knuckles and weave them through mine before fondling my palm and repeating the entire process. I don't understand his fascination with it. I mean...they're just fingers. It's just a hand.

I find myself trying to figure it out one night I'm not on watch with him, frowning at my fingernails and the bandage covering the vestiges of a burn from one of the abominations we ran into in the forest. Wynne offered to heal it, but I laughed the mage off and told her to worry about more severe wounds, that a bandage and some time would suit me just fine.

"What are you doing, Leliana?"

My head snaps up and my gaze locks with Wynne's. Her smirk tells me she knows more than she's letting on, so I shake my head and look back down, trying to not seem embarrassed. "It's nothing. I just...I was thinking about this thing Aedan does when we're sitting together is all."

"Ah," she says, her knowing grin spreading further across her face.

I resist the urge to scowl. "Not like that. When we sit up on watch at night, he'll play with my hands, and I can't figure out why."

Wynne shrugs. "Have you seen Alistair with Elissa? He does little gestures like that all the time. There's no real point to it, Leliana. They just do it to show their affection."

I frown. "It's strange."

The mage laughs as she gets up. "Well, bring it up with him when you go to bed. It's Sten's turn for watch."

I check the position of the moon before following suit. She wanders over to the Qunari's tent while I head to the one I share with Aedan, stepping carefully over Wolf as he snoozes in front of the flap. He's sprawled out on his back, one arm tucked under his head and the other thrown over his chest, half under the blanket. He sleeps without a shirt no matter how cold it is, and never seems bothered by it in the slightest.

After carefully setting my quiver and bow on the pile of equipment in the corner, I lie down beside him and roll onto my side, facing the entrance. Not a moment later, he rolls over so he can press his chest to my back, and throws the edge of the blanket over me. He makes a concerted effort to cover the both of us with the thin, sorry excuse for a blanket, and gives up when I'm covered by most of it, settling for drooping an arm over my ribs.

"You shouldn't be up," I say softly.

"Well I woke up about an hour ago and couldn't fall asleep," he says. "I figured I'd wait for you to show up before trying again."

"You don't have to do that."

He buries his face in my neck, sighing. "I felt like it."

"Have you ever thought about what you would do once the Blight was over?"

Aedan looks surprised at my question. "No, not really. I've always looked at it like I could possibly die, so why worry about it if I might never see the end?"

I frown. "Really? Not even a little bit? We're so close now, and you haven't even thought about what comes after?"

He shakes his head. "No. Why? Do you want me to?"

"I was just curious," I admit. "We're going to be fighting the horde tomorrow, and I never felt like we would make it this far. I figured I'd ask."

"I never expected it to end," Aedan says. He sighs, scratching his head, and looks past me for a minute. "I don't know. I'd probably go to Highever, spend some time with my mother and Fergus before helping rebuild the Wardens here in Ferelden." He quirks a brow. "What do you want to do?"

I shrug a shoulder. "Elissa suggested taking a nap. I can agree with that, honestly." We both laugh for a while, and I feel a little bit of the pent up tension rolling off my shoulders. Sitting here as we are, a day from Denerim, a day away from finally seeing the Archdemon, and I'm actually calm. I feel tense, like I'm about to leap off an edge, but I'm not scared. We have made it this far. The Maker wouldn't let us get here only for all of us to die before the Archdemon. I have to believe this will end.

But Aedan has admitted to being afraid of what will happen. And I'll admit I'm afraid he'll get hurt tomorrow, but oddly enough, after seeing so much darkspawn, the idea of fighting them doesn't scare me anymore. Still, I know that the moment I see them, I will be as terrified as the next person.

Aedan helped me deal with Marjolaine. He kept it together when Elissa disappeared. He's gone through so much without anyone telling him where to go or what to do, and he got us here. Elissa might be our unofficial leader again, but she hasn't been here with us in four months. But Aedan follows her, so that's what we do.

The least I can do for him is be here when he needs it.

"Seriously, though. Now you've got me curious too," Aedan says. "What do you plan on doing? Do you want to go somewhere in particular?"

"I'm not sure," I say. "When I told you I liked the traveling part of this, I wasn't lying. But now that I'm sitting here before the end, I truly think I could stand to sit around and do nothing for a while." He chuckles at the thought. "I'll stay in Ferelden for a few weeks, get myself together. Then I'll go back to Orlais."

"No room in life for me anymore?" He sounds like he's joking. By the hurt look in his eyes, I know he's not.

"You'll be too busy with the Wardens to even notice I'm gone," I reply. "If I stayed, we'd only fight about how I never saw you anymore."

"I hate it when you're right," Aedan grumbles. I have no real viable response to that, so I make no attempt to reply, and our conversation lapses into an uncomfortable silence. I feel guilty already, and far more lonely. The idea of leaving hurts more than I realized it could. I've never felt this attached to anyone. The dependency on his presence is strange, foreign, and I'm not sure I like my happiness balanced on one person's very existence. It's scary knowing that your entire life can just collapse if something would happen to them.

"Do you think you'll come back?" he asks. His cheeks are flushed, but they weren't earlier, so I'm well aware it's a blush, not from the heat of the fire's proximity.

"Of course I will."

He lets out a sigh of relief. "Thank the Maker. I was afraid you'd say no."

"You're joking."

"No."

"Do I look like I'm about to go back and change what happened between us?" I raise a brow, using the expression to try (and fail) at covering up the hurt I felt when he said that. He picks up on it instantly and guilt flashes across his features. He starts to reply, but I interrupt. "It took me a while to want to admit that I love you, Aedan. It took a while for me to even be comfortable with the idea of trying anything with someone after Marjolaine. You know better than anyone what she was like, how she treated me. But now I have you, and you're one of the kindest people I've ever met. Why would I throw that away?"

He hesitates. "You're making this harder everyday, Leli."

"Making what harder?"

Aedan shakes his head. "Nothing. It's nothing. Let's just try to get some sleep before tomorrow, all right?"

He gets up abruptly and returns to our tent without another word.

I'm walking down the hallway when I hear Aedan's voice. Frowning, I pause. Who would he be talking to this late at night? Then they reply, and it sets my mind at ease. It's just Cameron. I start to join them, but Varric speaks up, followed by the Inquisitor, and I stop. My frown returns as I lean on the wall to listen.

Of course I'd catch them talking about me.

"I thought shems would be more attracted to flailing breasts than the Chantry Sisters," Arin says.

Aedan laughs. "Morrigan was a lot bitchier during the Blight." So that's where Cameron has been learning to swear. Aedan and I need to have a talk. "And it wasn't so much as the looks that grab me when I look at someone. It's how they act." He pauses before adding, "And I like how she looks just fine." Nice save. Smooth.

"Bet you regret that now," Varric says. "I remember when Nightingale was a lot...calmer. And drunk." One time. I got drunk once.

"Why would I? People change, Varric, and not always for the better," Aedan says. "Have you seen my sister lately? It's hardly ever Elissa anymore. I'm not the same person you met in Kirkwall. How is it fair for me to expect Leliana to be the same? As a matter of fact, she's probably closer to the same person she was than Elissa or myself. Cameron is as normal as any kid can be, and I haven't been around to see him until now. She must be doing something right."

I wish I was doing more.

"Momma's nice," Cameron says.

Aedan laughs again. "I know she is, buddy."

"So when did you find out about him?" Varric asks. I can only assume he means Cameron.

"The day I got here," Aedan says. "I don't know why she wouldn't just tell me. Who hides their son from his father?" Morrigan. Me. We have more in common than I thought. But what was I supposed to do? Write in 'oh, hey, by the way, I'm pregnant?' No! I couldn't do that. I was scared when I found out. How was I supposed to tell Aedan through a letter? And by the time Cameron was born, I saw no point in telling him anyway. He was talking about coming back south, saying it wasn't really going great for him at Weisshaupt, so I figured that could be a sort-of surprise. Then Aedan stopped sending letters, the First Warden sent me his condolences (surprisingly), and I thought he was dead.

I was scared to even let Aedan meet Cameron when he got here. I was afraid he'd leave right then and there without even thinking about it. I was afraid he'd think I moved on and slept with someone else. I thought having a son would freak him out. I never once thought about his curiosity with Morrigan and Kieran, the kid that gives me creepy stares every time I go to get Cameron from Mother Giselle. I don't think Morrigan lets Kieran talk to Cameron, but he's told me that the other boy scares him. And I can't say I blame him. The very thought of the boy sends chills down my spine. Sometimes I swear it's the old god watching, not him. I only feel like that on bad days, though, days where I find my eyes locked on his. And I see no reason to expect Urthemiel to have forgotten who was there when Elissa killed him.

I know it's just the thing's soul, or is supposed to be, but some days I highly doubt that.

"Well, it's time for bed, kiddo," Aedan says. "Enough of Varric's stories. You can talk to him tomorrow."

"But-"

"But bed," Aedan says forcefully. "Let's go." Cameron gives his typical annoyed grunt as Aedan starts leading him in my direction. And not wanting to be caught eavesdropping, I shift back into the shadow of a statue, waiting for them to pass and for Aedan to disappear to our room to leave.

While Elissa goes to speak with the Teyrna and the Queen, I spend my time searching for Aedan. The fact that Anora is here, that she's in Highever, tells me Aedan made it here. The last few days have been full of shock and panic, worry, fear that the Chevaliers will return to avenge the ones burned with Denerim. I couldn't focus on even that much. I was too worried about him, afraid that he actually didn't get out no matter how much he insisted that he would.

I push through the crowd, scouring anyone with brown hair to see if it's him.

"Aedan? Aedan!"

"Leliana! Hey, watch it! That's my face!" He's shoving people out of his way, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Someone must've hit him with something, but right now, I couldn't care less. There he is, standing in his Warden armor, and I don't think I've ever found him this attractive before. The thought is so sudden and random that I don't have the opportunity to push it away when he finally wraps his arms around my shoulders.

"Thank the Maker."

He chuckles. "I told you we'd get out, didn't I? What? Don't you have faith in me anymore?"

"It's the idiot you're trying to protect that I don't have faith in," I say. "The only reason Ferelden is still independent is because Celene's too afraid of Elissa. Anora has no part in that whatsoever."

"No, but Ferelden needs its leader," Aedan says. As he pulls away, his brows furrow, and he gestures to me. "What's with this? The Warden armor?"

"Elissa insisted we all wear it when we left Amaranthine," I say. "Something about confusing any Chevaliers we might meet on the road."

Aedan smirks. "Well it looks good on you. I'm glad you're able to keep it."

I laugh. "I was just thinking the same thing about you, actually."

"Quite the welcome to the Wardens, huh?"

"It could be worse," I say with a shrug. "I could've had to go without the compliment."

Aedan's cheeks flush, but his smirk broadens into a grin anyway. "What? It's true. Warden armor looks good on anyone. Especially you."

I smile up at him. "Thank you."

It really could be worse. I could be dead instead of a Warden. I could be in Orlais without him. I could never have even met him.

I'm perfectly happy with my life the way it is.

My eyebrows furrow. Why isn't he looking at me like I'm stupid? I expected him to. I'm supposed to be perceptive, not the idiot swooning over someone who was so obviously using me.

"And how do you feel now?" Aedan asks.

I keep my expression indifferent as I shrug. "Fine. She probably doesn't even know I'm still alive."

"Well, if something happens, I'll deal with it," he says. "I'll keep you safe."

I bite the inside of my cheek to refrain from giggling. "Thank you, Aedan, but I really don't think anything will come of it. Marjolaine doesn't know where I am even if she knows I'm alive."

"We're friends," he says. "And friends look out for each other, Leli." He smiles, but it's forced, and returns to the fire to talk to Talith, the elven Knight-Captain we picked up when Elissa decided we'd need the Templars' assistance in Redcliffe.

We're friends, he says. I find myself smirking as I join him and the others for supper. He thinks I forgot that blush the other day when he hugged me. He's wrong.