Warning: Yaoi/boy-on-boy
Pairings: ZevranXm!Grey Warden, one-sided AlistairXm!Grey Warden
Story: Ches can't sleep, he can never sleep. Not with the literal fate of the world hanging over his head. He knows he should be asleep, and yet the stars enchant him with a sweet lullaby. Alistair knows what's going through Ches' mind, and he would do anything to ease the boy's mind. Anything.
Disclaimer: Characters (c) Bioware
Ches (c) Me

I think I have an elf fetish or something... Like, literally, all my characters are male elves! And always in a relationship with Zevran! (mainly cause I can't figure out how to make Alistair gay... anyone got any hints?) So, yeah, here's a one-shot for you! I'll write more about my little Chessy, who is an adorable little read-head with Alistair's hair cut. He's so cute! Like the little brother I've always wanted! ...well, if I was an elf...

There was something about the night that just seemed to calm the young mage, made the hyper active part of his personality drain away, leaving a fragile boy staring up at the midnight sky with eyes of a golden gleam. He couldn't help it, it was as if this was what he would always be reduced to in the darkest nights, either clinging to poor Alistair for the nightmare that plagued his dreams, or staring up at the sky in hopes of times where he would be able to watch the sky and not fear for his life. He was scared. Oh-so-scared. He didn't know what he was supposed to do, how to be a leader. He had grown up in a tower away from the world, it reminded him of a story he had once heard from a traveling minstrel… Rapunzel… A beautiful princess with locks of gold locked away in a tower, waiting for her prince to come save her.

As Ches stared up at the sky, he remembered a time when he had grown out his red locks, in hopes that maybe a handsome prince would climb up them to rescue him from the tower. He had been forced to cut those locks, along with his dreams the night of his Harrowing. And then that fiasco with Jowan and Lily, poor, poor Lily. He hoped she hadn't been sent to Aeonar.

"Why don't you go sleep?" Ches glanced to his right upon hearing his fellow Grey Warden's voice. He smiled slightly, patting the ground beside him. Alistair, knowing Ches' pension for not talking at night, sighed as he sat down and let Ches move closer for the warmth the poor boy sought. Alistair felt sorry for Ches at times, betrayed by his best friend and exiled from the only home he had even known, ever been taught to know. Suddenly thrown out into a world of monster's and heroes, where the monsters outnumbered the heroes greatly.

"You know, I never really liked any mage's until I met you," Alistair muttered, intent on making sure this awful silence wouldn't drag on, wouldn't make him listen for sounds of darkspawn approach. He felt Ches chuckle beside him. "It's true! I always thought they put on airs, like they were better than me in some way. Now I know it's just because they hated templars in general and wanted them to disappear."

"I don't want you to disappear," Ches whispered, burying his face in Alistair's cloak. The blond smiled slightly, petting the boys red locks to sooth and ease away his fears, his nightmares.

"I take it you didn't like any templars?" Alistair chuckled, still stroking his fingers through the blood locks that were Ches' own. He had always liked Ches' hair, only liking it more when he realized Leliana had the exact same color. The two looked like siblings, if Ches hadn't been an elf and destroyed his fake with inky patterns.

"I liked Cullen," Ches whispered. "Until I met him again… he wanted all the mage's killed… he wanted my family killed… And I liked Hedrig alright, until he was forced to leave with some other templars to go find a group of malificar. They were nice enough to give me his amulet when he didn't come back, since we were friends. Ulta was nice, he even slipped me candy every once and a while, but an abomination got him before the other got a chance to slay it. And Killadra was funny; he joked with me, but then saw Ulta die and had to kill the abomination. He didn't like mages after that…"

Alistair gently looped his arm around Ches' shoulders, pulling him just a bit closer, telling himself the warmth was a welcome difference from the bone-biting cold that surrounded them. That was the most Ches had spoken to him in one night alone, it was the most that he had ever heard the elf speak at one time, in fact. Besides when Sten shared his cookies, which was a rare occasion.

"I know you're tired, Ches, just go to sleep," the blond templar murmured, gently running his hand up and down Ches' all too stiff back, the back that seemed to always be facing him, protecting him, guarding him when it was the mage who needed protecting. "I'll protect you. I promise."

Ches chuckled slightly, nuzzling Alistair's chest gently as he began to fall into the sleep that seemed to claim him at all the wrong moments. "If only Zev could see us… he'd be so jealous…" Ches chuckled, whispered, breathed, as he drifted off into a sleep that he so deserved.

Alistair smiled sadly. He knew Zevran, the Antivan who had become so attached to the young mage, would go into a fit if he saw them like this, curled up comfortably next to the fire that gave them too little warmth. Zevran and Ches had shared a bed and so many other things, this the templar knew, and yet he couldn't help but hope. He couldn't help but wish that maybe, maybe this beautiful boyish mage would be his one day.