Author's Note: Hello! If you were reading along before the Regret chapter, you should skip back a few and read the one before that (should be chapter 11) because I somehow swapped those two when I was uploading. Oops!

I admit to being a goober, I really do. Aim your rotten vegetables to my front-side though and not the hair, please!

Again: thank you readers and reviewers. You all rock!

Life was hard when the one you love is reasonably fond of you in return.

That wasn't entirely true.

We were at camp and I had lost track of all the darkspawn we'd defeated and the number of pleas we answered; Aliara denied no one her ear, she even offered mercy to the damn Blood Mage who had nearly killed Arl Eamon, and all who were helped by her – and us, but she made the decisions, knew the steps to take, knew what made us all happy or uncomfortable – loved her.

Zevran was so obvious in his admiration that I constantly wanted to ring his neck. His witty Hey, come jump in my bed! Invitations hadn't ceased in the slightest and I had no idea what to do to make them stop. After all, his gracefully attractive neck and his nimble bendy body had to be appealing, right? I couldn't blame her if she found him attractive, though the whole Zevran tried to kill us thing still bugged me. A reasonable grudge to hold, I imagined.

He was experienced and confident. Even I admired that about him, so again, I couldn't find fault with her if she did, as well! Why would she choose me when she could have him? He didn't stutter awkwardly when she said something nice or tease her as I did, he used those scary-assassin-seducer eyes and voice on her, instead.

Way more effective, I acknowledged. I would've taken notes if I weren't so caught up in jealous neck-strangling thoughts.

I knew his intentions. Zevran had answered my growled question, saying that she was strong and beautiful, exactly what he fancied most. He wanted to lay with her; no deep love, no meaning. She had to know that he was only interested in her body – amazing it is, but still! There's so much more to her than that. I had seen it for over a month, maybe over two, now, how everything she did or said brought someone peace of mind.

He didn't want to gently make love to her, he wanted the kind of sex those boys had bragged about in the dormitories of my youth. The thought of it twisted my stomach into angry knots, like a ball of yarn tangled up by angry, feisty kittens.

I was busy imagining them sweaty and tangled, scowling and tossing bits of wood into the fire, when I felt her hand on my shoulder. Aliara was standing behind me, bent slightly at the waist, and I wanted to tug that loose shirt up past her ears, to hide the curves of her so that no one could see them as I did just then; the flickering firelight casting a sensual glow across her throat and shadow betwixt her breasts. Realizing I was staring (Right. At. Them. Pervert.) I stood and turned quickly, blocking that divine, twisting, and extremely distracting play of light and shadow.

Gentlemanly asking her what she required of me – "What's up?" – she graced me with a gift: that small smile with both dimples and – maybe just the heat from the fire, but still – a delicate blush. Then she asked me, softly but earnestly, if this was my mother's amulet.

It was.

My mind was racing with questions and my heart was in my throat, so close to being gagged on that I'm not sure if I was truly breathing. "Where?" I wheezed.

"Library. In a desk drawer. In Redcliffe, I mean, the Castle." I was too busy staring at the carefully - if inexpertly – repaired necklace to notice then how she fumbled slightly with that sentence, hesitant and hopeful.

"This is…" I was choking. On my heart. Maker, look at that eager face. Those soft lips slightly parted, eyes dazzlingly bright, blush beautiful and so delicate on my steel-backboned Hero. I said something that she could translate as how I meant to say: ThankyouThankyouThankyou.

Aliara smiled. Those dimples. I wanted to lick them.

"I'm so glad I got it right."

She had me.

Her eyes, her smile, those dimples, that blush of pleasure for making me so deliriously happy. My heart was choking out any chance for awkward words so my lips met hers abruptly, gently, one of my hands pulling her shoulder to me as the other – wrapped in that precious gift, the necklace I thought lost so long ago –came to rest tenderly on the curve of her jaw, thumb brushing the soft skin of her cheek and fingertips tickled by the small hairs that curved around her ear.

She made a soft wonderful sound as my lips moved against hers and I realized exactly what I was doing. I released her mouth – slightly swollen and even more beautiful, if that were possible – and she looked as surprised as I felt, that – delightful, supple, warm – mouth shaped in an Oh and her eyes wide and looking straight into mine.

I babbled. Sorry's and It means so much to me, I couldn't even speak were mushed together and she was smiling – those cursed dimples –my hands still holding her in place, but she hadn't backed up and a, "Did I offend you?" slipped past the heart still blocking my throat and tumbled to her ears, while my thumb kept stroking her cheek – so soft, how could I resist?

Aliara laughed. Her voice wasn't musical like Leliana's or seductive like Morrigan's, but beautiful simply by virtue of the honesty that she treated everything to. Her laugh was overjoyed, as though I had given her a present and not the other way around, which was so obviously the case. I was back to babbling until I felt her hands, tugging on my shirt collar and forcing my neck to bend so that her lips could meet mine. My hands were holding her face to mine, as though I were cradling a glass of the finest wine in the land, one drifting into her hair while her hands were on my chest, and if she couldn't feel how hard my heart was pounding, then it must have stopped without me noticing.

Her lips opened gently under mine and I tasted her mouth, reveling in the gasp I swallowed and the tightened fists against my chest, pulling me in to exactly where I wanted, needed to be, where I belonged.

I needed to breathe. Aliara needed to breathe so we could continue doing that until the world ended. I looked into her eyes – and went back down. Her eyes had told mine Yes and Please and This is how we fit together and my mouth was agreeing with I'm yours Want me Please? Mine.

This time, my breaths were ragged and her eyes were glazed, as though she had some lust spell cast upon her. Her mouth was more than a little swollen and wet now and she must have seen how I was looking, because her tongue darted out to make them even more appealing and I leaned down again, staring at and breathing on those lips. Her head tilted back, neck catching the glow of the fire again and I wanted it.

"You dropped it." Her voice wasn't helping me stop with my current kissing agenda at all. She was breathless, like her heart was choking her, too, so my thumb stroked a path from her soft cheek to her collarbone, trying to see if I could feel her heart pounding there, and her low moan stopped my heart for sure this time. Maker, I wanted. Everything. Her bones, her hair, her fingernails, her nose, her eyes, her everything. I wanted it.

Aliara had said something. I thought back to it, feeling like it was so long ago, and realized she was right. "I'm sorry, you gave me the best gift ever and I dropped it and I kissed you in front of everyone and-" her mouth was on mine again and I got the hint (this time).

She loosened her hold, trying to flatten out the wrinkles she'd made in my shirt, but only succeeding in making my heart thump harder. "Don't be sorry, please. I hope you kissed me because you like me-it. Don't worry about everyone else; I'm certainly not ashamed of kissing you. Twice." She added that last bit pointedly, but she wasn't looking right at me and Maker, it hurt.

"I like it. I like you. For a while now. I've just never done this. I feel like I'm an embarrassment, but your smile makes me do things and I'm sorr-" her finger was on my mouth. Oops. "It slipped," I mumbled, liking the feel of her calloused finger on my lips.

"I like you, too, Alistair. I was hoping you felt the same." Maker, that face. You did a good job with that face. She laughed, the sound low and seductive to my ears. I must've said it out loud which was embarrassing but not very surprising, but she was kissing me and really, I would definitely say it again if that was the end result.