Author's Note: Thank you to all who have favorited this story, read it and reviewed it, or any combination thereof.
Sunshine and Duncan left their tent and stepped out, they were absorbed in conversation and didn't notice, or flat out ignored everyone's obvious stares. Sunshine showed Duncan how to collapse the tent, with everything still in it. "Alakazam? You're joking, surely."
"Not at all, they asked me to use a magic word and that was the first to come to mind, well right after 'please', but I thought that was too generic. Here, hold your hands here, and say it." She took his hand and placed it on one of the poles and Duncan would have probably been too embarrassed to say 'Alakazam' if he wasn't probably falling deeply in love with her. Probably? So he girded his loins and out came his 'Alakazam'. He was rewarded by it folding up and in wonderment he looked at Sunshine and impulsively kissed her. She smiled and put the now folded tent back in the bag and then into her satchel. They turned, smiling, and walked toward the camp fire.
"Mmm," Duncan said, "my favorite! Burnt porridge! What a real treat. Sunshine, no one burns porridge quite like our Anders. It is rather astounding how a mage can so poorly build the right fire for porridge. Oh! And Danforth, is this pale brown water, tea? How delightful. I'm so glad that we have such a fine breakfast today, however do you manage?" Sunshine began laughing, as quietly and possible, and behind her hand.
"Umm, actually," Grace said, "I made the, uh, porridge." Sunshine stopped trying to hide it and began laughing out loud.
"Oh, my dear. I should have warned you not to take cooking lessons from Anders. Or is this a problem inherent with mages?" Duncan sighed dramatically. "And here I was hoping for a hearty breakfast to restore my depleted stores." Grace went from slightly pink to completely red, and glared at Sunshine with a look of, 'you did this'. "Now, now, don't scowl like it's all Sunshine's fault, I would like some credit."
What the hell, Grace thought. Am I dreaming? "What did they do last night? Aside from keeping us all up." At Alistair's choking noise she realized she said that last bit out loud. Grace wondered if she could make a big enough hole in the ground to swallow her up and was rather tempted to try it. Thankfully rescue came from an unlikely source, Sunshine.
"You know, this porridge is pretty good." Sunshine frowned, "well for porridge, which I think is kinda 'eh' to begin with. Unless it's Congee. Have you ever had Congee, Grace? It's good stuff. I really miss Chinese food, and East Indian food,...the list just keeps growing. What do you miss, sweetie?"
"Ice cream," came Grace's automatic reply. Sunshine grinned at her.
"You know Grace, I don't know how taxing it would be, but if we could find a butter churn, cream, sugar and flavoring we could make ice cream with the help of your magic."
Grace took a moment to glare at her father, 'see,' her look said, 'Sunshine isn't making a point of embarrassing me'. Duncan smiled serenely back, fully enjoying his daughter's chagrin.
"Wow, this is turning into some sort of strange Mexican Standoff. Duncan, let's eat some porridge. You can embarrass your daughter later with public displays of affection with me." Sunshine handed her bowl to Duncan and he sat down next to a completely pole-axed Danforth. Aedan, Anders, Danforth and Gavarth were exchanging looks and mimicking fish with their maws opening and closing at odd intervals. Why hadn't they thrown women at him before? Danforth and Gavarth then remembered the last time they did that, it went down as 'worse idea in Ferelden Grey Warden History'. "Speaking of being up all night," everyone's eyes snapped to Sunshine, "anyone want in on some coffee? I would just need some fresh boiled water..."
"Sunshine, I love you. There is no coffee here." Grace said, while dumping out Danforth's completely awful tea and putting in fresh water, she was too impatient to wait for it to boil and used her magic. Sunshine prepared mugs for herself, Grace and Duncan. Though Grace was still humiliated at the thought, and well noise, of her father's nighttime activities with Sunshine, she was warmed to see how Sunshine seemed to enjoy taking care of him.
"So, Grace, a little sweet and creamy? Like your men?" Grace nodded until Sunshine's words caught up with her. No one else got it, which was good for Sunshine because Duncan would have been grouchy at that one. Sunshine winked at Grace, and said, "I like mine strong, creamy and easy to swallow." Even though Sunshine was referring to her dad, Grace began to laugh. And just like that her discomfort, with everything, melted away. Must be Sunshine's Western American charm.
Sunshine handed Duncan a plain black cup of coffee and told him to try hers, which just had cream in it, and see if he wanted her to add cream or sugar. Sunshine had told him about coffee earlier, and how some people never took to the taste, but most people enjoyed the benefits of the caffeine. He watched as she fished out a small, metal case from her jacket, opened it up, and lit something that produced smoke and smelled slightly sweet. Grace looked up. "You smoke cigarettes?" She asked, more than a little surprised.
Sunshine looked at her, looked at her cigarette, looked back at her and then handed Grace the cigarette. "Yeah, it tastes good with the coffee. I also enjoy one after a night of completion." Grace surprised herself by accepting the cigarette and taking a drag. It reminded her of her music teacher, Miss Danforth, at school who she would hang out with and would smoke her teacher's cigarettes with her. She smiled at the memory of her, and just made the connection with Danforth and Danforth. Sounded a little like a law firm or detective agency. She noticed that the cigarettes didn't have filters, and took baby drags. Sunshine lit another cigarette and shared a wink with Grace.
Duncan looked at these two women and their little exchange, and was so gladdened. He knew his time was likely to be brief, he was going to take what he could get. He knew that Alistair, and, since he was feeling generous, Anders and Zevran would see to Grace. He knew too, that if Sunshine was able to stay she would take care of her too. He worried about Sunshine, mainly because he didn't want anyone else taking care of her the way he could. Maker, she was so caring, fun and sexy. He didn't want her to hurt, in anyway. He was wise enough to know ending things with her would hurt her worse than his death, he was selfishly glad he was old enough to know this.
Throughout the next hour they busied themselves with pulling down their tents and packing up. Had Duncan and Sunshine not fully applied themselves to helping break down camp their companions would have been envious of her tent. They still were, and of her bed, but they sucked it up because a happy Duncan was a force of nature. It was Leliana who wisely wondered what it would do to Duncan if something happened to Sunshine. Duncan was so sure it would be him that would die, but what if it was the other way? Leliana sensed that Sunshine felt like if she died helping them end the Blight it would be well worth it. She decided that she would have a private talk with Duncan about it, if anyone could prevent her from suicide by Darkspawn it was him. Not that she thought Sunshine was suicidal, just too impetuous.
They still had some distance between themselves and the Landsmeet. Which gave the party ample time to get to know their newer companions. It also gave Duncan a chance to try and apologize to Grace. It was a mutually awkward experience, and Grace wasn't sure what he was trying to say to her. It would be a number of months before she would fully realize what he had been trying to say. He walked with her near the back while Sunshine was far up front with Leliana, chatting about range weapons. He was glad, as he was certain that Sunshine would jump in and 'help' him out. He was half listening to Grace who was going on about ice cream, coffee and cigarettes. She was babbling due to nerves, she hadn't really had too much alone time with her father since that awful, fateful morning. He was trying to form the words, but they wouldn't come out right.
Finally he got out, "Grace I'm sorry for...," he gestured vaguely, "and, I want to work this out. Please." Grace was confused, what was he apologizing for? She wasn't clear. She bit her lower lip, worrying it, her father looked very flustered. Oh, he must be apologizing for last night and this morning. She patted his arm, a little crookedly.
"It's okay. I'm glad it happened," she told him. She was what? He got a little upset at that until she continued with, "she's really wonderful, isn't she? And we're going to make ice cream." She said, with a dreamy moan coming from her lips. Duncan realized she didn't hear part of his apology, or his apology was just that much of a joke that she didn't get it. He sighed.
"Grace, I'm just, well remember, later, that I apologized." He finally got out, there was no way he was going to go through it again, at least for ten more years.
Sunshine for her part was enjoying the Orlesian bard's company. Her accent was so much better in person than on the computer. Thankfully the Orlesians weren't wholly the over-exaggerated French they were in the game. Although if Earth's history was anything to go by it would be a while before the two countries settled down and built chunnels to each other in friendship. She took a moment to think how sad it was that every place she'd been to proved just as moronic about war as Earth. Leliana asked her some coy questions about Sunshine's night, thankfully being older than Leliana, and no angel, she was able to make Leliana blush with her responses. It took a while before Leliana realized she was being had, and admitted her defeat to the older woman.
"So," Leliana began, "our dear Duncan was in high spirits this morning."
"Was he? This is the first morning I've ever seen him. Tell me more about his usual morning spirits? Am I just another notch in his sword hilt?" Sunshine deadpanned.
"What? No, I mean, well he's usually more taciturn."
"Oh? How so?" Sunshine was enjoying this exchange.
"Well you know, telling jokes, teasing his daughter...Surely you were the cause of such things."
"I was? Please tell me how you know? I don't know him well enough to read him and I'm worried that maybe I was just convenient for him. You know, a warm body, a nice big bed. Huh, now that I think about it, it was probably the bed, the warm body was just the icing on that cake."
"What! No! Duncan isn't like that. He may be serious, but he is kind and fair."
"Huh, you're sure you aren't just saying this? To convince me to continue to share my bed with him? Wait, he set you up to say these things! I knew it. He says all the sweet warm stuff and has the women in the party act like he's all lonely and too serious so my matronly manner will melt."
"No! Sunshine, please believe in Duncan's sincerity, I never meant to imply that..." Leliana narrowed her eyes, "you're doing this on purpose! You mean woman! I was so worried that I ruined things."
Sunshine laughed, "Lel, sweet-pea, if you want the details, please just ask. If I'm uncomfortable with a question, I'll let you know."
Leliana looked around, ensuring they were out of earshot, "Okay so we heard the two of you, although not as clearly as I would have liked." This caused Sunshine to chuckle. "Is he in possession of a well-endowed member?"
Sunshine stared at Leliana, "huh, I took you more for a technique kind of girl."
Leliana actually blushed, "well technique is important but one needs to know what kind of instrument one is playing, no?"
"Leliana, I have a feeling that Duncan is a private man. Now I would normally love to dish, but it's too new for me. And I'm hesitant to devalue my time with him by talking about it. If it makes you feel better though know that any noise you heard was genuine."
This wasn't how Leliana was expecting the conversation to go, but was inwardly pleased with it. Sunshine was worthy of their Duncan, at least for now. She was suspicious, although she knew that had more to do with her than with Sunshine. She also had to admit it was because of Grace's revelations earlier in the day, when Grace frightened them all by saying that Sunshine could have easily killed all of them. And she was smart enough to know who to take out first. When queried why she wasn't afraid of Sunshine, and was just now telling everyone, while Duncan and Sunshine went to rinse the pots and dishes in the river, of her killing skills. Grace had merely shrugged and said she trusted Sunshine with her life, given her trust of Zevran they accepted it. Grace was artless in the ways of politics, but Sunshine, she was mature in the way of things. If Leliana, herself, had easily fooled...she stopped that thought.
Sunshine noticed Leliana grow more somber, and touched her elbow. "Do you want to talk about it?" Leliana shrugged and shook her head slightly. "Well, I'm here if you do. I know you're distrustful because I'm older and more experienced, but that means I have a lot of wisdom. Well, that's at least what I tell myself the crow feet mean." That got a small smile out of Leliana. "I want to sing you a song, it was popularized by Edith Piaf, from my home."
Non, rien de rien
No, nothing of nothing
Non, je ne regrette rien
No! I don't feel sorry about anything
Ni le bien qu'on m'a fait
Not the good things people have done to me
Ni le mal; tout ça m'est bien égal !
Not the bad things, it's all the same to me.
Non, rien de rien
No, nothing of nothing
Non, je ne regrette rien
No! I don't feel sorry about anything
C'est payé, balayé, oublié
It's paid for, removed, forgotten,
Je me fous du passé !
I'm happy of the past
Avec mes souvenirs
With my memories
J'ai allumé le feu
I lit up the fire
Mes chagrins, mes plaisirs
My troubles, my pleasures
Je n'ai plus besoin d'eux !
I don't need them anymore
Balayées les amours
Broomed away my love stories
Et tous leurs trémolos
And all their tremble
Balayés pour toujours
Broomed away for always
Je repars à zéro
I start again from zero
Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien qu'on m'a fait
Ni le mal; tout ça m'est bien égal !
Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Car ma vie, car mes joies
Because my life, my joys
Aujourd'hui, ça commence avec toi
Today, they begin with you.
The members of the party that understood Orlesian, aside from Leliana, were quietly translating the lyrics for everyone else. Grace realized that it was the tune she heard from Sunshine while she was pampering her. It made the moment more significant. She looked at her father as he translated the words to her, there was a look in his eyes. She thought he understood why and what Sunshine was singing the best of all of them. He looked torn between happy and sad at the words. "No, I regret nothing," he whispered as the song finished. Leliana quietly thanked her once she had finished, wiping away her tears.
Gavarth commented, quietly to Danforth, that if the Blight gave them such great women, it was all worth it. It did make everyone, save father and daughter, wonder if Sunshine was an American, wherever that placed her, bard. Sunshine would have laughed at the idea if she knew of it. The erstwhile professor playing at singing rogue.
The Wardens had collectively moved back to discuss how to deal with potential scenarios that may arise during the Landsmeet. They all agreed that they had to prioritize based on different outcomes based on likelihood of different events occurring. Alistair was a little withdrawn with inner sorrow at the loss of his family and close friends to deceit. He had a feeling that it all came back to Anora and her hunger for power. Duncan was the first to begin to feel the taint of Darkspawn on his periphery and looked up to notice that Sunshine had already rounded the bend and was nowhere in sight. The other four non-Wardens, including Grace, were chatting amicably just a little ahead of him. How long had it been since he had seen her? How far ahead of him had she gotten. He began to panic. What if? He quietly called for everyone to regroup and asked how far ahead Sunshine was. Leliana frowned, just now realizing she wasn't with the group. She began to feel her suspicions rise to the surface when Danforth looked up and said, "Darkspawn."
Duncan's heart began to seize in his chest from panic and he began running. Before he could clear the bend he heard an enormous amount of roaring and his panic increased. He knew her guns were dangerous, but the Darkspawn would keep coming at her, even through the bullets she would be firing. Grace and Leliana overtook him as they were less encumbered by armor and saw her first. Grace automatically began setting up protection spells around Sunshine and Leliana began taking out the Darkspawn in the back with her bow and arrows. Duncan let out a battle-cry that Oghren was proud of and began heading into the fray. Sunshine could sense her companions and she grabbed her rifle and began using it to hit the Darkspawn and then she would shoot them, when possible with the gun. Once her gun was emptied she had to switch to pure hand to hand, which wasn't very good as many of the Darkspawn actually held weapons. Sharp, pointy, metal weapons. There was nothing for it, she grabbed a discarded staff and began using it to knock down Darkspawn and disarm them when possible. It was an all out battle and Sunshine was desperately trying to find a break so she could safely use her rifle. Using her big guns now would take care of the Darkspawn but probably some of her friends too. She felt a stinging in her left shoulder and felt herself getting weak from poison.
"Fuck!" She yelled as she reached over her shoulder and yanked it out. Anders stared at her actions, stunned that she would pull it out herself and at such a bad angle. The wound began to bleed copiously and he began to cast a healing spell to help stop the flow of her blood. It became evident that the barbs on the arrow had caused a bit of damage and the wound was fairly severe. Anders was drained and his spell wasn't going to do much to help her. He saw her stiffen as it washed through causing slight shudder. Shit! He thought, seeing her uncommon reaction, realizing that the arrows must be poisonous. He shouted to Grace, trying to get her attention. Why didn't anyone else notice? He finally yelled Sunshine's name and Duncan and Grace both went to look for her.
Duncan and Grace both gave out a battle cry, the unity of it stilling most of the battlefield. The only sound as it was dying down seemed to be Sunshine's progressively ragged breath. She used the distraction to pick up a sword and hack, inexpertly but sufficiently, at the distracted Darkspawn. Grace, riding the high of the battle cry, ran to Sunshine's side, spreading out her magic. So focused on reaching Sunshine she took no notice of her magic curling out into the Darkspawn, causing them to fold into themselves and collapse, as it radiated out from her. Duncan began throwing Darkspawn from his path until he reached Sunshine, five heartbeats after Grace. He met his daughters eyes, and something flared between them. Grace pulsed her magic into Sunshine as she was dramatically collapsing into Duncan's arms. If everyone wasn't so wrapped up in the heat of magic and battle they would have admired the poetry between Grace and Duncan at that moment. It was epic. And mostly unnoticed, as whatever Grace had done to the Darkspawn was in a small enough radius that only the tormented Darkspawn seemed to fully notice, albeit briefly. The last thing Sunshine really thought about, as she faded to black, was her distraught angry lover and his equally distraught angry daughter, I'm so fucked, was her last coherent thought.
Sunshine would have been grateful that she was unconscious if she hadn't been, well, unconscious. The rest of the party had decimated the rest of the Darkspawn rather quickly. All and all the battle hadn't taken very long, as battle in a great wide open space between two small groups seem to go rather fast. They collected Sunshine's belongings and Duncan walked with her in his arms, only speaking to bark out directions. He covered enough distance that he felt safe setting up camp. He handed Sunshine to Danforth, with a look that spoke of murder should she be dropped. He rummaged through her satchel throwing out strange objects while looking for her tent. Growling at the sheer volume of crap she had. "Women!" He finally found the bag with the tent, tore it open, and threw it in the air. I'mnotsaying 'Alakazam' soyoubetterjustfuckingopenonyourown, he thought at it. The tent wisely obeyed. He gently took her from Danforth and gave him a look that said, clearly, 'open the fucking tent'. He went in and gently laid her on the bed.
He gave a frustrated cry as he was trying to remove her odd clothing, and began getting rough, Grace stilled him as soon as she came in. She gave quiet directions as she helped undress her. Anders had Zevran came in to discuss the poison that was used. Duncan wanted to snarl at everyone, he wanted to hide her body from their eyes. He wanted to shelter her, he wanted her to wake up so he could throttle her. He wanted her eyes to open and laugh at him. Not this pale face and shallow breathing. He began praying to Andraste and the Maker as he watched the three others work on Sunshine. Leliana coming and going with various supplies that were called out. He gave up on Andraste and the Maker realizing that Sunshine only said, 'God', and started to ask her God to help. These women were going to drive him to religious zealotry at this rate. He had a moment of imagining himself with altars set up to every religion there was, tithing all of his pay, just to make sure his ladies were safe. He didn't realize he was pacing and snarling like a deranged creature, and would never admit such a thing was possible, if the rest of the group hadn't come in and bodily removed him for distracting the healers.
Zevran studied a poisoned barb that had been collected and began working with Leliana on an antidote. Anders was showing Grace the wound and exclaiming how it was the damndest thing he saw, and bemoaned that she had removed it herself. "It was a good thing she did," Zevran said, "otherwise she'd be dead. This is a very complex poison, it is strange that they were using it." Grace gently prodded around the wound with both her fingers and magic, trying to determine how to draw it out of her. The poison fought harder than the taint, which was pissing her off. She hated how still Sunshine was. There was something about Sunshine that resonated with everyone, for in a little over a full day they all felt close to her. She was a companion, someone you would die for. It helped that her and her father were already falling in love with her. Grace was drawn back in at the sound of Anders voice.
"I wonder if she realized it was poisoned, and that's why she pulled it out...and she just kept on fighting." His voice sounded in awe. Grace was bemused to see Anders acting so strangely, and she looked up at him, a question in her eyes. "I saw her pull it out, it was scary how quickly it bled, and her body seemed to reject my magic." He paused, "is it accepting yours?"
"I'm not sure, something is really fighting my magic in her." She bit her lower lip, thinking. "Zev, is this how this poison works?"
"No," Zevran said, "it should just immobilize her and then shut down her vital organs." Grace thought about that and decided to change tactics. She thought about what little she knew of Earth medicine and tried to reach in with her magic and imagined that it was an antidote. She could feel the tug of it almost reaching and healing Sunshine. In a moment of inspiration she grabbed the mortar and pestle from Zevran and reached her hand in, trying to use magic to transfuse the partially made antidote into her. She sighed with relief when she felt Sunshine respond to the magic and her breathing became easier. Leliana, Zevran and Anders stared at her and then shook their heads.
"I think you deserve an award for the Most Creative Use of Magic," Anders said. He examined Sunshine, and helped show Grace how to close the wound up. It would probably scar and it might take awhile for her to rebuild her blood supply but he was pretty sure she was out of the woods. He was happy that she showed some response now to his magic, but not as much as she should have. He needed to ask her about that at some point. "I think this is all we can do for now, we should clean up and go rest."
After they made Sunshine presentable and had cleaned up the bed they had Leliana go and retrieve Duncan. As soon as Duncan was able to enter the tent the men outside let out a very relieved breath and set up camp. Duncan went straight to her, his eyes meeting Grace and Anders, in turn. "Please say she'll be okay."
Grace nodded and he hugged both her and Anders in thanks, they left him alone with Sunshine. He sat gently on the bed, holding her hand, staring at her face which seemed so peaceful. He was a wreck. He had many hours to think while watching over her. He thought about his life before her, before Grace. It had been simple. It had been empty. He loved his Warden Brothers, but there was something of these women they kept picking up. Especially Grace and Sunshine. They were fireballs. Thunderstorms. Maker damned Hurricanes. He ached for them, he loved them. He knew he would be frequently frustrated by them, and even at times angry. But more than that he would always love them. Ah! He thought. So quickly then, is my love for Sunshine.
At some point during his vigil, Anders and Grace came in to examine her wound. He saw it for the first time and anger flared anew in him. Why? He inwardly raged at himself and at her. It was brutal. He learned that she had pulled it out herself which is why it looked so awful. Having had barbed arrows removed himself Duncan shuddered in sympathy. Grace patted him awkwardly on the shoulder and told him Sunshine would be fine. After a few more hours Danforth and Gavarth dragged him out, stating he needed to eat. Neither Grace nor Anders thought she'd be awake for some time, and he wanted to be healthy for her when she came 'round the bend, as Danforth put it. Duncan relented and left to go to the campfire. And so of course Sunshine took this inopportune time to awaken. She had good timing like that.
Sunshine felt like a heated ton of shit. Her shoulder ached from the arrow and the rest of her ached from the strange magic that had been funneled through her. She found her toilet and puked. She was slightly delirious and felt like she had to find Duncan, now. She noted she was naked and found a black slip to put on. If she had any ability to think she would have vetoed the choice, but thinking was beyond her limited range of capacity at the moment, and she wobbled out of the tent looking like a drunken whore.
Alistair was the first to see her and being a man thought, "her tits are huge!" And then felt completely embarrassed by the thought. Oghren was dumb enough to follow Alistair's eyes and said, "by the Stone! They're fucking huge!" Everyone looked up in alarm worried that there might be some giant, quiet monster lurking and realized that Oghren was staring at Sunshine who was holding on to a pole of her tent for dear life. They looked to her, and back to Oghren, and then Gavarth promptly punched him out. Duncan strode up to Sunshine and grabbed her.
"What are you doing?" He ground out. Sunshine blinked at him, still very confused.
"I was cold?"
Thankfully Duncan was able to rein in his temper, although he would probably kill Oghren if he said a single word for the next year. "Come," he said, picking her up. And carrying her gently back into the tent.
"She has poor timing," Aedan noted. Everyone agreed, Oghren stayed down and Alistair thanked the Maker that he hadn't actually said anything about her breasts out loud.
Duncan laid her down and began covering her up, wondering how she managed to get dressed. He would have been surprised to know that Sunshine was thinking the same thing. She looked up at him, staring, eyes half-glazed. "Duncan," she said. He waited for her to continue. And waited.
"Do you need something?" Duncan prodded.
"Duncan, I think I love you," she then rolled her eyes back into her head and passed out. Duncan sighed. but smiled all the same. Duncan got up, removed his armor, realizing that Sunshine had buckled one of the straps oddly and he had to wrestle with it a bit. He decided to explore the rest of her tent, especially the back area where none of them had wandered aside from Sunshine. He felt slightly guilty but remembered she kept referring to it as theirs. Maker! This tent was huge. He found a door, an actual door. and he went to open it. As his eyes took in what was clearly some sort of bathing room he wondered why she would bother with the hot spring. Maybe there was no running water? He messed around with the taps and found that they produced both hot and cold water, somehow. He looked at all the toiletries around the sink and was baffled by almost all of them. She also had a commode with water in it, how strange. He saw a handle and messed with it, startling himself as the water began to swirl down. He wondered where it went, and then decided it was best not to know. He was out of his depth. He hurried out of the tent and called for Grace.
Grace came running, worried about Sunshine. When she saw that Sunshine was sleeping peacefully she looked at her father. He took her hand and led her to the bathroom, it was long going because Sunshine had a ton of clothes and shoes, Grace was gawking. True surprise was awaiting her when Duncan opened the door. Grace looked in and then squealed in true happiness, then shooed her dismayed father out and she closed the door and locked it. She would have to yell at Sunshine about keeping this a secret llater. Toilet paper, she had toilet paper! Thank You! No wonder they didn't find any evidence of a latrine at the previous campsite of Sunshine's, she wouldn't have needed one. Grace took her time.
"Well?" Duncan asked when Grace emerged. "What is everything?"
"Heaven," came her reply. "I think I'm going to move in, you can share a tent with Alistair. Oh, I suppose you still have your own tent, well then, it's settled. Happy tenting, Duncan! Is her bed as comfortable as it looks?" She laughed at her father's expression, and it softened as he realized she was joking. "She's one smart woman, asking for a tent with a bathroom. I wonder where she really got it?"
Suddenly everything overwhelmed him, instead of his life flashing before his eyes, it was Grace and Sunshine's brushes with death. He couldn't even contemplate being rational, if he could have he wouldn't have said what he was about to, as it started a series of words between him and Grace that would set their relationship back. "How can you be so glib? She's laying in bed, half way to dead, and you stand here and joke! She ran headlong into a battle with Darkspawn, Grace! She had no armor, no defenses, she didn't even yell for us!" Duncan's voice began hard and ended up up yelling. Grace went from startled to angry, and she snapped.
"Don't you dare! Don't you fucking dare blame her!" Grace shouted back at him. "Did you even see her, she had to - "
"What? Of course I saw her, she hurled herself into a group of enemies, like she was playing at soldier! She was surrounded, Grace!"
"Yeah, and did you see how she had to change her tactics when you ran into the fucking fray! I'm no gun expert but I'm pretty sure that using your rifle, that is fully loaded, as a mace is pretty much plan zed! She was trying to protect us! She -"
"Don't give me that bullshit! We're all well armed and battle seasoned."
"And how would she know that? She's never seen any of us in action."
There was another downside to their yelling, it woke Sunshine up. She stumbled out of bed and made her way to the back, to where she was hearing some commotion going on. She was uneasy on her feet and grabbed Grace's arm for balance. "What's wrong?"
"What's wrong," Duncan spat. "You ran into a group of Darkspawn, for Maker's sake! You didn't call us, alert us, nothing. You just ran in like a green boy searching for battle glory!" He had his fists clenched and took a step toward her, his fear for her showing as anger.
"Don't you dare hit her!" Grace warned as she stepped in front of Sunshine. There was a full sixty seconds of shocked tension. Sunshine realized that there was something deeper going on with Grace. She noted that Grace's body was trembling with fear and rage, which was causing her magic to begin to glow around her. She instinctively wrapped her arms around Grace and pressed her face at the top of her head.
"Grace, love, love, love. Your dad isn't going to hit me, I promise. Shhh, sweetie. He's just scared for us. Please honey, please." Sunshine voice soothed Grace's frayed nerves. She felt Sunshine humming, 'You Are My Sunshine', which would have sounded ironic had Grace not been so frazzled. Duncan didn't understand Grace's reaction, but it concerned him. Why did she think he would hit Sunshine?
"Grace, I'm sorry, " he began. "I would never hit Sunshine...or you. Please, I'm just a frightened old man." He sounded old right then. Grace nodded stiffly, wiped angry tears from her face, and turned her body so she could hug Sunshine and still give her father the evil eye.
"You better not," Grace warned. She kissed Sunshine on the cheek, and glared at Duncan. "If I so much as hear anything a little off..." She said before releasing Sunshine and striding, head high, out of the tent. She kept going until she reached Alistair, Anders and Zevran and collapsed into a melted mess in their arms. They held her while she cried, she refused to tell them about it.
Duncan stared down at the ground, feeling awful with himself, how did it end up like this? He was so upset with himself he was startled when he felt Sunshine wrap her arms around him and she began to presses kisses on his face and neck. He held her tight, his arms wrapping around him. "I'm so sorry, Sunshine," his voice full of emotion. "I can't lose you, I don't know why, but I think it would rip me apart. Please don't do that again." He lifted her up and carried her back to their bed and lay down with her, noticing that her eyes were leaking tears. He felt like such a cad. "Sunshine, please believe me, I won't hurt you, I won't raise a hand to you." He wrapped himself around her.
"I know," she whispered. "I didn't mean to worry you, I just thought that I could get them close enough to use Big Mama on them. I didn't think about how ya'll would fight. I forget that you don't know to stand clear of my blast range. I wouldn't have fought like that otherwise." There was a lull in their conversation as Duncan thought about what she was saying. She interrupted his thoughts, "Duncan? Those were Darkspawn?" At his nod she continued, "they smelled awful, I don't know why you need Wardens, you can smell them coming."
"Well our range, as a Warden, in sensing the Darkspawn is slightly better than a mabari's. It's probably why they haven't replaced us with them, yet." After a pause, "you're abysmal with a sword. Although the staff wasn't half bad..."
"What! I am a thing of glory with a staff in my hand! And, I might add, I was able to kill some of them with the sword."
Duncan chuckled, "you looked like a manic castle chef with the sword. If I hadn't been so worried I would have laughed right then." He looked at her, relieved that she was smiling and showing more color in her face. He bent down and kissed her open mouthed. Leaving her a little breathless. "Sunshine, please never come out of the tent dressed in this little chemise of yours." He said while trailing a finger from her face down to her breasts. They were wonderfully large he thought to himself, and was satisfied to notice her breath hitch and her nipples harden. He became serious once again, "do you remember what you said earlier?"
"Maybe?" She wracked her brain, what did I say, she thought. "Umm, what exactly are you referring to?"
"When you...," he trailed off, his breath hitching. He took a deep breath, "when you said you, uh, loved, uh, me."
She looked confused, "I said that?" His face fell and he began pulling away. She grabbed him back and forced his face up so their eyes would meet. "Duncan, I do love you. It's like there is this rush of feeling and emotion when I'm with you. I'm just sad that I don't remember the first time I told you. And I would have waited until I thought you were ready to hear it. Does it bother you? That I feel this way?" It was now her turn to look nervous. She didn't have the patience to lie to him or to herself, life was too short.
He looked at her seriously, kissed her, "Thank the Maker! I was so afraid...afraid that you didn't mean it, that it was just something you were saying while delirious. I love you too. I know it's ridiculous of us, but it feels so right. Maker, I don't want anything to happen to you." They kissed some more then, Duncan careful not to exacerbate her wound and they both fell asleep.
Outside Gavarth set up double watch shifts, making Ogrhren do his in the middle of the night. He pulled Oghren aside, and was happy that neither Grace nor Anders decided to heal his shiner. "Listen up, you nearly useless nug humper! You ever so much as look anywhere but her face and I'll gouge out your left eye and feed it to a deepstalker. Are we clear?"
"Yeah, we're sodding clear," Oghren grumbled. Mad at himself, not because he didn't like the view of Sunshine's tits, but because everyone was mad at him, especially Grace. Why wasn't she mad at Alistair too? He had just enough brain cells left after Gavarth's punch to know better than to point out Alistair's stare to Grace, although it did give him some leverage. He contented himself with planning revenge while he went to go sleep.
Grace went to go check on Sunshine and smiled at the sight of her father cuddling up to her, both deeply asleep. She wanted to apologize to her dad, her real dad, for the way she acted, but couldn't face the questions he would have. She decided to leave the wound check for later and made use of the toilet paper, she knew Sunshine wouldn't mind. She went off to sleep and Alistair took her mind off of her worry in a most delicious way.
The next morning Sunshine declared she was well enough to travel, but no one would hear of it. She spent the day doing light jobs around, trying to keep herself busy. She couldn't even get Duncan to make love to her, she was pretty frustrated. On the up side she was able to show Duncan the joys of the bathroom, and of a shower. In fact, everyone, much to her amusement, had to try that one out. There was a lot of wonderment at toilet paper and it's wonderfully soft uses. Leliana declared that it was such an improvement on leaves.
By mid-morning Sunshine knew she was going to go crazy with pent up energy if she didn't do something more useful than point at things in her tent and tell everyone of their uses. She was beginning to feel like a museum docent. An idea did hit her then, and she shooed everyone, including Duncan, out of the tent. Making it clear that they could come in only after two hours if she hadn't emerged yet herself. Duncan grumbled and groused but let her have her way and wandered the perimeter of the camp with Anders, helping him look for useful ingredients for potions. It was nice to do something simple with Anders again. They talked about nothing in particular and Duncan was warming back up to the younger man.
While in her tent Sunshine decided to try something she had never done before. She sat on the floor near the entrance to the tent and closed her eyes. She relaxed her breathing and focused herself on how much area the tent had and how much further she could expand it. She wanted to double it in size, at the least, and much more if possible. She felt the boundaries flex and stretch as they strove to follow her command. It took awhile but the boundaries gave and she was relieved that her space got close to tripling. She was sweaty and sore, but determined to finish.
Without opening her eyes she began to create a hallway with a bathroom, a dining area with a kitchen, and two suites of bedrooms, each with their own bathroom. She furnished everything and then reassessed the remainder of her space. She decided to bring her library from her clan house and add a guest room with two large beds. She wanted to make sure everything was perfect and decided she wanted windows, and added them. She held her breath then and released her magic. She kept her eyes closed as warmth spread out from her and spread to her tent. Everyone else was startled by a loud snapping noise, quickly followed by a rush of warm air. They looked to Sunshine's tent and noticed that it was bathed in a warm, golden glow. As it dissipated the tent had changed in appearance and was now red and made from a different fabric. Grace looked in awe and imagined that it looked like something from Arabian Nights.
Duncan and Anders hurried back and got there just in time to see a tired looking Sunshine standing outside the tent with a pleased smile on her face. She saw Duncan and ran to him, jumping into his arms, "look what I did!" Sounding much like an exuberant child. She grabbed him, "come on ya'll let me show you." In a daze everyone followed her as she walked the perimeter of the tent. "Look, Duncan, this is our private entrance, it will only open to us." She walked to the opposite side and showed Grace and Alistair another entrance, "this one's for you two." She winked at Grace. She then went back to the main entrance and showed everyone in. She pointed out the bathroom that they could all use, the dining area and the kitchen, which was modernly constructed and stocked. "And now for the best part!" She led them to the end of the hallway and opened the door with a flourish, "may I present my pride and joy? The Library!"
Everyone wandered in and was gawking, she had so many books and charts and knick-knacks. It was overwhelming, it was huge. Sunshine herself didn't realize how significant of a move it was to bring a part of her clan home to Thedas, but it was noted by her clan members. She took Grace's hand and led her to the inside entrance to Grace's room. She opened up the door and Grace gasped, "it's perfect," she said, in awe. She flitted about the room opening up the closet and sighing with pleasure at the bathroom. "My own bathroom, my very own bathroom." The two women wandered around the room, Sunshine thrilled at Grace's joy.
In the library Anders looked at it all and wondered, out loud, how Sunshine had done all this. Duncan was wondering that too. Anders made a decision and strode out to find Sunshine. He saw the two women traipsing about Grace and Alistair's room, he noticed that there was a very large bed, and he smiled a little. He then got serious once again and called out to Sunshine, she looked up smiling, noticed his serious expression and went up to him. "What's up?" Grace noticed Anders and Sunshine and was about to join the conversation but was stopped by Anders.
"Sunshine, I need to talk with you privately." Sunshine sighed and nodded and led him to the guest room, locking the door behind her. She looked at him, expectantly. "What are you?" Not the best choice of words to use, but he couldn't think of any better ones at the moment. Sunshine regarded him, as if weighing out his measure.
"Anders, I will tell you only if you allow me to bind you in silence."
"What! How would you do that? Tell me this isn't blood magic!"
"By your oath. And no, I'm literally incapable of what you refer to as 'Blood Magic'. So, do you want to know or do you want to leave?"
He paused considering her words. He had a feeling that he needed to know. "I give you my oath that I will not speak of this conversation without your express permission."
"Good enough," Sunshine said, accepting his oath. "I'm going to give you the quick version, as we don't have time for a lengthy discussion. But when you have questions, and we're in private, I will answer them. I'm originally from a world similar, in most ways, to Grace's. Although not completely, I think. I entered the Dreamspace one night. It was amazing, it was confusing, it was beautiful. I met many people but I really bonded with a specific clan. We are called Sun Dragons and are the only Dragons that embody the Wild Magic. Here, in this world, the Wild Magic has been stifled in many ways. Mainly due to the over abundance of the Arcane Magic. That's the kind that you and Grace have. It's why I go by 'Sunshine', the 'Jack' is a different story. And yes, in theory, it is possible for me to change form. However I'm constrained by the lack of the Wild Magic here, and am unable to make the necessary bond. I could force it, but it would greatly upset the balance of the Arcane Magic and I'm afraid of how it would backlash."
"Uh," came Anders' reply. This wasn't what he had been expecting, he didn't know what he was expecting, but was sure it wasn't this. "Uh, okay, uh...so is this why you feel different when I try and heal you?"
"Yeah, what you were doing was forcing your magic on me - not in a bad way. You have to coerce your magic into me for my body and my magic to accept it. But it has to be more like coaxing a child and less like manipulating an adult, does that make sense?"
"I think so," he said while watching Sunshine go unlock the door. Marking the end of their conversation. She walked out and announced loudly:
:"And I'm going to let Danforth and Gavarth use this room." Her timing excellent as Duncan was just leaving the library to search for her. She winked at Anders out of sight of her lover and grabbed Duncan's hand, "let me show you our room. Everyone is free to wander about and investigate all the other rooms," she said to anyone within earshot. Duncan went into their room and noted with pleasure that is was more of a blend of masculine and feminine than her personal space had previously been. He watched her shut and lock the door, "now let's get all that awful metal off of you." Duncan happily complied, and let her convince him that she was healed enough for long, gentle love making.