Disclaimer: I own nothing but a copy of this freaking awesome game and the laptop I used to write this.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Alex asked for the tenth time since they returned to the security of Lothering's Chantry walls. The Chantry was filled with women, children along with men injured or too weak to aid the soldiers in the upcoming battle. Leliana rolled her eyes yet again at the persistent Grey Warden who refused to take off the sunglasses and helmet in the Holy building; however, she could make out a deadly scar beneath the protective headgear. Leaning forward, Leliana attempted to look at the Warden's name but the awkward kneeling position they were in obstructed her view, causing further frustration as she fell back against the cot.
"The answer is still the same sir," she replied in a tone suggesting that the Warden's care was annoying and unnecessary considering he – or she, Leliana could not tell and the voice could pass for either gender – just met her naught but twenty minutes ago. She knew what the Warden was trying to get at, he wanted to show that he truly cared for her, get a kiss then use some more choice words to win her into bed and once the fun was done he'd up and walk out without so much as a backward glance. She needed to distract him: "you on the other hand have been wounded!" she said feigning concern nodding towards the blood on her rescuers bicep. The clothing turned a deep crimson making the injury look far more fatal than the soldier claimed it actually was. The Warden gave an indifferent shrug and Leliana confirmed that they must have been in fact male - due to the lack of concern for bodily harm that most men possessed.
The scowl on his face turned to a smirk as he glanced at it brushing her concern off as if he could care less about his well-being. "It's only a flesh wound, Leli," the smirk growing more as he studied her reaction. Upon hearing her nickname roll easily off the stranger's tongue, she froze and stared wide-eyed at the eyes concealed by the dark sunglasses. She had not said her name once, nor had any identification on her person when they met. How could a complete and total stranger who just saved her life know who she was? Panic rose in her chest: did the Orlesian secret service tell the Fereldans to look for her? Was her Haven going to become her Hell? She tried to speak but the effects of shock had yet to disappear and she felt foolish opening and closing her mouth without sound coming from her.
"H-how?" she finally managed, her voice sounding foreign in her own ears.
The Warden tossed his head back and let out a laugh too merry for the situation at hand. Oops never mind the Warden is a woman Leliana noted, the musical laugh confirming the true gender of the Warden. A gloved hand went to unstrap the helmet while the other removed the dark shades. Once the identity blockers were removed, Leliana stared into the piercing blue eyes of Alex Cousland. Disbelief returned to the Orlesian's face as she stared at her ex-girlfriend for the first time in nine years. "Hey," Alex offered weakly a smile slowly spreading over her face. At a loss for words once again, Leliana lifted her hand to trace the nasty scar which started in the middle of Alex's forehead and trailed down across the right eye and ended slightly past the earlobe on her neck. Aside from the heavy scar running across the once flawless skin, Alex looked exactly the same with the exception of shorter hair making her look like a young man rather than the mature woman she became over the grueling years of service in the order. Haircuts were mandatory and part of the Grey Warden uniform for both men and women. Men had to have a close buzz cut while the women were required to have a short-boyish hairstyle.
A myriad of emotions bombarded Leliana as she stared in to those hypnotic eyes; confusion held her first then joy spread across the pale features, then relief to sorrow and finally anger. Anger in that in the years after their relationship ended, not one letter, phone call, e-mail or text message was sent to her; there was no word from Alex, her brother, parents or anyone else saying that she was officially a Grey Warden or died some horrible death. Closing her eyes, the red head waited until she was calm before addressing her high school sweethear. As much as she wanted to scream, hit and curse the youngest Cousland, hatred was the last thing needed in such a dire situation. Bottling up her angry emotions, Leliana opened her eyes, letting the tears of joy and frustration fall; gently Alex pulled her into an embrace, the body armor was uncomfortable to be pressed against but she didn't mind, for the first in nearly a decade she felt safe pressed against the unyielding hardness ballistic vest.
"I'm sorry," Alex whispered into her ear, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. It killed me, not being able to tell you. I'm sorry," the words spilt from the Warden as she continued to repeat them whilst running her fingers through Leliana's soft hair.
Once the tears subsided, Leliana leaned back and offered her savior a small broken smile. Using her thumbs to wipe away the last of the tears, Alex spoke up, "I have a couple of hours before I go on watch. We have a lot of catching up to do. And besides, I need this looked at," she nodded towards her bloody arm.
"Why is there always a pretty girl involved when you come to me injured?" Wynne lectured as she wrapped another layer of gauze around Alex's arm, which turned out to be worse than she originally anticipated. Leliana arched an eyebrow at the comment as deep blush spread across Alex's face as she gave an awkward cough to break some of the tension.
"You know I'm a sucker for a beautiful face," she replied after gaining some composure from the senior nurse's observant comment before wincing when the nurse tightened the bandage, "Anyways; Leliana this is Wynne – she's saved my ass and patched me up more times than I can count. Wynne, Leliana. And before you assume she's another pretty face I carelessly threw my body out to save, I'll have you know that I knew her prior to today's events," the old smug Alex Cousland was starting to resurface as she continued to mock Wynne, not that Leliana minded, she missed the person she dated for a year and a half, the macho Warden façade was too serious for the flirty jokester Alex was in previous years.
Rolling her eyes the old nurse exchanged greetings with her patient's friend be for leaving the two alone with explicit instructions that Alex leave the bandage on for three hours.
"How hot was she then?" startled by the blunt question Alex stared confused at the Orlesian.
"By the sounds of it, your acts of bravery occur only when beautiful women are involved. You always were such a charmer, and I'm sure risking life and limb must've earned you some company for a night or two. And if what Wynne said is true, your fair lady must have been gorgeous if it resulted in such a fatal scar."
"Oh..." Alex fell silent for several moments before bringing a hand up to trace her identity marker, the rough, raised skin bringing back memories she'd rather forget. The Warden's silence and the darkening of her eyes made Leliana think that she had treaded into unsavory waters, causing emotional pain to accompany Alex's wounded arm. "I'm sorry, that was rude of me," she blurted out taking the silence as one of a painful memory or shame.
"Nah it's cool. I got it when I was deployed in Antiva. Our team was sent in for a bust and to take out one of the Antiva Crow Lords. Why they needed six Ferelden Grey Wardens is beyond me, we're not really used for international missions so the mission seemed weird but we don't question our orders. Anyways, the area we went to was horrible, prostitutes everywhere, people high off their asses, and even corpses littered the streets. The whole timed we were on our toes and remained highly alert. We encountered a few drug deals and arrested two men – even though that's the police's job – but they're too corrupt to do their job, in that part of Antiva anyways. Our intelligence told us of a warehouse where the Lord was going to be overseeing a huge drug deal that was to transpire. When we finally got there, set up a perimeter and bust through it was empty, no furniture and certainly no Crows. As we left I took front lead and guided us out.
"As soon as we stepped out of the warehouse we were attacked. I was tackled by an insurgent who had a knife and somehow managed to slice through my helmet strap and knock it off my head. I dropped my M4 Colt and reached for my knife instead. I managed to throw him off of me and get up, but he was fast and before I could react he lunged at me and felt the sharp sting as the blade was dragged across my face. Blood was gushing out and I couldn't see very well. If it weren't for the others with me I'd definitely be dead. They arrested my assailant to question him. Once I got the blood out of my eyes I got a good look at the man and who was it? Zevran Arainai…he was as shocked to see me as I him, and truly regretted disfiguring me. The price for wounding a wearer of the Grey is death. But I cut a deal with him," Alex quickly added hearing Leliana's gasp and Alex assumed that the red head thought that their old friend was executed.
"He'd have to aid us in catching the Crow Lord we were after and once the mission was complete he would then go with us back to Ferelden and serve in the military as long as I remained with Wardens. And that Leli is how I got this scar. As you can tell no pretty girls involved."
"Wow that's quite a story, well if it means anything I think it looks sexy," Leliana stated knowing that it fed Alex's ego, but even she couldn't deny the fact that scars were a huge turn on for her. Feeling a bit bold and brash she placed a quick peck on Alex's scarred cheek before turning serious and asking the question that was in the back of her mind, "that one may not have been caused by a girl but Wynne made it seem like your other injures were?"
"Yes, I have been injured multiple times because I had to be the dashing knight in shining armor. Sometimes it was without thought and I wanted to save her. Others, it was a planned out mission and I got hurt in the process. Some rewarded me with a kiss or a little something extra. And before you ask yes, they were aware that I was a woman, well those who wanted more. But of all the women I have rescued I can honestly say that you, Leliana, are the most beautiful of them all," she finished with a wink and her trade mark smirk enjoying the Orlesian's blush of embarrassment, or what she thought was embarrassment.
The red spreading across Leliana's face was that of anger, how dare Alex try to pull those moves on her! The Warden thought her smooth words and clear blue eyes along with that killer smirk could win her some action for the night but Leliana have some choice words for her ex.
"Flattery will get you absolutely nowhere. I am furious at you for disappearing without a trace for years! And then you pop up out of nowhere with your shinny gun and swoop down and save me! I thought you were dead Alex! I forced myself to move on and forget about you! You broke my heart! You have no clue with what I've been through and who knows maybe if you kept in touch with me none of this would have happened! Those bimbos you saved and seduced with your 'Warden charms' or whatever will not work on me. I will not be another warm body for you to use than dump when you move on to your next assignment. Do not try to defend yourself Alex, I've figured you out," the outburst caused the makeshift infirmary to go dead silent as everyone turned their attention towards the soldier and her angry companion. Without another word Leliana got up from her seat and stormed out of the area without so much as a backwards glance at the woman who saved her.
"Go back to doing whatever you were doing," the Warden snapped at the onlookers before lying back on the cot with a groan of frustration. She knew better than to expect that Leliana would fall straight back into her arms and that all would be right with the world. Why do I always need to be the hero? She thought bitterly closing her eyes hoping that sleep would come soon before she returned to her watch. Alex sent a silent prayer to the Maker asking if he would be kind enough to spare her from seeing one angry red headed Orlesian later that day or tomorrow and if he would be willing to look after the said woman.
A/N: Originally this was going to be a one shot with just this chapter, but I decided I need to stop being lazy and I'm attempting a short story, it will most likely be a three-shot.
I felt that having Alex as a snarky womanizer seemed much better than having her be this hard-ass Grey Warden all the time who only thinks about duty.
Once again, M4 Colt Commando is a weapon used by many military forces throughout the World.
Zevran's role in Alex's scar may frustrate many of you, so I will give Zev's "catch up story" right now since I doubt I'll go into deep detail about him later.
Zevran dropped out of high school several months before graduation to move back to his homeland of Antiva and join the most notorious of gangs, the Antiva Crows. Kind of like the mafia, there are several bosses, with one high boss or Godfather. Zev is acting like a bodyguard to one of the bosses when he encounters and mars Alex. Being spared, he is forced into Ferelden servitude for as long as Alex remains with the Wardens. After she retires she may either choose to execute or spare Zevran once again.
Antiva was modeled after Mexico in that the drug lords control the streets and the police are very corrupt (in some Mexican states) and turn a blind eye to drug trafficking and in some cases are clients themselves. Or so I'm lead to believe, the media is very eh.
I have received several comments that having Leliana in a modern fiction would not settle well with them since her background story (Marjolaine's betrayal and her times as a bard) made her character. I believe I have found a way to address those issues but still hold true to the modern feel, which is what I was ultimately going for.