Emma opened her eyes to the sunlight lighting up the top of her tent. She sat up and yawned, stretching her arms up carefully, as not to hurt her healing wound again. As her yawn ended, she realized she was waking up, meaning she'd finally gotten some sleep. A smile stretched across her lips as she exhaled a rested breath.
She looked beside her and saw Alistair fast asleep. Her smile grew slightly as she reached down and gently touched his hairline.
Alistair turned his head away and mumbled as he brought up a hand to scratch where she had touched. He repositioned himself on his back and laid an arm over his eyes, falling immediately back to sleep.
Emma leaned down closer to his face. "Alistair?" she whispered quietly into his ear.
"Uhhnnmmggnn..." he moaned, "wha-mm?" he asked sleepily.
"You're adorable," she smiled, "wake up. It's morning."
"It's not morning," he said. He didn't move.
Emma sighed. "Alistair," she said a little louder. She didn't want anyone in camp to hear her talking to him in her tent. She put a hand on his chest and shook him, "Get up. It's morning now."
"Emma?" he lifted his arm and opened his eyes halfway to see her there, seemingly floating above him. He smiled a sleepy smile. "Hi," he greeted her happily.
"Hi," she smiled lovingly back at him. "You need to get up now. You're in my tent."
Alistair moaned as he yawned at having to get up. He then realized what she said and sat up. He looked to see he was in her bedroll. With her.
"What?" he asked as he looked to her. "Did I.. did we...?" He couldn't finish his question. He looked down to see he was clothed, but he could have gotten dressed...
"Well, I'd hope you would at least remember if we did," she covered her mouth shyly as she giggled.
Alistair looked at her laughing and laughed himself. "I... ha, yeah," he agreed. "Well then. I will assume we did not," he said in a deep, unintentionally sexy manner.
"Hm, no," she shook her head, doing her best to calm her flushed cheeks.
He realized that could have sounded like he didn't want too, or that he was glad that they hadn't. He panicked. "I mean, I don't mean to say that if we had it would have been a bad thing. I just meant... well I had forgotten I had-"
"Alistair it's okay," Emma placed a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down. I know what you meant."
He sighed and rubbed his face. "See. This is what I meant, by head-exploding," he looked at her, defeated. "I can't be normal around you. I, malfunction," he shrugged a shrug of hopelessness.
Emma frowned playfully. "Aw," she rubbed his shoulder gently.
"Don't patronize me," he scoffed, giving her side a tiny pinch.
Emma squeaked, "Don't!" she slapped his shoulder. "Don't tickle me!"
Alistair didn't know she was ticklish. This made him very happy. He grinned evilly, "I didn't know you were ticklish?" he grabbed her un-wounded side and tickled her.
Emma's eyes went wide as she tried not to yell. She grabbed at his hands but couldn't pull them away from her. She glared at him and whispered angrily whilst manically laughing as quietly as possible, "ALISTAIR! Stop it!"
He didn't want to stop, but realized she was trying not to yell and understood not wanting to have the entire camp staring at the two of them curiously over breakfast. He let her go. Reluctantly. "Alright. But only because of the others," he threatened.
Emma frowned, heaving lightly for air. "That's not fair!" she rubbed her side where he had been tickling her.
"It's totally fair. It's the one advantage I have over you now," he gloated.
She glared. "Right," she turned to grab her boots, "you tyrant."
"That's right. I rule with the cruelty of tickling," he boasted.
Emma looked to him, puffing his chest out and looking manly. It made her laugh. "Oh the almighty tickler," her eyes rolled as she started to pull her boots on.
"Hey. If you're going to make fun of me..." he reached out to pinch her side again.
"Okayokay! I'm sorry!" she scooted away, light laughter escaping her. "Alright... geez."
He grabbed her hand gently before she went back to pulling her boots on. He looked at the way her hair fell around her face and shoulders. She was lovely and angelic, with the morning sun shining through the canvas of the tent, illuminating behind her.
She looked at him looking back at her. "What?" she asked curiously.
Alistair smiled and caressed the top of her hand with his thumb. "I love you, Emma," he said whole-heartedly.
Emma smiled. She looked into his crystal blue eyes and knew this was the man made for her. This was the love she day-dreamed of as a little girl; the one she thought would never exist.
"And I love you, Alistair," she leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips.
He laid his hand on her cheek and ran his fingers up into her auburn hair. He pulled her closer to him as he kissed her again.
She laid her hands on his chest and returned the kiss. She ran her hands up onto his shoulder's and down the sides of his arms. She felt the warmth of her need of him begin to flow throughout her veins at the feeling of his soft skin against her fingertips.
Alistair was feeling the same sensation at their kiss. He couldn't think of anything else except her lips on his...
"Emma?" Wynne's voice came from the outside of her tent.
Emma and Alistair both jumped with fright. Emma instinctively reached out and covered Alistair's mouth, to stop him from possibly making any noise. She took a breath and tried to sound tired. "Hm... uh, yeah?" she faked sounding asleep pretty good, she thought.
"I've tried to wake Alistair, but I see that he's not in his tent. Do you know where he might be?" Wynne asked.
"Um... no, I've just woken up," she looked to Alistair, her hand over his mouth and wondering what to tell Wynne. She sat gawking at him, wide-eyed, needing something to say.
Alistair motioned the lake with his hands as he could not speak.
Emma nodded. "He might be at the lake?" she responded to Wynne's question.
"Ahh, you're probably right. I'll go fetch him and some water for breakfast. Don't go back to sleep now," Wynne teased.
Emma and Alistair listened as Wynne's footsteps dissipated into the distance. She let him go and panicked. "What are we going to do?" she asked in a frantic whisper, "you're not at the lake?"
"Shh!" he grabbed her shoulder's and calmed her, "I'll get dressed and go out the back of your tent and just show up back in camp. Wynne doesn't know where I would be at the lake," he let her go to pull his boots on.
Emma nodded, silent. Her heart was racing.
Alistair grabbed his armor and was about to duck under the tent flap. He turned to her and smiled, "This is kind of exciting, isn't it?" he asked with a grin on his face.
Emma was going to tell him he was crazy, but realized she was smiling too. "Heh, yeah."
"Oooh, fun!" he leaned over to kiss her quickly before ducking out of her tent.
She smiled at his kiss and watched him disappear from view. She sighed with happiness. Then reality hit her, and she quickly pulled her boots and got dressed to break down camp, smiling all the while at the rush of it all.