Lucy

My new feudal overlord, Loghain, might tend toward a sour disposition, but at least he didn't hate me. Besides, I could defuse him with Danny. All I had to do to bring a smile to his face was plop my son into his arms. My old overlord—my sibling by DNA, but otherwise unrelated to the entity I call "me"— didn't take the news of me firing him very well. But what could he do?

Civil war was clearly not an option. If it were a few hundred years ago and Ferelden had more teyrns and a less centralized government, he might have recruited others to his cause to set an example to other arlings about abandoning their sworn allegiances. But in Dragon 32, odd as that sounds, times had changed. Banns could, and did, defect. It was half of what made the bannorn so fractious and unpleasant to deal with. Besides, Fergus's military force had been far more decimated by the Blight and Arl Howe's treachery than Loghain's had been.

I wasn't sure how often arls defected, but Loghain made it clear that the only reason I could get away with it was because of my close relationship to the crown, to him, my popularity, and the popularity of the Grey Wardens in general. Of course, he also had to expound on how fickle popularity is and I shouldn't count on the golden gleam of heroism to protect me much longer. All it would take was one good scandal or rumor and I might find myself toppling, head-first, from my lovely pedestal.

I don't know, though. Grey Wardens seemed to have developed a Teflon coating. Even the rumors of our depraved sexual practices, which were mostly untrue —we did not practice bestiality, fornicate with darkspawn, or even hold orgies, we just got a little more than most people—didn't seem to deter anyone from applying for membership to our very exclusive club. In fact, it seemed to help recruiting. There wasn't a day that went by when some fourteen-year-old boy wasn't begging to join. I turned them away, of course. I didn't want sex-crazed teenagers hopped up on whatever it was that made us Wardens so randy.

But back to my dear brother: "Dear Teyrn Cousland," I had written, "Fuck you!" Okay, Varel wouldn't let me keep that copy, so I wrote nicer words to the effect of since we had such difficulty getting along, it would probably be better if we parted ways. Varel put in historical precedents for the switcheroo I was making. We were hoping that Fergus wouldn't remember that change-ups like the one I was proposing had usually led to civil war and other unpleasantness. Besides, he'd totally lose and he knew it.

I put my toilet-shaped seal on the wax and Varel was headed out the door to find a courier to deliver it, but Loghain stopped him.

"I've got a message to send too." He handed Varel his own message.

I looked up at Loghain, puzzled at what he might be sending. "What's yours say?"

"Fuck you, essentially. I reminded him that I'd be leaving a substantial force in place and that if he harms you he will be squashed like the cockroach he is."

Varel coughed, looking somewhat alarmed, but I giggled and said: "I can see why you don't do much diplomacy."

"My dear, the diplomacy I do," he said setting his hand on the hilt of his sword, "is the kind that cuts to the heart of the matter far more efficiently than flowery words."

I had to agree with him. I knew how intimidating the man could be, and he liked me.

We watched Varel hand the letters to the courier and then that was that.

Anders

Shaving very closely, using the subtle fire spell Lucy had taught him, he lost control once and burned himself. "Ouch! Dammit." He healed the burn and rubbed his perfectly smooth cheeks. She wouldn't complain of beard abrasion tonight—and tonight was the night. But his seduction would start this morning.

First things first, breakfast. He dashed downstairs and picked up the tray waiting for him. He'd had this arranged days in advance.

The cook leered at him and winked. "Got all her favorites here, Warden: hot coffee, venison sausages, potatoes, gravy, apricot preserves, Orlesian bread, and strawberries dipped in melted chocolate. If that don't get 'er panties off, nothing will."

"Er… what?" Anders pretended to not know what the cook was talking about. Was it really that obvious?

"Ha! When a man arranges something like this for a lady, there's usually a particular reason for it." She put a bud vase on the tray and put a red rose in it. "She likes roses."

"Right! Thanks." He kissed the cook on the cheek and that set her to laughing raucously.

"If the lady Commander don't give you what you want, I'm available, sweetie." Whacking Anders on the rump she laughed her peculiar laugh again and went back to her work.

He carried the tray carefully upstairs, trying not to spill any of the coffee out of its little pot. Sneaking quietly into the room they shared, he set the tray down on the low table in front of the fireplace. Then he went to the armoire and got out a silky robe she liked to wear. He went to their bed where she lay sleeping and squatted down so his face was next to hers.

"Wake up, my love," he said quietly, brushing his fingers across her cheeks. He loved watching her awaken. Her eyes would just barely open, then they'd close again, like she were testing whether she was still asleep or not. Then they'd open a little more, looking unfocused and heavy lidded. Finally her eyes focused on his face. The very best part was when she realized who he was and smiled her sleepy smile.

"Anders." She stretched and yawned, pushing herself up out of bed. "Did I oversleep?"

"No such thing today, Lucy. Today is your day off, remember? You agreed to do nothing whatsoever but have fun with me and Danny today." He held out the robe for her to slip her arms into.

"Oh, right!" She brushed a kiss against Anders' cheek.

He caught her chin in his hand and tipped her face up to his and kissed her properly. There hadn't been many proper kisses since they'd been together. He'd been holding back, out of respect for her loss, but today that would end. She leaned into his kiss and seemed to relax. A little sound escaped from her.

When the kiss ended she held her hand in front of her mouth and puffed her breath into it. "Ew. Morning breath. I need to brush my teeth."

She ran off to do that and then he led her to the settee with the tray sitting on the coffee table and a merry fire crackling in the fireplace.

"Wow." Looking over the tray her eyes got wide. "Chocolate covered strawberries… how'd you even know?" She poked a finger into the gravy and stuck it in her mouth.

"I shared your brain, remember? A few things stuck."

"You're going to spoil me, Anders." She looked at him slyly. "What if I come to expect this every day?"

He laughed at her and gestured at the settee. "Sit and have your coffee, my lady. I know how you get."

She grinned at him and sat down. She divided up the food between two plates and gave him one. The coffee habit was hers alone, so she didn't bothering pouring him a cup. A generous helping of thick cream went in and she stirred it.

"Mmmmm." She sighed and dug into the breakfast. "Thank you, Anders. This is really lovely."

"I thought I would take you and Danny out for a picnic at the orchard today. Does that sound good?"

She laughed. "Isn't that just like us? Talking about the next meal while we're eating one. Yes. I think a picnic would be great. The orchard is in bloom and the weather is finally warming up a little."

They ate their breakfast, chatted, laughed and planned out their day. Lucy leaned over to pick up a strawberry and Anders grabbed her hand.

"There's a special rule about eating these strawberries, Lucy." He picked one up and brought it to her mouth.

"What rule is that?"

"You can't eat them yourself. They can only be fed to you." He pressed the chocolate covered fruit against her lips, holding her eyes with his own. She opened her mouth and took a delicate bite. The groan she made as the sweet fruit and chocolate combined in her mouth was nearly obscene. She broke eye contact with him when her eyes squeezed shut to revel in the sensual pleasure.

"I can live with that rule." She waited patiently for him to return the fruit to her lips and then devoured the rest of it, holding his hand in place with her own as she licked the residual juice off his fingers. "Now your turn."

"Uh uh." He picked up another strawberry and brought it to her lips. "I want to hear you make that noise again." In the end he didn't eat a single strawberry just so he could witness her bliss over and over again.

After the last strawberry he kissed her again, tasting the sweetness of the berries and the richness of the chocolate as his tongue sought out hers. His hands went to her shoulders and, as she melted into the kiss, they slid the top of her robe off her arms. She didn't stop him.

The cook knew what she was talking about. He hadn't thought he'd have gotten to this point so early in the day, but he certainly wasn't going to complain that he was ahead of schedule. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. She made the strawberry noise again when he shifted his attention to her neck and began to kiss and nibble his way along her jaw.

The robe had worked its way down her waist, leaving her torso clad in the thin nightshirt she wore to bed. He could see the tips of her nipples, already hardening, pressing against it. His hand drifted upwards from her waist, up the rounded curve of her breast and his thumb hovered over the sensitive peaks, indecisive about whether or not he should go further. "Are you ready for this?" he asked her.

"Yes." There was no hesitation or thought behind her answer.

This was it then. After weeks of waiting and wanting, this was finally going to happen. She'd be his in every way. His thumbs slowly descended to those delicious summits, gently teasing, stroking over them through the thin material. The way her mouth dropped open and her lids nearly shut, egged him on. His mouth went back to her neck and he knew just how she liked to have the sensitive skin sucked and nibbled. Ah, the things he'd taken away from their "mind meld" as she called it.

His tongue circled the whorl of her ear and then he sensuously sucked her earlobe into his mouth. The moan that came from her as he teased her nipples made him just a little impatient, but he restrained himself. Their first time—if you didn't count all those times in the Fade—had to be perfect. Reaching to her waist, he untied the belt of her robe and it fell the rest of the way off her. He rose off the couch and smiled brilliantly at her. "To the bed, my princess!"

As he scooped her up, she looped her arms around his neck and locked her mouth to his. He carried her to the bed and set her down gently, still kissing her as she tugged him down to the bed with her. His hands skimmed over her body, now just clad in her thin nightshift, and then reversed course, hiking it up her body, and then lightly traced the sensitive flesh from knee to inner thigh to…

Wham! Wham! Wham! A loud thumping rattled her bedroom door. "Lucy."

"Oh… fucking Andraste, what now?" Anders buried his face in Lucy's neck, groaning with frustration. "Can we just ignore it?"

"Crap." Lucy's moan wasn't a happy one this time. "That's Loghain. Something must be wrong."

"What's wrong is that he senses I'm trying to make love to you. If you open that door, I might accidentally freeze him." Or at least freeze off his dick. Loghain had his shot and he didn't get her. In Anders' mind this wasn't just poor timing, it was jealousy. The old general was just trying to spoil things.

Wham! Wham! Wham! "Lucy, get out here. You're needed." Loghain's voice was getting louder as his patience was wearing thin.

"Don't be ridiculous. How could he possibly know?" She began to try to writhe out from under him, but he pinned her to the bed with another kiss.

"He knows." Pausing for a moment, he brightened with a new thought. "He can smell it."

"You're ridiculous!" She squirmed out from under him and grabbed her robe, tying it around her.

Moaning loudly, Anders buried his face in the bed to stifle his swearing.

"Look, just… keep your engines warm, Anders. It probably won't take long." Lucy hurried to the door and yanked it open.

Loghain was pacing in front of the door and took in the sight of Lucy still in her robe although it was already well into the morning. "Hardly a good day to decide to lie around all day."

Anders could see Lucy's irritation from across the room. "I wasn't lying about. I was… well… all right horizontal but… um..." She realized that there wasn't any explanation Loghain would like. "Never mind. Where's the fire?"

"Your brother is riding to the keep with an escort a little too large to be purely friendly." He leaned against the door jamb and crossed his arms.

"Wait… I thought you said this wouldn't happen."

"It wouldn't if he weren't a complete idiot. I suspect he's just trying to make a statement, or maybe he's just trying to figure out how big of a force we have here. Either way, we've got to roust as many troops as we have and meet him. I've gone over the map with Varel and there's a rise where we'll wait for him and have an advantage, should he decide to attack."

"How big of a force does he have?"

"Best estimate is a couple dozen men on horse."

"That hardly sounds dangerous, Loghain. Between us both, we can field a lot more than that."

"Not on horseback. We've got a dozen riders. Ah well, whatever he's up to, we need to meet him in the field. So, get your Wardens ready. We'll ride out within the hour." He turned and left.

Anders watched Lucy close the door and lean her forehead against it.

"I really, really hate Elissa's brother," she said.

Getting up from the bed, Anders went to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "We'll deal with this, Lucy, and be back in time for dinner, which is going to be even better than breakfast, trust me."

She turned around, a little smile on her face. "I like the way that sounds. 'We'll deal with this.'"

"Always, princess." He pinned her against the door with another scalding kiss, wondering about the feasibility of a very quick tumble, and then reminding himself that it wouldn't be right for their first time together.

They dressed for battle. Well, Lucy did. Anders wore one of his magically imbued outfits. But he did help her into her leather armor and ceremoniously placed her daggers in their sheathes on her back.

"You make a good squire, Anders."

"I'm far better at unarmoring you than armoring you," he said, snugging a belt.

"We'll just have to see about that later." Her eyes held a glow that he hadn't seen in a long time and he was very much looking forward to this confrontation being over.

~o~o~o~

Highever's seneschal handed his lord a pair of messages. "Your Grace, I think you should read this immediately."

Fergus ran a hand through his unruly hair and squinted at his seneschal. The remnants of a night spent drinking had him in a foul mood. He held his tongue though. The seneschal was a good man—hard to replace—wouldn't do to offend him. "What is it, Erasmus?"

"Best you read it yourself, my lord." Erasmus wanted to stand somewhere safe because he knew Fergus' temper, especially when his lordship had been in his cups, as he was so often now. Poor man, he'd lost so much, his parents, his wife and child and now… this feud with his sister. Maker! How the man railed about his sister. He called her an imposter, a maleficar, and much, much worse. Despite his objections, Teyrn Cousland had raised taxes on his sister to a usurious degree, not that the arling had paid them.

Drink is the devil, the seneschal thought. The teyrn had been neglecting his duties, barely even bothering to respond to his sister's request for troops for the darkspawn invasion. The late Teyrn and Teyrna would be turning in their graves had they known their children were behaving like… children— worse yet, children with armies.

Examining the seal, Fergus's mien immediately soured. "My sister, eh?" He unfolded the missive and read it, his expression getting angrier by the sentence. "She's emancipating her arling from me?" He stood up, gripping the paper and waving it at the seneschal. "From me!"

"Yes, my lord. It would seem there is precedence, as she quoted, 'When a teyrn fails to discharge his duty to protect…'".

Fergus rose to his feet, an ugly expression on his face. "I read it!" In rage he swept everything off the table with his arm. "She can't do this! Amaranthine is mine."

Erasmus was glad he'd stayed over by the door. None of the flying cups or splashing wine hit him. "You might be able to dispute it at the Landsmeet, but… I wouldn't count on succeeding."

"Fuck her!" Fergus flipped the table over in his rage and threw his wine glass against a wall. It shattered with a satisfying sound. If only it were her skull.

The seneschal ventured further into the room to rescue the other missive from the debris. "My lord, there's another message to read—from Teyrn Loghain."

"Loghain! That ass is sleeping with her. I've heard all about that. No wonder she thinks she can get away with this." He yanked the second letter out of the seneschal's hand and began to read. His mood got even uglier when the first two words sunk in. "Loghain tells me to go fuck myself. He's in Amaranthine with a number of his troops and swears if I so much as put a toe into Amaranthine he'll cut it off." He ran his hand through his hair again, messing it up even further.

Erasmus was beginning to worry about his teyrn's mental state. His decisions to raise taxes and send untrained farmers and bandits to defend his sister's arling were poor indeed. "My lord, do you have orders for me?" He almost hated to ask.

"I need to confront her, eye to eye, and see if she truly will break her oath of fealty."

Erasmus dipped his head in acknowledgement of a reasonable course of action. "Of course, my lord. I will make the arrangements to meet on neutral territory… perhaps in Arl Teagan's castle. I'll get busy writing the invitations immediately."

The teyrn barked out a harsh laugh. "No invitations. No neutral territory. I'm taking this directly to the bitch herself." He picked up a decanter of brandy that hadn't quite emptied as it had fallen to the floor. "Tell Captain Samuels to have every mounted fighting man ready. We'll ride before noon and see how bold my sister really is."

"My lord, that's inadvisable…."

"Go, Erasmus. This isn't open for discussion."

The seneschal, taking stock of the teyrn's temper, decided further discussion was, truly, not an option. "Yes, my lord."

After the seneschal left, Fergus took a long swig from the brandy decanter, not bothering to pour himself a proper drink. All the glasses were in shards anyway.

~o~o~o~

They'd waited for the better part of an hour and Lucy was beginning to wonder if perhaps her so-called brother had turned back, or perhaps taken another route. Just as she was about to go scouting for them, someone spotted them. Lucy's gut twisted as she saw the tiny dots in the distance and remembered the last time she'd seen Teyrn.

"He must be insane," Loghain grumbled.

"Maybe he is. I mean, he did lose his entire family to Arl Howe and his sister too." Lucy spoke quietly. "That would probably unhinge lots of folks." She watched the dots get bigger and take on recognizable shapes. "So… what do we do now?"

Loghain had been mulling over that very question. "Archers, be ready." He gave the order. "Everyone else, mount up and stand ready to charge on my command." He lowered his voice and spoke to Lucy. "Stay back here and be ready to use magic if needed. I'm not sure the rest of the force will arrive in time."

Cousland's forces reined in just before the foot of the hill, out of longbow range, and the horses danced nervously. Lucy could see Fergus staring up the hill at her, looking ready to charge by himself if necessary. Seeing him again brought back the humiliation and anger that she'd suffered when he had forced her to kneel and swear her fealty to him. How's it feel, asshole?

"You're trespassing, Cousland," Loghain shouted, his voice rough with anger.

"Amaranthine is not yours, Mac Tir. She swore her fealty to me, in case the bitch failed to tell you." He jerked the reins on his horse, causing it to wheel and rear.

Lucy sensed that things were at the boiling point; one man or the other was going to do something regretful. "Look, why don't we discuss it like adults?" Lucy shouted.

Loghain shot her a disgusted look. "You don't parley with mad dogs."

Fergus consulted with the man next to him—a captain or something, Lucy thought. Then that rider rode up the hill to where their forces were waiting.

"What's he doing?" Lucy hissed at Loghain, clueless about the protocol of this sort of thing.

"He's coming to us with terms of a parley."

Lucy grinned, happy her suggestion was listened to.

"They've got templars with them, Lucy," Anders said softly.

"Crap, well that lets me out of casting magic, unless we kill every one of them."

Fergus' captain rode up the hill and dismounted a few yards away from Loghain and Lucy. He unbuckled his sword belt and let it drop to the ground. Then he crossed the few yards and bowed formally to Loghain. "Your Grace, Teyrn Fergus wishes to speak to his sister. Both alone and unarmed." He turned and pointed to a lone tree out of bow range away from both forces.

"No." Anders and Loghain said it in concert.

Lucy shrugged at the captain. "I guess that's a no then. Loghain comes with me." She felt a nudge at her shoulder from Anders, but shook her head at him.

The captain bowed again. "I'll inform Teyrn Cousland." He strode over to his horse, mounted, and rode back to Fergus. There was some animated discussion and then Fergus, staring at Lucy, made a big show of dropping his sword belt.

"You've got something hidden on you, don't you, Lucy?" Loghain asked.

"Yup. Boot knife, thigh dagger, and a megaton of magic." Her hand went to the lyrium necklace around her neck. She'd gotten used to its presence and rarely even noticed the faint electrical charge that seemed to emanate from it, except when she first put it on every morning.

"Good." Loghain stripped off his own sword belt and Lucy removed the two daggers from her back, giving them to Anders to hold.

"You?"

"Boot knife." He slammed his fist into his open hand. "Fist."

When they saw Fergus and his captain riding to the tree they went as well. The pairs of riders stopped a distrustful distance from one another. Lucy dismounted first. The others followed suit and then drew closer.

From this close, Fergus' hatred poured off him in almost palpable waves. Lucy had no doubt that if Loghain hadn't been present, he would have certainly attacked her. Well, that was fine. She had her own set of grudges. "All right, we're here, Fergus. What do you want to say?"

His eyes stared directly into hers and he took a step forward definitely getting into her space. "I want to say that you're an oath-breaking, treacherous bitch. You have no right… No right to break your pledge to me!" He tried to take another step closer but Loghain inserted his arms and pushed him back a step.

"Watch it, Cousland. Your negligence was the cause of this. You didn't uphold your end of the deal to provide defense of the arling and you raised taxes to untenable levels." Loghain growled at Fergus and gave him another push. "You left her no choice."

"You!" Cousland sneered at Loghain. "The only reason you're here defending her is because that whore is spreading her legs for you."

Before Lucy's mouth could gape open at that comment, Loghain's fist was headed for his nose. "I've had enough of you, Cousland!" Fergus managed to turn his head slightly before Loghain's mailed fist landed on his nose, and so only his cheek was split open.

Cousland's captain looked stunned for a moment, and then Lucy noticed he was reaching for his boot. "Uh, uh!" Lucy said loudly, wagging her finger. "I wouldn't do that." Her own hand was flexing, ready to go for her boot dagger if the captain went for his. Meanwhile, the two men were trading blows.

There wasn't much for them to hit because they were both wearing plate armor, but when one of them did hit with a mailed fist, it was brutal.

Lucy flinched as Fergus' fist landed a blow on Loghain's ear and cut it badly, but Loghain countered and finally landed a blow on the other teyrn's nose. The crunching sound, even if it was Fergus's nose, made her feel a little sick. Staggering backwards, his nose was dripping blood. He howled and rushed at Loghain, swinging wildly. Loghain sidestepped the charge but grabbed Fergus's arm as he passed and pushed him off balance. He fell onto his back, swearing and shouting, but he couldn't get up without help, the heavy armor effectively pinning him where he fell.

"Enough!" Lucy stood over Fergus, glaring at him. "This is ridiculous. Our agreement is terminated and there's nothing to be done about it. I'm sorry it had to come to this, but you've been entirely unreasonable."

Loghain stood over the downed teyrn, his nostrils still flaring and his breath coming heavily. "My promise stands, Cousland. You harm her, the Wardens, or her arling and I will personally see to it you're put down like the mad dog you are." He gestured for Lucy to walk in front of him and they went back to their horses, mounted and rode back to the rest of their forces.

"Anders, could you heal Teyrn Loghain's ear?" Lucy asked.

"I'm fine." Loghain's answer was terse, but Anders ignored him and inspected the ear and healed it. Despite his denial, the damn thing stung like crazy and Anders' healing spell provided relief. "Thanks."

They watched Fergus and his captain return to their force and talk. There looked to be a heated discussion underway.

"They're considering attacking." Loghain thought the captain had stones standing up to Fergus. "He thinks they have an advantage."

"Maker, no." Lucy felt her heart sink. This was supposed to happen without any civil war. Why must Fergus be such a fucking asshole?

It was beginning to look like the matter was resolved when there was a clanking sound behind Lucy. She turned around to see the sun glinting on the armor of the infantry Loghain had set to marching as they'd left the keep on horseback.

A triumphant smile broke over Loghain's face as the soldiers crested the hill. Now they easily had three times Fergus's numbers. "Let's see how determined he is now."

Fergus's captain pointed in their direction and the teyrn turned slowly and saw the assembled force easily outnumbered his own. Lucy could see the rage growing on his face even from the distance.

"This isn't over!" His voice carried to them, but it sounded small and tinny by the time it reached them. He gave the order and his cavalry wheeled around and left.

Letting out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, Lucy felt relief. She leaned against Anders and he wrapped an arm around her waist. "Is this the end of it then?" she asked Loghain.

Loghain snorted. "He's a man out for revenge. I'm sure he'll do whatever he can to get back at both of us, but especially you. You need to be careful."

They watched Teyrn Cousland's riders until they were gone from view and then mounted and rode back to the Vigil. Judging from how she gripped the reins of her horse, Lucy looked very tense. She hardly spoke the entire way back to the keep. Anders's own anger at Fergus Cousland was growing. Not only had he been an utter ass to the woman he loved, but he'd spoiled the day that Anders had painstakingly planned.

Lucy

I'd truly intended to return to whatever it was Anders had planned for the day. His disappointment was palpable as Loghain, Varel, and Garevel insisted on meeting about the Fergus problem. What the hell was the point? Fergus was a butt-hole and there was absolutely nothing we could do about it. Yet, even though I knew we'd all arrive at the same decision, it made the men feel less impotent to discuss plans. They talked about a preemptive strike, taking a guest-hostage, sending out spies, bribing Fergus's staff and so on, but the risks were that it would truly launch a civil war. I confess I felt better after brainstorming a dozen or so ways of screwing with Fergus too.

When I stepped through the doorway into our room, Anders was waiting with a bottle of wine.

"How did it go?" He poured me a glass and patted the settee right next to him.

I sat down, leaning against him, happy to have someone I could lean on again. Anders had been there for me this last month. It had been a little strange, to sleep with him every night and never once… yeah. Every time the grief rose up, like a tidal wave, he'd be there to hold me and comfort me. He'd been so damned patient. Now he had obviously planned this day out and Fergus had gone and ruined it. Well, we still had the evening, but I was a bundle of nervous energy.

"It went crappy," I confessed. "There's really nothing to be done but be ready for something. We have no idea what."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." I shifted so I could look up into his face. "I want to forget about all that. I just need to relax a little."

"Hm. I have just the thing."

He turned me so my back was to him, then I could feel him casting magic. Gray-green mist swirled off his hands as he massaged my shoulders and neck. I suddenly knew what it was like to not have bones. I melted against him, making it impossible for him to continue the massage. I think I burbled something, unable to form simple words with a tongue that was too relaxed, unable to find vocabulary from a brain that was too mellow.

"Oops, better tone that down some," he said.

The mist from his hands lightened and I was able to pitch my head up. I looked gratefully into his eyes. He certainly had a formidable pharmacy of magic and drugs to cure any illness, physical or mental. I couldn't object to my stress leaving, but magic shouldn't make people drool. It was unseemly.

When he judged I was good and mellow, he wiped up the little line of drool trailing down my chin and shut the magic off. That was when I knew, really knew, that he loved me, if I'd had any remaining doubt. I recovered my spinal column and smiled at him, fully relaxed and able to focus my eyes now. "That is about the most undignified thing you could do to me."

"Really?" He poked me in the ribs with a finger. "I could paralyze you, strip you naked, paint dots all over you and lock you out of our room. You really shouldn't challenge me like that."

I snorted and pulled myself upright, picking up my wine glass. "It's never too late to put you on a slave ship to Tevinter in your smalls, you know."

He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the back of my neck. "You hungry? I arranged something for dinner."

"I'm very hungry, now that you mention it."

"Well, why don't you slip into something more comfortable while I get dinner?"

He left the room and I gathered myself up for a quick bath and a change of clothes. I pondered my wardrobe for a moment and finally settled on the red dress. Yeah, it had memories of Wolf attached to it, but it was sexiest thing I owned. I knew where things would end up tonight. I laughed at myself as I brushed my hair. I remembered how many times I'd been so sorely tempted by Anders. I felt a little anticipatory thrill as I looked at myself in the mirror. Yeah… I was ready.

He arrived just as I was polishing off another glass of wine and feeling just a bit tipsy for the lack of any food in my belly.

"All right, close your eyes!" He covered my eyes with his hands and led me back to the settee in front of the fire. "No peeking."

"I won't."

There was a flurry of activity, whispering, and then footsteps leaving.

"You can look now." Anders had arranged the low table in front of the settee with two trays of food and it looked like he had most of my favorites there. Venison sausage, roasted rosemary potatoes, oysters, a fresh loaf of bread, my favorite ale, and game hens in wine sauce.

I beamed my approval at him. It was apparent he'd gone to a lot of trouble to arrange a very special day for me. Before I tucked into the dinner I kissed him. No, really. I kissed him. It wasn't one of those cheek, forehead, or puckered mouth kisses we'd been sharing over the last month. It was a kiss kiss. Well, it was at least as good a kiss as I could give him while my stomach was growling with hunger. But I hoped he could sense the promise behind that kiss.

He served up our dinner and we ate it sitting side by side on the settee. There was a little table we could've eaten at, but the settee in front of the fire was far more romantic. Every now and then he'd pop a raw oyster in my mouth or refill my glass when it ran low. We chatted about everything except Fergus, darkspawn, or anything else that was annoying.

There was a polite knock on the door and Anders' got a silly grin on his face.

"Come in," he said.

A servant brought another tray in, cleared off the remains of our meal, and set down the new tray. It held something obscured by metal dish covers.

"Anything else, ser?" the servant asked Anders.

"No. This is fine. Thank you."

I leaned forward to uncover whatever was on the tray, but Anders held me back.

"Not yet. I have to tell you something."

"Oh?" I cocked my head and watched him.

"I remember things from the time I spent in your body. Odd things, sometimes. Words just pop into my mind and I know what they mean. You know how quickly I picked up shape-changing after that. I'm sure having shared your mind helped with that."

I nodded. "You're saying you know some of my memories. Like what?"

With that he smiled broadly and gestured toward the covered dishes. "Take a look."

I swept away a cover from one dish and gasped. "Ice cream!" I was so overwhelmed by memories that my eyes filled with tears. Dad driving us home from the beach. Foster's Freeze. Sand everywhere, including in the ice cream. Sunday night ice cream, almost every Sunday as a child. Hand-cranked ice cream on hot summer eves.

"I found the recipe in my memories. Your memories, rather."

It was the first time since I'd come to Thedas that I had a moment of homesickness. But it wasn't really for home. It was for my parents, both gone. I wasn't surprised he'd come away with that since so many of my best childhood memories seemed to involve ice cream. I couldn't help the tear or two that got lose and rolled down my face. I wiped them away and sniffed noisily.

His face sobered instantly and he hugged me close to him. "Ah, no. Was this a bad idea? Why are you crying?"

I shook my head and rubbed my eyes again. "No. It was a marvelous idea. It just brought back so many memories. I wouldn't even have imagined the cook could make this!"

Reassured by my protestations, Anders' smile returned. "She's quite ingenious. Well, are you going to try it?"

I picked up a spoon and carefully scraped off some of the slowly melting, creamy dessert and put it into my mouth. It was definitely different than the ice cream I'd had back home, but I'd expected that. Still, it was close enough. "This is definitely ice cream."

Anders took a taste himself and his face lit up with delight. "Hey, this is really good. You should sell it in Denerim."

We laughed over building an ice cream stand in Denerim. It was so cold nearly all year round, I doubted it would be too popular, but further north it could get warm in the summer.

"Actually, it's feasible." I went to the happy nerd place and began to design my ice cream factory. "Cold runes. Water wheels to churn the cream. All we need is a source for vanilla." That was what this ice cream was missing.

We spun a fantastic life for ourselves out of my ice cream dream. It was pure fantasy. I was committed to toilets, although perhaps I'd give the ice cream idea to someone else. Or maybe the Wardens could use it as a recruiting tool. Ice cream socials would bring people out of the woodwork. Once they got a taste of it, they might not mind drinking the Joining juice so much.

"Yeah, a bowl of ice cream would make drinking the taint completely worthwhile," Anders said, rolling his eyes.

Finishing my ice cream, I waited while he finished his and then I took his bowl and set it down on the low table in front of the settee. "Strawberries, chocolate, ice cream, raw oysters… If I didn't know better, Anders, I'd say there was an agenda behind these sumptuous feasts today." I bit my lip and gave him a sexy smile.

"Well, the way to a Warden's heart is through her belly, they say." He leaned forward, his face just a few inches away from mine.

"I think you might have been aiming a little lower than my heart." I grinned impishly at him. "And your aim is excellent, ser. You had me at the chocolate covered strawberries."

"Good to know. I'll have the cook lay in a supply."

I nodded. "We're going to need lots of them."

Looking extraordinarily pleased at that comment, he closed the distance between us, canting his head to the side, and our lips met. I snaked my arms around his neck and opened my mouth to his tongue. He caught my lower lip between his teeth and let it slip through them, scraping the tender flesh ever so gently. His tongue swept into my mouth, rubbing, stroking, mating with my tongue. It sent a heated bolt from my neck to my toes and I couldn't help the little urgent moan that escaped from me.

He pulled back, a pleased look on his face. "You're okay with this?" he asked for the second time that day.

"I already answered that question this morning. I think you just like hearing me say it."

His grin turned impish when I called him out. "I do."

"Well, then. Yes." I kissed him lightly on the mouth and then put my mouth next to his ear. "I'm more than okay with this." I puffed hot breath into his ear and felt him shiver in response. "I want this… You." I nibbled on his earlobe and traced the curvature of his ear with my tongue. Judging by the deep hum coming from him, he liked it.

"Maker, Lucy." He pushed me away, his eyes looking slightly wild. "Bed." He scooped an arm under my butt and another behind my head and picked me up.

I buried my face into his neck and nibbled and licked wherever I could reach while he journeyed across the room to the bed. I had a strong sense of déjà vu from this morning. I just hoped we wouldn't be interrupted again.

He stumbled over a footstool and we crashed into the bed, laughing. But the laughing stopped shortly, shut off by another protracted kiss. His fingers fumbled at the long row of buttons down my back, until I turned over so he could get to them more easily. Our clothes came off, down to the smalls, but then the frenzied undressing stalled out to kissing and touching.

Anders hovered over me, looking at me in my small clothes as if he were going to prison for the rest of his life and was trying to memorize every inch of me. He rolled to his side, his hand traveling over my body while he just looked. Pressing my breast band against me, he looked at the pink outline of my hardening nipple. His hand traveled down my side, the scoop of my waist and over the flare of my hips and then he hesitated.

"Is something wrong?" I was a little perplexed at his hesitation.

"I've dreamed of this for a long time. I want to savor it."

"You did?" As I looked at him, my brow creased and that sense of remembrance got even stronger. It wasn't just a replay of this morning. I'd dreamed of Anders too.

"Hm. One in particular. We were lying together in a meadow…" he trailed off.

"That's odd. Now that you mention it, I recall a similar dream." It came back to me so abruptly and clearly. No wonder I'd felt like I'd done this before; I had, in my dreams, and more than once. The details were sketchy by now, but that sense of déjà vu stayed with me.

Anders smiled and kissed me, apparently done with the topic. "Well, enough with the dreams, eh? I've got the real thing now." His mouth moved down to gently suck on my nipple, soaking the cloth of the band, his other hand brushed against my other nipple. A hand disappeared behind me and then the band was expertly unfastened and tossed away.

I ran my hands down his chest, through the light smattering of fair hair there. I loved looking at his chest and arms. He wasn't as massive as Loghain or Alistair; they wielded heavy weapons and armor for hours a day, but Anders was still well muscled. Perhaps he was blessed with good genes, or maybe the training he'd been doing was enough to give him a fine, manly physique. He'd have been in demand as an underwear model.

I ran a hand down across those well-defined pectorals, down his muscled abdomen, lingering at the spot where his waist dwindled into his hips at a V-formation of bone and muscle.

"You saucy wench!" He captured my hand as it began to dip into his smalls. He pinned it over my head as he rolled onto me, pinning me to the bed with his body. "Lady Cousland is a saucy minx, a fraud, a hedge witch, and…" His eyes grew serious and his smile went from a wide grin to a contented smile that consumed his whole face, "…and mine."

With that his mouth was on mine again, blazing a kiss on my lips, then trailing a series of gentle nips down my neck that made me shiver. It was a trail that he seemed to know well. That feeling of familiarity got even stronger as things grew ever more intense. How could that be?

Blessedly, his face was completely devoid of his usual five o'clock shadow, and buried between my legs. The only thing that seemed new or different was the lack of beard burn on my thighs. Everything else… I knew his favorite position and he knew mine. There was no magic involved and that seemed unusual. How so? I shoved my perplexity into the back of my mind and went with, though. What's not to like? Being with someone for the first time could be so awkward and there was none of that between us. We flowed together like we'd done this dozens of times.

When we finally fell to the bed, sated and breathless, he wrapped me in his arms and stared into my face with his funny quirky smile and those warm brown eyes glowing.

"You surprise me, Anders," I said. "I figured you'd be doing that double-plexing thing, zapping me with nerve shocks like a malfunctioning Orgasmatron, and doing Maker knows what all to me until I couldn't walk straight."

Snorting, he tweaked my nose and kissed me on the forehead. "I thought we should establish a baseline. You know, for comparison. Besides, our first time, I thought what with everything that's happened..."

He trailed off, but I knew he was thinking of my loss. I drew lazy circles across his nicely developed pectorals and my eyes focused a thousand miles away. "The sadness has to end sometime. I might not be over it completely, but I am ready to move on, Anders." My focus sharpened in on him and I cocked my head, drawing my brows down. "Besides, it feels strange not doing it with magic." That comment came from my strange sense of familiarity and it must've sounded nuts to Anders, but he was kind enough to overlook it. He smiled sweetly and kissed me again.

"Next time, then." He traced his finger up my arm and a tiny series of sparks followed it its wake. They tickled. "Although, being Wardens, next time could be very soon," he added. "And with a rejuvenation spell, maybe a healing spell for any residual soreness, it could be very soon indeed." He propped himself up on his elbows and looked at me with a raised brow.

"It could be imminent," I agreed, returning his goofy grin with my own.

There was almost a contest to see who could cast rejuvenation first. He won. And I was feeling quite ready after a light round of healing sore bits.

I am not ashamed to say we reached the end of Warden stamina before the sun came up the next morning and we slept well into the next day.

~o~o~o~

Notes: Can't begin to say how thrilling it was to hear from so many people after the "reawakening" of this story. Utterly thrilling to know that so many people cared enough for it that they commented. I was so happy I went right to work on the next chapter and it flowed out of me super fast. Had it done in very short order, except for the last scene. I wrote that sucker 3 times and got stuck. Just nothing was working for me. Finally I gave up and went back to my Skyrim fic. When I came back I was unstuck and got it finished in no time. Amazing how something like that can really trip you up.

First of all, my thanks to Biff McLaughlin for beta-reading! My thanks to Zevgirl for being my principle cheerleader. And to those who reviewed after the last chapter: Ana, Whirlygirl9, Josie Lange, ladydragn Lusewing,Cynderjenn, Guest, Guest, tgcgoddess, Persephone Chiara, Aynslesa, No account, Lyzenzed, whoopsiedoodle, , tgail73, AndAgain, Shi, rubberleg, Denfree, Shom, KatDancer2, Spoit0, iBlameBradley, ShadowDmn, Scarylady1, melgonzo, Xaiael, Penelore, djo81704, Wren Wild, Zevgirl, Biff, Guest, egiaprevolg, Kira Tamarion, Calliope Sol, Isala Uthernera, MidnightMoonCat, Storyteller44, ShebasDawn, Princess Procrastinata, xKimathyx, Blue Dartwing, Lady of Dragons, Jenna53, The LilacGirl, Arsinoe de Blassenville, Ethizen.

Wow... all those comments are like winning the lottery! Thanks! It makes it all so worthwhile. I know I didn't thank each of you personally because I got lost, couldn't remember who I had thanked and who I didn't. So, accept my thanks here.

Just amazing!

I apologize for how shamefully long this took. It was one of the few times my muse has abandoned me.