Back to some serious matters, with some fun thrown in as well, with reimagined game dialogue. Cheers!

Chess and Heart Talks

Melusine walked toward the voices at the far end of the courtyard.

"Gloat all you like. I have this one."

It was Cullen, undoubtedly.

"Are you sassing me, Commander? I didn't know you had it in you."

And Dorian. Melusine smiled as she came around the corner and found the two men sitting in an old atrium, a chessboard between them. She'd been on her way to find Blackwall but got turned around, not difficult in the fortress, and ended up here. Melusine wasn't sorry for the diversion.

"Why do I even- " Cullen spied her first, coming to stand on his side of the table.

Dorian watched his movements with amusement and made no move to stand, "Mel! How nice of you to join us! Apparently, the Commander is leaving." He smirked at Cullen's glare, "Does this mean I win?"

"Please, don't stop on my account." Melusine came to stand beside Dorian and patted his shoulder, "Do play nice."

Dorian grinned, "I always play nice." He looked back to the board and feigned a concerned sigh, "You need to come to terms with my inevitable victory. You'll feel much better." He made his move then leaned back in his chair, looking up at Melusine with a sly grin on his face. He was up to something.

"Really?" Cullen picked up one of his pieces and made sure Dorian made eye contact as he firmly placed it back on the board in its new position. "Because I just won. And I feel fine." He chuckled at Dorian's sigh.

"Don't get smug. There will be no living with you." Dorian stood and gestured to the seat, "Do me a favor, Mel, and crush him." Dorian disappeared in the direction Melusine came from.

Cullen was still smiling, "I have duties as well unless you would care for a game?"

"Prepare the board." Melusine had always preferred checkers over chess, but if this was what it took to spend time with her crush, so be it.

"Splendid. I must say I'm good at this game."

Melusine laughed at the enthusiastic grin on Cullen's face as he moved the pieces quickly into the reset position, "Oh really? No attempt at humility here?"

"I played this with my sister, and she would get this stuck-up grin whenever she won, which was all the time. My brother and I practiced together for weeks, and you should have seen the look on her face the day I finally won." Cullen laughed, his eyes both mirthful and reflective.

"Do you get much chance to play with her these days?" Melusine made her move, then waited for both Cullen's reply and his responding move.

Cullen traced his fingers over his lower lip, "Between serving the Templars or being in the Inquisition, I haven't seen my brother in years. My sister writes to me. It is funny how she always seems to know where I am. I wonder if she still plays." He made his move and leveled Melusine with a soft smile.

"How many siblings do you have?" Melusine calculated a few moves ahead before she made her next move.

Cullen made his move faster than she as he answered, "Two sisters and a brother."

"Where are they now?" Melusine tried to envision the various tactics Cullen could use to back her into a corner, and using the boldest one, she countered.

"They all moved to South Reach after the Blight. I don't write them as often as I should." He looked over Melusine's shoulder for a moment, then back to the board, "Oh, it's my turn."

Melusine laughed, "You should keep practicing for when you see your sister again."

"True." Cullen continued his oh so distracting lip touching until he finally made his next move. "You know, aside from our infamous Wicked Grace game a few days ago, this may be the longest we've gone without discussing the Inquisition, or related matters." He took a deep breath and slowly let it out, "To be honest, I appreciate the distraction."

"I agree." Melusine added, "We should spend more time together," before she thought better of it, her mind only half on the conversation as she contemplated her next move.

She almost missed Cullen's comment, "I would like that."

Melusine made her move and looked up. Cullen sat unguarded before her, the most open and receptive to her she'd seen him since before her transformation. Whatever it was bothering him, the past few days seemed to have dissipated after the Wicked Grace game. Melusine smiled, "Me too."

Cullen leaned forward but then shook his head and looked back to the board, "We should finish our game. Right, my turn."

Melusine saw only two possible options for herself, and only one for Cullen if she chose the latter of her choices. With a sly smile, she made her move and leaned back, "And this one's mine and, voila."

"Well," Cullen chuckled as he stared at the board, "it seems luck favored you today."

"So, it has." Melusine began to reset the board, fully open to another game. When she looked up, she saw a new seriousness settling on Cullen's features. She paused in her movements and reached out, lightly touching the back of his hand to draw his attention, "Is there something wrong, Cullen?"

Cullen sighed, "As the leader of the Inquisition, and my friend, there's something I must tell you."

"I'm listening." Melusine set down the game piece she'd held in her hand and leaned her elbows on her knees."

"Lyrium grants Templars our abilities, but it controls us as well." Melusine had been informed of the whys and hows of most factions in Thedas, and of all the different groups, the templars reminded her most of the modern military back home. Ever since the mid-20th century, it was commonplace to use addictive substances to enhance a soldier's abilities and to keep them out in the field longer. It was a topic that made Melusine both sad and angry. "Those cut off suffer. Some go mad. Others die. We have secured a reliable source of lyrium for the Templar here, but I no longer take it."

Melusine's heart raced, "You stopped?"

"When I joined the Inquisition." Cullen nodded. "It's been months now."

"You're saying this can kill you?"

"It hasn't yet." Cullen looked up and fixed a determined gaze on Melusine, "After what happened in Kirkwall, I couldn't," his voice broke, but he didn't look away, "I will not be bound to the order or that life any longer. Whatever the suffering, I accept it," he shook his head and sighed, "but I would not put the Inquisition at risk. I've asked Cassandra to watch me. If it compromises my ability to lead, they will relieve me from duty."

Melusine again reached over the table and touched Cullen's hand, "Thank you for telling me." She patted his hand then withdrew, "I respect what you're doing."

"Thank you. The Inquisition's army must always take priority. Should anything happen, I will defer to Cassandra's judgment." Another almost pained look crossed Cullen's face then.

"Are you in pain?" Melusine could empathize with chemical imbalances.

Cullen smiled, "I can endure it."

They both stood and started back toward the main area of the fortress. Melusine did need to find Blackwall, and she knew Cullen had a mountain of things to take care of as well. As they walked in companionable silence, her mind traveled back to the conversation shared during the game. The glimpses into Cullen's life outside the Inquisition. How she wished to know more of it and…Melusine felt her innards churning and made it only a few steps before she turned to Cullen.

"There's something I'd like to discuss with you."

Cullen eyed her obvious distress, "Of course. What is it?"

"Cullen," Melusine swallowed her cowardice and pressed onward, "I care for you and, uh," Melusine faltered at the look on Cullen's face, "what's wrong?"

"You," Cullen blinked, "care for ME?" Cullen blinked again, "Not Varric?"

"Varric?" It was Melusine turn to be confused. "I mean I care for him too, but not in the same way." She rocked back on her heels, "Why would you think I cared for Varric?"

Cullen rubbed the back of his neck, "The night you, uh, said I could come to your quarters." A red tint was growing on his cheeks and the tips of his ears. "After Dorian explained your situation." Melusine nodded, still at a loss. "I did come." Her mouth dropped open. "Only I saw you and Varric standing close together. And you were only," Cullen averted his eyes and shifted on his feet, "and later when I came to find you, you were in Varric's quarters, looking very much at home there. And-"

Melusine's hysterical laughter cut off his words. She couldn't believe that all this time, Cullen had misread so terribly much for so terribly long. She took a deep, steadying breath.

"I'm sorry to laugh like that." She wiped her fingers over her eyes. "Were you influenced to lean that direction after Blackwall questioned me in Haven about Varric?" Cullen thought for a moment, and the deepening blush confirmed Melusine's theory. "Oh, Makers breath," she borrowed Cullen's favorite curse, "there's nothing more than affection friendship between Varric and I. If you must know, I'm trying to get him and Cassandra together."

Cullen's eyes widened, "Varric and-" Melusine eagerly nodded. "Do they know you're trying to do this impossible feat?"

"Oh yes, well, at least Varric knows. Cassandra, I think, is still in the dark about it."

"And Varric is," Cullen looked around as if in search of the word he wanted in the scenery surrounding them, "amiable to this idea?"

"He's at least curious enough about it to write a whole book for Cassandra just because she happens to like it." Cullen's eyes again grew wide. "I also like to take credit for Blackwall's liaison with Lace Harding." Cullen shook his head and blinked; this was the first he'd heard of it. "I can't exactly take credit for Rylen and Dorian, but I encouraged him when he was nearly a coward and walked away. And-"

Cullen held up his hands as if in surrender, "You've made your point. You operate as a matchmaker in your spare time." He chuckled but then grew a bit somber, "You were asking me something before I so rudely interrupted."

"Oh yes, well, I was wondering if you could think of me as anything more, I mean what do you think of, or what I might say is-"

They were interrupted again, only this time by one of Cullen's lieutenants.

"Commander," they both turned and glared daggers at the approaching man, "you wanted a copy of Sister Leliana's report."

Cullen growled, "What?"

"Sister Leliana's report delivered without delay," the lieutenant looked from Cullen's growing scowl to Melusine's pleading expression, "delivered without delay to your office. Right." The lieutenant beat a hasty retreat.

Once they were alone again, Melusine chuckled, "Right, well, while I know we're at war and everything I-"

Cullen turned on his heel and brought her face close to his in the span of a breath. His warm lips covered hers in the briefest of kisses, and yet it left Melusine breathless. When he pulled away, Cullen didn't let go of Melusine, his hands framing her face.

Melusine blinked, "Nice." Cullen raised his eyebrows, "I'm sorry. That was really nice." Melusine placed her hands on Cullen's waist, wishing not for the first time that he didn't have the many layers of armor and padding between her fingers and his flesh. "That was what I wanted. I just didn't think it was possible."

"I'm still here." Cullen kissed her again, another almost shy kiss of promise. "And from what I know of you," he dropped his hands but didn't step back, "you have a funny way of making nearly anything possible."

Melusine grinned and felt as if her heart had grown wings.