Conditionally

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Elissa Cousland wants to put Alistair on the throne. He has conditions. Cousland/Alistair, a pre-landsmeet oneshot.

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Alistair was glad to have some time to himself after they left the alienage. What they'd seen there was brutal. Selling Ferelden citizens into slavery? It was unthinkable. Loghain was more than mad, he was evil.

He looked up when Elissa came in, her brow creased in a frown as she closed the door behind her.

"What is it?" he asked. He waited as she sat beside him on the edge of the bed. She kept her eyes downcast.

"I spoke privately with Anora," she said. "She wants my support at the Landsmeet, to give her the throne in her own right."

"What did you tell her?" he asked, suddenly nervous. He didn't know what he hoped to hear. Eamon had been so adamant that Alistair was the only option.

"I told her I couldn't make that decision lightly and needed time." Elissa sighed and looked him in the eye. "Do you even want to be king?" His brows shot up in surprise at the question. It was the first time anyone had asked and he was unsure of how to answer.

He considered Anora first. "Well… I don't trust her," he said flatly. "Everyone says she was a capable ruler. They say she guided Cailan. And I guess she did well enough for the nobility." He shrugged. "But you and I have been out among the common people of Ferelden these past months, and I have a lot of concerns about how things were run even before the blight."

Elissa gave him an encouraging nod, so he continued.

"I talked to Soris, the elf we got out of Howe's dungeon, and Shianni today in the alienage. The things they told me about what was happening there before the blight were nightmarish. If Anora stays on the throne, nothing will change. All the ugliness we've seen will be swept under the rug." His hand fisted in the blanket angrily, rumpling the nicely made bed.

"And for that reason alone, you would rule?" Elissa asked. "You will have to sacrifice your freedom for this, devote your life to it. And you may find changing things to be much more difficult than you anticipated."

"I'm scared of the responsibility," he admitted. "Of course I am. But I'm not afraid of hard work. I know it won't be easy."

Elissa's eyes shone as she smiled at him. "You're a good man, Alistair. One of the best I've known. I think you will make a great king."

In truth, he supposed he had already decided. He'd been thinking about this every day since Eamon declared him the heir. He railed against the idea at first, and then had vacillated between angry and accepting. But the more they had done and the more they had seen of Ferelden, he began to comprehend what this could mean. He didn't understand what his life would be like, that was still foreign to him. But he saw what he could do. He saw how much a change was needed.

Still, he couldn't do it alone.

He had learned to be strong, but he'd learned that from her. He didn't want to do this without her. And now Alistair was running out of time to broach the subject. He forced himself to speak.

"I have one condition," Alistair said, and anxiety rose to choke him.

"A condition?" Elissa said, lips curving into a smile. "A condition for agreeing to be king?" She laughed a little. "Very well."

"I need you," he blurted. "Not just as an advisor or a friend. I need you by my side, to marry me and rule with me. I can't do this without you, Lis."

Her eyes widened. "Are you proposing to me?"

Alistair took her hand, and looked into her beautiful, familiar eyes. "Marry me, Elissa. Please."

She was silent a moment, and he could hardly breathe from anticipation and fear. She had a faraway look in her eye. He could tell she was thinking. "You know," she said slowly. "My own claim on the throne isn't so distant. There was a time where my father was put forward due to our long stewardship of Highever. We also have some little relation to the Theirin line ourselves, due to a marriage or two long ago," She paused. "We would both, I think, give each other some legitimacy."

When she paused, Alistair dared to venture, "Is that a yes?"

She smiled broadly now, her eyes shining. "Yes!" she said. "It's a yes." She kissed him, sweet and short and deep, before pulling back to smile again.

"I hope those weren't your only reasons for accepting," Alistair said, teasing and buoyant.

Her smile softened. "I said yes to the throne because it makes sense. I said yes to you because I love you, silly man."

Alistair made the only sensible reply, pulling her in for another kiss as they dropped down onto the bed. Some minutes later, when they finally managed to pull away, Elissa huffed a laugh.

"Now the only problem is to figure out how to tell the Landsmeet without sounding like a self-serving arse!"

"I know you'll think of something," Alistair said, and then all thoughts were swept from her mind by another kiss, as deep as the last.

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