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There he was, leaning up against an old elm tree outside their camp, absentmindedly tossing Muffin’s favorite stick out into the sunlit clearing every time the mabari brought it back to him. Elisabet could tell that Alistair’s mind was on anything but the dog, however, judging from the dreamy expression on his face.
Well, at least someone among them hadn’t been exasperated to no end by the trying events of the day.
Sighing, she plopped down beside her fellow Warden with the clatter of armor, watching as Muffin ran off again, chasing the slobbery stick that arced through the air and landed amongst the tall grass.
“What’s on your mind, Alistair?” she asked after a moment.
He chuckled softly as Muffin jogged, panting, back up to him and spat the stick out onto the bastard prince’s waiting palm. The mabari’s tail wagged merrily as he expected yet another round. “Oh, I dunno.” Alistair threw the stick again. “Maybe just the fact I’m madly in love with such a beautiful woman.”
The cheesiness of it nearly made her gag out loud, but she couldn’t keep from blushing at his words. “Alistair…”
He turned towards her and pecked a kiss on her now-rosy cheek. “Beautiful, wonderful-”
“Alistair…” she grumbled in annoyance, starting to lean away from him.
He took the other side of her head gently in his hand to keep her from pulling any farther back and deliberately scooted closer, smacking a loud kiss on whatever part of her face he could reach between each word while she floundered against him. “Beautiful… wonderful… amazing…”
“Alistair!”
Elisabet could see Zevran and Leliana watching them with bemused expressions across the campfire, which caused her to redden even more in embarrassment. She swatted at Alistair’s leg, but he couldn’t even feel it through the armor. He turned her face towards him and smiled wryly before kissing her once more on the tip of her sharp nose with gentler lips. The sensation caused her to instantly melt in his grasp.
He met her grey eyes with a sparkle in his own, and his voice was a soft growl that left her wondering where her irritability had vanished to. “Stop complaining… you know you love it.”
Her mouth mirrored his smile. “Guilty as charged.”
She then leaned forward and kissed him in earnest, oblivious to the fact that Muffin had conscientiously refrained from approaching them again, taking his stick and quietly departing so as not to disturb his rather occupied friends…