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“…I will fight for you, Lady Lavellan,” Cullen said, turning his amber gaze to her chocolate one. “I will always fight for you,” he added, before letting out a soft hiss when she pressed an alcohol-soaked rag to the wound in his side.
“Yes, as you have told me many times over.” She offered him a slight smile, but the warmth did not reach her eyes. Concern and panic still arrested most of her features.
“It will be fine,” he tried to assure her. “I’ve fared worse.”
“I know…Still, you should allow me to worry about you a little.”
He laughed a little bit, wincing when she dabbed at his wound once more. “I deeply appreciate it, my lady,” he murmured, reaching out to twine his fingers with hers.
She paused a moment, her gaze transfixed on their hands. Though they had exchanged many sweet words and tender glances when they passed each other in the halls of the Lavellan estate, they had never been so physically close as they were in this moment.
Enansal lifted Cullen’s calloused fingers to her lips, brushing a chaste kiss to his knuckles. “Thank you for insisting to escort me. Truly. If you hadn’t been there with me…Well, I shudder to think where I might have been spirited off to.”
“Of course. Though I daresay my men and I would have gotten quite the lecture if any of us had allowed you to leave the estate on your own.”
“I suspect so…My father has always worried about my sisters and me…” She finally pulled her hand free of Cullen’s grasp, and resumed her work of tending to his injury.
Once he was bandaged up, Enansal helped Cullen sit up. She reached over and held up his shirt, still torn and bloody from the encounter they had had with the bandits.
“Well…This has seen better days.”
Cullen laughed a bit, taking it from her. “Well, this is at least replaceable,” he said as he slipped it over his head. “You, however, are not.”
“Neither are you! I’m just glad that sword landed where it did. The one day you’re not wearing armor…”
He smiled a little at her, and leaned down to plant a kiss on her cheek, which caused her to clamp her mouth shut and her cheeks to warm considerably.
“Thank you for worrying, my lady.”
Enansal looked up at him with wide eyes, and nodded absently.
“I should return to my normal patrols, now. I shall see you later.”
“Of course…”
Another kiss - this one upon her brow - another smile, before Cullen walked out of the room, grabbing up his sword along the way.
Enansal slowly sank back into the chair she had previously been occupying, and held her hand to her cheek, still warm from embarrassment and Cullen’s lips.