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The air was filled with happy chatter, cheerful music and warmth of the hearth. Ale was flowing, and there was a delicious smell coming from the roast turning on the rotisserie. Varric looked around the tavern and smiled. The days around Satinalia brought together people from their duties, it let them breathe for a short moment amidst the disaster surrounding them.
He saw Shae enter the tavern and kick the snow from his boots with a thud which was swallowed by the noise of all the people talking. He shook his head from snowflakes decorating his flame colored hair. It was snowing outside, had been for a couple of days.
It took only a short moment until he bumped into Dorian who was carrying a glass of wine. They exchanged a coy smile and few mumbled words.
Varric chuckled to himself and took a gulp from his ale. Those two definitely had something going on between them.
“There is a mistletoe on top of our heads. I wonder if he will notice.”
Varric startled from his thoughts and looked at the boy with a large hat who had just appeared next to him.
“You gotta stop doing that, kid”, he chuckled. “Someone’s going to have a heart attack one day.”
“His eyes sparkle and his smile warms better than the hearth. His voice. Soft like velvet. Dorian. Should I kiss him?”
Varric glanced at Cole and rolled his eyes. “You are worse than my books.”
Dorian pulled out a napkin to clean up the spilled wine from his knuckles. He glanced at Shae who was now looking around the tavern, smiling.
“People are cheerful”, Shae said. “It’s good to see them happy in the middle of all this madness.”When he turned back to look at Dorian he caught his eyes lingering on him, and raised slightly an eyebrow at him.
Dorian smirked. “Did you do something different with your hair?”
Slight pink rose onto Shae’s cheeks and he rubbed at his neck. He had noticed. “Yes…as a matter of fact I did”, he chuckled nervously.
Dorian took a sip of his wine, slightly glancing at him over the glass. “It looks good.”
Shae was sure his face could not get any more warm.
Dorian looked up and took another sip. “Have you noticed we are under a mistletoe?” There was something in his voice Shae could not interpret completely.
He looked up at the mistletoe and then back at Dorian. “Oh”, he smiled as innocently as he could, “I didn’t realize.”
Dorian chuckled nervously and glanced around the tavern. People were laughing and talking, no one was looking at them, everyone was minding their own business.
It was then that Shae took a step closer and rose onto his tiptoes to plant a soft kiss on Dorian’s cheek. Slowly, eyes wide from surprise, Dorian turned his face to look back at Shae who was smiling at him.
“I will go and see what Varric is up to, Shae told, letting his hand ‘accidentally’ brush against Dorian’s as he walked past him.
It took all his strength to not look back as he walked to the table where Varric was talking with Cole.