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Morrigan folded her arms around herself and stepped out of the shelter of her tent into the chilly night. She added dry sticks to the glowing remains of the fire she had built up earlier and summoned a fireball to her fingertips. She stared into the dancing flames in the palm of her hand as she had done on many occasions during their mission, and allowed her thoughts to wander.
As expected, the first thing that came to the forefront of her mind was the source of so much of her recent frustration, confusion, and on occasion, heartache. How unexpected it was, the relationship that had blossomed between the newest Grey Warden and herself. She had not expected what had begun as a simple relieving of tensions to evolve into, well, whatever this was. She didn’t want to think about what it meant.
She bent forward and let the fireball fall onto the smouldering sticks, coaxing the fire to consume the pile. She lowered herself to the ground and let the fire warm her. A quick succession of muffled snores from across the camp told her that Oghren had finally finished drowning his sorrows and passed out, something that usually occurred long after everyone else was asleep, herself included.
Tonight however, sleep was illusive and the sound of soft footfalls approaching through the darkness disturbed the night. She didn’t need to look up to know who the steps belonged to, she had learned to recognise it long ago.
“One would think it important for the Warden to get his rest.” She spoke lowly, keeping her gaze trained on the flickering pit in front of her.
“The same could be said of you.” Aedan lowered himself to the ground opposite the apostate and studied her face, but found she had masked her feelings with her usual stoic expression. Her raven hair was free of it’s customary bun and left to rest lightly around her shoulders and Aedan found himself fighting the urge to close the space between them to brush it behind her ears.
“Fear not, I will sleep when I must.” She glanced up at him and gave him a ghost of a smile, the fire reflecting in her amber gaze to turn it into an inferno. “You, however, cannot allow your strength to waver before our task is done.”
Aedan sighed and bowed his head in silent agreement. The fate of Thedas had been laid firmly at the feet of Alistair and himself, he could not allow himself to lose his edge.
“I can always count on you to ensure that I do lose sight of what is important.” He gave her a rueful smile that caused her to turn away. Tendrils of magic played across her fingertips briefly before she flicked her hand and sent more flames towards the fire.
“T'would be folly for us to allow ourselves to become distracted, even if only for a moment.” Aedan watched as she busied herself with adding more sticks to the burning pile, purposely avoiding his gaze.
“Everyone needs distractions.”
Morrigan flicked her hair from her face and watched him evenly, a hint of regret colouring her eyes. “Distractions get you killed.” She replied bluntly.
Aedan said nothing, allowing silence to stretch itself across the camp once more as he worked to push down the feelings that made themselves known every time he was in Morrigan’s company. Theirs was a complicated relationship, he knew; Morrigan being witty and almost attentive one moment and abrasive and flighty the next, and not long ago he had been expected to marry into another noble family, before Duncan had arrived at Highever and his life had become a series of events and expectations he wasn’t even sure he would survive. But nevertheless he did not want it to end, for reasons which become more and more apparent every time he saw her.
“I think,” he began slowly, breaking the silence and drawing Morrigan’s attention, though he could not look her in the eye, “I think I’m in love with you, and that terrifies me.”
The witch of the wilds remained perfectly still and silent and Aedan braced himself to be admonished for his foolishness. Slowly he raised his eyes to hers, but found himself shocked by what he saw there. Tears, sparkling behind the barrier of her eyelashes that stubbornly refused to allow them to fall, but tears just the same.
“I have tried to shut away my feelings for you, to pretend they don’t exist and that what we have is simply a necessity to stop either of us from going insane, but it does not change the fact that the feelings are there, and they are more terrifying to me than the thought of facing the Archdemon.” He gave her a crooked smile and was pleased when she returned a small one of her own.
"Tis funny, I find myself in a similar foolish predicament.” Aedan grinned and moved closer to her, finally allowing what his hands had been itching to do since he had joined her and gently tuck the silk curtain of her hair behind her ear, drawing a contented sigh from her.
“Then we can be fools together.”