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“And so will you be having more dreams together?!”
Cullen's voice was raised. It easily echoed off the murals surrounding Solas' claimed space in Skyhold. The darkened main hall just beyond was half lit by fires but was otherwise unoccupied, nearly all of the residence long since retired for the night. Even the library and rafters above Solas' domain were empty, except for a lone guard watching after the birds. He'd at least have something interesting to talk about when his shift was over, what with the show developing downstairs...
Solas stiffened and ever so slightly raised his chin as the Commander stormed into his little sanctuary with uncharacteristic bluster. “Excuse me?”
“Oh don't you dare brush aside such a breach in privacy. So then, what will you do, lurk about all his dreams? Perhaps you have been already. Perhaps since you arrived at Haven!” Cullen paced in a manic manner as he spoke, his words rushed as if his mouth struggled to keep up with his thoughts. He went back and forth like a trapped lion, sneering in Solas' direction as he marched over the same three paces over and over again. “What thoughts have you implanted in his dreams? What insights do you hope to gain from this sorcery? All his secrets? Well, if you can step into someone's head, what's to stop you from doing Maker knows what!”
It took Solas a long heartbeat to process the accusation and the scene in front of him but then his features hardened. His shoulders squared as he worked to keep his voice calmer, quieter than the Commander's. “I do believe you have the wrong impression of what happened last evening. It was--”
“No!” Cullen raised a pointed finger at Solas and took a firm stamp forward towards the elf, pausing in his pacing. The room echoed with the boot's angry thud. “I don't care what you have to say. This was inexcusable. You shouldn't have ever used such a power on him.” The Commander was unsteady on his feet. He wavered now that he stood still. He was breathing heavy and his eyes were bloodshot.
Lyrium. Or more accurately, the lack thereof. Solas stood his ground but his features softened oh so slightly at the recognition of the human's plight. Paranoia and obsession were the least of the side effects of withdrawal.
“The Inquisitor found his way to me thanks to his mark. I have no ability to see in to his mind or manipulate his dreams. I have no control over him or his thoughts. I have no wish to. His dreams and mind are his own.”
“Liar,” Cullen snarled as he returned to pacing, more frantic now, if that were possible. “No no. He woke at your bidding. He saw what you wished. He was so cold.”
“We were in Haven. Of course he was cold when he awoke.”
Cullen scoffed at the explanation but at least did not interrupt.
Solas softened his voice a bit more, as much as he could while looking at the manic ex-Templar. “It was not a malicious act or even one I consciously attempted. His mind came looking for mine and I picked a space we both knew and felt a connection with.”
The pacing slowed to an eventual stop, although it was clear Cullen's mind was still racing. Eventually a quiet, desperate voice wondered, “Why would his mind look for yours if I was...”
A wash of understanding flowed over Solas and he looked down in order not to smile and offend the man so on edge. There had been rumors but it was none of Solas' concern who the rabble thought the Inquisitor was bedding, true or not.
“While dreaming, the mind seeks to understand what it cannot when awake. My work with the fade has always been an enigma for him. We spoke of his connection to the fade and some of my knowledge on it. Nothing more, Commander.”
Cullen's shoulders slumped some as his manic episode calmed at the honest reassurances. “But its such an intimate... thing. The thought of you in his head...”
“Think of it as neither of us truly in our heads at the time. We were in the fade and so still... whole, if not in our waking bodies. I promise I have breached no part of the Inquisitor.”
“And you had better never-” Cullen began to threaten with a loud, jealous growl.
Solas cut him off. “Rest assured he is far from my type.”
Cullen blinked at the rather blunt declaration. He turned and raised an eyebrow at Solas. “Not your type?”
His unusual wit slipped through as Solas replied, “He has neither pointed ears nor curvy bosom. Unless he's hiding more under that armor than I realized...”
The laugh was unexpected and strained but it was real. Cullen scrubbed at his face with an unsteady hand but nodded in acceptance of Solas' answer. “Fine. Point taken. Though he has plenty of fine curves when not covered in armor.”
“Please. I do not need intimate details of our Inquisitor, Commander. Those are, as we discussed, only yours to know.”
Cullen's features turned sheepish as he realized how insanely obsessed he'd gotten over it all. “I... I'm sorry, Solas. I just didn't...”
“You were protecting him. You are right to worry over those who would invade such privacy but those worries were incorrect in the end. I do promise if he comes looking for me again in his dreams, I shall send him on his way and not stay with him.”
“No, it's... You don't have to promise such a thing. I... I should go.”
He moved to march himself out the door that he had unceremoniously thrown open mere moments before to cross back to his office.
“Cullen,” Solas called out, causing the Commander to pause in his march and reluctantly look back. “He did not find you in the fade because he knows you, every intimate detail of you, and so his mind and body rests easy beside yours. It is not a mark of disinterest. It is a mark of trust, understanding, and love.”
A blush crept up onto Cullen's cheeks but he nodded, looking far more soothed at those kind words than any of the others. “I should... find Daniel...” Cullen muttered more to himself than Solas before he turned to truly leave. Only to pause with the door open and call back, “Thank you, Solas.”
“Of course.”
END