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The room is bathed in red. It clings to the walls, the floorboards. Sinks into the blanket wound around them. It is in his lungs with each breath in. Heavy with the scent of old wood and the herbs still hanging to dry.
It is warmth against him. Within him sunlight stains his skin golden. Thin strips of early dawn leaking through the slats of the window. Gauzy hues of light filter through the slight dust in the air. Shifting and scattering like startled birds with every slight breeze.
His skin near burns from where he touches him. Body soft, hair loose. Lips parted as she breathes. Gentle puffs of air rolling warm over his skin. Her head rests on his chest. Ear firm over where his heart beats. Her hand rests on his arm. Her hold firm, as if worried he would have moved in the night.
It is moments such as these he swears she would crawl into his skin if she would. Curl up between his ribs like a fawn beneath a tree. Carve her very figure into his bones. Even then that would not be close enough for her.
Kaidan shifted. Barely moved. Hardly breathed. Unwilling to disturb her rest even as his back began to ache and his arm grows numb.
His hand moves on its own. Slow and reverent. As though he were touching something sacred rather than simply brushing her hair from her face.
It bared her to him. Showed him the unguarded part of her. Gone was the pinch between her brows, the tensed muscles of her jaw. Now lax and soft. Gentled only around him.
Kaidan breathed. Trailing his fingers along her cheek, the slope of her nose,down to her jaw. Then finally resting against the pulse of her neck. Assuring himself she was very much still there.
Kyne forgive him.
It was the trust that I did him. And he did not understand it.
What God looked at the blood in his hands. The years of violence, the things he had done to survive, and decided that this was something that he deserved?
His jaw tenses. Hand drifting once more. Hovering over her. As if he where afraid to touch her, to stain her with the violence left behind. Worried it would shatter this illusion of peace.
Call him a coward. He was terrified of losing this. Her. That it would end as it always had. In blood. In terror. In shame.
"I don't deserve you." His voice rasped. Throat aching. No one to hear but his own ears and the demon that rests on his back. If she were awake he knew she would vehemently disagree. Then rattle a hundred reasons why she was right.
Kaidan shifts easing her into the bed. She shifts. Mumbling nonsense. Face pinching in a way that had him chuckling. Then again as her arm reached out. Grabbing his hand to pull him back towards the bed.
"Easy, Little Dragon." Kaidan leans down. Pressing his lips between her brows soothing the pinch between them. "I'll be back." He tells her as he pulls away. Almost immediately she rolls to his side. Stealing the warmth he left behind.
The room ebbs from red to gold. Her eyes open. Looking up at him. Blinking away sleep. She shifts on the bed. Stretching out until she rolls onto her stomach. Head turning so she could watch him.
"Are we stilling going to that museum in Dawnstar?" His dragon asks. Yawning wildly. She had been on about it since the courrier had given her the paper. Her curiosity burning to know what was inside.
Kaidan laughs warmly. Pulling on his trousers. "Aye. As soon as you get movin'." She huffs. Burrowing under the blankets.
"S'cold." Muffled by the sheets. Kaidan looks over at her. She was little more than a lump on the bed. Hair peeking out from the edge of the blanket. He shakes his head.
"I'll get the hearth going." She gets up as he kneels before it. Pressing her chest against his back. Skin to skin. A soft warmth. She leans in. Chin on his shoulder. Covering them both with the red blanket.
Not a terrible start to the day. And he knows any thought or worry this dawn would be carried away within her light.