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The early morning light woke Leilah from her peaceful sleep and she smiled to herself. It was another wonderful morning after a night of fun in Kirkwall’s Dark Town. Leilah swiftly and silently disentangled herself from her sleeping companion and began gathering the scraps of fabric that she generously called clothing. Once she was somewhat dressed the young woman began looking for her staff.
“Curse Anders for just throwing it away.” She muttered with a smile, “Always in such a rush to get me naked.” She giggled at her own joke as her eyes landed on her staff next to the bed. As Leilah went to grab it she heard Anders stir in the bed and flinched. Oh Maker please don’t let him be awake.
“Why don’t you stay?” Anders grumbled and Leilah stopped breathing. He had never asked her to stay before, not that he’d ever been awake when she left but still. Leilah glanced up to see if Anders was serious but sighed a moment later when she saw he was thankfully still asleep.
“Dumb blonde mage.” Leilah giggled, as she headed to the door, “Keep giving me heart attacks and we’ll have to stop these little games.” A pang of pain bloomed in Leilah’s chest at her own joke when she glanced back at Anders. Shaking her head, the mage smiled but couldn’t bring herself to leave. Some part of her wanted to listen to Anders’s subconscious request and just climb back into bed and cuddle with him all morning.
Crap.
This was horrible. Leilah couldn’t believe what her mind just came up with. No. there was no way this was happening. Leilah brought a hand to her head as she left the room. She seriously needed a drink, damn the time.
Varric was looking forward to a peaceful morning, the Hawke twins hadn’t dragged him out last night to do anything stupid and there’d been no sign of anything stupid happening all morning. Yep it was going to be a great day.
“Or not.” Varric chuckled as Leilah dropped herself into the seat next to him. Without so much as a greeting the mage plucked up Varric’s mug of ale and took a generous swig. “Blondie not performing like usual?” he snickered, only to earn a playful shove from his friend.
“No, that’s not it. I’m all sorts of sore this morning.” Leilah giggled before she sighed and downed the rest of Varric’s drink, “It’s just- I think- I mean we don’t-“
“Alright, think before speaking, Giggles.” Varric offered helpfully. Leilah groaned and banged her head on the table, whose idea was it to invent feelings again?
“I think I may have feelings.” Leilah admitted. Varric spat out the mouthful of drink he had and turned to the mage wallowing in despair.
“Come again? I think the table got in the way of your words.” Varric gaped “Actually wait I totally saw this coming.” He laughed but before Leilah could retaliate, Isabela was bolting up the stairs and planting herself firmly across the table from the pair.
“Did I just hear right? Did miss ‘no strings attached’ admit to having feelings for Anders?!” Bela’s eyes shone with excitement, “Aveline owes me three sovereigns.” Leilah groaned at Bela’s proclamation.
“Did everyone see this coming except me?” Leilah huffed and Varric and Isabela both nodded.
“Pretty much.” They said.
“So what do I do?” Leilah cried, “This was supposed to be a no strings thing. We have fun and then in the morning it’s like it always is. We’re friends with benefits! Nothing more!”
“Why don’t you just tell him?” Varric suggested, “The rejection will screw your head on straight again and you’ll get over it. If he also has feelings then there’s not a problem right?” he shrugged with a chuckled as Leilah glared at him.
“I don’t think so. I can tell you for sure he’s not interested in anything serious.” Leilah huffed.
“Hey, you wanted my advice and I gave it.”
“But Varric!” Leilah cried, “It’s not what I wanted to hear!”
“Just keep drinking before you throw a tantrum.” Varric laughed, sliding another mug over to the mage.
“I’m drinking because I want to not because you told me to.” Leilah pouted as she sipped the drink.
All was silent for a moment before Leilah sighed again.
“Okay so let’s say, in theory, if I wanted to tell Anders that I’ve got feelings for him, how would I go about telling him?” she asked. Isabela started giggling the second the words left her mouth and pointed at the door.
“You turn around and tell him.” Bela laughed, clutching at her stomach when Leilah’s face paled and she whipped around to see the subject of her thoughts standing in the door way just as shocked as she felt.
“Anders!” Leilah squeaked, ready to just keel over and die of embarrassment. The situation only deteriorated when Anders smirked and Leilah prepared herself for the ‘you are stupid’ lecture.
“You’re an idiot.” Anders chuckled, “Did you really think I was asleep this morning?”
“Wait so you were being an ass and seeing if I would stay?” Leilah questioned and upon the nod she received she threw a bolt of lightning at the healer, “Bastard! Why didn’t you just say something?”
“Because I like messing with you?”
“I hate you.”
“You love me.”
“Damn it.”