Work Text:
“You’re still working?”
The qunari mage entered the room, looking for the red haired inquisition agent and finding one (very clearly tired) scout with sleepy bags under her eyes.
“Just finishing some things up!” Harding answers cheerfully, but anyone could notice the underlying fatigue beyond her voice.
“You’re always up. It’s a bit worrying.”
“Aww, you don’t have to worry about me.”
“I know I don’t have to, but you’re not sleeping.” Rook says, focusing on the word have. She cares for her (and quite a lot at that), even if sometimes she doesn’t know how to show it in the most meaningful of ways (or if Harding will ever notice it).
“Oh. Right. I have dreams now. When I go to sleep, I mean.”
“I thought dwarves didn’t dream.”
“Solas used the dagger to rip the dreams from the Titans. Maybe when I touched it, the dreams came back?” She says, her voice ending on a high pitched questioning noise. “It… It’s unnerving? It’s like my mind’s telling a story to itself and is really bad at it.”
Rook stops and thinks. She’s had her fair share of odd dreams, ones that could maybe amuse the dwarf. “Sometimes I have these dreams where I’m naked.”
“Whaat?” She asks in genuine curiosity, and Rook has to hold her laughter.
“And I have to make a speech, or go to battle, and I have no pants on. It’s distressing.”
“Um, yeah, that would be. I… haven’t had that… particular dream.” Harding giggles for a bit, trying to hide the tiny blush that comes up to her freckled cheeks after having to imagine her coworker pantless - especially with her being quite a tall qunari, whose legs are almost longer than her entire self - but then, her brows furrow in concern. Rook can’t help but think it’s cute. “These days, I just dream I’m being… chased. Hunted.”
“There's something that glows red just out of my sight. I know it's going to get me, but I don't know how I know.”
The lord of fortune mercenary looks at her, trying not to seem too worried. Lace would dismiss her again by saying “she’s got nothing to worry about”, but this time, she’s not gonna let it pass. She wants to show how much she really cares.
“Would it help if I was there?” Rook cocks her head and steps closer to the tiny barrack of a bed Harding is sitting in, ducking her head so that her curved horns don’t catch on the tent’s ceiling.
“Oh, I… I couldn’t bother you like that.” The flush comes back to her freckled cheeks, and Harding shuffles to the side to give her a bit of space as Rook sits down next to her, resting her hands on her knees while Harding hugs her own legs, wrapping her hands together in front of her knees.
“But please do.” Rook smiles and firmly states, lowering her voice tone and not letting the original intent slip away.
“You realize you just offered to be with me all night,” Harding coyly looks at her plants, then at the little pool in the center of the room, and finally turns back at Rook, raising a bit of her right eyebrow and holding back a grin. “–while I sleep.”
“Well, yeah.” Rook laughs softly, which makes the scout look ahead of her with a little coy smile while biting her lower lip and shaking her head just a tiny bit in wonderous disbelief. “I mean, yes, that is what I offered.” She opens her hands in a wide gesture and looks at Harding, scouting her face and her freckles, thinking about how they fit perfectly with her smile. The only smile that makes Rook’s insides turn over and around in a mushy mess.
“Rook–”
“Lace– um, you go.” She nods at Harding for her to continue, staring at her lips, her eyes, each of her freckles, her smile.
“Is there something happening between us?” She stops briefly, with the most gentle look in her eyes. “I’m not just imagining things, am I?”
Rook breathes deeply and nods. “I think there’s something. And I kinda like it.” She finishes her small confession with a giggle, something hard to not do while in the scout’s presence.
Harding averts her gaze for a moment and looks down at her hands. She also nods, and agrees in the most sweet of ways, her voice a tiny cheeful ressonance in Rook’s ears.
“Me, too. I just… I never wanted to say it because I didn’t want things to get awkward.” The scout’s voice turned lower and lower with each word, as Harding stared at Rook with that gentle gaze, slowly leaning in.
“Nah, it’s still pretty awkward.” Rook giggles once again, her face sore from smiling but not managing to stop herself. They look away again in anxious anticipation, grinning and drinking in the lightness of the moment, butterflies dancing around in their stomachs, and once more turn back around to face each other. “But, we just need to keep at it until we push through to the other side.”
Harding takes a moment to look at her horns, the opal tip of the right one shining in the room’s light; her dark hair, a tiny braid sneaking down behind her ear and down to her neck. If only she knew how nervous Rook was, with the hair on her nape standing on end. “Hey, guess what?” She sneaks in another look at her lips, then back at Rook’s brown eyes. “I’m not thinking about my bad dreams anymore.”
She places her hand on Rook’s forearm, fingertips touching her skin, not ever breaking eye contact and leaning in ever so closely. Rook puts her hand on top of hers and gently grabs it. She can feel the scout’s nice and sweet perfume, a mix of the sweetness of wild flowers with the fresh air after a rainfall. Rook needs to hold herself together from melting right then and there, until she realizes how literal that turned out to be.
Being a mage, she immediately notices a sensation very similar to when she’s around lyrium. Except, only when it’s large quantities of lyrium. And this time, it feels close to being injected with said quantities of lyrium.
She doesn’t want to back away from Harding, especially when she’s slowly closing in, red hair flooding her vision, and all Rook wants to do is to drown herself in all of her and never stop. But, she reluctantly pulls away, feeling as if something drained all of her energy.
“Whoa. I suddenly feel… tired?” She removes her hand and stands up, and somehow having to do that hurts more than the actual pain she felt.
“Oh, of course. Right. It’s, uh… I’m not the only one who’s not sleeping.” Rook tries to hide her hand from Harding while she opens and closes it, brows furrowed in confusion as she tries to move her fingers and make something out of the blue veins that popped out in her skin for a brief moment. “Um… we could continue this in the morning?” Harding looks up expectantly and asks.
And surely, Rook replies with as much enthusiasm as she can manage, even though she still feels weak. “I can’t wait.”
Harding hugs her knees again and rocks her feet back and forth, barely containing her grin as Rook walks out.