Reunion

Three years later, she lays in the embrace of a new boy, a man to whom she has just given herself for the first time and marvels at his understanding of the locket and his lack of understanding her. "Remarkable, isn't? Have you figured it out?" Alistair asked softly.

"The locket? It's Arl Eamon, isn't it? A very young Arl Eamon? Mother thought so," she sniffled through quiet sobs. She tried to tilt her head up to see Alistair's face but was only granted a remarkable view of his nasal passages. She was on her back, her head cradled by the embrace of his broad shoulder and his arm holding her against his naked body. Was he acting smug? Here she was, tears pouring from her eyes and he was acting smug.

"No! Us, silly! Haven't you guessed already?" He squeezed her tightly under the blankets.

"Guessed what? Are you teasing me again? Because if you are…"

He sighed and encouraged her to lie on top of his chest so that he could see her face. "Inside the locket, My Love, is a painting of a man with a beard. It is Arl Eamon as a young man and the man who raised me, before I got shipped off to the temple. Now do you understand what I am telling you?"

Her eyes widened. Tears poured from them and rained upon his chest in what threatened to become a deluge. He held her face in his hands and kissed her gently. "Maker's breath, Elissa! They'll think we're fighting if you keep crying like this. I don't want Sten's sword up my arse for abusing you!

Yes. It's me. It was me all along. Crazy, huh? You got your wish! Everything you predicted happened, more or less. And we, you and I, have lived the Remigold, not just danced it."

She perched on her elbows as they rested upon his chest. She gripped his shoulders tightly while he lovingly caressed her arms with his fingers. "You knew? How long have you known this?"

His amber-brown gaze was gentle and warmed her soul though she wanted to be angry at him for not saying anything. "Well, it's hard to say exactly when I knew but I had my suspicions as far back as the moment I first laid eyes on you."

"And yet you said nothing…!" she snapped at him.

"No. I had to be sure. I had to see the locket. You… have changed a lot. I had a better view of you than you had of me and though I did not know your name or history, I saw you clearly at times. But again, I wasn't completely sure. Oh, I guess we could have discussed it but I rather enjoyed falling for you all over again." Alistair's eyes brimmed with happy tears. He reached up and took a handful of her dark red hair and pulled her lips to his. "Yes… I confess I may have fallen in love with you that crazy night. I'm glad it happened again…"

When the kiss was done, she nuzzled his neck and kissed his throat while she spoke. "Do you… Still have my ring?" She felt him nod. "Mmmhmm. My fingers are a bit thick for it these days but it resides on a gold chain I bought for it. I've been avoiding wearing it for fear of tipping you off too soon. Then again, I may have been protecting myself."

She snorted and gazed into his eyes. "Always have to lead, hmm? Don't you remember that the Remigold has a part where the woman leads?"

"Uh huh. Wait… Uh oh…"

"Defiling Chantry property is the least of what I have planned for you…"

He sighed dramatically. "Defile away. I shall somehow endure the abuse. Somehow."

"Did you ever locate your borrowed helm?" she asked suddenly, eyebrow raised.

"My… Helm. Right. The commander had it and I was asked about it. Oddly enough, he was only angry about the misplaced helm and not my hours-long escapade with an unattached lady of the court. As far as the Remi was concerned, he never found out who did it, none that he wished to prove anyway. He knew it was me, though. He told me I drag my feet sometimes. As if he could do better!"

As he sat up, he pulled her against him and they sat together in the faint light of the moon and the central fire. "I am… VERY happy to know that my mind wasn't playing tricks on me when I dreamed of him thinking it was you or the other way around," Elissa murmured thoughtfully. " I had been having a few troubling dreams like that and I was waking up feeling guilty. Especially the night I was cold and you slept beside me to keep me warm. I thought I was sleeping with him! But he's you…" She exhaled softly. "I am so furious that you kept your suspicions to yourself." He didn't think she sounded very angry. She was very calm, in fact! Sixteen-year old Elissa would have hit him.

"I did a pretty good job of it, hmm? Heh heh. You had no idea until tonight. I didn't plan tonight, though. That just sort of happened but what I said, everything I told you, I must have practiced a dozen times so that I wouldn't sound like an idiot. Being in love with you is the greatest feeling in the world and making love to you is better than I ever dreamed. I… Like that in spite of being a virgin too, you knew what you were doing. You REALLY knew what you were doing. Ahem. Wow."

She blushed. "I… wasn't as chaste as mother would have wanted. Maybe YOU were raised in a monastery but I sure wasn't. I guess the only thing I didn't do was, well, take it all the way. I'm glad I saved it though. That's a bit like your first kiss. It's a gift."

"Our first kiss wasn't so great," he snorted.

"No… But our second kiss was amazing. Remember how you lifted me up? I liked being taller than you. If only we'd been naked…!" she giggled at the risqué thought and leaned against his chest. The way she was looking up at him gave him gooseflesh.

Inspiration struck as he flashed her his favorite rakish grin. "The tent's a bit short for standing in but there's the area out by the stream where we bathe. Nobody ever goes there. Would you like to…?

"…You mean standing up?" she felt her blood quicken in her veins at the thought of what he was suggesting.

He tossed a shirt at her and he pulled on some light sleeping pants from his pack. "You never know… We might hate it but I'm willing to try anything now… now that you're a part of me." She started to don the shirt but dropped it at the look of vulnerability she saw in his eyes. His body wasn't just naked but his soul was too. It touched her deeply to how much he trusted her as he trusted no one else. It was jarring but pleasant. Elissa was against him a second later, her mouth on his and her arms around his neck.

"Part of a whole, don't you think? We do work well together," Elissa told him as she reached for the human equivalent of a Golem control rod. He gasped, his face contorting. Even through the fabric, he could feel her fingers tightening. "Only my duty as a Gray Warden shall come first but I will never betray your trust, Alistair. I swear it."

"And now what do we do?" he asked as he watched her pull the shirt over head. It was huge on her and pleasantly It reminded him of an earlier, more innocent time.

"Hmm… I believe I should have the right to take the lead anytime I desire and apparently, all I have to do is this," she squeezed him tightly again, a subtle reminder that the night was not yet over, "…and you suddenly become very obedient! Let's go do that new position. I'm dying to see what you can make of it."

"I've created a monster! I'm doomed…!" he laughed.

"We BOTH are…!"

"Yay for us!" he squeaked.

End.