Nose Kiss

Notes: Ibid.

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"You are ridiculous," Cullen says with all the grave solemnity of a Revered Mother giving benedictions to those sentenced to death.

The runaway mage neither startles nor looks up from where he's crouched on the ground. Appearing totally at ease with being found not even five miles away from the Circle. Cullen's not even part of the search party that left to go after him.

To the North because of reasons he knows nothing of because he's not supposed to be hunting the mage. He's supposed to be travel ling to the caravan outpost with the week's requisition orders and the dispatches from the Tower. A brief march out and back in time for dinner.

"No, you are ridiculous," Anders retorts. Barely any attention paid to it which blunts his normally sharper tongue. The wide, ecstatic grin he's wearing doesn't help either. "Isn't he ridiculous? Yes he is! Big, old ridiculous Templar. Nothing at all like you precious little things!"

The gray cat curled up in the crate is familiar. The cat wanders the lower floor of the Tower and the island outside of it. Hunting mice and other pests. She purrs contentedly as she regards them both briefly with slit eyes. The squirming mass of newly born kittens take her and the mage's full attention as they struggle to latch onto a teat.

"Did you bring her out here to give birth?" Cullen asks unnecessarily because he knows it to be the truth already. The Tower has three other cats and discussion on what to do with the pregnant gray has been going on since her stomach started showing. There's not enough of a pest population to support more cats, and talk had turned to getting rid of the litter. Not all of that talks had been gentle either.

"No, I brought her out here so I could drown the kittens myself," Anders stops fussing long enough to scowl up at him. Neck craned up awkwardly. "This is not an escape attempt by the way. This is a rescue mission. It doesn't count!"

"Ser Bethesaide has left to retrieve you," in the opposite direction and Cullen wonders now because that means the mage's phylactery wasn't used. Not at first at least. The man's record of finding apostates and runaway mages is both impressive, and something most of them are tired of hearing the man brag about. Finding a mage without the use of his phylactery will just be the next step up for the man, and Cullen is not surprised by the act or how spectacularly it will fail him. "I think it has already been counted."

Anders frowns before his eyes drop to the dispatch bag. "You found me on accident!" He sounds delighted as he laughs. "Oh, Biff's going to be so mad!"

Bethesaide will be, but he's also the one who had been most vocal for the plan of drowning the litter. Cullen's fairly sure that plays no small part in the mage's glee at angering the Templar sent out to hunt him down. He leans over the kneeling mage and counts five squirming forms. One nearly toothless maw gapes open for a bit and releases a tiny pitiful noise before diving back in. Cullen does not consider himself a cat person, but knows that he could not go with any of the darker options after being faced with that.

"You're planning to leave them here?" Cullen asks and doesn't permit himself to kneel down to pet the kittens himself. Anders is fussing enough over them.

"Well not here," Anders drawls out. Voice rising slightly as he looks up again. Smile the kind of innocent Cullen knows only comes out when someone is about to ask a favor. A large favor. "I was going to take her to the outpost, but she was having some trouble with the last kitten and had to stop."

Anders is wheedling and asking without actually saying anything. Cullen shakes his head and the mage carefully picks up the crate the cats are in. There's a chorus of mewls as the shift upsets them all, and Cullen doesn't step back fast enough to avoid it as it's shoved into his chest. "What are you-"

"You cannot say no to this face," Anders coos as he reaches in to lift one of the kittens up and all but shoves it in Cullen's face. A small paw bats at his upper lip as the furry head bumps against his nose. It's mewing is high and tiny. "It's just another mile or two until this little one gets a nice, new home. Dry barn, plenty of rats, and no one looking for an excuse to drown him."

"Fine, but you are staying close to me," Cullen caves in as much to the wheedling tone Anders uses as the pitiful mews of the kittens. "Get the cat out of my face."

The kitten disappears from his face and he has no time to dodge as Anders takes it's place. Placing a dry, noisy kiss on his nose before tucking the kitten back into the crate. "That's what I like about you. You're reasonable."

Cullen flinches back too late and is left watching the mage's back as he spins around to lead the way. The kittens aren't feeding anymore. They're curled up little balls of sleeping fluff now. The mother is still purring, but her eyes are closed. Cullen should be turning right back around to escort Anders back to the Tower. He should be discouraging the mage from any future attempts to leave its protection. He should but he won't.

He's often been accused of being too soft hearted, and it's true, but Cullen has a hard time seeing the harm in saving the crate full of soft furred felines.

"Reasonable," Cullen mutters to himself with a scoff as he follows. Keeping a sharp eye on Anders the whole way because he might be soft hearted, but he's not stupid. "Reasonable won't save me from being lashed you know."

"Eh, you can handle it," Anders says with a careless wave over his shoulder, and Cullen would not be surprised if the man was smirking. "Big, bad Templar like you can handle anything really."

Cullen scowls and quickens his pace. Keeping his eyes locked on the mage he's now sure is going to try to slip away somehow, somewhere.

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