Anonymous asked: 17. Empty for Abelas/Lavellan?

"You asked to see me?"

Abelas turned at the sound of her voice. He hadn't been waiting long; the courtyard beside the stables was openly traveled and he did not want an audience for what he intended to do.

"Inquisitor," he greeted.

"Eve," she corrected, and he inclined his head in acknowledgment.

"Eve." He clasped his hands behind his back, straightening his posture. "After witnessing the last series of audiences and judgments, I have had much reflecting to do and the time in which to do it." He watched as she moved nearer to the large, sculpted stones that lay almost artfully scattered beside the lone tree. "In those brought before you for wrongdoing, you have demonstrated the ability to discern false, hollow platitudes from the true desire to make amends. You answer to each accordingly, and it is that sense of integrity to which I appeal now."

Eve said nothing and leaned back against one of the stones and studied him carefully. His hands tightened - almost painfully so - but he continued onward.

"At the Temple of Mythal, I - " Abelas hesitated. "I understand now that my behavior toward you was unwarranted. You have since proven yourself to be far above my initial assumptions, and even at our first meeting were nothing more than civil and curious. Any hostility and anger were my own."

The Inquisitor came up off of her rest, surprise clear in her expression. "Wait,that's what this is about? Fenedhis, Abelas, you don't need to - "

"You would not leave such a thing unaddressed, were I any of the others under your command. I alone should not be exempt."

Eve exhaled slowly, and he waited patiently as she gathered her thoughts.

"You had every right to be angry," she said finally, running a hand through her white-blond hair. "Corypheus had just burned his way through, and we came barreling in after him."

"You performed the appropriate rites," he pointed out. "And assisted our sentinels when they were attacked."

"Still, that doesn't change the fact that we didn't belong there. And you weren't wrong when you pointed out my vallaslin." Her fingers twitched, and for a moment, he thought she would run them over her face. "I was raised Dalish, millennia after your time. I wouldn't have asked you to come here if I wasn't willing to learn – if you're willing to talk." She came closer, tips of her long ears emerging from a curtain of hair as she shifted. "There's no need to apologize, Abelas. Not to me."

He made a noise in his throat, considering her words for a few long moments. "Again, you prove to be not as I expected."

Eve laughed, catching her bottom lip between her teeth. "You keep saying that. Maybe it would be better to just start from scratch with the expectations." She offered her hand. "Everything settled?"

He took it, clasping her wrist firmly. "I am satisfied, if you are."

"Good. Now we have some work to do – Cassandra has a lead on some smugglers."

As she pulled away, the heel of her palm grazed his, bare skin against bare skin in a brief exchange of warmth. It caught him entirely by surprise; that one small point of contact shot a jolt through his arm and spread throughout his body until his heart and fingertips were humming.

It was as she led the way that Abelas realized he had wanted to touch her, to be touched. For the first time in his long memory, he could remember actively desiring something, and it gently-yet-insistently edged at the hollowness that had been the basis of his existence.

He followed her, unsure of how he was meant to feel.