A/N: This will turn into a series of occasional one-shots. It started when I got an ask on Tumblr, just after the Fallout 4 trailer released, about what Dorian and Aeric would be like in the Fallout universe. For full details about this AU, please see my description of the Never Changes series on my profile.

Tumblr prompt: I'm just imagining Aeric in the Fallout AU making Dorian a "romantic dinner" and it's like Salisbary Steak and Mac N Cheese and clean water and dorian being like "I don't know what I expected but this is just as good"

"Not Much"

ooo

"Where are you taking me?" Dorian asked as Aeric led him by the hand. They were walking uphill now, far from the ruined streets and ancient abandoned cars.

"You'll see," Aeric replied. "Not far now."

Aeric had been rather secretive of late. Hiding away things he had scavenged from old houses when he thought Dorian wasn't looking, saving up lantern oil and walking in the near darkness, as if they were home and Aeric still an elf who could see in the dark. Dorian shook his head, scolding himself. No, not 'home'. Thedas was not home. It wasn't even real.

Home for him now was no longer a place, but a person.

"You've been planning this for some time now, haven't you, amatus?" Dorian said in a soft voice.

Aeric nodded and smiled, a rare enough sight these days. "We've been just barely scraping by. Sometimes it's hard to remember that it wasn't always this way. I thought we could both use some reminding."

As the words left his mouth, they approached the top of the hill, a soft flickering glow of firelight and the smell of food greeting them before Dorian could actually see what awaited them. The smell made his stomach rumble. He tried to curb his excitement - meat from the irradiated animals always tasted a little strange - but whatever it was, it smelled better than anything they had eaten in the months since escaping from the simulation.

They crested the hill, and Dorian stared in amazement at the little camp Aeric had created. A small fire burned warmly with the two blankets they used as bedrolls spread nearby. Tiny tin cups of lantern oil dotted the hill, the wicks burning within them looking like a hundred little stars. Dorian's breath hitched in his chest. It had been a long time since he had seen anything so beautiful.

"Maker," Dorian breathed. "It's gorgeous."

Aeric grinned, gazing at Dorian's face. "You like it, then?"

Dorian laughed. "That's an understatement. Aeric, you didn't have to go to all this trouble."

"I wanted to," Aeric replied. Their hands still linked, he pulled Dorian until they stood atop their blankets. "Sit."

Dorian did as he was told, feeling a little stunned, and watched as Aeric went to the fire. Taking the lids off of their two battered and dented cooking pots, Aeric spooned the food into their set of metal bowls and came back, offering Dorian one of the bowls and a fork.

"Silverware?" Dorian said, taking the food with a grin. "My, we are getting fancy." The food didn't look particularly appetizing - brown chunks with gravy and some orange tube-shaped noodles beside it - but neither did anything else he had eaten in this world. Yet as he took his first bite, there was actual flavor in it, salt and seasonings and something reminiscent of cheese. "Fasta vass," he swore, taking a few more bites. "What is this?"

From beside him, Aeric shrugged and swallowed a mouthful of food. "The packages said 'salisbury steak' and 'macaroni and cheese', whatever those are. But they're not irradiated, so they won't make us sick."

"Better than anything else I've tasted in this bloody world," Dorian told him earnestly. It tasted real, like food used to taste like in Thedas. Maker, sometimes he missed the simulation, if only to taste something decent. Dorian couldn't eat the food fast enough.

Aeric's eyes lit up, remembering something. Reaching into his pack nearby, he pulled out two bottles of water. "Here. This is clean too."

Dorian swallowed hard and took the water, unable to answer. The effort Aeric must have gone to… Instead, he took a long sip of the clean water, and it tasted crisper, fresher. When he finally set the water down, he smiled at Aeric, regaining his words. "I can't believe you did all of this for me. I am positively awestruck, amatus." Dorian leaned over to kiss Aeric on the lips.

A warm rosiness appeared at Aeric's cheeks as he shrugged again. "It's not much."

"'Not much' is hard to come by in this world," Dorian murmured. "'Not much' is more than we've had since coming here." He set his fork down and gave Aeric's hand a squeeze. "This is incredible. Thank you."

Aeric smiled, squeezing Dorian's hand in return, before they both went back to their food in comfortable silence.

When they had both finished, Aeric set aside their dishes. With the fire dying beside them, the little cups of oil still glittering around them, they lay back on the blankets, holding each other close as they looked up at the night sky.

"The stars look much the same as they did back home," Dorian said, and he scolded himself mentally again. "In Thedas, I mean."

Aeric kissed his forehead. "They do."

Dorian frowned as he gazed up at the stars. The shapes they made… they were starting to look familiar. "I think… I think I remember what some of the constellations are," he said softly.

"Oh?" Aeric answered in a similarly quiet tone. "Show me."

"Do you see that configuration of stars?" Dorian pointed, tracing the shape in the sky with one finger. "The one that looks like a ladle? They call it the Big Dipper."

Their eyes met for a moment, and Dorian saw a smile in Aeric's eyes that did not touch his lips. "An apt name."

"Indeed," Dorian agreed. He pointed further down the field of stars. "It's part of a larger constellation, called Ursa major. The large bear."

"It sounds like Tevene."

Dorian sighed, feeling a clench in his chest at the thought of Tevinter. "It does, doesn't it?"

Kissing Dorian again, Aeric pulled him closer, his arms tightening around him. "You miss it, don't you. Thedas."

Dorian nodded. "Sometimes," he admitted. "You?"

"Yes." Aeric kissed him yet again, longer this time, his lips lingering and his tongue gently exploring. When their lips parted, he smiled. "Not now, though."

"No, not now. Thanks to you." Dorian returned the smile. He gazed at Aeric, his heart bursting with affection. The tattoos were gone from the other man's face, but Dorian still traced them with his fingertips, remembering. "I love you."

Aeric's face lit up in a grin. "I love you too, ma'nehn." Still one more kiss, and they soon forgot about the stars, about Thedas, about the world they found themselves in.

All that mattered to Dorian in that moment was the man he loved, the man who loved him in return, a person who could make 'not much' mean everything.