Oh god, I saw your prompts for DWC and I couldn't help myself: You took me on a cut-your-own-christmas-tree-farm date & holy frick you make a cute lumberjack I WAS UNPREPARED, for Asha and Cullen. I need Cullen in flannel like I need air :D
So you and @dawnofakatosh both asked for this one! Here we go, I guess this is modern AU Cullen/Asha for @dadrunkwriting
ps. this soft, scruffy Cullen in flannel was the death of me. I’m dead now. You’re talking to a ghost.
Cutting down her own Satinalia tree had never, ever occurred to Asha. Not once did she think about driving into the country, walking around to saw down a fir tree, and then drag it back to her apartment. It seemed excessive and time-consuming and helplessly Fereldan, but she’d agreed when she saw how excited Cullen was at the idea.
Apparently, this was something he did with his family when he was growing up, before he left for basic. He hadn’t since then, hadn’t seen a reason to living in Denerim by himself, but with Asha... he wanted to share this with her, and she couldn’t bring herself to tell him no.
She’s already ready to go and standing in the kitchen making them both coffee in tumblers when he walks out of their bedroom. She freezes with the spoon in her mouth to watch as he walks across to her, carefully rolling up the second sleeve of a red flannel shirt.
She didn’t even know he owned any flannel shirts, and now here he is, bold as you please, with a weekend’s worth of scruff on his face and his hair curling carelessly on top of his head.
He meets her gaze and tilts his head to the side in confusion, wrinkling his eyebrows at the expression on her face. She smiles at him, remembering to drop the spoon in the sink -- then quickly transferring it to the dishwasher when he frowns -- and offers him his drink.
He bends down to kiss her in thanks, then smiles against her mouth when she presses up on her toes to make the kiss linger.
“Ready to go?” he asks, grabbing her jacket from the hook by the door and offering it to her.
“Uh-huh,” she says, pulling the jacket on, grabbing her coffee, and heading out the door behind him.
It takes an hour from their apartment to get to one of the little farms in the suburbs, and Asha tries, she really does, to focus on their upcoming celebrations rather than on how her boyfriend looks.
All her careful distraction evaporates when they get out of the car at the farm and he leads her into the maze of trees, little saw in hand. She lets him get ahead of her instead of walking by his side to hold his hand, admiring his form in dark jeans and boots.
She groans under her breath and jogs to catch up when she realizes she’s completely stopped walking to wonder if the trees are close enough to hide them long enough for a quickie (the answer: no, and the farm is too busy anyway, but it’s something to consider).
He glances at her, curious but oblivious, and she just winks at him and squeezes his hand.
She watches as he finally finds a tree, inspecting it from all sides and deciding it’s the perfect one. She watches as he stretches out under the tree, the muscles in his arm and back flexing under the flannel as he carefully saws until it starts to fall, then she remembers her role here and catches it before it can fall completely.
Then, she takes the saw and huffs in aroused exasperation as he lifts the tree and carries it back to the car.
