It’s soon after the battle of Arishok, they’ve been talking for hours at this point, laughing and she managed to convince the Templar to take his armor off, to relax… even if it was for awhile. “How do you like wine?” she’s asking, trying to push herself up, holding his shoulders, even as he’s insisting her to lay down, she’s grinning.
“Lady Hawke I must insist you sit” Cullen states, guiding her back down using her hands. Once she’s seated, her palms are on his cheek. “I can’t stay here forever” she tells him, and all she receives is a kiss to her hand.
She’s at the Gallows under Meredith’s orders. She’s listened to her for a few hours, Cullen standing at her side. She tries very hard to listen, and actually take note of what the woman is saying. She’d only agreed to the meeting because she already sent word to Cullen about wanting to talk.
By the end she’s pretty sure she missed more than half of what the Knight-Commander had has insisted of her. She’s glad to get out of the office, looking to see if Cullen was being released too, no such luck.
So she does exactly what she never thought she’d be doing, she’s sneaking into a Templar’s room.
It’s… much later that the Knight-Captain actually makes it back into his room, and by that time, Shepard has shed her armor to the floor of his room and made herself comfortable in the middle of his bed on top of the covers, and curled up into a ball.
She wakes when she feels the bed dip and sits up quickly, standing. “Ser Rutherford” she states firmly, waiting to garner his attention. “I believe… that if I have not made myself obvious before, I would like to pursue a more–” he finishes her sentence for her.
“Intimate?” she hears him intone from the edge of the bed he’s sitting on. And she just smiles, circling the bed to sit by him, feeling the heat of his growing blush radiating off of him in waves.
“I promise–” Shepard guides him closer, pressing her temple to his before leaning in to kiss him soundly, “I do not bite Cullen” she hums before giving him a daring smile as she moves back to lay down to sleep.
Winter settles into the air, even Kirkwall is uncharacteristically cold. Enough for the water to freeze thick enough for Shepard’s Templar to be stuck the week when he had just gone on control.
She’s cooking when he comes down.
“I didn’t know you could cook” she hears him rumble out, the sleep-laced tone making a smile each over her features.
“My parents would be gone days at a time–” she stops briefly due to hands on her hips, “and I had two hellions to feed.” she chuckled out in melancholy. The loss of her Sister and Mother still deeply affecting her. She leaned back into his chest, grinning tiredly at the kisses he was placing down her neck and to her shoulder blades.
Two years after Meredith snapping, Hawke is writing a letter to Cullen. Varric’s sources whisper about the rumor of an Exalted March, no doubt to fetch her… an Usurper. There was a new found trust between the Templars and Kirkwall Guard… Mostly due to Cullen and Shepard being rather intimate liaisons.
Her office door opens like it has for weeks now. After the Sun goes down, Cullen comes and fetches her so they can go home. She sets her quill down, capping the ink well and blowing gently on the letter so the ink will dry and she covers it under other papers.
He’s talking about another Mage failing their harrowing and Shepard just goes to him, pushing back his curls which are worse than usual due to how humid it’s been. “And more passed… Yes?” She asks, nudging his chin with her knuckles to get him to look down.
When he confirms that, she presses her hands to his chest, taking in his heart beat. “Then you did well Love–” she reassures him, pulling him down and grappling him close, fingers in his hair because this might be the last time for Maker knows how long. “I have to finish one thing and then I will meet you back at the Estate” she tells him quietly, kissing him once more before going to her desk.
She finishes the letter and brings it back to the Estate. Grinning as the smell hits her of him cooking, she heads upstairs to shed the heavy dress and change into trousers, tucking her undershirt into the waist band before she comes down stairs to eat. Once they’re in bed, Shepard is curls tightly around her Warrior. “You know I love you.. Yes?” She asks dubiously, letting him turn to face her. “Of course… What is this about Shepard?” He asks and she just shifts to sit on him and pushing all her hair to one side she leans down to kiss him long and properly, tugging him out of his clothes as she remaps his skin with teeth and tongue as she has done so many times before. At the first light she’s up and she leaves the note, a pressed tea rose folded into the paper along with a plain gold ring she had made weeks before. Kissing his head, she dresses in her armor and retrieves her staff as she forces herself to leave, giving money to Bodhan and Orana so they may leave if they wish as well.
She’s with the healers back in Skyhold after Adamant, letting them (reluctantly) heal her wounds, even those scattered across her right arm when she had used blood magic in battle.
She can’t bring herself to look at him once he approaches, healers scattering to other wounded men and women. Her jaw clenches tight. “Cut me down if you wish–” she growled out, their years apart rehardening the parts he softened. She forces her gaze up, lips pursed as she stares him down, bile in her throat.
“How long?” Is all he asks. She snorts, shaking her head and limping the few steps back to the cot. “The first time was when I battled the Arishok-” she pronunciates the word with fire behind her tone. She lets it sink in, watching him walk off.
It’s not until months later he actually approaches her again. She stayed on, helping the Inquisitor as an Advisor despite the fact that she had to be in Weisshaupt months ago.
She didn’t want to leave Cullen again. Not so suddenly.Playing Wicked Grace on bad nights had become a way to settle her mind for a few hours. Some nights she’d see candle light from his windows, wondering how often his nightmares came now.And one night, she didn’t go to Varric, she went to her Warrior. She opened the door, hinge creaking and ruining her plan of surprise. He still jumped and she came cautiously to the edge of his desk, sitting there and watching him be robbed of his sleep.She saw the ring carefully placed on his desk where he wouldn’t lose it. She was started out of her thoughts when her hand was tugged, she stared down as he took it and she pushed herself gently of the edge of his desk, moving her free hand to guiding him to rest his head against her stomach, leaning down to kissing the crown of his head.
She could finally tell that he had stopped taking Lyrium, and she sunk to her knees beside him, guiding his head to her own, pressing her forehead to his.
“You are a good man under bad circumstances–” she tells him quietly. “You are good” she tells him once more.
