For @defaultjane's prompt "Campfire", Leliana x female Tabris, past Leliana x Marjolaine. PG-13.
-------
Kallian stirs long before Leliana rises from the bedroll. No matter how quiet her lover is, life in the Alienage has forged her a light sleeper. She opens her eyes just enough to see the blurry outline of the campfire, dimmer now than when they retired.
It's been around three hours, Kallian guesses, and three more before they ought to rise, but Leliana needs her moment.
Surely enough, she unwraps an object rolled into a scrap of linen. Leliana stares at it for a long, quiet moment, locked in her thoughts. Tears in her eyes, Kallian imagines, though she can't see. A quick movement soon confirms her suspicions; Leliana wipes her eyes.
An unnamed something tugs at Kallian's heart, as so many times before, and she's rising before she's realised it. Saying nothing, she settles next to Leliana, offering a smile. A rarity on her lips, reserved only for a few souls in this rotting world.
"I'm sorry," Leliana says softly, blinking away tears.
Shaking her head, Kallian looks down to the item in Leliana's hands: an arrow, its blade still stained with blood.
Marjolaine's blood.
"It's not every day you kill someone you love," Kallian whispers, mindful of keeping this between them.
A beat passes and Kallian can't quite tell where it will go, but at last Leliana reacts. She lets out the barest of scoffs, as if exasperated.
"I loved her once," comes the melodic voice, a hint of frustration present, "but you're the woman I love now."
Kallian's hand finds Leliana's; she gives it a light squeeze in lieu of the words that refuse to come out, but are true all the same. Instead, she says; "You don't need to be over her."
Leliana squeezes back at this, a sigh escaping her lips. Relief, perhaps. Kallian was never good at this — the whole comforting thing, the feelings talk — but with Leliana… things just seem to go right.
"Come on, you need some rest," Kallian says, not long after Leliana's rested her head on her shoulder. It seems criminal to make her move, but Kallian needs her awake and alert tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that. For reasons she can't say, but trusts are understood nonetheless.
Leliana nods, smiling. Carefully, she wraps the arrow inside the linen and Kallian makes no mention of it. Won't ever try and part Leliana with it, or anything else she holds valuable.
In time, perhaps this will set her apart from the woman who used and discarded Leliana like a broken weapon, even if her lips will never unseal for the things she wants to say.
Perhaps, Leliana will stay.
