Empty Sky
a Lionwolf-ish ficlet. Starring Sera and Cullywully and a slightly damp Inquisitor.
@fenedhislasa
The Pranks weren't working anymore. The Pranks ALWAYS worked. That was so great about them. Then, when the Inquisitor walked through a door and a bucket of water fell onto her, she just sat down on the floor and stared at her hand.
More than anything else she'd seen in the crazy years with the Inquisition, that creeped Sera out. Even more than that bloody song or that... thing that called itself Cole. The Inquisitor was-- well, she was HER. She glowed. Or did. Used to. Now she just had sat down on the flagstones of Skyhold and stared at the ground and Sera hadn't known what to do.
She'd settled for going off to find one of the last few of the oldies still around. It wasn't really the 'Inquisition' anymore. Most people had left, and Sera had planned to but there was still stuff to take care of. Plus Widdle wasn't done packing up her stuff so it wasn't like Sera was about to go off until Widdle had all her sparky magic stuff.
Skirting around the dangerously-sad Inquisitor, Sera scampered out to the courtyard and to where Commander Jackboot would still be clearing out his office.
"Heya?" she asked, poking her head through the door without knocking. She never knocked. What was the point of letting people know you were coming?
But the soon to be only Mister Jackboot wasn't doing anything fun. He was just sitting at his desk, staring at a chessboard in front of him.
"Andraste's grace," he muttered, looking up at her. "Please tell me that you're not here to tell me you've hid bees in the moving boxes again." He ran a gloved hand over his face and leaned back in his chair.
"No," She said thoughtfully. That had been a good one. "No, I tried the water bucket one on Quizieface but she just sat down and I got out of there bloody quick before she could start crying. If she can cry." Sera paused, considering that possibility with horror. "She can't, right? She's... she's glowy-scary-lady." Right.
Cullen frowned, pushing himself to his feet, and Sera could see that something was bothering him too.
"Right?" She added. "Dinnit try t'stab me or nothing. Weird, yeah?" But then he frowned and Sera wasn't sure if he really understood the gravity.
"What's so weird?" she asked, following Cullen as he crossed the parapet towards the rotunda. "Everyone's just so /weird/ since we got back from Orlesifancypants."
Mister-former-Commander stopped, and Sera watched as his shoulders hunched up all strange and he clenched his jaw. Reading other people was still hard, even with widdle's help, but Sera frowned, realising that something was wrong.
"Tell me what's gotten so weird," she said, feeling panic creep up from deep in her belly. She'd never seen Commander Jackboot ever look like this. He was strong and warm and like that mabari he brought back and he tried so hard to be right and good and now he was making a face and his eyes were all tight and glistening.
"Sera, please," Cullen said quietly. "This is difficult for a lot of us."
"What?" she said, hearing her voice verge on shrill. She couldn't help it. Things were all weird and that was saying something after being in the bloody fade and punching at Dragons. "No one will tell me. You lot just got back and everything was okay. Angry and okay and now everyone's gone and you lot are all sad." She sucked in a breath.
"You... two are sad," she corrected herself slowly. Gears clicked into place and started to whirr in her mind. "You two and Lady angry-glow and you are sad... and we found out that-" she sucked in a sharp angry breath. Like she's been stung.
"Sera," Cullen said, his voice quiet, even though it was rough and sore. Like a scraped knee or palm when you didn't judge the jump to the rooftop right. It stung, just hearing it.
"Not you," Sera said, taking a step back from Cullen. "You're supposed to be solid, like rocks. Like your desk. Solid, not," she yanked in a breath, and wanted to push back the strong arms that gently pulled her into a hug. "You're not supposed to be weepy too," she whispered, thwacking her palm into his chestplate. But she curled into the embrace, burying her face into the fur ruff that always smelled like comfort and steel.
"i'm sorry," Cullen said. "I can't always be solid. It's, it's too much to be solid all the time. The Inquisitor and I-" she could feel the deep breath he took through his shoulders, and the way it hitched halfway through. "We had to be solid for everyone when they were still here. But now that they're gone, we need to let her be soft too."
Sera thought about that, face still buried in red and brown fur, her fingers curling into gnarled handfuls of the stuff.
"Like you. Because being hard too long is...hard."
He let out a huff, a near chuckle.
"It gets tiring, yes," he said. "I'm sorry. Are you okay after Orlais? Finding out about the creators, I know you didn't believe in them but-"
"It's weird," she said quietly. "it's weird and it's too Big. Gods? They weren't gods but they were real. Might well have been gods, cause of all that magic, right? But I didn't think they were real. Then Arse-nugget goes off and is one. The cool one. The interesting one."
"He is interesting, yes," Cullen said with a weak laugh. "Was. Maker, this-"
"You're not going to just sit on your arse, are you?" Sera asked, pulling back abruptly to look up at him. "You can't. All the people, big and little, if he does that thing-"
Cullen patted her shoulder, letting his arms drop.
"No. I'm not. And neither will the Inquisitor, we just need time... time to..." he faltered, looking around as though he could find the word on the parapet around them.
"To grieve," a quiet voice finished for them. At the door of the rotunda, holding the stub of her arm to herself with her good one, the inquisitor. Her eyes were red, puffy. But she had that tilt to her head that Sera was used to seeing.
She was also still wet.
"To process everything," Cullen said, pulling off his fur mantle and moving to place it around the soaked inquisitor. She moved to brush him away, her left arm coming up and... passing by uselessly as the ghost of her hand failed to stop the commander's fur from being wrapped around her.
She scowled at him, and he looked back at Sera.
"We could use the jennies," the Inquisitor said quietly, looking at Sera. "if that offer was still on the table."
"The wh-" the commander started to say, but stopped as Sera stepped forward and pulled them both into a tight hug.
"Yes." she said. Because she couldn't say that this was the closest she'd had to a family. Because she couldn't say that seeing either of them hurting hurt worse than when that pride demon had nearly cut a hole into her side. Because she didn't have the words that fit right, but she was going to help them hurt less. And if it meant she got to punch arse-tits-face in the... well.. face, all the better.
She hadn't liked him to start. She especially didn't like him after Orlais. Now? Now he had hurt her family and no one walked away from hurting her family. No one.
