Okay but imagine that when Cullen was a kid he slept with a stuffed bunny every night and he loved the hell out of that thing and couldn't get to sleep without having it to snuggle. But when he joined the Templars he had to get rid of it, bc a 13 old boy doesn't curl up in bed cuddling a plushie when he's sleeping in a dorm full of other boys, not if he wants to survive. He has to be tough, of course. He probably gave it away himself before he left for the Order, and was so proud of how adult[c]
[2] and grown up this action was, stoically giving his old bunny to a small child, right until he went to bed the next night and started to miss it. But what's to be done? He gets on without it, but never stops missing it. Then at Skyhold, Cole empaths onto this memory. A stuff bunny somehow makes its way into Cullen's bed, almost identical to the old one. He's annoyed about it at first, or tries to be, but the withdraw is very bad and there's comfort in that toy and he sleeps with it curled[c]
[3] in his arms. I imagine Yael finds out about this eventually, IDK what she does, you tell me. But he keeps that rabbit for a long time, up until they adopt Eli and she's big enough to sleep with a stuffed animal. When that happens Cullen gives the bunny to her, bc by then he's doing so much better and doesn't need it as badly as he used to.
You can't say these things to me about a fictional character that I cannot take physically into my arms and hug like my life depended on it. That's not fair. That's cheating somehow.
And Yael would probably just be like "Oh, that's adorable. No. Okay. Excuse me..." and get out of bed while Cullen was asking her what the heck she was doing while she's just "No I need to lie down on the floor for a bit. It's not a big deal. It's just there is only so much of this I'm equipped to handle."
Speaking of I'm also lying on the floor now. What a strange coincidence.
