There and Back Again Ch. 041-042

Isabela's eyes lit up, and she straightened her hair before oozing off the bench and heading around the table. I giggled and buried my face in Alistair's shoulder, just enjoying him holding me. He bent his neck, his mouth practically on my ear, his breath stirring my hair, and a lick of heat curled through my insides.

"You're really going to aim that at Aedan? That wasn't very nice."

I tilted my head back and chuckled again. "Neither was them leaving you to deal with a horny pirate. We owe him one."

"We?"

"You don't think he left you floundering with that woman solely to watch you squirm, do you? He wanted to laugh at me. He succeeded. Now he's going to pay."

Alistair chuckled in my ear. "Well that should be...interesting. To say the least. Uh...Sierra?"

"Yes, love?"

"Why did you tell her that, uh, I am...um...?"

I could practically feel the blush on his face. "Good? Can't blame a girl for wanting to flaunt what she's got. Isabela's practically green with envy. I couldn't help myself." I giggled, and felt him relax slightly.

His hand was still in my hair, and he took advantage to tilt my head a bit and press a kiss to my ear. I cocked my head further, encouraging him, then sucked in a breath when he took the hint and captured my earlobe between his lips. I clenched my fists, reflexively, and wiggled slightly in his lap, only to encounter a firm lump that I was bumping up against. He gasped at the same time that I groaned, suddenly insanely turned on. I was contemplating teasing him further when we were interrupted by a hand on each of our shoulders.

I looked up to find Leliana smiling at both of us, eyes twinkling. "You are very cute, really, but I have to suggest you think about finding another venue for this sort of activity. Otherwise every man in this room is going to assume you are-" She cleared her throat awkwardly before continuing, "-available. If you know what I mean."

I blushed scarlet; I'd not even considered what our behaviour would look like in the common room of a brothel. Alistair's face was equally red, and we both hurried to rearrange ourselves. I slid out of his lap and sat in the spot Isabela had vacated; he crossed his legs in an effort to hide the bulge. Leliana sat on the other side of me, and I realised that somehow Isabela had managed to push Leli off of the bench opposite us and insinuate herself between Aedan and Zevran. Zev was smirking as he watched her playing cards with a boggled Aedan. I laughed, and heard Alistair chuckle beside me.

A waitress came over carrying multiple plates; mine had roasted potatoes and some sort of fowl, I assumed pheasant, as well as some limp looking green vegetable that vaguely resembled broccoli. Alistair told me the other options on the menu would 'not have been to my liking', and I took it to mean they were serving rabbit or something else cute and furry. I dug into the pheasant with gusto; it was amazing to have actual food, for once, instead of vague stew-like concoctions with whatever we could scavenge or find along the way. Alistair laughed and teased me about being worse than a new Grey Warden, but only around mouthfuls of his own pheasant.

She swung back with drinks a moment later; it turned out Zevran had ordered me a glass of some sort of wine. I didn't normally drink alcohol, but I didn't think I'd get water if I asked for it, and it was definitely better than ale. I took a cautious sip -- it was actually a bit sweet, and not totally objectionable. Huh. Zevran can guess my taste in wine? I really do have a family. I raised my glass to him, and he flashed me one of his few genuine smiles.

Our dinner entertainment was watching Aedan try to fend off Isabela. For all that he'd been laughing at Alistair for the same thing, the poor boy had absolutely no idea how to manage the busty pirate. As for Isabela, she had clearly determined that they key to being invited into bed with the couple was to get Aedan to agree without realising just what he'd agreed to. Leliana, Alistair and I giggled through the entire meal, while Wynne shot disapproving looks in everyone's direction, and Zev just watched his lover with a bemused smirk.

It was sort of like the pirate was an octopus; every time Aedan removed one of her extremities from his person, another draped itself around him. And that's when she wasn't cheating at cards and betting for kisses. I just about died trying to keep from bursting out laughing.

After a while, Wynne excused herself and went back to her room, and the air of judgement hanging over everyone seemed to lift a little. I loved Wynne, I really did, as I might have loved a grandmother, but I didn't enjoy the feeling when she directed that holier-than-thou glare at me.

Over the course of the evening, the volume in the place rose, until I could no longer even hear Aedan verbally fencing with Isabela. The music got a bit louder, but mostly it was laughter and shouting from the ever-more-inebriated clients at the tables around us. I was trying to have a conversation with Leliana, who I thought was at me again about my shoes, but finally gave it up as a bad job. Alistair had his arm tightly around my waist, and his face was slightly pink as he looked around the room, inevitably catching the eye of one of the prostitutes or another who would wink in his direction.

Leliana wandered off after a bit to go closer to the musicians, and ended up on stage before long playing along on a spare lute someone had found. Alistair shouted in my ear that he was going to go get us more drinks, and motioned to Zevran to join him. I sat alone on the bench, just watching the people, fascinated. I tried not to stare at anyone for too long to avoid angering anyone or drawing attention. My gaze wandered over to the bar and Alistair periodically, and I saw him gesturing while speaking into Zevran's ear. The elf, nodding, reached into one of his myriad pockets, and handed something to Alistair. I was puzzled, but dismissed it until I saw Alistair tip his hand and drop something in his own mug of ale.

I looked at Alistair as they approached the table, but he gave me an innocent look and sat down; it was too loud to really have a conversation. Zevran sat across from me, refusing to make eye contact, and I started feeling uncomfortable. It wasn't that I didn't trust him - despite being an assassin, I knew Zev would never do anything to actually hurt Alistair -- but there was a lot of room for practical joking without hurting him, and I had plans for that night.

After downing half of his ale, Alistair excused himself to use the facilities, and I nodded. When I was sure he was gone, I gave Zevran a pointed look. He shrugged at me, looking nonchalant, but when my brow wrinkled in irritation, he reached over, grabbed Alistair's mug, and took a healthy swig. The point was obvious, even without being able to talk; Zevran wouldn't have drank it if it was something too horrible. Without any obvious recourse, short of dragging the elf out of there and interrogating him, I chose to trust in him and let it go.

I was still alone on my bench, watching the dance floor off to my right, when I suddenly felt a presence to my left. I looked over to see a stranger, a swarthy, unwashed fellow with yellow teeth. When he opened his mouth and spoke, while I couldn't hear what he said, the smell of his breath allowed me to infer that anything he said would be slurred beyond recognition anyway. He was clearly drunk, and swayed on the bench as if to prove the point.

I tried to tell him the seat was taken, but he could no more hear me than I could him. I tried to shoo him away with gestures, but in his condition he didn't seem to be catching on. He shouted something again, the only word I could pick out being 'classy', and then before I could blink, he had slapped some coins on the table, wrapped one arm around my shoulders, rested the other hand on my knee, and was leaning in with his eyes closed and a sickening leer on his face.

Shocked, I was frozen for a moment while the fact that he assumed I was a prostitute, albeit apparently a classy one, registered. Before I had a chance to decide what to do about that, his hand was violently ripped off of my leg at the same time that his face disappeared from my personal space. I looked up to see Alistair standing there, his face almost purple with rage, one big hand around the man's neck, the other pulling his wrist up behind his back, hard. He shouted something in the man's ear, and the drunkard paled, nodding rapidly and cringing. Alistair released his arm to gather up the coins he had put down and drop them into the drunk's palm. He spoke again, and then gave a shove, and with a shriek the sleaze went stumbling across the room.

He came to rest rather violently against another man, who turned with a snarl and pushed him in another direction. In the process, the second man bumped against a neighbouring table, and dumped several drinks into the laps of their owners. One of the now-damp men stood and started shouting, and pretty soon it was like a Hollywood brawl. More and more people were drawn in as people and booze started flying. It couldn't have been more perfect if it was choreographed.

While I was staring at the scrum like a dimwit, Zevran, Aedan, and Isabela had leapt to their feet, and Alistair had snagged his mug and my glass from the table, shoving them into my hands and then lifting me bodily from the bench. With his hands on my hips, he propelled me across the place towards the door that led to our rooms. We had to duck, a couple of times, as mugs flew overhead, and I stumbled as someone slammed into Alistair's back and nearly knocked both of us to the floor; I thanked God silently for Alistair's impressive muscles as he halted our descent and started me moving again.

We finally made it to the stairs, and at his urging, I sprinted up them. The volume declined as we climbed, and I could finally hear again. Aedan and Zevran were stomping behind us, and right behind them I heard Isabela urging us to go faster. I had a brief moment to wonder why Isabela was scampering away -- it seemed like the bar brawl would be right up her alley -- but I was too winded to ask. I didn't stop, hitting the top of the stairs running and just continuing down the hall to our room. When it seemed I was again going to fumble with the key, Alistair snagged it out of my hand, moved me aside by the gentle expedient of lifting me out of the way, and opened it himself. I got one last glimpse of the back of Aedan's head before I was urged through the door and it was closed behind me.

I collapsed into the one chair, breathless, putting our glasses on the table while Alistair turned and barred the door behind us. By the time he was done, my fear and momentary shock had subsided and the humour inherent in the situation had hit. I started to laugh, silently at first, and when Alistair saw me shaking he must have assumed I was crying; he knelt down in front of me, his hands gentle on my shoulders, concern written all over his face. That struck me as even funnier, and the laughter finally bubbled out of me. I fell forward, helplessly, into Alistair's waiting arms, trying unsuccessfully to stifle the noise with my fist. Alistair slowly lowered us to the ground, me in his lap, as I shook with the suppressed mirth.

I finally heard Alistair's sigh, followed by a reluctant chuckle, and my giggles died off. I sat, skirt askew, face pressed into his shirt, and wiped my tears on my own sleeve before wrapping my arms around him. He rested his chin on my head, and I felt the rumble almost as much as I heard the words.

"Why is it that every time I let you out of my direct line of sight, some other man is trying to...to...take advantage of you?"

I snickered.

"Seriously. I can't turn my back for one minute without someone trying to rape you, or grope you, or apparently pay you for unspecified 'services'."

I giggled again, snuggling in tighter, and he laughed before planting a kiss on the top of my head.

"You must think terrible things about Fereldan men."

I looked up, smiling, into his expressive, sweet face. "Not all Fereldan men."

He leaned down, stopping with his lips just a hair's width away from mine. "Thank the Maker for that." He closed the distance and pressed a soft kiss onto my lips.

I pulled away, reaching up to grab my wine and take a sip. I smirked up at him. "So, jealous much?"

His eyes twinkled even as he frowned at me. "Me? No way. Unh uh. I don't get jealous. I was just...protecting you! Yes, that's it. He clearly had evil intentions."

"Right. Of course. Evil-intentioned falling-down-drunks." I smirked more.

"And anyways, who're you to talk about jealousy? Look at you with Isabela." He looked triumphant, and I blushed slightly.

"At least I didn't threaten to murder her! Or try to turn her into a projectile weapon."

"I almost thought you might end up wrestling with her. It was a close call."

"You wish!"

We both cracked up again, and I finally scrambled up from Alistair's lap. When I glanced at him, his face was red, and he was trying hard not to stare. I looked down and realised that somewhere in there the skirt of my dress had gotten tucked up and static held it in place, revealing one leg to just above the knee. I grinned, wiggling the appendage.

"Like what you see?"

Alistair jumped like he'd been shot. "Wha-? I didn't see anything. I'm not some sort of drooling lecher! I wasn't even looking at your legs. I mean, um, or anywhere else. What? Stop looking at me like that." He hopped up, face scarlet, and pointedly avoided eye contact, staring at the wall behind me and taking a drink from his mug to cover his discomfort. I howled in laughter.

"Seriously? You've seen me mostly naked, you've had your hand on my breast, and looking at my leg gets you that embarrassed?"

His eyes flickered to my face, carefully staying above the shoulders. "I am a gentleman. Is that such a bad thing?"

I stepped up to him, taking his mug and putting it and my glass back on the table. I cuddled into his chest. "Not at all. In fact, it's one more reason that I love you. Won't stop me from teasing you about it though."

His smile was radiant and I felt it like the sun on my face. I basked for a minute before finally pulling away.