They lay
in bed, both on the verge of sleep. Rayne lay on top of Cullen, their bodies
molded together, her head resting on his chest listening to the sound of his
heart beat while he gently brushed his fingers up and down her back.
She opened
her eyes pulling her mind from the welcoming grasp of the Fade and looked up
into Cullen’s face. The look of contentment and the smile made him look younger.
Her eyes followed the line of his lips and stopped at the scar the graced the
top.
“Where did
you get it?” She asked.
Cullen
hummed slowly in response. “Get what?” His voice heavy with sleep.
Rayne
reached forward and gently slid her fingers from the top of his lip going up.
“This.”
He blinked
rapidly trying to wake himself up and looked down at her hand. “You’ve never
asked about it before.” His words slightly muffled from her hand over his face.
She
shrugged. “I don’t really pay much attention to it. It’s just… part of you.”
She shrugged again and pulled her hand away putting it under her chin so she
wasn’t digging into his ribs. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want.”
Cullen
awkwardly cleared his throat. “There’s nothing to tell.”
She tilted
her head as she noted the slight reddening of the tips of his ears. A slow
smile came to her face. “Oh?”
He was now
refusing to meet her gaze, as if that would keep his ears from getting redder.
It wasn’t working. In fact, that blush was now spotting his cheeks.
“Oh, I
think there is.” Her voice teasing. “And now I need to know, if your blush is any indication.”
Cullen
covered his face with his arm and groaned. “Maker’s Breath, can we just forget
about this?”
Rayne gave
a dark chuckle. “No. I don’t think so.” When he still didn’t say anything she
kissed his bare chest. “Come now, Cullen. It can’t be as bad as you’re making it
out to be.” She gave another kiss.
He took a
deep breath and exhaled slowly, and then lowered his arm to look down at her. “You
really want to know?”
She nodded
and rested her chin back on him, waiting in anticipation.
“You have
to swear that you won’t laugh.”
Rayne
rolled her eyes, “I swear I won’t laugh.”
He studied
her a moment and then sighed again. “It was during Kirkwall’s restoration. I
hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep at the time, whether because of no time or
my mind wouldn’t calm down enough to fall asleep.”
Rayne had
been dealing with her own problems at that time, she never saw Kirkwall after
everything that happened. Between the Chantry’s destruction at the hands of an
apostate, the battle between mages and Templars at the Gallows and the few
remaining Qunari trying to take advantage of the upheaval it had to of been
utter chaos. She had heard of the riots and now thought that Cullen had received
the scar from that.
The pink
returned to Cullen’s cheeks, “I, uh… I was in my room trying to calm my mind by
polishing my shield. It almost worked; the action was making me drowsy.” He
cleared his throat. “I may have even fallen asleep for a short time… before one
of the Templars from Starkhaven burst into the room.”
He paused
and Rayne waited patiently trying to piece together the end of the story.
“I… may
have panicked… a little. I fumbled with my shield and brought it up a bit too
fast and hard…”
Rayne
blinked at him a moment. “Wait, are you telling me… you bashed your shield into
your face?”
The
diversion of his eyes was confirmation enough.
Then
something else came to her. “The Starkhaven Templar, it wouldn’t have happened
to be Captain Rylen, would it?”
Cullen
sighed as if in pain. “Yes.”
Rayne bit
her lip, trying to keep the smile from forming on her face. But she couldn’t
quite keep the shake from coming to her body.
His gaze
went back to her and glared. “I swore you wouldn’t laugh.”
“I’m not.”
But the lie wouldn’t stick, her voice laced with laughter.
His ears and
chest were scarlet with either embarrassment or indignation. Or perhaps both.
“I’m
sorry, Cullen.” She couldn’t contain it anymore and started laughing. “But of
all the things that ran through my head, you smashing your shield in your face
and gaining that scar was not one of
them.”
“Imagine
how I felt…” He grumbled.
With a
grin she asked, “Why didn’t you get a healer to repair it? It wouldn’t have
left a scar that way.”
He rubbed
his face trying to dispel his embarrassment. “I didn’t want to have to explain
how it happened.”
Rayne
snorted with laughter. “And Rylen?”
“It took a
bit for me to be able to look him in the eye again.”
She buried
her face in his chest to keep from bursting out in laughter by picturing poor
Cullen’s face red from the shield and embarrassment and bleeding.
Cullen humped in annoyance.
Rayne took
a deep breath burying any more laughter and looked up at him. He was no longer
red with humiliation but he was now sulking.
She tilted
her head and moved up to be eye level with him. “Well, I’ll have to thank Rylen
the next to I see him.”
Cullen
raised an eyebrow and looked at her in question.
She kissed
his scar. “It is rather sexy.”
He was trying
hard to stay upset with her, but the slight twitching at the corners of his
lips gave him away.
“We’ll
just say you got it fighting a bear.” She said with a small laugh and kissed
him.
Mayerine 