[sandbox]

[bringspeopletogether]

No Orlesian nobles pounded down their door to demand their hound back, so when Alistair and Cullen left Halamshiral, the newly-dubbed Gruyere happily trotted alongside their horses.

A few weeks after -- which included some quiet conversation, a few orders placed with a few merchants, and almost an entire extra pack of gifts slung over one of their mounts -- Gru just as happily trotted along as they turned for South Reach.

Years of correspondence led Alistair to build an elaborate image of Cullen's family in his mind; Mia, perhaps, more fully realized than the others, but everyone with a name and a voice to match their letters. They're...not wholly inaccurate? But Mia's definitely shorter than he expected, and one or two of the children a little louder.

(Mia's voice, however, adopts exactly the pitch he imagined it would when Alistair brings up the whole I'm-your-brother-in-law-now thing.)

It's a nice place. Just the right kind of rambunctious, with all the kids running around; just the right kind of homey.

If only Cullen weren't -- well, reacting more or less precisely how Alistair worried he'd react to the reunion.

Comments

[howtoactfereldan]

"Has he done it yet?"

[bringspeopletogether]

"No. Not much to break around Skyhold."

He dumps the last of the chopped potatoes into the pot.

"If he got too excited he'd slide into a stone wall. Or Cullen's desk, which has about the same heft as a stone wall."

[howtoactfereldan]

She starts forking the bacon in a bowl to go on the table, and then turns toward the oven: the bread should be ready to come out soon.

"Fortunately he seems to have a hard head." Mia straightens, dusting her hands on her apron, and picks up her tea again. "Well, now. We've talked about Cullen, your dog, and what things were like before the Blight. Your turn. What's something I should know about you?"

[bringspeopletogether]

"Ah -- " Alistair scratches the back of his head, his smile going almost bashful. "Not much to say. Grew up in Redcliffe, trained with Cullen at the Chantry, left that to join the Wardens, did the whole...Blight thing..."

That's accompanied by a dismissive gesture before he nabs his own mug of tea.

"Left the Wardens for the Inquisition eventually, and here I am." A beat; cheerfully, "Also, I can wiggle my ears."

[howtoactfereldan]

"Make sure you show the children." A little wry. "And I know all of that, Alistair."

[bringspeopletogether]

Now the bashful look's more like a kid who got caught stealing sweets from the kitchen.

"Even the wiggling-my-ears bit?"

[howtoactfereldan]

Very severely indeed, Mia says:

"My intuition told me."

[bringspeopletogether]

"Ah, yes." He taps his temple; points to Mia. "Spot on, that intuition. Did it also catch that I'm an awful singer and once screamed like a child when I ran into a spiderweb? To be fair, I was a child. Maybe seven. Or eight."

(Babble as a means of deflection? Alistair? NEVER.)

[howtoactfereldan]

Mia's mouth twitches with amusement. (It's a tactic she recognizes.) And perhaps fortunately for Alistair -- she's got breakfast to get on the table.

She turns back to it. "You're as bad as your husband. You're just far more pleasant about it."

[bringspeopletogether]

Alistair laughs, in spite of himself. "I'm sure it's part of why we get on so well."

He polishes off his tea and goes back for a second cup.

[howtoactfereldan]

She bends to pull the bread out of the oven, and as though it's some sort of silent signal, all of the children abandon Gru and take their places around the table. Bread, bacon, and jam will have to tide them over until the stew is ready.

As the children tear into the bread, Mia stretches, hands to her lower back, twisting side to side, and turns to check on the stew with a quiet sigh.

(Alistair doesn't want to talk, Cullen apparently won't get out of bed -- all she can do is get on with her morning.)

[bringspeopletogether]

And there goes all of Gru's entertainment in one fell swoop. Life is SO DIFFICULT. Even worse, the children are too distracted by their breakfasts to spare any for the dog oh-so-patiently sitting at one end of the table.

With an enormous sigh, Gru pads back to Alistair's side and headbutts him in the hip, eliciting a tiny yelp as Alistair almost loses his balance. Alistair sets his tea aside to give him a rub behind the ears. "Yes, hello. Did you have fun?"

Boof, grumbles Gru.

To Mia: "I'm going to see if I can lure Cullen out with a bit of that bread. Yell for me if you need any more help?"

Otherwise, Alistair has no idea what he's going to do with the rest of his day.

[howtoactfereldan]

"Yes," Mia says -- distracted, a little. "All right. Callum, you can't have all the jam, you know better than that."

[bringspeopletogether]

"Spare some of it for your uncle at least," adds Alistair, leaning over the table to grab some bread and bacon. Once the jam is free of Callum's clutches, he adds a healthy dollop to his plate as well.

Then, mug of tea in one hand, plate in the other, he heads back to their room.

Opening the door as quietly as he can takes some effort, what with all the breakfast juggling, but he manages it.

[howtoactfereldan]

Cullen is fast asleep.

Face slack, he faces the center of the bed, one hand outstretched with fingers curled.

(It's the best cure he knows for a headache: sleep it off.)

[bringspeopletogether]

Alistair can't say he's surprised.

(He's a little relieved, too -- guiltily so. Can't upset Cullen if he's asleep, after all.)

Silently, he sets the plate and mug on the desk, shuttling aside a few papers to make more room. It doesn't actually do anything to hide the papers -- Alistair's not trying to hide them, after all -- nor the salutation on top of one letter in particular: Fiona.

Alistair rips off a sliver of paper from one of the discarded drafts and scribbles a note: For you. ♥, A

Before his stomach can grumble too loudly, he slips back out to find his own breakfast.

[howtoactfereldan]

It's embarrassingly late when Cullen finally wakes. He stumbles toward the desk -- it's like he has echolocation, but for jam -- and squints at the note.

And smiles, just for a moment, and folds the note, and slips it in the pages of his current volume of Kordillus Drakon's autobiography.





It's then he looks down and sees the letter.

Cullen lets out a breath, picks up the mug of cold tea, and downs the whole thing. Head's better. Good enough. Time to get dressed and see where everyone's got to.

[bringspeopletogether]

Gru, having gotten impatient and started galumphing around the house at top speed -- to the delight of the children and far less delight of the adults -- was turned out of doors. After a few laps around the stables, he flopped into what Alistair dearly hoped was just a mud puddle for some quality rolling-around.

It was not a mud puddle.

Which accounts for the half-empty rain barrel, the soaking-wet (but still cheerful) dog, and the half-soaked Alistair trying to steer him clear of another "mud puddle" as they walk to greet the horses.

[howtoactfereldan]

Having evaded prying eyes, Cullen watches the procession with some amusement.

It's another moment or two before he saunters within visual range, and makes a point of looking Alistair up and down.

[bringspeopletogether]

Alistair brightens visibly when Cullen comes into view. He lifts his hand to wave hello --

-- and immediately has to bring it down onto Gru's collar to keep the mabari from sprinting over to his other human friend. "Gru, stay. Not when you're all wet still." Beaming at Cullen, "Hello, love."

[howtoactfereldan]

"Do you also intend to stay at a distance?" Cullen inquires sweetly. "On similar grounds?"

[bringspeopletogether]

"I suppose that depends on how much of this -- "

He drags his other hand through his hair and shakes off the ensuing water drops in demonstration.

" -- you want on your clothes as well." Beat. "At least we're both clean?"

[howtoactfereldan]

"For the time being." Cullen loosely folds his arms. "Give it another hour. Then I'll be impressed."

[bringspeopletogether]

A crooked grin. "Honestly, I'd be impressed with five minutes. He must be making up for lost time after all those years in Orlais."

After another quiet command for Gru to heel, Alistair lets go of his collar and ambles to Cullen's side.

[howtoactfereldan]

"So now the two of you are bathing together," Cullen says very, very mildly. And seriously. "You've bonded."