☽ mace ☾

I have this headcanon that when my Warden Cousland was a young girl in Highever, she loved dancing. And she was really good at it too! Like she wasn’t super great at a lot of the “noble lady” things, and big social events and small talk with nobility weren’t usually her cup of tea. But if there was ever a castle party, you’d for sure find her dancing all night long. Maybe something about it reminded her of swordplay? The footwork, the balance, the energy of it? The interplay between two people? Either way, young Lady Cousland was always an excellent dancer as well as a warrior

Fast forward to the middle of Origins. One night at camp, Leliana is playing some music by the fire, maybe some other companions are joining her, and the Warden can’t remember the last time she danced but listening to the music, she suddenly misses it. Zevran whose sitting nearby and listening, offers to be a dancing partner for a song if she misses it so much, because of course he does and I could imagine he’s a damn good dancer himself lol. Nothing flirtatious about this offer, he just wants to enjoy the entertainment of it. And Cousland agrees.

Now Alistair, also nearby, is NOT a dancer. Never really had the chance to learn, thinks he can’t dance for the life of him and doesn’t really want to be seen trying, doesn't want to look the fool. So when others at camp begin to join in the fun he is quick to back out of it (alongside Morrigan because she would not be caught dead lol). 

Until he sees his Warden twirling and laughing by the firelight, almost glowing it seems like, and he’s just so fucking smitten. She’s smiling so widely, he doesn’t know if he’s ever seen her smile like that before and Maker she’s just beautiful. And her laugh, it’s like music. Alistair knows that he cares deeply for his fellow Grey Warden by now but he hasn’t shared these feeling yet. Though it’s harder to ignore them now…

When the dance ends, the Warden is nearer to Alistair than before, laughing and clapping and as another song strikes up, Lady Cousland specifically asks Alistair if he’ll dance with her. Promises that it’ll be fun. When he admits that he doesn’t really know how, she says she’ll teach him and he agrees. Because he’d be willing to look the fool a dozen times over if it meant getting to dance with her like that.

 Insert a VERY CUTE SCENE when the Warden teaches Alistair how to dance and he’s all left feet at first but he eventually starts to find his footing and they get into a proper rhythm and it is so much fun. And Alistair admits he’s surprised that the Warden enjoys dancing so much and she talks about the dances in Highever and how her father taught her how to when she was very small, and during castle parties visiting nobleman’s sons would try to ask her to dance in order to "woo" the Teyrn's daughter, so she'd make her brother Fergus dance with her most of the night to keep them at bay. They both laugh at the silly stories, and it’s the first time she’s talked about her family or her life before the blight with any real joy in her voice and Alistair thinks that he would have liked to know her then, before all of this death and tragedy and the loss that she had suffered. The Warden mirrors these thoughts back to him by saying that he would have loved a party thrown by the Couslands, and she would have liked to show him her home before…before Howe and...

Her face falls, the light leaving her eyes a bit, and Alistair feels an ache in his chest. He tries to lighten the mood and bring back her smile by stumbling a bit and joking that he would have made an awful dancing partner if he’d ever attended a party in Highever. Cousland laughs softly and assures him that he’s doing fine, and they continue in the dance as the music picks up. A couple knowing eyes watch them together, because neither one of them are as subtle about their feelings at they think that they are. But it hardly matters; they’re both having so much fun, joking and smiling, and maybe even flirting just a bit. Then the song comes to a close and they realize how close they are and the Warden actually starts to blush a bit. And damnit if Alistair wasn’t completely smitten before he sure as hell is now. If he forgot himself too much, he might have even leaned ever so slightly towards her lips, they were right there after all. Her face so near to his, her frame fitting into his arms perfectly. She was right there…

The couple are bumped into by Zevran who is trying to teach other partners the steps to the dance, without much success. This takes the two lovebirds out of their moment together, and Cousland laughs to break the tension, and makes an awkward mock curtsy before excusing herself, leaving Alistair slightly red-faced and gazing after her, trying to figure out how he’s going to ever admit that he’d really like nothing more than to to dance with her every day for the rest of his life...