#dadrunkwriting circle

Okay so this was legitimately harder than I thought it would be! XD The movies quoted in this little guy are “Pride and Prejudice” (2005), “The Fifth Element,” “Independence Day,” and “War, Inc.” (not really one of my favorites, but it served its purpose here). I hope you like it.

For @dadrunkwriting.

Pairing: Cullen Rutherford x Belle Dolan (pre-relationship, pseudo-antagonistic)

Rating: T for Teen (language!)

Where Did She Learn to Negotiate Like That?

So this was Lord Bellien. He was a fat, pompous asshat in aclown-like mask who kept blathering at Belle, Josephine, and the Inquisitor abouthow he didn’t trust the Inquisition and then found spies in his home. All abouthow his life and the lives of everyone in his estate were so disrupted. It wasobnoxious. So she decided to speak only in movie quotes. She had a head full ofthem from before she fell into Thedas.

“You can only imagine how my servants felt! To know they hadan Inquisition spy living among them for weeks! And do you want to know how I felt?”

“As you wish to tell me, I doubt I have any choice in thematter,” Belle said. She could feel the eyes landing on her with every word.

Bellien’s face went red. “You don’t! Our peace in Val Chevinwas disrupted entirely!”

“Peace? No peace.” Belle could feel her eyes narrow in thatway. The way they always did when she put a target on someone’s forehead.

“You people are ruining my life and the lives of everyone inThedas!” He was seething. A man far removed from the composed façade he triedto show the other nobility. But he was a minor lord. A man of little import.

“Life, which you so nobly serve, comes from destruction,disorder, and chaos.”

“What?!”

“Business is a uniquely human response to a moral or cosmic crisis.And war is the improvement of investment climates by other means.”She fudged that one a little by mixing different parts of the movie.

“What does business have to do with my life? You expect meto stand here and be insulted with your rhetoric?!” Fuming, impotent, puny man.

“You expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of yourcircumstances?” she asked, letting the venom drip from each syllable. He wasuseless to the Inquisition. He had no power, no more friends in high places.She just wanted him gone. They all just wanted him gone. “Get out.”

Lord Bellien huffed and hemmed, letting heavy breaths puffout of his nose. He stood there for too long, as if waiting for some apologythat wasn’t coming. Belle understood his mask. He was a fucking clown. A clownthat turned tail and marched out of the great hall as haughty and sententiousas he’d come in.

Belle sighed and turned to head to the kitchen. If the restof her day was going to be like that, she needed a glass of water.

“Where did she learn to negotiate like that?” she heardCullen whisper to Josephine.

Belle smirked as she exited the hall. “I wonder.”

I was a little worried that when I said no that ^^^, I’d only be drawing attention to it, haha! But this worked out okay. I hope you like it! <3

For @dadrunkwriting

Pairing: Cullen Rutherford x Halise Lavellan (random modern AU)

Rating: General Audiences

My Friend Adores Dogs

Cullen’s phone dingedits generic ding. He’d never been onefor custom ringtones. The ones included from the manufacturer suited him justfine.

He hadn’t expected quite as prompt a response as he got. He’donly just sent off a picture of his mabari pup to a man he’d met at the gym. Heand Dorian ran into each other a number of times there. They had the same workschedule and it seemed that they lived about equidistant from the gym. After aseries of come-ons from Dorian failed, they’d managed to develop a morefriendly relationship.

But Dorian did ask a lot of very probative questions. Evenafter he realized Cullen wasn’t interested, he asked about Cullen’s personallife and love interests. Cullen answered when he felt it reasonable, anddeclined when he didn’t. One evening, after weeks of casual interrogation,Dorian picked up Cullen’s phone before leaving for the night.

“I’m putting my number into your phone in case you ever wantto get coffee,” the olive-skinned man said. Cullen opened his mouth to protest,but Dorian stopped him with a raised index finger. “Just as friends.”

Cullen eyed the man a little sideways. “Alright. So long aswe are on the same page.”

Dorian arched a brow, his lip curling in a matching smirk. “Ido have a friend that adores dogs, though. Would you mind sending me a pictureof that mabari you have pining away for you at home? I’m certain my friendwould love to see him.”

Another sidelong glance. “Alright.”

The next day, Cullen sent the photo and set his phone down.But the reply was almost immediate. “Aww!Cute puppy. Who does it belong to?”

He was taken aback by the response. Confused and perplexed. Histhumbs tapped a slow message in reply. “Me.”

Another quick ding.“Lucky you! Who are you though?”

Cullen felt his brow furrow. For Dorian to put him throughthe third degree and then act this way was unacceptable. “You know full well who this is, Dorian!” He was always careful touse proper punctuation in his text messages.

The pause before the response was longer this time. Hestared at the message screen, his anger apparent in the whiteness of hisknuckles from his firm grasp on the device. He huffed a breath through hisnose. The impertinence of it all was infuriating.

“Ahh hahaha! This isn’tDorian’s number. I’m his friend from work, Halise. I think he pulled a fast oneon us…”

Humiliation flooded his body all at once. He shut his eyesand groaned, squeezing his phone even harder than he already was. He regainedhis composure just enough to tap out another message. His thumbs were clumsiestwhen he was flustered, and he had to backtrack several times to get it right. “I am so very sorry about that. He put thisnumber into my phone at the gym and said his friend liked dogs. He asked me tosend that picture.”

“Well I do like dogs.^_^ But Dorian has also been trying to ‘find a man’ for me for a while now. Iguess he picked you.”

Cullen tapped at his forehead, willing away the headachethat was growing there. This was what he got for talking to strange men at thegym. A series of overly personal questions and an embarrassing text transactionwith a perfect stranger.

But his phone dingedagain before he could respond. “Anyonewho takes such awesome pictures of such a sweet looking mabari must be worth atleast a courtesy phone call. Would you mind if I called you?”

He thought about it for a moment. He hadn’t the slightestinkling of how she looked, but he pictured her anyway. A fair young woman smilingdown at her smartphone. He’d dug himself into this hole. He may as well see itthrough. “I don’t mind.”

Cullen didn’t hesitate when his phone rang. “Hello.”

The definite sound of a smile rested on her lovely voice. “Hithere.”

He knew then that nothing would ever be the same again.

Now that Belle has made her debut, I used this opportunity to write a little piece for her! I hope you enjoy! <3

For @dadrunkwriting

Pairing: Cullen Rutherford x Belle Dolan (somewhat antagonistic)

Rating: T for Teen (language!)

Alien Stars

Belle missed the light. She never thought she’d be sad tosee the stars so unobstructed by city lights. But there were no city lights anymore. No led or halogen street lamps to glare down at the sidewalk and streetbelow, no xenon headlights to blind away her night vision as she drove, nocurving, colorful neon to make her feel nostalgia during the wee hours of themorning for an era she hadn’t even experienced.

She’d never learned how they got one noble gas to glow somany colors, though she had her suspicions that the lamps contained more thanjust neon. Still, it was something she wished she’d Googled before she gotsucked into…a parallel universe? Was that what Thedas was? Fuck if she knew.

Standing on the battlements outside her tower at Skyhold—andshe never could have imagined she’d live in a stone tower, ever, in any universe—Bellestared up at those twinkling balls of gas in the sky. Not one familiarconstellation. No dippers or Orion’s Belt. No north star. No sparkling Mercuryor Venus. Just strangers glowing down at her. It made her sad. The angry kindof sad that wells up impotent tears in one’s eyes like water meant to coolsmoldering glass. Just enough to calm her, and not enough to break her into thethousand tiny pieces she would find herself in if she really thought about itall.

“You should not be out here.” She hadn’t let her guard downenough to be startled by Commander Cullen Rutherford’s voice behind her. Ofcourse he was there, and of course he was telling her what to do—where sheshould and shouldn’t be.

Belle dropped her head away from the little alien lightsabove with a sigh. She tried to wipe a rogue tear from her cheek withoutdrawing too much attention to the action. Satisfied it was gone, she twistedher neck to look at him, the most neutral expression she could muster plantedon her face.

He was still in his armor in the middle of the night. He probablyreeked under that breastplate. His arms were crossed over it in a way shefigured was uncomfortable for his wrists. His silvery bracers seemed to cutinto his gloves and pinch at the joints. Served him right with that smug lookon his face. Maybe that was just his face.

She turned away from him again and let her breath leave herbody in a slow exhale. It would do no good to argue with him. He held aposition of power over her, and though she resented it, it would be to no one’sbenefit for her to challenge him.

Letting her uncontested defeat wash over her in a bitterwave, she said, “Okay. I’ll go back to where I should be. Oh, wait. I can’t dothat. But I’ll go back into my tower so you don’t have to worry about me doingGod knows what out here in the middle of the night. Sound good?”

She walked away without waiting for an answer, her hands wrappingaround her elbows to stave off the tremor of rage she felt rising in her chest.She couldn’t go back to where she should have been. She had no idea if she wouldever be able to go back. And all Cullen could manage in return was contempt anda noisy sigh through his nose as she closed her door behind her.

Prick.

Law school stress is such awful stress, so have a quick taste! Mixed up angsty fluff, coming right up! <3

For @dadrunkwriting

Pairing: Cullen Rutherford x Halise Lavellan (modern lawyer AU)

Rating: General Audiences

Finals Cries

“I hate finals. I hate them so much. So. Much.”

A tiny version of Halise held her head in herhands on the screen of Cullen’s laptop. Her fingers wove into her hair and hereyes went wide and unfocused. The whole image made his heart ache for her. Outof some strange instinct, he reached out and touched the monitor. The lukewarmplastic reminded him he couldn’t actually soothe her that way. Not while he wasin South Reach and she was in Denerim.

Finals season was unpleasant for every lawstudent. No one enjoyed cramming months’ worth of confusing laws from fiveclasses into their heads in a week. “Reading week,” they called it. It waspossibly the most intentionally ironic name he had ever heard for anything. Ifa student didn’t have their reading done by then, they would fail. There was noquestion.

“I know you do,” he said. He tried to sound ascalm as he could, his own nerves fraying piece by piece with every line inevery outline he read. “I hate them too.”

Halise wasn’t even looking at her computeranymore. Her eyes were glued to the paper coated desk. “I can’t lose myscholarship. I can’t afford DUSL if I lose my scholarship. They’ll take itaway, too. They’re sadists.” She was muttering. Not to him, either. Her voicewas uneven and shaky.

“You won’t lose your scholarship, Halise. You knowthis. Everything will be fine.” Cullen could feel the worry creasing his brow.

When she looked up then, anger painted thefeatures on her face. He was bewildered. Confused. What had he said?

“What do you know about it? You’re so perfect andcalm all the time. Everything’s so easyfor you. Mythal’s mercy, Cullen, do you even have to try?” She was spewingvenom at him. He tried to remember she didn’t want to hurt him. She was juststressed. Everyone was just stressed.

“Halise, I’m not perfect. I’ve been studying justas hard and I’m just as sca—”

“Oh, come on! You know what? You—” She huffed andsniffed and huffed again. She was going to cry. He would have done anything tostop her from crying. But she didn’t give him the chance. “I have to go.”

Without another word, her image froze on thescreen. A tiny ping emanated from hisspeakers—the Sending Crystal app telling him the person he was talking to hadsigned off. Her flushed cheeks and parted lips and downturned brows hoveredbefore him. Watery harlequin green eyes stared at him, angry and sad. Heclicked the red “x”  in the corner of thescreen. It was an image he preferred not to have so crystallized in his memory.

She’ll bealright, he told himself. He tried to believe it, too. But that paralyzedimage of her was indelible. He worried for her all night. His dreams saw herback turned to him, her shoulders shaking and shuddering. He could never reachher face. He could never reach her at all. He woke in the morning covered in asheen of cool sweat.

Her remorseful phone call came only a minutelater. She wept and apologized and wept harder. He hushed her, whispering quietaffirmations and soporific murmurs of affection. It wasn’t long before hervoice came out slower and softer, laden with the exhaustion of the sleep she hadn’tbeen getting. It wasn’t long after that her voice stopped responding at all. Cullencould hear muted breaths through his phone, indistinct and even.

He whispered a final affirmation before hangingup. “I love you.”

Have some pre-relationship pining!!! *hurls it at you* <3

For @dadrunkwriting

Pairing: Cullen Rutherford x Halise Lavellan (modern lawyer AU)

Rating: T for Teen (language!)

Coma Breath

Halise was whining. No one could blame her, she’djust woken up from a coma. A fucking coma! “But I’m so thirstyyy!”

“I think your mom’s right,” said Revassan. “Weneed to wait until the doctor gives you the all clear.”

A pitiful pule was all Halise could muster atthat. Her throat was so dry. So. Dry. And no one would give her any water untilher attending doctor came back into her room and told them it was alright. Herfather, Revassan, and her mother, Dianisamahl, were steadfast in their resolve.They refused their own daughter. How dare they.

And they stopped Cullen from bringing her a glass.He’d snuck out and come back with a little paper cone filled to the brim.Halise could practically smell it when he came back. She could feel thecoolness of it just by seeing the blueish clarity sloshing around in his hand.Her mouth opened and her tongue twitched at the sight.

But her mother stepped right in front of himbefore he could reach her. Halise to could tell from her tone that herexpression chided the much larger man. “That had better be for you.”

Cullen’s free hand reached up to rub at the backof his neck. Halise couldn’t help but smile at that, despite the way she pinedfor the water in his hand and the thought that perhaps he should not still havebeen there in the first place. “I—Um—Well—That is—”

“Oh thank you, Cullen,” Revassan said, taking up aposition at Cullen’s side. He took the waxy little paper cone from the blondeand held it up. “I appreciate you bringing this for me. I was so parched.” He’dalways liked Cullen.

Halise whimpered at the loss of her cracked throat’sonly chance at salvation, though it came out more like a croak. “Mom, you’re adoctor. Tell them to let me have some water.”

“You know as well as I do I’m not that kind ofdoctor, Hali.” Her mother and sister were the only two people in the world whocalled her that.

Halise let her bottom lip puff out in the biggest,most petulant pout she could muster. Her parents returned to their seats, andCullen returned to her side. He reached out toward her hair, but pulled hishand back before he made contact. She felt a small sorrow creep into the backof her mind at that. He sat in the vinyl and metal chair beside her, claspinghis hands just under his chin.

“I’m so sorry, Halise.”

“It’s okay.” She smiled at him and tried not tothink of how foul her breath must have been. Coma breath. “I’m sure Dr. Adanwill be back soon to tell me I can all but drown myself.” She pursed her drylips and spoke again, much softer then. “Do you think you could try one moretime?”

A pity-laced smile turned up the corners of hislips and raised his eyebrows. His scar curved up almost to his cheekbone. “Iwould, but I think your mother will shoot me with your father’s backup revolverif she even smells water coming into this room.”

Halise’s answering laugh was more of a wheeze, buthe seemed to understand. “She probably would.”

She wanted nothing more than for him to hold herhand. She tried to distract herself with thoughts of her arid throat, but allshe really wanted was to feel his touch. It took almost being blown up to pushher want to a need. An aching need. Her truest thirst was not for that cool sipof water. It was for him.

Shit.

I had this one in mind the moment I saw it RoLo! Thank you! It’s a little shortie, but I hope you enjoy! <3

For @dadrunkwriting

Pairing: Cullen Rutherford x Halise Lavellan (modern lawyer AU)

Rating: T for Teen (language!)

A Special Kind of Pain

Cullen’s nose twitched and twinged. Something acridcrept up into it while Halise was in the room she’d dubbed her “dame den.” Sheleft him in the living room, saying she would be back in thirty minutes. He thoughtperhaps she was going to take a bath, but then she went the opposite directionfrom her bathroom. Now this stinging stench was wafting around her house. Hehad to investigate.

He followed the smell to the den only to findHalise sitting on her small couch in a tangled wad of limbs and red curls. Herexpression was one of determination, all pinched up on one side of her face.The ordinarily painted nails on her hands were bare and she was scrubbing ather toes with a cotton ball covered in purple glitter. Tiny grunts puffed outof her as she ground her thumb into the cotton ball and the big toe on her leftfoot. “Son of a bitch.”

A chuckle escaped his lips, drawing her eyes tohim and apparently pulling her tongue out of her mouth. “What are you doing?”he asked as he moved to sit beside her.

“What, you think these nail polish colors changeall by themselves?” She kept scouring away at her toe. “Nuh uh. I have to takethis stuff off so I can swap it out. And glitter—”She groaned out the word alongside a hard press of the stained clump of cottonstrands. “—is a special kind of pain to get off.”

Cullen’s hand fell across her back to rub littlesoothing circles. “Would you like me to help?”

A short laugh accompanied Halise’s gentle shake ofher head. It set her curls to swaying around her calves. “No, that’s okay. Butkeep doing what you’re doing. That feels great.”

“I’m at your disposal, my lady.” He grinned like abesotted fool when he said it, and she snorted. But he meant it. He wouldalways mean it.

Some post-Trespasser pregnancy travel fluff for you! Thanks so much, and I hope you enjoy!!! <3

For @dadrunkwriting​

Pairing: Cullen Rutherford x Halise Lavellan (post-Trespasser)

Rating: T for Teen (language!)

Looking Up

The road from Skyhold to South Reach was miserablein the rain. Cullen knew that better than most. He’d made the trip severaltimes since Corypheus had been defeated. Twice with Halise and once alone. She’dbeen with him on visits to his family’s home—their family’s home. But when shewas only a few months pregnant—he didn’t know at the time—she’d sent him aheadto prepare their new estate.

And each time it rained.

But this time was to be the last. Halise sat atopher battlenug, Moosh, defiant against Adan’s recommendation that she travel bycarriage in her delicate condition. Her belly was round, and so were her cheeksas she grinned and stared up into the pouring rain. She watched droplets fallaround them and plunk down onto hernose, sending damp, bursting giggles up her throat.

“Halise,” he said, his tone tinged with concern, “mustyou stare up like that? I worry you’ll lose your balance and fall.”

“Pfft!” Her skyward gaze continued while shescoffed. “I’ve been travelling my whole life, vhenan. I think I’ve figure outhow to ride and look up at the same time.”

Cullen felt his brow furrow despite Halise’s lackof attention to anything but the gray clouds and their fallen minions. “Youhave, my love. But you’ve never been quite so…rotund.”

That got her attention. Her head whipped down soshe could look him in the eye. A tiny droplet trickled off the end of her nose.“I’m sorry, what?”

“You’ve never been—”

“If you call me round again we’re going to havewords.”

“—pregnant.”

“Oh.” She seemed deflated by his more carefulchoice of words. “Well…no, I haven’t. But riding doesn’t change much.” Sheturned up again, much to his chagrin. “If anything, looking up helps. It’s likewalking into the water. Like it’s excited to be free and to meet you. It’senvig—OW!”

Panic and adrenaline churned Cullen’s gut. Hestopped his horse at the same moment Halise tugged on Moosh’s reins. Her faceshot downward, her hand coming up to meet it halfway. She hissed in a sharp breath.“Ow ow ow…”

“What happened?” He was already off his horse, hishand already resting on her thigh, his heart already past his throat and in hismouth.

“One of those little bastards got in my eye,” shesaid. Her gloved hand rubbed at the offending raindrop and she muttered someobscenity in Elvhen. Her mouth dropped open and she shifted her gaze to him, blinkingher eyes hard and fast. “Okay. I’m okay. See?” She opened those green eyes wideto show him.

A soft chuckle slipped past his heart as ittraveled back down his throat to its rightful place in his chest. He kissed herknee and gave her thigh a light pat. “Right as rain, my love.”