#lukassandra

ship aesthetics (15/?) - lukassandra (luke trevelyan/cassandra pentaghast)

15. trembling hands

Sanea starts down the crumbling stairs just as Sera races up them. It’s with a grin belied by trembling hands that Sera reaches up and cradles Sanea’s face. “Inky? Really you? Just you? No Coryphenus?”

“Really me, Sera,” Sanea answers. “No Coryphetits to bother us anymore.”

Cassandra makes a noise when Sera kisses the Inquisitor fiercely, but it’s less disgusted than usual, and accompanied not by a roll of her eyes but by a smile.

22. nap

Cassandra gently pulls the tie from Luke’s hair and runs her fingers through the dark locks. In the dappled sunlight of the gazebo, the hints of reddish brown show through the black. His lips are slightly open, his face relaxed with no sign of the frown lines that appear when he’s tense. He has never looked so peaceful to her.

But he stirs at her touch. “’ssandra?” he mumbles, his green eyes opening a little.

“It is me,” she confirms. “I did not expect to find you sleeping when I went looking for you.”

“Looking for me?” Luke repeats, pushing himself into a half-sitting position. “How long did I sleep?”

“A few hours, perhaps.”

Luke groans. “I only meant to lie down for ten minutes…”

Cassandra lets out a soft laugh. “I think you deserve a nap a little longer than that, my love.” She coaxes him to lie back down, his head on her lap. “Sleep, Luke. I will watch over you.”

He falls back asleep with a smile on his lips.

42. savior

“Savior of Ostwick, that’s a new one.”

“Isn’t it, though.” Halla has her feet kicked up on her desk in her father’s study. He sits behind his as he studies her and she rubs her face with a hand. “My guess is, the Teyrn wanted someone to compete with the Champions of Kirkwall. You know how he is about competing with Kirkwall.”

“All too well,” Dominic answers. “Do you plan on accepting?”

“Don’t see that I can’t.” Halla yanks the tie from her hair, letting dark waves fall around her shoulders. “I can’t insult the Teyrn. I’ll go to the damn banquet, accept the bullshit title, and I’ll hate every minute of it.”

Dominic sighs and shakes his head with a smile as he goes back to writing his letter and Halla reaches over her shoulder to take a book from the shelf. “That’s my girl,” he murmurs.

“First impression: he grabbed my hand. Without my permission. I think I hit him for that; it’s all kind of a blur. I was under…a lot of stress right then.

“And now? I don’t know. He lied to me. But…he also loved me. Maybe still does. Maybe I still love him. I just don’t know.

“All I know is that I have to stop him. I won’t sit idly by for the sake of that love and let him destroy everything else. After that…if both of us are still alive, we’ll see.”

“Most romantic? In terms of showy gestures, certainly that night I worked so hard to set up. I retrieved a poetry book from the Hinterlands just so I could read bad love poems to her. I don’t think I read them very well, either. Doesn’t matter; she loved it.

The most romantic thing she’s done for me…I’ll skip over every time she held me through a bad episode of lyrium withdrawal and say the time she asked me, blushing furiously, to carry her favor in battle. Even though she would be fighting by my side, she asked me to carry a handkerchief with a ‘C’ embroidered on it. I don’t think she was the one who embroidered the C. Too neat. I still have that handkerchief, and I tuck it under my armor whenever I go into battle.