#zeeeeeev

He makes almost no sound; she might not have noticed if it weren’t for the gentle hitch in his breathing where her cheek rests on his chest.

“Zev?” she says, lifting her head to look at him. His arms tighten around her waist, and he smiles through the tears. He meets her gaze, and she could drown right there in the sheer amount of emotion in his warm amber eyes. She lifts a hand to his face, gently wiping the tears from one cheek. His hand slides from her waist to the back of her neck, pulling her lips down to his. He kisses her with an unbearable tenderness, his fingers slowly weaving into her hair as his lips move against hers. When he’s done with her lips he moves on to covering every inch of her face with kisses, whispering softly between each one. It takes her a moment to recognize the quickly repeated Antivan syllables—te amo, te amo, te amo, te amo.

“So… not sad crying then?”

“No, mi vida,” he says, voice thick with emotion. He leans back against the pillow, studying her face with a focus bordering on reverence. “I just… Ever since I realized just what you meant to me, I have wanted nothing more than to wake up every morning for the rest of my life with you in my arms. And now… now I might just get that chance.”

Lyna has to blink back tears of her own at that declaration, and she hides them by ducking down to kiss him again.

“I love you so much, Zev,” she says, leaning her forehead against his. “So much. I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

Zevran laughed out loud at that, a warm, bright sound that filled the entire room. “Let us see. You only slayed the Archdemon, thereby stopping the Blight and saving the all of Ferelden and likely the entire world. And that was only the beginning of your many heroic feats, the most recent of which, I would remind you, was finding a cure for the Calling, which will save every Grey Warden in Thedas from a horrific and early death.”

“Okay, okay, so maybe I deserve this.”

“This and more,” Zevran says. “I shall have to work very hard to give you the luxurious retirement you so deeply deserve. Not that I mind at all! No, I am quite content to be a slave to the whims of my deadly sex goddess.”

Lyna giggles, giving Zevran a playful shove. “You are ridiculous.”

“Ah, but that is where you are wrong. You are the ridiculous one, for thinking you do not deserve every comfort that the world, and I myself, have to offer.”

Lyna gives him a soft smile. “So,” she says. “First day of the rest of our life. What would you like to do?”

“Hmm. Shall I make a list? I think so. First, I will ravish you. Then, I will feed you fresh fruit from the market. Then… a massage, perhaps. All of this business searching for your cure has left you very tense, I am sure. After that, I am certain I will end up ravishing you again. Perhaps tonight we will go dancing. It has been a while since I took you dancing, no? Then, of course, I will ravish you again. Perhaps several times! We have all night after all. Does this sound agreeable?”

Lyna giggles. “Far be it from me to argue with that; sounds like all of my favorite things. What about you, though? Isn’t there anything you want for yourself?”

“You are more than enough,” he says, fixing her with an intense gaze. Words escape her in the wake of the surge of emotion that floods her, so she kisses him instead. She knows that he is fluent in the language of her touch, as she is in his; this has been their shared language long before they learned how to put words to what they felt for each other.

“On with the ravishing then, I see,” Zevran says with a warm laugh.

“Shut up and kiss me,” Lyna says.

31. Do they have finish each other’s sentences? Pick up any phrases or habits from each other? Know when the other is hiding something?

Probably. I can see Zevran especially finishing Lyna’s sentences, even if he does intentionally warp her meaning sometimes (because he is a little shit). Lyna definitely picks up some colorful Antivan phrases. They absolutely know when the other is hiding something, because they know each other’s body language so well. Zevran is well trained, but even so he has a hard time hiding anything from Lyna. She knows him too well.

32. Do they ever get into trouble? Is it serious, or are they just mischievous?

Oh boy. These two get into all sorts of trouble. Even once they retire from the whole saving the world business, they just can’t help it.

 33. What kind of presents do they get each other? Do they only do it on special occasions?

Zevran/Lyna Mahariel

(on Ao3)

This forest was wrong.

It was the only way she could describe it. She was Dalish, she had spent her whole life in the woods and wilderness, but this place…. Unease crept up her spine, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. The air was thick with an almost tangible sense of… foreboding? Something, anyway. She just couldn't shake the sense that something was off, that something terrible was about to happen, or had happened, or…

"Are you alright, mi amor?"

Lyna nearly jumped sky high when Zevran reached a tentative hand out to brush against her arm. She let out a shaky laugh.

"Yeah, just… can't you feel it? This forest is off. It feels like something's wrong."

"Ah, I had hoped that was just me. What do I know about forests, after all? But you are Dalish, which makes you something of an expert does it not?"

"Ha, something like that." She laughed halfheartedly, though hearing confirmation that she was not the only one set on edge by this forest, that perhaps she wasn't imagining it, unsettled her deeply. She notched an arrow, hoping against hope she wouldn't need it.

She proceeded with caution into the ruined remains of what might have been a graveyard once. The wrongness intensified, accompanied by the all too familiar sick buzzing in her blood that meant—

"Darkspawn!"

It looked to be a small band, but the thundering of massive footsteps told her they had an ogre. Best to take out as many of the others as she could, then, so she could focus on keeping the ogre from getting Zevran or Alistair in its grip. Wynne raised her staff, and a shimmering barrier slid into place over the whole group. Alistair charged forward, sword raised, just as Lyna loosed her first arrow. Zevran was nowhere to be seen, which was exactly as it should be. A couple of the hurlocks around the periphery of the band suddenly dropped dead, though, and she grinned.

The ogre was advancing on Alistair, so she turned her bow towards it, aiming to distract enough for Alistair and Zev to bring it down. She spotted Zev, maneuvering gracefully behind the ogre as Alistair engaged it. She watched him as he sprang, leaping towards the enormous beast and sinking his daggers deep into its neck. The ogre staggered, lumbering forward, and Zev pulled his daggers from its flesh to cross them before its neck, slashing deep. The beast lurched, and Zev leaped gracefully from its back just before it fell.

He caught her eyes and grinned, seeing the way she'd been staring at him. Her returning grin was wiped from her face when she saw another ogre charging straight towards Zevran.

"Zev!" she screamed, and he leapt out of the way just in time. The ogre rounded on them; Lyna saw Zevran brandishing his daggers, but she was faster. She let her arrow fly and watched it sink deep into the beast's eye socket. It roared, turning to charge at Lyna. She tossed her bow aside and pulled the daggers from her back, holding her ground. She planted her feet, waiting, waiting… until it was mere feet in front of her and then she ducked, slashing at both its legs with her daggers as it passed over her. Lyna pivoted quickly as its legs buckled and it fell with a resounding thud. Approaching it again, she drove a dagger deep into the flesh at the base of its neck, and it collapsed forward.

She stared for a moment as she caught her breath, and then she spun around, eyes seeking out Zevran. He and Alistair were making their way around the battlefield, checking that all of the darkspawn were well and truly dead. She dashed towards him, eyes already scanning him for injury.

"I am fine, my Warden. You should not worry yourself so over me," he said, but he raised his arms willingly to aid her inspection, a fond smile on his face.

Lyna's brow remained furrowed as she checked every inch of him for cuts, making sure he had not been exposed to the taint. She ran her hands over his arms, down his torso, checking the armor for tears, and finally down his legs. When she had thoroughly examined him and found no sign of injury, she breathed out a sigh of relief, winding a hand around his neck to pull him down for a kiss.

"See?" he breathed against her lips. "Fine."

"More than fine," she murmured, bringing her lips to his again. His hands splayed across her back, pulling her to him. Zev's tongue played across her lower lip and she eagerly deepened the kiss, locking both arms around his neck. The memory of how he had fought, the effortless grace with which he'd leapt from the back of the slain ogre, set her blood aflame and she moaned into his mouth. He broke the kiss with a low laugh.

"You are magnificent, my Warden," he murmured, tracing kisses down her neck.

"I'm magnificent?" she said incredulously. "Do you have any idea what it does to me, seeing you fight like that?"

"Hmm. Some idea, yes," he purred, pinning her with a lust-filled gaze.

"Um, guys, can you not do that? In front of me? Again?" Alistair said.

Zevran sighed and released his hold on her, leaving his hands resting lightly over her hips. "When we get back to camp, I am going to have my wicked, wicked way with you, hmm?"

"You'd better," she said, pressing one last kiss to his lips before turning away to go retrieve her bow.