02-24-2017, 08:56 AM
<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=EB+Garamond|Josefin+Sans' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'><style>.dovlayout {width:600px; border:1px solid #000;box-shadow:0px 0px 10px #000;background-color:#010103;} .dovgradient {width:600px; border:1px solid #000;padding:10px;background:#2b282e;background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#2b282e, #454f54, #2b282e);background: -o-linear-gradient(#2b282e, #454f54, #2b282e);background: -moz-linear-gradient(#2b282e, #454f54, #2b282e);background: linear-gradient(#141319, #2b282e, #141319); box-shadow:0px 0px 25px #000;} .dovpic {width:600px; height:600px; background-image:url('https://s17.postimg.org/c9jh4j7cv/dov.png');background-size:contain;margin-bottom:-30px;box-shadow: inset -5px 15px 25px #000;} .dovpost {padding:40px 40px 20px 40px;text-align:justify;font-family: 'EB Garamond', serif; color: #5b585c; line-height: 18.5px;} .dovpost span{font-family: 'Josefin Sans', sans-serif; font-size:14px; color:#818d9b;}</style><center><div class=dovgradient><div class=dovlayout><div class=dovpic></div><div class=dovpost>Warmth covered him, blanketed him then filled him. It flowed through him on a familiar path, a gradual and lazy current of her rich healing. His body grew heavier, releasing all tension at that coaxing touch it knew so well, relaxed further as every last abrasion was sealed shut, every last bruise and ache smoothed away. And there were many. There were always so many. This time not all from Ashley.
Remembering unbidden, his chest tightened and he forced it roughly to the outer edges of his mind. But it woke him, as nightmares do.
<i>I need this to be a dream.</i> So quiet he almost hadn't heard her, even here with his head laying over her dappled neck. His heart flinched, a deep and penetrating hurt that could never call her magic to it. So much pain and destruction he'd brought her. So much turmoil and heartache. Why couldn't he ever just leave her alone? It would be best for her. Wouldn't it? But he couldn't. How could he never see her again when she meant so much, when the sight of her made him feel this way, changed him so profoundly.
Distance, then. He would watch over from a distance. Protect, and not harm anymore. As he was trained for. Only protect her. Even from himself.
His voice was a soft cover of silk, smooth and quiet and loving as it wrapped around her.
<span><i>Just a dream,</i></span> he agreed in barely a breath, twisting just enough to place a tender kiss there at her beautiful neck. Just a dream where he was not the monster he truly was in reality. Where he did not maim and kill, tear flesh and muscle from bone and eagerly spill blood, or press himself upon others as an entirely different weapon, a violent and demanding lover that took what he wanted, how he wanted it.
He should have showed her that side and let her run from him.
But she meant too much now to survive the loss. Cerva was gone and he still walked. Atrani rejected him and somehow he still breathed. Somehow. But he was afraid to think what losing Leliana would be like, afraid he might not wake from it. Then how could he protect her if he were that far removed from the world? It was too much to lose them all. Too much to lose her.
Reflexively, he gently pulled her in closer, as though his heart tripped at the thought of it and needed her here for support. Needed her to continue beating. He passed his mouth along her curve of muscle, partially open as he breathed her in. Could nearly taste her. <i>Leliana...</i> He wanted to say it, could feel it there just about to drip like warm honey from a starving beast, wanted to feel it on his tongue, so sweet, but didn't dare to wake her. He didn't want her to hate that he'd come to her yet again. All he ever brought her was pain. He breathed, and kissed her again. <i>Just a dream.</i>
</div></div></div></center>
Remembering unbidden, his chest tightened and he forced it roughly to the outer edges of his mind. But it woke him, as nightmares do.
<i>I need this to be a dream.</i> So quiet he almost hadn't heard her, even here with his head laying over her dappled neck. His heart flinched, a deep and penetrating hurt that could never call her magic to it. So much pain and destruction he'd brought her. So much turmoil and heartache. Why couldn't he ever just leave her alone? It would be best for her. Wouldn't it? But he couldn't. How could he never see her again when she meant so much, when the sight of her made him feel this way, changed him so profoundly.
Distance, then. He would watch over from a distance. Protect, and not harm anymore. As he was trained for. Only protect her. Even from himself.
His voice was a soft cover of silk, smooth and quiet and loving as it wrapped around her.
<span><i>Just a dream,</i></span> he agreed in barely a breath, twisting just enough to place a tender kiss there at her beautiful neck. Just a dream where he was not the monster he truly was in reality. Where he did not maim and kill, tear flesh and muscle from bone and eagerly spill blood, or press himself upon others as an entirely different weapon, a violent and demanding lover that took what he wanted, how he wanted it.
He should have showed her that side and let her run from him.
But she meant too much now to survive the loss. Cerva was gone and he still walked. Atrani rejected him and somehow he still breathed. Somehow. But he was afraid to think what losing Leliana would be like, afraid he might not wake from it. Then how could he protect her if he were that far removed from the world? It was too much to lose them all. Too much to lose her.
Reflexively, he gently pulled her in closer, as though his heart tripped at the thought of it and needed her here for support. Needed her to continue beating. He passed his mouth along her curve of muscle, partially open as he breathed her in. Could nearly taste her. <i>Leliana...</i> He wanted to say it, could feel it there just about to drip like warm honey from a starving beast, wanted to feel it on his tongue, so sweet, but didn't dare to wake her. He didn't want her to hate that he'd come to her yet again. All he ever brought her was pain. He breathed, and kissed her again. <i>Just a dream.</i>
</div></div></div></center>
