May I have this Dance? (Part I)

by

Silver-Eyed Rukia

Rated: M (Hinted sexual actions)

Summary: Before the Inquisitor can attend the ball at the Winter Palace she has to make some preparations: that includes dance lessons

Pairing: Adaar (female Qunari Inquisitor) x Sera

Note: This isn't beta-ed, so please ignore any mistakes. Or point them out and correct me, whatever you prefer.

The distant sound of feet climbing up the stone staircase to her personal chambers tore the Qunari out of her deep sleep but didn't fully wake her. Only the sudden stop of the noise made her subconscious uneasy and she awoke, raising her upper body from the mattress just as the knock sounded on the door. She voiced a short "Just a moment" before running a hand over her face, cursing her restless sleep lately.

Adaar stood from her bed, careful not to hit one of the upper posts as she had already done before, much to the amusement of a certain blonde elf one might add. Her thoughts ran amok inside her head, stirred up by the seemingly never ending nightmares she had ever since the incident in Redcliffe. The tall redhead shook her head and reminded herself of the company just outside the door while putting on the usual attire she wore while roaming around Skyhold.

"You may enter", she said and couldn't keep a smile off her features as the ever nicely dressed ambassador entered the room, wearing a smile of her own.

"Good morning Inquisitor, I hope I didn't interrupt any good dreams. The Maker knows you could use the distraction every now and then."

Clipboard in hand and ready to write Josephine stood in between the much taller woman and the entrance, carefully handling the seemingly always lit candle on top of her wooden companion. Adaar closed the distance between them and offered her to go first with a short gesture of her hand, leaving the room and walking through the great hall where the early risers of the hold were already eating breakfast, namely the soldiers and the morning shift of the guard.

"To be quite honest with you", Adaar started while nodding towards some of the soldiers and civilians she passed on their way, "you actually woke me from what I remember to be anything but a good dream." She glanced to her right, noticing the brief look of worry on the ambassador's face before the shorter woman sighed quietly, sitting down at her desk after they had reached the woman's study.

"Then I apologize in advance for having to add even more to your list, Inquisitor. The ball in Empress Celene's palace is going to be in a mere two days and we have yet to...", she trailed off, looking for a word to kindly describe the lack of proper etiquette from a few certain members of their quite colourful fellowship, "introduce some of our dear friends to the Orlesian way of nobility. Mainly dancing and how to properly speak to the noblemen and women that will be present there."

The Qunari ran a hand over her recently trimmed mohawk and nodded in agreement.

"You might want to tell Sera early. And remind her of it. Twice."

Josephine made a noise that sounded like a mixture of humour and desperation before finally noting something down on her clipboard, most likely an annotation to send anyone but herself to bring the oh so happy news to the group's prankster.

"Well, now that that's over and done with how about we discuss your schedule for today over a light breakfast? I have heard that Leliana brought home some rather funny coloured biscuits from Orlais with even more interesting flavours."

"At first I found my idea to be hilarious, I mean, have you ever seen guards fight without their pants? But then I remembered that they were guys, ugh. Destroyed some of the fun, would've been better if they had been women. Hehe, would've taken their shirts instead of their pants though."

If disgust and hatred would have been able to manifest and burn through solid mass and people then the blonde elf would have already been roasting under the burning glare from Vivienne who was sitting at the very far end of the other table, across the room. Unluckily for her though the great hall was big enough to carry Sera's loud voice all across the room, forcing her to listen to the rather crude story of how the archer and the Inquisitor first met, when she was still known as the "Herald Andraste's."

"Sera, may some of your genious depart from you and bless my shallow mind with such grand ideas", Blackwall replied while trying to hide the smile that was creeping unto his features at the thought of pantless guards fighting the Inquisitor. Iron Bull laughed and slammed his huge fist on the table in amusement, forcing Dorian to lean to the side to dodge the piece of meat that had fallen off the fork at the sudden movement.

"Shocking to hear such language from an elf, the way I had always been told was that elves were creatures of grace and pride", the mage remarked, eyeing Solas at the other end of the table while still adressing the blonde woman across from him, "and not jokesters that embarrass their enemies before killing them."

The conversation had been sparked anew and the people in close proximity of the Iron Bull, Sera and Dorian quickly excused themselves and fled the scene in fear of being caught in the crossfire.

Just a few seats away from the commotion was the commander of the Inquisition's army, its master spy and the ambassador along with their leader, all of them caught up in a rather heated discussing about the upcoming events in Halamshiral. Well, all but one.

Adaar listened with half an ear about how Leliana and Cullen were arguing about who they should support and why while Josephine was trying her best, true to her title, to settle any disagreements between the two in a peaceful manner. Yet she was more interested in watching the rather silly reenactment of their first meeting, having a hard time masking her mirth as Sera even stated how the first thing she had noticed about the Inquisitor was her rather well-built physique.

"I mean, damn. Impressive, innit? Never seen a female Qunari before."

"Oh my dear friend, if it weren't for the fact that you would skin yourself alive if you had to live under the Qun I'd oppenly suggest it if you like our women so much", Iron Bull said with a grin, downing the rest of his alcoholic beverage.

"Ew, why do you like being gross so much. Great, now I ain't hungry no more. Pissballs."

The tall woman at the head of the table shook her head softly before returning her full attention to her advisers, but not before making short eye contact with the elf, raising an eyebrow at the rather obvious hand-gesture from the smaller woman. She mouthed a silent "Later" and Sera only rolled her eyes, leaving the great hall in much quieter company.

"Inquisitor, this mission cannot be done without you, what way of procedure do you think we should approach?", the redheaded spy asked with a barely visible glare towards the blond male to her left. Before Cullen even had time to react they were both saved by one of the higher ranked guards walking up to the commander, informing him of new recruits that had just arrived at the gates.

"Excuse me, miladies, but I have to attend to another matter for now." He gave Leliana a look that clearly stated "This isn't over yet" and bowed shortly before the Qunari, who nodded in response. "I shall speak to you all later."

"I wonder if you three will ever be able to agree on something without me having to force you to", Adaar jokingly added as the former bard scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Probably not", Josephine remarked before scribbling something down. "Even though our military force and our source of information are currently divided there is still something we all need to do together." She raised her head to look at both of the women across from her, who just looked at her in mild confusion and sighed. "This is going to be a long day."

While the Antivian diplomat was off and about trying to organize everything for the Inquisitor's schedule said leader was currently standing on one of the balconies in her chamber, facing the frozen landscape that surrounded Skyhold. Seemingly random scenes from her barely restful sleep kept flashing before her eyes and she gripped the railing with such an intensity that her knuckles turned white. She was in such deep thought that she didn't even hear the door open and close, let alone someone approaching her closely.

A pair of warm hands sneaked under her vest, resting just above and below her navel while the owner peeked her head out beneath the taller woman's arm, giving her a lopsided grin. If it hadn't been for the fact that by now she had gotten used to Sera's anticts, well, more or less, she most likely would have sent the intruder flying through the room if just for the fact that it had startled her like all hell.

"Always so busy Inky, no time to take a break and have some fun around here?"

Adaar eased her fingers off the railing and smiled down at the much smaller blonde.

"Why do I have the feeling that you aren't here to let it stay that way? And Sera, I thought we had discussed that nickname."

"Psht! You're right about both but I ain't gonna cut the nicknames just yet. It makes me laugh when you get that wrinkle between your eyebrows when- there it is!", the elf laughed and started dragging the Qunari towards the bed while slowly unbuttoning the top part of the woman's attire. Sera turned them around and pushed her lover onto the bed, tossing away the top after freeing it from all its buttons. For a second she stopped and just looked at Adaar's in cloth wrapped torso before removing that too, leaning down to kiss her passionately.

An hour that felt like a mere 5 minutes passed and the pair remained lying in bed, the smaller one resting her head on the Qunari's shoulder while drawing random patterns on her muscular stomach.

"I ain't as dense as people would like me to be so spit it out. What's making the usual bastion of calm so unnerved? Can't be the fact that you're getting your ass handled back to you by an elf two heads shorter than you. Hehe, handled. See what I did there?"

A small chuckle escaped the redhead's lips before she raised an eyebrow in false mockery.

"Aren't we being a bit hasty? Have you ever considered the fact that maybe I am just letting you "handle my ass" as you so very lovely put it."

The chuckle turned into a quiet laugh as Sera threw a pillow at her head, or at least tried to, and complety missed, sending it falling down the staircase.

"Idiot."

With a quick movement that wouldn't have been expected of a woman her size she pinned the blonde woman down beneath her, eyeing her with a deep, nearly animalistic look of need. Her muscles tensed under the strain of trying to keep calm as yet another flashback from her nightmare plagued her, feeding the terror that had nestled into her thoughts ever since the dreams had started about a week or two ago. Short, controlled breaths ruffled up Sera's bangs as the Inquisitor closed her eyes and leaned closer, softly resting her forehead against that of her lover's.

"Sorry."

After freeing herself of the now limp grip of the warrior Sera only reached up with one of her hands, and in a rare moment of peace she just looked at her and stroke her cheek, like a mother comforting her crying child.

A sudden knock sounded at the door and tore the pair out of their intimate moment, effectively turning Sera back into her usual rather dorky self as she just grabbed what clothes she could find and darted off into a nearby room with a hissed "Oh fuck", leaving the older woman to do pretty much the same, minus the cursing and the running off.

"You may enter", Adaar said and felt oddly familiar with the whole situation as Josephine yet again entered her chamber, this time with a dwarf in tow. The grumpy looking fellow only eyed her for a split second before walking out the door again, only to reappear with a ladder in his hands.

"We gonna need this. Of course Qunari have to be this sodding tall", he grumbled as Josephine only shrugged at the raised eyebrow the Inquisitor was directing at her.

"Don't look at me like that, he is the only one capable of sewing you a fitting attire for the ball, in more than one sense and in such short time too. Our tailors aren't neccessarily used to making clothes for Qunari and this quite skilled man was actually the only one we could find in the whole of Skyhold who had been taught how to sew clothes for people who aren't dwarfs or humans."

Before Adaar could do as much as reply to her friend the dwarf was already measuring her waist, climbing up and down on his ladder quicker than she would have expected.

"Undress. We don't got all day."

The ambassador cleared her throat in apology as the Qunari did as she was told, but not without giving Josephine a look that would have pierced stone if it hadn't been meant as a joke. Mostly. So she did just that. The Inquisitor mentally thanked whatever force was out there that she had been quick enough to put on her cloth-wrapping that she usually wore around her chest after her "match" with Sera.

The minutes ticked by and Josephine just sat at the small desk that was in the room, noticing that it was way too small for the Qunari to use. She noted something down on her clipboard and turned her attention back to the odd pair in the middle of the room. It was an interesting sight, to say the least.

"Sodding- could you stop moving so much? It is already difficult enough taking measurements from someone 4 times my height without having to constantly resize everything. Neverminding the fact that I also have to take your physique into consideration. If I make your outfit too tight it might tear if you have to battle in it, if it's too lose the nobles will talk about nothing else than how the Herald Andraste's can't even dress properly. And then it will fall back upon me. Damn nug-humpers."

A barely audible snort sounded from somewhere inside the room and Adaar prayed that neither of her two guests would notice the elf still inside with them. Or part of her clothing peeking out from beneath the bed, barely but still slightly visible. Josephine was distracted with watching the tailor work and said man was too busy ranting off about everything and nothing to notice anything besides his work.

Luckily for her both of them exited the room just about 10 minutes later, but not before Josephine told her to be in the unused hall near the kitchen by nightfall. The door shut behind the brunette and Sera's trademark laugh filled the room mere seconds later.

"Nug-humpers, I have to remember that one", she said in between bouts of laughter and poor attempts at breathing. Her only partly clothed form emerged from the room inside the Qunari's chamber and immediately went straight for the only other person currently in the room, pulling her into a deep kiss.

"That's for undressing in front of that dirtdigger. I thought I had made it clear that I ain't into sharing."

"If you didn't like it, why punish me with a kiss?"

"To remind you what you will be losing if you do it again" she said and shrugged, grabbing her shirt and putting it back on. "Thank Andraste, I think my tits were about to freeze off. Now that's something you wouldn't want, innit?"

"It's really hard to make sense of you sometimes", Adaar remarked as she watched Sera get dressed, noticing the grin that was evident on the elf's full lips.

"Doesn't matter as long as you love me. And that you do, if your actions speak as loud as your words. Hehe, naughty Inky."

"Sera!"

Her laughter filled the halls of Skyhold once again as she bolted from the Qunari's room, leaving her partner to just shake her head with a smile at the adorableness that was her girlfriend.

Well, first of all: I am not dead. I just haven't had time and/or motivation to write anything down for a while. It's certainly not the lack of ideas, you can believe that.

Side note: This is only the first part of the two-shot. Not yet planned when that will be up but I hope soon :)

Secondly: I have recently finished playing Bioware's new Masterpiece that is Dragon Age Inquisition and I abolutely fell in love with Sera. Playing as a female Qunari just made it a little bit easier to make her like me ;) So yeah. First time writing anything for a video game so please go easy on me. I was also not able to play the game in English since the voice package is not available for me for some reason so I just pieced their language together from what I know from the German version.

I hope that I kept everyone as in character as I could. My Adaar is a very calm person that only ever gets emotional when something she truly cares for is involved, like her lover Sera or her friends from the Inquisition. She is a warrior, 2-handed so that's why she is muscular, just as a random bit of information.

Phrase of the Day

Caught up in the middle of a headache and a heartbreak, just when I thought I was clear of the mistakes, no, no oh oh oh.

"Working man" by Imagine Dragons

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