#its such a small detail but the set decoration for simons bedroom: hes got dead butterflies and or moths displayed in picture frames

[roychewtoy]

simon shoulda been weirder about nathans immortality

[rhetoricalrogue]

Hush or Congrats for Ravena/Blackwall, please :)

Thank you for the ask! I went with the Cousins Trevelyan AU where Ravena’s a companion for this one, and I managed to get both prompts into one story! Set post-Revelations, roughly around late 9:42 or early 9:43 Dragon.

Send me a "Hush" and I'll write a drabble about one character comforting the other (from fear or grief)

Send me a "Congrats" and I'll write a drabble about their first anniversary

The light and the sound of birdsong filtering in through the bedroom window woke Thom. He and Ravena had been traveling for the past few weeks on Inquisition business that just so happened to take them close enough to Tantervale to take a detour and spend a few days at the home Ravena owned before they began the trip back towards Skyhold. Ravena had written Inquisitor Lavellan with the news of their prolonged stay out in the field as well as a brief report of their findings, so the two of them didn’t feel guilty at all for taking some much-needed time for themselves.

They had to make do with some travel rations for dinner since the shops had closed long before they had arrived that first night, but a trip to the market before breakfast the next day had seen them set up with enough food to last for the duration of their stay. Most of the morning and early afternoon had been spent airing out the place: opening windows and removing dust cloths and taking stock of the non-perishable items left in the kitchen larder. It was a comfortable house, modestly furnished and decorated, yet full of little bits and pieces of Ravena’s past that she’d been all too happy to share with him. True to nature, most, if not all of the keepsakes she had on display had a story to them and Thom was looking forward to eventually hearing them all.

The evening had been spent preparing a simple dinner together and retiring to a sitting room after, Thom starting a fire in the hearth while Ravena had gone downstairs to the cellar to bring up a bottle of wine from her collection.

“It’s from my second oldest brother’s wedding,” Ravena had explained, pouring a glass for them both before snuggling up on the settee with him. “I’ve been collecting wines made in important years for my family - birthdays, weddings, that sort of thing. It’s somewhat silly, but when I drink this, I can remember just how Robert had laughed as he and Maria danced their first dance as a married couple. It was spring and she had orange blossoms in her hair. It was a good day.”

He’d draped his arm around her and held her close. “Nothing silly about it,” he’d told her. “It’s always good to be able to relive happy memories.”

She had leaned against him then. “One of these days, I’m going to have to put a bottle in my collection for you.”

“I’d like that.”

They’d spent the remainder of the evening there enjoying the other’s company before finally heading up to bed. The following days had fallen into a similar pattern: morning walks to the market, afternoons exploring the city, and evenings wrapped up in the other’s arms. Thom never thought that he’d be content with something so simple, but he could easily see them settling into a routine just like this: time spent in the city broken up with time spent on the road on archaeological expeditions or in other cities. Instead of the dread he had often felt in his youth at the idea of such domesticity, he welcomed it, if only because it would be spent with Ravena at his side.

Speaking of, Thom scrubbed at his face with one hand while reaching out for her with the other. Stubble scraped at his palm as he did so, a reminder of the beard he was starting to regrow, and he shifted over to face Ravena’s side of the bed when he hadn’t made contact with her. Normally she was the type to enjoy sleeping in as often as she could, and he was usually the first to wake. That morning, the sheets next to him were cool to the touch and Ravena was nowhere to be found. Rolling out of bed, Thom scooped up his pants from the floor and threw on a shirt before quietly making his way downstairs.

The lower floor of the house was just as silent as the upper one had been. Thom looked around for a possible note Ravena may have left for him before going off on whatever errand she had that morning, but he hadn’t found one. Another oddity was the fact that the kitchen was untouched - the coffee that she usually made before doing anything else for the day still undisturbed in its tin.

“Ravena?” It wasn’t too terribly late in the morning, and a quick look out the kitchen window saw that the small courtyard garden was unoccupied. “Are you here?” He tried not to make a big deal of it; Ravena was a grown woman fully capable of going where she pleased without having to inform him of her every move and Thom was a grown man who didn’t need to be tied to his lady’s hip every second of the day, but the small, uncharacteristic details he had come across and the too-quiet of the house left him uneasy.

The silence was broken by a faint sniffling noise coming from the one room in the house that Ravena hadn’t opened up or explained to him. Respecting her privacy, and knowing that she had once shared the home with her cousin Henri, he hadn’t pressed her for details. It may have been a while since the death of her mentor at the Conclave, but Thom didn’t think that Ravena had ever truly given herself an opportunity to grieve, pushing her own feelings aside in favor of making sure that the Inquisition was prepared to use all the arcane shards they had been combing most of Southern Thedas the past few years for. In fact, knowing Ravena, she had used helping the Inquisition as a way to avoid processing Henri’s death for as long as she could.

“Ravena?” He carefully pushed the door open, his nose twitching at the scent of long-settled dust. He found her sitting on the floor near the foot of the bed, the trunk in front of her open and several books stacked up close by.

“We’re leaving this afternoon,” she explained, wiping at her cheeks with one hand while she held a rolled up bundle close to her chest with her other. “I didn’t want to leave without…” Her lip trembled and she hugged the bundle closer to her.  “I never got the chance to say goodbye.”

Thom knelt beside her, his fingers brushing away fresh tears. “What can I do?”

She leaned into his hand and closed her eyes.  “You’re here, that’s all.” She placed what he had mistook as a wadded up bag or piece of clothing in her lap. Now that he could see it better, he recognized it as a rolled up set of field tools, much like the set that Ravena had. “Henri could be the most disorganized person I ever knew with everything else, but when it came to his tools and his research, everything was meticulously put in place. He taught me that no matter what else is going on, the tools that a researcher relied on needed to be ready to go at any moment.”

She laughed, her fingers gently running along the leather case. “Most of that was because he never knew when he’d get into a discussion with another scholar and he needed to be able to pull out reference materials to back up his arguments.”

“You haven’t spoken much about him.”

“I haven’t gotten the nerve to,” she confessed. “If I did, then I’d have to speak of him in the past tense. I’d have to recognize that he was gone and I haven’t been ready to do that. Henri was...is such a large part of my life. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without his help and I don’t want to let him go just yet. I don’t know if I’ll ever be.”

Thom reached out and pulled her close. Ravena went willingly, burying her face against his neck and her hands clutching at the back of his shirt. “The people we lose never really leave,” he said, his hands running down her back in slow, soothing sweeps. “We carry them with us everywhere we go, from the lessons they taught us or when we see something that reminds us of them.” He pulled back enough to look her in the eye. “You don’t have to let him go if that’s what you want. No one is allowed to tell you how to grieve or how you’re supposed to remember him.”

She moved away to put the books she had taken out back where she had found them, pausing over Henri’s work tools before placing them back in the trunk as well,  her hands pressing the lid of the trunk closed. “He was a cousin that I’d rarely had dealings with before going into the Chantry. He didn’t have to, but he took me under his wing and gave me opportunities I wouldn’t have had otherwise.” Ravena stood up and hugged herself, her fingers digging into her elbows.

“Henri saved my life in more ways than he’ll ever know. I was young, alone in a place far from home and friends and unhappy to be there. My relationship, if you could even call it that, with Simon had just ended and I felt hopeless. Had Henri not come into my life when he had, I don’t know how I would have ended up.” She looked down at him before holding out her hands to help Thom get to his feet. “He was my dearest friend and I’ll forever be grateful for getting the chance to know him.”

Thom was about to ask her if there was anything that he could do to comfort her, but she spoke again. “You’re right, you know,” she said. “Henri may be dead, but he’s not gone. Just like I’ve left my mark on this place and others we’ve been to, he’s done the same. He’ll always be here.” Ravena pressed her hand to her chest. “Just like he’ll always be here.”

He reached out and wrapped his arm around her waist. “When you’re ready, I’d like to get to know him.”

Ravena took a breath. “Thank you.” She closed the scant distance between them and pressed her lips against his. “I think that the two of you would have gotten along rather well. Henri would have liked you very much.”

They were silent for a while before Ravena spoke again. “Come on, we really should get started closing the house back up before we leave.” She took Thom’s hand and the two of them left the room, Ravena closing the door behind them. “I don’t know when I’d be able to come back, but I’d like it if you’d come home with me.”

He nodded. “I’d like that. It would feel good to have a place to come home to after everything is said and done.” He helped Ravena pull the dust cloths they had folded out of the closet and the two of them began to recover furniture. Ravena was in the middle of checking the windows to make sure they were all securely locked when Thom stopped her.

“What is it?”

“I was going to save this for later, but I think this would be a good time.” He opened a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of wine. “I picked it up the last time we went to the market.” It was one that they both favored, and Thom pointed out the year. When he saw her puzzled expression, he explained.

“It’s the year we met. I did some thinking about when the exact day was, and we just recently passed our one-year anniversary.”

Her confused look deepened. “Thom, we’ve known the other for much longer than that.”

He shook his head.  “No. You knew the Warden Blackwall for that first year. This,” he pointed at the date, “this was when you met Thom Rainier.”

“Oh.” Ravena held the bottle close to her chest and smiled. “Come with me.” Taking his hand, she led him down to the cellar. They stopped at the stairs long enough to light a small lantern to take with them so they wouldn’t trip in the dark, and Thom followed her, listening as she pointed out different years and vintages in her collection and what various bottles represented. He held the lantern for her as she made room for the newest addition.

“There,” she said, dusting off her hands. “Now we have to come back; I’m looking forward to seeing what a few years does for us.”

He picked up by her tone that she wasn’t just referring to how the wine was going to age. Thom cupped her cheek with his free hand before tilting his head to kiss her. “As am I.”