Work Text
“Are you very proud of yourself?” Nathaniel demanded as soon as they were alone, taking great care not to slam the door behind him as they sequestered themselves in the office. Inara felt herself bristle. She was so angry that it felt like steam was coming off her head, her shoulders. This whole thing was… It wasn’t Nathaniel she was angry at, and yet she could not help but glare as she turned to face him, her eyes sharp and tongue sharper. “What’s your problem now? I didn’t say anything that I didn’t’ mean.”Her cheeks were past warm – hot. After an afternoon of endless questions by Orlesians staring down their nose at her she wanted to fight. “You need to learn to be more careful, Inara. You must move like a noble, not a common fucking soldier who–” “Fuck you,” she spat.Nathaniel growled, “You are not gaining allies.” “The Grey Wardens don’t need allies.” “You do!” Nathaniel snarled. “Don’t you understand, you–” He stopped himself, chest full to bursting as he heaved. He reeled, pulling back as he sucked in a breath, his eyes stinging as they swept over her.His chest ached. There was so much he could not find the words to say, so much she did not want to hear. “This is dangerous, Inara,” he said, his voice a growl. “They are weighing you. If they believe that you are harboring maleficar, under some… spell—”She knew. As her cheeks flushed with anger, her arms crossed over her chest and uncrossed, half-flung to her sides as she turned and walked further into the little room they had been granted there in Val Royeaux. It wasn’t a prison cell, they insisted. But she knew that they were watching.She watched him shake his head slowly, his own hands settling on his hips as he bowed his head. He breathed in, and out.Things were not good. The Divine Herself had called them there, inquiring into their activities since the Fifth Blight had ended. There were names, numbers of mages that Inara had recruited. Scores to settle. Templars that had gone missing. People who spoke to the freedom the mages enjoyed within the walls of Vigil’s Keep, letters and witnesses from Amaranthine and around it.They did not say the words outright, did not make bold accusations… but they were accusing her all the same. “What do you want me to do? Lie?” Inara asked as she turned on her heel, walked back across the stone floor to him, her boots ringing. “Nothing I’m doing is wrong. I’m just trying to—make things work. Fuck. The Grey Wardens have the right. We deserve to do what we need to do. If we don’t figure something out—”He knew, She wanted to end this. Cure the Blight before they all withered and died. Or worse.His lips pressed together, his tongue hard against them as he watched her. He wanted to tell her that she needed to protect herself. That if she fucked around and got herself killed, he’d be upset. That– that he– She was going to be honest, no matter what. And it was going to damn her.His heart thundered in his chest as rage and anger surged through him. Not at her, no. But—They stared at each other in silence for a long moment before Nathaniel reached out and grabbed her by the strap of her breast plate, pulling her closer. Her eyes widened in surprise for just a moment, breath clashing with his, both of them watching the other with anticipation. “Why do you always have to be so–” Reckless. Selfless, maybe. He faltered as his fingers tightened around the strap, knuckles digging into her chest. “So what?” “Say it again,” she breathed against his lips. “Call me common.” “Is that what you want?” he growled at her, jerking again on his hold, making her chest bump into his.She tangled her fingers in the strings of his cape, yanked on them so that his head was jerked towards hers, lips grazing each other as she loosed the strings and let the heavy cape drop to the ground. Her eyes watched his face. A challenge. “Fuck you,” she hissed. “Seems like you want to very much,” he answered. “Says the man with his hands on my chest.” “Stop talking.” “You stop talking.”Nathaniel huffed. He moved to turn away, but she grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him back, his face even closer to hers than they had been. He shoved her back, and her ass hit the desk. Moving swiftly, he pushed her up onto it, his fingers digging into her thighs as he his chest pushed to hers, his body warm against her. She grabbed his shoulders, fingers curling harshly in the fabric there. She pulled her lips to his, and bit him. They kissed wordlessly, almost angrily. Teeth and lips and tongue.Blind, he jerked her bracer off, and threw it across the room. It hit one of the little statuettes of Andraste in the corner, which wobbled but did not fall. They both watched, breathless as it teetered back and forth.Inara turned back to Nathaniel with wide eyes, and could not contain an awed giggle. This was not Nathaniel – the careful, ever-cautious rogue. But as her eyes swept over his features, his eyes seemed to glow. He grunted, brow furrowing, and pulled at the buckles on her chest plate. His usually precise fingers were uncharacteristically clumsy as he pulled her armor off piece by piece, leaving her gasping and grunting as he pushed and pulled at her body and let the freed bits clatter to the ground, noisy and reckless. He pulled her up off the desk, undid her pants with heavy motions. She had to sit again as he pulled off her boots so he could shuck the trousers off, and she laughed at him. “What’s funny?” “Nothing.” “We can stop if you’re overly amused.” “Don’t be a dick,” she advised, putting her hand against his pants and feeling his hardness. She grinned as he grunted. “Just give me yours.”He pulled back. “Stop it,” he snarled at her, pushing her hand away. “You’re so–” “Common?” she demanded, eyes alight. “Come on. Treat me like your common girl. Fuck me like it.”He wanted to yell at her. Tell her that that wasn’t even what he’d meant, that he—But what the fuck was the point? “Come here,” he pulled her closer, kissed her hard. “Stop talking.” “Fuck me,” she whispered. “My Lord.”A rush ran up his spine. “I am your lord,” he told her. "And you are my wife."She unbuckled his pants as his mouth took hers, hard and warm. They fell down his hips, and he pushed forward. He pushed her back onto the desk and wasted very little time, seizing her thighs as he pushed inside of her. She had to cling to him, fingers tangled in his shirt as he moved against her, leaning forward. “You need to tame yourself,” he heaved. “You don’t like me tame,” she answered, shifting herself against him and making him groan. “You are endangering yourself. For what?” he breathed over her mouth.Frustrated growls came off her lips as she held herself against him, forced to hold onto his shoulders for dear life as her stomach trembled with the ache of being so off-balance. She held him tight as he moved. His arm was stiff, fingers curled over the side of the desk. His motions were hard, fast. Every stroke within her drove her mad, the pull in her abs and her back and the pleasure pulsing through her hips making her twist and writhe. “For us. For you,” she answered, voice spiking. “You are foolish,” he warned, his lips dragging over her throat and back to her lips as he pulled and pushed slow, denying her a rhythm for so long it made her burn. “And you? Standing beside me?” “Your fool.”He had the easy bit. His arm was holding him firm, his other hand dug into her thigh, holding it as her ankles failed to twist together behind his back. The buckle of his pants clanked against the desk as he thrust into her, hungry lips capturing her frustrated gasps and moans as he moved.The legs of the desk started to squeak against the stone, and Inara could not help but laugh. Her head hung back, a few long moments, dizzy spinning in her brain as the song of the desk against the floor and his belt against the desk rang out over every wet, warm slap of his body into hers. Her tired fingers burned as they were tangled in the fabric over his shoulders. She ached, wished her breasts were free, not pushed down beneath the heavy tunic covering her. She wished his skin, too, was bare, so she could claw, leave dark red marks over his fair skin.He shifted, leaning further over her, burying himself deeper and harder with every thrust. It was agony and bliss, an endless crunch as he pumped himself into her again and again. His cock was a wonder, curved in just the right way to stoke the fire inside her with great precision.She curled forward, finding her strength to pull herself to look him in the face. It was so rare that he would meet her eyes, always hiding the waves of pleasure that rippled over his features, never wanting to look foolish, bare, laid plain. But today, he locked his eyes with hers. Today, he let her see him as his lips and cheeks moved in perfect pleasure, diving into her with the fervor of a man nearing his peak.She cherished it. The look on his face as he came to his end, the ungentlemanly contortion of his features as he pressed one last sputtering kiss to her lips. She drank him in as his hips ground into hers, as his fingers shifted from imprinting themselves upon her thighs to the pleasure between her thighs. She found her own end between his fingers and the rutting, her lips over his as they both groaned to the end.She clung to him until they’d both stopped shaking. His head turned, his nose graced her ear. “I will not allow them to take you from me,” he breathed.Her heart shuddered.She kissed his lips, and wished very hard that he would turn out to have that power. “I can try to be—” “Be you,” he told her.He kissed her lips, held her close. “I'm wrong. Be you. Win this. You’ve defeated an Archdemon. How can Orlesians compare?” “They do have more teeth, combined,” Inara murmured as she sat up, pushed herself to wrap her arms around him. “Less brains, though, I’d suspect.”He wrapped her in his arms, and rested his head there atop hers. He closed his eyes, and imagined that they could be such for a lifetime. Together. Never parted.He swallowed hard, and felt her shiver against him. And he wondered if perhaps she was picturing the same.