Author's Note: Some dialogue has been taken directly from Dragon Age: Origins but only to add context to the plot.

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For a time, all is quiet.

The night watch is Sasuke's preferred duty, offering him a chance to collect his thoughts. Kakashi might not be wrong about him being tightly wound, but he refuses to accept it is for the reasons suggested.

More likely, it is suddenly being in close quarters with an entire party of fighters who are all-but his equals. He is much more used to travelling and working alone, or at least working with underlings that do not insist on talking so much. Naruto and Sakura are so lively that it is sometimes overstimulating, and more often than not, confusing.

There is a sudden sharp, desperate intake of breath: a bitten off cry, followed by Sakura vaulting into a seated position. Sasuke's head whips up to evaluate the threat, noting her wide and terrified eyes, and the way her fingers twitch toward her axe. Across the cave, Naruto shudders in unconscious empathy, while Kakashi's breathing pauses. The mage's single visible eye cracks open, his entire body tense as if expecting an attack. When it settles on Sakura, his body relaxes.

He is used to this behaviour. They all are.

Though the mage does not get up to check on her—they have all learned not to mention the nightmares—he continues to watch her with concern.

Sasuke does not move, either.

It is common for Sakura or Naruto to wake in such an agitated manner. The former Templar mentioned to Sasuke once that the dreams are part of being a Warden, something to do with their secret initiation.

He seemed childishly put-out when Sasuke refused to ask him what was so secret about it.

Now, Naruto continues to snore away in the corner, so deeply asleep even a giant's bellow might not rouse him. He remains unaware of his fellow Warden's distress, and yet, if there were darkspawn falling upon their camp, he would be one of the first to his feet.

Another inexplicable quirk to being a Warden, Sasuke supposes, studying Sakura's face in the dark. Her expression is painfully familiar.

Sasuke knows what it is like to be gripped by night terrors. Though he does not wake in such a cold sweat after so many years, he recognises the disorientation and terror one experiences ripping oneself out of the Fade. In the early years, anyone who ventured close to him would be lucky to escape with mere bruises. After his time in Oto, anyone disturbing him after such a nightmare would be lucky to survive the trouble.

Sakura inhales a shuddering breath that on any other woman Sasuke might imagine was a terrified sob, before the rest of her senses wake as well. She seems to notice Sasuke's eyes on her, because she turns red, and looks away.

"Sorry," she mumbles.

He doesn't understand; why would she apologise for something she cannot control?

Still not looking at him, Sakura turns back around, pulling her blanket up around her ears with the determination of one who intends to chase sleep no matter what. What follows is a solid ten minutes of tossing back and forth, to the point Sasuke begins to grind his teeth in irritation. Finally, she gives it up as a bad job and rises, wrapping her cover around her. Sakura shuffles over to sit beside him, rubbing warmth into her forearms while leaning closer to the fire.

"I can spell you if you want," she offers. "Doubt I'm going to sleep much more tonight."

"I have already slept."

"For ten minutes?" she challenges.

"For long enough."

She puffs out her cheeks in annoyance, then smiles and shrugs. "Alright, but that just means you're going to be keeping company with me for a while."

He shrugs.

Distantly, Kakashi makes an oddly exaggerating yawning sound and then turns his back on the two of them. Sasuke would suspect an intent to eavesdrop if they were not in the middle of a mission where alertness could mean the difference between life or death. The otherwise meddling fool is not one to sacrifice his battle effectiveness for misguided matchmaking ploys.

At least, Sasuke highly doubts he is.

He isn't completely sure until several minutes later when the mage's breathing evens out in slumber. This leaves Sasuke, for all intents and purposes, alone with Sakura in the night. It is not the first time it's happened, nor is it likely to be the last, yet he cannot deny a growing sense of apprehension.

Sasuke's world has always been very monochromatic and easily categorised. Based on how people react to him, he forms a very precise first impression and his intuition about people's motives has the same deadly accuracy of his archery skills. Humans and dwarves alike have always gazed upon him in silent judgement, and even the flat-ears in the Alienages are wary in his presence.

But Sakura looks at him the same way she does everyone else they meet—as if his past does not matter, and she cares only about who he is now. It is almost as confusing as when she looks at him the other way.

There is a reason Kakashi's unwanted teasing makes him uncomfortable. Part of that may have to do with the fact he is not as unaware of the woman's attentions as he pretends.

He just doesn't know how he feels about them.

Sasuke frowns at her, studying her face as if it holds the answers he is seeking. She endures this for a while, but eventually tires of the silence.

"Don't you ever talk?" she asks. "I mean, make small-talk just to put people at ease?"

"Would you have me remark upon the weather before I put an arrow in someone's eye?"

She giggles at this.

"Right, because you're such a hard-ass," she grins. "You can drop the act. It's not like anyone will notice."

She jerks her head at Naruto, who flails his arms and mutters unintelligibly in his sleep. "Ho...ka...ge..."

Sasuke crosses his arms.

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Come on, I saw you what you were doing, right before we left Uzushiogakure."

He raises an eyebrow rather sure she's simply trying to get a rise out of him.

"You know," she reminds him. "Playing with that kitten."

Warmth floods his cheeks, and he hopes those rumours about dwarven eyesight being better in the dark are false.

"There was no kitten."

"I saw you," she insists, grin widening. "You were dangling a piece of twine for it."

"I was..." Sasuke flounders here and blurts out the first practical thing to come to mind, "helping it to train."

Right away he wishes to take that back due to the sheer idiocy of the comment.

Sakura stares at him for a moment as if she is trying to confirm exactly what she just heard. Sasuke braces for a loud peal of laughter—she does that a lot, though it has never been directed at him before. Instead, her grin softens into a genuine smile, and the amusement in her eyes fades to something else.

"You really are a kind man under all that anger, aren't you, Sasuke-kun?"

He glowers and looks away, folding his arms. "I have flee-on-sight warnings in six kingdoms. Kind is the last word I would use."

"If you say so..."

Her tone suggests how unbothered she is by his argument. He takes that as an invitation to go on the offensive. "Very well. Then how do you explain your tendency to sniff dirt?"

"What?!"

"Do not deny it," he counters mercilessly. "I saw you pick up a handful of dirt and sniff it, just before we headed up this mountain."

"I did not!"

"You did. I saw you."

"Fine," she admits, cheeks turning red and tossing her hair. "But it smells good. It's like...falling leaves and sunlight and living things. Everything back home smelled like nug-dung, so you can't exactly blame me!" She crosses her arms. "Aren't elves supposed to be close to nature?"

"Figuratively. We do not shove our noses with it."

"But you still like cats."

They consider each other in silence for a beat, until Sasuke states, "We will never speak of this again."

"My lips are sealed," she vows, but her eyes continue to dance.

Sasuke glares at the ceiling of the gave. "Are all dwarves as annoying as you?"

She does not appear bothered by the rhetorical question; possibly because, against his will, his tone has lost any actual sharpness.

These people are making me weak...

They sit together in silence for a spell, and he is surprised to find it a companionable one. Usually Sakura is wandering among the camp, chatting to the rest of the outfit about everything from the rations to childhood stories. She has an uncanny ability to get people to confide in her.

(It is one of the reasons he has avoided her for so long).

Yet, for an hour, they simply sit together. Sasuke discovers that, for once, his thoughts seem to meander, and a peaceful silence replaces the usually steady barrage of plans and vengeance-fueled intent.

He cannot remember the last time he felt like this.

"I'm sorry about earlier," Sakura blurts. Sasuke raises an eyebrow at the abrupt statement. "What we were talking about before, about...the Dalish. If we offended you or made you think of something you don't want to."

The peaceful haze ebbs away.

"Ah." He shrugs, feeling suddenly cold. "You were not to know."

"Maybe not. But if you ever...if you ever do want to talk about it, I'm here," she offers. "Sometimes talking helps."

"Not in my experience," he retorts, crossing his arms and looking away.

He hopes for that to be the end of it, his goodwill toward her presence vanishing. He wishes she had fallen asleep after all. At least when she is asleep, he does not have to be on guard for whatever she will say.

"You know, just because you look all pretty and brooding, doesn't mean you actually have to brood."

Like that.

Sasuke is so surprised that the confused look he shoots her might include a gaping mouth most unbefitting of his upbringing.

"Oh, Ancestors!" she gasps, pressing her fists to her mouth in horror. "I can't believe that just came out of my mouth! I mean, yes, I can, because it's true, but I didn't mean to say it out loud!"

As she rambles, Sasuke cannot help feeling insulted.

Pretty?

He has never been described by a word so trite as pretty in his entire life. It is not as if he cares overly much about his appearance, but the mere idea of her descriptor makes him indignant.

And he does not know why.

"...it's just, not what I thought about elves," Sakura is still talking, clearly unaware of his inner conundrum. "The stories talk about you like you're walking trees or plants or something. With bright bug eyes and wrists that would snap if you squint at them wrong, but you're...uhm...prett—I mean, solid looking."

Yet again, he does not know how to respond to any of that.

So, for once, he says the first thing to come to mind.

"I was raised to believe female dwarves had beards," he informs her flatly.

Sakura blinks at this, and then she does burst into laughter; it is the startled sound of someone finding humour in a most unexpected place. A beat later, as Kakashi and Naruto shift in their sleep, she tries to quiet her giggles.

"Did you make a joke?" she teases him, green eyes positively delighted.

"It does not happen often," he grumbles and looks away. His cheeks are definitely warm this time.

"Good thing, too, or you might cause an uproar. We're travelling with a bunch of cloudheads. I don't think their hearts could take the stress."

Again, they share a look, commiseration over the general ineptitude of the human species.

"Yeah, they wouldn't last a minute growing up in Iwa," Sakura continues. "A joke's not a good one unless someone ends up with a broken nose. At least that's what my mother would say."

Sasuke blinks. "Your mother...sounds interesting."

It is the politest way to put it. He may have his own issues with people, but he learned young not to insult anyone's mother.

"She's a spitfire," Sakura agrees. "She'd have to be, coming from Dust Town. If you don't strap on a pair of steel tits down there, you end up dead in an alley."

"That is the part of Iwa you come from?"

"Dust Town? Yes."

"Hm. Is it truly as I have heard?"

"I've no idea. What have you heard?"

"That it is like an Alienage," Sasuke says, shuddering at the idea of the ghettos that house his kind in the cities. They might have forgotten their ways, but distantly, they are still his kin.

"Oh, no," Sakura says, snorting. "No, I've seen Alienages. We were in Kumo and Kiri before we ran into you. They were both rather nice. I'd have killed to grow up somewhere like that."

"Yes, you mentioned..."

"Hah! Kakashi was right! You were listening!"

He ignores this.

"Is it true that the number of dwarves is dwindling?" Sasuke asks. "That the darkspawn are always at the gates of Iwa, threatening to overwhelm you?"

"Yes. And yes, it's only a matter of time before they do."

"You do not seem entirely concerned about that," Sasuke frowns.

"Why should I be?"

"My people...we are few. Every one of us is precious, our lives something to be guarded and mourned once they are lost. But you dwarves isolate your casteless, forbid them from bearing weapons that might help them fight off their own demise..."

He trails off, not quite sure what point he is trying to make.

"Yeah, well, the noble caste has a stick up its collective arse," Sakura shrugs. "A stick called tradition. And at some point, it's going to destroy them. See, the thing about the casteless is, we're survivors. The time comes that the darkspawn overwhelm Iwa? It'll be the dusters that survive it because we've been keeping ourselves going for centuries."

She smiles, teeth bared like a wolf and a glint in her eyes that sends a chill shooting up his spine. It is not fear, that he is sure of, but the way his stomach flips and his mouth suddenly goes dry he wonders if it is not something worse.

"If your people are so beset by darkspawn, why leave to become a Warden?" Sasuke asks before he can think better of it. "There are more underground than here. Would you not be more useful amongst your own?"

Sakura looks thoughtful for a moment, and then sad.

"That's a tale for another time, I think," she says after a beat. "Ask me the next time we get our hands on some lichen ale. If you don't pass out at the first sip, I'll tell you the whole story."

Sasuke is familiar enough with not wanting to speak of the past, and he lets this go. But he frowns. "I doubt your dwarven spirits are that potent."

Sakura laughs again, eyes dancing, and Sasuke almost smiles in response.

Almost.