He usually wakes with the sun, but the nightmares he'd almost grown used to are getting worse and more vivid as time goes on, and one morning he wakes with a jolt as the first thin gray bands of light are streaking through the sky. Nadene looks up from the campfire as he stirs, holding the lid to their little coffeepot against her chest.
"I'm so sorry," she whispers, in deference to the others. "Did I wake you?"
He mumbles something in the negative, squinting one eye at the sky and deciding with no small amount of irritation that it's too late to go back to sleep. With a sigh he shoves himself off the ground, passing Morrigan on watch at the edge of camp. He braces for a rude comment that never comes, as Morrigan barely flicks her eyes up in acknowledgement of his existence.
He's back in camp and halfway into his armor before his brain catches up with the rest of him.
"You weren't on last watch," he says to Nadene, both a question and not.
"No...?" She tilts her head, clearly confused.
"Morrigan was."
"Yes."
"But you were already awake."
"Yes."
"She usually is," Leliana says from the other side of the fire. "You usually take first watch, so you're asleep when she gets up."
He narrows his eyes. He's finally pinpointed the source of his unease.
"You're a morning person," he says, aiming an accusatory finger, and Nadene just blinks at him for a moment before bursting into laughter.
"We both get up early, Alistair." Her eyes are shining with laughter and it almost distracts him. Almost.
"Yes but you enjoy it. There is a difference."
That sends her into another fit of giggles. "If it offends you so badly, I could stop," she says when she recovers. "I could even wake up after you." She gestures at the campfire, the coffee and the speared sausages already prepared. "I'll stop being productive in the early hours."
Leliana clutches the tin cup of steaming coffee closer to her chest. "Take it back right now, Alistair. If I lose fresh coffee in the morning because of you - "
Alistair looks between her, the breakfast and coffee, and Nadene still smiling merrily at him. She clearly doesn't mean a word of it, and if he's being honest neither does he. But it's the first bit of levity they've had in weeks that wasn't tinged with sarcasm or self-deprecation, and her eyes are very pretty when she laughs.
"It's not natural," he sniffs, going back to his armor. "But I can see I'm outnumbered, so I shall be forced to let this indignity go unchecked for now."
"Your indignity is burning," Morrigan says wryly, and Nadene snatches the sausages off the fire just before they become too blackened to eat.
"Here," she laughs, handing one to Alistair, and he takes it from her with a smile. "Hopefully I can work my way back into your good graces with the continued application of breakfast meats."
"It's a start," he quips, and decides the tips of his ears must be warm from the rising sun, and the pink in her cheeks must be reflected from the first streaks of dawn in the sky.
Morrigan makes a disgusted noise and pours herself a second cup of coffee.
