AN: Bethany/Alistair is one of my favorite dragon age ships (next to Morrigan/Alistair, Leliana/Alistair and Hawke/Varric) and I was saddened by the very low number of it. So I made some!
Also, as a side note, i want to apologise to any Cullen fan about what i wrote last week. I always disliked him and learning that not only was he the Inquisition's commander, but also that the six/seven years he stood alongside Meredith were forgiven and forgotten by pretty much everyone made me want to write something where, at the very least, he wouldn't forgive himself.
Anyway, on with some Bethany/Alistair! Enjoy!
The boat was nicer than the one they had taken when fleeing Ferelden. Wich made sense, as the King of Ferelden was on this boat.
Finally, three years after arriving in Kirkwall, they were returning to Ferelden. Truth be told, after the Deep Road expedition, they had tought they would be safe from the Order's investigations, what with Leandra being the heir of the Amell family and with their fortune partly restored to what it once was.
They had been mostly right. But even then, Kirkwall didn't feel like home to any of them apart from Leandra.
So when the newly crowned king of Ferelden had come to the Free Marches with the announcement that all fereldan refugees were welcomed back into their homeland, the hawke's children had jumped at the occasion to return to what they considered their home.
Carver and Mike were on the other side of the deck, Carver watching his brother throw up overboard, his seasickness as strong as when they had come to Kirkwall (It had been a petty amusing sight to see their usually fearless and quick-witted older brother reduced to a pale wreck). Leandra had stayed in Kirkwall, not wanting to leave her home to Gamlen to ruin again. Bethany was making her way toward the king, wanting to thank him for allowing them to return to Ferelden.
"Your Majesty..." she began, only for him to have a jolt of surprise and turn toward her.
She was surprised by how young he looked. If she had to guess, she'd say he was around her age, give or take a year.
"Sorry for startling you, your Majesty." She said, composing herself.
"No need to apologize I was lost in my toughts. What is it for..." he paused, seemingly trying to remeber her name.
"Bethany Hawke, my King. I wanted to thank you for bringing us back to Ferelden."
"You don't need to, with the Blight over, Ferelden needs as many people as possible to help rebuild."
"Also, my King..."
"Ser will do."
"Thank you ser, so, I thought hearing Meredith say something about harboring escaped mages. She appeared quite angry about it."
"Yes. Meredith thinks that once mages are in a Circle, they shouldn't leaver it. Ever. And I disagree on that point. Particulary I think that Ferelden mages should be welcomed back to Fereden."
"That is very kind of you, ser."
"It's the least I could do."
Silence fell for a few moments.
"If I may ask, miss Hawke, where are you from ?"
"We're from Lothering, ser."
"Lothering... We stopped there. It seemed a beautiful village."
"It was, ser."
"If I may, miss Hawke, could you please call me Alistair ? it makes me feel too old."
"Only if you call me Bethany, se..Alistair."
"Fin enough, I imagine it would be pretty awkward to call me by my name while being addressed as 'miss Hwke'."
"It is."
"You keep saying 'we', where is your family?"
"Over there:" she pointed toward her brothers,"the one who is bend over the railing is Mike and the other is Carver."
"Mike... He must have a marvelous time growing up."
It took a moment for Bethanyto understand the joke, it had been long since someone made it.
"Please, my K.. Alistair, not a word."
"Yes, that would be Hawke-ward."
She could not suppress a laugh.
"I tought kings were supposed to be more serious than that."
"I get that a lot. Anyway, i don't think seeing you in Lothering. I mean, we didn't stay very long or search that hard, but i would have remembered meeting Hawkes."
"We lived far from the village itself." she sighed "I still remember the stories Sister Leliana told."
"You know Leliana ?" Bethany looked at him, puzzled as his surprise.
"Of course, she was part of our merry band during the Blight and... It's going to be a long story."
"We're not going anywhere."
"fair enough. Three years and half ago, at the battle of Ostagar,..."
The story took two or three hours to tell and many people had joined them, wanting to hear the story of how their royal bastard and the Hero of Ferelden had saved it from the Blight. shortly after he began talking, Carver and Mike had joined their sister, Mike with a hand on the railing but slightly better if only for the fact he had nothing left to vomit.
During the story, Bethany became captivated by the king. He was quite good looking and seemed nice enough. She tought about what her mother would say about such feeling for someone like him. Then again, she had herself, the heir of a noble family, fled with a mage.
"...took a greatsword that one of the dead soldiers had been carrying, ran toward it, stabbed it in the face and the Archdemon died. The End."
As the crowd dispersed, he approached her.
"Well, when I woke up today, I did not think I'd had to tell a story this long to a group of refugees."
"It was a nice story tough." said Carver "Carver Hawke, I'm Bethany's twin."
Alistair shook his hand and turned toward the older sibling.
"I'm Mike. Sorry I'm not my usual self but it seems my stomach doesn't like boats."
"I understand. It took me a while to get used to be on a boat. Anyway, I've heard you made a succesful expedition into the Deep Roads a couple years back. I personally wouldn't want to go back there if I could. Why did you do this ?"
"Why, darkspawns are marvelous! And the Deep Roads are so magnificient this time of the year, we just had to see them!" answered Mike.
"We needed the money we gained from it." said Carver. "Refugees don't have many opportunities."
"We were more like bodyguards, actually."
"How comes none of you were infected by the Taint ?"
"There was fewer darkspawns than normally. Thanks to you."
"No problem."
"Anyway, i'm a bit tired, going to find someplace to sleep. G'dnight, sis." said Mije with a yawn before leaving.
"I'm going with him, see if he doesn't bang his head on something and fall asleep on the floor." muttered Carver before following suit.
Which left Bethany aloen with the King of Ferelden. Alone.
"I really enjoyed our conversation. I hope we can talk again tomorrow. Alone if we can."
And with that, he left.
AN: I suck at writing romance it seems.
Anyway, reviews are highly priced so give m some, I need the money.