Hope sat on the roof of the keep, looking up towards the stars. She heard someone quietly approach her, but didn't turn to see who it was. She knew those footsteps. "I come up here, to think sometimes, you know?"

Varric nodded and sat down next to her. "I know, you've been doing this since we met, remember?"

Hope smiled but continued looking upwards. They sat in silence for many minutes, both lost in thought until a shooting star passed over their heads.

Varric nudged Hope gently, "Tell me Inquisitor, did you make a wish?"

"I… did not." Hope laughed. "I don't really believe in that kind of stuff."

Varric raised an eyebrow. "Says the woman who fell from the sky."

She rolled her eyes at his comment. "So tell me, great storyteller, what are these shooting stars made of, to be considered so magical that they may grant our wishes?"

"Well, let's see." He said, stroking the stubble on his chin as a play to bide his time. "Last time I saw one, there were demons pouring out of a fade rift, and a bright green light shot across the sky. Then, a woman fell down from the heavens and saved all of our asses. So, yeah, I just assume they are all made of crazy human mages like you."

It was Hope's turn to nudge Varric, though hers could be called more of a light punch. "You know what I mean, Varric!" Laughter filled the end of her sentence, and Varric knew she was enjoying his game.

Varric put his hands out defensively. "Inquisitor, you wound me!" He paused for a second and then dropped his hands to play with the collar of coat. He sighed and glanced back up to her, "By the way, I'm still waiting on you to answer my wish. Antivan leather gloves don't just import themselves, you know."

Hope reached over to hit Varric again, but the rogue was too quick for her. He grabbed her hand and brought it up to his mouth, where he laid a soft kiss across her knuckles as Hope blushed.

Hope cleared her throat, suddenly caught off guard. "Hmm, well, what do you think they really are, then? You must know a good story or two. What do the dwarves say about them?"

Varric smiled and took off his coat, setting it carefully down across the roof before lying down on it and motioned for Hope to join him. "I've heard a lot of good stories about the stars, but not often from dwarves. Being underground, they don't see the night sky. Of course, that's the traditional dwarves. Those of us surface dwellers have an idea or two. Personally, I think they're just stone, same as we have here in Thedas."

Hope looked at the stars and looked back at Varric. "Stones? That light up? "

Varric chuckled. "Well, yes. You see, they say that a long time ago, before the moon and the stars, there was this prince. Prince Theo of Orzammar. Prince Theo didn't like the ways of his people, and he rebelled against the politics and caste system that the other dwarves clung too closely to. So one day, in the middle of the night, he left. Of course, that made him casteless, and his title was void. But his parents didn't want to lose him, and tried to keep track of him through spies. But you know the problem with spies - they can't always be trusted, but we'll get back to that...

"So Theo had been a surface dweller for about a year when he met Kali. Kali was the most beautiful woman he had ever met, but she was a human. They fell in love, but neither her family nor the other surface dwarves approved of their love, for it was a different time. Eventually, some of the spies hired by Theo's parents turned on them, feeling that Theo was disgracing the ancestors by loving a human. The spies shared the information with mercenaries, and Theo and Kali were hunted. They were forced to flee from their home in the middle of the night, even though they had nowhere else to go.

"For many days the two ran in the night, Theo leading her through the darkness. Eventually, though, the mercenaries caught up with them, and Theo was captured while creating a diversion for Kali to escape. Theo was killed that night, but instead of his spirit returning to the stones of his ancestors, he rebelled one last time. His spirit went up to the great stone of the sky, and lit it up to show Kali his eternal love. From then on, every night she could look up to the sky and see that her Theo still loved her, and that he would always be there to light up the path through darkness. They say that, because of Theo's sacrifice, many more dwarves have chosen go to the stones of the sky, filling our nights with starlight."

Hope's eyes filled with tears. She closed them, letting the tears slide down her cheeks. "Varric, that was beautiful. To imagine someone loving another that powerfully…" She looked back up at him, and silence greeted the two as their eyes locked.

Varric leaned towards Hope and wiped a tear from her cheek. He looked into her eyes and saw the glittering of the light reflected within them. And much like the story, she was lighting up the darkness within him. Where she had been lost in the depths of the field of stars, he was now lost within the depths of her eyes.

For what is a star, truly, to a man in love?

Author Note: A big thank you to fiveforchaos for editing, and thanks to you all for reading! (Bioware owns [the game], Varric, and his chesthair… [but hopefully soon they'll share]). Please review!