A/N: Just a short fluff prompt from tumblr. Thank you for reading!
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"Oh, do you think we could make that stew from the other night?" Merrill asked, bouncing a little where she stood in Marian's kitchen. "It was so good."
"It was, wasn't it…what'd we put in that?"
"Um, there was parsley and potatoes and…elfroot? Maybe a bit of embrium… I can't quite remember the rest."
At that, Marian rocked down from her tiptoes, where she'd been rummaging through her pantry. Bodahn did his best to keep the house stocked, but somehow they were always running out of food. Probably because half of her friends came by at least twice a week to steal some.
Not that she or Merrill minded.
It just meant that cooking was, more oft than not, a creative endeavor.
As it was, it was well after midnight and the two of them had woken up hungry. Not wanting to bother Bodahn, they'd decided to make something themselves, and, well… "Didn't we get food poisoning from that?"
"Did we?" Merrill paused, brow pinching together as she thought back. She drummed her fingertips against her chin a moment before frowning. "Oh, we did, didn't we? That's what Anders was yelling about."
Indeed, their mage friend had been quite annoyed when Bodahn had climbed down the ladder leading from the Hawke Estate's basement to Darktown, seeking him out to aid the great Champion of Kirkwall and her dear lover.
He'd stood there, glaring at them after he'd found out what had caused their illness, ignoring their pleas that they regretted everything—mostly that was Marian's wails, to be honest, as Merrill turned out to be like she always was, even with food poisoning.
Which was to say, she was completely adorable. And she'd actually handled the problem a lot better than Marian had.
It was probably the blood magic, not that Marian could fault her for using it. She would have if she'd been able to use magic herself. She would have used most anything to get that ungodly sensation of dying out of her system.
Marian narrowed her eyes at the cabinet, fingers drumming against her hips. "I'm gonna say stew's out." Even as Merrill sighed an agreement, she shook her head. "It was good, though. …Until it nearly killed us."
"What about…" Merrill debated the different things they might make for a moment before walking over to Marian and looping her arms around one of Marian's. Merrill rested her chin on Marian's shoulder, peering up at their stocks as well. "If you've any spider meat, I could make one of my clan's dishes. We'd need pepper, too."
"Spider meat," Marian repeated, narrowed gaze still sweeping their pantry. "I don't think they sell that at the market."
Merrill rolled her eyes and leaned into Marian briefly. "No, but remember we brought some back after our last trip to the coast."
"Right…the spider that nearly ate Varric." Marian frowned. "I think he took all of it."
Arching her brow, Merrill straightened up. "But he hates spider meat."
"I know, but he said he was going to eat it out of spite," Marian stopped, thinking back. "Or was it irony? Ironic spite? Is it ironic if he eats the spider that tried to eat him?"
"I think so?" Merrill suddenly perked up, letting go of Marian and moving over to their food, pushing a few ingredients to the side that looked like they had seen better days—likely they were things Marian had found during their exploring that she'd felt they could definitely salvage. Bodahn never had the heart to throw any of that mess away. "With these, I can make a nice broth."
"It's not going to poison us, is it?"
"Not so long as we cook it long enough."
With a grin, Marian looped an arm around Merrill's shoulders and pressed a quick kiss to her temple. "Perfect. I'll get the cutting board."
