Ok guys, this is my first ever Fanfic I'm uploading to the interwebs so go easy on me.
I worte this Fanfiction for the lovely lovely Annie 8D Honey I really hope you like it!
Finally, the last patient had left his clinic in Darktown!
Anders slumped on one of his few chairs and slowly caressed his temples with both of his index and middle-fingers. That day had been a hard one, so many injured Fereldans from a beat-up in the streets with a mob of Kirkwallers and a child that had managed to fall off one of the high walls of the docs.
"I really need a holiday", Anders sighed and looked outside to see the sun setting.
Crud! He forgot he promised Varric to show up at the hanged man that night for a drink or two with the gang.
Cleaning up bits and bobs to make the clinic look at least half decent before he left, he scurried around to find the clinic key.
"Where in the Makers name, did I place the damn thing again?"
After searching through all his chests and bookshelves he stood in the middle of his clinic with his hands on his hips, to look around at where else he might have placed it, only to notice he had had it in pockets all along.
He smacked his forehead with his palm and stood there sighing for a brief moment before he left for the Hanged Man.
"Finally! Our miracle healer arrives!", Hawke stated and opened his arms far above his head whilst everybody else turned their heads towards the tired mage.
"Sorry, guys! Today everybody felt like hurting themselves."
Anders sat down between Bethany and Varric and placed his drink order before looking around at his friends. All seemed their usual selves, Varric was telling impossible stories to keep everybody entertained whilst Isabela was going on about her Friend fictions, Hawke his usual dorky self, Merrill not understanding Isabelas' innuendos, ect. Only the broody elf seemed missing. Anders didn't think much of it. All he was out for was arguing with him anyway lately so he joined in the party of listening to Varric as his drink was brought to the table, adding bits and bobs to the story himself at occasion.
The party completed itself after all within a few minutes as Fenris descended down the stairs of the hanged man, obviously returning from the bathroom.
"There's something oddly beautiful and elegant about the elven race", Anders thought to himself, looking back and forth between the new arrival and Merrill. Not that he ever minded them, he'd only not made much good experience with the ones he'd gotten to know so far. Merrill was a nice girl but he just couldn't get over the fact that she used Blood Magic, Fenris on the other hand was purely unbearable with his attitude towards mages.
"I see the mage finally made it here too", Fenris observed coldly as he sat down with a grunt opposite Anders.
"Were you missing me?", Anders returned and earned a hateful glare.
"Now, now ladies! You're both beautiful," Hawke intervened ," so stop arguing and let's play a round of cards!"
"Oh Maker no! Cards?" Anders had never been the best at card games and normally ended up losing the majority of his bets. He even managed to lose against Hawke's Mabari. Not having much coin with him at the time he looked around to see if he could come up with an idea to better his chances and spotted the bottle of piss poorly brewed ale on the table. Maybe if he got them all drunk...
He looked at his friends again. Isabela, Hawke, Bethany and Varric already looked pretty sloshed so they wouldn't need much more. The others on the other hand he couldn't judge. Aveline always had a poker-face no matter what state she was in so he assumed she was still sober just to make sure, Merrill had a glass of water in front of her so she had obviously not drunken anything , Fenris drank like a bottomless pit anyway and no way in hell he'd be able to get the Mabari drunk.
"Another round over here please!", he waved towards the bar.
"I officially love you now, Blondy... well in a manly-friendly way at least", Varric announced and patted Anders on the shoulder, spilling half of his drink on the table.
As the cards were distributed the drinks were served and it took a whole lot of persuading to get Merrill to drink and cleverly refilling Varric's and Bethany's mugs with his drink when nobody was looking, Anders managed to stay sober. Up until half the booze was gone it wasn't looking to good for him as usual. But when almost the entire ale had disappeared Anders started gaining ground on the others.
"You're cheating!", Justice opposed in the back of his mind.
"Oh, like the others never do!"
"...point taken..."
When Anders had finally gotten a bit of an advantage over the others, even the sober Mabari, he decided it to be safe to visit the dearly needed bathroom. It stank like the rest of the pub, but the stench of vomit was more intense in the men's stalls. Not wanting to waste much time in the putrid smelling place he quickly relieved himself and washed his hands with what was left of the mouldy soap.
As he left the men's room he wiped his hands on his own gowns, not wanting to know what sort of people wiped their hands on the provided towel next to the sink.
"They should fire the cleaning personnel... that's if they have any", he muttered to himself as he straightened his gowns.
Before he could look up from it again though someone grabbed him by the throat and pushed him hard up against the wall winding him. Shaking his head shortly and looking at his assailant he snorted.
"Fenris, let me go you great oaf!"
"Do you think me blind, mage?", the elf tightened his grip around the man's neck, the claws of his gauntlets digging into the flesh slightly as he inched his face closer lowering his voice," You're cheating by getting us all drunk!"
The elf's breath stank of ale and made Anders feel mildly nauseous, so he tried to hold his face further away, but Fenris' grip was tighter than he thought.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you!"
"What you gona do? Take my Silvers? Good luck with that, I hardly have any!", Anders spat back and grabbed Fenris' arm, instantly igniting the lyrium tattoos.
"Varric ordered another round, you better start drinking as well and I'll keep my mouth shut about your tricks", Fenris snarled before letting the taller man go and storming off.
"He didn't already give me away?"
Anders looked after him for a while before shrugging it off and re-joining the group.
As he sat down on his previous spot the drinks were just being served again and just as he was going to grab the bottle a clawed hand beat him to it.
"Let me do that for you", Fenris proclaimed and topped his mug up so much it almost flowed over.
Anders swallowed dry at the amount of ale he was expected to drink and looked back up at the two emerald eyes staring at him over their own mug as the elf drank his helping in one shot just to top it back up again afterwards.
As expected Anders' "luck" ceased to be after a few forced mugs and by the end of the evening he was back where he had started.
"Well at least I didn't lose any this time", he thought to himself as Hawke clumsily tried to gather the cards.
"Thash was grape!", Varric slurred and almost fell backwards off his chair.
"Who's raped?", Isabela asked as she got up and only stayed up because she leaned on the table.
"Careful Isabela!", Merrill stood up to help her up and almost fell over herself despite being the least drunk of the group.
"Maybe the ones that can't walk should stay here and rent a room?", Aveline hiccupped and pointed at the majority of the group and then at herself.
"I think I'm fit enough to get home", Merrill declared after helping Isabela to the stairs.
"Ditto", Fenris grunted as he wobbled a tad on his feet.
"And I can use my staff as a walking stick if it gets to bad", Anders chuckled looking around at the rest of them," you should all stay here."
"Good idea", Bethany agreed as she helped her brother towards the stairs," we'll see each other again tomorrow at the viscount's residence for Aveline's patrol?"
Everybody nodded in response and said their goodbyes.
Outside the hanged man the three turned to each other.
"Do you think you can make it back to the alienage on your own?", Anders asked Merrill.
"Oh I think I'll do just fine, thank you Anders", she answered with a smile and tried to bow.
"You sure?"
"Yes, yes! You two better be on your ways now! You've got further to walk than me", she waved clumsily before wobbling down the stairs towards the elven district of the city.
The two men glared at each other before setting off together in constant silence. The only sounds to be heard were the taping of Anders' boots and the faint rustle when a cat rushed down an alleyway after spotting them.
Still thinking about what happened earlier, Anders kept throwing glances at his shorter brother in arms who avoided looking at him all together.
"What?", the elf asked, still not looking at him.
"Why didn't you tell the others? You always claim you hate me so much, that would have been the easiest way of humiliating me."
"You're the healer of the group, if everybody loses trust in you then we have a greater issue at hand", he shrugged it off, still not looking at the mage.
"We have Bethany as well so I'm sure that's not the only reason", Anders dug on.
"What do you want me to tell you? That we're best friends for ever now?", Fenris mocked and finally glared back up at Anders, "I did you a favour, deal with it."
Anders raised an eyebrow.
"Fine! I'll never do it again!", Fenris snapped and continued looking stubbornly towards where he was going.
"I'm just surprised at the kind gesture, that's all!", Anders and stepped in front of the other," I'm sorry I should have thanked you straight away!"
Fenris glared up at the taller man, the large elven eyes glistening with the obvious rage.
"Maybe he's just more tolerant when drunk", Anders figured as he glared back.
"Get out of my way, mage!"
"Ok, on second thought ", Anders started to tower over him," you could have confronted me less violent about the matter back in the Hanged Man."
Anders was instantly pushed up against a wall once more, this time rougher though and Fenris was in his face from the beginning, his alcoholic breath intoxicating the air once more.
"Do you think it coincidence that I haven't used my blade against you yet, nor reported you to the guards?"
Anders stayed silent and stared back instead of answering.
"Do you think me that narrow sighted? I know, not all mages are evil from the start. But I've made enough experience around your kind to know to stay wary!"
"So it's your pride that makes you call me such things in front of others!", Anders countered inching his face forward to show he was not afraid of the physically advantaged other.
"Magic took everything from me", Fenris growled," My family, my life even my memories", his grasp started to loosen," And yet it is part of me and I see the good you do with it."
The elf was obviously drunk to the point where feelings started overflowing. Anders used his chance to gently remove the hands clutching his clothing. He felt oddly relived that Fenris didn't really hate him after all, that or he was so drunk he was imagining this all, which on second thought was more likely.
Fenris let go of his clothing and rested his hand on the mages chest looking down again, taking a few deep breaths and then looking back up at Anders.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to get so emotional. We should move on."
And then things happened without Anders really understanding why... well okay it was probably the booze.
He grabbed Fenris by the arm who's Lyrium instantly lighted up and punched the wall beside Anders' face so hard, the mage could hear the mortar crumble.
"Don't touch m-", but Fenris couldn't finish the sentence. Anders had grabbed the back of his head and pulled him closer, pressing his lips firmly against the others.
He could feel Fenris' tension loosen and his face getting warm. The lyrium faded as Anders realised what he was doing and released the elf.
Fenris backed off staring with a mixture of anger and confusion back at the mage, whilst Anders tried to compute what he had just done.
After what seemed like an eternity, Fenris looked away, coughed politely and straightened himself.
"I-I should get going", he announced and swiftly disappeared around the next building.
Still not quite understanding what he had just done Anders slid his back down the wall to sit on the floor, looking up into the star-scattered sky.
"I should REALLY stop drinking..."