Falling

This takes place in Act 1, shortly before the Deep Roads Expedition.

Olivia always took Anders on her myriad quests throughout Kirkwall, though most of the time they spent together was down in his clinic. He liked that time together; having someone around to help when things got busy, having someone to talk to, someone who looked after him and believed in him… he liked having a friend.

But Anders also enjoyed the outings away from his clinic. The fresh air was always nice, especially out on the Wounded Coast, and it was nice to see Olivia enjoying herself with her friends. It was a good thing she dragged him along too, because she had a penchant for getting hurt when they got into fights. She never got injured too badly, but she always commented on how handy it was to have him around to heal her.

On that particular day, they ran into a group of bandits on their way back to the city. As Anders cast his spells from afar—making sure his companions stayed alive during the battle—he heard the sound of Olivia's laughter ringing out over the sounds of the fight. He turned his head until his eyes landed on her, catching her the moment she drove the bladed bottom of her staff into a bandit's gut. She sent sparks down her staff and into the man's body to finish him off before pulling it out out and whirling around quickly, bashing another bandit in the face with the electrified orb at the top of her staff. He went down hard and she laughed again, almost missing a bandit aiming at her with his bow.

Anders' heart beat frantically in his chest as he envisioned the arrow finding its way into Olivia's chest, the light leaving her eyes as she died from the impact. He prepared to send a bolt of magic at the man himself, but she beat him to it. She slammed her staff down, a wall of jagged ice bursting up from the ground, deflecting the bandit's arrow before it had a chance to hit her. Anders watched as she extended her arm and held her hand out, summoning up a wave of telekinetic energy that lifted the man off the ground. She flicked her wrist and magically slammed him into a nearby rock before smashing him into the ground.

Once she was relatively safe, he let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. The blasted woman was going to get herself killed one of these days if she kept fighting so recklessly. He was always telling her to stay out of the thick of things, but she never listened, rattling off some comment on how fighting people up close was more fun.

She was absolutely mad.

A sudden thump behind him brought Anders back to the melee still raging on around him. He turned around to find a bandit dead on the ground, one of Varric's bolts sticking out of the man's chest.

"Eyes on the fight, Blondie!" the dwarf shouted, reloading Bianca and taking out another bandit.

Anders quickly nodded at him before focusing back on what he was supposed to be doing, trying very hard not to let his eyes wander to Olivia. As insane as she was, she was quite the sight to watch when she fought.

It wasn't long before all the bandits fell, Anders smashing the last one with the spiked end of his staff. "Anybody need healing?" he called out.

"I do," Olivia said, her voice strained. She let out a groan of pain and huffed. "Oh, yeah, I definitely do."

Maker, what did she do to herself this time?

Anders turned around, his eyes going wide and his jaw dropping at the sight of her. She had one arm draped over Isabela's shoulders, the rogue helping her stand upright. Her other arm hung at her side, a gaping, bloody wound at the top of her shoulder, and her face… Andraste's flaming knickers, her face…

Olivia saw his reaction and shot him a shit-eating grin, looking like a complete fool given the fact that her left eye was purple, the tender skin already starting to swell. Oh, and there was also the fact that her ridiculous grin made her split lip start to bleed again.

"What… how did this happen?" Anders asked, quickly ushering the two women over to a nearby boulder.

"That guy stabbed me," she said, gesturing to a bandit's charred corpse. Isabela helped her sit down on the boulder, and Anders sat beside her as the rogue went to search the bandits' bodies for loot with Varric.

"And how did he get close enough to you to do that?" he asked sarcastically, fingers tentatively poking and prodding at the bleeding wound in her shoulder as he inspected it.

Olivia giggled, and he rolled his eyes, trying not to smile. "Well, you see, I got close to him," she replied. She went to speak again, but he started to heal her, and she sighed, her body relaxing as the pain faded. "I bashed him in the face with my staff, and he took offense to that," she continued, and he tried not to laugh as he re-inspected her healed wound, just in case.

"You're mad," Anders said, turning his attention to her bruised and battered face.

For a moment he just stared at her, her lips curled into that shit-eating grin again. The dark bruise around her eye brought out the bright blue of her eyes, and the blood spattered on her face mimicked the dusting of freckles underneath. Anders' gaze was drawn to the cut on her lip, and in that moment he wanted nothing more than to take her face in his hands and kiss her breathless.

"The, um, bandit… he hit me in the face with the pommel of his sword," Olivia muttered, the sound of her voice startling him. He swallowed hard, and focused back on healing her, trying to ignore the way she made him feel. "And then he punched me," she finished, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"You might have a concussion," he stated, lifting his hand to the bruise on her face, gently touching it as to not hurt her. "You're going to have to stay at the clinic tonight so I can keep an eye on you." She nodded, closing her eyes as he began to heal her, a shaky breath slipping past her lips as his magic met her bruise.

When he finished, he pulled his hand back and she snapped her eyes open, staring at him as he lightly traced over the cut on her lip with the tip of his finger. Anders could feel her warm breath on his finger, and it sent shivers down his spine. He pushed away the sudden urge to kiss her again, focusing on the task at hand, blue tendrils of healing magic leaping from the tip of his finger to the cut on her lip. Olivia gasped, and thank the Maker he finished healing her a second later, because his thoughts shifted away from focusing on his magic.

Would she gasp like that if he kissed her? Would her lips feel soft against his own? Would he be able to taste her magic fizzling just below her skin? What would she feel like if—

Justice rumbled in the back of his mind, uttering things like "distraction" and "inappropriate." The untimely interruption brought him back to the present, and he jerked his fingers away from Olivia's lip, not realizing he'd let them linger. She stared at him again, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open as she gazed at him.

"Thank you," she breathed, and he slowly nodded, unable to tear his eyes away from her.

"You're welcome," he replied.

"Anders, I—"

"Hey, Hawke! Look at this!" came Varric's voice, startling the two mages. She sighed, furrowing her brows before she got up and hurried towards the dwarf.

She shot him a small smile over her shoulder, and Anders couldn't help but smile back at her. It only made her beam even more, her smile lighting up her face.

Maker, she was beautiful when she smiled like that. She was beautiful even when she was bruised and battered and bloody.

Justice protested his thoughts, signaling warning bells in the back of his mind. He had to stop thinking of her that way. Olivia was his friend, nothing more.

But Anders was falling for her—he was falling hard—and as much as it hurt to deny it, it would hurt even more if something happened to her because of him. He had to protect her… even if it meant breaking his own heart.