I awake slowly, lazily, with a strange feeling of contentedness. A small hand is running fingertips gently across my lyrium markings, making them hum. I don't have to wonder about where I am, I'd know that touch anywhere. It's the only one I've ever had that brings pleasure instead of pain. Hawke.

I smile at the wall, not turning to face her. "Good morning, Hawke."

She curls her body up against mine and presses a kiss to my bare shoulder. "Good morning, Fenris."

I pull her hand to my chest and interlock our fingers. "If I'm to be waking up like this every morning Varric will have to come up with a new nick name for me."

I feel her chest vibrate with her soft laugh. "Oh I don't know, I'm sure you'll find something to brood about."

I turn my head far enough that I can just capture her lips with my own. Danarius and Hadriana are dead, I am free, and Kiara has asked me to live with her. In this moment I can't think of a single thing to brood about.

And then the pounding on the front door starts.

I groan. "Any chance we can ignore that?"

"A small one. Orana should be up by now. If it's just a messenger she can handle it." She nips at my jawline and I turn more fully to take her into my arms.

"Hawke!" comes Anders voice from downstairs. "Hawke, are you awake?"

It's Hawke's turn to groan. "Make that not a chance. I'm coming, Anders!" she calls, slipping out of bed and grabbing her robe. With a shrug in my direction she leaves the room, making sure to close the door behind her.

I really should stay in bed. I know Kiara and Anders are friends, she'll be back soon, and this situation really doesn't warrant my involvement, and yet... and yet I have no intention of staying in bed. I pull on my trousers, not bothering with anything else, and am out the door a moment behind her. I cross to the upper floor railing and survey the scene.

Hawke is most of the way down the staircase and Anders is staring up at her with a besotted look. "Kiara, I'm sorry it's so early, I just had to come see you." She's to the first floor now and Anders is reaching out to take her hand. I feel a sense of satisfaction when she doesn't offer hers to him. He lets his drop. "I wanted to apologize for last night. I was... out of line. It won't happen again."

She gives him a small smile. "Thank you, Anders."

"I must say though, that I can't be sorry for the outcome it had on your plans. Trust me when I say you're better off for not spending any one on one time with that murderous, bigoted-"

I clear my throat a bit more loudly than is required. Anders eyes fly to me, standing half naked outside Hawke's bedroom at dawn, and if anyone could currently be described as murderous it would be him. Not that I'm the least bit afraid of him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he practically growls. Yet I'm supposedly the wild dog.

I raise an eyebrow at him. "I came to make my apologies last night."

Hawke sighs. "You couldn't have just waited in bed?"

I shrug. "If I'm going to be moving in here he'd have found us this way sooner or later."

Anders seems to have stopped breathing. "Moving in here?" he repeats, turning to Hawke. "You're letting this animal move in here?"

I'm about to jump over the railing and pick up where we left off last night, but Hawke renders any action on my part unnecessary. She glares at him, radiating fierceness.

"Do not talk about him that way! I love him."

He laughs a bitter laugh. "Of course you do. Why wouldn't you? After all, he's betrayed you, abandoned you, disagreed with every word you say, what's not to love?"

I glower at him. What he says may be true but I don't have to like it. "I have made my mistakes, mage, but at least none of them included becoming an abomination."

"You see the way he thinks of mages?" he accuses, turning his full attention back to her. "And you would invite him into your home? Into your bed?"

"What I do with my bed is my own business," she says, not backing down an inch. Anders and Kiara have been fast friends for years. They share similar views, a sarcastic streak, and honestly I rarely see them fight. I suppose Anders has always thought that must mean she'd end up with him, but she won't. I finally have her back and I'm never letting her go again.

Anger is radiating off Anders. "If you're that desperate for company I'm sure the Blooming Rose would give you a bed. You could charge people double the going rate to sleep with the Champion!"

I'm not sure who's more shocked by his words, Anders or Hawke, but I do know that I'm down the stairs in two steps with murder on my mind. Hawke seems to realize my intent just in time and throws out an arm to block my way. I hold myself in check, but barely, my lyrium on fire beneath my skin.

"Get out," I tell him in a voice so deadly I'm surprised he's still alive.

Regret flashes across his face but he's not acknowledging me, instead keeping his gaze locked on her. "Kiara, I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me. I was just so mad-"

"Get out," I repeat, "or I swear to the Maker, Anders, this time I will kill you."

He nods but doesn't look away from Hawke. "And I would deserve it. I'm sorry, Hawke."

"Just... leave, Anders. Just go," she says tiredly.

He turns to go but pauses at the door. "I'll talk to you soon, Kiara." Then he's gone, leaving the two of us alone in the dawn's light.

"You do realize Anders and I will patch this up eventually, right?" she asks, staring after him.

I step in front of her, infuriated. "Why would you do that? After what he just said I would never grant him forgiveness!"

Her eyes flash to my face and she's perfectly calm and collected. "I forgave you, didn't I?"

She heads up the stairs and I follow after her. "Hawke-"

"I love you, Fenris," she says, turning to face me, "I do. But I'm not going to change myself to be with you. I am friends with Anders, I try to protect Merrill the best I can, and my views on mages will never change. I am who I am, take it or leave it."

I cross the few steps separating us, stopping on one below her so we're at equal height. "I'll take it."

The edges of her pretty pink lips turn up slightly. "I thought you might." She wraps her arms around my neck and I shiver from the skin to skin contact. "What do you say we crawl back into bed and ignore the world for the rest of the day?"

I shake my head. "Sorry, Hawke, I can't."

She looks confused. "And why's that?"

"Because we have quite a bit to do if I'm to be moved in here by nightfall."

She leans in and kisses me. "That is a very good point."

I place her hands back at her sides and move past her. "Besides, I want everything out of the way so I can get a full day of ignoring the world tomorrow."

She follows behind me, a smile in her voice. "Fantastic idea. I'll be sure to tell Orana that if the world comes calling tomorrow to tell it to save itself."

I can't help myself, I turn around and pull her into my arms again. "Now that is a fantastic idea."