It's not easy to be green; especially not when you find yourself in the clutches of the ones who consider themselves experienced ... of course you can expect an outburst.
Enjoy!
An Unexpected Surprise Chapter 3
Fenris was the last one to deny he had revelled in that wonderful evening of lovemaking. But a couple of weeks later he was of a totally different opinion. Albran seemed possessed and absolutely insatiable. Yes, it still was exhilarating to devour her and to be devoured by her but it became too much. Apples, strawberries, peaches, whipped cream, chocolate sauce and honey were a fantastic new addition – they had given up on the shackles and blindfolds, those led to nothing - and all that combined with her beautiful body he worshipped and not only because she carried their child, it should have been heaven. And till certain degree it was. If only she could pedal back now and again. In fact he felt totally wasted. He could hardly drag himself out of bed in the morning just after sunrise to go to the barracks and instruct the Guardsmen in those so much held in high esteem Tevinter fighting techniques. Donnic, who in his position as the new Guard Captain oversaw the training sessions, hadn't asked questions yet but the raised eyebrows every time he came running into the practice area at the last moment spoke volumes. And he had to hurry before Albran woke up and would haul him back between the sheets. He was grateful when one evening Lady Selbrech came to visit the estate to inform if things went well and to talk about a baby shower. Whatever that might be. He seized the occasion to flee the estate and go to the Hanged Man which he hadn't visited for too long. He entered Varric's suite and thankfully found the dwarf for once without company. He plopped in one of the empty chairs around the large table and Varric poured him a glass of wine.
'You look completely worn out,' he observed cautiously with that dangerous inquisitive look in his eyes. Fenris gave him a tortured look back in response. 'Does Hawke still have those bouts of hysterics?' The dwarf almost sounded empathetic but Fenris noticed clearly the hardly suppressed smirk.
'No,' the elf responded tired, 'although, sometimes she still ...' He shook his head and smiled faintly. 'But not as often as before.' After some silence he said, 'As a matter of fact she replaced them with something entirely different.' He drained his glass in one go.
Varric tilted his head. His eyes shone. 'Care to share some details? Or do you intend to make a guessing game out of it?' He pushed the bottle closer to the elf and after a few moments refilled the glass himself since Fenris seemed to miss the hint. 'You have me quite curious.'
Fenris didn't even bother with rolling his eyes. 'Is it really so hard to grasp?'
Varric stared intently at him and noticed the shadows in his face. He saw hollows that hadn't been there for as long as he could remember, not even when they had first met, and the exhausted look in the elf's eyes wasn't characteristically either. It all hinted at a severe lack of sleep. And a drain of energy. He suddenly burst out with merry laughter. The message had hit home. 'Don't tell me she's turned into some kind of succubus!' he cried out with cheerfulness.
'Why don't you shout louder,' Fenris reacted sourly, 'I don't think everyone in Kirkwall has heard you.' He paused for a heartbeat before adding, 'Although I'm certain they have heard a whole range of other sounds.' He drank deeply.
Varric wiped the tears from his cheeks. 'To be honest, I don't see the problem. Most men would envy you.'
Fenris shot him a venomous look. 'Yes. Well, most men don't have to cope with a wife that wants to have all of them at least five times a day. I admit I was enthusiastic at the start, if only because she stopped shouting and weeping. But now I'm mostly dog-tired. If not sapped. Don't forget I'm the one who has to get up early in the morning to train a bunch of Guards. And I am grateful when she let me go to sleep around three in the morning. That leaves me damned little time to get some rest after all the exertions. And the worst part is that she seems to thrive on it.'
How hard he tried, Varric couldn't hide his broad grin. 'I weep for your predicament,' he chuckled.
'Don't use my own words against me,' Fenris bit back, remembering all too well his heated words spoken to Anders the first time he visited the Gallows with Albran, the dwarf and the mage all those years ago, a lifetime ago. He was surprised Varric remembered but then again he should know better. Varric always remembered every little detail of every occurrence, if only because he wrote them down.
'Listen to your own whinging,' the same dwarf sniggered in the meantime, 'and keep in mind the hungry looks the other males throw at Albran. Even with her swollen belly. She's more beautiful than ever.' Fenris graced him with a murderous glare. The dwarf shrugged his shoulders. 'I'm only trying to say you must enjoy it while it lasts. Between this evening and a few months both your lives will be centred around a little but extremely demanding person that will be the core of your attention and you will have no time to play the exiting game of the stallion and the mare in heat.'
Fenris's dark brows shot in his moonlike hair. 'What?!'
'A little too colourful to your taste?' Varric asked innocently while he refilled the elf's glass. Since the wine bottle was drained he poured his notorious Antivan brandy. Fenris didn't seem to notice. He drank just as greedily. 'Listen to me Fenris, you will think back at this time with regret if you don't live it to the fullest. Believe me when I tell you you will remember it with nostalgia when in the near future the moment you are making love to your wife your child raises his or her voice and she races out of your arms to see to, again, his or her needs. I'm quite certain you will get far more frustrated with your suddenly empty arms and ditto bed than with her demanding requirements of your display of manhood right now.'
Fenris kept staring at him.
'Still too colourful?'
The elf shook his head with a small crooked smile. 'No. Just wondering where you acquired that wisdom,' he said.
Varric chortled though somewhat sullenly. 'I didn't only have a brother. Back in Orzammar there were sisters too. A whole lot of them in fact and even worse, they were elder sisters. Why do you think Bartrand and I fled to Topside in the first place?'
Fenris shrugged. 'I was always under the impression profit and the power of influence played an important part. And a father making the wrong bet.'
'That too of course,' the dwarf nodded concurringly, 'but the sisters were of great influence.' He reached for the brandy again but Fenris declined this time.
'I won't be able to, er, perform adequately if I drink more,' he said regretfully, 'and I don't dare to disappoint Albran. I definitively don't want to return to the scream-and-tears days.'
The moment Fenris closed the door behind his back, Varric grabbed his quill and notebook and started scribbling. If this wasn't a cure for a writer's block, nothing was.
'I have nothing to wear,' Hawke declared. She stood before her opened dresser, stark naked. Even her bare back radiated distress while she was scrutinizing the contents.
'That's a typical female complaint if I ever heard one,' Fenris grinned, ogling her appealing behind with much appreciation, 'and may I add I don't mind, as long as you stay indoors.'
'I meant, nothing fits me anymore,' Hawke retorted sharply, 'I've by now outgrown all the garments Orana so skilfully has extended and even my underwear have become too-smallclothes.'
Panic struck in an instant. 'So you intend to go shopping,' Fenris said flatly. Nightmarish visions of being forced to visit uncountable shops flashed before his eyes.
'Yes love, but don't worry, I won't drag you along. I think you have had more than your share of that particular suffering before our marriage.' She giggled and Fenris shivered at the awful memories of how Varric had tormented him by jerking him around Hightown and forcing him into every shop available. And always with that unbearable evil angelic smirk plastered on his face. Which he had shared with Sebastian by the way, his brother in crime back then.
Relieved he walked over to Albran and wrapped his arms around her. Lovingly he laid his flat palms on her growing belly. 'Thank you for your understanding.' He tenderly nuzzled her neck. 'You know, you smell different,' he murmured, eagerly inhaling the feminine perfume wafting from the spot behind her ear, 'it's like a whiff of honey has weaved through your natural fragrance. Wild honey.'
'Sounds sweet and dangerous at the same time,' Albran chortled.
'So, much like you.'
And then he stiffened.
There was a motion under his right hand. A tiny push. It was as fragile as the touch of the wing of a butterfly but unmistakable. He stood stock-still and hardly dared to breathe as if he was afraid an intake of air would spoil the moment. There it was again. A swift contact with his palm, light as a wisp of wind but definite and unique; the lyrium lines reacted in a pleasant tingling way. This is your child.
Albran sensed his sudden change of demeanour and smiled inwardly. 'You felt it too?'
'Yes,' he whispered. He was in awe.
She covered his hands with hers. 'Apparently our child says hallo to Daddy.'
'You feel this all the time?' With a sudden pang he envied her. For the first time he realized she was constantly aware of the existence of their child; not only because of the growing of her body but because she could actually feel it move. Up till now he had never apprehended she was in continuous contact with that growing life inside her, let alone he himself would ever be able to sense it. His throat went thick and he had to swallow with all his might to push back the sudden lump.
'No, just when she is awake and restless.'
'She ..?' he asked hesitantly.
Albran laughed. 'People always refer to unborn babies as "he". I find that discriminating so I decided to call our baby "she".'
'You have a fair point,' he agreed. After a short silence he asked, 'Is she often awake and restless?' He tried not to sound jealous.
'Only when I don't want her to,' Albran grimaced, 'the moment I sit down to find some peace and quiet she begins to swim around. I think she likes to be cradled.'
'I'd love to cradle her,' Fenris said softly. Suddenly he couldn't wait till the moment he could hold his child in his arms, despite Varric's warning.
She squeezed his hand. 'Be patient love, you will have the chance within a couple of months. Then you can cradle her as much as you want to.'
The moment couldn't come soon enough.
Three months and counting.
Hawke has squeezed herself into the last pair of pants and the last blouse that didn't burst at the seams as she tried them on. She had had to wrap a broad shawl around her belly to hide the exposed skin between the two pieces of clothing. When she looked critically at herself in the mirror in her bedroom she thought that last touch was absolutely not too bad. She made an effort to see the effect the knot made on her back but failed despite she had almost dislocated her neck. She could just hope it didn't make her behind look like she had an enormous ass. Without much enthusiasm she had been willing to follow Orana's advice and tried on some of her mother's dresses. She didn't like dresses to start with and besides that these ones were awfully outdated. She was more than relieved to find out her mother had been slender and her dresses weren't fit for a pregnant woman. To her secret astonishment she had discovered while inspecting the contents of her mother's old closet and handling her former belongings, that it didn't hurt her any longer. With that Orana's idea had at least done her some good. She had touched her mother's old clothing and had whispered, 'I wish you could have been able to hold your grandchild in your arms. That we could have shared the joy of my pregnancy together. There're so many questions I would have liked to ask you.'
Yes, she had felt a wave of pain and loss and yes, tears had entered her eyes but she hadn't wept. She just had smiled quietly. But she had realized she'd not felt unhappy or filled with guilt any longer. It had been quite a revelation.
She got interrupted in her contemplations with a catcall and a critical growl. The two sentences 'Oh, I simply adore the way you look!' and 'Are you really going out like that?' overlapped each other in perfect sync. She twirled around and saw Isabela, Aveline and Merrill stand on the doorstep of the bedroom.
'I think you look lovely,' the Dalish elf said with a shy smile.
Hawke smiled eloquently back. 'Thank you Merrill. And yes, Aveline, I'm going to risk the wrath and grudge of the whole of Hightown by going out like this because I have run out of clothes. That's the main reason for the shopping exercise in the first place.' She looked pleadingly at Isabela. 'Could you adjust the bow of the shawl so that I don't resemble a milk cow? Without jumping me?'
The pirate queen laughed her infectious laugh. 'Don't worry sweetness, though I've never seen a pregnant woman as charming as you.' She lowered her voice. 'I've heard storied about how you ware out Fenris.'
Hawke kept a straight face. 'Did you now. I suppose Varric still keeps his imagination honed.' She straitened her shoulders. 'Well, ladies, are we prepared for a nice day out? Drinks are on me.'
When they walked out of the door she suddenly caught the tender look Aveline cast upon her. She smiled inwardly. And said, 'You don't know half how much I appreciate you're coming with us.' It had been no small feat to coax Aveline into leaving her many tasks for just one afternoon. She practically had had to beg her, pointing out she would benefit from taking a couple of hours off and telling her she missed her best friend. In the end the Viscountess had given in.
Aveline had grinned awkwardly. 'You show more cleavage than Isabela but Merrill is right. You do look lovely. Radiant in fact.' She squeezed her hand. 'And I'm looking forward to a few hours of idle leisure. It has been too long.'
Hawke had read the unspoken words in her eyes. I would very much like to have a child also but I'm too afraid for the consequences.
She had to find a moment to talk with her in earnest.
After having visited a few shops Hawke called it a day. It had been hard and more and more frustrating to find maternity clothing that didn't make her look like an oversized whale in mourning. 'I don't have to attend a funeral,' she complained to one of the shop-assistants, who evidently felt very uncomfortable in the presence of both the Champion and the Viscountess, 'why don't these garments come in bright colours? It's not that I grieve about my pregnancy. And while we're at it, I happen to be proud of my body, I don't have to hide it under all those depressing layers of cloth,' she had added with outright disgust.
The poor trembling girl had been brushed aside by the confident proprietress. 'I'm convinced we can find something to your taste, Champion,' she had said with a professional smile, 'and if not, we can always fabricate it.' And in the end they had achieved in buying some attire that was more or less to Hawke's liking. It had been much more fun to choose and purchase some pieces of the baby outfit but when Isabela started to show signs of boredom, Albran had decided it became time for the drinks she had promised. There would be no hunt for exciting lingerie this time to distract the pirate queen.
At this very moment they were sitting in the gentle early spring sun on the patio of one of the fancy restaurants in Hightown, enjoying drinks and ridiculous expensive titbits.
'How was the baby shower?' Isabela informed while she took a sip from her rum with pineapple juice. She let out an appreciating hum. 'This is good stuff.'
'Boring,' Hawke said, 'a whole afternoon in the company of a bunch of chatterboxes who only came to snoop. Complete wasted time.' There was a stressed look in Hawke's eyes and a strained edge to her voice Isabela totally missed. On the other hand Aveline frowned in wonder.
Isabela took another sip, or rather a gulp, reasoning there was more where this came from. 'You knew that up forehand. So why did you agree?'
Hawke shrugged. 'To get on good terms with them I suppose.'
'And again, why? After what happened you don't have to pacify the nobles.'
'You'd think so, wouldn't you. But I thought the same after killing the Arishok and look how that turned out.'
'But this time it is different,' Aveline contradicted her, 'this time you fought at their side. When you saved them from the Qunari they were the powerless victims which undoubtedly stirred bad feelings. At least the pride of the likes of Edgert the Hound was deeply hurt. But now you have become brothers in arms and chased the enemy out of the city together.'
Isabela heaved her empty glass. 'For once we agree, Captain Man Hands, sorry, Viscountess Man Hands. Let's drink to that. Shit. Empty. Hey, you there, waiter boy, bring me a new one. Chop-chop!' Aveline almost choked on her white wine. 'What now?' the pirate queen said innocently, 'the drinks here are expensive enough for the waiters to hurry up while serving them.'
In the meantime Merrill was admiring the things they had bought for the baby. She held up a pair of almost non-existing socks and examined them with a tender far-away look. 'They're so small,' she sighed, 'you can hardly imagine they fit any human or even elven being, how little it may be.'
'I've been told they resemble more stockings than baby socks in the beginning,' Hawke said grimly.
'And this teeny tiny shirt,' Merrill swooned without sensing the upcoming storm, 'so cute.'
'Yes. Some kind of big bag apparently.' Albran made a face as if she had bitten in a bad lemon.
Aveline chortled, 'Regarding your expression the baby shower was not only boring but annoying as well.' She didn't sense the brewing storm either and had no idea about what she – and Merrill – set in motion until it was too late. Isabela on the other hand held firm; she knew about storms. All hens on deck. Sails down and courage up.
Hawke laughed sarcastically. 'It turned out Dulci de Launcet and her cronies consider themselves indisputable authorities in the lore of infants, pregnancies and delivering.'
'You could use them as some source of information,' Aveline suggested, practical as always, 'Maker knows none of us are able to answer your questions.'
Isabela cringed. Fault reply. Figurative speaking she already had clasped the helm firmly with both hands. And waited with badly concealed merriment what would happen next.
'What? Them?' Albran burst out indignantly, 'the only thing they did was looking smug, telling me I knew nothing but would discover the truth soon enough. And by the sound of it, that truth will be a world full of insufferable pain and misery, filled with screams and torture. But I never was able to comprehend if those screams would be my doing or the infant's. I bloody couldn't be certain because they were very hush hush about it, whispering among each other and throwing me now and again a knowing superior and compassionate look although it seemed more like condescending –'
Shit. She is really going all the way. Time to break in. No need to let her make a scene in the posh department of Hightown.
'Eh, sweetness,' Isabela tried to interfere. But she didn't get the chance.
'And after that they started to give me good advice about how to furnish the nursery and which colours to use and what kind of toys to buy,' Hawke went on, raising her voice, 'can you believe it?! They were telling me how to decorate my own house!'
'Sweetness,' Isabela made a new effort to silence her. People sitting at tables around them were turning their heads in amused amazement.
'And then it even got better.' Hawke was practically screaming by now. 'They thought they had the fucking right to tell me what to eat and when to sleep and how to dress! They as good as commanded me to hire a wet-nurse because breastfeeding the babe was not done by a noble woman!' Her voice caught with flaming fury. She had the breathless undivided attention of everyone present by now.
'Hawke!' Isabela hissed, still to no avail. She gripped her wrist but Hawke didn't notice or at least didn't pay attention to it.
'Those arrogant, insufferable old shrews!' she raved on, 'couple of sickening busybody bitches! Let them –'
'Hawke!' Isabela said firmly and loudly, 'stop it. You're going off. Take a gulp of air and a swig of your orange juice.'
Thankful for the pirate wench's meddling Aveline pushed the glass into Albran's hands. 'Get yourself together, Hawke, 'you're attracting too much attention.' She tried to drown the curious glances with one of her most stern ones, but the audience was simply too captivated to be intimidated right now.
For a moment it seemed Albran was going to explode but then she deflated. With a sigh she said, 'I did it again, didn't I. Sorry.' She bit her lip.
'That's alright Hawke,' Merrill piped up, 'we all understand I'm sure, I think.'
Hawke groaned. 'I have to go to the ladies room. To flush down my embarrassment.' She grimaced weakly. She wished Fenris were here. He always knew how to calm her down, for one reason or another. He at least always handled her ferocious outbursts with never-ending patience. She stood up and looked defiantly around the patio along the expecting faces. 'Show's over,' she growled menacing, 'you've had your fun, now go about your own business. Shove off.'
All the curious heads turned back so fast there was a serious danger of mass decapitation.
'Dear Maker,' Aveline said, when she had disappeared, 'is this what Fenris has to cope with every day? My respect for him has suddenly risen sky-high.'
'Well, there's a silver lining of course,' Isabela smirked, 'at least he gets plenty of sex.'
'Oh, was that what Varric meant when he said that after the seed is planted the flower needs lots of showering,' Merrill said with sudden insight and blushed heavily at the same moment. 'I thought he was talking about their garden,' she mumbled flushed.
This time Aveline spluttered her white wine over the whole surface of the table while Isabela had to hold on to the Viscountess's arm to prevent she'd fall from her chair with laughter.
I don't know if any of you have gone through the smug we-know-it-all-and-we're-not-willing-to-share experience but I did and it drove me completely mad. And, believe me, you need very little to drive a pregnant woman mad.
Thank you for reading!
