Return of the Muse
Drinking with the girls was the highlight of most weeks. Emm'ashas, my girls. Hawke, Aveline, Merrill and sometimes Isabela would drag him along into Varric's Suite where the dwarf with chest hair to spare would order the rounds. But today it was just the three of them. Isabela was entertaining, Merrill got a chance to sneak into more gardens with Varric as back up and his raven beauty and flaming spit fire were all to himself.
Amara, sitting between the two as per usual, ordered another round before shimming her shoulders to the beat. Fenris pretended not to notice how her breasts jiggled in the low cut apparel she wore today. Even Aveline was out of code today, she wore red tunic over a short sleeved white shirt and tan pants. Fenris, overdressed in his armor, was relieved the girls still had their weapons about them.
"Did you really punch Anders in the nose?" Aveline asked for the third time that afternoon. Fenris inwardly grinned like his namesake when Hawke retold the story.
"Yeah, the sad part was, I was aiming for his eye." Amara snorted then cheered when the drinks came to them. "My tab, again." She nodded to the waitress.
"Hawke!" Aveline elbowed her, "I said I was buying this round!"
"Don't worry your pretty little head, I expect you to buy me drinks tomorrow!"
"Tomorrow?" Fenris cut in, wiping the ale from his lips.
"It's Hawke's birthday, old lady is turning 25!"
"You're right behind me!" Hawke chimed as the women smacked the jugs together.
Fenris nodded, his face remain neutral but inside, all hell broke out. Shit! It has been a few weeks, they told me, they told me what was going on but I can't remember. His mind was an avalanche of ideas and panic. Outwardly he gently placed his mug down, "Someone should inform Merrill, she keeps thinking we're having it in the Vicount's Gardens." He lied to the women in front of him.
They rang out into harmonized laughter and Amara was the first to comment, "Merrill would, wouldn't she?" she sighed after a small laugh escapes her lips, "Oh well, I'll let her know when I see her later today.
Shit, fuck, dammit. Fenris nodded, this tip gulping his ale down in a single drink. "No Hawke, it's okay, I'll tell her, I need to talk to her anyways."
Using their mugs to hide their smirks the two women exchanged, they both chortled. Fenris arched his eyebrow at the giggling women and inquired about the joke. "Oh, Hawke was just making faces at me." Aveline shrugged.
Somehow in strings of jumping conversations they got into an arm wrestling contest, Hawke lost to both of them, though she did give a good fight. Fenris and Aveline were eye to eye with devilish grins on their respected faces. Hawke awaited to call the winner as Fenris spoke up, "You know Aveline, I think one of those men out their insulted the guard."
"Nice try Fenris."
"Okay, I lied, but you know what Hawke told me the other day."
Hawke's eyes went the size of watermelons, "Hey! What did I do? Don't get her mad at me!"
"What Fenris?"
"She told me she never liked your cooking."
"I don't blame her, I'm a terrible cook that was Wesley's thing."
The titans were still at odds.
"Hey Fenris." Aveline started, "I know something you don't know."
"Oh? Please enlighten me."
There was a glint in her baby blues as she slowly stated, "Hawke's ex-boyfriend was an elf, and she knows where all your sweet spots are." Fenris and Hawke turned beet red, the raven haired mage spitting out some of the ale she was drinking and the elf's hand was slammed down on the table. "Victory is mine!"
He shook his head, "I let you win- you're such a sore loser anyways."
"I am not."
"Yeah, Ave, you are." Hawke mustered as she used a cloth napkin on Varric's table to dab the liquid off her. "Well anyways, I am off, I need to go speak with Anders."
Fenris clenched his jaw but remained silent as the guardswoman stood too, "I am going with you Hawke and that's final, besides, I want to see you punch him in the face again." The ladies placed their weapons on their backs, linked arms and then turned back to Fenris, "By the way, the party is at my estate Fenris, you know, in case you forget on your way over to 'inform' Merrill." She winked and Fenris snuck in his chair with his arms crossed as the women laughed out the door.
At Ander's Clinic
Aveline waited outside the doors as Hawke entered. Anders looked up from his book a smiled, "Hawke, I didn't think you'd come." He pulled out a chair offering it to her. She sat while thanking him and watched him sit across from her. His fingers were frantically twitching and he bite his bottom lip. With his eyebrows together and a sigh he spoke, "Hawke, I just wanted to say, I am sorry." Blue and gold met.
"I need to understand what happened in that room." She returned folding her hands together on the table. "It was rather out of character of you."
He scratched the back of his head and glanced down, "I know, sometimes I ask Justice for some encouragement and he kinda gives it to me but much more than needed, I'm afraid." He hesitantly reached for her hand. She allowed him to take it with a slight nod. "Hawke, do forgive my forwardness, I promise I will never do it again unless you so desire, but I did not lie about caring for you."
Amara smiled as she placed her free hand atop his and told him, "I know you care for me Anders, but the simple fact is, I only care for you as a friend." Her heart sank as she saw his world crush all around him. His eyes downcast on her hands. "I am sorry I hurt you by saying this but it would be more unfair of me to allow you to think we are more than friends. I don't want to use you."
Anders nodded, mustering the courage to look at her, "I understand Hawke, but if you ever reconsider, my arms are opened wide for you."
She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, "I'll keep that in mind."
She bid him farewell and froze when she saw another guardsmen talking to Aveline. The dark haired mage leaned on the doorframe watching how her best friend with the will of iron and strength of steel was "flirting". Her weight on her left leg and her right boot carving out the dirt beneath it, hand lightly playing her bandanna around her neck through her fingers. She would punch him in the arm and try to shake out her nerves with a snort that she mocked into a cough or grunt. The man she was talking to was none other than Donnic.
Donnic laughed at whatever she said, making the observant Hawke's lips slice into a sly smirk. The brunette guardsman was a handsome sight, his smile infectious. The mage was sadden by a thought, He reminds me of Wesley in ways and yet a totally different person. She remembered the very few nights shared with the Vallens before Aveline had to make the hardest decision no wife should ever have to make. Donnic hailed Amara out of her thoughts, she smiled and waved to him. Resisting the urge to skip her way over to them, she put her hands behind her back and told the brunette, "I am going to be stealing her away now, we've got errands to run."
"Of course, good bye Hawke, Good bye Ave- Guard Captian." He saluted and went on his way with Aveline staring after.
"What?" the ginger asked when she realized Hawke was shooting her a knowing stare.
"I saw that." She arched a delicate eyebrow.
"What?" eyebrows knitted and cheeks pooling in shades of pink despite attempting neutrality.
"You like him."
"I do not." She began to walk away.
Amara gasped and placed her hand dramatically at her heart, jogging to catch up, "You offend me! I know you, now stop lying to me you sexy bitch and give me the details!"
"He's a wonderful guardsman and he's always punctual, for that I am grateful."
"Mhmmm."
"I am, it's hard to find someone with such high moral earnest."
She ran in front of the warrior and poked her dead center of her breast plate while accusing, "Oh yes, and you're corrupting him!" she poked Aveline's nose went the ginger looked down, "Putting his hands all over you at The Feast of the Maiden's Heart!"
"If you recall, I wasn't exactly thinking straight!"
"Drunker you are, the bolder you are."
"Shut up!"
Fenris' mansion
Breaking things always made him feel better. He rummaged through the house trying to find anything he could break and ideas kept coming to him. They would ebb and flow like a strong wind opening double door gates. He knew Hawke didn't take everything in the estate, she only took things she saw of value that she could sell for the highest price, and she was a practical woman only seeking out what was in the cedar chests. He, however, was ransacking vanities and dressers, wardrobes and under beds or between mattresses. He knew the various places Danrius hid his precious belongings.
Among his findings he gathered gold and silver chains, precious gem stones, some crystal gems, rings, strings of pearls, various beads, and more tools to manipulate items with. It hit him like Argus tackling greeting. He picked up the various belongings and went to his room. Tossing them on the bed, he snatched the coal and began to outline a memory. Aveline, him and Amara in the middle. She usually ran in between the two warriors during their journeys and linked arms to converse with both of them until Varric complained about being left out.
Fenris used to loath it when she first started. He'd flinch and yank his arm away. Hawke stopped but after the night he wept in her embrace he grew used to her touches. In fact, he began to crave them. When drunk, she always placed her hand on his knee and whispered into his ear. She would always whisper a joke or to inform him she desired to retire. He relished those moments, placing his hand atop hers and whispering back in her ear his reply. Going to the kitchen and filling a samovar with water, he sauntered back and opened his paints. Opening all the windows and doors in the room, he took paint brushes and began dipping. He used discarded, flat wood to mix some paint together.
With each stroke a memory filled his mind. Hands possessed as he lost himself. Everyone's faces and eyes flashed at him. He grasped the coal once more, breaking it as he sketched the rest of the companions around the trio. Spreading himself all over the wall to reach in corners and draw the background of The Wounded Coast where they usually went to bonfires on feast days or just to escape the cold stone of Kirkwall. Different brushes became covered in paint and water as did he, blowing locks from his eyes. Putting the paintbrush between his lips and avoiding the taste, he starts using his fingers to smear.
Stepping back to admire, his chest swelled in pride. His pace slowed as he took the finer bristled brushes and began adding details, pupils, freckles, blush, defining features. He put his hand in the black paint and pressed it at the bottom right corner of the mural. He sniffed, sitting down on the wall opposite of the masterpiece, a tear escaped and shocked him. He then whispered to himself, "I wish it was going to stay like this forever…" he sighed and shook his head, "but magic ruins everything." He began to reminisce again, closing his eyes before thinking, She's just a mage, she's just a mage- I can't believe I have let myself at the beck and call of yet another mage.
"She's different, you know." A tender soprano voice enter his ears. He jerked up, his hand going to the claymore he had at the bed but it was gone. "uh ah, no swords here." He moved over to see Hawke on the bed. "The resemblance is uncanny, isn't it?" She smirked just like Hawke. But no, she wasn't Hawke. She had the same ebony curls what were shoulder length when he had first met her, amber eyes and that crooked smile. This girl was curvaceous but more lithe than Amara. Her attire was different as well, chain mail and cloth not leathers and robes. "You would think Amara and I were the twins and not Carver."
"Reveal yourself demon!" Fenris hissed crouching into a defensive stance. The way her clothes went so low on her breasts and tight on her curves, maybe she was a desire demon. He kept his back to the wall to observe her.
She laughed, "I am no demon, but I am a mage- er- was a mage." She flung her feet over and stood up, leaning on the bed post closest to him.
"Was?" he snapped, eyeing her like one would a snake.
"Oh, I have been dead for quite some time now." She said observing her nails then looking at him. Before he knew it she was inches close to him, pressing her body on him and boring into his green eyes. "Amara, you lucky bitch." He regained himself and pushed her only to fall flat on his face. He sprang back up and cursed as she doubled over in laugher, "Didn't I just tell you, I am dead?"
"What do you want Demon?"
"No, I suppose it was too much to expect you'd not think I was a demon." She giggled and folded her hands in front of her, "I am Bethany, Hawke's younger sister."
"I don't believe you for a second."
"Oh, that's fine, I am not telling you to trust me- I am just informing you-…" She strode over to the painting on the wall and smiled as she caresses her sister's face then moved up to Carver's painted face behind Hawke. "Some days I wish she would have killed Carver instead of making him become a Gray Warden, Father and I would love to have him, selfish of me, isn't it?" She turned back to him, leaning on the wall where he was painted next to her siblings. The resemblance was uncanny.
"I vow demon, if you try coming near me or Amara again, I will find a way to make you solid and rip you to shreds." He pointed an accusing finger. He was yelling, venomously, "Get out of here!"
She raised her hands defensively and grinned again, "Easy, all I was going to say was, she's Fereldan, and there is nothing Fereldans are more passionate about than freedom." His gut stirred and his heart soared, passion for freedom? "I am glad that Amara has someone watching over her like you, I should have wished to have been able to call you brother one day."
Her words echoed in every corner of his mind as he was dragged back into reality. Dripping in cold sweat he jerked up. He panted and searched everywhere for the demon he was talking to. He huffed. He was going to have a talk with that damned beautiful mage about this!
A/N: Thank you to all the people who have followed, favorite and reviewed this story! Thanks to anyone who has read it. I know this chapter is kind of short, but don't worry, I will update the fourth installment soon! I am a very special thanks going out to my awesome beta iamrecyclable! You seriously rock lady! Also, I don't own Dragon Age II or it's characters.