Here's chapter 4 everyone! More tavern talk 3 My favorite! Yay character liberties! Hope you like how the storys going. I've been sick so that's why it took so long, but I'll try to make up for it with longer chapters. ENJOY.
"These parts aren't as fun when I was there to see it first hand," Aveline interrupted. She leaned back against her husband's shoulder and let her head rest against his. The group took the pause as an intermission and Varric took a long awaited sip of his drink. "Though I do admit," she continued, "Most of the subtext between the two of them was lost on me." Donnic let out an all too knowing laugh and received a loving smack in return.
"You only missed most of it?" Her husband questioned, unfazed by the little show of domestic violence. "I'd be surprised if you caught any of it!" The group, who had not gotten up to use the restroom or stretch their legs, chuckled along with the conversation. Aveline landed another smack on her lover's leg but smiled at him nonetheless with her pink cheeks glowing.
"Alright so I didn't notice anything," she admitted before setting a small childish glare to Varric. "But I did not even consider looting that mansion. No matter how pretty that ring was." Merrill let out an adorable giggle and pulled her knees up to her chest. She loved it personally when Aveline came out to drink with them. She was refreshing and rather cute when she was knackered.
"Sure you didn't, Red," Varric smiled up at her from his comfortable high-backed chair that was closest to the fire, "But that's another story for another time. One including that shield you're using right now. Where do you think Hawke got that anyway?" Aveline jumped a little and made a motion as if she was trying to look at the back of her head. The group let out another chuckle, this time more audible as the group had grown back to almost the full size of before.
"Oh, Hawke, we are going to have a talk when you get back," she said as if it was supposed to be a threat, but she was far too tired and had had far too much to drink. It sounded more like a whine.
"Varric, you said that all of this was true, but most of what you said was just assumption of what those two were thinking." Merrill stated like a question. She smiled sweetly to the dwarf and he laughed a little in reply.
"Daisy—Sweetheart, If you were there and felt the walls dripping with tension like I felt, you'd understand." He replied sweetly. He knew she only meant an honest curiosity by her question. Anything else was not in her nature. "You're right, a lot of what I'll be saying tonight is going to be conjecture, but can you really call it that when it's so obvious?"
"Now that I noticed," Aveline threw in with a rare smile. Donnic patted her on the back before wrapping his arm around her waist. "The dripping I mean…the dripping of the tension," she tried to clarify through her alcohol haze. She was rather a light drinker though she would never admit it. Either that or she snuck more drinks than anyone ever saw her take. The room was clamorous again as the group began completely again, but broke off into smaller conversations. You could barely hear the snoring that sawed through the stairwell from one of the upstairs rooms. Luckily, tonight no one seemed to have brought any company to their bed or it might have been rather hard to pay attention to Varric, no matter how magnetic his voice was to the ears.
"I always wondered how Hawke could fall for such a person as Fenris," Sebastian piped up from the corner of the group. He sat closer to the fire but farther from the center of the group. He poured himself another glass of water and threw a question into the conversation that everyone was thinking. "I mean he is so fervently against mages and yet—"he left the sentence open ended and the inner group understood what he meant. Yet she stays. Yet she puts up with it. Yet she hasn't murdered the blighted fool. Nevertheless, they all rather had an inkling that Varric confirmed. Because despite Elizabeth Hawke being a kick-ass, snarky, gold driven mage—
"She's an angel," Varric confirmed, "Haven't you met her?" Sebastian opened his mouth to say something about that being heresy but quickly decided to not continue and just join the group in nodding. "She sees the very best in every one of us. When you think about it like that, it's easier to see how." They all understood that at least, but wondered secretly if their own shortcomings were as bad as each other's. Being a blood mage. A revenge driven, oaf. A prickly, short-tempered southerner. A pirate with past and present so dirty it would never wash out. They all had their problems and that's what made loving Hawke so easy. Not only did she put up with all of their shortcomings; she understood.
"Hawke was there for me when no one else was," Merrill drawled out quietly, thinking back to her clan's abandonment. The group equally thought back to their own pasts and the saint's work that their leader had done for them.
"I never thought I'd love again after—after his death," Aveline added, before looking to Donnic with the sweetest smile she would ever smile. "But she was there for me then and now."
"I owe that to Hawke as well," her husband continued off her words, "Without her I'd never have met the love of my life." Their atmosphere was thick and gross with love but no one seemed to mind, as they all were immersed in their own problems.
"She's done so much for me—for someone I didn't think she even considered a friend," Isabella said through the glass that she held hovering at her lips. She leaned forward over the back of the chair holding her hands and her glass at the ready. "She killed the bloody Arishok for me," she said as if she still didn't believe it was truth. After all that, she had done and all the trouble she had gotten everyone into. Everyone was quiet. They all knew what Isabella had done and what it had meant for their entire group. There was still an awkward cloud hanging over their heads.
"Oh shut up, Whore." Aveline slurred quietly before pressing a smile in Isabella's direction. She smiled back and leaned into the wood of the chair.
"Bitch," she muttered back as an endearment. The two never admitted it but they were one of the closer pairs in the party.
"How sweet," Merrill chimed, "Varric, why do you call me Daisy when they have such fun names for each other?" Varric shook his head with one of his loudest laughs of the night. His Daisy never failed to amuse him.
"Well Daisy, their names suit them. So does yours," he replied before settling back into his chair again. The room had gone quiet once more and eyes beckoned him to continue.
"Alright folks, the rest is what I got directly from Hawke and even more surprisingly from the elf himself. Notice I couldn't have been there for a lot of this. Therefore, I filled in the cracks with what I can guess from their personalities. You get the gist. Let us continue with the Tale of the Champion's Love."
I REALLY Hope you liked it! I'm working on more as we speak but please be understanding- I got inquisition for Christmas so I'm totally distracted! Thanks for the continued support and understanding! Send me some comments/questions/concerns!