Hawke sat with her back to the farmhouse that was across the field, stripped down to just her smalls. A few bushes afforded her a modicum of privacy, but her casual demeanour belied how little it concerned her. The water of the small brook at her feet was clouded from dust and grime as she carefully wiped down her armour and washed her clothing. She used the last bit of dry cloth to get in the creases. It seemed so long since she'd felt clean.

Melinda had agreed without hesitation to let them stay and help with the harvest, despite her sister's reservation. Labouring from sunrise to set was gruelling work – something she had grown unaccustomed to. It used to be her lot in life, living in Ferelden with her family. Her hands were rough for a different reason now.

Hawke paused, closed her eyes and looked up into the late afternoon sun, letting it warm her skin. Clearing his throat, Anders crept up behind her. The sound didn't prompt her to move.

"Here, give me your clothing," Hawke said, holding out a hand. "I can still do my proper womanly duty."

"Yes, because being naked in a stream bed is so very proper," Anders replied, hesitating before taking off his coat and trousers beneath. He moved stiffly. "How are you feeling?"

"Grown up," Hawke murmured, rubbing the cloth in the water before checking it and sighing. It went back into the burble of cool water. "Not something I particularly like."

"Indeed, when did that happen?" Anders asked, shivering a bit and keeping his feet from the water. He looked up at the puffy clouds in the sky.

"Some time ago, I'm starting to believe," Hawke said. She pulled her shirt from the water and shook it out, then threw it over the bush beside her. "I wish I'd been given a choice in the matter."

"I'm sorry," Anders quietly said, and Hawke leaned against him.

"You always are," she said and sighed. "But it has so little to do with you. Wrinkles in the wrong places, and I just feel so tired. Though maybe I need a stiff drink. Dayla's the one hiding it, I think."

"I won't deny, I think this is the longest I've seen you go without one." He grinned, and she pushed him.

"How dare you, good serah, I'll have you know I'm a noble. A homeless, fugitive noble, but better than you nonetheless!" Hawke scoffed and shook her head.

"A thousand pardons, my love," Anders replied, slipping his arm around her waist as she leant into him. He pressed his face into her damp hair and fell quiet.

Hawke ran her hand down his pale thigh before turning to kiss him. When he pulled back, she slipped a hand around his neck and kept him close, lips parting to tease their tongues together.

Anders slowly sighed and put his forehead against hers. They sat quietly like that for a while before he said, "I… I don't know how long I can stay here."

"What? We've barely been here a month. Is obscurity and a regular meal starting to make you antsy?"

"Hardly," Anders chuckled, shifting his weight and stretching out a foot to the brook. He twitched his ankle to splash in the water as Hawke dunked and washed his trousers. "Maybe it's just restlessness. Maybe I don't want to jeopardize the hospitality we've been shown. It's autumn, and… it seems odd to be trapped here all winter."

"You're even Ferelden like me," Hawke murmured, scrubbing the cloth together. "Melinda has said the hills are no kind place in the winter."

"So…" Anders exhaled and warmed his hand over her thigh. "Ostwick? If my geography is right?"

Hawke stood to drape the rest of their clothing over the bushes around them, before she returned to his side and wrapped her arms around her knees. "And I suppose we'll become mercenaries or…oh wait, smugglers, I have experience with that one."

"I know a few people at the Circle," Anders replied. "Maker knows what's happened to them… But didn't Varric say the majority of the templar army is reportedly heading for Kirkwall?"

"Yes, there's a terrible enough thought." Hawke pouted slightly, looking over the stream. "Is there another reason you want to go there? Some other plan?"

"In Ostwick? No," Anders said and furrowed his brow. "Didn't make other plans."

"No more sela petrae or shit like that?" Hawke laughed a bit and he lightened up as she kissed the curve of his neck. "Let's think of a reason to go there then."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean if I'm going to be a fugitive outlaw on the run with free mages, I'd like to at least live up to the name that comes with it," Hawke murmured with a devilish grin.

Anders shook his head as she kissed him again, when there was a soft yelp nearby. He looked up and his jaw dropped, "Hey! Stop!"

His grace bounded from the bush nearby, and Anders' pants flapped from where the mabari held them in his mouth. The dog muffled a huff of amusement as he darted around them, and Hawke laughed when Anders cleared his throat.

"You give those back!"

The mabari tossed them in the air just beyond the man's reach, long enough to woof a reply before he caught them and darted away behind a tree.

"I like how he took your pants, not mine." Hawke laughed again, leaning onto her elbow as Anders yelled after the mabari. "A dog after my own heart."

"Very funny," Anders growled, trying not to grin.

Bethany sighed and slowly smiled, taking another drink of the juice as she sat on the porch with Hawke.

"That good, mm?" Hawke said, reaching for her own glass. Fresh-pressed apples. She sighed contently though the mouthful, smacking her lips before saying, "You know, I think that's one of the first times I've seen you smile."

The light-hearted expression softened as Bethany looked in her lap and replied, "It's getting easier. Maybe being in such foreign places helps."

"Foreign? It's a farm, sister," Hawke said and peered at her.

"No walls, no templars, no locks on the doors." Bethany's throat tightened. "No Orsino. There's the boys, but it's different."

"Seems like you've helped them a lot here," Hawke replied before sipping her apple juice.

"Melinda and Dayla aren't mages, so it's difficult for them. But they picked up a lot from the Circle… and Sulen's father seemed to be a good teacher – he might have rivalled father."

"Hardly," Hawke murmured, tsking under her breath.

Bethany chuckled and said, "They'll be alright."

"You'll come with us then?"

"Of course," Bethany said, reaching to take Hawke's hand. "You're all the family I've got."

"I'm sure Gamlen made it out of the uprising just fine," Hawke said and patted her sister's hand. "Smelly old bit of leather that he is."

Melinda appeared in the doorway and stepped onto the porch before she stopped herself. "Oh, excuse me. I didn't mean to intrude."

"Hardly," Hawke replied, crossing her leg over. "Just the help lazying about. What do you need?"

Melinda laughed and shook her head before saying, "Would you mind getting some ice for me?"

"There wasn't much left, but we'll see," Hawke said as she stood with a quick grin, taking the crate and strapping it over her shoulder. She walked down the path to the barn and crossed into its shadow towards the icehouse. When she heard voices, she dropped into the shadows without a sound.

"There were templars at the market." Dayla's voice came from within the barn. "There are posters up of Anders and Marian – how long will it be till they find us?"

"Hawke has already mentioned that we will be gone before the first snow," Fenris replied, prompting Hawke to edge closer and peep in on them.

"No, do it like this," Dayla said with mild disdain, and Fenris followed her with the brush across the horse's hindquarters. "Better."

"If you say so," he murmured.

"So you are leaving with then?" Dayla asked as she caressed the horse's muzzle.

"They are my friends," Fenris replied, his hand following the brush stroke before he hesitated. "I have nowhere else. Hawke has seen me through a great deal."

"Nowhere else," Dayla said, bristling as she turned back to him. "You aren't content here?"

"I… don't know. It feels removed from the world."

"Is that good or bad?" she asked, throwing a blanket over the horse's back.

Fenris brushed a few more times before hanging the brush up. He opened his mouth to reply when Dayla took his hand and pulled him into her lips.

Hawke smacked her lips shut as she sunk back in the door jam, hiding her smile as she watched Fenris slip his hand into Dayla's hair and pull her with him back against the edge of the stall. Ogling them a moment more, she shouldered the ice crate and hurried back out into the sunlight.

Cross-legged on the ground, Hawke sighed as Varric neatly clipped her hair and gathered the dark tresses together in a pouch. "You know, when I stole Carver's clothing as a girl, I never thought it'd go this far."

"You should have let me do it, sister," Bethany said with a frown.

"Yes, because we could really conceal your bountiful bosom," Hawke murmured as Varric tilted her head and neatly sheared the hair down to an inch or two in length.

"Sister!"

"What? It's true," Hawke replied, mushing her meagre breasts together. "Just couldn't hide yours the same."

Fenris shook his head from where he leant against the table with his arms crossed. They all looked as Anders walked in shirtless, his hair damp and dyed a rich chestnut.

"Maker's mercy." Hawke pouted from where she sat looking up at him. "What have they done to you?"

"Is it that bad?"

"It's just peachy," Varric replied, ruffling his fingers through Hawke's cropped hair to check for strays. "Not sure I can call you Blondie anymore, though."

"Well you know what they say about rugs and drapes, it'll still fit in some regard," Hawke sighed, and Varric laughed loudly as he put the scissors down.

Anders closed his eyes and sighed as he grabbed his shirt to put it on. "Thank you for that, my love…"

"Any time, dearest," Hawke replied sweetly.

"Charming," Dayla said from the doorway. She was trying to clean the dark stains off of her hands. "Look good enough?"

"It's excellent," Anders said, ruffling a hand through his hair. "Thank you."

"Hold still, Hawke," Varric muttered as he sat down in front of her on the floor, and plied the small jar of sticky substance with a sturdy stick. He artfully applied it to her chin and upper lip, before progressively applying clumps of the hair he'd cut from her head.

"Have you considered growing a beard?" Hawke said between tight lips, trying not to move.

"No. Not ever, Hawke," Varric grumbled.

"You'd look just like every other dwarf then – at least to most humans, mm?"

Varric shook his head, separating small clusters of hair as Hawke leant up to receive Anders' kiss. "Do you know how inconvenient beards are? Or how much they itch?"

Hawke reached up to scratch Anders' stubbly cheek, grinning with the un-hairy side of her mouth. "In a manner of speaking."

"What, you expect me to grow one too?"

"Maker no," Hawke groaned. "Losing your golden locks is heartbreaking enough."

"But not my clean-shaven chin?" Varric replied, taking her jaw to turn her back to him and apply more of the sap.

Hawke sighed dramatically through closed lips. "A needed sacrifice. Can't get the elf to." She waggled her eyebrows at Fenris, who merely shook his head.

"The answer is no."

"But I'll have a beard?" Hawke countered. "You can all call me Garrett!"

"No!" Varric grumbled, finishing with the last bits of hair. Taking up the shears again, he neatly trimmed her beard.

"Hawke not good enough anymore?" Fenris said.

"This is already weird enough, sister," Bethany sighed and shook her head.

"Fine then," Hawke groaned. She set her eyes back on Varric, a delightful glint in them. "Have to do up your shirt, or shave the chest hair then."

"Hawke." Varric clacked his tongue as Anders chuckled and sat down nearby. "That you would even suggest such blasphemy!"

"Well, lives are at stake, you know," Hawke murmured as she lifted her chin and he finished.

"Bianca would never allow it," Varric replied, tilting her head back and forth to check symmetry. "That's as good as it's going to get."

"Let's see if I can scare Melinda," Hawke said as she got up and swaggered out the door. Bethany, Varric and Anders eventually followed.

"So you're really leaving with them?" Dayla asked when just Fenris remained.

A furrow knit Fenris' brow as he looked down and said, "Yes. We're endangering you and your family being here."

"Of course you are," Dayla replied, stiffening and going back outside.