Chapter 21

Once I got to the Hanged Man I of course saw Isabela and Varric. Varric was trying to win at cards against Isabela, even though she's a cheater. A smile came to my lips as I noticed that Anders was there too. He was sitting next to Varric and both of them had their backs to me.

When Isabela had finished her turn she looked up from her cards and saw me waking towards them and gave me a big enthusiastic wave.

"Hey!" she said. "Come to join the party."

"I didn't know there was one. You never told me." My smile broadened as Varric and Anders turned around to greet me, and as Isabela took advantage of their distraction to cheat by pulling one of the cards she had hidden in her crotch to her hand.

"Oh Luna. Haven't you figured out that every night's a party here yet?" Varric said with a deep throated chuckle.

"Apparently not," I said with a short laugh. I grabbed a chair from a table close to the one they were sitting at and pulled it next to Anders. I leaned over and whispered into Anders' ear, "You know she's cheating right?"

Anders just smiled, slightly, and gave me a nod. He didn't say anything, and I found that a little odd. Anders almost always had something witty and/or sarcastic to say. "Why is he so quiet?"

I looked at Isabel who seemed to know me a little more than most. She just gave me a shrug of her shoulders as an answer to my unspoken question. "Well that was helpful."

"So Blondie," Varric said, "I'm surprised you're here. I would have figured it would be impossible to get you out of that clinic of yours."

Anders was about to say something, but Isabela was quick to interrupt. "Oh, quit complaining Varric. It's nice to have him around," Isabela said, speaking an unknown thought I was thinking. "Besides, I was hoping that I could convince him to do that electricity thing again," then she said more provocatively, "that was nice when you did it at the Pearl."

I felt myself blush as I asked, "Electricity thing?" I raised my eyebrows at Isabela. Anders coughed nervously and a big, dirty smile washed across Isabela's face, and Varric and her burst out laughing at some inside joke I must have missed out on.

"What?" Anders finally asked after Isabela and Varric had finally stopped laughing. "Glad to know I'm not the only one out of the loop."

"It's...ah...nothing, just...just nothing." Varric said before he had another fit of uncontrollable laughing.

Anders looked at me wondering if I had any idea as to what was going on. I shrugged my shoulders and mouthed "Fucked if I know." A smile spread across his lips and I returned a smile of my own to compliment his. "I think it's time to get some answers."

In one fluid movement I stood up, slid the chair out from underneath me loudly with my legs, and slammed my hands on the table. I glanced from Varric to Isabela with a wicked smile and mischievous eyes as I said, "Alright. Tell me what's so damn funny, now."

"Should I tell her, or do you want to do it Rivaini?" Varric asked in an innocent tone.

"I don't know," Isabela said before she looked at me. "You sure you want to know?"

"Yeah," I said as I tried to convince her and myself that I really did.

"Alright," she said, "but don't say I didn't warn you. Before Anders came in here, Varric and I were talking about..." a teasing smile came to her lips, "about how you were taking...a fancy to Anders...and how...you know..." My eyes grew wide and my jaw dropped at what she was saying. "And then you asking about Anders' electricity thing reminded us about the conversation." Isabela chuckled that alluring chuckle of hers. "It was much more amusing when we were talking about it, but it was the kind of thing you had to be there for."

I forced myself to have a serene look on my face as I slowly sat down so that it appeared that I was calm. Anders avoided looking at me, no doubt trying to hide that he was blushing and embarrassed like me. I didn't want to be in the Hanged Man anymore. I was trying to figure out if I should leave or not, but then I'd have to come back if I did leave and that would make the embarrassment much worse than it already was. "Fuck it! I'm going to make them feel like shit for it!"

I folded my hands, calmly, in my lap before looking up at the both of them. "I'm sorry to tell you this, but even though he is dead I am still faithful to my fiancé. You can stop all the fantasies you've created now."

"Jackpot!" The smile on Isabela's face slowly faded and Varric quickly looked down at his hand, suddenly very interested in the game he hadn't been paying attention to a moment ago. "Yeah that's right. You don't fuck around when someone's lost their fiancé or the person they love... That should keep them off my back...for maybe a day"

"I'm going to go get a drink," and with that I stood up and strode over to the bartender. Anders got up and followed me. "You want one too?" I finally asked over my shoulder while giving him a wink.

"Nah," he said, "Justice doesn't let me get drunk anymore...so drinking's kinda lost its charm." He offered up a smile again and I flashed him one of my own.

"Well it is fun to get totally shit faced every now and then." I said as we got to the counter. I ordered my drinks then stood with my back to the counter as I leaned against it with my elbows resting on it. Anders walked over and leaned over the counter with both of his hands gripping its edge lightly. I turned my head slightly to the right and saw that Isabela and Varric were talking to each other quickly, and they were being deliberately quiet about it.

"Wonder what they're talking about," I said quietly, not really expecting an answer. Anders snorted in disgust when glanced over his shoulder at them, which surprised me. Anders was never angry, and never, ever got disgusted with anything beside the Chantry and the Circles.

"Fucked if I know," he said bitterly. I let out a huff and my drinks finally arrived. As I took a sip Anders stood up straight and moved a little so that he was facing me a bit more than he had been. One of his hands was now at his sides and he said, "You know about what you said..."

I brought my drink down from my lips and held it with both hands. "It was a total dick move, I know," I said calmly. I looked into my cup and focused on its half-emptiness so that I didn't have to meet Anders' gorgeous brown eyed stare that always made me blush. "But it was the only thing that I could come up with at the time for that situation."

"I'm sorry that he came up." I looked over at him then. Anders didn't say who "he" was, but I knew he meant Zach. I met his eyes for a moment before nervously looking back at my cup of piss born alcohol hoping that he didn't see the blush that his beautiful eyes had caused.

"I should have said something earlier," he continued as he moved back to leaning against the counter, and looked down at it before continuing, like he was ashamed for what had happened, "so that you didn't have to bring him up. It's just that I...that I knew that's what they had been talking about as I came in...and I was hoping that if I didn't talk to you at all today that maybe they would drop it...or think something happened...or..." I turned around and faced him at that time, and I gently placed my hand on his shoulder.

"It's alright," I said with an innocent voice that I only used with dealing with little children and never let anyone I knew hear it in case they thought I actually had a soft side.

I offered him a kind smile and removed my hand from his shoulder and chugged the last of my drink. I shook my head a little as I slammed it on the counter and then tossed the money I owed next to it. I turned back to Anders and with a smirk and a wink I said, "Besides, they should know by now that someone like you wouldn't go for a violent barbarian like me."

Anders opened his mouth to say something, but I walked over towards Isabela and Varric and called out, "Hey Isabela!" before he could say anything. "I learned this neat little trick to add to that game to make it more interesting in the army. And no, it doesn't involve stripping."

"Spoil sport!" Isabela called back with a laugh. I laughed too. Staying angry at someone doesn't help anyone, not even yourself. It's best to just move on and try to make up for what happened with something good.

It took awhile before Isabela fully caught on to what I was trying to teach her. It was really simple. All it was, was that whoever won that round had to come up with a category that all of us had to answer. Say for instance that I won. I would then say something like "favorite food," or "most embarrassing sex partner" we would all have to say an answer that fit into that category. So the only bonus for winning was that you got to pick the category.

That little modification certainly made the game more interesting, and we no longer cared if Isabela cheat because she come up with the most interesting categories.

"Bout damn time I won!" Anders said as he finally won that round.

"Quit boasting and pick a category already," I said teasingly.

"You can't rush perfection my dear," he replied in his sultry tone that always drove me crazy...the good crazy of course.

"She's not rushing perfection Anders. She's rushing you," Isabela said with a giggle.

"Hey!" Anders said, but was still smiling. It took awhile, but Isabela and I had finally got him to drink some and he got noticeably happier and more of the partying type. "Maybe this was a little bit of what he was like before everything that happened with Justice."

"Ok, so what's the most interesting person you've ever fucked?" He finally asked with a smirk.

"Ooh, that would be the Hero of Ferelden for me," said Isabela, "of course she wasn't a hero when I met here."

"I'd have to say a coterie dwarf for me," Varric said with smile. "Boring I know but you said most interesting and I don't have too many of those."

"I'd have to say it was the Hero of Ferelden when she WAS the Hero AND the Commander of the Grey." Anders said with a smirk.

"You've got me beat there," Isabela said as she took another swig of her drink.

"What about you Luna?" Anders asked as he looked over at me. I hesitated for a moment and Isabela took advantage of that.

"You're not a virgin are you?" She said with a dirty smile, and I unwillingly blushed a lot at that. "Oh how cute! You ARE a virgin still! That's sooo adorable!" everyone at the table started laughing, though I noticed that Anders didn't laugh nearly as hard or as much.

"But you seem so informed on the subject," Isabela finally said once she caught her breath.

"Who says you have to have sex to know how to have it and how to be good at it?" I said with a raised eyebrow and a smile. "Anyway laugh it up all you like. Flowers are all the more attractive when they still have petals on them anyway."

"Well that's certainly an interesting way of putting it," Anders said with a chuckle.

"That's because I'm an interesting person. Now come on, we should start heading to the Blooming Rose to look for..."

"Keran," Varric said, filling in the name for me.

"Right, that guy!" They all burst out laughing again, and this time I joined them.

For the first time in over a year I had actually had FUN.