Hawke...was not happy to see me, but I expected that. She must still blame me for her mother's death. Not that I care what she blames me for, but it wasn't my fault. It wasn't anyone's. Nobody could have known Leandra would be targeted by a blood mage gone serial killer. Still, I suppose it is easier to have someone to blame, so I let her hate me.

Thankfully, she's not a spiteful person, so she showed us a way out of the Deep Roads from here that only took a few hours, and now we're following her along the Wounded Coast back to Kirkwall. Apparently, Delilah had started to worry, and she sent Miranda into the Roads to find us. I'm somewhat thankful for the fretting, but Delilah knows we can take care of ourselves.

"What's your problem Aveline?" Aedan snaps.

My head whips around to look at them, eyes narrowing on the other redhead in our procession. "Problem? When was it said I had a problem?" Aveline asks.

"By the way you glower and frown at us when you think we aren't looking," Leliana adds.

The Guard-Captain bristles angrily. Just as she goes to say something, Hawke interjects with, "Yes, they were stupid. No, you can't yell at them for it. Being stupid Grey Wardens is their job. They were following orders. So keep your mouth shut. All of you." She looks at me pointedly, expecting me to actually follow an order she gave me. My mood darkens instantly. Why would I follow her orders, after everything she's done and said to me? I've nearly died on multiple occasions because of her, and I don't even like her! I only stuck around because the Maker told me to, and I'll admit it, I wasn't very good at protecting the Champion of Kirkwall.

"We're not very friendly people, are we?" Alistair asks out of the corner of his mouth.

I shake my head sadly. "No, we're not." He sighs, almost seeming upset about it, but doesn't continue the conversation. A thought crosses my mind and I sidle up to him, close enough that our shoulders rub. Or rather, my shoulder rubs on the middle of his upper arm. Alistair raises a brow at me and my suddenly wide smile.

"Okay, now I'm suspicious," he says.

I laugh before whispering, "Being nice hasn't gotten us anywhere, has it?"

Alistair grins as he takes my hand in his. I swing them between us, feeling particularly goofy today, and let out a sigh of contentment. "No, it hasn't, but we can't try for once? Pretty please?"

"Oh Alistair. You think you'd know being nice isn't something I do very well by now."

"You're nice enough to me," he says.

"That's because I like you," I reply.

He laughs. "I hope so!"

His lopsided grin transfers onto my face as we walk. The party falls silent after Alistair and I stop talking, but I can feel a pair of eyes on my back, and out of habit, I look back. If Alistair wasn't right beside me, I'd expect it to be him back there staring at me. Instead, I see Nathaniel, a mask of blank indifference as he stares. His eyes betray him, however, as they drift down to me and Alistair's interlocked hands. Nate almost looks sad, and when he realizes he's been caught, his face goes blank again. I allow a friendly smile to creep onto my face for him, but he doesn't return it.

I never thought of Nate as more than a friend. I always thought that's what we were, just really good friends. It seems I was wrong.


Zevran waits for the Champion to confront the Crows before making himself known. Few words are said, and as he reaches for his daggers to defend himself, the nearest assassin, a bearded man, collapses with an arrow buried in his throat.

"Better shot than you!" Leliana says from my side.

"Oh yeah? Watch me!"

I scramble up the stones of an outcropping, finding myself at a ridiculously unfair vantage point, and plant my feet firmly in the crevices to keep my footing in this wind. Her target fell in the span of two seconds, but I intend to best that. I'm not sure where this sense of competition came from, but I'm okay with it. It gives the fighting less of a dire feeling and more of an...airy one.

Knocking an arrow to my bowstring, I yank the cord back until my thumb brushes over my ear, and I send it flying the same instant. A man crouched behind a tent crumples to the side with my arrow protruding from his chest. I have another arrow fired off a split second later, throwing the target back and into Anders' fireball. Leliana and I make a running game out of killing the few Crows here, something I would rather not admit to have gotten good at (stupid Orlesians; sneaky bastards with their "send Antivans instead; the Fereldans won't expect it!" idea) and have several of the assassins dead quickly enough that the others don't so much as have to twitch. Hawke and Anders fire off a few spells to accompany Nate's arrows, but otherwise, weapons aren't drawn.

"Tie?" Leliana asks, frowning slightly as my final arrow veers a little off course to bury itself in the dirt instead of the Antivan it was aimed for. I reach for another arrow to rectify that mistake, but she has it taken care of first.

"Tie," I agree. "There's no way we're beating each other."

She laughs. "I'll get you eventually."

"Eventually? Does that mean when I'm dead?" I jump off my perch to her side, throwing back my blue and silver hood, and she shrugs.

"Still counts as a win."

"Maker, we turned you into a mess," I say. "You weren't this bad until you spent a few months with us on the road."

"If I am so impressionable, you may want to keep me away from Zevran," Leliana says, "lest I start making bad sex puns."

"Damn! Go, get out of here or so help me, I'll kick you back to Kirkwall." I blink rather stupidly while she rolls her eyes. "Wow, that sounded really stupid."

"No, really? I didn't notice."

I shove her shoulder before starting down to the others.