Judy: Thank you, I have just gotten worse so I'm hoping that my stock of chapters will last a couple of weeks before I start writing again. I think I've got about a month's worth of updates.
Chapter 60 - Like a chicken
Makatza laughs and shakes her head, 'no, no, it's like this,' she smiles as she dances the steps again. She had discovered that the thick leather foot coverings that the Dalish wore to protect their feet through dangerous terrain were perfect to tap and ballet. Supple enough to bend but firm enough to do tap. Ameretta giggles and tries to copy her again, she was teaching her a couple steps from Irish dancing which was all quick foot work.
'I jus' don' know how ya move so fast,' Ameretta laughs.
'It's just practice,' Makatza smiles. She looks over to where Fenris was feeding the pups who had spent the night in the forest and only came back for breakfast. They had been caught this morning when leaving her tent by her father who was currently giving her a little bit of silent treatment. Marethari had greeted her happily with knowing eyes and a smile that Makatza couldn't help but copy, she had given her a herb with whispered instructions about ingesting it. Makatza was secretly grateful to the Keeper for that as they had been up most the night, exploring their new found past time. She was assured that if eaten within twenty-four hours there would be no need for concern and to find her before she left for a little bit of supply. 'Fenris, do you want me to teach you too?' She asked as he came over, he kissed her lightly on the temple ignoring Ameretta's massive grin
He raised a brow an stood back as she performed the steps again, 'I do not think I would be any good,' he say simply with a slight smile. He sighs as Makatza pesters him until he at least attempts it. 'Men dance like this?' He asks as he feel pretty stupid.
'Oh yeah! Some of the most famous dancers who did this style were men. Women loved him too, thought it was sexy,' she teases nudging Ameretta who was sniggering. Fenris rolls his eyes and gives her a look, 'okay, okay, I'll get my stuff together,' she says in defeat. It's not like she brought more than a dress to wear when she got here. She had dressed in Dalish clothing when she woke up this morning buckling her collar around her waist.
Ameretta's face fell as she followed her to her tent. 'Yer leavin' already?' She asks sadly.
'I'm sorry but I have a damn dress fitting today. I wasn't going to come till the end of this week but I got impatient and it was a spur of the moment thing,' Makatza apologised as she grabbed her dress and looked around for the pup's collars. She found them under the bed roll and picked them up. 'I'll be back again soon, or there's no reason you can't come visit me in the city, as long as the Keeper agrees,' she adds. Ameretta expresses her delight in the thought and follows her back to the main camp to where her father and Fenris were awkwardly talking. It made her heart flutter when she saw them together, it was sweet how they were trying so hard for her.
'Lethallan,' Silvanus said as he saw her, he didn't want her leaving with a sour tone in her mouth because he was having a hard time coping with her relationship. He would begrudgingly admit that Fenris did seem to care about her and certainly acted differently with her than the others in their group.
'Are you talking to me now?' Makatza said mercilessly.
He winced and sighed, 'yer are yer mother through an' through,' he mutters. 'I dinnae want ya leavin' thinkin' I be mad at ya,' he says honestly. 'I dinnae like the idea of ya two...' he says glaring at Fenris. He knew that they had snuck off in the evening and did what couples do, didn't mean he had to like it one bit. 'I have made ma peace wit' it an' I will love an' support ya no matter what,' he says as Makatza gives him a tight hug. 'Ya ma Lethallan an' ya drive me crazy, ma Vehnan,' he chuckles stroking her hair.
'I love you, father,' Makatza says kissing his cheek lightly before she pulls away. 'Marethari wanted to speak to me so I'll be back in a moment,' she says leaving them two alone.
'Fenris,' Silvanus states holding out his hand for the elf.
He takes his hand in a firm shake, 'Silvanus,' Fenris replies.
The older elf doesn't let go of his hand right away and instead tightens his grip, 'I willnae let ya hurt her. If ya do, I'll kill ya maself, am I understood?' He spoke with conviction and Fenris knew that this man wouldn't hesitate to kill him, instead of replying and risking himself snapping back he simply nodded. 'I sacrificed everythin' fer her. I expect ya to do the same if ya insistin' on this...relationship,' he says in the end.
Fenris can't help himself and antagonises the man, 'I do insist,' he says with a barely withheld smirk. Luckily for him, Makatza appears at their side having spoken to Marethari. Fenris' hand is finally let go and with Makatza's presence the pain he was feeling was swept away within moments. 'Shall we?' Fenris says softly to Makatza as he flicks her hair over her shoulder.
'Sure! I'll write to you tonight,' she promises her father as they begin to walk to the entrance, her pups were waiting impatiently outside playing with the horse that Fenris had brought. 'Do you mind if I ride back with you?' She asks as she shoves something into one of his pouches, 'don't lose that,' she warns with seriousness.
'You wish to ride?' He asked making a mental note to ask what she put into his pouch at a later time. He shooed the wolves away and calms down the horse watching them run up the track. He checks his sword and the saddle was in place properly.
Makatza nodded and with minimal pause she mounted and got comfortable. 'I don't want to have to strip to shift to get dressed when we get back into the city, it just takes too long and yeah, I don't like riding but I can do it without having to get nude,' she says as he mounts behind her.
'Oh, I do not know, I quite like you nude,' he whispers making her laugh and blush.
'You're cheeky this morning,' she teases as she grabs the reins. 'Careful, if Varric catches wind you'll never live it down,' she smirks as they begin to trot. Their trip into Kirkwall was uneventful and she dropped the pups off at the Estate where she knew that they would sleep all day having been chasing rabbits all night. She's told by Orana that she had a good few hours before the dressmaker arrived to do her adjustments and so she walked out the house with a thoughtful expression. 'Looks like I have time to kill,' she says to Fenris who was waiting outside in the sun.
'What would you like to do?'
'Probably reassure our friends that you're not lying in a ditch somewhere, dead,' she points out. 'You vanished yesterday without word and you know how panicky Garrett gets,' Makatza says as she takes his hand softly. 'I would say that we should start at the Hanged Man, Garrett isn't in so that's the next best place.' He looks down at their entwined fingers and smiles a little.
'Sounds like the best idea,' he nods.
They were halfway to the Hanged man when they hear a scream through the slight crowd in the Low Town market. 'There she is!' Isabela ran over to Makatza and jumped on her yanking Fenris to the side as he was still attached to her by holding her hand. Isabela smothered Katza in kisses before letting her go and turning to Fenris. 'You! Where the fuck have you been?! We've been looking for you! Aveline is halfway up the damn coast because of you! What were you thinking?!' She scolds before she feels a pat on her thigh from the dwarf that had finally caught up to her.
'I'm gonna assume he was thinking about someone else,' Varric teases as he spots that they were still holding hands.
'Huh? What do you mea- Holy Andraste's knickers!' Isabela gasps. 'Hand holding? You two are holding hands?! Varric, this is the scandal of the century!-'
'And just like that we're leaving,' Makatza says giving her best friend a loving push as she continues to walk. 'I'll talk to you later Izzy!' She calls simply to the pirate who stood in shock. Varric does them a favour and stops her from following as they make their way to the pub. She opens the door and waves at Johnny who was restocking the bar, ignoring the whispering that rippled through the crowd she lead him up to Varric's rooms and let them in. 'Could you imagine if they actually knew?' She said to Fenris who smirked in reply.
Aveline and Garrett were sat at the table with a map and a couple of pencils, they looked up as the door opened. 'Holy shit,' Garrett said as he got up and walked over to Fenris, 'you're okay,' he says looking him over and then punching him swiftly on the arm risking death. Makatza had let go of his hand so that she could greet Aveline with a hug. 'Where the hell have you been? No message! No note! No way of knowing where you had bloody gone! I had Aveline looking for slavers all night in case they had got to you!'
'I apologise, I needed to be elsewhere urgently,' he says sincerely. 'I did not mean to make you or anyone else worry,' he looks over at Aveline and gives her a small bow with his hand on his chest, 'Aveline, please, your forgiveness.'
Makatza smiles at him with a little bit of pride as Aveline nods, 'it's fine, Fenris. I had some idea of where you would be but I didn't want to say. I just did a precautionary trip up the coast to make sure there were really no slavers,' she smiles as she looks at Makatza.
Makatza took a seat at the table as Aveline excused herself with a wink at the young woman, she knew what this was going to be about. Garrett sighs and nods, 'at least you're safe. Everyone else kept telling me not to worry but you don't disappear like that-'
'Who said not to worry?' Makatza asked curiously as Fenris took off his sword and placed it in the rack that Varric had for that reason. Garrett sat down opposite her and sighed heavily, 'I mean, I would be worried if he vanished for some reason,' she added.
'Well, Anders didn't care, Sebastian was concerned, Merrill didn't understand that it was a problem. Isabela, surprisingly freaked out but I think that's more because of you, Katza,' he laughs. 'Varric told me not to worry at all, point blank there was no concern, and Aveline just laughed and said she would check the coast but she didn't even seem worried,' he explains. He raises a brow as Fenris sits next to Katza and puts his hands on the table as he looks at his friend. 'Hold... hold on, where were you last night?' Garrett asks as he looks between Makatza's perfectly innocent face and Fenris' unreadable one. Aveline came back in with a few drinks for all of them and Hawke was distracted for a moment, Fenris takes Makatza's other hand as she takes her drink with a thanks to Aveline, the Captain smiles as she notices but doesn't say anything.
'I was at the Dalish Camp,' Fenris says honestly as he sips his drink.
'The Dalish? You mean, checking up on Katza? Come on, I told you she was going to be fine,' Garrett grumbles making Aveline roll her eyes as he still hadn't noticed the blatant display of affection that was happening in front of him.
Fenris shared an exasperated look with Katza as she giggled. 'No, I was at the Dalish Camp because I wished to be there with Makatza,' he says slowly. It still hadn't dawned on the apostate as to what he was trying to get at so he sighed and shrugged a shoulder. Instead they spoke of random things until they heard Varric and Isabela come in, Isabela greeted Hawke with gusto and took a few minutes. Varric took a seat in his usual chair and grinned at Fenris so much he felt a little uncomfortable. Makatza finished her wine and looked inside the glass, she remembered that she had that damn dress fitting later and exhaled heavily. It's not that she could turn up drunk but another to settle her anxieties would help. 'Are you alright?' Fenris asks softly hearing her sigh.
She looks over at him and smiles, 'yeah, just got that damn fitting today and I was thinking about grabbing another glass to calm my nerves,' she explained. 'Do you want anything- Drink wise,' she cut in quickly as she saw the cheeky look on his face.
'No,' he chuckles. 'I would prefer my own so I will refrain for the time being,' he says as she gets up.
'Okay, won't be long,' she says and kisses him without thinking about it. There was a silence that swept over the room as the companions gawked at them. They parted and looked around, 'what?' Makatza asks as she picks up her glass.
'Oh! Oh! Oh!' Clucked Hawke like an excited chicken.
'What was that?! That right there!' Isabela said at the same time pointing at them. She wore a massive grin, 'that thing! That thing you just did!' She waved her hands around in glee.
'Ohh! OH!'
'I don't know what you're getting so worked up about,' Makatza said simply praying that her smile would stay minimal for just the moment. She looked over at Fenris who shrugged his shoulders also completely unaware as to why their friends were getting excited.
'Oh, fuck off! No way! Fuck off!' Isabela screeched as she bounced on Hawke's lap before getting up. 'Katza! Katza you get your arse back here right now!' She screamed in delight as she ran after her best friend who had disappeared out the room. Hawke stared at Fenris with an open mouth while Aveline and Varric laughed at him.
'Oh! Oh...you bastard,' Hawke said eventually as he came to the conclusion. 'That wasn't awkward. That wasn't nervous or...or... any of that shit. You've done that before. You've kissed before... OH! Oh, you son of a bitch! That game! You drank because you kissed Katza! That was... .that was months ago!' Hawke said as he pointed to the door in fluster as he figured it all out. 'You two have been dallying around behind our backs for friggin' months!' He said standing up but with his hands still on the table. 'You sneaky, sneaky... sneaky bastard!'
'We did not sneak, we simply did not tell you,' Fenris says calmly trying not to smile. 'Varric how long have you known?' He asks.
'I caught you two kissing on the sofa, you thought I was asleep,' he grins as he snips of the end of a cigar. 'Takes a lot more than that to hide from a man of the merchants guild,' he teases. Fenris rolls his eyes, so the dwarf knew from the beginning then. 'But,' Varric said having not finished. 'I heard you talking about how you didn't want us lot, especially Riviani sticking our noses in and so I respected your wishes to stay quiet. You two were sensible and honestly if you hadn't thought I was asleep and let your guard down I doubt I ever would have known till now.'
'I can't believe you didn't tell me!' Hawke whined. 'That's just not fair! You're not fair! Either of you!' He pouted. 'Aveline, how did you know?'
'Oh, I didn't know as such, just had an idea, that's all,' she smiles at Fenris. 'I am really happy for you both. I think it's wonderful.'
'Thank you, I am glad I am not the one having to deal with Isabela though,' he says honestly as he finished his drink with a wince. 'No doubt I will have to rescue her in a while.'
