Moonpriestess30: I know, I've not even finished my other stories and here I am contemplating posting a new one. I reeeallly like the concept though.

Judy: No you are!


Chapter 186 – Last time.

Getting away from the Keep was becoming harder and harder but Makatza was determined to have an evening away from the bloody place. Under the ruse that she was visiting her cousin she had slipped to the Hawke Estate, she had made plans to see Anders, or at least attempt to. He had become more and more of a recluse lately and it was bothering her deeply. She had made sure to choose a day that Fenris was helping Garrett, he had taken the wolves at her request and so she wasn't going to be bothered. To avoid any future drama she had left a note with Orana should they return before she did. After getting changed into something a little less regal she made her way through the cellar passage and down to his Clinic. Makatza had heard some worrying things from the others regarding Anders, he was becoming more and more unstable and deep in her heart she worried. Looking around the front of his home she could see that even the local strays that normally lingered had moved onwards, possibly the food he used to put out had stopped.

'Oh Anders,' Makatza says to herself as she tries the door, it wasn't locked but it wasn't easy to open. With a slight shove she manages to get it to swing inwards. What is going on in his head lately? She thought as she took in the state of the Clinic. He promised to talk to me about things like this, why wouldn't he speak to me? I'm still me, I mean, yes I'm Viscountess but I've not changed. I will always make time for him, she mentally sighs. Her inner wolf whines and doesn't like the feeling in the room and slinks into her forest. She runs her fingertips over his desk, there are dried ink stains and loose sheets of paper, 'Anders?' She calls again as she looks around. 'Anders, if you don't want company, you've just got to tell me!' Makatza says as she walks over to where his sleeping pallet would be. It didn't look like it had been slept in, that itself was worrying. 'Oh my sweet idiot, what are you doing?' Makatza sighs as she turns away from the bed.

'Katza?' Anders says from his doorway. 'What... what are you doing here?' His tone says he's worried and his physical stance is ready for a flight. Makatza smiles and tilts her head as she walks over to him.

'I came to see you, silly. It's been forever and well... I worried,' she admits.

Her genuine concern touches him and his shoulders slump heavily as he looks at the ground. 'Of course... of course you have,' he mumbles. 'Oh, Katza, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound... rude,' he rubs his eyes.

Makatza walks closer to give him a hug but pauses, 'oh, Anders,' she says holding her nose. 'You smell like a sewer. Like, really badly, it's making my eyes water,' Katza giggles. 'What have you been doing?'

He apologises and slips past her to his washing area and pulls the curtain for privacy while she looks at his books. 'I was looking for some ingredients, I am trying to make... something,' he says lamely. His heart hurt, he didn't want to lie to her but Garrett had already refused to help him. 'It means getting into the nastiest places unfortunately.'

Makatza laughs and starts to make them some tea, looking in his few stores, 'have you eaten? I can make you some food. I brought you some decent vodka after last time,' Katza adds with a smile. 'Hold on, I'll be back in ten minutes, I want to go get something from the Estate,' she says as an idea hits her. She nips back up into Hawke's estate and grabs a bag filled with bread, fruit and other nice things before returning back down to the Clinic where Anders had changed his clothing, had a wash and finished making tea for them both. She bounces in and smiles at him. 'Okay, so I was thinking I would make us some lunch and,' she takes out the vodka from her other bag, 'made from the finest potatoes,' she teases lightly making a weak smile appear on his features. 'And we can talk.'

'Katza, you don't need to do this, I'm fine,' Anders says taking the bottle from her. He'll admit it's nice to have a different type of company and have his mind taken off things for a while. His plan had been made and he wasn't going to be swayed, which is why he couldn't tell anyone. Not even her.

'I know I don't need to do this, I want to. I miss you. I miss chatting to you and the jokes we used to tell each other,' Makatza says as she begins to cut up bread and cheese, it was going to be a simple enough meal but should be quite tasty with the high quality cheese and Orana's baking. They talk of idle things while she prepares them their food and only when she sits at the table does she give him a look. 'Anders, you promised me that if you were going too deep you'd talk to me,' she says as she fiddles with a grape.

He sighs and finishes his mouthful, 'Katza, it's not that I didn't want to, but you're Viscountess now. I can't just stroll up to your door and you have more important things than worrying about me,' he says simply as he looks at her. She leaned on the table with her elbows, resting her head on the back of one of her hands as she held them together.

She huffs at him and glares, 'you only have to send a message Anders. I will make time for you,' she points out making him feel a little guilty. He knew that too but she humanised him too much and he found it hard to make the decisions he needed to. 'So, what did you need ingredients for?' Katza asks having forgotten if he had told her or not. She didn't want to lecture him but she had made her point clear. Picking up a bit of well buttered bread she smushed some cheese into it before taking a bite.

'Oh, it's nothing really. Just something to calm my mind that's all,' he says after a moment's pause. Anders sips on his tea and hopes that she won't ask any more than that. An idea comes to him and he feels guilty but asks anyway. 'Katza, do you often see the Grand Cleric?' He asks.

'Hmm? Oh, on occasion, she's a nice woman. Why do you ask?' Makatza says as she continues to eat and drink, completely unaware of this sudden conversation change. 'I mean, I do try to meet her at least once a month, I invite her to the Keep and we discuss things. I'm trying to get her to show a sign of support for either the mages or the Templars. I mean, I get it, whoever doesn't receive her support will suffer but she can't stay on the sidelines forever.'

Anders raised a brow, this was going to be easier than he thought. 'What side are you on?'

'Anders,' Makatza says bluntly looking at him. 'I'm not. I don't claim to be. It's different for me. I'm not a mage, I'm not a danger in the sense that the Templars are used to. I have no right to weigh in on these matters. All I'm trying to do is show both sides that their opinions are valid. There is a lot of blood magic in Kirkwall, and the treatment of the mages goes well too far. Both are wrong and both are right. It's not something that's going to be fixed overnight. But I need Elthina to at least have an opinion, she can't insist on being blissfully ignorant while this happens,' Makatza sighs and shakes her head. 'Sorry, rant. It's been a lot recently. I'm trying to make lives better for the mages but there's only so much I can get Meredith to do,' she shrugs a shoulder. 'It's so frustrating.'

There were a thousand things that Anders wanted to say, but he knew it wouldn't be helpful. More along the lines of preachy. Instead he chose a different option, 'when are you next seeing Elthina?' He asks.

Makatza does some mental calender sorting. 'I think... it's just before the council meeting which I've been trying to sort out for Maker knows how long. Pretty sure that I have an afternoon appointment with the Grand Cleric and then the evening with the Council. If I've arranged that properly,' she taps her finger on her plate, her eyes narrowing. 'Yeeees... I'm going to say that's right. Why do you ask?'

Anders has to think carefully about his answer, 'would you mind telling me how the meeting goes? You know I worry about what's going on. I think I would feel better if I had a little more information instead of being in my head all the time,' he says. He felt guilty about using her like this but it was the easier way than trying to convince Hawke to distract the Grand Cleric for a while.

'Sure,' Makatza smiles as she gets up and finds a slip of paper and a pencil, 'here it's on this day and at this time and should finish here,' she says as she writes things down. 'I'm going to be getting ready at Garrett's afterwards for the Council meeting so if you want to meet me then I'll give you the low down.' She slides the paper over and Anders nods, it was less than a month away. That was the perfect amount of time to get things in order.

A pang in his heart makes him stop, 'Katza... if... if this whole conflict came to one side or the other, who would you choose?' He looks at her as she exhales heavily and pulls a worried face, the scary thing is, I reckon it's going to come to that one way or another and ….. I don't know. I mean the Templars are doing their best, but the system and hierarchy is corrupt and mages, well mages can be and are dangerous, she thinks before she replies.

'The people who were being hurt the most,' she admits. 'I think that means the Templars who are being targeted for protecting mages and fighting demons, and the mages that are being hunted for being mages,' she sighs. 'It's not black and white. I'm sorry Anders, I know you feel it is, but it's not.'

'It's a good an answer as anything,' he says softly. This was helpful, it gave him an idea of how to progress in his plan but he didn't want Katza to know that he was using her. He didn't like the thought of it but it was going to be too good of a chance to give up. 'Anyway, let's talk of happier things!' He says forcing himself to be cheerful, in truth this could be the last time he spent with Katza. He wanted it to be a good memory.

A good few hours passed and they had eaten the food, drank the tea and cracked open the vodka. Makatza was giggling over her cup as she snorts into the glass. 'Stop, stop, I don't think I can take any more,' she says as she feels a comfortable burn in her stomach from the alcohol.

'But the thing is he fucking knew I was coming! And yet all Hawke can say was, ''then that prat got knocked out by that prat,'' as if that was what actually happened!' Anders laughs. 'Fenris was all, ''he knows my fighting capabilities,'' and there I am like, are you fucking joking? You make them up on the spot depending on how drunk, pissed off or who we're actually fighting! Y'know one time I saw him shove his hand through a man's head because it was the fastest way to kill the archer behind him,' Anders says in complete wonder.

Makatza snorts and sips her vodka, 'fuck that sounds like him,' she giggles. 'He's so impulsive though he's never admitted it,' she grins. 'Okay, okay, what else you got?'

'Okay, well remember that I was made a Grey Warden? Back way back when, when I first met Kiana, my first introduction to Alistair was catching them,' he laughs as he finishes his drink.

'Catching them?' Makatza repeats.

'Oh yeah, catching them,' he says with inflection which makes Makatza laugh more. 'Hammer and tongs they were. No waiting around, I walked in the room, saw them and just slowly closed the door. Nothing was ever said. Acted like it didn't happen,' Anders grins. Makatza laughs heavily and slumps in her chair over the table. This was nice, Anders hadn't had a moment like this in years and it felt relaxing.

There was a knock at the Clinic door and Garrett stuck his head around the door. 'Garrett!' Katza laughs all giggly as she looks up at him, her wolves run in and over to her and begin to lick her face as she pushes them away.

'Hey, wondered where you had wandered off too,' he looks back and calls out. 'Fenris, she's in here!' Garrett says smiling as he lets himself in, tension between himself and the healer wasn't great but he knew that they were still friends. 'So having a good time?' He asks as he picks up the half bottle of vodka. Fenris walks in and shuts the door behind him, he saw Katza looking very flushed in the cheeks and Anders looked merry.

Anders cleared his throat and grins a little, 'yeah, it's been nice. Refreshing, haven't done anything like this in a while,' he admits. 'She's more stubborn than you. Couldn't even get her to leave with the talk of the mages-'

'Oh Maker not again,' Makatza moans as she grabs the vodka bottle making everyone smile. Garrett rolls his eyes and speaks to Anders about the signs of a High Dragon that supposedly has set up camp in the mine. Makatza grins, 'me! Me! I want to go!' She says bouncing out her seat. 'I want to fight a dragon!'

'Definitely not,' Fenris says as he steadies her from falling off her chair.

'Ach! Come on, it's not like that prat is going to get himself knocked out by that prat,' she says pointing to Garrett and then Anders. The action and words alone are enough to make her cackle and slide off her seat. Fenris raises a brow and looks at where she was giggling on the floor. He reaches down and grabs her arm lifting her and pulling her over his shoulder.

'I think I had better take her back,' he says simply. 'Hawke... Anders,' Fenris says begrudgingly as Makatza starts to make ''whee,'' noises as he turned. 'Until tomorrow Hawke,' he nods.

'Aye, I'll see you then,' the Champion laughs.