Happy New Year to all of you!

A new year, a new chapter.

Enjoy!

Part 12: It started with a kiss, it led to a big bang and surprisingly life still goes on...

Aveline almost stumbled while she was running down the ridiculous long stairway that was the Viscounts Way. She had been sitting behind her desk, dealing with the maddening amount of paper that came with the title of Captain of the Guard when a low rumbling sound had got through to her. She probably wouldn't have noticed it if the windows hadn't been opened to let in the warm summer breeze to warm the chilly room. At the very moment she had paid it little to none attention, too busy with the tedious mind-numbing task as it was. She had raised her brow in wonderment a short second but had turned to her boring chore almost immediately. It took the rushing in of one of her guardsmen to wake her fear. Not just one of her guardsmen she noticed not a heartbeat away. A too quick heartbeat. A skipping one to be frank.

'Captain!' Donnic panted out of breath, 'I think you have to see this!'

Aveline had jumped up straight away. She might carry a torch for him, she knew guardsman Donnic was always serious when it came down to acknowledging dangers and managing them without even as much as twitching a brow. When he sounded the alarm, the alarm without doubt sounded on its turn danger. Or amok. Or pandemonium. That was one of the reasons she carried that torch for him. Or better some kind of bonfire. That and the way he sometimes looked at her; she especially remembered that breathtaking and at the same time enticing look after they had dragged him out of that nasty trap the former Captain had set for him. And it hadn't end with that; those looks had kept coming. Mostly veiled and quickly turned away but frequently. When he looked at her in that special way it made her feel giddy and young and foolish and even – aroused. She almost blushed at the thought.

But that was not the reason she almost stumbled. It was the message he had brought her and made her with more speed than was possibly wise hasten to the scene of the crime. A mansion blown to pieces. Noble neighbours concerned. Was this a Qunari attack? the nobility already were screaming their concern out. She could hear the headlines of the Kirkwall Town Crier echo in her head. "The horny beasts are on to us! They used gaatlok!"

And of course she knew that wasn't the case.

I knew it I knew it I bloody knew it, fuck fuck fuck… I knew it would end with a blast. You horrible dwarf with your horrible bets!

'Keep the neighbours at bay,' she barked at Donnic who heroically not only had underwent her outburst but even more admirably had put up with her demonic speed and thus still was at her side. Remind me to buy him a drink she thought when she saw him pushing the obtrusive nobles out of the way. She stared two seconds too long. Remind me to talk to Hawke about that drink and how to offer it to him.

Her sudden attack of insecurity got overruled by the more than sufficient feelings of all-consuming anger when she took in the scene. One demolished mansion. One nonchalant dwarf. One nonchalant looking dwarf, she corrected herself and smiled thinly. One pirate whore trying to keep up appearances. This was of course more or less the same as the look of that maddening nonchalant dwarf. One small crouching elf making a serious effort to keep out of her sight. She took pity on her. She was certain Merrill had nothing to do with this mess. She may even have caused it, literally, but she never could be the mastermind. Her attention turned back to the dwarf and the human. She would fucking well let them know how angry she was right now. Because she had figured it out.

'Have you gone completely out of your bloody minds?' she thus roared. Her eyes were even more ablaze than she realized.

'Yes, yes, Big Girl, we already established Fenris will go spare.' Isabela tried to sound bored but in truth she felt very uneasy; she'd never seen Aveline like this. It made her insecure and twitchy.

'Go spare?' Aveline screamed in return, all her tension free and ablaze, 'go spare? You'd better get down on your knees and pray to all the gods you know he will only go spare! He'll go completely berserk and that will be mildly put! He'll rip you apart and I won't stand in his way!' She almost literally spat fire.

'Please Aveline,' Merrill spluttered devastated, 'don't yell at them, it was all my fault ...'

'Oh no, Merrill, I don't buy that crap, you're not to blame. Those two have dragged you into this mess.' She gave the wrongdoers her best ferocious scowl. On their turn said wrongdoers tried to keep up a cool attitude but failed gloriously. In fact they both crumbled under her flaming gaze.

Varric coughed awkwardly. Cement and plaster crunched between his teeth and his throat felt like sandpaper. He desperately sought for something calming or witty to say but found nothing. He came not further than a lame, 'So, what happens now?' He felt much shorter by now than even a dwarf ought to feel.

Before she could answer a grating highly irritated voice sounded behind her back and she turned to glare at the intruder. Her seething eyes met one of the nobles that surveyed the drama. She recognized him as Antoine de Calignac; he had attended the appalling party the Viscount had thrown to grant her the honour she never deserved. He had spoken with awful disdain about the elven servants, as if they were but highly trained but mindless domestic animals. It had made her feel sick, even more so than Lord Armanti's hungry staring eyes already had accomplished, and at this moment he did nothing to remedy her earlier bad impression.

'It's about time you showed up, guardswoman,' he barked. 'Now you can witness with your own eyes what the consequences are of allowing a knife-ear to stay in Hightown. I demand you do something about it this very minute!'

Aveline was absolutely not in the mood. She narrowed her eyes. 'Knife-ear?' She could have frozen water with her voice. 'You demand?'

Her murderous look completely missed de Calignac's righteous anger. He poked with a chubby but perfect groomed finger in her chest. 'Yes, I demand you immediately remove the offending knife-ear out of our neighbourhood, guardswoman,' he hissed. That was a grave mistake. Or rather three grave mistakes in a row.

Aveline pulled herself up to full height which was quite an impressive sight to behold and in her eyes brewed a kind of vicious fury that had better men than de Calignac made think twice. Slowly he removed his finger and took a cautious step back, suddenly aware of her deadly glare. 'The title is Guard Captain, as you well know,' she said in a clipped but dark tone. Normally she wouldn't throw her weight about like that but the pompous squirt made her skin crawl. She let her voice drop another notch to a soft but threatening tone. 'You address me one more time like this, you touch me one more time and you are under arrest for assaulting an officer of the law. Do you understand.'

'What?!' De Calignac's voice caught with sheer fury and perplexity. 'You have absolutely no right-'

'Do. You. Understand,' Aveline repeated with emphasis. Her look could have bent steel. The nobleman stumbled back another pace. He had understood her meaning or at least the danger he was in which didn't say he could grasp it. 'Good. Donnic, clear the area.'

'But –' spluttered de Calignac who indeed was thick-sculled but to be honest right now protested just out of habit. He was not used to people contradicting him and it took him some time to put his mind around it.

'Shut up,' snarled Aveline, stunning him some more, 'before I lose my patience and change my mind and arrest you as yet.' The nobleman's mouth opened and shut and opened again like a fish trying to manage the art of breathing in one go. 'One more thing,' she cut him short up forehand, 'if you use the appalling expression "knife-ear" once again I will drag you to the Keep's dungeon without a flinch and you better believe I will find some very solid reasons to take you into custody.'

This was too much. The Calignac turned on his heels and tramped back to his own mansion, seething inside and brooding on repercussions.

'Very well done,' Varric began to praise Aveline but got interrupted before he could go on.

'I don't want to hear a word from you!' she sneered at him, 'you all come with me to the Keep. There I can decide what to do with you and about this,' she waved her arm at the devastation, 'nasty situation.'

Blissful oblivious of all the commotion back in Kirkwall, Hawke was wrapped up in heavenly contentment. She was lying naked on her stomach on the blanket that was spread out on the bank of the small rippling stream. Low bushes and high rustling trees surrounded the spot; in the branches blackbirds scattered their delicate tremolos around and filled the air with a pleasant sound. A low splashing waterfall murmured playfully nearby, greatly attributing to the idyllic beauty of the scenery. Numerous water drops caught the light of the sun and turned it into all the colours of the rainbow, matching the ones of the summer flowers that dotted the meadow. Not that Marian saw any of it; she had her eyes closed and rested her head on her underarms. Fenris, as naked as she was, was lying on his side next to her, propped up on an elbow, and his index finger draw soft lines on the skin of her back. 'If I connect the small birthmarks on your back I can make a piece of art,' he hummed with half lid eyes, concentrating on the patterns that took form in his mind and completely taken captive by his own idea. He had finally left all of his anxiety behind and instead had started to enjoy this enterprise enormously.

Marian chortled. 'And what would it look like, that artwork of yours?'

'I don't know yet. I can't decide whether I should picture the tree of life or one of the fairytale animals you like so much or perhaps a startling constellation.' He cocked his head, trying to visualize the design that would most suit her breathtaking personality and at the same time express his love for her.

'Go with your portrait,' Marian suggested, 'I can live with your image on my back. In fact the only thing against it I can think of is that I have to use two mirrors to admire it.'

Fenris's sudden merry laugh mingled with the sounds of the nature surrounding them. He bowed to kiss the crook of her shoulder. 'I will gladly buy you two mirrors, if only to let you admire your own behind.'

As always he managed to astound her; this time he almost brought her to tears. 'Please make love to me,' she pleaded in a whisper. Her longing for him went far beyond his astonishing white-haired and olive-tanned gorgeousness, accentuated by that perfect chiselled face and that body that seemed to be created by an extremely talented sculpture. It went even beyond that hypnotizing dark coloured voice that could melt her into a helpless puddle with one word, didn't matter what word. Yes, of course his more than appetising looks had first caught her attention but what had been harboured and concealed on his inside, that had made her irrevocable fall in love with him.

'Again?'

'Again and again and forever and always.'

His soft voice wafted over her skin. 'Be careful with what you ask for.'

'I know exactly what I ask for. I've experienced it often enough to know how much I love it.'

Next she felt the tip of his tongue caressing her skin, sensually following the path of his finger. 'You taste like sunshine,' he murmured, 'like sunshine and happiness.'

She let out a groan of pleasure. 'I feel like sunshine and happiness. And I understand the work of art on my back is going to be a water-colour..?' There was a short pause in his ministrations, followed by an amused chuckle. 'No! Don't stop!' she cried out alarmed, suddenly afraid he would teasingly drag her with her into the cold waters of the stream. It wouldn't be the first time.

'I don't intend to.' He kissed her again and then his hand slipped between her legs while his tongue made little moist circles on her behind.

Hawke couldn't remember how many times they had made love already but every time Fenris touched her in his own special way, the way that said "I love you" just by the use of his fingertips, she felt the burn of desire once more. And when his voice – oh, that voice! – joined that magical touch, her brain pivoted in her head and her emotions rocketed shy high. There was no room left for logical thoughts. She had had lovers before, not the battalion that apparently had marched through the aristocratic fantasies, but enough to appreciate this elf made her feel special. And not only special as in she was the only really interesting and beautiful woman in the world but special like he was an angel who deigned her worthy to carry her in his inviting wings while they both spiralled to a zenith of fulfilment. Every time again it caught her by surprise and every time again she got swept away, no matter how often it happened.

He placed warm kisses on the small of her back while his fingers purposefully wandered over her slick folds, wet and swollen with anticipation and want, to her small nub that waited with excited eagerness for his attention. She pushed her face into the blanket and croaked his name while the first waves leading to an overpowering height began to build. She tried to turn but he prevented the motion by circling his arm around her hips. He easily lifted her until she rested on her hands and knees. Tormenting slow he moved over her body, giving her the wonderful sensation of his naked skin upon hers, until his mouth reached her ear. His breath whirling around the shell and his teeth nibbling the lobe was the last push she needed to get lost into the swirl of a mighty orgasm. In the midst of her peak he entered her, bringing her even higher.

He never took on a fast pace but with infinite tenderness pushed into her and pulled out again, and again and again, till he brought them both to that startling summit, carried on his alluring, strong and loving angel wings.

They sank on the blanket, holding each other, listening to the mumbling brook, the rustling leaves and the singing birds. 'I never thought it was possible to feel so much for someone,' Marian said when she was finally able to speak again, 'but here I am, loving you like, like –' She sighed. 'I don't know like what, frankly.' She smiled apologetically against his chest. 'Like I'm addicted to you, to steal your own words, if you don't mind.'

He kissed her brow. 'I don't mind at all.'

Not moments later they got ripped out off their heavenly delight by the sound of frantic barking.

'What the,' Hawke began but before she could finish the sentence Tempest made his boisterous entrance by rushing into the scene, all pounding paws, wagging tail and yapping muzzle. In his enthusiastic haste he overshot the small meadow and ended in the shabby raised tent that abruptly collapsed under his weight. When they had managed to free him out off the rags of the torn canvas and the ruins of broken poles, Fenris discovered the rolled up piece of paper that was attached to his collar. He unfolded it while Marian tried to calm the excited hound down and read out loud: "Please come home at once. Something has happened. I badly need your presence and assistance." He looked up, frowning. 'Signed Aveline.'

They stared at each other for a heartbeat. 'Varric,' they simultaneously cried out with exasperation. They got dressed in no time, even though Tempest did his utter best to delay them by darting in and out of the water and running around them while splattering cold drops around. Despite his acts of sabotage they raced back to the city not minutes later, leaving the tent and picnic items for what it was. They could pick them up at a more convenient time.

'What the hell could that stupid bastard have done this time,' Hawke groused, partly annoyed and partly sick with worry. If Aveline had thought it necessary to interrogate Bodahn about the destination of their so called honeymoon and wring the truth out off him it could be nothing good. Her steward would not so easily divulge a secret he had sworn to keep, not if some disaster had occurred.

'I suppose we will find out soon enough,' Fenris replied darkly.

And as we all know they're up for a nasty surprise...

Thank you for reading!