The prompt for this Hightown Funk treat was: Hawke gets injured and Varric comforts them.
This is canon compliant because read till the end.
Kirkwall's chantry still burns in the distance as the little band of misfits tears through the streets on foot. Cullen declared Meredith an enemy, with half of the templars joining him. The other half still fighting everyone in the city that stands in their way of power for the braver ones. All the while Hawke's merry little band of scrappy delinquents do the one thing they still can. Run. Together. Sure Aveline was stopping far too often to give commands to the city guard, but she was sure footed, and always able to catch back up to their heels.
The chantry is burning, and they're running.
It wasn't so much a thought as it was an action. A fact. One phrase that keeps Varric's mind focused, even as his eyes grow tired and blurry from the smoke filling the city. It fills his mouth every time his lips fall smoking. Always threatening to choke him. It's tricky keeping his eyes open, and focused. Even his tall friends were struggling keeping their eyes open against the smoke. Merrill's usually lovely eyes were red, irritated, and seemingly shrinking as the seconds rush past them. Those sad eyes seem almost as out of place as the glare on her face. She falls into step behind Hawke. Magic accompanying daggers as Hawke and Isabela fend off the templars. Fenris covers their rear, making sure none can get close enough to test their blades against Bianca's wood, or Sebastian's thin bow.
The templars are relentless in their onslaughts. Mercy was not available for any of Hawke's party, or even their fellow templars who fight under Cullen's orders instead of Meredith's. Every where Varric looked there was fighting. Blood splashes against his face as Hawke cries out. His heart aches, before stopping all at once. Blood gushes out of a wound on one of Hawke's hands. The distinct dagger usually finding safe harbor in her right hand, now on the ground. If it was just the blood, and loss of a single weapon Varric would not be so worried. Yet his mind races as Hawke folds forward, a great sword buried deep into the back of her left leg. It pins her to the ground in a haphazard fashion. Tired, pained eyes fight to stay open against the smoke. Thick, callous fingers tighten around a raised Bianca. Her scope useless in the smog suffocating them. A rage from deep within him, that most would usually refer to as blind, makes his target clear as day despite the wispy obstructions.
His arrow flies true. Right through the templars, unprotected throat. "A helmet doesn't mean shit if you don't have your plate mail on right, jackass." As the templar falls, Hawke looks over her shoulder and smiles. Aveline charges up the road, screaming as she runs past them all and cuts down another templar aiming for Aeryn Hawke. The knight falls as his armor falls in on himself. He lands with a thick clunk as his helmeted head smashes against the brick building next to them. An old apothecary. A small fact that Varric's brain finds incredibly important at the moment. Aveline turns around, and pulls the sword out of Hawke's leg. Blood spurts up, covering all of the captain's front armor.
A sharp, painful cry escapes from Hawke as Bethany drops down beside her. The young elf does her best to heal the wound. Varric would have watched the process carefully, if not for the fact that the templars could practically smell weakness. Their enemies were making another push at them. Hawke orders for everyone to flee, but nobody moves a foot in the other direction. She's still down on one knee, with her messy brown hair growing matted with clumps of blood.
Eventually Aeryn is able to stand. Aveline tucks Hawke's weaponless arm around her waist. Her own arm now wrapped around Hawke's. The downsides to be five foot one, your arm can't quite wrap over the Guard Captain's armor. She carries the other woman away as the Fenris returns to covering the back of their group. Isabela takes point this time. Varric lingers a little closer to Hawke as they run. A glint catches his eye. Deft fingers pick up the lost dagger, as he runs by.
The group isn't running as fast when they arrive in Hightown. Shouts were growing distant as they put space between themselves and the gallows.
"We can make camp at Hawke's manor." Daisy suggests as Aveline lays Hawke out on the street. Bits of dirt were mingling with the blood in her hair before she even touches the ground. It creates some extra grotesque looking grime in her hair. Bethany falls down beside her. Her hands already thrumming with another healing spell. Daisy sets a poultice in her hands. Hawke is quick to down it as the rest of them scout out the area. "There are worst places to bunk in."
Varric shakes his head. They had almost gone to the coast but there were always some bandits on the coast. Not one damn time have any of them ever visited this place without getting attacked. If it wasn't bandits, it was qunari, or tal-vashoth, if not them then it was mages either free or seeking to be free, or the templars looking to jump the champion out of bitterness, or to just stop her from gaining support for the mages.
Typically even hightown at night is noisy. Not as many qunari ambushes, but there's always people working the alleys. Now it's just silence. Dead, unshakeable silence. The kind that always fills the air with some electricity right before an ambush happens.
He can feel it now. A tingle in his fingers. All of the hair on the back of his neck stands at full attention. He's a foot away from Hawke, standing behind her head. Doing his best to spy the danger. Daisy and Broody are arguing about staying at Hawke's manor or his. Since Anders took off those two have become the new bickering pair. What can he say? When there's a wound they heal together. If their little group was anything then they're like scabs all healing together, and growing all over each other.
Which is, well it's something. When his mind phrases the whole concept of their little group like that he's not really sure what it is. Bitter. Sweet. Disgusting? Maybe they're-
Hawke's scream cuts through his thoughts.
Turning on his heels Varric's mind races with his darkest thoughts. Aeryn doesn't cry out like that. Not even in the middle of a fight. When he's facing them again, his eyes dart to Hawke. They catch on the arrow protruding from her chest armor. Immediately his eyes follow it away from her chest. Away from her wound, and down the path it must have traveled. He's an archer, he knows how those arrows fly. A metal point with straight edges, and an arc notch in each side. A single glance let him find the archer hiding in one of the few trees around. In fact they're perched in the second story of the building at the front of hightown's entrance. Not far enough.
Varric fires an arrow from Bianca. The point flies true, lodging itself in the other rogue's eye. From the loud crunch that resonates from the attack, Bianca sent it flying with enough force that it broke through the back of their skull as well. Good. He lets himself feel a sick kind of satisfaction. That's what they get. The body falls with a thud summoning the other templars from the places they were hiding.
"Fenris, form a line of cover with me!" Aveline orders, taking charge of the situation. It feels strange hearing commands from anyone that isn't Hawke. Good thing the captain is here. He can't really imagine anyone else stepping up and giving coherent orders. "Isabela do what you do best."
"Jumping from man to man it is!" Isabela shoots Aveline a wink as she jumps into the action. With quick hands she stabs the few fools trying to move right to outflank them. Varric takes that as his cue to handle the ones on the left. Together they begin to corral the templars into a wide lane as they charge straight for Aveline and Fenris. Daisy and Bethany take turns treating Hawke, and slinging spells. Both taking longer without the resident healer around.
An ouch sounds off behind him. Varric tenses as Bianca fires. When he was about to turn around to see how hurt Hawke was, she speaks. "Ow Bethany. I love you but your healing spells burn, and Merrill's always leave a taste of dirt in my mouth." Not dead or dying if the jokes mean anything.
Surprisingly Sebastian is firing but he's not hitting his targets at all. Each one of his feathery arrows land in the dirt by the templars feet. He helps with the corralling, but not the killing. Never has his holier then thou routine frustrate Varric more.
A large hand rests on his shoulder. Varric risks taking his eyes off the battlefield to look up. There with a grin was Hawke. In all of her bloody and grime covered glory. She offers him a grin, and gestures towards the onslaught of templars with her chin. There were fifteen left. "What to see who can get the most?"
"I want to see you laying down and drinking your poultices!" Hawke cracks her knuckles.
With a cocky grin she plucks her lost dagger out of Varric's belt. "No can do Varric." Her smile falters. "I started this mess. I have to end it," She grimaces in annoyance. Dual blades now glinting in the passing light of Bethany's flames. "and apparently killing Meredith wasn't enough for these assholes to get the message."
Aveline and Fenris plunge their swords into each of the fool's legs. The same way one of the templars had done to Hawke earlier. The poor fucker barely has time to scream out in pain before Hawke slits his throat. She moves from fighter to fighter, quick with her weapons. Isabela practically dances around her as the two slice at knees, throats, hands, whatever bits of flesh they could get too outside of or in-between that templar issued armor. Blood flies as her face maintains a perfect version of her 'somebody is going to get stabbed' expression. Which they did. She was stabbing a lot of people, and Varric helps.
Of course for everyone of the sixteen they manage to take out a wound is left. Not the metaphorical kind. No 'oh no how shall they ever recover from the stains on their souls' as Sebastian likes to wail on about. Their wounds were bloody messes, just like the bodies decorating the ground. Varric had an arrow find it's way into the back of his shoulder. With every lift of Bianca it stings. His bones ache, and cry as he launches volley after volley of arrows. Varric can't stop here though. Not when Hawke is right there, needing him.
Isabella has a gash going down one leg. It hasn't stopped her from fighting, but she's slowed down a bit. Isn't jumping from place to place. She's chugged a poultice to slow the bleeding. Aveline has remained relatively unscathed. A few cuts here and there. One bastard cut off half of her hair with his reckless swinging. He hadn't even aimed the blade. Just wild swinging as Daisy smacked him back with a giant root. His last swing took off Aveline's ponytail, and thankfully, not her head. Hawke had pushed the sword off of the captain with the blunt sides of her daggers. She pushes the man away with enough force that he drops his sword, cutting the side of his neck against it's edge.
Fenris finishes him off quickly. The elf warrior was the only person not sustaining any wounds. Meanwhile Daisy and Bethany switch between casting range spells and the basic heals they could manage. Everyone's fighting. The whole lot of them and their attacks flowing back and forth. Each of them in sync, save for the arrows hitting nothing and no one from Sebastian. His shit aim was starting to piss Varric off. Pristine Sebastian, only aiming when to harm when one would get to close to himself. The templars seemed to pick up on that too if the way they swarm around and move behind Sebastian was any clue.
Then there's Hawke. Who was giving as good as she got. The way she jumps out in front of everyone, determined to keep them from getting it, led to her getting a lot. It unsettles Varric, how fast she abandons fear, and concerns for her own wellfare. With her back in business they move through the hightown courtyard and up the first sets of stairs, taking steps every time they narrow the number of templars they have to fight. This is not a standstill battle. The fact that they are backing up gives the templars unfounded courage. They believe they're winning, and fool enough to believe it. They don't know that while lowtown is Varric's turf, hightown is Fenris' and Hawke's.
The pair leads them group through alleys to, side roads, before eventually arriving in front of Hawke's mansion. Varric lets himself breath at the sight of the Amell sigil. Just a few more feet.
Hawke falls. Not just falls, but is thrown. A templar rams herself into Hawke, knocking her to the ground. Varric fires off an arrow, aiming for the templar woman's neck. She falls, as another Templar grabs Hawke's arms. Fenris swings at the templar, cutting his head off. Varric drops Bianca and runs over to push the body off of Hawke. If the maker has a sense of humor it's fucked up, and Varric hates it.
With some effort, he hauls the templar off of Aeryn. Now that he's leaning over her, he can see the true extent of her injuries. As his eyes take in the purple and blue bruises, he knows she must be in a great amount of pain. Looking up, he takes in how injured they all were. Isabela is stuck in her spot now. Fenris's swings were slower. Aveline's face is covered in blood, and Varric can't tell if it's hers or not. Bethany was haggard. That's the only word for the way Sunshine looked right now.
"Varric!" His fingers fly back for Bianca on his back. They grasp the air as horror overtakes his mind. He turns in a flurry of movement, as a Templar charges him. Daisy tries to entangle him in vines, but the knight leaps over the feeble attempt. Without missing a beat he lands on his feet and continues to charge. Varric does the only thing he can, stand still and block this asshole from getting near Hawke.
"Run, Varric."
"Not a chance Hawke." He plants his feet on the ground and gets ready to push back against the templar. The way he's had too deal with drunks before. The templar swings his sword, immediately ruining all of Varric's plans. The dwarf dives out of the way. "Shit!" He runs back for Bianca, wincing as Hawke cries out in pain. "The bastard has Hawke!" Varric announces as he holds out his hand towards his trusty crossbow. He slips, and crashes into Bianca's butt.
The street blurs as he swings his body back around with Bianca loaded. He holds her up on his stomach and fires.
With time seemingly slowed down, Varric's vision clears up enough for him to watch the arrow fly. The final templar was a young man. He had his sword and some leathers. Heart in his ears, Varric's fear flare up. Memories of every moment that led to this pass by his eyes. If they had confronted Meredith sooner, if he had used his connections when they were alive to poison her, or Orsino or both. No. There were other things that could have changed. More times Hawke had ended up hurt. That time in the fade, the arishok, when she had to face off against the serial killer who summoned demons, the dragonlings, when they were trapped in the deep roads together. All of it, every time Hawke had been hurt, he was there. It's all his fault. Andraste please don't let now be the end.
Striking true the arrow plants itself in the templar's heart. The young man lets out a huff, as if this death was just a momentary annoyance. He falls, not on Hawke. Varric's heart is pounding away in his ears. Chanting from behind him, is met by an expression of thanks on Aveline's face as she kneels next to Hawke.
Ignoring the pain in his knees, Varric stands up and runs next to Hawke. Crashing onto his knees, the dwarf rests Bianca on the ground next to her. Watery green eyes begin to shut as Hawke's head leans to her left. "Hawke? Hawke, stay awake!" She's blacking out, and he can't tell if it's from the injuries, pain, or exhaustion. "Hawke wake up!" He cups her cheeks, cradling her face. Tears fill his eyes. "Hawke! Don't die on me!" Varric holds her as her face grows cold. His last arrow had flown true, and yet his own heart feels as if it's going to burst too.
Hawke has been injured several times throughout her life. After the fight with the Arishok, Varric assumed he would never see her bleeding as much as she had back then. Yet as all of Kirkwall's rules, and order come crashing down around them as Varric examines Hawke's injuries. They were on par with, if not greater then the ones the Arishok had left her with.
Those cold, metal clad bastards had run her through. His visions grows blurry as memories of the Arishok's sword going through her abdomen tore through Hawke's mid-riff. Snapped arrows in the back of both of her knees. One of them tore the scab on the back of her leg asunder. He holds her hand, squeezing it even as Aveline picks Hawke up.
Aveline carries Hawke back to his home on her back as Varric walks behind them his finger on Bianca's trigger. Donnic and her agreed to leave at least two men posted outside the mansion right now. The rest were needed to defend the city. Dog met them in the door to the mansion. Aveline carried her the rest of the way upstairs. Varric hot on her heels. Aveline sets her up in the chair by the fireplace. There Varric pulls the arrows out as Aveline undresses her. Bethany comes in with a roll of bandages from downstairs. Orana following her in with a bowl of water. It doesn't take long to clean the wounds and dress them.
After they were done, Hawke still hadn't so much as groan. Aveline moved her back to her bed. The three of them returned downstairs with the rest to figure out what was next. Everyone else was already spread across the room. Almost in a circle. If circles could be drawn with some parts of it jutting out. What would a circle with sides be called? Okay so not a circle, but it's close enough. "She should be fine." Bethany whispers to him as she wraps an arm around his shoulders and squeeze.
"Thanks Sunshine." She gives him a peck on the top of his head, and walks down the steps. Varric follows after with a very nervous Rivaini waiting for them by the bottom of the stairs.
"It might be smart to break up this merry little band." Isabela's voice cracks on merry. They used to be happy. All nine of them. Now there were only six of them standing in the middle of Hawke's living room. Bodahn and Sandel had already made their escapes. Now, even Rivaini wants to run. The words sound more like an accusation then he meant.
That was the final straw. Varric finally dropped his mask of hope and looks up at all of them with the most tired eyes. "You want to split up? While Hawke is unconscious?" Exhaustion was beginning to eat away at his reasoning. All he could do was bring himself to repeat her suggestion as a question.
"If we keep traveling like this everyone is going to find us. We barely made it out of the city during the start of the fight. Then we had to sneak back here. We've nearly died three times today!" Isabela throws her hands at the puncture wound on Fenris' arm. "Staying together just puts a giant target on our backs."
"She's right." Fenris chimes in. White nails turns red as he picks at the dead skin around the wound. Daisy lets out a hiss. The other elf physically leans away from Fenris as she watches.
"We can't! Not while Hawke is recovering." Aveline insists. Orana rushing down the stairs behind her. The young elven girl carries a bowl of red stained water, and a dirt covered rag as she runs towards the kitchen. Her every step entirely silent as the group argues. Varric wouldn't have known she was there if he hadn't been looking in that direction. "If anything we'll need all of us to keep those bastards from breaking down her front door!"
His attention is sharply pulled back to the conversation. "Wouldn't Hawke be found faster is we all stay together?" Daisy questions. "If she stays here, she'll definitely be found. We all will." She brushes some sweat off of Orana's face as the smaller elf ties a clean rag around Fenris' arm wound. It's amazing how normal everyone was acting, despite what had just happened to Meredith only hours before.
In spite of Hawke nearly dying.
"I have to return to Starkhaven and take my place within it as well." Sebastian was already at the door. His bow was barely hooked on his back, as if he was ready to draw it at a moment's notice.
Never has his heart felt so broken. Not when Bianca never showed up to run away with him, or when his mother died of her sickness, not even when Bartrand had left him for dead. It feels as if the most powerful muscle in his chest had been thrown under water in the middle of a winter storm, and left there to freeze. The hands tightening around it, every time it attempts to float back up. "You're all going to leave?"
Rivaini bends down and wraps her arms around Varric's shoulders in a hug. With a squeeze, she pulls back. Her hands linger on his cheeks. "Not forever Varric." Isabela promises, and damn it. That sad look in her eyes, the way they droop and mist with tears she'll never let slip, it all tells him that she means it too.
She could mean to bring back every healer in the world and he still wouldn't be able to understand, this. "While Hawke is recovering?"
Isabela pulls back her hand, and looks back at Daisy and Fenris. "She let Anders' escape justice." Sebastian cuts in with.
"Shut up. Choir Boy." Varric forces the nickname out so no one would notice how he said the words through clenched teeth.
"No we should be hunting him down!"
"While Hawke is injured? Are you so stuck up your own pretentious ass that you would abandon her to chase after a mage she let go?"
The former chantry brother shrugs. "I suppose so." With that he huffs, before stomping out of the mansion.
Nails cut into calloused palms. Varric glares at the front door so thoroughly that he knows it would have burnt down if dwarves could have magic. "Varric." Aveline's soft voice is accompanied by steady hands on his shoulders. "I need help with Hawke's injuries."
Gently she guides him to the steps. Before twisting back around and with a voice sterner then he's ever heard, Aveline gives the rest an order. "If the rest of you are staying, clean up, and find a place to rest. I'll have two guards posted outside to protect this place within the hour."
Varric sits in the chair Aveline had pulled over towards Hawke's bed. He sits there, and stares at her. How could she suggest that? Isabela has always preferred plans that involved running, but she's stayed so far. With her gone, Daisy and Fenris would follow. It's not just Hawke that had built up a following of love-sick puppies.
They used to look at her like that. Would they stay if they still did?
A pang strums through his heart. Were they all leaving because Hawke chose him? He holds his head within his hands, folding in on himself.
He sits with his thoughts, stewing on them all for hours. Aveline, and Bethany both come and go. While the conversation downstairs takes high turns and low. At one point Isabela demanded for everyone else to shut the fuck up. He's not the only one whose stress. He knows that. Varric knows he should go downstairs. Make peace with them, and stay on positive terms, but damn it he's not leaving like they are! His heart is too filled with rage for his head to remain in control right now. His tongue will slip in ways it never has before. "Shit!" Varric whispers as if talking to the sheets.
"Messere Tethras, I don't think my bed sheets have done anything to earn such harsh language." Her voice is crack and raspy. She sounds as if she's never had a drop of water to drink in her life. With the way she's put back bottles of wine at Fenris' home before, he could believe that.
Mind racing with a hundred different one liners, and jokes Varric forgoes them all just to stand up and hold her. He gently wraps his arms under her shoulders, and taps the top of his forehead against her own. Hawke bites her lip, and he knows she's holding back a painful hiss. When he goes to let her go, she taps the back of his shoulder blades. Tears threaten to begin pouring out once more as he realizes she's too weak to keep him there by force. "Now, now Varric. There's no need to make a face like that."
"There is when you've lived in Kirkwall for years and you still don't know that serah is for your peers, and messere are for people of higher status then you." He goes tsks a couple of times playfully, still keeping his head against hers.
"You are above me Varric. Quite literally right now. Though we both know that wasn't true the other night." She smirks, and he plants a kiss against her grin. She kisses him back before swearing, "I'm alright, and by the sound downstairs I'm willing to bet everyone else is too."
"For now. Though Sebastian's on thin ice."
"Aw what has the poor chantry prince done now?"
"I'll tell you later." He could already hear Aveline calling down to the others. In a matter of moments her room would be crowded. Thankfully she was only out for a few hours.
Soon the others had joined Varric in crowding around Hawke's bed. He holds her still beneath him, refusing to let anybody see her face. "I always knew you wanted me all to youself, but Varric, you can't expect me to talk to our friends this way."
"Yes I can."
"Don't be stubborn."
"I just want to keep staring into your green eyes. Have to make sure they stay vibrant and healthy. We can't have you suddenly fainting again."
"I didn't faint, they choked me out."
"Uh huh." She fixes him with her classic, 'you really did not just say that, did you?' gaze. He chuckles as he pulls away.
Aveline and Bethany help Hawke sit up. Aveline holds her steady as Bethany stacks up the pillows behind her back. Isabela was leaning against one of the wooden poles at the end of the bed. Her face looking towards the fire instead of at Hawke. Guilt eating at her confidence. Her disposition wasn't enough to keep Varric was noticing Sebastian's distinct absence.
Hawke didn't miss it either. "Where's Sebastian?" Varric grabs her hand. He rubs his thumb over her knuckles. The mirth that had filled the room at her awakening, was gone now. Despite the lit hearth the room still feels cold.
"He," Aveline begins before clenching her fist and biting her tongue.
"He left, Hawke." Isabela cuts in, crossing her arms. She holds herself and finally looks in Hawke's direction. Varric couldn't help but hear that sentence without the pause. He left, Hawke, and he left Hawke were interchangeable at this point. Isabela was informing her either way that Sebastian had abandoned them. That he had abandoned her, his friend. She's already lost to much. How could he do that to her?
"You let Anders go."
"Ah." She says as if that explains it all. It does, but that doesn't make it a good reason. It's not good enough.
"The rest of us," Daisy begins before looking over at Isabela.
Fenris cuts in and finishes for her. "Isabela, Merrill, and I were thinking about sailing away. It would be best to put some space between us and this city. I'd recommend that you plan to leave too Hawke. People will be coming here for you." Ever a voice of pessimistic reasoning. Fenris' problem is he never had enough faith. Too bad Sebastian was blinded by his amount.
Hawke hides all of her pain behind her usual, arrogant smile. The one they're all used to seeing on her face It's the expression Hawke always defaults too. When she's winning a fight, or about to start one. When she has a good hand, and a bad hand in wicked grace. It's the same smile she had on her face a week after Leandra's death when she started taking on jobs again and didn't want anyone to be concerned.
It always fools the others but Varric knows better. No one goes through so much, and still smiles the same on the other side. He's seen that smile when they first met. Has seen it change bit by bit with every bad thing that happened to them. Eyes aged past their years are the only ones to notice the way the edges of her brows dip just a little to low. Her lips quiver just a tiny bit within the corners where they meet her cheeks. Hawke is devastated.
Varric bites his tongue as the conversation goes on. Hawke asks questions. She's forming a plan. Several plans in fact. All ways they can keep in contact with each other. If they end up in danger how will they let the others know. When will they meet back up again. All the sorts of things he should be listening to keenly. Later he'll pay attention as Aveline relays it all back to him, but for now he's too stuck in his head.
Eventually Bethany suggest they all give Hawke a break. Of course Varric hangs back as the others leave. He mouths a simple thank you too Bethany. She smiles in return. Then she ducks her head and steps out. Careful when closing the door behind her.
With a squeeze of Hawke's hand, Varric turns to look at her. She was still wearing that smile. "It's not your fault Hawke." He presses her hand to his lips, as if her fingers were a small flame he needed to feed oxygen to. That tough walls of her cracks under his gentle care. The tears burst forth faster then she could cry out. Quietly, she shakes and cries. Her pain silent, as she always keeps it.
He lets go of her hand in favor of sitting next to her on the bed and cradling her head in his shoulder. "The city is burning Varric!" She whispers into him. The shoulder that has become her resting place, covered in tears and snot. That's better then blood. He much prefers her being honest then trying to hide it all.
"That's not your fault Hawke." It's his if it's anyone's. Varric will choose to keep believing that it's no one's at all. Otherwise he'll have to see his friend in a different light. A light he's just not ready to face yet. "And I'm going to make sure everyone knows it."
She forms words in-between the hiccups. "What do you mean Varric?"
Varric pats her back four times, before rubbing it in a circle twice, then he returns to the patting. The cycle continues. "I'm going to do what I do best."
She laughs, before she can even stop making her own joke. "Annoy all the drunks into paying you to shut up?"
"Something like that." She pulls away to cup his cheek. Dirt smudges across his skin. "I'm going to write until everyone listens."
"Oh, is that all?" She rolls her eyes. He catches her lips with his own. Old cuts and new rub against each other as they kiss. When Hawke pulls back she's wearing her real smile.
"Yep that's all." He slides out of her arms. With his sore arms, he drags the chair over towards the desk. "You'll rest right there, and I'll sit here, writing."
"Ah will I get a little bell to ring when I need my bandages training, or food brought to me."
"Hawke how could you treat Orana that way?" He shoots her a smirk from over his shoulder. "We'll get you a gong so Aveline can come running."
"If you start ringing a gong, I won't post guards outside your home." Aveline declares as she barges back in. A glass of water in her hand. "I brought this. Your voice sounds like shit."
"Thanks Aveline." Hawke's fingers fidget as she grasps the water. Varric and Aveline share a look. She was just as worried about Hawke as he was. Varric gestures casually towards the door. Aveline sadly averts her gaze.
That's not a good sign. "What's going on?"
Aveline runs a hand through her uneven hair. Should he offer to cut the rest of it for her? "Sebastian is gone. He left with a group of templars from the city. Bethany's going to be staying, but Isabela, Fenris, and Merrill will be gone by the end of the week. As soon as Isabela can get her ship out of the docks without having to worry about it being rammed by fleeing citizens in a panic."
Hawke coughs back into her cup. Varric jumps up, reading to run back to her, only for Aveline to beat him to the punch. "She might have to wait longer then a week."
"Well that gives me some time to interview them?" Varric adds with a smile. Hawke grins back. Aveline's face was one of perfect confusion. Her new haircut fits the expression.
"Varric's writing a book." Hawke hands her cup back over to Aveline.
"I'm writing the document that will save our asses, and maybe Kirkwall too." he adds with a shrug. "If we can get our story straight. Then others will read and believe it."
"So you're going to lie?" Aveline's face sets in a look of disappointment.
With a shake of his head Varric pushes himself away from his desk. "It's not a lie. Everything in the book will be what happened. With a few tweaks here and there when it comes to dialogue." He shoots Aveline a wink. "I've a great memory but it's not a steel trap."
Aveline rests a hand on his shoulder. "Just be careful." She removes it to give Hawke a hug. "I have to go take care of my guards. I'll come back when I can."
Hawke lays her head against the other woman's shoulder. "Thank you Aveline." Aveline lets Hawke go slowly. Her fingers keep opening up just to tighten again around her old friend's shoulder. Torn between her loyalties. Varric understands that feeling well. She looks back one last time in the doorway. Regret passes across her face.
Sometimes it was easy for Varric to forget that Aveline has lost a lot as well.
With a frown Hawke twists her hands in her lap. Varric rests his own on top of hers. Time passes by in silence as he hangs onto her. Morning light begins to filter in from the windows. A new day. The first day of the rest of their lives. "What are you going to say about Sebastian and Anders?"
"What is there to say?" He didn't want to have this conversation yet.
"Everything. I know you didn't always get along with Sebastian but he has his reasons for leaving." That was a bridge he wanted to cross another day. From the look on her face, she wasn't about to let him. Fine. He'll make his stand.
"And threatening our entire home. My connections say he's already planning to rebuild an army once he gets back."
"Varric-"
"Anders stuck by his convictions. Sebastian is a hypocrite who has spent the better half of the last three years trying to tell me that I need to forgive Bartrand for everything he did to us, only for him to turn on his heels faster then Bianca can fire a shot."
"Ooh I've never heard you insult Bianca before." His heart falls. Bitterness gnaws away at his anger.
"I'm not. That's just how fast Sebastian turned traitor."
"Varric I know you're upset, but please." Hawke squeezes his hand tenderly within her own. "I'm imploring you."
"You're imploring me." He lets out a little chuckle, shifting over to lean against her least injured arm. "What do you think that means?"
"It's a longer word for begging."
"By two letters." Varric agrees placing a kiss against her bare skin. The intact skin around the blue bruise turns pink as his lips pull away. "It means I can't say no."
"How lucky they are that our local propagandist would do anything for me."
"Soo-oo-oo lucky." Varric agrees kissing her arm in between the vowels.
Aeryn Hawke lifts his face up by his chin. Her grin sends his heart flying. She's alive. His shoulders lose some of the tension they've been carrying for hours now. Until this moment he was scared that she would waste away. If his eyes left her, or stayed on her for too long caused his fear to blossom. Irrationally his mind had truly believe she would turn into ash under or away from his gaze. Varric sits straighter beside her. He buries his head within her chest. "I was so scared I would lose you."
In later versions of the story Varric would change this scene. He would say Sebastian left them right after Anders' freedom was granted. That he was so fueled by the same blind rage he used to speak out against he would become the monster who planned to attack Kirkwall the moment he returned home. The squeaky clean chantry man, sitting alone on his throne, stewing in anger. At first he would keep Hawke's wounds in. Then he would take it out. If it got out that Hawke was wounded, seriously wounded, at any given time he would seem less invincible. More vulnerable to attack. There's enough people who want him dead anyways. So the champion of Kirkwall overcomes every element of danger later. The few times he falls, it's due to an attack on his legs, which were healed quickly by Anders' magic. No one's ever able to get one up on him. To outsmart him. Hawke especially never lies on his bed, slowly bleeding out, in his lonely room, as all their friends makes plans.
No in the book he starts right by his side, Varric writes a better story. One where he's never left wondering if any moment could be Hawke's last. Where the Arishok fight wasn't really a concern, and Sebastian was always a dick he didn't like. Instead of a man he would buttheads with but thought they were actually friends, until the end.
I read the prompt and the idea ran away from me. I hope you enjoy this treat!
If you like my work follow me on Tumblr
and watch my writing streams on twitch tigereyes45