Thanks for reading little birds, hope you enjoy! Let's have a merry band of misfits getting drunk, shall we? Perhaps it will have interesting side-effects ;) Additional translations in the end notes.

After two full weeks in the Western Approach, they ventured back to Skyhold. With their actions there, a lot of eyes were now on them and a raven informed them they had finally been invited to the Winter Palace. And not by anyone. By the Grand Duke Gaspard de Châlons. They had their way in. They had preparations to make, now more than ever. When they reached Skyhold, they had been gone for a month and a half.

Mahariel had a lot to think about. Celene, Gaspard, Briala. Protecting the Empress or upsetting the balance of powers…Three potential allies with their own strengths and weaknesses. More than that, she had both the Inquisitor and the Banal'ras arguing. Briala was her ally. She had been for years. She could not and shall not betray her. Yet, the city elf was not as discreet as she used to be. She had a target on her, one the Inquisitor could not ignore. She had been careless, and Mahariel needed to figure a way around this issue, without the Inquisition appearing too much biased. That would not serve the elven cause.

However, she decided that the reports could wait few days. The situation was not going to solve itself in one afternoon, and she wanted to check with her inner circle, considering she had barely been in Skyhold in the last three months.

Cassandra required her assistance to look for her fellow seekers. Caer Oswin was not that far. They could find time to venture and come back in a week with the right mounts. They needed to wait for Stroud to come back from his investigations to progress with the Grey Warden situation anyway.

Sera asked her for troops, but only to march through Verchiel…Well simple enough, Cullen will take care of that.

She gave some Grey Warden stuffs she found in the Western Approach to Blackwall who seemed happy with her discoveries.

However, she was a bit worried about Varric. Even if they kept destroying red lyrium, it did not seem to put his guilt at ease.

Hawke…Well Hawke was Hawke. No matter how it began, the both of them always ended up laughing loudly around a tankard and it was good. She really bounded with the Champion, for the greatest pleasure of their dear dwarf who eventually joined them in discussions and laughter at some point.

At least, Cole was easy to make happy. Even if he was not here, he knew the good deeds she made on the road and was satisfied that she helped.

She played chests with the commander and – oh miracle! - Talked with him about something which was not inquisition-related. It was good to see the man take a break.

Dorian seemed as self-satisfied as always. They discussed magic a bit but the conversation soon turned to gossip. Leliana even joined them at some point. The man knew how to spend a good time and they were always laughing. The spymaster had always the best-kept secrets and a bunch of stories, about the Blight, about her time as a bard and as the Left Hand. It was nice to see her laugh. Mahariel could tell she was still way more upset about the Conclave than she was letting see.

She had a quick more formal chat with Vivienne but, considering she spent the last month and a half with the Lady, there was not as much catching up to do.

She tried a less formal talk with Josephine but it eventually failed gloriously.

She crossed path with Solas. Despite her best effort not to think of the apostate, she gave him a lot of thoughts during her time away. Again. She had finally half admitted to herself it was no casual flirt. But she did not know if he knew it or - more important - felt it. The man was careful with his words, she had a hard time believing he would call her vhenan if there was nothing…The way their magic reacted around each clearly did not suggest there was nothing…But then, why did he always back off – or was she the one to back off? And why did it bother her, didn't she want him to back off? Evanuris ghilana em, hell no, I don't want him to. But I'm a damn coward afraid of what happens if he does not. Great, now I'm a coward…But if I stop being a coward I… - ARRRH FENEDHIS - You do realize there is a talk to have you idiot? Or at least something to do, or…Oh crap.

She spent some time with Bull and the Chargers in the early afternoon and the Qunari offered her to come back to the Tavern on the evening with the others.

She did as suggested and joined Hawke, Varric, Dorian, Bull and Sera. Barely arrived, she bottomed three tankards in a row - after discussing Orlesian fashion with Vivienne and Josephine, she needed more than one. And there were some thoughts she wanted to drown under alcohol. Varric teased.

"Calm down, Grey! What would they say if the great Herald ended up puking in a corner?" She smirked.

"Holy water?" Cheery laughter resounded.

"Nice said Ariel! Varric let her be, we just know a white-haired elf cannot be talk out of drinking!" Hawke intervened. A mischievous sparkle jumped in her eyes. "Speaking of which, I just need to find you Agreggio, Ariel, I bet you'll love it!" Mahariel raised an eyebrow, amused. She knew perfectly this wine and she did like it, but what exactly –

"I would be careful Grey, if she goes down this path, she will soon jump on you too!" Hawke put a hand on her heart with a fake offended face.

"Me? But I am the embodiment of innocence, how dare you, dwarf!"

"And that's why you hungrily licked your lips thinking of this elf of yours." Pointed out Dorian with a knowing smile.

"Sparkler is right, Elie, you are dribbling!" They all turned to the dwarf questioningly.

"Elie?" Varric beamed with excitation.

"NO! None of you know the glorious full name of the Champion?! True enough, I never wrote it down, I was too afraid she would kill me! Maker, you don't know the troubles I went through to learn it, but totally worth it!" He smirked evilly at Hawke who was already standing, decided to put a hand on his mouth.

"Don't even think of it, dwarf!" But he stood too and they began a ridiculous pursuit around the table.

"I introduce you the Champion of Kirkwall, Lady –"

"OH LOOK VENATORIS - Dammit your line does not work out of context, Ariel!"

"Elanor Iris Avina Hawke!" The group literally spat their drink. She sighed and mumbled.

"Someone thought far too long about my name…"

"NO!"

"That's a hell of a name!"

"I WILL TURN INTO A DRAGON AND EAT YOU, DWARF!"

"C'mon 'tis not that bad…Elie is cute…Oh or Ivy?"

"Don't you dare! Arrrh you know what, I grant Elie but the first who tells anyone my full name –"

"Let me guess, dragon and eat? Duly noted, Firebreath." Interrupted the herald. Hawke's eyes widened and she spun to Varric, resuming her chase.

"See, everyone can think of a nickname for me except you!"

"Not that again…I gave you a nickname!" Hawke paused dramatically, a hand on her heart and fake sobbed.

"And then you took it back to give it to someone else."

"C'mon ladies, less talk more booze!" Bull's voice resounded. "Boss is the skinniest of you all and she is the only one to keep up!" Mahariel growled.

"I killed a dragon, I won't be defeated by a bottle."

"We killed two dragons." corrected Hawke. They smiled knowingly and hit a high-five. Hawke took back her seat next to Mahariel and Varric his, face to her.

"AHAH nice said Boss! Taarsidath-an halsaam!" She growled again with a wince.

"I seriously wish I did not understand Qunlat sometimes." They laughed once more. She spun dramatically to Varric. "So you gave her nickname to someone else? How dare you!" He smirked, that is going to be fun.

"What can I say, he deserved it more than her." Hawke looked at him fake offended and he winked. Awww right, HE has my nickname. She turned with puppy eyes to Mahariel.

"You heard him, he likes him more than me."

"Awww. See what you do Varric! This is a shame, who stole your nickname, sweetheart? I am going to kick his stupid ass." Hawke and Varric tried to contain their laughter. Bet he would like it.

"No, but Varric is probably right, after all, he is taller than me and –"

"So, I will put him on his knees, what else?" Maker this is too good. She had a hard time not bursting into laughter.

"He…is more gifted with words than I."

"He will be backed into a corner." Dorian leaned towards Varric questioningly and kept his voice low.

"Can I ask what Hawke is doing?" Varric managed to whisper back.

"You'll see Sparkler, but believe me, this is going to be good."

"He has confidence." Mahariel laughed evilly.

"I am the Inquisitor, I can make him beg and kiss my ass. Not as much pride after that." Varric turned crimson as he held on his laughter. He finally intervened.

"So, you back him into a corner, you put him on his knees, you make him beg and kiss your ass. Then…?"

"I don't know, thoughts?" She was obviously the only one not noticing where this little list was going and, even if they were not yet sure why, the others proposed suggestively.

"You can pour something on him!"

"Lick the sweat off of you after a hard day of work!"

"…Put him on hard work so his skin grows horny!"

"yeah, niiice. Make it hard and horny, Boss!" Hawke was as red as Varric as Mahariel nodded, considering the ideas. Elie resumed.

"back him into a corner, put him on his knees, make it hard and horny, make him beg, pour something, lick you and kiss your ass. Sounds good to you?"

"Hell yeah, he does not know what is awaiting him." Hell, you're right. They looked at her with mirth. Dorian, eager for the fall of this masquerade, asked.

"Care to know who we are talking about?" His head spun to Hawke and Varric.

"Yeah, who stole your nickname?" Asked Sera. Hawke could not take it anymore, the laughter burst as she said.

"My nickname was Chuckles." Mahariel spat her ale once again. Dorian, hilarious, repeated the whole thing.

"back him into a corner, put him on his knees, make it hard and horny, make him beg, pour something, lick you and kiss your ass…Busy session it is." She went through every shade of red imaginable as she finally realized what she had been saying.

"Oh creators…" She said lamely.

"No, elven glory!" Corrected Sera. "Time to find the man, innit?" Mahariel eyes widened with horror. They were not actually going to repeat this?! Hawke laughed and tapped her shoulder.

"Do not worry, Ariel, none of us would dare take this out of context."

They remained there for a long time, going merrier and merrier as the alcohol did its job. Dorian, Sera and Varric had slowed down after shots of Antivan liquor while Hawke, Mahariel and Bull were still on. When Hawke finally stepped back, Bull crashed proudly his fist on the table, making it shacking.

"Ah you may have elven ears but this is a qunari liver, Boss! C'mon you deserve a reward, Basalit-an!"

Mahariel, as buzzed as she was, did not question. She stumbled as she stood. Hopefully, Dorian came to her rescue. They all followed Bull outside. The Qunari extracted a package from a barrel and knocked it to her. She frowned slightly, trying to read the note on it. Her eyes finally widened.

"Where did you get this?!" He winked.

"Ben-Hassrath cache."

"What is it?" asked Dorian.

"This is…From a friend." Answered simply Mahariel, reading Isskari's note. Bull tapped her shoulder.

"Put it on, basalit-an!" She looked at the fabric, eyes narrowed, head moving without her consent. Hawke chuckled.

"I think she might need help. Sera –" She spotted the sudden mischief in the elf's eyes. "Okay maybe not. Dorian, come!"

Sera protested with a pout before laughing cheerily as the others. The antaam-saar was harder to put on than they thought. They succeeded after several attempts. It was the same model she used to wear, with the same color. Except that now, she had no warpaint on. Hawke commented.

"Wow, that's a nice ink in your back!" Mahariel grunted.

"Not hearing this story tonight." Hawke smirked.

"Let me guess, not proud of this one?"

"Depends of when you ask." Mahariel answered, forcing a smile on her face. Hawke appraised a little longer the black lines. They were definitely of elven style but the pattern did not ring any bell. She had some memories of Merrill explaining the different vallaslin and symbols and yet…The lines were doing something different, unknown. On the bottom part of the tatoo, there were three crossing lines framed by curving ones, kind of reminding of a canine head. Hawke did not insist and shrugged, too drunk to keep her focus. Dorian asked.

"Why would someone send you this?" Mahariel shrugged.

"Must have heard of Haven. 'Tis Qunari way of saying happy to know you are alive. Anyway, happy to have one of these again!" Hawke raised an eyebrow.

"Having Qunari friends?"

"Have friends everywhere, Champion."

They made their way back to the others. Bull raised his tankard with a wink.

"That's a light armor as I like! Taarsidath-an halsaam!" He said once more, leading to a deadly glance of Mahariel…which soon turned into a laughter. Well, being drunk, all that. Sera looked at her with startled eyes. She had seen her wearing that in Haven but did not realize it was a Qunari light armor.

"Your women are really dressed like that?"

"Think of moving to Par Vollen, Buttercup?" teased Varric. She laughed.

"Would be worth it, innit?" Mischief popped in her eyes and she giggled evilly. "We got to show this to elven glory! I bet he missed this armor! Finally, a way to shut him up, this is going to be priceless!" It took more time than expected for Mahariel to understand who she was talking about. Her eyes widened.

"NO! No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

"That's it, eight no? She is drunk, I was expected twice that." Dorian teased with a smirk. They all burst into laughter, Mahariel included, before she resumed.

"I'm not joking! Not happening!" I'm drunk, no way I see HIM now, antaam-saar or not.

"Cutie, you think you can prevent us from doing it? In your current condition?" joked Dorian. Considering she could barely stood, and her head was spinning, he had a point.

"I can still kill you tomorrow!"

"Sounds worth it to me!" Declared Varric. They began to come closer, grinning evilly. Crap…Oh yay, magic! She tried to send a wave of energy to push them away. She ended up falling heavily on her butt. She grunted.

"Okay, drunk magic, bad idea." A voice suddenly resounded.

"What the hell is – Inquisitor?!" The incomer's eyes widened as she raised an eyebrow of disbelief. Six heads spun towards her.

"Cassie! Help me, I'm surrounded!" The second eyebrow joined the first one.

"Cassie? Maker, how much did she dri –"

She interrupted herself and considered the armor with rolling eyes. They really thought being rid of this was one of the rare good point of Haven. Josephine was not going to be happy with the Inquisitor being back to wearing such outfiy.

"ANTAAAAAAAM-SAAAAAAR!" A very merry Qunari growled loudly.

"Maker's breath, are you all drunk?! Do you even realize this is the middle of the night?!"

Six heads spun to look at the sky and soon laughs resounded again. That answers both questions. Sera helped Mahariel up as the seeker sighed. Their row had very likely woken up half of Skyhold. If anyone out of the inner circle was to see the Inquisitor like this…Josephine was going to kill them all. The group apparently found a new source of interest and raised their mugs, laughing and chatting – more like babbling actually – loudly. She saw a discreet shadow coming towards them.

Solas crossed a moon radius and took advantage of the light to invite the Seeker to remain quiet about his presence. She conformed, considering she had herself no plan to put an end to this. When he was close enough, he waved his hand. They fall asleep on the ground. All except for Mahariel, Dorian and Hawke, their magic and spiritual resistance apparently still somehow efficient.

He had actually sneak up that close in order to catch Mahariel before she crashed on the ground. So, when she turned back in a jump, she found herself awkwardly close to him. Or at least, what her sober-self would consider awkwardly close. Her drunk-self seemed quite comfortable with it. The reflex of turning back that quickly was ill-considered in her current state and she staggered horribly. He stabilized her gently, hands catching her waist. He focused on her face, preventing as much as he was able his eyes to linger or his mind to think of her bare skin under his fingers. He did not examine the inks taking her whole back while he made his way closer, forcing himself to focus his attention elsewhere. Kind of stabilized, she giggled with a fake chastising tone.

"Do not sneak on me, lethallin!" She turned to Dorian and Hawke. "Sober mage O, drunk mages 1!" They welcomed the score with happy screams and high-fives. They all instantly stumbled afterwards. Cassandra rolled her eyes and caught Dorian with one hand, Hawke with the other before they fall. Solas stabilize Mahariel once more, in a gentler way than the seeker.

"At least, there are only three left…Can you put them to bed while I deal with the others, Solas?" He was about to nod but Hawke intervened, convinced to be way fresher than the rest of them.

"Don't worry Cassie, I have a way to quicken it!"

This is not becoming a thing. Cassandra was about to protest but the Champion raised her hand with the intent to lift a sleepy Varric from the ground. Instead, a fireball went towards Mahariel and Solas. She nothing but fell in his arms – or he drew her in, he wasn't sure – to avoid it. They could have think she did it on purpose if she did not freeze the ground under Cassandra and her at the very same time. They both fell heavily.

"Oops..." It took all of Cassandra's self-control not to rip her head off. She shouted angrily.

"NO DRUNK MAGIC CHAMPION! AND IT APPLIES TO YOU TWO AS WELL!"

Mahariel huddled against his chest. Solas felt her warm breath and tremors as she laughed. Her arms were around his neck, his around her bare waist. He tried to keep his mind out of their current closeness. He nodded to Cassandra before looking down at her face. He whispered.

"I cannot move if you stay here, lethallan." She looked up with an enamored glance and whispered back.

"Ar tel'nuvenan vara, vhenan."

His heart skipped a beat and the pace grew suddenly quicker and louder. She is drunk. She does not know what she is saying. But she did. And even without an answer right away, the pace of his heart was enough. She smiled genuinely and leaned even deeper in his chest.

"Teltas em, vhenan." He finally declared in a low voice.

He pulled her away gently, relieved to see Cassandra was busy to yell at Dorian and Hawke, laughing for whatever reason. None of them witnessed the scene. He cleared his throat and asked Hawke and Dorian to follow him. Eventually, the seeker just knocked them out with Bull's tankard, grunting of irritation. They would end up with a hell of a bump but she didn't care. Hopefully – if they could think so – the inquisitor was the drunkest of them all and she didn't need such resort. She was already half-asleep on Solas.

"Just take care of her. The inquisitor cannot be seen like that. If you don't mind, go grab me Cullen on your way. I could use a hand."

Solas nodded. He looked at Mahariel and decided not to wake her. He took her in his arms and carried her. She was ridiculously cute, buried as she was in his chest. He stopped by Cullen's office and knocked. The commander was obviously awake since he opened instantly. His eyes widened and he looked at the Inquisitor with concern. Solas reassured him.

"She is fine even if an unpleasant hangover is to be expected. I am sorry to bother you this late, Commander. The Seeker requires your help to –"

"Take care of the corpses, I bet."

"This is one way to put it."

"I expected as much when the laughs stopped abruptly." After a second he resumed. "Do you need help before I go?" The elf's eyes answered him with perplexity as he raised an eyebrow. He took the hint and babbled. "No, right, of course you can carry her by yourself, you did it after Haven, silly question. I…Will be going then, before Cassandra makes literal corpses of them. Thank you, Solas."

At this hour and despite the row that had been going on, no one was in the main hall. Still, he walked quickly to reach the door of her quarters, afraid a noble would pop up. He went upstairs and put her in bed. He looked at her peaceful face with awe. She was so beautiful…This wonderful woman called him vhenan. Even if she was damn drunk, he could not help but think about the word, the way she embraced him. She would never have done it sober, but did that mean it wasn't sincere? He instinctively cleared her forehead from a rebel strand. She caught his hand gently before it left her cheek. Hum, not so asleep obviously. She spoke in a low voice, eyes half close.

"So, if I recall, you escaped the backfire of a talk. Time to make it up." He frowned slightly, not understanding at all what she was saying, but smiled.

"What do you mean, lethallan?"

"You asked about my vallaslin before I left. An answer for an answer, remember? Your turn. Tell me more about yourself."

"I would be happy to oblige on another day, lethallan. Right now, you need to rest." He was stroking her cheek.

"I thought you were my humble servant?" She teased with feigned disapproval. He chuckled. Well, she wanted to talk and needed to rest…Not as incompatible as one may think. And there, her mind will be clear. He smirked, mischief in his eyes.

"Ma nuvenin, Lady Inquisitor. We shall speak before the morning, you have my word." He waved his hand over her head. Her magic resisted once again, but not so efficiency. She still found time to whisper before falling asleep.

"You won't be staying here, am I wrong?" She was already sleeping when he replied with a sad smile.

"I shall not, indeed." He reluctantly took his hand back. He kissed tenderly the top of her head and stood up, heading downstairs.

(Qunlat) Taarsidath-an halsaam – I will pleasure myself later thinking about it with great respect

Evanuris ghilana em – Creators guide me

Ar tel'nuvenan vara – I don't want to leave (the embrace)

Teltas em – Me neither