"Five hours!" Anders muttered to himself under his breath.
They had been at the Hanged Man for five long hours now, and Varric was still imbibing in the huge tankards of ale they served. "You say something Blondie?" the rather inebriated voice of the dwarf drifted over to him as he made his way back to the table with the latest round.
"I said I don't know how you can fit all of that drink into such a small body" Anders retorted, his voice tinged with exasperation as he placed the new round of drinks down on the rough wooden table and somewhat reluctantly retook his seat.
"Ahhhh" Varric responded letting out a refined belch in the process. "That's a secret only known to dwarves, no cloud heads allowed in that club. So where were we?" he continued as Anders suddenly interrupted.
"You know, I should really be getting back. I'm sure Hawke is already wondering where I am" he said, half rising out of his chair in anticipation of making a fast getaway.
"What? No,you can't leave. We were just getting to the good part of the story. Chapter twenty eight is where all the action takes place!" Varric exclaimed in a somewhat put out voice.
"I don't know. The first twenty seven chapters were so riveting I thought I was going to die from the excitement of it" Anders shot back adding in a rolling eye expression for good measure just in case the dwarf had missed the subtle sarcasm in the statement. The tavern door suddenly opened and the mage turned towards it, hoping for salvation in one form or another, as he watched Isabella enter and stride over to their table.
"This must be the handsome table," she purred at them as she dropped down into an empty chair.
"So how are the ladies doing?" she inquired as she took out a small dagger from her belt and started to add some flourishes to a rather obscene carving on the table that she obviously had already started on a previous visit.
"Bianca's resting upstairs; she had a full days worth of shooting people yesterday," Varric replied, noticing Isabella's metal edged doodling as he shifted his gaze to the tabletop. "That's your drawing? I was admiring it earlier. Very well done, and very accurate too if I might add" he interjected.
"Um, actually Hawke should be expecting me home around now," Anders added to the conversation.
"Yes, Blondie has been doing a bit of shopping today," Varric began as Anders started to glower at him, mentally willing him to stop talking. "He bought a ring for someone special we know," the dwarf continued completely oblivious to the frantic shut up signals the mage was now sending him.
Anders felt the beginnings of a blush start to creep up his face as Isabella instantly stopped carving on the table to fix him with an amused stare. "Really? That's so cute!" the pirate queen managed to get out before she collapsed into a fit of giggles.
Still fiercely glaring at the dwarf, Anders attempted a payback kick under the table, but didn't aim high enough and only succeeded in barking his own knee against the rough underside and spilling a bit of their drinks in the process. That made Isabella erupt into an even louder bout of laughter as Anders bit back a yelp.
"And here I thought my day was going to be boring," Isabella finally forced out as she tried to catch her breath.
"I'm so glad I could help you out with that," Anders replied with mock sincerity as he unobtrusively tried to rub his now smarting knee. "Varric was just going to start in on Chapter twenty-eight of your favorite story," he continued with the beginnings of a mischievous smile starting on his face. "I remember you telling me several times how much you love this particular one," he finished, the smile now fully operational.
Isabella returned it with a seductive smile of her own as she suddenly grabbed the hilt of her recently discarded dagger from the tabletop and casually threw it with perfect aim to sink into the wood back of the mage's chair less than an inch from his right shoulder. "Tell me if that was too much Kitten, I would hate to play too rough with you" she replied as she leaned back in her chair and theatrically threw a kiss in his direction. "Rivaini, you can play rough with me all you want. Bianca won't mind sharing," Varric added from across the table as Anders slid out of his seat and edged towards the door.
"You two have fun then. Varric, don't catch anything I can't cure" he loudly shouted across the bar as he walked out, triumphant in being able to deliver the last gibe as he firmly shut the door behind him.
