So so so sorry for the wait! Life got really busy and somehow months flew by before I knew it D:
Disclaimer: BioWare own everything! I'm just playing in their dragon and darkspawn-filled sandbox 8)
A barely audible thumping was coming from the front door.
"Do hear that?" Bethany asked her elder sister who shook her head and started to suggest it was a fox looking for a little mage to snack on until she silenced Hawke with a hand over the mouth. Bethany tilted her head to the side listening intently for the noise to start again. She made her way to the door opening it, when she didn't see anything on the other side a sigh left her lips. She was just about to turn on her heal when something wet and grimy grasped her ankles.
The small shriek she made had Hawke running to the door to see what was wrong. The eldest mages' golden eyes fell on the figure sprawled out on their doorstep. Covered in blood, mud, and bits of the Wilds caught in its hair. The air wheezed heavily in and out of its lungs. The thing lifted their head, ocean blue eyes looked up at them through mattered sodden black bangs.
Both girls gasped: "Carver!?"
He groaned in response before letting his head slap back against the stone between Bethany's feet.
Tears were fast pooling in Bethany's eyes at the sight of her twin. "Maker!" she gasped, hands covering her mouth. Hawke summoned a healing light and directing her hands over the battered armour covering his upper back "W-What happened?"
Hawke's magic warmed his frozen bones and he could feel some of the pain start to ebb away. They needed to move out right now, wounded or not. He shrugged her hands away. "We don't… have…. time" He rasped out, between heavy breaths, reaching for the door frame and heaving himself to his feet and lent against for support. "We need to leave..."
"You are in no condition to travel brother," Hawke told him, and put a hand out to continue healing him. Her whiskey-golden eyes filled with concern, "let us heal you first"
Carver caught her wrist and shook his head, "We NEED to leave" he repeated, lowering his voice trying to get across how urgent it was that she listened to him for once. "Now!"
The urgency in his voice sent a chill down the female twins spine "You go get mother." Bethany said to Hawke before she opened her mouth to argue or make a move to pin their wounded brother to wall with a crushing prism. "Grab all the injury kits and Lyrium potions from the bathroom." She instructed "I will pack our clothes and gather what food we have."
Hawke looked between the twins, surprised at how the younger mage had pulled herself together and the look of torment and urgency on Carver's face that made her blood run cold. She nodded and disappeared down the hall. Hawke threw a silent 'thank you' to the Maker for bringing him home - as much as they got on each other's last nerve she still loved him to pieces and would do anything within her power to keep her baby brother safe.
Carver stumbled his way to their bedroom keeping a hand on the wall for balance as he followed behind his twin. He stopped abruptly in the doorway, panic clawing at him when he realized Leto wasn't in the house or else he would have been greeted with a hug and the elf fussing over the gash on his head.
"Where…. where's Leto?" he asked, his voice a ghost of what it normally was his eyes scanning the room frantically in hopes the elf was hiding somewhere in the small room and was going to spring out and surprise him.
That small bit of hope was crushed when his twin hung her head and said quietly; "…Gone-"
That one word hurt more than his dislocated shoulder, broken rib and the lacerations that covered him combined.
…Gone… He didn't hear the words she said after that instantly jumping to the conclusion that that meant he was… dead. The power of his ring forgotten; Leto's heartbeat inside the red gemstone inaudible over Carvers' own hammering heart, the gears of his mind falling off their hinges and crashing about inside his skull. What words could she say to a make the announcement of Leto's death less painful?
Why did so many people he cared for have to die today? Alistair was probably ambushed and killed in the tower. Anders surely wouldn't have survived long after he decided to face the large group of Darkspawn alone so he could get to my family and Leto… Fuck! Why did you have to leave me too?!
The weight of all his brothers-in-arms, friends and lover's life felt as if it were crushing him. Carver struggled to get air into his lungs, hyperventilating as he staggered backwards until he collided with the opposing wall repeating the word 'No' and shaking his head in disbelief. His heart constricted painfully in his chest, he dropped to his knees he let rip a tortured howl of anguish "NOOO!"
Bethany put her hands over her ears, Carvers pained call for his missing lover was like a razor sharp dagger tearing into her soul.
She knew her brother loved him, he had harboured the emotion for years before he summoned the courage to take the leap and kiss the elf. But she had no idea her brother cared for him on this level. He must love that elf with every fibre of his being to react like that when Leto is only missing…. He must not have heard her explain what had happened two months ago. Leto had been captured by a ring of slavers from Tevinter. She thought the elf would have slain them all easily – he was/is one of the best she'd seen with a two-handed sword but there was a powerful mage that locked him to the ground with a Crushing Prism while the slavers cuffed him and tossed him into the back of the cart full of elves they had taken from the surrounding villages.
Hawke and Leandra bolted into the hallway, the mother freezing and putting her hands over her mouth at the sight of their strong warrior shaking with his effort to control his breathing and keep the flood gates behind his eyes closed.
The sisters locked eyes and the elder Hawke instantly understood. "Leto…." She concluded, pinching her eyes with her thumb and forefinger. Hawke knew the elf was like a brother to him for years but she was clueless to the extent of the relationship between the two boys that had been going on under her nose for the last year.
Carver looked up at her when he heard the name of his elf.
Hawke looked down at him and her heart broke when she saw the two tears ploughing a path through the blood and dirt that clung to his face.