A/N: I just wanted to clarify that when I originally uploaded my previous documents, there was supposed to be an extra line break to show the difference in perspective change. But, no matter what I do, it doesn't show that so there may be some confusion when it looks like the perspective of one character switches to another. Going forward in my writing, I hope to make those switches evident so no one is thrown off. Just wanted to throw that out there, just in case!
Weeks went by since that fateful day at the temple, the Inquisition had formed and the people had dubbed the Trevelyan's their savior, their Heralds of Andraste. And Evelyn hated it. She didn't care to be looked at as some instrument of holy intervention, regardless if it had saved their necks, but she was slowly getting used to it day by day.
There was an advantage to there being two Heralds though; while Max took to task meeting with the Chantry in Val Royeax alongside Cassandra, Evelyn worked on recruiting for the Inquisition alongside Hawke. She scoured the Hinterlands looking for ways to stabilize the area and help the refugees, then set out to recruit a Grey Warden named Blackwall to their group before heading out to the Storm Coast.
"We shouldn't be too far off from the coast now, we could make camp here." Evelyn was tired of travelling over the last few weeks, after meeting this mercenary captain, she would waste no time hustling back to Haven as soon as they were able.
"The rain looks like it's letting up finally." Hawke shook the rain from his brown locks and proceeded to unpack their essentials from the horses.
"Conveniently after the fact of riding all day through it…" Evelyn sarcastically huffed to herself as she looked around for firewood to use. The last few weeks on the road with Hawke had been interesting, Evelyn found that he was the only person besides her brother that treated her like herself and not just the 'Herald'.
She would catch his lingering looks and flirtatious comments here and there, but usually just shrugged it off, but lately it had been getting harder to deny Hawke. It wasn't that he was very aggressive, his words and gestures always seemed so perfectly placed as if he knew what he was doing and exactly how to do it. Evelyn knew he was up to something, that much she was sure of.
"Do you ever take that armor off?" Evelyn asked when they later sat at the fire eating their rations.
"Wondering what I look like under all this, are you?" He sent a devilish wink her way, making her blush.
"You wish!" She rolled her eyes and smiled at him, silently wishing the red feeling in her cheeks would go away.
She liked Hawke, but found it hard to trust him. Growing up a noble in Ostwick gave her plenty of experience dealing with suitors that tried charming their way into her bedroom in hopes of an elevated status. She obviously didn't think that was necessarily the case with Hawke, but the lack of knowing what his real intentions were still put her on edge.
"You should smile more, you look beautiful when you do." Hawke spoke softly then as he warmed his hands by the fire.
"As opposed I'm ugly if I don't?" Evelyn bit back with a laugh, deciding she would make it hard for him if he was going to keep pursuing her.
"Ouch, you spit fire out, are you sure you're not a mage?" Hawke feigned a wounded ego with a hand to his heart before winking playfully at her.
"Har har, I don't have a magical bone in my whole body. This hand is the full extent of any abilities I'll ever have." She proceeded to inspect her arrowheads while they had time, making sure the edges were sharpened. "No, I just need my bow at my back and I'm just fine without magic."
"I'll keep in mind how sharp they are if I ever decide to cross you, though I'm not very worried." He said nonchalantly, knowing it would chafe at her own pride.
"HA! Go ahead and keep up that arrogance, see how far that gets you with me, Hawke." They continued their playful banter into the night before they both drifted off to the sound of crackling fire and crickets in the background.
The next morning they packed up their things and it wasn't long before they found the nearest Inquisition camp by the coastline. Hawke was impressed with the physical prowess of the Qunari mercenary they hired, but was immediately put on guard when he told them he was a Ben-Hassrath agent.
"Look, I've had plenty of experience with Qunari before, I'm just saying we should watch him." Hawke had respected the Arishok, but that didn't mean anything when it came down to the fact that the Qunari were who they were and compromise was not something in their vocabulary. Evelyn may have been fooled by Iron Bull's casual attitude, but Hawke wasn't.
"Are you questioning my judgment? He's in charge of a respected company, the Inquisition could use fighters like him." Evelyn crossed her arms stubbornly once they were out of earshot from Bull's group.
"No...not exactly." Hawke stood awkwardly, trying to put his words carefully to not offend her too much, which was a hard task because he usually had an easy time offending women he was attracted to. "I'm just saying I may or may not know better than you when it comes to this particular group of people?" He scrunched his nose uncomfortably waiting for the inevitable protest of indignation.
"Oh, then let me just go tell Cassandra and Leliana they got it all wrong when they put me in charge of recruiting, and they should have the great Champion of Kirkwall do it instead!" Evelyn raised her eyebrow and gave him a pointed look.
"That's rather uncalled for, rubbing that in my face... Lady Trevelyan! " He knew she hated being referred to by her title, which was one of the reasons he was attracted to her. She was nobility, it would be against the 'rules' of the society she grew up in to be associated with someone like him, but he did love to shatter glass ceilings. And she was exactly the same way. That was just one of the reasons he was discovering about Evelyn to be incredibly sexy.
"You're absolutely ridiculous sometimes, Hawke." She begrudgingly rolled her eyes at him before storming off, leaving a smirk on the mage's face.
"Well done, Garrett. Hawke: 1 Evelyn: 0!" He knew she wasn't really mad at him, she just liked to pretend she was.
They continued to play coy games with each other over their trip back to Haven. Hawke had plenty of practice dealing with Aveline, Merrill, and Isabela (she was a particular headache at times) so he was no stranger to mind games with the opposite sex. Slowly she began to drop her guard, if Evelyn hadn't been, she would have already put her foot down for him to stop. And so it went on, Garrett Hawke chipped away at her guard and enjoyed his time with the 'Heraldess' of the Inquisition.