[ AN: Scene takes place about mid-way through Act 2. At this point, Hawke has flirted with Fenris fairly extensively, has slept with Isabela once just for fun, and most recently, had a rather disasterous one night stand with Anders. ]

"I slept with Anders," Hawke said, staring at the bottom of her mug of cheap ale.

The statement was out of the blue, nothing to prompt it, but Hawke had learned that there wasn't really ever a good moment to bring up topics like this. Better to just get it out into the open all at once. Perhaps the awkwardness of the subject was a sign that she shouldn't have talked about it at all, but she'd found she was having trouble processing this one on her own.

She could almost feel waves of interested surprise coming from Isabela beside her. "I think you need to run that one by me again, sweetheart. I must have misheard, because it sounded like you said you slept with mage boy."

Hawke took a drink. The swill tasted like dirt, just as it had the last twenty times she'd picked the cup up, but she kept drinking it for some reason. Perhaps she was hoping it would stop tasting terrible if it got her drunk enough.

"It… just kind of happened." That was a lie, Hawke knew. Yes, Anders' had been sudden, but she'd had hours between his offer and actually letting him into the estate. It wasn't like she'd gotten caught up in the moment without having time to think.

Isabela leaned back. "Damn, you just lost me five silver. Varric's going to be insufferable when I pay up."

Hawke frowned. "You and Varric had a bet going on who I was going to sleep with?"

"Girl's got to make coin where she can," Isabela said, unashamed. "Or, lose it in this case, I guess. Anders, really? I could have sworn you had your eyes on the elf instead."

"I did," Hawke said. "I do, I guess. I mean, I like Fenris fine, but now I'm worried I might have messed this up."

Isabela laughed. "Going after both at the same time? Now that's just asking for trouble. Then again, if anyone were going to pull it off, it'd be you. You might actually be able be able to handle both of them at the same time if you catch my meaning. That'd be a threesome for the ages. Foursome if you count Justice, I guess."

"I'm not too proud to admit I haven't thought about it," Hawke said. "But Anders was… a mistake. That's the only way to describe it. A terrible idea from start to finish."

Isabela gave her a sympathetic wince. "That bad, huh? What happened? I thought the two of you hated each other. The only person he bickers with more is Fenris."

"I mean it wasn't that. That part was fine." She shook her head, not wanting to get into the details. "It was afterward."

"This sounds like there's a story attached to it." The pirate waved for the bartender in the Hanged Man, ordering the two of them another round.

Hawke wasn't sure if the new drink was a good thing or bad thing. "It started that afternoon, I suppose. I walked in on him writing on that manifesto of his, and we started fighting, like usual. 'Why don't you want to help your fellow mages, Hawke?' 'Be a better person, Hawke.' 'I'll show you I'm right, even if I have to fill every blank page of paper in Thedas with my boring arguments, Hawke.'"

"Don't tell me he tried to get you to read it?"

"No, he didn't, but just being on that topic means that in no time we're shouting at one another and out of the blue he starts talking about how he can't stop thinking about me, and how he can't decide whether or not he wants to kill me or kiss me, half the time. Things got heated… in more ways than one, and then we're kissing in the middle of an argument, and then we're back at the Hawke estate and it just kind of… happened."

"But something happened afterward?" Isabela prompted.

"He got… weird," Hawke said, feeling awkward all over again. "I kind of got the sense that something was up beforehand, but as soon as it was over, he went all soft on me. Started talking about how he's never loved anyone before and that it's a Circle rule he's breaking with me, and then he… said it."

"It?"

Hawke gave her an insistent look. "It. Three words. Those three words."

Isabela's eyes went wide. "Oh."

"Yeah. Yeah." Hawke set her mug down with an emphatic thud. "Honestly, what in the Maker's name was he thinking? The two of us, together? It's a terrible idea! We'd kill half of Kirkwall if we didn't end up killing each other first! How could he possibly think we'd ever be good together? This was supposed to physical thing. 'I hate you, you hate me, but you seem like you'd be fun to mess with in bed, so let's do it.' Nothing more than that! He's an idiot for thinking otherwise!"

"So," Isabela said slowly, "what did you do? After he… confessed?"

Hawke suppressed a grimace. She wasn't exactly proud of the way she'd handled the situation, but she was long practiced in playing off her mistakes as intentional choices. "I… said I thought it would be better if he left. Obviously he wanted something that was never going to happen, and I thought it was a good idea for him to go."

Isabela blinked. "Hold a moment. The man told you that he loved you, right after sex, and you literally kicked him out to the streets?"

"When you say it like that…"

"Darling, I don't think there's a way you can say it that doesn't make you come across as a heartless bitch." Isabela's tone was as friendly and casual as ever, despite her choice of words. "And they say I'm bad with relationships. Perhaps I ought to spend more time with you, Hawke. You'll make me look good."

Hawke shot Isabela an angry look. "Wait. Are you taking his side?"

"I'm not taking sides at all. I'm just saying it's not really an ideal situation. And you've got to admit that you didn't handle this well at all, sweetheart."

"It was his fault!" Hawke insisted. "He got these ideas in his head that he shouldn't have because they're terrible ideas. He tried to change the game on me, he tried to make this something it wasn't, something it shouldn't be, obviously! It isn't my fault he misunderstood what our relationship was supposed to be!"

"Look, Hawke," Isabela said, "you can talk all you want about how caught off guard you were, but I'm not buying it. You and I both know what kind of a person Anders is. When he does something, he commits, puts everything he has into it. It's why he cares about those patients of his in Darktown, even though they probably literally pay him with scraps of garbage. It's why he spends all his time writing that manifesto for the mages. It's why he keeps following you around, even though you drive him mad. He's all in on everything he does, and while we might both think he's crazy for it, the truth is we at least know that he does it.

"Men are weak. They're not like you and me, Hawke. I'm just fine going for a kiss and a tumble one night and not needing it to mean anything. Sounds like my kind of fun, actually, especially with someone like you. But the guys? Oh they talk a tough game, but on the inside, they're all softies, to a man. You try to play fast and loose with them and someone's going to get hurt."

Hawke frowned, sipping at her bad ale as she listened. "What are you saying? That I should have seen this coming or something?"

"I'm saying I know you're not stupid enough not to have seen this coming."

The mage pursed her lips, but she wasn't quite willing to lie point blank and say that Isabela was wrong. She'd known how Anders felt, especially after his admission in the clinic. Perhaps she'd thought if she just ignored if for long enough, his feelings would go away.

"So what now?" Hawke asked. "You think I was wrong?"

Isabela shrugged. "I'm a pirate. We don't deal much in 'right and wrong.' I think you might owe him an apology, though."

Leaning back on the barstool, Hawke sighed. "You're probably right, much as I hate to admit it. Do you know how much I hate apologizing?"

"I can guess," Isabela said with a smile. She stood up, stretching. "And I've caught Fenris looking at you the same way, sweetheart, and don't try to deny that you like him for more than that pretty-patterned body of his. If you want my advice? Don't make the same mistake twice, Hawke."

Isabela grinned as she started to walk off, throwing a wink over her shoulder. "Even if it means you and I probably ought to stop having our fun. I will miss it, but it's for the best. Someone's got to keep you in line!"