Disclaimer: As always, not my characters or setting.

AN: Aveline reminds me so much of my big sister. I love her to death.

Prompt #9: Undone

They're Everywhere

Finally, the high dragon toppled.

Hawke fell to her knees in a mixture of exhaustion and relief, leaning heavily on her staff. Varric's stories would no doubt place her stabbing the dragon through the eye with the pointy end of her staff by this point, but here in the real world, she was faintly impressed she was even still alive. Her mana was completely drained, as drained as the colors from her vision as her eyes unfocused, and she closed them wearily. She wasn't even aware of drifting off until she heard a clatter and felt the rocky ground of the bottom layer of the Bone Pit against her cheek.

It was only then she registered that the sound of battle wasn't completely over. Steel against flesh and a series of guttural chirping noises drew her attention to the complete opposite side of the dead dragon in front of her.

"Hawke, get your ass over here!" Aveline yelled in between wet slaps of her shield against the scaly hide of nearly-forgotten dragonlings, "This is no time for a nap!"

Hawke scrambled blindly for her staff, finally looking around to find it in a direction she hadn't even thought of. She set it upright, trying to climb it in order to stand again, but failed until Varric was at her side, momentarily holding Bianca away and to the right so he could help her up. Leaning on the dwarf, her chest so close to his face as to be awkward under any other circumstances, they stumbled around the massive dragon corpse to get a full view of Aveline fending off three hungry dragonlings.

A few paces beyond her, though, a body lay unmoving, unable to fend off the spawn of the high dragon showing him unhealthy interest.

"Anders!" Hawke would have screamed his name had her voice not been parched and cracked. She forsook Varric's support, newfound adrenaline pumping through her legs as she half ran, half stumbled to his prone form, barely catching herself from falling with her staff. She couldn't even fire a spell at the two dragonlings attempting to chew on him, but two crossbow bolts singing over her head got their attention.

Good ol' Varric, always thinking ahead.

Hawke skidded to a halt on her knees, tearing the skirt of her already-ruined robes in the process. She didn't have the mana for a revival spell, and it was plain to see he wasn't breathing. Multiple rips and tears in his dusty robes bore evidence to where the dragonlings had tried to savage him, and he was slowly losing blood. His head lolled to the side, mouth slightly open and eyes closed. The staff she'd given him lay a few paces behind, scratched and chewed by lizard teeth, tiny only by comparison to what they could eventually grow into.

Without magic, Hawke didn't know what to do. She'd managed to heal herself and her friends countless times over, but now the fight had exhausted their potions and her mana to the point she was past feeling light-headed. Her head hurt, too, and she suspected the time the dragon's tail had hurled her into a wall had something to do with it. Anders would've known what to do. He was the expert on this sort of thing! He was . . .

Hawke started to hyperventilate.

A loud oath came from behind her, and Aveline was by her side, covered in blood that didn't look like hers, "Maker's mercy, Hawke, revive him already!"

"I-I can't," she managed to choke out, "Mana—" Oh Maker, please! I can't lose it now, I need to think of something! Crying solves nothing!

Lucky for her, Aveline was perfectly calm. "Get his robes open," she ordered. Hawke tried to comply, fumbling with the once so-simple catches on the front of his robes, but failed to undo any of them with the way her hands shook so terribly. She wasn't sure if it was the panic, exhaustion, or head trauma that caused it, but it only made her swear and swallow roughly. Her vision blurred.

Aveline coolly shoved the panicking Hawke out of the way, causing the younger woman's eyes to widen in alarm when she pulled out her own dagger. She quickly put it to use cutting open the unconscious man's robes. "Lay his head down straight and keep his airway open. When I tell you to, take a deep breath, seal your mouth around his, and breathe firmly into it. If we can get him breathing on his own, he'll make it through. Don't quit on me now, Hawke. I'm not losing anyone today."

There was just something about Aveline and her no-nonsense attitude that made Hawke jump to her commands, instantly doing as she was told. Later, when she had time to think about it, Hawke would almost swear the guard captain had some sort of mind control powers of her own. Who needed a blood mage when Captain Vallen was around?

It took several tries before her lanky blonde apostate finally coughed into her mouth, and Hawke swore she tasted blood. She sat back and breathed a sigh of relief as she watched his chest rise and fall again. It was only then she noticed the gleam of rusty metal beneath the tattered remains of his robe and tunic. She moved a bit of the filthy material aside to get a better look and found a badly abused short shirt of chainmail beneath. Some links were rusted through, and a few looked as if they'd been torn apart, probably by little dragon teeth, if the one or two yellowy-white fangs still embedded in it were any indicator.

Her brow furrowed in confusion as she took off the outer layer of her nearly useless robe and folded it beneath Anders' head. Since when had Anders ever worn actual armor? She was sometimes surprised by the idea that he was strong enough to wear his heavy coat, much less a chain haubergeon underneath. Surely he would have tired more easily if that was the case? She'd seen him naked. The man just didn't have the muscle for it.

Hawke looked up at Aveline. Her friend had removed some of the stray bandages Anders kept tied around his arms and boots and repurposed them to better use on his still-bleeding wounds. Tying the last one, she almost looked like she wanted to give the younger woman a hug, but noticed where her attention was directed. "He's a smart man. That armor probably saved his life as much as you did just now."

The mage shook her head. "No, you're the one who should get credit here. You stepped in while I was falling apart. I—" Hawke blinked and couldn't stop a tear from escaping her blurry eye, but she hurriedly wiped it away with the back of her hand before it could leave a trail down her dirt-streaked face, "I take back every bad joke I've ever told about you."

Aveline smiled and clasped her shoulder. "I hope some of the ones you've told to me, too."

Hawke snorted out a half-laugh, not even sure what the other half was supposed to be as she smoothed back Anders' hair from his forehead.

She felt a light tap on her other shoulder, looking around quickly to see Varric with an armload of potions, having used a faintly glowing blue one to get her attention. Without even a word of thanks, she snatched up the lyrium potion and chugged it down so fast she almost choked. She felt instantly refreshed and used the first healing spell on herself before continuing down the line.

Varric chuckled, and it wasn't long before he commented on Anders' attire, too. "Huh, Blondie's full of surprises, isn't he?" the dwarf observed, "Maybe he knows some magic way for mages to wear armor? Could come in handy for you, since I saw this lovely piece of armor back in the dragon's hoard that looks just your size, Hawke."

"Just what I need," Hawke seemed to come back to herself just a little more, "more clothes. Mother would be proud."

"Just as long as you get him some new clothes, too," Varric chuckled, "If you go through Hightown with him dressed like that, people will talk."

Aveline interrupted Hawke's inevitably dirty comeback with a disgusted noise, "Can we just heal him and get out of here?"

Hawke made a deflated noise with her lips, "You are just no fun sometimes."

"And here I thought you'd want to get him back on his feet the fastest."

"Oh, I don't know. I kind of like him like this. Not nearly as moody and maudlin. Plus, the scenery is excellent from this angle. You really should try it."

"You can't stand up, can you?"

"Nope."