A huge thanks to karebear, koguma, BlessedArrow, Graymalkyn and Morninglight for your awesome reviews! Thanks also to my friends CouslandSpitFire and Eynla for all their suggestions and help! And to all of you who have put this story on their list of favorites and are following it: cookies and cake for everyone now! I LOVE reading your feedback btw! You are all absolutely awesome! :D

Someone get the drool buckets, time for a certain elf with a deep, deep smexy voice to make an appearance! HAHA! :D

Anders: "Hey! My voice is smexy, too!"

Bioware owns everything! I just play with the characters! :D

Chapter 4

It was late in the afternoon and Anders was busy healing some of the patrons who 'visited' The Blooming Rose two days later when Hawke materialized at the door to his clinic. He actually cringed for a few moments and at the same time felt the attraction he had for her take possession of him in ways he didn't want it to…please don't let them look below my belt… and he frowned slightly. He said good bye with a smile to the three people he had just healed, and then turned to face her, a wary expression on his face.

"Hello Hawke," he greeted her, nodding once. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but is there anything you need?"

She giggled. "We have another important job tonight, so I was wondering if you could come with us."

"Not outside Kirkwall, is it? It's a miracle the cliffs of The Wounded Coast haven't been reduced to mere beaches due to our running around back and forth over and over again two nights ago," he commented, turning to adjust the various bottles of potions and salves on a table next to the door that led to his room.

"I just wanted to make sure there were no bandits left," she grinned.

"Right," he nodded, noticing that the tone of sarcasm in his voice had not escaped her. "You owe me a pair of boots, by the way."

Hawke burst out laughing.

"It's about time!" she nodded cheerfully. "The ones you were wearing were in a dreadful state!"

He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, leaning against one of the wooden beams. "Anything else you need?"

"Just want to know more about you," she replied with a laugh as she inspected the various potions and salves. "I know you're Fereldan and a Grey Warden, but not much else. I'm terribly curious and probably an insufferable busybody."

"You know I'm an apostate and a former Grey Warden. What more do you need to know? Please step away from the potions. I don't want to make more because you've broken the bottles…"

She whirled around to face him, snickering. "I'm usually very careful with bottles."

"I don't know about that. You're like the center of a hurricane to me," he smirked.

"You sound like a friend of mine. I should introduce you – she's training at the Guard Barracks in the Keep and unfortunately very busy at the moment," Hawke said, standing directly in front of Anders.

"A guard? I'd be delighted! Or maybe you could tie me up right now and hand me over to the templars. That would make her job so much easier," he quipped.

"I don't hand mages over to the templars," she frowned, her eyes darkening slightly for a few moments. "And neither do my friends. Besides, nobody deserves that."

He was taken aback by her frown and the serious tone in her voice, and suddenly realized that she really disliked the templars – maybe even as much as he did. He also discovered – much to his surprise – that he really needed to know why.

"You aren't a mage…" he said, trying to keep a nonchalant attitude and failing completely. "…and should care nothing about mages and templars. We even helped a runaway mage two nights ago. Why would you do that?"

She shrugged aloofly, turning away from him and walked to the door of his humble room, taking a peek inside.

"This is your room, isn't it?" she said conversationally, then turned back, heading towards the door and avoiding his gaze entirely. "The job is in Kirkwall, yes. You can meet Varric and Isabela at The Hanged Man in a couple of hours if you're interested. I live right next to it, so I'll meet you all there."

"You haven't answered my question," Anders called out to her, his curiosity growing by the minute.

"I know!" she chuckled.

Then she was gone.

…

When he reached The Hanged Man nearly two hours later, he walked in and made his way to Varric's suite, pausing only to wink at Norah, whom he had enjoyed a night of passion with three nights after his sexual adventure with Isabela. The attractive waitress gave him a sultry smile and he chuckled all the way up the stairs.

"Hey, Varric!" Anders grinned at the dwarf, who waved at him from the table in his room. Isabela smiled at him as he sat down and stretched his long legs in front of him.

"So you're coming with us?" Varric grinned. "Good! I needed the laughs."

"Hey! I'm not just some personal jester to drag along, you know," Anders smirked. "Do you know what we'll be doing, by any chance?"

"A little. One of the dwarves from the merchant's guild has asked for our help. His name is Anso. That's all I know, unfortunately," Varric replied. "Hawke will be here soon enough, though."

"Why are you working with her?" Anders asked. "Didn't you tell me that she was working for someone named Athenril?"

"Her year is up, apparently, so she visited my brother and wanted in on the Deep Roads expedition he was trying to organize. Something about an unknown thaig in the deeps," Varric said. "Anyway, my brother said 'no' to her, but I knew who she was and that she would be an invaluable addition to the expedition. I also convinced her that she should become our partner and pitch in with fifty gold, which meant that technically, she would be running the whole show."

Varric laughed, shaking his head with an amused expression. "I helped her with a little problem she had in Hightown before we met, actually. A pickpocket tried to steal her coin purse, but I intervened and got it back for her. We started talking and here we are."

Anders had shuddered at the mention of 'the deeps'. "Anyone who willingly wants to go down into the Deep Roads is slightly mad in my opinion. But hey, I'm not here to judge," he shrugged. "You said her year was up? What do you mean?"

"Both Hawke and her sister had been working for a year for Athenril in order to pay off a debt they had with her. When Hawke first arrived here, it was during the Blight and you actually had to bribe the guards in order to enter the city. There were simply too many Fereldan refugees. Her uncle arranged a meeting with Athenril and Athenril paid the bribe. In return, Hawke and her sister agreed to work for Athenril for a year to pay off the debt," Varric explained. "She's free now and can work at anything she wants. But she needs coin to provide for her sister and mother, even though they're living at her uncle's house right now. Most Fereldan refugees don't even have a place to live. But I'm sure you know this already because you're in Darktown and see it on a day to day basis."

Anders nodded to this and at that moment Hawke walked into the room, greeting everyone with a hearty hello. A pretty dark-haired young woman stood behind her and smiled shyly, her brown eyes darting nervously around the room.

"This is my sister, Bethany," Hawke introduced her, her violet eyes lingering on Anders, who started, feeling the magic emanating from the shy girl and noticing that she was carrying a staff on her back. "She'll be coming with us."

And then the conversation he had had with her back at his clinic made perfect sense to him and he gave Hawke a lopsided smile and a nod, his brown eyes holding her violet ones warmly.

Her sister was a mage.

…

Anders started to suspect they were walking into a trap when they met the dwarf in a hidden corner in Lowtown. His story seemed a bit shady to him and it seemed a little too easy. When they all headed towards the hovel where they would get Anso's supply of lyrium in the Elven Alienage, he felt alarm bells go off. Apparently Varric felt the same way and voiced his concern.

"I hope it's a trap!" Hawke exclaimed cheerfully. "It will make everything so much more exciting!"

He thought about running back to his clinic, so of course he stayed right where he was.

I'm such a coward…

Hawke's sister giggled nervously and then was silent when Hawke opened the door to the place. They all walked inside warily.

When Hawke found the set of traps laid out on the ground in front of one of the doors that led to a room inside the hovel, Anders was positive that it was a trap. Even though they were attacked immediately afterwards, he was actually expecting more violence and was surprised to see they only fought about a dozen people, give or take. Child's play to the fierce and beautiful rogue leading them whom he suspected was absolutely barking insane.

When she opened the chest that was inside one of the rooms and announced there was nothing inside, Anders felt uneasy. This was was indeed a trap, no question about it. He peered into the shadows expecting more people to jump out and attack them, but nobody did.

Varric was exceedingly upset and wanted to go 'talk' to Anso for sending them on a wild goose chase. Hawke giggled as she flung the door open and walked outside.

A group of at least two dozen, well-armed soldiers stood all around, and had apparently been waiting for them to come out. Their armor looked Tevinter and they carried top-of-the-line weapons.

Shit! I hate it when I'm right!

Anders quickly encased three of the soldiers that were heading towards Hawke in ice with a flick of his hand, and reached into the Fade to conjure up an electricity maelstrom that would electrocute the rest, while Isabela and Hawke jumped from soldier to solider, delivering killing blows and laughing about it, counting the number of people they were killing. Varric shot a myriad of arrows from his beloved crossbow, Bianca, which slowed the attackers down considerably and also yelled out how many soldiers he had killed. Apparently it was contagious - or maybe a code among rogues - to count the enemies they had felled in battle.

Meanwhile, Bethany flung a couple of well-aimed fireballs at another group that was coming in. Since she continued to attack using fire, Anders immediately understood that she had mainly specialized in elemental magic and was especially fond of fire spells. He personally preferred using ice and electricity spells, so they soon complemented each other rather well as they dispatched all the enemies they could.

After the first initial wave of the two dozen they fought and killed, more showed up. A mage dropped down from a ledge above, and made a movement to probably cast a protective barrier around himself, but Bethany had already guessed he would do this and cast a spell on him that Anders quickly identified as a horror spell because the poor man started to scream in terror, placing his hands over his face as he squirmed around.

"Nice work!" Anders grinned looking at her appreciatively and she blushed, lowering her shining brown eyes, but smiled as she glanced up at him moments later.

Anders grinned inwardly at her gentle manner and awkwardness and ventured to guess that she was probably a virgin. Hawke suddenly materialized right between them.

"Focus on the fight," she hissed, her eyes flashing angrily for a few seconds. Anders was initially taken aback for he had never seen her get angry about anything before, but it actually made some sense because he had already noticed that she was extremely protective of her sister.

The Tevinter soldiers stopped appearing after a while and Hawke decided to go through each of the bodies to search for coin or anything of value. That was a lot of bodies to go through. Anders sighed as he followed her around, audibly in fact, just to get her attention. He also wanted to vex her, just to see how she would react.

"Stop that!" she finally yelled, turning around to face him, her violet eyes flashing angrily for the second time that night. Anders gave her a lopsided smile and discovered that he was slightly turned on by her anger.

"Stop what?" he teased, wondering if she would slash him with her daggers if he kissed her.

"You know what!" she replied and turned back to the dead body in front of her. Anders glanced at Varric who shook his head with a smile and rolled his eyes, but behind him Isabela snickered. Bethany looked concerned, her soulful brown eyes on her sister.

They neared the staircase that would take them out of the Alienage, and a lone Tevinter soldier appeared on the landing, gazing at them angrily. Anders groaned.

Here we go again!

"I don't know who you are friend, but you've made a terrible mistake coming here tonight! "the man growled impressively. Anders glanced at Hawke who had burst out laughing at this. The man turned his head slightly and yelled at someone else who was hidden from view. "Lieutenant... I want everyone in this clearing! NOW!"

A fresh peal of laughter erupted from Hawke.

Shit! He reached for his staff, but needn't have bothered, for the lieutenant in question suddenly appeared from behind with a cavity in his chest the size of a man's fist and mumbled 'Captain', before sinking to the floor – as dead as a doornail.

A white-haired elf made his entrance, sweeping down the stairs majestically as he spoke and stood directly in front of Hawke, his bright green eyes shining in the moonlight. Anders also noticed his right steel gauntlet was dripping with blood. Not a very encouraging sight to see at all.

"Your men are dead and your trap has failed. I suggest you escape while you still can," the elf deadpanned calmly, his voice sending chills up and down Anders's spine.

Anders's right eyebrow shot up when he noticed the weird white tattoo markings all over the elf's face, arms and neck. His skin started to tingle slightly, and he wondered for a brief few seconds if the markings were magical. He stole a quick glance at Hawke, who suddenly started smiling at this white-haired elf seductively, her eyes shining like twin stars and he immediately frowned at this, a plethora of emotions doing a merry dance number inside him.

Crap! Just what I needed! Competition!

…

Excerpt from Anders's journal later that night:

Stupid Tevinter mages who dabble in stupid blood magic and who sacrifice virgins and kittens (I HOPE THEY ALL SHRIVEL UP AND DIE!) to the old gods….AND who let their stupid slaves run away! STUPID!

Stupid runaway slaves who can kill a person by plunging their hands into their chests and squeezing their hearts! …And who hate all mages!

…I did like his green eyes and lyrium lines, though!

And…If I ever run out of mana, all I have to do is stand right beside him! But I'll have to get him to glow first which wouldn't be hard since he already wants to kill me.

…