"Your kidding me." Nero gaped.
"What?" Hawke asked.
"Did you miss the part where she almost got me killed for helping her break into a house to steal something?"
"Well, to be fair neither of you mentioned that you were going to steal something." Hawke told him.
"I'm starting to believe that's all she does."Nero said grimly.
"Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but last time it was just you two, this time it will be a bunch of us. If she tries to get any of us killed then we'll simply kill her." Hawke smiled.
"Great." Nero grumbled.
"That's...reassuring." Tallis said and turned to see the blade that Nero had thrown at her in the post of the stand. She plucked it out and looked at it, she was quite surprised to find a marking of a triangle with a star inside of it, the mark of the blacksmith who had made all her knives years ago. She turned to Nero, "how did you get this?"
"When you abandoned me to my fate you tossed it through the bars to kill one of the guards. I took it before I left. I've had this crazy dream of killing you with it." He told her sourly.
She blanched, "oh...oh my."
"So tell me," Hawke said, trying to steer the conversation back to where it was before "what exactly is it you want to steal?"
"A...jewel," Tallis said, "The Duke thinks its valuable and it is, just not in the way he believes. Whats more, he shouldn't have it in the first place. 'He who wishes to walk on water, must first learn to swim.'" she paused "come with me to Chataeu Haine, I'll explain everything on the way."
"Well, I'm not going to be able to leave right away, and I figure I might as well see if anyone else wants to come along. You'll have to give me a couple of days." Hawke explained.
"Ah, okay." She frowned.
"What?"
"Well, I sort of, don't have a place to stay."
Hawke sighed and instinctively turned to look at Fenris, the last time somebody had arrived without any place to stay they had dumped him on the elf, surely...
Nero caught site of the look and scowled, "absolutely not, no way. I'll kill her if she sets one toe inside of my house."
"Alright, alright." Hawke said, and turned back to Tallis, "you'll have to stay with me, but don't get insulted if Orana calls you master and Sandal doesn't say much, Bodahn should be fine though...he might complain a bit, but he always does that."
"Oh, uh, great." Tallis said as she bent down to start the laborious task of retrieving all of her throwing knives.
"Right, well, don't forget to loot the bodies!" Isabela said cheerfully.
"Do I ever?" Hawke laughed
"Do you really need to pillage the dead?" Tallis asked, no small amount of disgust in her voice.
"Pillage and plunder is half the fun!" Isabela told her.
"Don't worry, we'll have lots of time. It takes forever for her to do that." Nero grumbled
"Everywhere we go, people try to kill you." Fenris said to Hawke.
Hawke laughed, "you've been responsible for that yourself, on a few occasions."
"I'll fit right in, then." Tallis smiled.
"Man who would like to kill you, right here." Nero scowled.
"Maybe not then."
...
They were to leave the following morning, and Hawke and Tallis were sitting in the main room after supper, chatting about nothing in particular. She was alright, he thought, and he was a little amazed to realize that he seemed to find her sexually attractive. But he refused to act on it, he and Isabela were slowly coming to have some sort of a relationship and he didn't want to ruin it. Besides Tallis didn't affect him quite as much as his Pirate Queen did, they had kissed once, a real kiss, a few days before running into Tallis and it had some rather...unexpected results on his body. Isabela had considered it an achievement, 'I've turned a gay man strait!' she said. He could only laugh.
He was a little nervous when it came to sleeping with her, he was scared that he wouldn't like it that much. But he couldn't stop himself from flirting with her, and a few weeks ago she had sat him down and demanded they talked about what was going on between them. It had been a difficult conversation, especially since he didn't know. He was, however, simply amazed that she seemed to actually like him that way; he was fairly certain knowing that just increased his feelings for her. They had even discussed at lengths what they would do if they began a real relationship; they were both promiscuous, and they both had sexual encounters with the same sex, so they came to an agreement. If they began dating they would only sleep with each other and members of the same sex, and if the situation arose they would do a threesome...or foursome...
Ever since that discussion Hawke was almost eager to begin seeing her officially...but there was that damned thing where he was nervous about having sex with her. Andraste's tits. he mentally grumbled.
The conversation had lulled into silence, and he jumped when Tallis asked him a question.
"What?" he asked
Tallis giggled, "I asked if your family is from Kirkwall, I heard you were Fereldan."
"My mother's family is from Kirkwall. We left Ferelden during the Blight."
"Makes sense. Did you know the Warden?"
"No, but I understand he is a relative.
Tallis laughed "why am I not surprised? And they call you Champion of Kirkwall? Fancy title."
"The "Only One in Kirkwall not Completely Insane" was considered." Hawke grinned.
Suddenly Isabela came into the room from the back of the house and stood there with a hand on her hip, a small smirk on her face.
Hawke looked from her to the door leading to his bedroom, then back to her, "how did you-"
"I'm crafty, Hawke."
"Evidently," he chuckled, "Have a seat, we're just talking about...what are we talking about?" He groaned painfully when Isabela took is offer of taking a seat as an invitation to sit in his lap, she gave him an apologetic grin, or at least, that's what he was telling himself it was.
"We were talking about your title. Do you get a stipend? They let you rule the city?" Tallis asked.
Hawke grinned maniacally, "they gave me a medal. It's shiny."
"Are you married?"
"Well aren't you just full of questions this evening?"
Tallis shrugged, "It's just you're the Champion of Kirkwall... Big. Important. I don't know. I was just wondering if there is a little woman behind your throne."
Isabela turned to face him, "yes. That's a very good question, isn't it?" she smirked devilishly.
"Ahh, I see." Tallis said knowingly.
Hawke sighed. "well, it's getting late and we're heading out early tomorrow, I should go get some sleep."
Isabela got up with a sigh and Tallis nodded and headed to her room, Hawke wasn't far behind, only he headed to the end of the hall to get to his room. When he reached his bed he lay down on his back and spread his arms to the side. He wasn't sure if he was surprised or not when Isabela followed him and straddled his waist.
"I came here because I was wondering if you could tell your uncle to leave me alone? He's often... inappropriate." Isabela said.
Hawke laughed, "you find something inappropriate?"
"Extremely so! It's... rather repulsive, actually." She frowned, "please talk to him."
Hawke grinned, "but it's more entertaining if I don't."
Isabela gaped for a moment, "Hawke!" she squealed.
"You have pretty eyes." he said in his deepest, sexiest voice.
Isabela rolled her eyes and began to get off of him, "oh, you're impossible!"
Hawke chuckled but grabbed her arm, to stop her from leaving, "I'll see what I can do. And thank you for not breaking his legs."
"I don't beat on the elderly. And... I really don't want to touch him."
"Understandable."
Suddenly she began eying him with no small amount of lust in her eyes, "I would like to touch you though. " she whispered and put her hands under his shirt.
It felt as though the moment her fingers touched his skin he got hard and he bit his lip to keep from making any sounds. She lowered herself, letting her hands go further up to his chest as she did so, and kissed him. She went slowly at first, trying to remember all the details so that she could recall it if it was the last time she kissed him. She felt a fluttering in her chest and gently trailed her tongue along his bottom lip and pinched one of his nipples. It was the first moan that she had elicited from him, and she felt a great sense of achievement. Note to self: nipples are a happy spot.
Once she had squeezed his nipple he had decided to ignore any nervousness he felt and just do it. He wanted it, it wanted it bad, and it was high time he got it. And when she whispered, "I've been aching for you" he growled and flipped her over, turning the kissing from slow and gentle to hard and fast.
Later he was pleased to find that having sex with a woman wasn't bad, it wasn't bad at all.