A/N: Another super short one. This one comes from the prompt generator on tumblr, and it's given me so many ideas. Once I finish up a couple of other fics, I think I might turn this into something longer.
Anyway, the prompt was Varric/Bethany, a shoulder to cry on, and it's sort of become an AU thing where Bethany survives the Deep Roads and Hawke is the one who dies. I'm not super thrilled with the way I wrote this one, but I do like the idea, so that's why I'm posting it.
Reviews/criticisms/prompts are welcome and loved!
They didn't do card night anymore.
Sure, Varric was always up for a game, and Isabela would gladly join in if she was in the city, but aside from a few unexpected visits from Anders, Hawke's friends didn't show up at the Hanged Man anymore.
Because, without Hawke, they were just a mismatched group that didn't belong together. But even though Hawke was gone, he was never really absent; Varric still told stories every evening about the dashing refugee from Ferelden, who'd slain a dozen dragons and had rescued a damsel in distress almost every night for the past week.
It wasn't long before Bethany was Varric's biggest fan. She'd wait until well after midnight, when most of the other listeners had either left or passed out, and take a seat close to Varric and ask for a particular story.
These stories were always different. Hawke wasn't ten feet tall, or stronger than a hundred other men, or more charming than the Maker himself; he was the brother that Bethany missed so badly, tripping over his shield in the mornings and embarrassing himself in front of women and laughing too loudly at his own bad jokes.
He was lying alone, somewhere in the Deep Roads.
And every now and again, it would become too much, and Varric would take Bethany back to his suite and fix her some tea and tell her stories she'd never heard before. Sometimes they were about the Dalish, sometimes about Orzammar, or sometimes about what a fantastic noble she'd be.
But the important part was that she was always smiling by the end of the story. Then Varric would walk her home, making jokes about how a noblewoman such as herself shouldn't have to fight thugs at night, though - strangely - there never seemed to be any out to bother her.
Varric became a lifeline for Bethany. Whether she was missing her brothers, or needed an escape from the Templars, or simply wanted someone to share lunch with, Bethany would drop by the Hanged Man with a little basket full of food that she would share with Varric as he mulled over whichever story he was writing, never failing to ask what Bethany's opinion was on every scene or piece of dialogue or new character he'd invented.
After the Hawke's had moved to their Hightown estate, Bethany and Varric would trade off making the hike between the estate and the tavern. He quickly won over Leandra with his charms, and became a regular guest at their dinner table. Bethany still enjoyed evenings at the Hanged Man, and eventually Varric convinced her to tell stories about Carver; she couldn't captivate the big audiences that Varric did, but she could captivate him, and he wrote down every word and soon, the Hanged Man had a new hero.
When Leandra was killed, Bethany went straight to Varric, needing a shoulder to cry on and someone who'd listen. And when the Templars came for her, Varric was the only one to visit, with a big smile and a new story any time the Templars would let him in the Circle.