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Two Hawkes: Reloaded Ch1

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Chapter One

Set between Act I and Act II

She was having a really crappy day.

It had all started last night, when Varric had announced that he thought he had a lead on Bartrand to a cave complex just down the coast. Since they'd all been expecting him to have fled to the far side of the continent with his ill-gotten gains, she had gleefully agreed that a late night visit was just the thing his errant brother needed. And gee, hadn't that been such a great idea. Not only did the cave not contain Bartrand and the chance for revenge that she'd been hankering for, it in fact happened to house an entire slaver operation, complete with their own damned mercenary army.

Fabulous, really.

Getting trapped in a dead end cavern for seven hours while they fended off what seemed like hundreds of ruthless psychopaths, all armed to the teeth (not that many of them had a lot of teeth) and seemingly quite happy to throw their lives away for their employers was not what she'd had in mind when she'd set out that morning. In fact she could quite honestly say she'd never hoped for that to be the outcome of her day at any point in her life. By the end of it all, tired and bloodied and trying to prop up a nearly comatose Anders, she could have quite happily run the idiot dwarf through herself for even suggesting this to her… but Varric had never steered her wrong before, and she had to admit it was fairly optimistic of her to have assumed that Bartrand would not only be stupid enough to come back to Kirkwall, but that he'd also hole himself away in a cave- of all places.

So she couldn't stay mad at Varric, no matter how woozy she was from blood loss and how generally awful the day had turned out. Besides, the miserable look on the dwarf's face as he took in empty cavern and the utter lack of anything to indicate Bartrand had ever been there went a long way towards placating her; she couldn't blame him for wanting to confront his brother and get closure on such a painful episode in his life. It made her think uncomfortably of Carver, and memories that she tried to keep locked away unless she was very, very drunk. He'd been an ass, and they'd fought every time one of them had even opened their mouth, but Maker take it he had been her brother… and even though he'd never been her favourite person in the world, to just have the opportunity to talk to him one last time would have been infinitely priceless- even if it would have descended into snarky jibes within seconds.

Varric wanted closure with Bartrand. She couldn't blame him for that- because if someone had told her she could finally close the door to all the 'what-ifs' surrounding Carver's death, she would have run up the coast to the damned cave by herself. At the very least he'd been rational about it, and had stopped to ask for help, which was probably more than she would have done…

The trek back to Kirkwall had been agonising; by the end of it Aveline was practically carrying Anders, who had worn himself down to near unconsciousness through hours of constant healing and battle magic to help fend off the larger forays. Kaja was walking with a very distinctive limp that became more and more pronounced the closer they got to home. And the worst part of the adventure? Bianca was broken. An unlucky accident, when a particularly sizable group of mercenaries had charged up the tunnel towards them; in the ensuing melee, a sword hilt had come crunching down on the spring mechanism, snapping the arm of the crossbow clean off. Varric had gone into a psychotic frenzy, howling furiously about the damage done to his precious Bianca and hacking the foolish man into horrifyingly tiny pieces. She made a note never, ever to piss Varric off.

Since then, and given the poor result for the evening, Varric had been nearly inconsolable. He parted ways with them almost as soon as they were through the east gate, muttering his goodbyes and vanishing into the early morning dark without so much as a backwards glance.

Anders had managed to support himself again by that point, buoyed by the prospect of being nearly home, though Kaja kept a close eye on him as he wobbled every other step. Not that she was really in any position to stop him from toppling over if it came to that- she was only a light breeze away from crumpling herself.

They all walked back to her house, going their separate ways outside the front door. Anders hesitated for a moment as Aveline disappeared back towards the Keep, standing a little closer than he normally dared to. Just when she thought it was worth risking leaning in towards him, to see if he would sway that extra little distance and meet her halfway- a girl could dream!- he clapped her awkwardly on the shoulder, almost sending her staggering, and said "Well, goodnight, Kaja. You did a good thing today… for Varric I mean." And he left her there with that horribly unromantic goodbye, and yes nothing had happened between them so far despite her flirting, but was it a little too much to hope that she was a little more deserving by now of something other than a shoulder clap?

"Clearly hanging out with Isabela is having far too much of a bad influence on you," she said mockingly to herself as she shucked her armour onto the floor without a care for where it fell. She turned down the sheets of her bed with jerky movements, refusing to acknowledge just how grumpy she was. "Or else the world has gone upside down and back to front, because what the hell is going on if I'm the one thinking about sex more than all the males in my life?"

She hadn't slept much last night, too worked up over the intensity of the fighting and by the frustration she felt that could easily have been cured by now if she'd had the courage to just throw Anders up against the wall beside the front door last night and kiss him senseless; but no, she had to be noble and caring for all her friends, helping Varric look for his ass of a brother, and respecting Anders persistent need to be skittish and melodramatic and dammit she wasn't unattractive- some days she even thought she might pass as pretty-, and at the very least she could offer him the novelty of not sleeping in the sewers for one night. That was appealing, right? Nice bed, warm fire, soft sheets- dammit Kaja this is not a business proposal!

Her face was smooshed into her pillow as she lay there the next morning feeling wretched. "I think I need to get laid," she muttered. "And things must be bad if I'm the one admitting that."

She woke up achy and grumpy and her head was killing her, but she didn't really feel like staggering all the way to Darktown just to get a tonic from a certain handsome mage who kept rebuffing her very charming flirtations. Plus he was half responsible for her mood this morning anyway. So she stayed sprawled in bed, waving away her mother when she tried to rouse her and remind her they had social obligations that afternoon- Maker save her from social obligations, why did people have to get so worked up over afternoon tea, of all things?- and committed herself to staying in bed all day if possible. She was miserable, and she was tired, and she was grumpy and she was horny, and Kirkwall could just go to hell today for all she cared. Bed was much more interesting.

And of course it was too much to hope that she might just get the day off to stay indoors and be maudlin and feel sorry for herself.

No, she had to foolishly agree to head up to the Viscount's Keep, because dammit, it felt good to have someone as powerful as the Viscount asking after her personally and it was one of those days where she needed her ego stroked. Plus, there was the added bonus of that snarky piece of eye candy, Seneschal Bran, and if anything could make her feel better surely it would be the chance to perve on sexy older men with a perpetual sneer?

But nope, even that hadn't helped, because the snarkily sexy older man informed her that she was the lucky candidate for dealing with a smugglers den suspected of dealing in lyrium- of all things!- and could she please do it with as much discretion as possible and hurry back before supper? She just barely fought back the urge to point out that dealing with smugglers was something the city guard was supposed to handle, and wasn't that what her not insignificant taxes were paying for?

And if that hadn't turned out to be the stupidest, most wretched thing she'd ever agreed to, pissing off the Chantry and the Templars and Aveline all in the space of half a day as she tracked down the lyrium den by shadowing one of their runners, only to narrowly avoid walking straight into an ambush that had incidentally been set up by the Templars who were attempting to sweep this little issue under the rug without anyone the wiser. They had presumed they were going to catch the smugglers themselves, when in fact they had almost let the smugglers escape by springing the trap on Kaja instead. Cue massive idiocy on her part, when she had decided that it would be a really good idea to tell the Knight Captain just how moronic she found him and his entire order of incompetents and under no circumstances was it her fault that the smugglers had escaped. And Aveline, stepping in to save the day and defuse the situation before Kaja made any more creative insults about the Templar order, had just glared at her in a way that told her she was going to be in deep trouble come tomorrow.

But none of that was what made it such a bad day. Oh, altogether, sure- they added up to become something that was monumentally awful and certainly made it into her top five for bad days.

The worst part of all was that, for the entire day, she could feel eyes burning into her back but no matter how many times she looked, or where she looked, she couldn't see anyone watching her. It had started as a niggling sensation, something that her rogue's sixth sense wouldn't allow her to ignore. For the first hour or two she'd convinced herself that she kept seeing a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. When she jerked in alarm the first time, hands going instinctively to her knives, the others all lunged for their weapons, used to her uncanny ability to sniff out danger.

When no threat eventuated, they all laughed nervously and lowered their arms. However the second time it had happened, they all glanced oddly at her before sheathing their weapons. The third time, Isabela came up beside her and said "Kitten? Is something the matter?"

I'm just tired, she told herself firmly, rubbing at her eyes as if that would convince herself that she hadn't been jumping at shadows all day. Just tired. That's all. I had a bad night last night, and I didn't get enough sleep and now I'm getting paranoid about people following me around town…

Which wasn't a wildly paranoid thing to think, all things considered. She had made enough enemies in Kirkwall over the last few years, and sticking her nose into sensitive issues time and time again certainly didn't make her any more friends. Was it so hard to think that she might be being followed around the place by someone with less than friendly intentions?

Unable to help herself, she glanced over her shoulder again, feeling those eyes burning into the back of her. Still nothing, and none of her companions had noticed anything amiss at all. She rubbed the back of her neck uneasily, spinning in a slow circle to look everywhere, ignoring the others when they trailed to a stop at her odd behaviour.

"Kaja?" Merrill said hesitantly. "Is everything alright?"

"You've been jumpier than an Antivan prince in his coronation ceremony," Aveline said, concern written all over her face.

Taking a chance that they wouldn't think she was completely mad, Kaja said "Do none of you… feel that? Like someone is watching us?" Watching me, she added silently.

The three women glanced at each other. "Well… no, kitten," Isabela said frankly. "I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary. And you know I do love to be suspicious, but I haven't felt anything amiss at all."

Kaja looked at the other two. "Merrill? Aveline?"

Merrill stuttered out some response to the negative, while Aveline just shook her head, face grim. Unable to stand the concern in their eyes- she was not going crazy, dammit! - she waved her hand absently in the opposite direction. "It's fine, I'm probably just tired. Or have a crick in my neck or something. Listen, thank you so much for all your help today. Maker only knows what kind of mess I would be in right now if I hadn't had-"

There was a flash of movement to the left, at the mouth of an alleyway, and she lunged forward, pushing Isabela out of the way as she sprinted towards the narrow gap in the Lowtown tenements. As she reached the alley, she saw a figure disappearing in the distance and her pulse leapt with adrenalin. I was right! she thought with a savage thrill, surging down the alleyway after her stalker. She burst out of the other end, ignoring the cries of her friends behind her as she spun left and right, trying to find her quarry.

There! A dark figure slipped around the corner up ahead, and she sprinted forward, arms pumping as she ran as fast as she could to try and close the distance between them. She was so focussed on the chase, on catching up to whoever had damn well been creeping her out all day, that she didn't see the foot sticking out from around the corner and she didn't have a hope in the Void of stopping herself from going flailing towards the ground, quick reflexes or not.

Strong hands grabbed her, breaking her fall and pulling her back to her feet without letting her go- smart move really, because she tried to lash out at her attacker- saviour?- and could hardly even scratch him with her arms pinned like that.

"Tut tut, Kaja."

That voice.

She stilled, her blood freezing in her veins as she realised that she knew that voice even though logic told her she had never heard it before in her life. "That's hardly the polite way a lady thanks a gentleman for breaking her fall. A kiss is much more acceptable."

With a terrified hesitancy, she lifted her head to meet the gaze of her rescuer. Warm dark eyes that danced with humour, as if inviting her to share in some immense joke, stared back at her. She knew those eyes. And the nose that sat between them, and that mess of dark hair that never seemed to sit straight- how did she know it never sat straight?- and that mouth and-

-and a long late night of teasing and pleasure and soft cries and laughter mingled with sobs of ecstasy-

She took a tremulous breath, eyes telling her something that her brain adamantly insisted could not be true. His smile grew wider, a hint of a smirk playing over his lips. "Left you speechless, have I? That's got to be a first, I have to say."

Footsteps clattered behind them and her friends dashed around the corner, weapons drawn. They skidded to a halt when they took in the decidedly intimate nature of the scene before them- Kaja gaping dumbstruck at the tall stranger who held her very firmly in front of him.

Isabela was the first to recover, sashaying forward with a bit more hip than she normally did, an appraising look in her eyes as she stopped beside them, glancing from one to the other. "Well, sweet thing," she said, her voice husky but impressed, "are you going to introduce us to tall, dark and sexy here?"

The name came from nowhere, from somewhere deep within her that didn't even seem to register with the rest of her brain, which incidentally was screaming about the absurdity of the whole situation. This was clearly what going mad felt like.

"Garrett," she whispered, unable to believe that she knew that name at all.

His smirk grew wider. "At your service."
Oh my, what is this? This doesn't look normal... something strange has happened. Clearly I hit my head in the car accident...

Do you need a hint? Perhaps you are familiar with a strange white haired rogue that appeared in Knight Captain's Favour? Did you read the story behind her mysterious appearance? [link]

Oh dear, what have I begun?

Next chapter: [link]

Bioware owns Dragon Age (and allegedly Garrett Hawke but I take issue with that)

Kaja Hawke is :iconkitiaramajere:'s baby, hopefully I will do her justice in this madness...
© 2011 - 2024 Defira1985
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katiebour's avatar
:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

I am so happy to see these two back together!

I ship these two with sails, oars, and a motor!