Dedication

For MRTL85,

Because she's never even considered this pair until I told her I was writing it.

And then couldn't Not imagine them hooking up when she next played the game.

This is for you Babe! I hope I did it all the justice it deserved, and that it is all the funny and sexy you were hoping for.

Opening A/N: Okay so, firstly, if you didn't already know, I have a HUGE virgin-kink (like Oh My Gawd- You have NO Idea) and thus I've been dying to write me some tasty cherry pickin' action ever since I first toyed with the idea of writing fics. Secondly, if you somehow missed this too, I have an equally HUGE lady-boner for Varric and I've been deeply disappointed with the lack of quality, in-character, Varric smut available to me. So this is really nothing more than an entirely self indulgent fic, where I combine two of my great loves... (Next time I'll make it a slash pair and it'll really be nothing but the publication of my personal wet dream). Now before anyone comes to bite my head off; yes, I am aware that Daisy isn't a virgin in cannon; but she's the closest thing to one in this particular cast of jaded (and let's be honest, here) damaged selection of LIs. And, finally, a note on Maiden's Eve: essentially it's Valentines in Thedas, cause I wanted a romantic holiday to push our little flower over the edge, This is of my own invention, and it is cannon only in my head.

A Warnning: THIS MAY STING. I have it on the highest of authority regarding the matter that despite my having been Cherry-free for a dozen years, I none-the-less write a very convincing and realistic portrayal of the aching lonely virgin. If you are a virgin there are a few moments in this that may -possibly- hit a little close to home and may also -possibly- see you feeling a little upset or depressed. I promise this too will pass and there are plenty of sexy fun times as well as a fairly solid dose of humor to be had in this, and it's follow up chapter. But I promised I would warn you all 'cause... yeah, I made her cry.

Discalimer: BioWare, this is all you fault. I spend an inordinate amount of time and energy writing this stuff because you do things like make AMAZING characters like Varric and then REFUSE TO LET ME ROMANCE HIM! So, yeah, I make nothing from this, but at least I can dream of that which you DENY me.

Chapter 1

A Flustered Flower

Merrill stood outside The Rose, wringing her hands nervously.

"You're being silly, Merrill." She chided herself, as she once again failed to take that step into the courtyard in front of the infamous brothel. "You've been in there a dozen times with Hawke. This is no different, you just walk in there and... and..." and what exactly? What exactly did one do to engage the services of one of the, er, uh... entertainers-?- in such a place. Oh this was the silliest notion she'd ever had, and she'd had some pretty silly ones.

"By the Dread Wolf, why is this so difficult? It's not as if I'm doing anything wrong! I just want to know what all the fuss is about, is all. It's not fair everybody else having lovers and me being all cold and alone. I have just as much right as any of them to a bit of fun on Maiden's Eve."

It had all started three nights before...

.:xo-DFD-ox:.

They had all been gathered in Varric's rooms at The Hanged Man for their usual card game, when the dwarf had casually posed the question of them taking on a job over the next few nights. Nothing especially hard. Just a 'watch and wait' for some people due to arrive down at the docks. Supposedly, Varric had someone who was willing to pay to see that these people decided to leave town right promptly upon arriving. Only problem was the information Varric had managed to gleam of just exactly when they were due to arrive was 'sketchy'. The best he could tell them was that the ship was due to arrive either on, or after, Saturday night.

"Uh, Varric?" Hawke had said in that too innocent tone of hers -Merrill heard it a lot- that she only ever used on them when someone had missed something exceedingly obvious "You are aware that Saturday night is Maiden's Eve, right?"

"Yeah, but I don't see what that has to do with..." Varric had trailed off as he looked around the table and saw the way everyone, expect for himself and Merrill, had shuffled nearer one-another. Even Fenris had let Isabela drape herself across his chest. "Well, shit."

"Exactly." Hawke had said with a smile at Anders who offered a knowing little smirk back.

"So all of you have plans? What about you, Aveline? From what I hear these guys aren't the kind of people any of us want running around town." The dwarf had cajoled, flashing his brightest, most winning, smile at the big red-headed warrior.

"Donnic has informed me he went to some considerable lengths in his plans for our evening this year." The Guard-Captain said calmly, as her husband turned to grace her with one of his sweetest smiles. "I'm hardly going to dismiss his efforts over a 'possibly-maybe', Varric."

"I'd be right upset if she did! I've got it all planned out. Candle lit dinner, wine on the balcony, a hot oil massage-"

"Alright! Alright! No need to go getting graphic." Varric laughed, as Donnic's face lit up at the sight of the soft blush creeping over Aveline's cheeks. "Forgive me if our fair Captain of the guard isn't exactly the woman I want to be picturing naked and covered in oil when I go to sleep tonight. Don't particularly imagine you'd appreciate that much either." Varric said, giving the couple a cheeky grin.

"And just who do you picture naked and glistening in bed, Varric, hmmm?" Isabela inquired leaning forward so that her full breasts actually rested on the table, making all of the men's eyes pop a little wider. Merrill had even caught Fenris shifting to get a better view, as she sighed with envy. She used to consider herself rather well-endowed and she guessed that it still held true when she compared herself to other elves, but spending all of her time in the company of Isabela and Hawke... well, it did nothing for a girl's self-esteem.

"I'd have thought that would be obvious, Rivaini." The dwarf replied with a laugh. "Bianca, of course."

"I do hope you mean her namesake and not the actual crossbow." Fenris said, turning his eyes back to his hand of cards. "It is disturbing enough watching you fondling it after a fight. I do not wish to picture you in bed with it as well."

Everyone had laughed at that.

Merrill had laughed too... But her laughter had been, maybe, a little bit, well, forced.

The fast approaching romantic holiday, when lovers would give each other presents and spend the evening with each other, hadn't concerned her overly much throughout the years. She hadn't even heard of it until she moved into the Alienage. It was rather more a shemlen holiday. Though the elves in the Alienage who were lovers all seemed to enjoy the excuse to spoil each other just fine, shemlen custom or no. After that first year, Merrill had usually just shrugged it off as just another day. Although, she did look forward to the surfeit of cheap sweets that became available at every market stall the week prior.

But this year was different. This year Isabela had taken up with Fenris and Merrill was suddenly feeling rather... left out.

She'd hardly noticed the difference when Aveline had taken up with Donnic. Aveline and herself never seemed to understand each other, so her absence from the gathering of Hawke's friends hadn't really been noted much by the little Dalish elf. She felt it a bit more when, a year later, Anders and Hawke had started being more than just friendly with one another. Again, the loss of Anders and his condescension at their little gathering hadn't really perturbed Merrill much; but Hawke was one of her closest friends, and the elf had felt the lack of her presence much more keenly.

Still, things had been fine. She had still had Isabela and Varric. And Fenris; though, Merrill was beginning to suspect the other elf didn't like her very much.

Then Fenris and Isabela had started 'knocking boots' as Isabela had put it – though Merrill thought it was a rather silly statement. Fenris never wore boots, so how exactly was he supposed to knock them against Isabela's? Mind, Isabela did wear very big boots... Maybe that was why she said it that way. Maybe something the warrior did made her boots knock against one another? Was that it? - Anyway. The point was, that Isabela and Fenris had started having sex and suddenly Merrill found herself very alone, and feeling, well, rather abandoned.

That wasn't to say that Varric wasn't good company: on the contrary, in fact! He was always fun to be around, and he did have the most delightful stories. But when the others weren't in attendance he tended to invite other patrons over to his card table, and they oft-times made Merrill feel very shy and uncomfortable. And they always asked Varric for the more...well, dirty of his stories; which left Merrill feeling very left out as she didn't understand the half of them.

Her lack of understanding of the dirty and raunchy topics had also started to rub her a little raw as the upcoming feast day drew nearer. With everyone but herself and the dwarf paired off, there wasn't a single time Merrill had been with the company where the conversation hadn't taken a turn for the dirty and left her, once again, sitting on the fringes; alone in a crowd.

A quiet sense of melancholy had settled over her after that, but none of the others had seemed to notice. Not that she had wanted them to! She hadn't wanted to ruin the mood or anything, and it was nice to see everyone so happy. She'd even caught Fenris sporting a smirk or two over the past couple of days.

She just... Well, she just wished she had what they had. She wanted to understand their dirty jokes; laugh with them when they laughed because she got it. To understand the reason why they did the strange things they did when they thought no one was looking.

It had still only been a small thing. A tiny desire that she hadn't even had the courage to voice to herself at first... then, she'd gone out with Hawke and Anders earlier in the day.

What she had unintentionally witnessed had transformed what had been a quiet little yearning into a need to know more; a burning curiosity that had refused to let her return to her previous ignorant contentment.

.:xo-DFD-ox:.

The excursion to the Wounded Coast had started out much like any other trip with Hawke outside the city. Hawke had knocked on her door and asked her if she'd like to go for a trip outside the walls to gather herbs. Well she was always ready to get out of Kirkwall proper, so she had quite eagerly accepted... much to Anders' apparent disappointment. It had taken her most of the morning trek before she'd caught on to why the man had been so particularity sour about it.

Turned out, the trip to the coast had been Anders' suggestion and the herb gathering had merely been his excuse to get Hawke out of the city. When he'd produced the small picnic basket that had clearly been packed with a romantic lunch for two in mind, it had become all too plain to Merrill that she was a very unwanted third-wheel on this trip. She couldn't help but feel a surge of affection for Hawke that she had compromised her alone time just because she knew how much Merrill enjoyed getting out of Kirkwall sometimes, and she had done her best to give the couple as much privacy as possible.

After wolfing down her own meager lunch, she had told them that she thought she knew of a good spot for elfroot just a short distance away and that she'd be there for the next little bit while they finished eating. They should just call if they needed her. She'd wandered off in the direction she'd indicated, not terribly hopeful of actually finding much, but more than willing to just wander the woods at the base of the mountain and gather what she could, so that her friend could have a moment with her lover.

Then she had found the patch of Embrium. It was one of the flowers Anders was forever complaining about a shortage of, which wasn't surprising; it was rare to encounter more than a single stem baring only a blossom or two in any given location. But what Merrill had found had been a positive treasure trove of the bright red blooms. Literally, an entire little gully just full of the pretty scarlet flowers. She had happily set about harvesting the fleshy red petals until only a few remained so that the gully might reseed.

Her little herb pouch had been full to bursting and she'd been positively bouncing with happiness; sure that such a bounty, along with the location of where he might harvest it again in the future, would make it up to Anders for her intruding on his date with Hawke. In her excitement, she had gone rushing back to where she had left the healer and his partner, entirely forgetting the reason why she had left them alone in the first place.

She had very nearly reached the edge of the little meadow they had set their picnic in, when a sound pulled her up short.

A low moaning; one that that sounded nothing like any type of moaning Merrill had ever heard before. No, she would have been quite willing to swear that the sound she'd just heard had no relationship what-so-ever to the pained moaning of the sick and injured. Too late, she remembered that she had gone off to give Hawke and Anders privacy. Obviously they had taken her at her word and had become more intimate than she had intended in her absence. She probably should have turned back then; gone back to the path and simply waited them out... but then-

"Maker, yes!" Though his hissed words were quiet, Anders' voice had carried exceptionally well, in the still of the late afternoon. "Just like that, Marian. Please don't stop doing that-oh~" the last 'oh' turned into a breathless sort of whine which had made Merrill's stomach do odd things upon hearing it. Anders hadn't sounded at all like himself, and despite knowing it was no doubt very rude, Merrill had found herself unable to turn away. In fact, she had carefully crept forward until she could see the clearing and its two occupants.

Again, her stomach did that odd little drop and roll as she caught sight of the two humans. They were still sitting on the blanket Hawke had spread over the ground earlier, but Anders had shifted so that he was sitting with his back up against the tree they had taken shade from. He sat with his head thrown back against the trunk, his long throat working as he continued to mutter and moan to Hawke; pleading with her to continue with... well, whatever it was she was doing.

At first, Merrill, hadn't been able to actually see what it was Hawke had been doing to make Anders moan like that. She had come upon the clearing so that she was to the right of the two humans and whatever it was Hawke was doing between Anders' legs, Merrill's view of it had been blocked by the mage's drawn up knees. All she could see of her friend was her legs stretched out, belly down, on the blanket and one hand which was curled around the underside of the man's thigh; her fingers kneading at the fabric of his breeches.

Then Anders had jerked and his leg had fallen to the side affording the little elf a full view of the rogue's doings.

Merrill's eye got perfectly round at the sight of her friend's pretty mouth stretched wide, her cheeks hollowed, and her eyes closed in concentration, as she drew Anders manhood deep into her throat and then slowly withdrew again. Anders had his hands tangled in the rogue's shoulder-length hair, which she had set free from its usual twisted knot-bun, and appeared to be guiding her movements; helping her keep the rhythm he seemed to be enjoying so much. Once more, Hawke's head descended along the shaft of Anders' rod, until her nose disappeared in the nest of fabric made by the loose material of the other human's shirt tails and untied breeches. This seemed to have been the trick that had seen Anders convulsing, so that his knees dropped earlier, and Merrill heard him bite out a curse this time, as the same sort of shudder ran through him; his fingers tightening their grip until he was holding his lover's hair with white-knuckled fists.

Merrill's stomach had done another one of those strange, almost pleasant, little flops at the sight, only this time it seemed to trigger an ache between her legs as well. She had felt the need to squirm; to attempt to alleviate the feeling, as she had unconsciously drawn her lower lip between her teeth. She had known she shouldn't be watching them; this was something private between two people who were very close, not meant for the eyes and ears of outsiders, and yet...

"Yes~" Again the word had come out in a long drawn out hiss between the man's clenched teeth and then he was gasping his eyes open yet unfocused; staring up at the pale spring sky with this odd lost sort of expression that had made Merrill's heart thunder, and redoubled her need to squirm. She really should have left at that point but how was she supposed to do that when he kept making those faces? Saying those things in that odd breathy voice? And making her stomach churn and roll in such and alarming, yet desirable, way?

As Merrill's eyes remained glued to the sight of the two lovers, Anders had begun to pant; his chest rising and falling rapidly as Hawke's movements, too, gained speed. And then, in a rush, he pulled up from his reclined position, dragging up his knees, once more hiding Hawke form Merrill's view, as he curled about his lover almost protectively. "That's it! Fuck! Marian I'm cumi-nngh!" And then this odd sort of shivering tremor, the maturation of his earlier little shuddering, seemed to wrack the healer's body. Merrill had felt the bottom drop out of her stomach, as wetness flooded her small clothes. Her own body shivering in the ghost of her own orgasm.

Merrill had sunk down into a full crouch as she tried to come to grips with the fact that she had just had an orgasm without once laying and finger on herself. As she came down form the oddly intense, yet markedly unsatisfying, climax; she also then had to cope with the delayed onset of embarrassment and guilt she was suddenly feeling at having spied upon her friends. For a while she had just crouched there, fanning her burning cheeks, not paying much attention to the goings on in the clearing. She was too, however, close and her hearing too sharp to completely tune them out when they began speaking.

"Not that I'm complaining, love," Anders had begun, breaking the silence, "but today really was supposed to be about you, and that seemed to be rather more about me."

"Consider it my apology for insisting on bringing Merrill out with us. Clearly, my head just wasn't on right this morning; in hindsight, you closing down the clinic and insisting we go flower picking today really was rather... obvious." Realizing there was a real likelihood they'd been about to start talking about her, Merrill, had finally found the motivation she needed to start moving. Silently as she could manage, she'd gotten to her feet and turned to start making her way back along the way she had come.

"I certainly thought so." Anders chuckled, "But you had your stubborn face on. Oh well, I knew it was a risk trying to surprise you anyway. Still your guilt may be assuaged, but now I'm feeling guilty-" Merrill had only taken a few steps, making a strong effort to remain unheard so she was still far too close, and when she heard what Anders said next she froze in her tracks. "Would you like me to return the favor, perhaps?"

"Oh as lovely as that would be, I'm afraid I'd feel rather exposed letting you use that talented tongue on me out in the open like this." Merrill let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and took another cautious step. "Besides, My Lovely Warden, I think we can do better than that, don't you? After all, it would be a shame to let this go to waste now wouldn't it?" Merrill, it seemed, hadn't been able to help herself and she'd glanced back to see Hawke reach down between the mage's legs again, making the human smirk.

"Grey Warden stamina does have its uses, I suppose." He chuckled, letting his legs fall flat to the ground once more, Affording Merrill a view of his still erect and slick manhood, as Hawke had casually begun stroking him anew.

"Mmmmm. That it certainly does." Hawke purred as she positioned herself kneeling high on her knees straddling the mage's now outstretched legs, both her arms coming to rest wrapped around his neck. "Now, I have my own Maiden's Eve surprise for you."

"Oh?" Anders said, arching a brow in inquiry, a genuine smile blossoming on his lips as he rested his hands upon the rogue's slender waist. "And what would that be, love?" Then Hawke had leaned down to whisper directly in to his ear just as the wind shifted and brought the woman's words right to Merrill's sensitive ears regardless.

"I'm not wearing any small clothes." And Hawke's hips had crashed down on the mage's lap and Anders he cried out; not one of the quieter expletives of their earlier actions – this had been a cry that had startled the birds from the nearby trees. And it was soon joined by Hawke's own cries of pleasure.

Merrill had stood transfixed once more, her body turned away from the clearing, even as her ivy gaze had remained riveted on the couple as they made love in the middle of the field. This had been, if anything, worse than before. Less explicit, for sure, considering the pair's state of full dress. In fact it could have easily appeared as nothing more than a woman sitting upon a man's lap – something Merrill saw at the Hanged Man all the time – if it weren't for the heady sounding cries of their love-making, that was. With the addition of those open, wild, and unrestrained utterances, the nature of their actions had clearly become more intimate – more revealing. The two humans had no longer been holding anything back as they came undone for each other, and the sight of such nakedness had left Merrill panting with a want all her own in her little hidden thicket.

After the initial shock of Hawke's mounting, Anders seemed to get a hold of himself some; his moans returning to their former, softer, groaning as he'd thrown his head back to watch Hawke as she rode him, seeking out her pleasure with strong lazy stirring movements of her hips. As Anders had grown quieter, however, Hawke's voice had grown louder, and if the man's earlier vocalization had seen Merrill's stomach roiling, these new song-like cries that Hawke had made had seen it positively dancing. As Merrill had watched, the rogue had picked up her pace until it was nearly a frenzied desperate sort of bucking; before, with a final loud sobbing scream of pleasure, she'd grown still, her back arching, her face flushed red, and her eyes rolling back. Again the sight of one of her companions achieving her climax seemed to have drawn out that sympathetic ghost of a climax within the little elf, and once more Merrill had felt that sudden swell of heat and wetness at the juncture of her legs even as it left her wanting.

"You're so beautiful when you cum, love." She heard Anders say, pant rather, his voice rough and strained, as he braced his feet and began to grind his hips up against Hawke until she was mewling with pleasure once more. "Show me again." Hawke had capitulated leaning down to kiss her lover even as she had begun to roll her hips atop him once more.

This finally proved the spur to action Merrill had needed. The idea of watching that happen again, simply too much for her poor over wrought nerves; and she had turned and fled through the undergrowth, not caring if they heard her.

.:xo-DFD-ox:.

The walk back from the coast had been an agony. Not only had she been painfully embarrassed, but the arousal the pair of humans had managed to stir in her had simply refused to be quashed. Fortunately, Hawke and Anders had been too caught up in each other to notice Merrill's odd blushes and the hurried nature of her stride. They made it back to the city in record time and Merrill's farewell to them at the city gates had been so abrupt as to border on the verge of rude, Hawke had just waved her off her arm snaking around Anders' waist as she had begun steering him toward her Hightown home. Merrill suspected that pair of human's had been just as eager to return to their previous activities in private as she was to be away from them and seeing to herself; otherwise her odd eagerness to be away from them would normally have garnered her at least a concerned look from her friend.

Upon attaining the privacy of her little home in the alienage, Merrill had rushed in to her bedchamber, shedding her robes as she went; desperate to take care of the throbbing ache that had seemed to have made a permanent home for itself between her legs.

Problem was, for the first time in her life, Merrill couldn't seem to do the job right.

She didn't masturbate frequently, only when she was particularity frustrated by a problem and struggling to sleep really, but she had gotten fairly proficient at if over the years. However, that night, even though she had managed to bring herself over the edge twice and her limbs had felt lethargic and heavy in the aftermath, it hadn't seemed to satisfy her. She was still left with that new ghostly ache in her core, and while she had taken care of the immediate need to squirm as she sat drinking her tea, she found herself feeling almost like she'd left the task uncompleted.

"Oh this is just silly!" She snapped after catching herself rereading the same passage of her book for the fourth time and seriously considering returning to her bed to try again. At this rate she was liable to end up raw and sore come morning and likely still be feeling unsatisfied, based on how the evening had progressed thus far. With a frustrated little sound, she'd snapped the old tome shut a little aggressively and shoved it across the table in disgust.

The book slid all the way across the tabletop and off the other side and Merrill had been forced to make a grab for it in order to stop it from falling to the floor. In her haste to catch it she had bumped the little box -in which she kept her flint and steel- to the ground, causing the hidden compartment in the back of it, to spring open; scattering the coins she hid there all across her earthen floor.

"Oh well that's just lovely." She'd groused, as she carefully set the book in the middle of her little table and then bent to start hunting down the coinage. As she did so, she contemplated just why it might be that she was still so physically frustrated; she'd never been unable to satisfy her few -infrequent- urges with her own hand before, so why now? What made tonight different? As she gathered up the last of her sparse little collection of coins, she'd come to the conclusion that it was unfortunately a simple case of un-sated curiosity. She'd known about sex and love-making obviously, one didn't remain friends with Isabela without learning some things, but today had been the first time she'd witnessed such a thing first hand, and the reality of it had been so remarkably different from what her vague imaginings had been, as to leaving her rather shocked.

It had been a good deal rougher that she'd always imagined, for one. The motion faster, more jerky, than she'd pictured. And louder! Merrill never felt the need to make more than a quiet little gasp whenever she took care of her own needs, and only ever at the very end. But the sounds Hawke had made throughout... Clearly something about the actual act was markedly different; those cries and sobbing pleas had seemed to be pulled out of the rogue by force. Pulled, or possibly driven out of her. Clearly Hawke had been enjoying herself.

Merrill had felt her stomach do that odd little dropping thing again as she recalled the image of Hawke crying out before she'd grown still and flushed. The look on her face, strained but somehow joyful at the same time; it wasn't an expression like any Merrill had ever witnessed and one she certainly had no experience with. The ache in Merrill's loins was back and she pressed her thighs together trying to alleviate it; trying to put pressure on the emptiness of-

That was it!

Empty.

That was why she couldn't seem to satisfy herself! She felt empty, and she had nothing with which to fill that emptiness.

Merrill had stood in the middle of her tiny room, her hand clutching her little pile of coins as she finally came to understand her problem. Having seen the sight of her friends making love -having seen Anders fill Hawke up – it had left her physically aware of the emptiness within her; it had just taken her mind all this time to put a name to the sensation. After all, in that respect she'd been 'empty' all her life; she'd never had comparison by which to say 'this is the thing I'm missing' for it had never been there in the first place.

Her momentary flash of excitement had fled a few breaths later though, when the reality of her epiphany had truly come home. It was all very well that she now understood why she was unable to see herself satisfied... but that got her no closer to actually seeing it done. After all, she simply didn't have a lover to fill her up.

With a defeated little groan she'd flopped back down into her chair, and carefully dumped her little handful of coins back in to the little box; the silver and copper gleaming in the flickering firelight. She contemplated the little pile of glimmering metal, idly wondering just how much she'd manage to squirrel away in this little stash of hers. More than she'd thought, apparently, and there was more silver pieces than copper now...

She went suddenly still; the niggling breathe of an idea forming in the back of her mind.

You may not have a lover who could fill you up -that treacherous little thought whispered- but you could always buy one.

Which is how she had ended up here, fidgeting outside the Blooming Rose trying to work up the nerve to go in and pay the stern looking woman the handful of silver coins it would take in order that her curiosity and her emptiness might be sated. She'd been meaning to spend this on something nice for her little home... but after everything that had happened, well, this suddenly felt more important than some random bit of pretty trinketry

"You'll never accomplish anything if you just keep standing out here in the dark, Merrill." She had told herself sternly as she'd once again gathered up the small collection of coin and carefully counted it out. She was pretty sure it was enough to get her the services of… someone in the brothel.

But now that she was here. She hadn't seemed able to work up the nerve to actually go in and do the deed. Truth be told, she had always found the place rather distasteful. It was all very pretty and what not, but it was just, well it all seemed so... unsavory.

"Enough of this foolishness, Merrill." She told herself, as she straightened her spine and forced her feet to take her across the cobbles toward the brightly painted red door. "You said you wanted this, and that is that. If you want to experience what it's like then this is the place to do it. You just have to do it is all. You just go inside and say what you want. There's nothing to be af- ofe!"

In her distracted state of trying to give herself the pep talk she needed to just take the plunge, she apparently hadn't been paying very much attention to where she was walking and so hadn't noticed the door as it opened inward before her, and thus walked right into the chest of someone who was leaving.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! That was entirely my fault I wasn't looking where I was going, and I was just so nervous I hope it didn't cause any trouble – I didn't mean to run into you li-"

"Kitten?" Merrill's head had whipped up, her eyes going hugely round and the sight of Isabela standing in the doorway, looking down at the little Dalish elf with an equally incredulous look.

Horrified at having been seen by one of her friends as she was attempting to actually enter the brothel by herself, Merrill's nerves shattered completely and she scrambled to her feet and ran. She hadn't paid any attention to where she been going; simply headed for the nearest flight of stairs and kept going until her lungs began to burn with her exertion. Eventually, her lungs demanded that she stop and catch her breath; which was probably a good thing. After so much reckless running she had gotten herself rather thoroughly turned around and was now quite hopelessly lost.

At first, she was too tired and winded to really care, and she simply leaned up against the wall of the little alley she'd come to rest in one that at least seemed relatively dry and free of ground filth. After a few minutes of panting and gasping she'd finally come back to herself enough to recognize the necessity of figuring out just where she was, so that she might drag herself back home where she could make a nice pot of tea and try to forget that she was still feeling aching and empty.

"Oh dear." She murmured wringing her hands together again as she tried to discern exactly where she had ended up. It wasn't Darktown, but it was no part of Lowtown she recognized either, and it definitely wasn't the Alienage. But while it was very clear just exactly where she wasn't, it was none the less, quite clear that wherever 'here' was, it was obviously not the most reputable of locations. And there were far too many big hulking humans laughing in that 'too loud' way that only the very drunk had. It was the state of their inebriation that worried her most; drunk shemlen had odd, and oftentimes unpleasant, ideas of 'fun' when it came to lone elves. She folded in on herself a bit and moved a little further back into the shadows of the alley, hoping none of the men had noticed her yet.

"An' just what's a pretty little thing like you doin' out all alone, on Maiden's Eve?"

Too late.

.:xo-DFD-ox:.

Varric sighed and shifted Bianca to his other shoulder. Ancestors! But stake-out jobs bored the ever living snot out of him. Hawke was right, he was probably wasting his time, sitting here waiting to see if their mark turned up tonight or not. Really, tomorrow was a much more likely bet. And it wasn't as though he could do anything if they actually did turn up; the best he could manage would be to set a tail on them and then gather up the others to deal with them tomorrow.

Nug shit.

If this guy wasn't supposed to be such big shit, he'd have just had one of his runners watch the thrice blighted docks for him.

A loud roar of laughter from the nearby tavern, where the dock workers normally congregated, saw him grumbling under his breath, and shrugging a little deeper into his duster. Good coin or not, this was a lousy way to spend his evening. He'd much rather be inside the bar enjoying some good ale, being the focus of the boisterous laughter, and a warm and willing wench.

The 'warm and willing wench' part of that seemed like a particularly welcome notion, as one of those early spring breezes cut over the wharf and wormed its way under his coat collar. It had been a while since he'd had a woman, and his shoulders were starting to get that achy tense feeling that only ever seemed to go away after he enjoyed a good tumble. Well it was Maiden's Eve. Single women tended to get a little desperate around this time of year. Maybe he'd just call it quits; set one of his boys to watch and see about making his way back to the Hanged Man... surely he'd find someone eager to join him in rumpling his sheets.

Another one of those damned breezes cut under the protection of his coat again and his mind was made up. He fished out a coin and set it atop his thumb before flipping it up in the air. By the time he caught it again one of his runners was at his side. He gave the boy the coin along with a description of the ship and person he was looking for.

"If he turns up, I need him followed till he settles somewhere, then come find me. And don't get made; it's not worth your life if he catches you tailing him. Got that?" The urchin nodded, then skillfully melted back into the shadows of the little alley. Satisfied with the situation, Varric had stepped out of the little alley, turning his collar up against the wind, and set out towards the Hanged Man. The night was young yet, and if he was lucky there was bound to be a few bodies yet, still sober enough, to consider the option of a little company.

He only managed a few steps, however, when that pesky breeze crept up on him again, only this time it carried with it something far more chilling than the nip of early spring frost. There was a voice on the wind; a voice he knew.

"I don't want any trouble!"

"Ah, nug shit." He muttered, rubbing a hand over his eyes, even as he turned back and went looking for the source. What in the Deep Roads was Daisy doing out on this part of the docks at this hour? Getting in trouble apparently, he answered himself as he rounded the corner and came into view of an alley on the other side of the tavern that was the twin of the one he'd been camped out in all evening.

Sure enough, there was Daisy. She'd gotten herself backed into the blind alley with three big knuckle-heads bearing down on her. Her staff was in her hand but, understandably, the elf had yet to do anything more than threaten the humans with the gnarled length of wood. Varric didn't blame her. The alley was a short one, and if she started casting, the flash of magic was sure to grab the attention of someone. This early in the evening, the docks were still plenty crowded; and while it was safe money to bet that no one would waste the breath to call the guard on a pack of humans interfering with a lone she-elf, you could put equally safe money that the moment any of those same people caught even a whiff of magic the docks would be crawling with templars before you could say 'apostate'. And that was a road that only lead in only one direction for Daisy.

"Com'on precious. We just wanna 'ave a' bit'o fun." Said Knucklehead Number One as he made a grab for her. Merrill side stepped him with a show of grace that usually eluded the little elf. Normally she was clumsy enough to make walruses look elegant by comparison. Unfortunately, the move also saw her all but walking straight into the arms of Knucklehead Number Two and she had to bring her staff around right quick to avoid him. She knocked him a good one in the face in the process, and the moment Varric saw the blood of that split lip, he'd known they were in for it. Low-minded brutes like these didn't forgive getting bloodied by elves.

"Knife eared bitch!" Snarled the drunk advancing on the little elf with significantly more menace to his drunken gait than he'd been demonstrating only moments before.

"No. I said, stay back!" Daisy said as she backed away from them until she was literally up against the wall.

Well, shit. Don't I pay people to keep this kind of crap from happening? He thought with a sigh as he pulled Bianca over his shoulder and set her sights on the big one, just as he started to close in on Daisy while her attention was still focused on the other two. He took careful aim, not wanting to see the situation escalate any further; he pulled the trigger, letting the bolt fly, pulling the big brute up short as it flew right in front of the tip of his nose, before burying itself in the moldy mortar of the brick wall beyond.

"She's not interested, Dickheads; but Bianca here, well she's a sucker for drunk, dumb, and ugly."

"Keep out of it, Stumpy. T'ain't none of yur concern." Said the seeming ringleader, who hadn't just about gotten a nostril pierced

Stumpy? Really? A crack at my height; that's the best you've got? Varric fought the urge to laugh at the man as he cocked Bianca with lightning speed, took aim and offered him the same view of one of her bolts clipping past his cheek with hardly a millimeter to spare. The bolt actually clipped the man's ear as it passed leaving a bleeding scratch in its wake. "Now you see, it kinda is," He said, dropping Bianca's nose a little to show he wasn't looking for a fight, as the man clapped a hand over his stinging ear. "'cause Daisy here, she happens to be a friend of mine. And Bianca?" He said giving the crossbow a fond pat, "Well, she doesn't much like it when people start messing with our friends. So, tell you what. How about you gentlemen apologize to my friend and we all just walk away. No harm; no foul. "

"Why you little shit!" The man in the back snarled, making a grab for Daisy as the other two shared a look before they both rushed him. So much for diplomacy. Varric thought as he swung Bianca up, sighting and firing almost simultaneously.

"Daisy! Get down!" He shouted as the three men all moved at once. He sighted on the man, going for Daisy, and loosed two bolts in sharp secession. The bolts pinned him to the wall by his shirt-sleeve, effectively taking him out of the fight. Varric rapidly turned the crossbow on the other two, but they'd covered the ground between him and them too quickly.

The dwarf was forced to trigger the mechanism that slid out Bianca's bayonet and had to move double time to get her nose up in time to slice the first one to reach him with a nasty cut right across the top of his leg; parting muscle from bone more efficiently than he'd intended, as the idiot continued to charge into the cut, effectively crippling the dumb bastard. Varric ducked out from under the human as he fell cussing out Varric's entire lineage, and rolled to the side in order to gain some room to work with. He'd just come up from his somersault, his hand dragging the dagger sheathed in his boot free; when he heard the last man breathing down his neck, his gamble for space not having paid off. He was not the best in close quarters fighting, but he made up for his shorter stature and lack of agility with strong knives and even stronger arms.

He'd just turned on his boot heels crouched low and ready to cut his opponent's shins out from under him when the man's eyes suddenly rolled back into his head and he collapsed to the ground at Varric's feet. The Dwarf's eyes traveled up from the, now unconscious human, to Daisy, where she was standing behind him, staff raised in a fashion that suggested she'd just used it to deliver a knockout blow to the drunk's thick skull.

"Do you think they'll be alright?" She asked looking around at the men lying about the alley in various states of incapacitation. Varric had to snort for the elf's show of concern over three men who moments before, had clearly had less than savory intention regarding her person.

"They'll be fine. Grab that one's coin purse, will you, Daisy." He straightened up and made his way over to the fool rolling around the alley, clutching at his bleeding leg. A tap to his jaw with Bianca's heel put the poor devil out. A mercy, allowing him to escape the pain like that; honestly, he should get a medal or something for being so perfectly generous of spirit sometimes. He proceeded to rummage around the blighter's pockets, relieving him of his purse while the third man rained insults down on him and Daisy both as he struggled to pull himself free of the wall. He tossed the small pouch of coppers up into the air and caught it again with a grin; before he made his way over to the last.

"You little, rock biting, thieving shit!" The man snarled, taking a swing at the dwarf with his free hand, Varric easily dodged it, coming up under his arm and popping him one under the jaw. The man slumped down the wall, dazed and groaning, until he was hanging from the bolts. Varric relieved him of his coin purse as well.

"Consider it reparations for the trouble." He informed the barely conscious thug in a patronizing tone, before he reached up and yanked the bolts from the mortar with a hard jerk; he'd then collected the other two bolts he'd planted in the wall, and Daisy. As they made their way out onto the main thoroughfare again he tossed the elf the heavier of the two purses. "Com'on, Daisy let's get you home."

"Are you sure we should just be leaving them like that?" The Dalish elf asked as she trailed along beside him, looking back at the then three groaning figures. Varric tried not to laugh again; honestly, only Daisy could be so worried about the health and safety of her would be attackers.

"They'll be fine, Daisy. They might be missing their clothes when they wake up," He said with and unconcerned shrug, "but that's just part of the gamble you take when you play rough down here. Speaking of which, mind telling me what you were doing down here... alone... in the middle of the night?" He inquired, cocking his eyebrow at her as they walked back toward the more familiar dangers of Lowtown.

"I'm not entirely sure really. Where is here exactly?" Daisy asked, looking around her in that semi-clueless way of hers that always made Varric want to smile even as he cringed.

"The docks, Daisy." He said patiently. "Can't you tell by the smell?"

"OH!" She stopped dead in the middle of walk and look around herself with wide eyes "Now I see! There's Hawke's statue! You know I never really noticed it before, but that really doesn't look like her at all does it? And she doesn't fight with a sword; why did they give her one do you think?" Varric shook his head a little as he caught a hold of the she-elf's arm and pulled her to the side of street so that she wouldn't call any more unnecessary attention to herself with the gawking. Maker's breath it would be just like her to notice something like that glaring inaccuracy now. Hawke, Isabela and himself had, had a good laugh about it the day it was unveiled; Anders on the other hand, had been livid on his lover's behalf, but then, the damned thing did look rather more like a Templar than anything else.

It took a bit of prodding, but eventually Varric had managed to shepherd the elf back to the more familiar streets and back alleys of Lowtown, and from there it was only a matter of a few minutes' walk to the Alienage. He still hadn't spotted his man who was supposed to be tailing her though which had started to feel worrisome. If there was one thing he could trust Daisy to do, it was get in trouble between here and her front door. If he had to take her all the way there himself, he might as well kiss any possible chance of finding a suitable -sober (enough)- bed partner goodbye. Finally, he spotted his man, Fingers, looking nervously about at the top of the Aleinage stair. The runner-dwarf took one look at Varric's face and went a rather impressive shade of white – dwarves usually don't get that pale.

"A moment, Daisy?" He said leaving the little elf to her cooing over some flea bitten cat she'd spotted. "Alright, what happened? And make it good, Fingers, I just had to beat off three drunken idiots, cause she got lost on the Docks."

"The Docks? How in the blazes did she end up there!" The runner groaned.

"That's just it; I don't know. I pay you to inform me about these sort of things. So go on, Fingers; inform."

"It wasn't my fault, I swear! She'd just been standing there staring at the place for almost an 'alf hour! I only looked away for a momen' to see if someone was round I could send for you, and when I looked back she's off an' running like a rabbit! I tried keeping up with her but she was 'head o' me, definitely headed for Lowtown, I swear! only I got, here and she' wasn't in front o' me no more."

"Hold on, hold on. Staring at what place for half an hour? Where was she that wasn't in Lowtown, exactly?"

"About an hour ago she just up and left her place and marched up to the red lantern distric' and then spent 'alf an hour fidgeting across the courtyard from The Rose."

"The Rose!" Varric shouted. His eyes whipping back to Daisy where she had sat down and had the flea bitten alley cat curled up on her lap like a pampered pet. "What in the void was she doing there?"

Fingers just shrugged. "I thought it was odd; but I didn' see any of the others to send your way. And you're always telling us we're not to interfere unless there's trouble."

Yeah, and Daisy going to the brothel... That doesn't smack of trouble, at all. He rubbed the back of his neck with a muffled groan. "Right, I'll talk to her; see she gets home. And Fingers? Don't let this happen again."

"Right. Sorry." The other dwarf apologized meekly, with a slightly chagrined smile before melting back into the shadows.

Varric turned his attention back to Daisy, biting down on his curiosity. It was none of his business what the elf got up to in her free time. He had her tailed because she was a friend of his and Hawke's, whom, neither of them wanted to see get into any serious trouble and because the silly -adorable- elf didn't have the self-preservation instincts of a day old nug.

"Don't play with that, Daisy, you don't know where it's been." Varric grimaced, eying up the mangy looking cat but thinking mostly of the entertainers in the Rose. He honestly couldn't even picture it, and that was kind of his area; picturing the impossible. However, he knew the Dalish elf didn't particularly approve of whores; so why in Thedas had she been there? Varric shook off the urge to question her "Alright, Daisy, let's get you home."

"Varric." Merrill said in a small voice. "Could I come to the Hanged Man for a bit? I won't be any bother, I swear." Varric gave the suddenly subdued elf a lingering look. "Of course, if you have plans I guess I should probably just go back to the Alienage..."

Well, there go my plans for the evening... Varric thought with a rueful little chuckle before he offered the elf a saucy smile. "Now Daisy, you know me better than that! When have I ever turned away company?" A bright smile lit up the she-elf's face and she promptly set the stray aside and popped up to her feet. Varric made a show of an overly formal bow, "After you." which made her giggle at his antics as they, then, both turned in the direction of the tavern.

Varric tried to bite his tongue on the gnawing need to know what had driven Daisy up there tonight of all nights. Maiden's eve seemed like a damned odd time for her to be visiting a place she patently disliked. Hmmmm. He knew a few elves worked there… perhaps she'd made a sweetheart of one of them? No, that couldn't be right. She'd never get caught-up with a… uh, professional; and he was pretty sure most of the whores actually lived in the back rooms of the brothel – at least they certainly didn't live in the Alienage- so where would she have even encountered any of them to begin with?

As Varric continued to worry at the riddle of her Hightown visit, Daisy was slowly losing her bubble again; her steps becoming more even and subdued, her face more melancholy by the moment. When she'd huffed out a quiet, heavy, sigh Varric couldn't take it anymore.

"Daisy, this whole wanting to come to the Hanged Man tonight... it wouldn't have anything to do with why you were up in Hightown, now would it?"

The elf's ears blushed a rosy pink and she dropped her eyes to the flagstones. "Maybe a little." She murmured, the dwarf simply continued to look up from the corner of his eye, waiting for the flood gate to open; 'cause Daisy couldn't keep quiet if paid to. Tonight, however, she surprised him, managing to keep her usual flood of words held meekly behind the dam of her lips; and, before Varric knew it, they'd been walking in to the riotous noise and stink of the over crowed common room.

He sent the elf up to his suite where it was quieter; determined to set about interrogating her until he'd figured out what it was that had put her in such an odd mood. He made his way to the bar and croft, and collected a couple mugs of the bars strongest -still piss awful- ale and made a direct line for his quarters.

He'd literally just crossed the threshold, a question regarding the elf's presence in the red lantern district on his lips; when Daisy straightened in her chair, and dropped the biggest bomb of his life, right on his head.

"Varric, would you have sex with me? Tonight. Right now." Varric's step faltered and beer sloshed out over his gloves as he very nearly tripped over his own jaw where it was lying on the floor.

The Rose. Sex. Right. I guess that makes sense… sort of.

.:xo-DFD-ox:.

"Is something the matter, Varric?" It had taken Merrill a few moments to realize something was wrong with the storyteller but when he continued to just stand there and look at her like that -beer dripping over his hands and onto the floor, his mouth slightly open and brows raised- she did eventually clue in to the fact that she might have been -perhaps- a bit blunt asking him, all sudden-like, like that.

Maybe that wasn't the best way to broach the subject... but she didn't know how else one went about it. Isabela had always seemed to just walk up to a man and then they were walking off together sometimes without so much as a word passing between them; and Merrill was never entirely certain what had happened. Clearly she couldn't do that; for starts she had no idea how Isabela did that, for seconds it only seemed to work with men you'd only just met going by Isabela's example and she knew Varric rather well, when it was all said and done.

She'd deiced on the walk back from the Docks that, despite her continued, lingering, discomfort she really didn't want it to be a random stranger she shared her first time with. After all, Isabela had always said that if you did it wrong it could make you sick; like sailing -and she had gotten terribly sea-sick the last time she's gone sailing. So what was to say some random stranger wouldn't do it wrong? She certainly didn't know how to do it right. Nor did she seem to have Isabela's ability to guess on who might be able to do it right just by looking at them in a crowd.

No, better to do it with someone she trusted; someone who knew what they were doing.

It was as she'd made that decision, that they'd walked into the Hanged Man, and Varric had placed a warm protective hand on the small of her back, as he deftly steered her passed the loud and rowdy drunks by the door, only sending her ahead to his suite after they were clear of the worst of the rabble-rousers, while he darted off to fetch them some drinks. At which point, as she was walking up the back stair, she had come to the realization that she trusted Varric very much; and he always seemed to be looking out for her -even to the point of being silly about it. That kind of behavior would imply he cared about her, right? You didn't do things like that -she wasn't dumb; she knew he had her followed around town- unless you were at least fond of someone, surely?

And anyone who told as many dirty stories and jokes as Varric, would certainly have to know what he was doing, right? That made sense, didn't it? Really he seemed like the best person she could possibly want to help her out of her predicament.

Decision made, she'd sat down to wait for him, only when he'd walked through the door she had suddenly realized she didn't have the slightest clue how to go about this whole business and had simply blurted out the first words that came to mind in order to express her desire for the evening. Obviously, that was yet another place she'd gone and put her foot in it, regarding socials customs based on the look Varric was giving her.

She huffed out a long suffering sigh. Things had been so much easier amongst the Dalish; everyone was fairly straight forward amongst her own people. Varric recovered easily enough from his momentary lapse into stunned incredulity with a shake of his head, as he straightened up from his half stumbled pose and he gave her one of his trade mark laughs.

"Shit, you gotta watch how you phrase those hypothetical questions, Daisy; a man could get the wrong idea, you asking him a thing like that."

"But, it wasn't meant to be a hypothetical question, Varric. I'm being completely serious; I was asking if you would like to have sex with me this evening."

"Okay, Daisy, what brought this on all of a sudden?" The dwarf asked, leveling her with an almost accusatory stare.

"Brought what on, Varric?"

"First the Rose, and now this." He waved his hand between the two of them for clarification "Whatever this is.

"Nothing in particular." She lied, not very convincingly as his eyes narrowed at her and she felt the tips of her ears getting warm.

"Yeah, not gonna fly. You ain't the Rivaini to be all brazen; not without a reason. Spill."

"I just... well I might have -possibly- seen Hawke and Anders earlier today. I didn't mean to! We went to the Coast for a picnic, sort off, well they went for a picnic and Hawke invited me along only Anders was upset about that, cause it was supposed to be just the two of them. So I went off to gather herbs and I found this lovely big patch of Embrium and I wasn't thinking and I went running back. Only I forgot I was supposed be giving them some alone time, and they were rather, well... indisposed, shall we call it? I guess. And I, well I've just been left feeling this achy kind of emptiness ever since. And I don't have anyone to do that sort of thing with the way Hawke and Isabela do and I really want this feeling to go away, so I said to myself 'Now, Merrill if you have a problem you have to fix it yourself only I can't seem to - make it go away myself, that is. So then I thought that the only way to make it go away would be to have sex with someone, only when I got to the Rose Isabela and was coming out and I sort of walked right into her and fell down and I just was so flustered after that and that's when you found me on the docks." Varric was just looking at her again like she'd suddenly sprouted a set of horns like a Qunari. Daisy spared him only a glance as she went on to say, "Overall, I'm really quite glad it turned out this way. I'd much rather be with you than someone... not." She finished scrunching up of her nose in distaste at the thought that's she'd even been considering going to one of the um... working people, for such a thing.

Varric's eyes had been steadily growing wider as Daisy's little babbling monologue went on, though he'd managed to keep his jaw from falling open again.

"So~ let me see if I've got all that straight, Daisy: you ended up spying on Anders and Hawke having sex in the middle of the woods, now you're horny and looking for someone to take care of that for you?"

"Well that is a little plain, and a bit of an over simplification, but I guess that is essentially right. Yes." she said with a thoughtful tilt to her head before nodding eagerly at him. "So, will you? Have sex with me that is? Cause I've tried taking care of it alone and I was going to end up raw if I rubbed myself anymore."

.:xo-DFD-ox:.

Shit! was she telling him she'd been masturbating all evening? She was! A sudden flood of vivid -unsolicited- mental images saw Varric swallowing hard and he had to fight to make his voice sound normal. "I don't think that it would be the best idea, Daisy." He finally got out past his irrationally dry mouth, wincing internally to hear the tiny rasp that lingered despite his efforts.

"Is it because of Bianca? The woman, not the crossbow, I mean. I always thought she was dead. Is she not? Will she be jealous?"

"No that's not... Bianca is... it's complicated; but no, she doesn't have a problem with me having... company now and again." He temporized trying to get the words out without grimacing; it would be nice if she did have and issue with it, then maybe she'd understand how it sometime felt on his end, every time he had to watch her walk back to him.

"Well, why not then?" Merrill asked looking at him with those big wide bottomless pools of ivy she called eyes. "Is it a dwarf/elf thing? Do you not find me attractive, Varric?"

No that definitely wasn't the problem, either.

Varric knew that most of his brethren found elves not only unattractive, but downright ugly. Too skinny, breakable, even; all pointy lines and narrow bones, no real substance or strength in them. Perhaps in that respect Varric was just, yet again, the odd man out; or perhaps, he just spent too much time in the company of the other races; but he'd certainly never had any problems finding appealing attributes on his elven and human colleges. Not to be misunderstood, he loved a well-appointed dwarf-maid; thick and curvaceous in all the right places, they tended to be positively mouthwatering. But on the side of shapely little willow reeds, Daisy was certainly a tempting eyeful.

Breasts that had no business calling the chest of an elf home, that taut narrow little waist, hips and ass that looked downright chewable... and those shapely little legs of hers weren't exactly anything to sneeze at either. If he had to pick a favorite feature on Daisy it was definitely her legs. Elves had the best legs. Slender and easy to get a good grip on; they had the advantage of length over dwarven legs, without being so long as to be ungainly and in his way in the bed, the way human limbs tended to be. Varric's mind flashed to the image of Daisy stretched out before him, those lovely legs of hers wrapped right around him, as he buried himself in her tight elven core, her breasts bouncing perfectly on each thrust, her skin flushed until those tattoos of hers were barely visible...

His mouth went a little dry and there was a definite stirring in his britches as his cock woke up to the fact that perhaps their plans for this evening hadn't been quite so thoroughly canceled as they had originally thought. As he tried to correct the overeager dwarf in his smalls, his gaze, trying to avoid the little elf's mildly unnerving -very over direct- stare, flicked down to Daisy's hands which were also covered in her vallaslin. His mind, eager to encourage him down this path, quickly began assaulting him with the speculation and rumors he'd heard over the years about Dalish blood-writing. Specifically about just how much of a Dalish elf's body was supposedly covered in the pale tattoos. Were those delicate scrolling marks really to be found everywhere under Daisy's robes? Again the thought of the little elf's naked legs called forth an image in his thrice cursed overly-vivid imagination. This time he pictured one of those perfect legs thrown over his shoulder as he plowed into her heat; the creamy smooth skin covered in a lacy scrollwork of tattoos he might trace with his tongue, the better to watch her writhe and come undone beneath him.

Damn it dwarf! Get a hold of yourself! Obviously this track wasn't working. He needed to change tactics.

"Now Daisy, you've nothing to fret about on that front." He reassured her, "You're positively the prettiest little flower I know, but this isn't about looks." When she gave him a puzzled look he continued to try and talk her round to his way of thinking "Now, I may be the very Paragon of manliness, but do you even like me, Daisy?"

"Of course I like you, Varric! That's a silly question; I wouldn't be your friend if I didn't like you, after all." She said eagerly leaning forward, in a move that saw her breasts caught up between her arms so they ended up pushed together and up in what the storyteller was sure was an entirely unconscious, positively enticing and seductive, move. If it had been the Rivaini sitting across from him, he'd have been just as certain it was a very calculated and deliberate one, but this was Daisy and she had the market cornered on that whole 'guileless' front.

"Right." Varric croaked before clearing his throat, and dragging his eyes off the sight of her tits all squashed together and on display for him like that, with a real effort. "But I think you're getting the definition 'like' in this situation rather confused, there Daisy. I know you like me as a friend, but do you Like me? Am I attractive to you? To put it simply: do you look at me and think of sex?"

"Well I've never really thought about it like that before." The elf mused finally taking her eyes off of him and sitting back in her chair a bit to contemplate his point. "Probably not before today." Varric sighed a little internal sigh of relief, at least he told himself it was relief; not regret -definably not regret!- that she had finally seen his point.

"Well there you have it, Daisy. If I'm not the kind of person you like to do that sort of thing with then there's no point risking our friendship over a cheap thrill, right?" He stood up and turned to fetch his cards from his desk drawer, intent on distracting the elf -and himself if he was honest- away from the highly uncomfortable line of conversation with a nice simple game of Diamond Back. That was the only reason he did it. He certainly wasn't turning his back on the little elf in order to hide anything; any possible disappointment that might slip through his otherwise flawless wicked grace-face, for instance.

"But that's just it!" Merrill piped up cheerfully behind him just as he collected the deck of playing cards. "I don't know what kind of person I like having sex with! I've never had sex with anyone before, so how am I supposed to know what I like in a partner? How am I supposed to know what I like if I've never tried it with anyone?"

Varric froze. No. you heard that wrong. He told himself as he casually began to shuffle the cards.

"You're gonna have to say that again, Daisy... cause it sounded to me like you just told me you were asking me to pop your Cherry."

"Well I don't know anything about a cherry, but I was asking if you would have sex with me, and it would be my first time doing such a thing... is that what you meant?"

Well fuck me sideways. He thought with an internal groan placing the cards back on the desk as he closed his eyes and rubbed his temple with a beer-damp glove trying to ease the headache that was threatening. I'd have pegged her as 'inexperienced' not 'virginal'. Honestly, who'd ever heard of a virgin blood-mage… Was that even a thing?

"That would be the standard interpretation of that particular idiom, yeah." He said crossing his arms over his chest and leaning on the desk at his back; trying to figure out what he was supposed to do with that little gem of information she'd just casually tossed his way. Along with, her being 'almost raw' from dipping her digits, 'aching and empty' after getting the voyeuristic jollies watching Hawke, and let's not forget 'would you have sex with me?' Honestly what was a dwarf supposed to do with information like that? He couldn't just ignore it. Not when it was so clearly driving her every decision and warping her better-but-never-good-in-the-first-place-judgment.

Merrill stood with a sigh. "Oh well, it was worth asking I suppose; but seeing as you seem not to be very interested... I'm sure I can find someone here who isn't too much of a stranger. I'll just be leaving yo-"

Ah' Nug Shit. Varric had less than thirty seconds to make a choice between taking her up on her crazy offer or letting her walk out of his room and into common room full of increasingly rowdy drunks; which really wasn't an option at all for a friend and gentleman.

"Daisy, wait!" He said, hastening to intercept her before she could walk out of his suite and proposition that crazy drunk that liked to hang out in the corridor. "Sit down and have another drink. I... I'll get the door.

I'll get the door. Four little words, and suddenly their course was set.

Daisy had an itch, and Varric, had the knowhow to scratch it.

A/N: AHHHHH! Cliff hanger! How did that happen! Oh. Right. This was supposed to be a one-shot for Valentines and as-per-ussaul it got WAY out of hand, and I got spooked about making my deadline (this was really not the week for me to catch the nastiest head-cold in the history of head-colds, let me tell you). If absolutely every thing goes right in my life, then I may still manage to get chapter two posted on valentines... if not I apologizes profusely and swear it shall be up not long there after.

As always I LOVE to hear from you!

So drop me a 'hello', a comment, a review, hell! a harshly worded critique! I will dance the rigamaroled in you honor! I swear!

See you all again in and few days.