Author's Note: First time in this fandom. This piece is short and unbeta-ed/edited. Just testing out the waters to see if there's any interest before I break my back writing one of my always painfully long pieces...

Some Things You Do For Money…

Or, Varric and the Women

Hawke.

The refugee.

The champion.

The one woman who gets Bianca all green-eyed…and she just had to be born a human.

Shit.

I should have known the day I met her in the Merchant's Quarter that those auburn eyes would kill me. Then again, I should have known a lot of things…

I take full responsibility for what happened in the Deep Roads, and if I could go back in time I'd bend over and kick my own ass for idiocy instead of dragging Sunshine and her sister into that Maker-forsaken mess. Hawke's heart broke the day her sister departed, and I've spent all the years since helping her pick up the pieces, but I know things will never be the same for her.

They haven't been the same for me, either.

I spend all my days looking after her now, instead of my back-stabbing brother, and all my nights staring at the ceiling of the Hanged Man, wondering how in the hells I could have fallen so hard so fast for a human…

The Merchant's Guild is threatening me with expulsion for all the meetings I've missed to be with her, but I've become so grossly infatuated that even the risk of losing my share in the Tethras family fortune can't move me to care.

It's like a wise man once said (oh who am I kidding? It was probably a woman): Some things you do for money…

…and some you do for love.

Varric was pleased to find the Hanged Man was sparse when he stepped out of the streets and into his little Lowtown hideaway. He'd just returned from an abnormally long and abominably boring audience with his brother, and the last thing he wanted was a crowd of human drunks delaying his evening dinner plans. Though the tavern wasn't much to look at - with it's dust-clogged corners and questionable clientele - it was home away from home for the dwarf, and he took comfort in the fact that everyone knew his name, as well as his habits…

"You'll be having your usual, serah?" a half-elf hailed from where she scrubbed a scarred table near the bar.

"At your leisure, Edwina," the dwarf replied with a smile and a bow, "Your job is hard enough as it is without having to hustle."

"Pike it, Tethras," the woman replied acidly, "That silver tongue of yours won't cut the muster with me. There's some woman waiting in your suite; you've had enough of them dropping by lately to start your own brothel!"

"I'd never!" Varric exclaimed with an air of affected sincerity. He threw his gloved hands out to gesture at the hall's small gathering. "These fools couldn't afford it, and besides," he sniffed, "Why share if you don't have to?"

A mix of boos and poorly-hid laughs rippled through the room, which Edwina met with a smack on her ass an obscene gesture. "Maker take the lot of ya!"

She threw her rag down with a wet slap and stormed to the back rooms, her pointed elven nose held high. The dwarf chuckled and turned to confide in a patron too deep in his cups to care, "I love that woman. So angry…"

Seeing that the show was over, the crowd settled back to their beers and allowed Varric to pass unhindered to the stairs leading up to his private suite on the second floor. The corridor was empty save the Hanged Man's addle-brained steward dusting the few paintings the establishment could afford to speak of, but a warm light peeking from under the dwarf's door proved Edwina's words were true.

He fished a coin out of one of his coat pockets and flicked it with sympathy at the muttering caretaker before placing his hand on the suite's doorknob and pushing it open. A figure sat quietly at his table, lit only by the room's active fire and a single, dwindling candle. He knew it was Hawke by the chair she had chosen - always the one furthest from his own - but his whimsical side couldn't help but note how different she looked seated as opposed to standing.

She was a tall woman, even by human standards, but lean and ungainly in a way that belied the speed and accuracy she exhibited in combat. Relaxed as she was, the jerkiness of her movements wasn't obvious, and she could be taken for any of Kirkwall's commoners, instead of the reluctant Fereldan smuggler he knew her to be.

A smile played across his generous mouth as he shut the door behind him and crossed the room to be at her side. He was about to greet her with a newly-formed nickname when he caught sight of the hand headed for her mouth.

"Maker's breath, Hawke!"

The woman jumped at his sudden exclamation and dropped her soup-filled spoon back into the steaming bowl before her. She whipped her head around to stare at him in bewilderment, face splattered with grease. "What?" she demanded anxiously.

Varric completed his course of the room in two hasty strides and reached across her to pull the bowl away. He planted his feet and put his hands on his hips before waving at the dirt-brown sludge. "You were really gonna eat that?" he asked incredulously.

She shrugged her ample shoulders and eyed the stolen meal. "I'm hungry…"

"Wild dogs aren't that hungry," the dwarf replied, snatching up the bowl and heading back to the door where he left it to be taken away outside. He returned to the table and took his customary seat by the fire with a shake of his head. "Look Hawke, I know you're eager to get to the Deep Roads, but there's no point in cutting costs to save your share if it means you'll die before we get there."

"From the stew or from starvation?" Hawke asked with an annoyed pout.

Varric grinned at the barb, but leaned forward and tapped the table with two fingers. "The kitchen will open as soon as the sun sets, which should be any minute now. The staff will bring up a proper meal then."

"You've got them trained that well, do you?"

"I've been here a long time, Hawke. I'm their best customer."

"A declaration I dare not doubt," a new voice interjected lightly. The two pre-occupied parties quit their bickering long enough to face the newcomer with surprise.

"Aveline!" Hawke smiled.

The stately woman standing in the doorway inclined her head and returned the warm expression. "Hawke, Varric. I hope you two aren't busy tonight."

The dwarf raised a critical eyebrow and rolled his golden-brown eyes in Hawke's direction. "Just protecting my investment, as always..."

"Hmph," she huffed back, "His cash cow, more like." She scooted back from the table to untie a pouch at her waist and drop it unceremoniously onto the table in front of her. It landed heavily and Varric's face pinched.

"You have all that gold and you were about to eat that hot mess?" he demanded with a jerk of his thumb in the offending foods direction.

"Some of us have a family to support Varric, not the other way around. I can't keep mother, fund the expedition and afford suckling pig."

"Suckling pig, Hawke?" Varric exasperated, "Maker! Somebody get this woman a brandy…"

"That's what nobles eat, isn't it?"

Aveline's green eyes darted between the two as she followed the curious conversation. "What are you two talking about?"

"Hawke's death wish," the dwarf replied tartly.

"I don't have a death wish. I have an empty stomach."

"I have leftover rations, if you like," the red head offered as she took a chair alongside her squabbling companions.

"Oh don't encourage her," Varric groaned, burying his face in a leather palm.

The group sat in silence for a moment before Aveline took the opportunity to turn them towards business. "Look, if the two of you aren't intent on fighting each other all night, I could use your help with something, and if we're going to go, we need to go tonight. This won't wait."

"What's the problem?" Hawke asked, leaning forward to rest her chin in her hands upon the stew-stained tabletop.

"An ambush, in the Wounded Coast. Or the possibility of one, at least. My contacts have been passing along some disturbing information - information worth investigating, and if it turns out to be true, I won't be able to handle it on own. I need your daggers," she eyed Hawke then turned to Varric, "And your crossbow. Also, I'd prefer at least one of you sober."

"I'm sitting right here…" the dwarf muttered defensively.

"I'd love to help you, Aveline, but it's late and I haven't eaten all day," Hawke said weakly, "You aren't even sure your information is good."

"Please, Hawke, I know it's late and a bit of a trip, but I have to do this. I'm going to go, whether you come or not, but you should know that if I go alone I may not come back."

Varric cracked his knuckles and swung his strong jaw to observe the dithering expression on Hawke's face. A little push and he could convince her.

"You aren't the kind of person to abandon a friend, Hawke," he told her, "You've stuck with me all this time, after all. I think we should check it out. Having the guard owe us one could be handy in the future."

Aveline gave him a mild scowl but he only shrugged and waited for Hawke's reply. He could see the woman's brown eyes darting in her head as she weighed her emotions against her hunger pains, and decided to make one last push. "I'll get you a suckling pig, Hawke."

She brought her head up and her contorted face cleared. "You better not be lying…"

Varric reached back and drew out Bianca. He laid the crossbow across his lap and grinned. "Shoot it myself if I have to. Now, how's that?"

He could tell she was still ambivalent, but her better half won over as usual. "Fine. We'll go to the Wounded Coast."

The three stood up and pushed in their chairs as a barmaid entered the room, a tray balanced precariously at her side. "You call for a brandy?"

Aveline reached out with a long arm and took the glass before Hawke could protest. She swung it sharply into Varric's face. "Stow it, dwarf."

He gave the redhead a wary glance and took the offered cup. "Don't have to ask me twice…"

Hawke watched in horror as he downed it in one quaff. She lashed out at him as the guardswoman steered her by the shoulders to the door. "Bastard!"

"You'll thank me later, Hawke," Varric replied, offering the empty glass back to the barmaid, "You'll thank me later."