"Fenris." Echo said loudly, hand clenched so tightly that it hurt. She was sitting on the ground near the Vhenadahl, sketching a stray cat.

He obligingly (but with some surprise) appeared from the shadows of a home to her left.

"Is there something I can help you with?" She asked as sweetly as she could manage. The man was fraying her nerves. After a month and a half of silent watching and brooding, she desperately needed a break.

He shook his head and craned his neck to see what was on her paper. "A cat?" Fenris murmured, apparently baffled.

"That's what it's supposed to be, yes." Echo grunted. "But I doubt you're here to watch me draw."

Fenris leaned back against a stone structure (it was probably a pedestal for a hideous slave statue that had since been removed, but no one knew for sure) and eyed her with disinterest.

'Oh, sure. Act like you just happened to be down in the place that you hate, watching me.' She mocked internally. 'Total coincidence. You haven't been spying on me or anything.'

To be fair, this was the first she'd seen of him today. She folded up her paper and tucked it into a pocket before standing and brushing the dust off her legs. She was done drawing for today anyway.

Fenris shrugged. "Varric said he wanted to speak with you, and I wished to depart the squalor of the Hanged Man as soon as possible."

"You lost at Diamondback, didn't you."

He was surprised. Why wouldn't she know? He was smart, yes, but Isabela and Varric cheated. She should know. Echo learned from Varric in the first place.

"Perhaps." He acknowledged, looking down at his bare feet.

She put a hand on her hip, and Fenris tracked the movement. He lightly bit his lower lip.

"And how is that my fault? You shouldn't be so rude. I would have taught you to cheat, if you asked."

Fenris snorted. "I don't cheat, Daisy."

That was baffling. Daisy? Only Varric called her Daisy. Her confusion must have shown on her face, because Fenris felt the need to clarify.

"I was unsure of your actual name. Varric calls you Daisy, and the others call you Echo. I thought that woman in the Alienage called you something else. Echo seems an unkind moniker."

Oh, that made sense. She smiled a little bit, for poor socially-awkward Fenris' sake. "That's what I want to be called by. Varric just keeps calling me something else."

Fenris shrugged. "It is of little consequence to me what you call yourself. I have no right to judge you."

An odd statement, but this conversation was already taking forever. Echo slowly reached out and grabbed a gauntleted hand. His hands were surprisingly warm, even as the gauntlet scratched at her fingers.

"You should probably take me back to the Hanged Man, then." She thought about the mass of people that would be in the Lowtown market and gnawed at her own lip. "I tend to get a bit lost in crowds."

Rather, she was tiny. And unless she wanted to shank people or start hurling lightning, the crowd kind of pushed her wherever they were already going. Coming back to the Alienage was relatively easy once she broke past the worst of the crowd. But going to the Hanged Man was slightly problematic for her at this time of day. Being associated with a metallic porcupine would greatly increase her chances of getting there at a decent time.

Fenris seemed to think that this was expected, because he only expressed momentary discomfort with being touched before he quietly accommodated to her presence.

"Thank you." She meant it sincerely. Fenris wasn't usually this nice.

He merely grunted, and a woman in his direct path almost dove into a fish stand to avoid him.

"I wish I could do that." She marveled. No one liked to get in Fenris' way. Apparently being a tall, distinctive, and spiky elf had some benefits.

"You would like to be branded with lyrium?" He asked in a controversial tone.

She blinked. "Well, no, I wasn't referring to that. Is that what I feel singing on your skin?" It really did sing to her. It had taken a few days to realize why he monopolized so much of her attention. The lyrium called to the part of her that was still very much a spirit of the Fade.

It didn't explain why his voice made her feel warm and tingly, or why she really wanted to look at his eyes all the time. But that sounded like a can of worms she wouldn't be able to close, so she didn't look into it too closely.

He stopped, and looked back at her. He seemed to be searching for something in her face.

Echo didn't know if he found it, but after a few moments he stopped and turned back to the crowd. "You are a very odd woman, Echo."

'That's kinda rich, coming from the guy squatting in a corpse-filled, dilapidated mansion.' She thought, but carefully did not say. She'd never seen Fenris upset, but she wasn't eager to have righteous, lyrium-fueled fury directed at her.

Instead, she focused on enjoying the way that everyone dove out of their path and pretended she was Godzilla.

"Finally here." Varric greeted, waving a mug at the back of the bar.

Echo yanked on Fenris' hand. He stayed in one place.

She turned back to look at him. "Oh, come on." She pleaded. "We were having such a good time on the way here. Besides, I didn't get to play cards earlier."

"Why would I need to be here for that?" He asked with a darkly amused voice.

She rolled her eyes and closed in on his personal space. He smelled like leather and lyrium, mixed with sweat and some underlying scent that must have been naturally his. Echo reminded herself to focus.

"Because I want to take your money." She chirped, and yanked on his hand again. This time, Fenris let himself be led back to the tables, where Isabella and Varric were lording over their piles of coins like dragons.

"He'd like to buy in again." She said, pointing her free thumb at Fenris. "And I would like to watch."

Fenris hacked in surprise. Poor man hadn't been expecting that. True to form, however, he sat down and dropped a few coppers on the table.

"Silver this time, darling." Isabella purred, and Echo felt irritation hit her like high tide.

Fenris grunted in annoyance, but found the coin necessary.

"Let me deal." Echo inserted neatly, sitting next to Fenris at the long wooden table. "You two are cheaters."

Varric winked at her, but Isabella didn't yet seem to realize Echo had the brains to cheat. "Are you sure, kitten?" Isabella asked. "Do you know how to play Wicked Grace?"

Echo blinked her eyes as sweetly as possible. "Not really." She lied smoothly, shuffling the cards with fake discomfort. "But I know enough to deal the cards."

She and Fenris cleaned them out, even if he didn't realize it. The instant the game was over, Echo swept his winnings into a pouch before Isabella could snatch them. "Here you go." She smiled, dropping the heavy bag into Fenris' eager hands. "Don't spend it all in one place."

Fenris walked away ecstatic and drunk, but Isabela was giving her a look that could peel paint.

"You cheated." Isabela purred. "I thought you said you didn't know how to play."

Echo just shrugged, and Varric clapped Isabela on the back. "Now, Rivaini, you have to think about it like this. He's won big this time, so he's got the fever. We'll get more out of him over time than we would have today."

Isabela considered this and jutted out her lip. "That's true." She concluded happily, before standing gracefully and stalking back to the bar. Doubtless to make some poor moron buy her a drink.

"That's not like you." Varric said consideringly. His smile made Echo slightly wary. "Never would have thought you'd fall for a cute face."

"He didn't manipulate me." Echo insisted, sneaking a sip out of Varric's mulled wine.

Varric chuckled. "No, he didn't. Poor man doesn't know what just happened."

"That's the way I like it." Echo stared vacantly at the fire in the corner. Then she realized something. "Hey, Fenris said you wanted to see me?"

Varric snorted. Loudly.

"No, I didn't. Broody just isn't the most socially apt, if you've noticed."

"So he accidentally got caught in a conversation and didn't know how to escape without involving you?" Echo stretched her legs out and onto the chair Fenris had occupied earlier. It felt good to lay back a bit.

He shrugged. "Probably just said the first thing that came to mind. I doubt Broody knows how to talk to people. Last week, he and Bethany had an hour long fight about the bandanna around her neck. I don't think he even knew how he started it."

'That's sort of an accomplishment, actually. Bethany is so hard to provoke.'

"I should probably go home, then." Of course, she didn't start to move. Varric's place was comfortable, and there was wine here.

"Probably." He agreed absently, before noticing someone at the door. "Hello, Hawke!"

"My favorite dwarf!" Hawke held her arms open wide and drawled. "And Echo!" She walked into the room and dumped her sack on the floor by the entryway.

"And me." Echo agreed, still staring into the fireplace.

Hawke came up behind her and poked the side of her face. Echo turned around enough to see Hawke not an inch from her nose.

"How come you weren't at my mother's yesterday, huh?" Hawke chided. "She hasn't seen you in forever. You need to come by."

Oh. That. The 'family dinner' thing Leandra had cooked up a month or two ago.

But it was awkward for Echo. They had family conventions she didn't know about, and discussions she couldn't contribute to.

Not to mention that Leandra had initially gone from thinking Echo was going to steal all the flatware (because she was an ELF, she heard her whisper from behind the kitchen door), to deciding that she needed all the love and affection in the world. Now Echo was some sort of 'human burden', and she honestly couldn't decide which situation she hated more.

Leandra wasn't a bad person. In fact, she was about the furthest thing from it. But she was a bit racist, even if she didn't want to acknowledge it.

"Something came up." She said blandly, and hoped that Hawke would drop the subject.

"Tomorrow." Hawke squinted at her in a fake-threatening manner. "You'll come over tomorrow. I'll stop by your house and get you in time for dinner."

Hawke left an hour or two later in a flurry of motion. Evidently she had a new sword for Carver to pick up from a blacksmith, and a million other things to do.

"I know you find those dinners uncomfortable." Varric said as Hawke bustled out the door of the Hanged Man. "But the Hawkes really love them. And Bethany wanted to know where you were, too. Girl doesn't get out much."

"It's not my fault they've cloistered the poor woman." Echo complained bitterly. "And Leandra's nice. I just-"

"Don't really like how they assume you're either a thief or completely inept, and therefore, harmless?" Varric asked with a raised brow. "You are a thief, though. I mean, nobody knows that but me. But the point remains, Daisy."

"I don't steal from people like the Hawkes." She replied archly. "I take things nobody will miss from obscenely wealthy jerks."

"I don't think the city guard makes that much of a distinction." Varric put his own legs up on a chair. He pulled his tankard closer to his chest and looked vacantly out the doorway.

She pouted. "But we do. Right?"

"Right." Varric smiled at her, and that made her feel better. "If it makes you feel better, Fenris has also categorically refused to attend."

"Why would that make me feel better?" Echo asked, exasperated.

Varric didn't reply for a long moment. He just lit a pipe with that nasty dwarven tobacco and took a long draw. "I don't know, Daisy. Just seemed like the right thing to say."

"Can you imagine how that would go if he did show up?" Echo giggled. She was definitely drunk at this point. Her insides felt warm and her mind was calm. And at some point she'd lost her shoes.

They both took a moment to picture that. Then they laughed.

"At best, I think he'd walk in, look around, and walk right out again." Varric chuckled.

Echo gripped her tankard with clumsy hands. "Those are very pretty markings." She gasped in a poor imitation of Leandra's voice.

"That would go downhill fast." Varric chuckled. "Don't look now, but Broody is back."

Sure enough, Fenris was stumbling drunkenly between tables. He was on track to make it back to them.

"He'll be here in a few hours." Echo related. "If Isabela doesn't catch him first."

Luckily for Fenris' virtue and his coin pouch, Isabela was currently being serenaded by a trio of drunken sailors. She was far too occupied and irritated to notice Fenris slinking past her and up the stairs.

"If you're back for more Diamondback, you should know I'm all done for the day." Varric said, raising his palms in defeat. Fenris just clumsily shook his head. He stumbled towards his earlier seat, and Echo barely moved them from the chair before he plopped down on it.

"No," Fenris slurred slightly. "I just didn't want to be alone in the mansion tonight."

"Need anything?" the waitress asked quietly, but Echo quickly shook her head. They'd all had more than enough. And Fenris looked three sheets to the wind. The door closed with a quiet click.

"Well, since I have a captive audience…" Varric led as he rummaged through his bag. Echo suddenly realized that she should not have let the waitress shut the door. "I'm going to have you read my newest masterpiece. Please let me know what you think of it." He passed the book to Fenris, who solemnly opened it to somewhere in the middle and squinted.

"No." He said with finality.

"It's pretty large print." Varric said with some confusion.

Fenris shook his head from side to side. "No. You read it." He thrust the book over to Echo.

"All right, then." She gently removed it from Fenris' iron grip. He stared at her with big bloodshot eyes.

"You can read it?" He asked, jabbing a metal-covered finger at the book's cover.

Echo blinked and opened it to the first page. The print was large enough that she would be all right, as long as she read slowly. "Yes, I can. Want me to read it for you?"

"Yes." He commanded imperiously, leaning back into his chair. "Read it."

She obediently brought the book up closer to her face. Varric was never going to let her leave here without having read it anyway. But she wasn't entirely cowed. She lifted her legs up and situated them on Fenris' lap. It was much more comfortable to read this way. And his body heat would warm her feet. Win/win, as far she was concerned.

"She arched her chest, as if to aid his hands' reach for the complicated fastenings on her back," She read placidly. "His fingers stumbled at first, but quickly learned how to unlace the knots without breaking their kiss. Her breath quickened in excitement as he finished unlacing her tight corset.'" She noticed Fenris' leg had gone tense underneath her foot. She looked up. He was staring at her with his mouth slightly open. His pretty green eyes did not look good framed with red, she noted.

"That's what's in these?" Fenris directed the question at Varric, voice as low as it was conflicted. The man in question looked like he was about to giggle himself to death. His tone raised just a bit in accusation. "You made her read that?"

"To be fair, no one made me read anything." She corrected, but Fenris still seemed pretty flabbergasted. "Does that mean you want me to stop?"

"No." Fenris refused. He stuck out his lip and pouted. "Keep reading." He placed a hand gently over her ice cold feet. As if that would keep her from going anywhere.

"Oookay." She sighed. "'Lethallin, let me help you onto the bed.' He commanded huskily- oh, that's a good word, huskily-" Varric choked a little bit. Fenris started absently rubbing circles on the bottoms of her bare feet with the pads of his fingers. "'Oh, but we must be quiet like mice.' She whispered fearfully. 'Or my Lord father will hear us.'" The rubbing momentarily stopped. Echo barely managed to keep herself from whining. It started up again with more intensity in a moment. Fenris moved his other hand to rest on her calf.

She would complain, but she was the one who invaded his personal space.

Echo cleared her throat silently. "'Oh, but my darling elfroot,' he crooned. The moonlight shone on her lover's face, and the white soft light on his vallaslin made him appear as a fey thing, wild and unknowable." A sharp laugh broke her concentration again.

She looked over to Varric, unamused. "If you don't stop cackling, how can anyone else enjoy this? Honestly."

"Take it home." Varric wheezed. "Take Broody with you."

She jumped to her feet and only wobbled a little. Echo tucked the book under arm and gallantly extended a hand to help Fenris up.

That may have been a mistake. Fenris was much heavier than she was.

She attempted to pull Fenris up. That first jerk strained the muscles in her arm. He tried next, and nearly pulled her down into his lap with a surprised squeak. "You did that on purpose." She playfully accused. Fenris just gave a boozy half-smile in return.

She added suspiciously, "That had been a joke." His smile only widened.

She jerked on his arm again. This time he stumbled forward onto his feet, and right over hers.

"Oww…" She whimpered pitifully. Fenris gave a concerned look and a reassuring shoulder nudge. It did not soothe her pain in the least.

"Next time I have to pick you up, you're getting rid of all that metal." She groused. "You're far too heavy."

Varric's background giggles grew louder.

"You want to help?" She rounded on him. Varric just waggled his tankard to demonstrate that he was entirely too inebriated to assist in any way.

"Thought so. Everyone's a critic." Fenris slipped his hand in hers with all the drunken finesse he could muster and stumbled after her out of the building.

Lowtown was always so strangely quiet at night. Others might have found that intimidating, but Echo reveled in it. It was the only time she could walk through the streets without being bumped into. And she was hardly afraid of a few mercenaries.

She took a longer route home than usual, hoping that it would clear her head a bit. Echo had been feeling strangely dizzy while in the Hanged Man. The cool night air blew into her face and tangled in her hair. It was salty and clear and good. Echo took a deep breath of it and held it in her mouth for a moment, before blowing it out.

Hot breath on her neck startled her back into the moment. It smelled of stale alcohol and made her nose wrinkle.

"Sorry, Fenris." She apologized lightly, before turning back and threading her fingers between his. If he was worse off than her, he definitely shouldn't walk all the way back up to Hightown alone. She didn't know if she was holding onto him for his sake or hers, though.

Probably his. She knew her way back home by heart.

They both stumbled a few times on their way back to her home in the Alienage. Divots and dips in the road were awfully hard to see at night, even though the moon was out. It bathed them both in white light and highlighted the Gallows out in the bay.

Echo dutifully avoided looking at it. Even moonlight couldn't make something awful like that pretty.

They crept silently past the gates of the Alienage, careful not to wake any of her neighbors. Her door opened with a creak and she beckoned Fenris to go in first. He slipped his hand out of hers hesitantly and took a few steps inside before she slid in behind him and closed the door.

"Echo."

She looked up from the locks on the door to find Fenris looking at her. The fingers on his right hand twitched a little bit.

"Yes, Fenris?" She nibbled at her lip. Was he going to say something about her home? Did he think she should have walked him all the way back to Hightown? It didn't seem practical, but drunk people rarely were.

He took a hesitant half-step forward. "Would you…"

She squinted. He wasn't holding anything out to her, but his palm was open. Echo impulsively put her hand on top of his. Fenris closed his hand and pulled her towards him, making her stumble across the floor.

Echo crashed into his chestplate in slow motion. Even though it happened slowly, it still kind of hurt.

"Ahh…" She hissed, slightly aware that this wasn't the first time tonight he'd accidentally done something like that.

"I'm sorry." He rumbled from above her. His voice made his chest vibrate under her ears. It felt comforting. And the skin she was touching was really warm.

She breathed in, and noted the same leather and lyrium scent from earlier. Something low in her belly grew warm.

'Nope. I'm drunk. I've got to stop this, I'm acting like a ninny.'

Echo pulled her face away from his chest and looked up at him. The fine lyrium lines on his chin seemed to almost glow in the moonlight and she found herself slightly transfixed. Then some long-dormant responsible part of her reminded Echo of her earlier statement. She gracefully grabbed his chin and pulled it down so that he was looking at her.

Which brought his mouth dangerously close to her own. Stupid. Echo tried to back up, but at some point Fenris had wrapped his arms around her back. Once her attempt had been registered he loosened his hold on her and she took a step back, hoping a little bit of distance would help her focus.

Nope. He was still pretty. Handsome? Whatever. They both applied.

"Am I doing something wrong?" Fenris asked, dropping his hands from her hips entirely. The loss of his body heat made her feel suddenly cold and vulnerable.

"What?" That last question wasn't really processing.

Fenris gestured loosely with his right arm in her direction. "Am I doing something wrong? I… I don't know how to do this."

The wheels slowly began to turn in her brain, but quickly picked up speed.

'Oh, god. We're both idiots.'

"Fenris, are you trying to express interest in me?" She squinted at him. It was hard to tell facial expressions in this much dark.

Her response was a grunt Fenris usually used in the affirmative.

"You're really drunk right now." Echo's right hand automatically raised to slide through her hair. She kept it at the base of her skull, and grasped at a chunk of hair. She rolled it between her fingers to help relieve some of her stress.

Fenris slowly dipped his head in acknowledgement. Silvery-white hair fell over big green eyes, and that same warmth flooded her belly. This was far more difficult than it should be. Perhaps her judgment was impaired as well. "I can't do that while you're drunk. It would be really wrong."

His adam's apple moved in a silent swallow, and he took a hesitant half-step backward.

'I can't win. He just thinks I turned him down entirely.'

"Ask me when you're sober, all right?"

Eyes lit up with understanding. But he didn't move. He gave a hesitant glance towards the door.

"What kind of person do you think I am? I'm not going to make you find your way to your place like this." She grabbed his outstretched hand, and he clasped onto it like a life-line. She led him to her bed. "You can sleep here for the night, I'll just curl up with some blankets."

He shuffled towards the bed and peeled off the metal gauntlets and chestpiece that attached to his armor before carefully placing them on the floor. Strangely enough, he didn't look vulnerable without them. In fact, the lines of lyrium glowing, wrapped around corded muscles made him somehow just as intimidating as before. She wanted to use other words to describe him, but she suspected that Varric's book was just putting words into her head.

Fenris didn't seem to notice her idiotic staring. He crawled onto her bed and fell asleep almost as soon as his head rested on the pillow.

'That's… really adorable, actually.' Echo put a few extra blankets next to the bed in case he woke up cold, and prepared her own sleeping nest out of blankets and pillows.

As she curled up under her blankets, she couldn't figure out whether she hoped this was a dream or not.

When she woke up in her blanket nest, no one was in her bed. Echo gummily blinked a few times. Fenris still didn't appear. So she resigned herself to cleaning up and finishing Varric's book. He would expect it back pretty soon.

After a few hours, she dropped by the Hanged Man to return the book to Varric. She barged into the room without checking for any other inhabitants. It was midday, so Varric was probably alone and working. "I wrote comments." She said, waving a stack of papers and dropping them in front of him on the table. "The heroine desperately needs some personality, and confidence."

Well, she'd found Fenris, at least. He just gaped at her with incomprehension. "I thought I imagined all that." He groaned, and thudded his head onto the table. Evidently his hangover was pretty fierce. Echo sympathized.

"Nope." She popped the 'p' and placed the book on top of her notes. "Have you tried a healing potion for that?"

The groan emanating from the vicinity of Fenris' head informed her that the answer was 'no'.

"I think I have one on me." She muttered, and dug through her pouches. Echo found the tiny vial in a pocket on her chest, and poked Fenris' head. "Drink it."

He obligingly downed the whole thing and put his head back down on the table.

"Is that really how I looked all those months ago?" She asked no one in particular.

Varric snorted. "You looked a whole lot worse, Daisy. He managed to make it here."

She shrugged. He had a good point. "So why didn't you give him a potion?"

Varric winked at her. "…Because you were going to make me do it." She realized. "Fenris, you're lucky you're cute."

He didn't seem to hear her. In fact, he was snoring lightly.

"Very lucky." She amended, before turning to leave. Fenris needed sleep and Varric would like the quiet to work.

Echo spent the rest of the day wandering the Wounded Coast again. It had become something of a stress relief tool for her. Even if she didn't find any slavers or bandits, she had plenty of time to experiment.

Currently she was working on something she'd seen Morrigan do. The Witch of the Wilds had been able to change forms to a number of different animals. From what Hawke had said about her mother, Flemeth, it had even more applications than Morrigan had known.

She had had Alistair ask Morrigan about it at one point. What Morrigan had shared had boiled down to "study animals. Then become them." Not very helpful, but it was probably accurate.

So Echo had spent hours of her time on the Wounded Coast, watching the local wildlife. Morrigan had intimated that animals comparable to her size were easiest to learn at first. She'd almost forgotten about it until she saw the stray cats in the Alienage. They were graceful, quiet, and quick. The form could be useful to her if she managed to achieve it. Even if she never figured out the transformation, it would be an interesting endeavor.

The wolves were interesting, and probably a good place to start. They were roughly comparable to her size, and ferocious enough to be useful.

Echo drew out their musculature on leafs of paper. She needed to know about their bodies in order to make the transition. The problem was that she was reaching the end of the studies she could complete without examining a wolf's corpse.

She didn't want to have to kill a whole pack, so she was going to have to lure one out on its own.

It was on the second day of her camp-out that a wolf finally took her bait and came out alone. A thin, quick ice spike through the head made it almost painless, and the wolf slumped to the ground.

Approaching it was unpleasant. It stank of unwashed fur, the rotting meat in its teeth, and the sour shit it'd taken in its last moments. Echo made sketches of the animal from up close. How the jaw met and curved, how many teeth it had, the number of claws on its paws. Then it was time for the messy work. She gritted her jaw and tried not to breathe in, but nothing she could do changed the sick, hot metallic smell in the air or the sensation of the pelt giving way under her knife when she made the first cut. She skinned the animal quickly, the way Alistair had shown her in her brief time with him.

The muscle patterns were nominally different from how she had imagined them. Most difficult was how the legs and footpads interacted. They were the polar opposite of human anatomy.

Then the organs had to be documented, examined, and extracted. Dogs didn't seem to have anything extra that humans or elves did not. They just had them in very different places. She examined the spinal cord and how it attached to the skull, providing wolves the ability to look in most directions. How far the eyes were apart from each other.

There were measurements taken. Then a quiet and quick cremation and ash disposal.

After it was all completed, she felt slightly sick to her stomach. She hadn't eaten in about a day. But she didn't have plans to remedy that anytime soon. But at least she was done.

Now she just had to figure out how to do the magic part.

She slunk home stinking of blood and dirt. Luckily, it was dark.

"There you are!" Announced the voice of a person she'd purposefully been avoiding. Hawke strode into view with confidence. She was in normal civilian clothes with a piece of blue bandanna tucking out of her pocket, tousled hair, and flushed cheeks.

And Fenris in tow.

'She's in a strangely good mood for having wrangled 'Broody' all the way down here.' Things to ponder.

"Are we going to dinner?" Echo asked weakly, hoping that Hawke would notice how gross she was and let her be.

"Oh, yes, we are." Hawke grinned, and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt. "You're not getting away this time."

Fenris made a noise.

Hawke turned back to him and he instantly quieted.

"And neither are you." Hawke said with saccharine sweetness. "Mother wants to meet you. So we're going. Now."

"Can I get cleaned up first?" Echo pleaded, holding up her hands. Hawke sniffed and recoiled.

"You'd better." Hawke turned to Fenris, who had just turned to make a speedy escape. "Fenris, you were going to let her go like that? For shame."

Fenris seemed to be reconsidering his life choices. He opened his mouth to defend himself, looked at Echo, and shut it entirely. There was no point in arguing with Hawke.

"So, Fenris.." Leandra placed yet another serving of mashed potatoes on his plate. "What do you do?"

'I'm kind of between jobs right now.' Echo poked at her own food with disinterest and mocked. 'I'm an ex-slave. Slaving is a hard business, you know. I'm looking to break into a new field with better retirement benefits.'

Fenris didn't seem to know how to answer the question either. She sympathized. Leandra didn't like what her children did for a living.

One couldn't really blame her. She'd wanted more for her kids than mercenary work. She'd probably thought they'd all have quiet and pleasant lives back in Ferelden. The instant they fought their way here, her own brother had sold her children into a year of servitude. All so that they could live in the city she grew up in.

It was little wonder that Leandra was latching onto her children so tightly. But it was just as unsurprising that her adult children were starting to pull away. They had their own lives to live. The Hawke siblings had to live in the present, where they killed people for money to pay for their family.

Leandra, by comparison, preferred to delude herself about her children's activities. If she really registered it she would probably panic and chase them further away. Carver in particular was chafing in their new family dynamic, judging by the amount of applications he had submitted to the city guard.

In Leandra's mind, Hawke's companions were now cherished family friends, because she had no other way to make them fit. So they had to have careers, and love lives. She asked after them with so much hope in her eyes that Echo found herself constantly uncomfortable.

Echo didn't want to lie to her. But lying to her was probably better than forcing her self-made walls to come crashing down around her ears. The poor woman would probably have a nervous breakdown, and Echo wasn't going to be responsible for that.

"He works with Varric and I." Echo found herself saying, before Fenris could shatter the illusion. "And he works with children in the Alienage."

Where in hell did that come from?

Fenris looked surprised, but wisely kept his mouth shut.

"He loves children." Echo shoved a spoonful of potatoes into her mouth so she wouldn't have to answer any follow-up questions.

That seemed to satisfy Leandra, and she beamed at Fenris.

"That's excellent, Fenris." She praised. "Women love men that are good with children."

Fenris gave a stiff, practiced smile and fiddled with his gauntlets under the table. He seemed to have realized that his best chance of making it out of here without being maimed was to be very quiet and let Leandra make her own assumptions.

"So, Echo."

She smiled with her mouth closed and chewed at her potatoes exaggeratedly, but Leandra just waited with a kind smile on her face. Echo swallowed in resignation.

"So, how is your work as First?"

"Well, there aren't really Firsts in the Alienage." Echo explained awkwardly. "That position only exists in the Dalish clans."

Leandra nodded and tucked that piece of cultural information away for further use. "So, what does a First do, exactly?"

Even Fenris seemed to be looking at her with interest.

She restrained the urge to run her hands through her hair. Only barely.

"A First is an apprentice to the Keeper of the clan." She twisted her ankle around to pop the joint and carefully put her hands in her lap, lest she start twitching out of embarrassment. "The Keeper is our leader, they decide where the clan goes and take care of everyone."

"So you're going to be Keeper of a clan, then?" Leandra asked with some surprise. "Catherine didn't tell me that."

This was a terrible idea. "I don't think so." Echo allowed, staring at a knot on the wooden walls. "I left the Dalish to help my people in the Alienage."

"Did the Keeper say you couldn't come back?" Leandra was surprisingly interested in this conversation. For the second time in two months, Echo wished she knew the Keeper magic that could suck her out through the dirt floor.

"No." She hedged. "I just…" She bit her lip hard enough that it hurt. "It's complicated. But thank you for asking, Leandra."

Leandra was about ready to say something when Hawke walked into the room and quickly assessed the situation. "Echo will be fine, Mother." Hawke slid an arm over Leandra's shoulders and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "But I think they both need to go home now. It's pretty late, and I bet they both have something to do in the morning."

Echo gratefully leapt up to give Leandra her mandated hug and escape to the relative safety of her own home. She made it as far as the doorway before a look from Hawke made her linger just outside. Fenris slowly but gracefully stood from his seat and followed them out after kissing Leandra's hand politely.

"Thank you." Hawke whispered to them both after she shut the door. "I think she really needed that."

"It was my pleasure." Echo replied somewhat sincerely. Even if the conversation and all the feelings made her feel uncomfortable, Leandra meant well. And the food was excellent.

Fenris just grunted in assent and put a gauntleted hand over his stomach. Leandra had decided he was far too thin, and had stuffed him accordingly. "I think I should go home now." He allowed with a careful look at them both. "Are we meeting tomorrow?"

"Only if you want to." Hawke shrugged. "There's news of a Fereldan Grey Warden in the city. I need to find him so we can get their maps of the Deep Roads."

"Sounds interesting." Echo muttered with false disinterest. Her mind was racing. But the only Fereldan Warden she knew was Alistair, and even she would know if the King of Ferelden was in Kirkwall. Maybe it was Justice in Elissa's body? It would be nice to see a familiar face. "Where are you meeting, the Hanged Man?"

"Yes." Hawke nodded distractedly. "Early in the morning. I have no idea how long it will take. How do you know someone's a Grey Warden, anyway?"

"Darkspawn taint." Echo supplied automatically.

They both looked at her with obvious interest. She shrugged.

"Is this one of those things that the Dalish just know?" Hawke asked with squinted eyes. "Or just you?"

"Just me." Echo chirped, and bounced down the stairs away from Hawke's home. "I'll see you tomorrow, Hawke! Have a good night, Fenris."

Hawke blinked in confusion as she watched Echo skip away towards the Alienage.

"Does that happen often?" Fenris asked, evidently struggling to keep all his food down. He swallowed audibly and groaned lowly from the back of his throat.

Hawke snickered. "You can tell Mother no, you know. If you don't, she'll just keep doing that. I think she thinks that all elves are just too skinny for their own good."

Fenris eyed her warily and edged towards the stairs. Hawke sighed. "Just go home, Fenris. Will we see you tomorrow?"

"Maybe." He grunted, and strode away into the night. Hawke just shrugged. It wasn't any of her business what Broody did and didn't do.

So I may have (definitely) based Leandra off of my stepmother. That was exciting.

I posted two chapters at once, so if you didn't read Chapter 11, you should probably go back and do that.