A/N: After the first Fenris quest, he says something along the lines of "Well, if I knew about you I would have asked you." The premise of this story (or just the start of it) is basically if he had. Warning! This Hawke cusses, A LOT. And this also explains why A Warrior's Heart hasn't been updated, I'm distracted by everything. I hardly got this finished with that whole 'real life' thing. A plus though, I'm graduating a year early! Anyway, your basic 'I don't own these characters' disclaimers, yadda yadda, enjoy!

Fenris had a problem. Well, actually, Fenris didn't have a problem, Fenris had lots of problems. It was simply that this particular problem had an expiration date. A trap set for a wolf can only last so long before it's sprung by a stray rabbit. He had dealt with ambushes before, but this time there were far too many of them for one warrior to handle, no matter how strong.

Anso was useless, a coward. All he said was "Well, you could- you could go to Athenril. She's, uh, she's got- people." He shook his head nervously and his eyes seemed to grow wider than they already were, threatening to pop out of his skull like arrows to protect him. Anso scurried away, leaving Fenris with nothing but a name. Athenril.

Luckily for Fenris, as useless as Anso was, his information was still good. Athenril was quite well-known, and fairly simple to track down. There weren't many elven women that had made names for themselves in this city, so for that he had to respect her, but the business she was in? He didn't have to respect that.

The warehouse was a nameless, faceless, drop-spot littered with more bodies than the dungeons at the Gallows. He assumed that the area patrols were too busy smelling coin to smell corpses. Athenril stood at the edge of a small dock while a small man with a limp muttered something obviously displeasing to her. The first thing Fenris heard her say, or shout, was "I do not pay you to bring me bad news! I pay you to get results! So the next time you come to me with bullshit like that expect me to carve it out of your fucking face!"

The man looked like he was about to say something, but one pointed glare had him scurrying away like a rat. "Next!" She yelled as the next client approached the dock. It went on like that for a while, Athenril would cuss someone out for doing something wrong, or she'd take on a new job, occasionally hire someone to run something for her, until it was Fenris's turn. He didn't like waiting in line, but he was on his last leg, if Athenril couldn't help him he'd a miss a golden opportunity to get one over on his 'master'.

"And what in the Void are you?" Athenril's first question was a sarcastic play on his obviously strange appearance.

"What I am is not relevant, what I want is." Fenris spat at her, he was nothing for bedside manner.

"And to think you came to me." Athenril shook her head, but she was pleased, no one had stood up to her today, it was about time. "What is it that you want? And why should I help you?"

"I had some cargo stolen from me, I need it back." They never took their eyes off each other, it was a hostile negotiation, but most were when it came to Athenril.

"Then go get it." She spoke with a harsh edge.

"I would, but it's heavily guarded. I was told to come to you."

"We aren't a mercenary company. Go to the Red Iron if you need sell-swords, I hear Meeran is a real nice guy to work with."

"I don't have the coin for 'sell-swords'. I need thieves."

"So you can't pay them, but you can pay us?"

"I don't need as many of you."

Athenril snorted, "Where is it?"

"The Lowtown Alienage. Protected by Tevinter slavers." Fenris figured that lying about it wouldn't matter, if she was going to sell him out she'd do it regardless of who it was to.

"Slavers? You want me to send my men to steal from slavers? We don't trade in flesh, anybody knows that, so unless there's something else you want I suggest you leave." Athenril crossed her arms and glared, not that it was much different from her usual posture.

"Ugh, that's not what I want you to steal." Fenris said, disgusted.

Athenril raised an eyebrow, "Oh? What the hell else could they have? Scratch that, I don't want to know, we aren't helping you. We're spread out thin enough as it is, I'm not sending anyone to their deaths. Slavers are bad business and I'll have none of it."

Fenris clenched his fists and his jaw before he continued, "Fine, do you know anyone else that can help me, besides Meeran?" He hissed through his teeth.

She stopped in thought for a moment, unsure of whether telling him about her was a good idea. 'Eh, not like she's my problem anymore.' Athenril thought. "You want Hawke."

"And where do I find this Hawke?" Fenris loosened up a bit, glad that she wasn't being anal about this.

"The Hanged Man, usually with a stumpy, beardless dwarf by the name of Varric."

"And you're sure that this one man can help me?" Fenris asked with skepticism.

Athenril laughed, as did any of her men there that were paying enough attention to hear Hawke's name, "Man? She'd be nicer if she was a man, and less threatening. She can help you though, and she'll probably do it for free if you mention slavers."

Free? No way. Nobody did anything dangerous for anyone else for free. Fenris turned to leave, but Athenril had more to say, "She's a bitch, Hawke, her sister is nice enough, but she'll chew you up and spit you out. Watch yourself." Fenris simply nodded and walked away.

Nobody really gave a shit what happened in the Hanged Man, as long as there were chairs, tables, and alcohol when it was done with. So when a big, burly man with an eye patch came in yelling about 'that Fereldan whore' no one really cared. Which of course made the big, burly man with the eye patch yell louder. Fenris was only vaguely paying attention, this was quite obviously not Hawke and he didn't care about Fereldans or whores. He was looking for a woman with short, black hair, as dark as death itself, a face painted with the blood of her enemies, and eyes icy enough to pierce through your very soul. At least, that's how the dwarf had described her, although, with the obvious embellishments on the other stories he had heard him tell in the time he had sat waiting he was half-expecting Hawke to be a short, fat child with a toy dagger. In this case though, the dwarf was spot on.

Mr. Eye Patch just wouldn't shut up, "She stole from me, made my wife leave me, and killed my brother! I swear, when she shows up, she'll pay! As will any of you if I find out you know where she is and haven't told me." His last statement was obviously pointed at the bartender, as the man had gotten a whole three inches away from his face and practically growled it.

Seemingly prompted by Mr. Eye Patch's rant, a rather provocative, dark-skinned woman (who hadn't moved in the whole time Fenris had been there) pushed away from the bar and sashayed over to Varric, the dwarf who told tales far taller than himself. "Varric," she crooned, "when is Hawke gonna get here? She promised that we were both going to get piss-ass drunk tonight. I'm already halfway there and she hasn't even showed up."

"My, my, Isabela, it seems like she's a popular woman tonight. First that elf, then Gordon over there, and now you? The way I see it she's probably avoiding all the attention, or maybe just Gordon." Varric and Isabela both talked incredibly loud, obviously trying to make Gordon angry, which obviously worked. He stormed over in quite the fit of rage. Fenris found that the best course of action, in this case, was no action, he sat, watched, and wondered if Hawke actually was a Fereldan whore.

"Where is she?" Gordon shouted (a full decibel louder than he had already been) as he slammed his fists down on the table.

"That's kind of the point, isn't it? I don't know. That's why I had to ask, you blundering idiot! Now would you please calm your shit down!" Isabela said, regardless of consequence.

"Well, I, on the other hand, know where she is, but I'm just not telling you. She'll get here when she gets here." Varric shrugged.

Gordon let out a guttural roar and lunged at Varric, stopping when he was nose-to-nose with him. "Tell me where she is or I'll rip your head off and use it for target practice!"

"Now, now, now," An unfamiliar voice purred from behind Gordon, it's owner blocked from Fenris's view by his hulking form, "That is no way to treat my friends, and I really don't think Bianca likes threats."

"Ah, Hawke! Your incredibly well-timed entrances never cease to amaze me." Varric sighed in relief.

"You! You. Are. Dead!" Gordon lifted his arms and let out yet another battle cry, probably winding up to strangle her, but before he could let loose there was a blade running through his mouth and out the top of his skull.

"Ha! Teach him to run his mouth!" Isabela laughed as Gordon's corpse hit the ground.

"What the hell, Hawke? I know you could have just debilitated him and let the law handle it, did you have to kill him?" Another woman, whom Fenris had not noticed in the commotion, asked.

"Yes, Aveline, I did. He was going to kill me, so I killed him first, this is just how these things work. Besides, I was flustered, a giant man lunged at me, what else was I supposed to do?" Hawke looked at Aveline with wide eyes, and Fenris got his first real look at her. With a bloodied dagger in her hand and a body at her feet, a sight he would later find to be not the slightest bit out of the norm. She was exactly as Varric had described, gorgeous and terrifying.

"Bullshit, Hawke, I know full-well you weren't the slightest bit 'flustered', you just wanted him dead." Aveline retorted.

"Well yeah, the man was a slave trader who beat his wife, did you really think I was going to let him walk out of here?" Hawke asked with a raised brow.

Aveline shrugged, "You have a point, but why couldn't you have done it in a back-alley or something? Do you have any idea how much paperwork is going to go with this?"

"You're forgetting something, Aveline, I don't care."

"Oh, of course you don't, silly of me to think you might." Aveline shook her head as they sat down with Varric and Isabela.

Fenris didn't approach her as he might of in a different situation, he had already explained what he needed to Varric, and Varric had sworn up and down that as soon as Hawke arrived he would point her in his direction. Apparently this job 'had Hawke written all over it'. While normally Fenris would take matters into his own hands, he was going to have to work with this woman and he wanted to know how trustworthy her companions were, even if it was something as trivial as passing along information.

"Alright, Varric, what've you got for me?" Hawke asked as took a long gulp from his mug, he didn't seem to care.

"Well, Anders wants you to help him at the clinic this weekend, but-" Varric started to say when Isabela cut him off.

"But what he didn't say is how badly he wants to fuck you until you can't see straight in that ramshackle office of his." Isabela nodded, as though she had just give some absolutely vital information.

"I wouldn't have put it quite so, artistically, but I suppose that's the core of it. I've gotta run down to Darktown today anyway, do you want me to pass along a message?" Varric grinned at Isabela.

Hawke took a moment to think, and drink, before she spoke, "No, no, just let him fester for a while, if I send you to reject him he's going to be three-times worse than if I do it myself, and I can't fucking handle that shit from him. Instead of doting on me and constantly staring at my chest it's going to be mages-this and mages-that all damn day. I'm not sure which is worse."

"He's going to ask. What do you want me to tell him?" Varric pointed out.

"Ugh, just tell him I said I'd go for one day, and only one, I can handle the rest of it myself. I'm thinking that he'll be much less angry all the time if he thinks he still has a chance. I mean, have you seen him angry? That's a fucking terrorist waiting to happen." Hawke changed her tune after thinking about it again.

"Don't you think that leading him on is a little cruel? He doesn't deserve that, no matter how angry he is." Aveline piped in.

"Do I look like I give a shit? He's an abomination, and as far as I'm concerned he doesn't have feelings." Hawke glared at Aveline, her distaste for the situation apparent.

"Would you not say that so loud!"

"Again, Aveline, I give no shits. We have the maps, if he gets caught by Templars, he gets caught. It's not like he can't just bust out again."

Aveline just sighed again, and dropped the subject. Fenris could hear everything, of course, and he wasn't sure if he liked this woman or not, she was obviously against slavery, which was a plus, but she consorted with an abomination, which was not. Her views on mages as a whole weren't clear either. He appreciated her candor, however, she was certainly not one to hold her tongue. She would probably swear at the Knight-Commander herself if given the opportunity.

"Alright, Varric, anything else?" Hawke turned back to him.

"Yeah, that elf, right there," Varric pointed at Fenris, who then sat up perfectly straight, "wants to talk to you. He's got a job for us."

"Oh balls." Hawke sighed, "At least that explains the staring." But she got up anyway, despite the fact that she seemed incredibly abject to even talk to him.

It took her two seconds to get to his two-man table and sit directly across from him, she rested her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand. She didn't say anything. No hello. No what do you want. No nothing. It was incredibly awkward. They just stared at each other for about five whole minutes before Hawke broke the silence, "Well, what the fuck do you want? You wanted to talk to me, remember?" This was starting to seem oddly familiar to Fenris.

He just gritted his teeth and shrugged it off, he knew that as much as he wanted to be rude right back it wasn't going to get him anywhere. "I lost some cargo, it's going to be heavily guarded and I need to get it back."

"What is it and how much are you paying me?" Hawke asked, looking rather nonchalant.

"It's cargo, and I can give you 10 sovereigns to cover your payment and equipment cost."

"I'm going to, very kindly, I might add, ignore the fact that you're being evasive. Where is it?"

"A house in the Lowtown Alienage." He was starting to see why Hawke and Athenril didn't get along, they were far too much alike.

"So, you want me to steal back some heavily-guarded cargo from a house in the Alienage, correct?"

"Yes."

"And who am I stealing it from?"

"Tevinter slavers."

"No."

"What?" Fenris asked, shocked.

"No, I'm not helping you."

"Why the hell not!" Fenris growled, his patience wearing thin.

"Don't you raise your voice at me! If you want your slaves back you go get them yourself, you're lucky I don't gut you right now for having the balls to even ask me!" Hawke stood up and glared down at him.

Fenris was enraged, he glowed and glowered and towered over Hawke like a giant when he stood to face her, "It's not slaves!" He shouted.

At this point Varric, Isabela, and Aveline were all watching rather intently, however, Varric was snickering to himself at Hawke's quick temper. He knew this was going to happen, it was just a matter of how glow-boy would handle it, Hawke didn't take well to secrecy and he was full of it.

"Unnamed cargo that slavers are keeping in the Alienage of all places, what the hell else could it possibly be?" Hawke shouted back.

"I don't know!" And there was the truth of it, Fenris had no idea what it was, just that it was a trap that he couldn't handle on his own.

Hawke's face contorted to incredulity and she sat back down, trying to puzzle out what the hell just happened. "You don't know?"

Fenris sat down again as well, "No, I don't. It's an ambush."

"By slavers?" Hawke asked, curiosity instantly piqued again.

"Yes. I don't know how many, but it's more than I can handle alone." Fenris looked down and away from her, ashamed to admit that there was anything he could handle.

"Well why didn't you say so? I'll have it done by the end of the day!"

Fenris was even more shocked now than he was when she had first refused, her enthusiasm was quite unexpected. "Really?"

"What, you're asking for help and then you're surprised when you get it? You are odd. Oh, and as long as I can keep anything on the bodies you can keep your money. Do you have a map or something for me, I need to know which house to go running into." Hawke smiled at him, warm and devious.

"Uh- yeah," Fenris pulled out a folded piece of paper Anso had given him and handed it to her, "but I have to pay you."

"You can pay Isabela then," Hawke pointed at her as she stood up, "she never refuses money. I, on the other hand, will take any chance to stick it to slavers."

"She's right, love!" Isabela called from her seat.

"Well, what are you all waiting for, up-to, we've got work to do!" Hawke said to her other companions as she headed for the door.

"Wait!" Fenris called, and Hawke turned her head back to him, "I'm coming with you."

"No. You aren't. I don't know you, and I don't trust you, therefor fighting alongside you is a big, fucking mistake. Maybe next time." And with that Hawke, Varric, Aveline, and a well-paid Isabela left the Hanged Man.

A/N: Tadda! I hope someone notices the theme in my story titles. (And what that means!) But, I'll mention now, I'm taking major creative licence on Hawke's background and time-lines, like, seriously AU. I'm thinking that I'll take the Anders route for the next part! (After Bait & Switch is finished up anyway.) Thoughts and suggestions! I'll be finishing up the next part of A Warrior's Heart first, so I won't be starting anything new right away, but I really love the idea of basing a story on Isabela having a sister, any opinions on that? It'll be a while, but it'll be fantastic!