A Princess, a Knight, and an Assassin Walk Into a Tavern...

Clarity

Varric Tethras was watching people disembark from the ship with his new...companion, Ghost. The albino shuffled his feet and spit on the sidewalk. They'd been waiting longer than either of them had expected. The dwarf shuffled away from the mucus now to his right, not that it was the grossest thing down by the docks where they were, but he still objected.
They heard the approach of the boat they'd been waiting for. There was sudden flurry of activity on the small docks. People coming forward to help tie up and bring in the boat, as well as the quartermaster coming up to receive the docking fee.
"Is her nose broken? She's only been gone a week..." Ghost said quietly, and gave a long exasperated sigh beside Varric when Duhningham's towering head appeared over the boat's banister. Varric just chuckled quietly. "Her mother is going to be very upset with me if she doesn't get that set soon." He continued.
Varric the dwarf straightened when he saw Hawke's scarred nose above the banister next. The head turned back around when it was addressed, and he saw, to his satisfaction a blonde head appear next to his soon. Hawke offered his hand to the blonde as they crossed the plank to the dock, and there was a long pause, until Clarity steeled her eyes and reached her hand tentatively forward to rest in the extended hand. The warrior grinned widely and enveloped her hand in his, helping her down the plank. Varric's eyes gleamed, pleased and wickedly, when Clarity's prosthetic slipped on the wood and she had to grip hard onto the offered hand to steady herself. Hawke's eyes also sparkled, but with something less self-satisfied than the grin the dwarf wore as the two made their way hand in hand down the long piece of wood. Yes, he was a genius. This was the stuff of stories, he thought to himself.
Clarity dropped Hawke's hand as soon as they were on solid land, and took a deep breath. The past few days had been...interesting. Hawke had seemed to grab on to her decision fairly fast, but that didn't stop him from looking at her with happy surprised eyes every time her fingers met his. She also couldn't have chosen anyone better, she thought to herself. Hawke was rough with the men around him, and in his fighting style, but he was feather light and tender when his fingers came to rest on her. Never surprising her, if he could help it, and never rough. Which made Clarity breathe a huge sigh of relief, and become extremely frustrated at the same time. She wasn't used to being treated so carefully, and though she was grateful, something more primal in her found it frustrating. He even knew how close he could stand before setting off any alarms, and was incredibly respectful of the distance, until it got late, and he got groggy, and his eyes would take on a different look, and he would forget to be so careful. He would come up to a certain line and then...she would react poorly, or he would remember himself, and would excuse himself to bed without any further ado.
She didn't know how she felt about that look in his eye, and that made her prickly. She thankfully wasn't the only one who was feeling the effect of the tension on the boat, as Knight Commander Beau and she would often cross paths, after coming up from tea with Gov'ner, and would have an equally frustrated prickly look about her that would bleed into a blush on her cheeks. Tollie was even more worrisome. Her face becoming hollow and pale as the Captain's state worsened. Clarity was very adept at distraction, but Tollie was immune and deaf to it all. Which made Clarity's stomach into a hard knot. They couldn't pull the girl away. Which is part of the reason she had agreed to come along today. She couldn't watch the girl anymore, it made her too worried. So they had bartered passage on a passing ship, and were to meet Hawke's team for information.
Varric waltzed up to them, pleased grin on his face, crossbow strapped to his back, red chest hair gleaming in the afternoon sun. "Varric. Good to see you." Hawke and Varric gripped forearms and shook warmly. "You don't look at all like you've been running around the mountains for a week. Seems I'm being too easy on you..." Hawke laughed in greeting.
"I could say the same thing of you, Hero. You send your men off into danger, and you come back with a bruise on your cheek, a head wound, and a beautiful lady on your arm. Seems you got the better and much prettier end of the stick." Varric replied nonchalantly. His words made Hawke go pink and he reached up to rub the back of his neck while casting Clarity a shy look under his lashes. Clarity glared at the dwarf, hard. "If your mission was seduction you should've sent me or Batu. Though we might mind the rough treatment a little more than..."
"I can give you a matching head wound if it'd make you stop talking." Clarity cut in, eyes glinting.
Varric just held up his hands, surrendering, but laughed. "Wouldn't dream of taking that prize away from Hawke, Pointy." Which made the warrior grin widely and shrug noncommittally. "You'll have to give me the rundown later, the team is waiting nearby. And we've got a lot to cover."
The team was waiting in a tavern- surprise surprise – and they all stood up when Varric entered. There were loud calls of greeting and a small woman with brown hair ran over and lept into Hawke's arms the moment he came into view. Hawke laughed and swung her around, and she dragged him over to their table excitedly. There was a lot of back patting and comments on the state of Hawke's face and head, but it was all happy and familial banter.
Varric sent a drink over to Duhningham and Ghost's table, because 1)apparently Varric and Ghost had become loose bros over the past week and 2) there was apparently only one place to meet up with anyone in the whole town of Brelle. They nodded at eachother and Ghost shot him a grateful smirk.
Varric then approached Clarity who was just standing very uncomfortably just inside the doorway looking at Hawke's reunion. "What are you waiting for Pointy? You're one of us now. Another lost soul whose life Hawke has saved and he's taken in. So either go over there and punch them all, like you look like you want to, or sit down and have a drink." Clarity shot him an icy glare, but moved towards the table.
Hawke turned around just at that moment, his searching eyes found hers, and Clarity stopped breathing for a long while. He pulled out a chair for her, and she was finally able to look at the people around her. She didn't know if being 'one of us' was a compliment or an insult.
The very small, slim, excited woman who had embraced Hawke was the first one she caught the name of. Daisy, is what Varric had called the scatter-brained but sweet young woman, who was a...sorcerer in training and resident healer, but that wasn't her actual name, the girl had explained. Her name was Merrill, "As I'm not actually a flower, you see, but a person! And so I must have a person name, or I would turn into the flower all together!" The girl had giggled in explanation. She was 'being trained' not only as a 'sorcerer', Clarity thought, but possibly as something else because of the way she sat in the tall dark skinned man's lap and promptly wrapped her arms happily around his neck. Hawke had saved her life by rescuing her from a cult where she was supposed to be a blood sacrifice. Though how she had gotten there in the first place was a mystery, because the details were constantly changing and got fuzzy every time Merrill told the story, so she could've been raised there, or just stumbled in by accident, Clarity wouldn't have put it past her.
The tall dark man himself spoke little. His muscles were ropey, and he looked very capable and exotic, with the bone through his nose and his tribal tattoes, but capable of what, Clarity didn't know yet. His name was Batu, and he was a handsome witch doctor, as far as she could tell. Hawke had saved his life, if Varric was to be believed, by coming across him buried neck deep in the sands far to the west, digging the man out, giving him water, and somehow peacefully settling a border dispute between his tribe and another. Again, the details were so flamboyant, Clarity didn't know if she believed that part.
Last was Peter. A combination rogue and...ex-knight, as far as she could gather. He was only 17 if he was a day, and seemed more interested in the various distractions of a boy of 17 than of doing anything real with his life. Though he seemed to honestly care about the people in this group, but that was the last honest thing about him, as he kept pocketing coins and bracelets that would seem to appear out of thin air to the untrained eye, but Clarity's eyes were not untrained, and he was one of the best pickpockets she had seen, including herself. His story seemed to be about his pickpocketing, and how he couldn't help himself, and was about to be sentenced by an informal group of drunken and fed-up knights, when Hawke had rescued him, trained him, and given him a job 2 years ago. That was the one story Clarity believed completely.
Then there was Varric. Apparently there were 3 other members of their group, but they had gone home yesterday, to deal with something in Port Town.
When they asked how Hawke had saved her life, as she was a new addition to their group, and they assumed that's why she was there, she paused a moment. She was suddenly struck by the thought of how he had saved her life with this concept of freedom, and had in...other ways... turned her into a real person. But it's not something you shared with new people, and not something she was sure how to express. So instead she just smirked over at him and said, "We did almost die by Raiders 5 days ago, and Hawke...convinced me" at the wording Hawke's eyes flashed and he smirked, "to surrender instead of dying. Which turned out to be the better plan in the end."
The table roared at that "Surrender instead of dying?!" "So he hasn't actually saved your life yet?" "What?! Then why are you even still here?" This last came from Peter.
Hawke held up his hands and said, "Alright, alright, I'll work harder at saving her life more satisfactorily next time." With that, he laughed and looked over at her, and the table immediately resumed the regular level of busy conversation. Then quietly, just to her, he said, "Though I hope you'll stick around long enough for there to be a next time." Surprised, she met his eyes. His hand slid discreetly under the table, to touch her fingers lightly, where they were resting on top of her thigh. She was even more surprised, and expected him to blush. He didn't though, and instead held her gaze levelly until she nodded almost imperceptibly. They both blushed simultaneously. With that, he slid his fingers under her fingers, and on top of her thigh, which seemed to be his favorite place for them to be, and started laughing and drinking with the table. Clarity just sat stock still for a moment, before her training seemed to kick her visibly, she shook her head, and re engaged with the scene around her.
Varric the dwarf watched the scene with barely contained glee. He had gotten it completely right, like he always did, and couldn't help himself from buying another round for his table to pat himself heartily on the back.
Clarity's knuckles turned white around her cup every time Hawke's thumb would run lazily across her thigh, but that didn't stop her from missing it the second he stopped. He started to remove his hand, seeing that she was tense, but the second his fingers left her leg, she reached out and touched his hand lightly, and returned it to his previous position. His thumb resumed its occasional rhythm, and her heart relaxed but her body tensed. Which caused her brow to furrow. Seeing her predicament Hawke's self-satisfied, happy grin from a moment before, turned into a jubilant 'that is an adorable thing' grin, which he couldn't quite hide in his cup. Varric's eyes lit up yet again. Clarity, seeing Hawke's smile and Varric's couldn't help feeling like she wanted to burn the whole place down.
They went on several scouting missions after that. Hawke seeming to be determined that she became integrated into his unusual adopted family. She kept quiet for the most part, but Merrill seemed determined that they would be best friends. The little woman was constantly rambling at her about how names, like her nickname Daisy, could actually transform a person. She felt that if Varric was allowed to keep calling her Pointy, that fate would change and cause her to impale someone she cared deeply for. Clarity was levelheaded the first couple run throughs, but eventually, about the third time, she started to feel as if Daisy were correct, and she would soon impale Daisy herself.
Hawke seemed to sense when this happened, and would smoothly step in.
Despite all the friendly banter, what they found was devastating. They only found remnants of several known villages. Some villages were so far gone that all that there was to be found was their spot on old maps. They came across a couple traveling caravans, but they only had bad news as well. It looked like the trail of decimation was headed West, but that's all they found. But still they went out everyday. That was their only choice until Gov'ner came to meet them with the ship.
They stayed in a couple rooms in the bar, and on such a devastating afternoon, they came back to the bar to find Peter in a tizzy. Apparently 'This ruddy crook!' had given away one of their rooms...and they were now one room short...