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chaosride · 3 years ago

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A Divine Appointment (x7)

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

“Nothing you do for children is ever wasted.” ― Garrison Keillor

Fenris hadn’t expected much to come of Rosalyn’s offer to teach him to read. He should have, as the children had all been proven stubborn and relentless when it came to something they decided they needed to do. So determined, it turned out, that Rosalyn bothered Anders until he caved and appeared on his doorstep just after dinner one evening with his entire herd of children.

“Yes?” Fenris asked.

“Fenris, I’m really sorry but Ros-”

“You haven’t come to me for a lesson so I’m coming to you. I even brought a book,” Rosalyn told him seriously.

He nodded after a moment even as he glanced at Anders.

“Don’t worry, I know you’re not a daycare, if it’s alright for Ros to stay for a bit for your lesson, I can come get her in a bit. If not it’s fine she was just, uh, very insistent.”

“It’s alright, you may come in.”

Fenris stepped back to allow space for Rosalyn to trot inside. Cahir cooed from Anders’ arms and reached for him, and the other children peered at him from behind the healer with expectant looks.

“Thank you Fenris, I’ll come back to get her in an hour or two, c’mon guys,” Anders told him before he began the arduous task of herding the children away.

Fenris didn’t what possessed him to but he called out, “Mage, you can all come in. I have plenty of rooms, Ros and I can do our lesson in my room.”

“Are you sure?”

“Get in here already,” Fenris groused.

The children made the decision for Anders and crowded into the vestibule with excited shouts and general chatter. Once Anders stepped through Fenris shut the door behind him.

“Thanks, Fenris,” the mage told him.

Fenris didn’t answer him, instead taking Cahir from Anders when the boy reached for him. Anders let the toddler go with no complaints, but the enamored look on the healer’s handsome face made something in Fenris’ chest clench. Fenris knew the look was likely directed at the boy in his arms but it was nice to pretend. He bounced Cahir in his arms to hear him laugh and led them into the open main hall of the mansion.

“Whoa, this place is huge!” Tanner said, looking around with huge eyes.

“Do you live here with other people?” Bree asked him,

“No, it’s just me.”

“Oh, don’t you get lonely?”

“... Sometimes,” Fenris told her. “Ros, my room is this way, we can do our lesson out here. Mage, feel free to move anything or use anything that is out here, let me know if they need anything.”

“Do you want me to take Cahir?”

“I can handle him, if he gets fussy I’ll bring him to you.”

“Oh- alright, thanks Fenris.”

Rosalyn was a patient teacher, and it made the lesson go quickly. Fenris had worried it would be embarrassing or beyond him even with someone willing to teach him. It was easier since he already had a firm grasp on the language, and Fenris was just glad to recognise at least a few common words in written form.

“Why do you call the healer mage?” she asked him quietly, towards the end of their lesson.

Fenris looked up from the paper he was using to practice writing his name on. She was intently staring at the page she had been spelling out names for him to practice along with his own on. Her pale brows were drawn together and she had stopped writing midword.

“He is one.”

“It’s dangerous though. If the wrong person heard you they would come for him. Do you… not like ta because he’s a mage?”

“Has he said that?”

“No, not… not out loud. It just makes him sad, I can tell."

"I have reason to distrust mages, they have hurt me very much in the past.”

“Was it the healer?”

“No, but it is not that simple. Mages can be dangerous, they have a lot of power. Anders… is not just Anders.”

“Oh, you mean Justice? I know some people are scared of him because he’s a spirit but he’s nice. He scares away mean people in the clinic who bother ta, but he’s never hurt any of them. He always seems… upset at the possibility of having to,” she told him. “You think mages are dangerous but you haven’t turned ta in?”

“It would upset our friends very much. I am from Tevinter, where blood magic is commonplace. I was suspicious at first, is all. But he has proven himself, we are… friends I suppose.”

Ros nodded slowly, considering the information.

“Why do you ask? There is no danger of me turning him in, if that was your worry.”

“I’m a mage too,” Rosalyn whispered. “I was afraid you would hate me and not want me around anymore if you knew.”

Fenris smiled at her, and found he was unable to be afraid of her. She was just a girl still, unsure and hesitant, and being a mage didn’t make her someone different than who she had been before.

“Well then you have nothing to fear. I could not hate you. Just promise me you won’t practice blood magic or make a deal with a demon.”

Rosalyn giggled. “Yes, da, I promise.”

“Then we’re fine,” he promised her.

Fenris found he meant it. Ros was a mage but she was just a child who had no committed no wrongs against him. He couldn’t find it in his heart to see her any differently than he had before; as one of his kids. They may have been Anders’ to everyone else but Fenris had come to accept they were his too, at least partially.

Now if he could only stop yearning for Anders to be his as well. He wanted to get used to having people fill his home, for there to be noise and joy and light someplace Danarius had wrought only demons and shadows and ashes. It was not a wish he had put too much credence in until he saw it so tantalizingly close today.

Maybe he was deserving of a family after all. It was getting easier and easier to believe that.

Even so he didn’t give voice to the thought of offering for them to stay the night as he saw the healer and his ducklings out that night. Fenris could offer a thousand reasons why it was better than returning to Darktown; he had plenty of rooms and beds, the children would have more room to run, he had a better desk for Anders to sit and write at, he had a table they would all fit around to sit at meals. He couldn’t find the breath to do so though, sure that Anders would rather be anywhere else. The mage was only around because of the kids. That was the truth of Fenris’ situation.

---

Anders wished he was better at speaking to Fenris. He had considered asking if he had eaten dinner or wanted company for the evening but hadn’t wanted to overstep his bounds. While Fenris had certainly softened towards Anders, the healer knew it had everything to do with the children and nothing to do with him as a person. Fenris hated him on principle which as much as Anders hated he could understand. Even if a templar fought alongside Hawke and had promised to not harm him, Anders wouldn’t be able to trust them. Anders hadn’t considered it a problem either, but seeing Fenris with the children and being around him without arguing had affected the mage in ways he couldn’t have predicted.

He had always noticed how attractive the warrior was but had found any desire tempered by his abhorrence of anything magic and his penchant for disregarding Anders’ safety to call him things such mage and abomination so openly. In retrospect, the healer saw that Fenris likely didn’t realize how much danger he had put Anders in with such words. He had not seen how insipid the chantry doctrine against magic ran, how many were willing to go running to the templars. Or simply corner mages with pitchforks and torches and take care of problems themselves. Where Fenris had come from, he would have been punished severely for speaking to a mage that way- the thought was mind boggling to Anders.

In the beginning of them knowing each other, Anders had been bitter that Fenris didn’t see how similar they were. But now he also knew that he had undermined a lot of what Fenris suffered in Tevinter. He had said and done a lot of things that he knew Fenris could never see past. He couldn’t even blame the elf really either, just be grateful he was kind to the kids and hadn’t tried to have them removed from his care.

Not that it would matter if he did or not. Anders knew that Sebastian was already starting to whisper about it in their friend group, once he had found out that Anders was taking care of the children. It was one of the things Isabela had given him a heads up about during their overnight trip to Sundermount.

The other thing she had warned him about had to do with Delilah, and he was still debating on how to handle that situation. But he knew he had to, tonight when she got home from her shift. Because she would be home, and Isabela had overheard saying she didn’t feel safe staying in her bunk at the Rose anymore. Of course, Anders didn’t mind her feeling at home in the clinic but if she didn’t feel safe at the Rose then they needed to find her another job or remove the problem.

Isabela had agreed with him and lowly informed him that if he got the names of whoever was bothering Delilah they wouldn’t be a problem any more. The healer didn’t want to really consider what being considered an enemy by Isabela felt like but he knew it surely wasn’t pleasant.

So when Delilah got home that evening, Anders made tea like he always did. Delilah chatted some about her day, and he told her some of what the kids had gotten into that day and how the clinic had been. He almost didn’t bring it up, unwilling to disrupt their peaceful nightly tradition but he couldn’t just leave it be.

“Delilah, I know you’ve been hiding some injuries after work, and that there’s another reason for you not staying there anymore,” he began carefully. “I enjoy having you here at night, I just… if someone is bothering you at work, someone should know. If you know their names, I can make sure they won’t bother you again.”

Raelnor, when challenged about things he was hiding, had been angry at Anders for trying to involve himself. Anders had worried about Delilah distancing herself from him or telling him to leave it alone. Instead she offered him a sad smile and shook her head.

“Thank you, ta. It’s very sweet of you but it’s not just a pushy client. Some of the more seasoned girls aren’t happy about how many requests I get and they are just being catty. It’ll blow over,” she said. “Much nicer to come home every night anyway.”

“Have you looked for work somewhere else?”

“I know what you must think, me working in a brothel, but it is an honest living and it pays well enough.”

“It is an honest living, but I’ve worked in brothels. It’s not an easy job, and I just want… I want you to know that just because it’s work you know doesn’t mean it’s all you can do. If you aren’t happy there, don’t just weather it and hope it gets better.”

“You’ve worked in brothels?”

“One or two, years ago. I was hired on as a healer but I had enough people ask about me that they decided I should take on a few clients. I was an apostate and they usually housed me. Wasn’t in a position to complain, and I hadn’t learned yet that saying no was something I was allowed to do. In that respect at least.”

Delilah nodded, and stared into the fire with her dark brow furrowed.

“Even if I did want to work somewhere else, no one’s hiring Fereldans. And brothel work is all I’ve done…”

“Let me ask around, but you read and write well, you’re organized and calm under pressure. You have more talents than you realize.”

“A change of pace might be nice. Plus it would mean that I don’t have to tell Sam no every week when he asks me out again . He’s nice enough but really cannot take a hint. But the other girls all say he’ll move on soon, apparently it’s a pattern with him,” she said before carrying on the conversation without a hiccup, quelling Anders’ fears with ease.

Delilah was independent and had a good head on her shoulders but Anders still considered her his daughter, as much as Raelnor or the younger kids. She was always trying to look after him in turn too, and he vowed he would do anything he could to make her life easier.

Even if it meant begging Aveline for help finding her a safe job.

---

It was beyond late when Fenris woke to pounding on the door. He had stumbled to the door, already hauling his greatsword into place at his back with only one gauntlet on. The other still hung haphazardly from his pouch where he had tied it the day before. His breastplate wasn’t sitting right, the buckles tightened too hastily but he would fix it when he had time he decided when the knocking reached a fever pitch.

He ripped the door open, expecting to stumble directly into a gang fight Hawke had brought literally to his doorstep. Instead he found Rosalyn there, in her nightgown and shivering in the early morning air.

She didn’t give him time to question and snagged his wrist, pulling him out of the vestibule of the mansion with more force than he thought she had in her lithe body. Rosalyn was frantic, nearly falling in her scramble to get him moving.

“The healer needs help, please da, I know you don’t like mages much but the templars are there now and they already hurt him bad,” she begged. “It’s my fault, please , help him.”

She didn’t need to say anything else. Where before Fenris hadn’t been fully awake and baffled by her being there, the icy dread that curled around his spine woke him up. They practically ran through Hightown and Lowtown towards Darktown. Fenris adjusted his armor as they moved and tugged his gauntlet into place. His mind spun with all the ways the worst could have already happened, all the ways this night could end in heartbreak.

Every single situation grew a thousand times darker in his mind as they burst through Darktown and were met with the sound of a rattling cry. It was the loudest Fenris had ever heard a child cry, and could only be Cat who was squalling. He would recognize it anywhere.

The noise spurred him on so much that he nearly tripped over Tanner standing guard over Bree and Cahir, hunched between the wall and the ramshackle wooden stairs Fenris had come down.

“They’re still in there,” Tanner rushed out as soon as he recognized Fenris. “They took Cat because he tried to protect her, da you have to do something.”

Fenris nodded.

“Ros, stay here,” he ordered before the sound of running footsteps drew nearer to the stairs, coming towards the clinic.

Fenris drew his sword, sure they were about to be set upon by templar reinforcements but it was their own. Delilah, Raelnor, Varric, and Isabela tumbled down the stairs in a hectic tangle.

“Rae, Delilah, look after the kids, we’ll get Anders,” Fenris promised.

Together the warrior and two rogues approached the wreckage that had been made of the clinic. The lock Donnic had gotten had indeed been strong, so much that the templars had kicked the door, new frame and all, clean out of the rotting wood of the surrounding wall.

As they got closer, Fenris was able to distinguish some of the commotion coming from within that had been overpowered by the sheer volume of Cat’s bawling. The girl was loud when excited, shrieking and chattering, but when she was scared it was on another level. Fenris marveled a little at her lung capacity as her wailing seemed to make the walls around them shake with the force of it. What it was drowning out was worse and made all the hair on Fenris’ body stand on end and his brands to flare to life without his permission.

He couldn’t make out what Anders was actually saying because it was muffled, only that his voice was hoarse and pleading. The answering laughter was clear as a bell and nothing short of spiteful.

“We had a little tip off healer, some of us remember you from Kinloch. I was thinking that we would leave you locked in that thing just while we got you to the Circle but I really enjoy you begging.”

There was a chorus of laughter and hurled taunts. The sound Anders made was one of a wounded, cornered animal. Fenris couldn’t breathe around his heart in his throat but Varric had motioned for them to not rush in so they stilled out of sight.

“We need to get Cat out before anything,” he whispered. “The kid’s so damn loud I can’t even tell where she is in there.”

“I’ll get her,” Isabela told him. “But you have to cover me to get her out.”

Fenris only half listened to them as the templar from before began talking again. He seemed to be their ringleader, which meant all the others were likely crowding him for the show. Fenris only prayed he wasn’t the one holding Cat.

“I had a feeling you wouldn’t like the dark much. Or tight spaces. Looks like I was right. It might have been overkill to use a smite and magebane but I heard from a little birdy that you’re slightly allergic to magebane. I wasn't sure if that made it more or less effective, better safe than sorry.” Another wave of laughter. “I hope you aren’t too uncomfortable. I think we’ll stay here a while. Just in case we can root out any other apostates who may come looking for you. A few hours in there isn’t much compared to that year in solitary, and certainly nothing like what I’m going to do to you once we get you back to the Circle. I like your fire so much we may even see about waiting to put you on the Tranquil list. No one will even know where you are or who you are, you’d be a nice pet if you learned to behave.”

The sob Anders gave was so soft that Fenris barely heard it, but the way his voice caught and rasped when the mage spoke broke his heart.

“Please, do whatever you want, just let her go. She’s just a baby. Please.”

“Isabela,” Fenris murmured, already straightening. “Get Cat and get out. Varric, cover her and then fall back and look after the children. I will handle the rest.”

“Broody, there’s like twenty of them-” Varric was cut off by Isabela’s hand on his shoulder.

“I’m with you, Fen. Let’s kill these bitches,” she whispered. “Nothing would have stopped him anyway,” he heard her mutter to the dwarf but it was drowned out by the white hot rage that roared like a spreading fire in his head.

Fenris rushed the group, slicing effortlessly through the chatty templar. His blood fell in a crimson shower on his cohorts and there was a stunned moment of indecision on their part. Isabela used it to her advantage and plucked Cat from the templar who had been holding her by her chubby little arm.

By the time they had turned to pursue the pirate, arrows had begun raining down on them and Fenris cut down the rest with sweeping swings from his sword. It was over in what felt like moments; one second there had been a battalion of templars crowded into the clinic, and the next there were only bodies and blood.

Fenris turned to set about freeing the mage now that the threat had been eliminated and Cat was seen to safety. He choked on his own breath when he processed where they had been keeping Anders subdued. Fenris’ vision had tunneled to the templars so much that he hadn’t registered it. Now that he did, he wished he had not ended their lives so quickly. It was too merciful for them.

It was a sturdy chest, larger than some, and wrapped in thick chains. The four lines of glistening bood clinging to the wood said that even injured Anders had fought like a cat being put in a bag to be drowned against being put into it. Without the clamor of bodies or his own blood pounding in his ears Fenris could hear how hard Anders was panting and how he whimpered with each exhale.

Fenris’ hands turned desperate on the lock until he finally phased his hand into and ripped it apart from within. He felt the sharp shards of metal tear through his palm but all he cared about was getting Anders out and calmed down. The chain fell away at his jerking. When Fenris lifted the lid, Anders didn't uncurl, his long arms braced around his head still.

“Please, no more, I won’t run again, please,” the mage whispered.

“Anders,” Fenris said, his voice choked with horror, “I’m here, it’s just me. You’re safe with me.”

Golden eyes blinked up at him and fluttered at the light, glazed over and sluggish. The fingers of one hand were smashed almost beyond recognition and his face was a bloody mess. But he was breathing and there was no raised sun of tranquility on the freckled skin of his forehead. He was the most beautiful thing Fenris had ever seen.

“Fenris,” the healer sighed, the word drenched in relief.

Fenris helped him out, catching Anders when his knee gave out and making comforting noises when the mage tried to apologize. All the cots had been destroyed so Fenris closed the chest and eased Anders to lean against it.

“Where are you hurt?”

Anders shook his head weakly. “Not bad, the kids?”

This man , Fenris thought fondly.

“They’re okay. Isabela got Cat, they’re all okay. Even if it’s not bad, let me bandage it.”

“Just bruises. They definitely broke my… hand. Maybe just a few fingers but feels like my whole hand. Maybe my wrist,” Anders said. His speech was still slow and his eyes wouldn’t focus. “Mainly it's the magebane.”

“Ta?” a trembling voice called from just outside the clinic.

“I’m alright, love,” Anders answered. His voice was still raspy and weak, like he had been screaming for hours.

“Come get your things,” Fenris told them when the entire lot of them came in. He felt Anders go rigid against his side where he had slouched. For a tense moment no one moved until Fenris cleared his throat. “ Now, ” he said firmly.

The children all scrambled to comply. All except Rosalyn, who hesitated, looking between Anders and Fenris nervously. Finally she crept over and hugged Anders carefully.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to put you in danger. I understand if we can’t stay with you anymore.”

Anders blinked at her and opened his mouth to reply. Fenris could practically see the wheels struggling to turn in his mind, moving like machinery coated in honey.

“You are all coming to the mansion. Someone needs to pack Anders’ things for me, can you do that Ros?”

She nodded and scurried away, evidently at ease.

“You’re not taking the kids away from me,” Anders said mainly to himself.

Still Fenris answered him, “No, I am not.”

“Why? Why are you helping me, and why are you okay with them being with me. You hate mages, you hate me-”

“I don’t.”

Anders looked up at him, a perplexed furrow between his brows. Fenris didn’t know what possessed him to but he ducked down and pressed a chaste kiss to Anders’ mouth. Anders looked surprised and he leaned after Fenris when the elf pulled away.

“I really don’t,” he admitted softly.

“Will you do that again later? I will definitely think this was all a fever dream.”

“I will, as many times as you would like,” Fenris assured, amazed that it was truthful. He would kiss Anders as many times as the mage wanted once they were away from here. ”I heard them say they gave you magebane but that you have a bad reaction to it. Is there anything I can do?”

Anders shook his head. “It makes other mages a little woozy at worst but it… makes me really out of it and sick to my stomach. All I can do now is let it run its course.”

Fenris brushed his hair back from his tired face.

“Then let’s get you home so you may rest.”

(please leave kudos and comments here! ♥)

#fenders da2 #fenders da #fenris da2 #fenris x anders #anders da2 #arty writes #kidfic x7

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