OK, prompt time!
Prompt: Ale and WineFenris’ Mansion
9:32 Dragon
“You have no idea how glad I am to find someone who at least accepts that I don’t really like ale, Fenris.” Aniya grinned at him over the rim of one of the glasses she’d brought in not too long ago. “It spares me a
lot of questions, mutters, and stares.”
“Is there some particular reason you don’t like it? Of course, that
would require an explanation if you’re willing to give it.” He grinned back at her. In the months since he’d hired her through Anso, he’d come to appreciate her sense of humor. He also appreciated that she seemed to take a genuine interest in how he was adapting to Kirkwall, and she didn’t seem to share details of what he’d told her outside of their conversations. Hawke didn’t seem to have any problems with his past either; the only way it came up was if he mentioned it, and then it never failed to be a challenging, and in the end, philosophical conversation. He didn’t remember ever having someone that he could just
talk with, and her perspectives as someone who had never been a captive or a slave gave him plenty of food for thought. He was starting to wonder if he could consider Hawke a friend, the first he really had in Kirkwall, or really, anywhere since the Fog Warriors.
He quickly willed
that topic from his mind before he could fixate on it.
Aniya rolled her eyes at him in mock disgust. “
Fine. Just this
once.” She laughed and considered for a moment. “You do realize this is one of the more embarrassing stories of my life, right?”
“If you’d rather not – “
“It’s all right,” she laughed. “We were all young and foolish once. Well, maybe
you don’t recall being foolish, but the rest of us were.” She winked. “Let’s put it this way. When you have a camp full of army recruits fresh out of fairly restrictive homes, away from their parents’ watchful eyes for the first time, and around prodigious quantities of ale,
some things are bound to happen.”
“I see.”
“Yes. Let’s say that my first time completely overdoing it with ale, engaging in some horrible decision making that I only
just remember, and paying for it with the worst hangover I’ve had to this day, taught me a few things. Not the least of which is I
hate the taste of ale.” She laughed, but she wasn’t able to keep some regret and self-reproach out of her voice.
“So that explains your low bar tab at the Hanged Man? The one Varric seems to
love to bring up?” He asked.
“Something like that. The very taste of ale makes me want to retch, their whiskey is undrinkable unless the point is to
get drunk, and that leaves the mead, the cider, or nothing, usually. That and since I know I get stupid when I drink,I don’t drink much except around people I trust. That pretty much limits me to a mug of mead or two a night, if that.” Aniya finished the glass she had (her third on this bottle, he noted with amusement and some surprise), and poured herself a couple fingers’ worth more. She got a distant look and didn’t continue. Fenris frowned at her, then decided to trust the insights he’d learned from being around her.
“Do you want to talk about it, Hawke?” From all the times she’d just listened to him go on about his life as a slave, he figured he owed her that much. He was also more curious than he really should have been.
Varric must be rubbing off on me.Maker. Now you’ve done it, Aniya. Maybe I’ve had too much wine
, too. “If you’re really interested in the sordid details of my foolishness.” She sighed.
“You said yourself yesterday that our choices make us who we are, Hawke. You seem to have done well enough despite any past decisions of yours; perhaps it taught you something?”
Aniya blinked at him. “Oh fine, use my own logic against me, O wise one. You win.” She smiled, not her usual dry grin but more of a bemused surrender of the point. “I got extremely drunk, just like everyone else, when we were celebrating our finishing basic training. This was a gathering of very drunk youngsters more than ready to do whatever their bodies were telling them to do with whomever they wanted to do it with. I did that too, with someone I never would have remotely considered while sober.” Aniya shuddered.
“Not forced, though?”
“Oh no. That decision was entirely mine, and it was a bad one. He was a complete ass and an ugly brute, but he looked great when viewed through ale-colored eyes. I was just lucky nothing ah… came of it. It did teach me the importance of making
some decisions when you
aren’t so drunk you can barely walk. Actually not liking ale is just a side effect. The taste of it reminds me of that night, which I’d rather forget.”
“That doesn’t sound as bad as it could have been.” He was considering what he'd seen in Tevinter, but at the flash of annoyance in her eyes, he realized he’d hit a nerve regardless.
“Maybe not to you, but when it’s your first time, and you’re taught all your life that that’s a Big Deal, it
sure seems like it. Not only that, but it took a long time before I was willing to even consider the idea again. At least then, it was with someone I truly cared about, and
that made all the difference. It showed me what all the fuss was about, and it’s made me very picky about …er.” She cleared her throat and blushed furiously. “Aaaaand now I’ve
completely told you more than you wanted to know.”
As Fenris considered what to say, Aniya thought she saw something in those green eyes that might have been a flash of interest that went beyond pure curiosity.
Or I could be imagining it. Although…I can’t say I’d object! She surprised herself with her own reaction to that idea.
(Thanks for the topic, Tankgirly - I'm fleshing this one out for the fic.
)
Modifié par UrsulaCousland, 19 août 2011 - 05:07 .
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