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Softly	By : chipperdyke Category: +A through F > Dragon Age (all) > Dragon Age (all) Views: 11471 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I bow to gods of BioWare and offer a humble tribute to the awesome. I don't own Dragon Age II, they do. I profit not, though my dildo perhaps does.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
7. Finishing

Of course. Why else would she be here?

I choked down a wave of bitterness and nodded. "I'm listening."

"Castillon caught up with me, and I'm not waiting around for him to stick a knife in my vitals." She walked to the fire.

I wondered if she was referring to her mysterious three year hiatus. "So we kill him."

"Naturally, but he hasn't shown his dirty face. I DO know where his right hand is, however. We just have to make him tell us where Castillon is."

"We'll hit him until he talks?"

She rolled her eyes. "I think Velasco's more afraid of Castillon than us."

"The choice is more between Castillon and death."

She gave me an appraising look. "Well, I had an idea." She hesitated, staring at the fire.

"Go on?"

"You could use me as bait."

My answer was immediate and unequivocal. "Not happening."

"He'll take me to Castillon, and I'll leave you a trail to follow. You -"

"There's no way I'm going to let you put yourself into the hands of a man who wants to kill you, on the off chance that you're able to drop what? Some glitter on the ground? It's far too risky."

"Hey, this is my life to risk!"

"I won't be a party to this. There must be some other way."

She stared at the fire, her face going blank, and then she turned toward me, a predatory look in her eye. I started backing up as she slunk toward me; I knew that look, and I wanted nothing of it. Not like this, not now... not merely to serve her purposes.

Yet I shuddered when she touched my hip, and when she softly kissed my lips I fell into her body, molding myself to her. It felt like sliding in to cool water after three years of beating, deadly hot sun, the greatest relief. I thought for one deranged moment that after so long apart, our bodies couldn't help slide together like two halves of one perfect whole.

Her hands moved gently up from my hips, along my sides to graze my breasts, and that's when I caught her wrists in my hands and pulled away. She looked innocently at me, and I hissed, "I refuse to use you as bait," trying to make myself angry.

Her voice was low and seductive, belying her next words. "Would you rather my throat were slit while sleeping?"

I threw her hands down and stepped away in frustration. "Can't we bribe your man, Velasco?"

"Stevan, why won't you see reason?" she said, closing the gap between us in a heartbeat. Her proximity made my fingers itch, my skin tingle, and brought tears of wanting to my eyes. "It's my plan. I will live with the consequences if it fails."

"What is this?" I whispered finally. "What do you mean to accomplish by teasing me so?"

She hesitated, and I watched some dark thought flicker across her face. And then she turned away, muttering something that almost sounded like, "I'm sorry."

She was halfway to the door when I called to her. "Okay," I said. "Look, okay, I'll do it."

* * * *

"Now, this needs to be convincing," Isabela coached me as we made our way the the Blooming Rose, a high night wind whistling through the city. "Be creative. Call me names... you can even hit me," she said, and I swear she winked.

I'd hit her before, a few times when we were brawling over some imagined disagreement, a few times when we were fucking, because she found it fun. I shuddered at the thought of it now.

"Stick with it, no matter how I react. Velasco's a clever son of a bitch. If you waver, he'll notice."

She'd completely backed off after the incident at my house, treating me as she had before we'd been lovers. It would have been maddening if I hadn't been so numb. I wondered if this was what it felt like to fall out of love. Three years ago, I'd resigned myself to a solitary life; it wasn't that I would love her forever, but rather that nobody could ever hope to fill her shoes, and I didn't want to subject someone else to constant comparison. I pined for her when she left, and perhaps if things had flared up in Kirkwall I would have easily slid into the role of "Champion." But the title was an honorific and nothing more, and so I dropped deeper and deeper inside of myself. Anders thought she'd destroyed me, but he was blinded by his manly affections and Justice. I wasn't destroyed. I was just... detached.

But when Isabela touched me simply to manipulate me, something changed. I guess since she had completely refrained from approaching me sexually, I figured that she thought sex with me held special significance. That was something, at least, though I would certainly have preferred that she not set me on a pedestal. But to use sex so cheaply. It was insulting and vulgar. The anger I'd been incapable of feeling after she touched me flared suddenly, breaking my numbness.

I turned to her suddenly, saying, "Castillon followed you here, didn't he? That's why you came back."

She gave me a look that meant she was about to lie. I beat her to it. "Look, I don't really care. You lied about the relic, and I just don't feel comfortable helping you unless you're being honest."

With that she shrugged. "I was sold to his slavers, and escaped, only to have his dogs on my heels all over Thedas. So yes. I came here to face him. To fight him."

"Assuming I would forgive you. Again."

"Hoping," she conceded. "You were my best chance."

"That's true. I am your best chance," I said, not even trying to keep the bitterness out of my tone.

The Blooming Rose was hopping, but I guess Velasco had paid a good sovereign for a room upstairs. Aveline and Varric attempted to "blend" (the captain of the guard's every movement betraying her affronted intolerance) as Izzy and I barged in on the man. He was making sloppy moves on what I assumed was an elf whore.

I imposed myself, and he immediately addressed me. "I have a present for Castillon," I said, pointing my thumb behind me.

Isabela came forward, freaking out. "Present for - what?"

"It's an embarrassment, you following me about like this," I said. If she wanted it, she'd get it. "I've got to look after my own reputation now."

"I thought we were a team!" She was really laying it on thick.

"You weren't singing that song too loudly three months ago, or three years ago for that matter." I grabbed her shoulder and thrust her roughly into Velasco's hands. "Where's my payment?"

"So, Isabela. You run to your friends, only to find that you have none," he said, stroking her face with one finger. She flinched away.

He dug through a pouch and handed over a few coins. "A token of appreciation. More than she's worth."

Following the trail was easier than I expected, though Varric kept having to pull me back, saying that we might catch up with them if I RAN there. I cursed him for a heartless bastard and slowed down.

I just caught the end part of the son of a bitch's come on, and her quick retort, before I rushed down the sodding broken stairs to chop those pirate bastards to pieces. I'd say it went fairly well.

And then Castillon shows up. Thank God! If he'd been a bit more careful, he would have simply taken off, gone to a new hideaway, probably much harder to flush than this one had proven.

"And Velasco told me you were all tied up, a lovely present just waiting to be opened!" I could feel her bristle beside me. "I see he's paid for that mistake. He does make a lovely smear, doesn't he? Well-played, Isabela! Crossed and double-crossed."

"I didn't think you were messy, Castillon. But look, you left shit in that crate over there." She waved some papers at his too-innocent face. "Slavery in the Free Marches? There's not many who will applaud you for that."

I think his and my suspicious looks mirrored each other. "Get to the point," he said.

"Give me your ship, and your word to leave me alone, and you can have these papers and go."

Varric mumbled something behind us, but it wasn't my place to cut in. This was her blackmail, after all. A ship. She would finally be free of us.

"I saw the ship docked in the harbor, Castillon. She is splendid. I want her."

I knew before he said it that he would agree. We tramped back through Lowtown with Castillon's final words ringing in our ears: "You'd make a remarkable ally for any man able to tame you." The words made me flinch a little, in their wrongness. I guess they proved exactly what it was he hadn't understood, so many years before. Isabela was not a woman meant to be tamed.

"What's his word worth, Isabela?" I asked as we made our way to the ship. It wasn't the biggest ship in the dock, but it wasn't small, either. We stood above, surveying the moonlit docks.

"His weight in solid gold," she quipped. "I have the ship, at least." It was true. Some men were busy unloading big crates and chests from it. "Anyway, I think he's finally realized the more men he sends after me, the fewer he has at the end of the day."

"Smart man," I noted. "What's her name?"

"Concubine," she said immediately. I snorted involuntarily.

"I don't know much about ships, but I fail to detect perfume, makeup, or illegitimate sons."

"You're right. You don't know anything about ships." Her tone was light. "So be off with you."

"And leave you in a den of thieves, only moments away from a man who's been hunting you for seven years? I should see you to your Concubine, at least."

I think she rolled her eyes, but in the moonlight it was hard to tell. "Ever the gallant, Hawke. When will you learn? A whore is not to be treated as royalty."

"Offensive caste limitations aside, you're not a whore, Isabela."

The last few crates were set on the pier. Isabela walked toward the ship; I could see by the way she walked that she was watching every shadow. She had the ownership documents in hand, "I've slept with men for money," she said, her attention elsewhere.

I winced, and a great jealousy filled my heart. Would this awful feeling never die?

She took the gangplank with the grace of a cat, and I saw her shoulders relax when she stepped onto the ship. It would be foolish of me to follow. I still cared too much about Isabela, obviously, and my righteous anger fueled my determination, so I stopped at the bottom of the gangplank.

She turned and looked at me. "I'm free now," she called across the water.

My anger evaporated. "As you should be."

"Come on!" she said, and I came, feeling like an awkward sea fowl in my heavy armor as I made my way across the plank, the sea crashing below. "There might be stowaways for you to kill!" she said when I stood before her, and she pulled up the plank, leaving only the treacherous moorings tying us to the solid world.

She took my hand and practically skipped down to the crew's quarters, lighting a candle when the moonlight stopped. She stalked the quarters with a practiced, watchful eye, and I watched her hungrily, throwing all caution to the wind. I probably looked broody, because my indignation had resurfaced, but hell if I'd squander what were probably my last moments alone with her. She would leave, and I would stay, Kirkwall's reluctant champion, consumed from the inside by helpless hate and lust. It made a pretty picture: the young guard of Lothering, fleeing the Blight with her family only to have them picked off one by one, rising to fame but falling in love with a pirate wench and squandering her influence on the squirrels and ravens of the wild, a lost and empty soul.

I found a grim pleasure in it, my fate, although it was probably a lie: if Isabela left now, I would be caught up in the politics that Ander was always spewing about, and when I came out on the mage's side, I'd be in for the fight of my life. So I would go out in a blaze of glory, albeit probably impotent, protecting the freedom of mages like my dead sister and fanatical best friend. A sour and shallow fate, by my reckoning.

Finally we made our way down another set of stairs to the hold, which Isabela went over with a fine-toothed comb. I watched her face in the candlelight, trying to memorize the contours of her lips, the flickering fire deep in her eye. I was overcome with a desire to smell her again, to feel the soft skin of her belly and those legs, remembering the taste of her, salty and deep. It was so easy to lose myself in my lust for her. I preferred that over politics, religion... magic.

When she was satisfied that all was well, we took the stairs back up to the captain's quarters. I followed her, resisting the urge to mold my body onto her back and touch her with greedy, possessive hands.

She opened the door and shrieked. The entire room was filled with mustard-colored velvet, from the chairs, to the bed, to the tasteless ornaments on the walls. "This is just... not acceptable," she said at last. "How... what..." She sighed dramatically, setting the candle on a stand near the door.

This was the moment I should bow and bid her good-night, leaving her in her Concubine.

I dropped my helm and gloves, stepped up to her and put my arms around her waist, turning her to face me. If I'd had words for what I wanted to say, they were lost in her startled honey eyes. She was poised in my arms, a bird ready to take flight. I could not conceal my intention, so I kissed her lightly, gently, pulling away before she had a chance to respond.

Her eyes were bright as she slid her hands up my chestplate to clasp at the back of my neck, and I pulled her closer unconsciously, bringing our bellies and thighs into contact. She pulled me to her lips, and I kissed her like I was drowning and she was air, glorious, delicious. I'm not sure how she kissed me, but it was passionate and alive, so alive.

Thus emboldened, I wasted no more time in frivolous kissing. I picked her partially off the floor as I brought her to the bed, laying her upon it and sliding my body onto hers, between her welcoming legs. We'd fucked with my armor on before, and though it restricted my movement I remembered her loving the hard, cold metal on her skin. We established a steady rhythm, and I kept my body high enough that I wasn't actually pushing against her core very much, teasing instead with my hips, careful not to push too hard. I could almost feel her body though my armor, and I wanted her so badly that I could easily hurt her.

I bit down ravenously on the meaty part of where her shoulder became her neck, taking her tunic and tearing it apart with my gloved hands. She arched into me, which usually meant I could touch her breasts a little, very softly, but in my frantic passion I didn't trust myself with them.

Instead I grasped her hips and ass, sliding down so that my stomach fit against her, which made her gasp and skip a beat. She was wearing smallclothes, and when I slipped a finger to check they were so hot and wet that I could barely stop myself from going under them and inside her. I licked the side of her breast gently, digging in her ass with my fingers to hold her captive while I ground into her with my hard stomach.

She moaned, and then growled deep in her throat, and somehow I was on my back and she was unfastening my groin-plate, her breasts hanging heavy against my armor. She rubbed herself against me, and I took the side of her breast and gently pushed it into my armor, cupping her face in my other hand and pulling her up to kiss.

I focused completely on her lips, trying to memorize the mysterious way she kissed, so close and deep but not invasive or wet. Halfway through our kiss she'd found a way through the padded suit I wear under my armor and she was inside me, with tingly pressure-pleasure that did nothing but tease. My whole body convulsed and I think I started moan-pant-begging, for movement or more specific pressure or please, Isabela, "Fuck you."

With the kiss and the begging going nowhere, and her body so dainty between the huge plates of my armor, I wrapped my leg around hers and pivoted to flip our positions. This only mostly worked, since her fingers started moving a bit the minute I tried, making me collapse a few times before I managed the feat. I locked my jaws on her shoulder and slipped two fingers inside her waiting wet depths, stroking her deep and slow before pulling out a bit to rub her nub. I could tell by the way her cunt rippled around my fingers that it would only take a few more deep strokes to make her explode, and I must have hesitated, wondering whether I wanted to give her that satisfaction so early, so fast.

Her fingers tightened in me, not moving so much as squeezing me tight, so hard that it hurt. I bared my teeth at her, crying out and digging deep into her, grabbing her head with my other hand and staring deep into her eyes. Her body rippled and her cunt squeezed my fingers, blooming and soaking my hand and the sheets, but through all that she looked in my eyes still, and cried my name, over and over. Her eyes and the sound and feeling of her orgasm was more than enough to make me come, but her fingers holding me changed it to something long, slow, and so deep that I wasn't even sure if I was coming or if it was just my heartbeat in heaven.

She said my name one more time, her voice breaking, and then slid down so that her face was close to my stomach and her fingers could move in me, which put her cunt out of my reach. When the pressure released, my orgasm paused, and when she started pumping in me it exploded, and it was all I could do to collapse with my weight on my side as I rode the waves.

My voice was hoarse when I was done, and tears were running down my face. I tried to move to wipe my face on the sheets, but I couldn't lift it, so drained was I. I was vaguely aware of her arm around my back and her breath on my stomach-plate, and suddenly I was crying again, absolute release followed by absolute misery. I cried for her leaving, and for never having her back. I cried for losing this forever, regardless of whether I had her at all.

Eventually I became aware of the fact that she was stripping off my armor, and I tried to pull myself together, to help. I couldn't pretend I hadn't been sobbing like a child, but I could prove that my misery didn't incapacitate me.

When the armor and the padded suit were off, I was wearing almost as little as she was, only a spun cloth tunic and long underwear. She wrapped her body around mine, her voluptuousness consuming my lanky, wiry frame, and kissed my forehead and cheeks. The candle was guttering, and only a little moonlight shone through the viewport.

"Hawke... I want you here, with me," she said finally, stumbling over the words. "I need a new crew, and... I know you'll have my back, no matter what happens."

I couldn't believe she was talking about her ship's crew, after all that. After my tears, after those orgasms. But maybe it meant something... she wanted me on this ship? With her? This was not leaving me. This was... bringing me.

I clutched her desperately, kissing her face and her lips like a dog. She giggled and rubbed her nose on my shirt, like she used to. I finally settled into her body again, basking in the delightful delusion that she wanted me with her, all the time. I couldn't be sure what she'd meant, but now I didn't want to respond for fear that I'd misunderstood.

She pulled back and looked at my face. "Will you answer?"

Hell. If she was going to leave, she'd leave; saying it wouldn't change anything. "I love you," I said hoarsely, watching her face. Surely she already knew.

Surprise and some unidentifiable emotion warred on her face. "I came back because of Castillon," she said finally. "But I left because of you. Because you make me feel too safe, and that scares me. Because it would be so easy to..." She stopped there, and looked away.

"Make me safe, too?" I suggested, hoping.

"I can never give you what you need," she said, and I remembered those exact words from three years past.

I shook my head. "Can't you feel how... it's like everyone in the world is... a different kind than us, like a different color. But we're the same. We fit, we match. And that's all I need from you. I just need you beside me."

"You need a woman who can be faithful with everything she is, who will be there for you always, and support you, and... love you."

My breath hitched at the word. She avoided my gaze. Hmm. So she left because she didn't trust how good it felt to be together? Okay, but now she was saying that she wasn't right for me. Was this why she kept her hands off me for the last two months? Because she figured she'd just leave, and she didn't want to hurt me more than she already had? Isabela had always had a peculiar kind of restraint.

And now, ship in hand, she has realized that she doesn't want to escape. Perhaps this was the thing that was missing, all that time. She could never be with the Champion as a shipwrecked pirate nobody. As a captain, on more equal ground, maybe she would. Nonetheless she has tried to convince me that I should not take her.

"That sounds boring to me," I said finally. "Somebody's got to tell me when I'm wrong. I don't want a follower. I want a partner."

She smiled a little. "Do you know why I chose Concubine?" she asked.

My brow crinkled as I considered the question, and then I grinned back at her. "Really?" She giggled, and I said mock-seriously, "Isabela, you can't mean to suggest you'll be unfaithful."

"To her? Never, sweet thing." My heart shivered at that, and I suddenly became aware of her cleavage so near to my hand, her tunic ripped down the center to her navel. I slipped a hand in to cradle the back of her rib cage, and when I looked up her eyes had darkened with desire.

But before I kissed her, I said, "Can we stay in Kirkwall until Meredith steps down? I worry for the Circle, and for Orsino." She nodded assent. "And... I don't like you sleeping with other people."

At that she smiled a little. "I haven't really wanted to since we started... this."

"Nobody?" I pressed.

"Alright," she said, and kissed me like I'd never been kissed before.

Author's Note:
THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER, seeing as it completes my "plot" arc. I will probably be writing a sequel. But I will only start posting once I'm committed to it, which means a few weeks' wait at the least. On the bright side, it will be post-DA2, so I will be actually trying to make it a story, as opposed to what this one is, which is essentially filler.
Thanks to everyone who read, and for the ratings :) Comments are greatly appreciated!
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Softly