Disclaimer: Bioware owns Dragon Age, I'm just having some fun with it

We woke with the sun the next day and for the second consecutive day Hawke woke me up with a kiss. Let me tell you, I never want to go back to alarm clocks. Back in my old life I'd start the day off grumpy and miserable but now I wanted to get up and out of bed and it was all because of Hawke. Well maybe I could do without getting out of bed but that was another matter entirely. Nothing happened last night. We just slept. We weren't really in any rush as far as that went and to be honest my hovel wasn't exactly the most romantic of places. I'd rather take Hawke out somewhere in the country and have a little romantic getaway for that. No family or friends and most importantly no interruptions. That's what I wanted. I was inclined to believe that Hawke felt the same.

We ate breakfast with the rest of the Hawke family and Rhiannon and then packed up our gear. Leandra ensured that we had fresh food for the rest of the day. Even with my suggestion of purchasing an extra tent it looked like we would need another as Rhiannon would be accompanying us. Neither Hawke or Carver was sure that was a good idea but Bethany stood up for the girl. I had to again promise Hawke and Carver that I would make sure that nothing happened to either girl. After we had our packs all sorted out Leandra fussed over us all before she let us head to the Hanged Man. We made a quick stop along the way and picked up another tent that we were sure to need. When we arrived at the Hanged Man Varric and Isabela were already waiting ... and drinking. Apparently they don't feel it is ever to early to imbibe.

We were sitting at one of the tables in the main room waiting for the rest of our friends. Okay, maybe not friends in all cases but they were at the very least our companions. Aveline was the first to arrive she was followed almost immediately by Fenris who had agreed to come with us the night before. Fenris, Isabela and Varric ate breakfast while the rest of us waited. When they finished we decided that we would be leaving whether Anders showed up or not. We divvied up our gear further from our packs to make sure that everybody was carrying roughly the same amount of weight. Aveline, Carver and myself had the heaviest packs but that was most likely a temporary situation. We left the Hanged Man and headed for the gates out of Kirkwall.

A little over an hour later we had left Kirkwall behind us. We found a good place to set our things down for a minute to plot our course. We had decided that the Bone Pit would actually be the quickest to get to first by going through the Wounded Coast from there we could make our way to the Dalish and finally finish off with Aveline's ambush site. We were all more than a little surprised to find Anders running up the road behind us. He came to a stop in front of us.

"Sorry I'm late. I had a patient come in this morning that needed my attention."

"That's alright, you didn't miss anything. Do you need to take a break?" Hawke asked.

"No. The one good thing about being a Grey Warden is the increase in stamina." Really? Can you be any more obvious in your attempts?

"Oh, shivery. It's lost on that one though. She's taken. You can try your charms elsewhere though. I'm Isabela, formerly Captain Isabela." She practically purred to him. She stepped up to him and ran her hands along his chest. She looked up over Anders' shoulder and winked at me. So Bela was on my side in this. Good to know she'll try to keep Anders busy.

"Bone Pit, first Bela. Then you can try to convince him to the other bone pit." I said with a smirk on my face.

We set off with Hawke and myself at the front. We held hands as we strolled along. The Wounded Coast turned out to be relatively uneventful. We dealt with another group of Flint Company mercenaries and while their numbers were greater than in Kirkwall our strength was much greater as well. The addition of Fenris and Isabela was big. They seemed to compliment what we already had as a group and made us that much better. We also traded barbs quite a bit more than you might expect in the middle of a fight. Isabela in particular liked taunting people. The first time I heard her yell out, "Somebody needs a spanking!" I almost died from laughing so hard. Fenris meanwhile acted as another formidable front along with Carver. Between those two our back ranks which consisted of the mages and our archer/crossbowman were able to unleash hell relatively uncontested. Aveline acted as our shield which freed us up to do even more damage for those few who got through. Hawke and Isabela easily picked off those too distracted by our heavy hitters. Not only did we have to deal with the mercenaries but there was also Tal Vasoth and another set of mercenaries who took out a Grey Warden messenger. Hawke picked up the letter of the messenger as she intended to drop it off as directed. It didn't take much to clear our way through the Wounded Coast with the force we had assembled. As we wandered along the coast I noticed many sunken ships and I called over to Isabela.

"So which one's yours? I'm pretty sure we watched your grand entrance into Kirkwall from the cliffs." That caused Isabela to pause up as she obviously didn't want anybody to know about the Qunari part of it. I was alright with keeping her secret for now. After all I had my own.

"I mean we could see that storm and it was vicious. I wish there was something we could have done to help." That caused Isabela to relax and she went about answering.

"It was. Had we been anywhere but Kirkwall we would have survived the storm but the Waking Sea is full of treacherous pits and valleys with rocks jutting up from the bottom but not breaking the surface. I knew we were in trouble but the last wave forced us into the rocks. Sadly, I was at the helm which does hurt my reputation a bit but if I couldn't keep us a float then nobody could. As for my ship, The Siren's Call is nothing but boards and planks now. It didn't survive as these ships have. A little patchwork and most of these are salvageable but not mine." She finished and I could tell she was a little upset. Not at me but at the loss of her ship. She really does view the sea as the greatest form of freedom and since I really did like her I offered my support.

"Well, Isabela I'll do anything I can to help you get another and if this whole Deep Roads thing works out that'll pretty much be a guarantee. Who knows maybe you'll even get steady business in Kirkwall and can visit. I have a feeling Corff will miss your business if you ever leave permanently." I said that last bit with a smile. There was no doubt that both Corff and Madam Lousine would miss Isabela when she was gone for three years. Not if I can help it though. Isabela's too much fun to have gone for that long. Get her the ship early and make sure she has a reason to comeback. That was my plan. As vague as it was.

Isabela chuckled in response, "I'll bet. If you can get me a ship I may even let you control the rudder."

Hawke's head snapped around so fast I heard a loud crack. That's one way of getting out the kinks. "Isabela!" Hawke exclaimed then much to Isabela's delighted as she started laughing.

Isabela then pranced up from behind us and squeezed between the two of us. She draped an arm over both our shoulders.

"Don't you worry, sweet thing. I know he's yours and I'm not in the business of getting between two people ... unless they want me between them."

Hawke and I were wearing identical blushes at that. We looked over at each other and blushed even more. I know Hawke's not a virgin and neither am I but Isabela seems to push all the right buttons. It's also completely different for us because I don't think either one of us had ever felt this way about anybody before. Isabela noticed how uncomfortable we were and her ringing laugh again filled their air.

"You two are just too sweet. Don't ever change."

And with that Isabela dropped back leaving the two of us alone. We shared another glance and then Hawke firmly took my hand as if daring any of our other friends to say something. The ground ahead was starting to rise and we couldn't have been an hour away from the Bone Pit. We decided to take a quick break before we dealt with whatever awaited us there. I had to relieve myself and was surprised to find Anders waiting for me away from the others. I tensed up just waiting for him to say something else about either Caress or my relationship with Hawke, neither of which were any of his business.

"I'm sorry. I was out of line both yesterday and the night before. It's just that sometimes Justice comes out and I can't control him. He says things I would normally never say." The apology caught me off guard but he needed to apologize for just more than that.

"That's fine. I know when you go off on your rants it's Justice talking. He's a bit of a dick by the way. The problem I have is you flirting with Hawke." That actually caused him to stand up with jealousy flitting across his features.

"What's the matter afraid of a little competition?" I laughed in his face.

"You're not competition. We both know that you're a train wreck waiting to happen ... and don't ask what a train is. The fact is that me and Hawke are together. Now you can either respect that and we can work together to fix your little problem ... or you continue to piss me off by flirting with my girlfriend and if that happens I won't pull any punches when the time comes, Anders. You don't want me as an enemy but I won't let you hurt innocent people and that's exactly the path your heading down." That seemed to throw Anders off his game and he barely stuttered out a response.

"Wwh...what are ... you ... talking about?"

"I'm talking about that thing you call a friend that lives in your head and tries to tell you what the 'just' thing to do is. Because here's the thing about sharing a body, Anders. It changes both involved. It's changing you and it's changing Justice. You need to realize that before you do something you won't be able to live with because when that time comes I'll be sure that Hawke knows that death is easy and that living with the consequences of your decisions is the hard thing." I paused briefly and took the glare off my face before giving him a reassuring look.

"I don't want that though. You're not a bad guy, Anders and if you stop trying to force the issue with Hawke I could easily see us being friends. Think on it."

With that I walked away from him and to Hawke who had her back to me. I snuck up behind her and then wrapped my arms around her from behind. She tensed for a split second until she realized who it was then she relaxed in my embrace. She gave me a small smile and we shared a brief kiss. I could feel Anders eyes on my back but didn't let it bother me. He needed to know that neither Hawke nor I appreciated his not so subtle attempts. Hawke then decided it was time to get going and so we all set off on our way.

An hour later we stood at the entrance to the Bone Pit mines. We had already dealt with the handful of bandits who were stupid enough to attack a group as numerous and as skilled as ours. It turned out that stealing from the dead was profitable as we managed to find almost 2 sovereigns between them. That almost made this entire venture worth it. But only almost though. As cool as dragons are I wasn't exactly looking forward to fighting one. The dragonlings didn't bother me so much but we had a big one coming up.

"The bandits seemed to be staying away from this mine ... maybe they know something we don't?" Isabela said then.

"We don't know what we'll be dealing with in the mines. Maybe the bandits were the real problem but keep your eyes open, just in case." Hawke directed us to which we all nodded in agreement.

Hawke led the way into the mine and we were, almost immediately, attacked by a group of dragonlings. Carver and Fenris rushed forward to meet the initial attack while Varric and Rhiannon fired bolts and arrows. Hawke and Isabela darted in and danced in and attacked the dragonlings from the sides and rear. Anders was firing off spirit bolts while I froze a couple with a cone of cold. Bethany shot a fireball at one that had me shaking my head.

"Don't bother with fire. Dragons are naturally resistance. Stick to cold or spirit spells." I yelled out.

Bethany adjusted her tactics and soon we he had all the dragonlings dealt with. We took stock of our condition and found that other than a few scratches we were alright. Thankfully dragons that young didn't breathe fire yet. After Anders healed our minor injuries we set off and began the long, slow process of clearing out the rest of the mines. Overall, I'd say it took us a good couple hours before we ran into a man named Jansen, who explained the situation. Apparently, there was a really big dragon that needed killing. I knew that but it still didn't make me feel any better about the situation. There was some delay as the others began debating how we were supposed to kill the dragon. I knew how to deal with this problem and I looked to Anders and Bethany.

"How's your mana feel? Think you got enough for the Perfect Storm?"

All conversation ended as every eye in the place turned towards me. Hawke looked mildly concerned as did Aveline. Rhiannon merely looked curious. Varric and Isabela looked amused at the idea. Carver looked bored but Fenris looked like he wanted to kill somebody. Namely me for suggesting it.

"I've got enough for an Inferno," Bethany responded and Anders nodded his agreement.

"As do I for a Tempest." He said then. Hawke looked thoughtful for a second before nodding.

"If you are all sure, then we'll do it. Everybody else stay back while they do what they do best."

"You would trust mages this much?" Fenris hissed out in disgust. Anders opened his mouth to respond but I held up my hand and stopped him in his tracks.

"Hawke leads keep your mouth shut." I hissed to him. I merely crossed my arms across my chest and glared at Fenris. For his part he returned it but Hawke stepped immediately between him and us mages. Carver joined her.

"Let me be very clear, Fenris. If you can't work with mages then you can leave at any time but I will not put up with any derogatory comments to Bethany or Sean simply because you were once a slave. They are not Danarius. Stop judging them on actions that were never theirs."

"Hey, what about me?" Anders spoke up then.

"I think she takes offense to your attempts to flirt, Blondie. Maybe you should try not doing that when she's clearly not on the market." Varric added and Anders slunk back at the back of the group trying to hide.

Oh yeah, this was going really well. It seemed like everybody's issues with each other were about to come out. I simply walked over to Hawke and put my arms around her and whispered in her ear as the arguing started among everybody else.

"Shall we enjoy the show or do you think maybe we should work this out at the Hanged Man once we're back in Kirkwall?" Hawke sighed at this.

"We can't be at each other's throats for the rest of this little venture but now really isn't the time. We simply need to find some common ground."

"Alright, you want me to hand it?"

"By all means." She said with a smile. I gave her a quick kiss before letting her go and stepping in front of her.

"WOULD YOU PLEASE SHUT THE HELL UP!" I shouted over their bickering. Every eye in the place turned to me.

"You're acting like a bunch of children. Oh, you were a slave. Oh you're a mage, Oh you're a ... pirate whore ... and you're a damn story-teller that has to embellish everything ... and you're a damn city guard who feels she is always right and never wrong ... and you ... nah, you're cool, Carver." I said with a smirk that he returned. Yeah, Carver's my bro. "And me? I'm a man from another world that has a Desire Demon for a friend, who for some damn reason has no intention of possessing me, and oh yeah, I still don't know how the hell I got here. The point is we're all people, from different walks of life but there is still a damn big dragon out there that needs killing. So I say we get over our damn selves, kill the bastards and then when we get back to Kirkwall get ourselves completely shit-faced at the Hanged Man. Then we'll deal with all our issues when there isn't things try to kill us. Deal?"

Everybody was staring at me and looking completely dumbfounded. Oh yeah, I just dropped the bombshell on everybody else. Hey, if it stopped them from arguing with each other about all there issues then it worked for me. The fact was that I was going to tell everybody in our group regardless but this just sped up the process. Something tells me that Merrill won't be surprised. She'll probably be very happy with that little revelation. Oh well, with the Dalish so close I was going to have to come up with a way to pass on my knowledge of Arcane Warrior without becoming a human pincushion. I've always wanted to say that. I looked around at everybody who were still a bit shell-shocked to be honest.

"Any questions? No. Good. Now lets go kill us a big god damn dragon!" I said with a crazy gleam in my eye as I had channeled my inner Zaeed Massani. Hawke approached me with a slight smile.

"Well said but do you really think it was wise to just drop that on everybody now?" I shrugged my shoulders in response.

"It got them to stop arguing about their own issues. Maybe now they'll focus at the task at hand and realize that they're not the only ones who have had some screwed up crap happen to them. Not that I'm complaining of course. I feel more alive here then I ever did back home." I gave her a meaningful look.

"You're sweet." She said in response and gave me a quick kiss. She then turned and faced everyone else.

"Personal drama over?" She asked everyone who just kind of nodded dumbly. I still can't believe I had struck Varric speechless ... speaking of which.

"Ah, Varric. That part about me ... leave it out of the stories." I was kind of surprised when Varric nodded in agreement.

"Not like anybody would believe it anyways."

With that we headed to through the cavern which would lead us back outside and to the dragon. As we stepped outside we heard a loud roar and the mature dragon came swooping in. Yes, swooping is bad, again. I think this a mature dragon anyways. It was a little on the small side to be a High Dragon. That being said it could still eat me and, it goes without saying that, I don't want to be food. A lightning bolt, a spirit bolt and winter's grasp hit the Dragon all at once causing it to land. Perfect. I drew on my mana and focused the eye of the storm directly over the dragon. Mine would be the most important in keeping the dragon grounded. I released the spell as a Blizzard was unleash on the dragon. Almost immediately after Anders unleashed his Tempest and finally Bethany followed up with an Inferno or Firestorm, call it what you want. It's still damn impressive. The dragon roared in agony as the combined effects of the spell wore it down ... and pissed it off. That was abundantly clear when it shot fire at us causing us to dive away. I found myself lying behind Hawke with my arm draped over her protectively.

"Right, I hadn't really thought about the dragon's response to the Perfect Storm. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. This is no different than dealing with an ogre." She said with a smile but the blood drained from my face.

"You do remember how that ended, right? I had almost forget how painful that was. So thanks for reminding me."

Hawke dashed off with a laugh and entered the fray. I held Frost Bite in one hand and my shield in the other. I continued to hit the dragon with cold spells to keep its movements slow for the others. Rhiannon and Varric weren't having a great deal of success with their arrows and bolts due to the dragons tough hide but one lucky shot jammed into the roof of its mouth and another was embedded in its left eye. That only made dragon more made. Carver and Fenris were attacking from the sides while Isabela and Hawke were doing what they could with their daggers. The dragon roared in frustration and swatted Fenris and then Carver aside. Carver slammed back into the rocks and Anders ran off to heal him.

The dragon spat more fire in our direction when Isabela and Hawke decided to climb up the dragon and get at its head from behind. Isabela lost her balance as the dragon rose off the ground and fell off but not before shredding its right wing with her daggers. Good keep the bastard grounded. The dragon was trying to snap up at Hawke and almost got her. That caused my blood to run cold and I charged forward. Aveline was trying to draw the dragons attention by attacking its legs but was having no effect with her ordinary sword. Frost Bite was far from ordinary though. I slid under its head and stabbed upwards into its throat. My momentum was lost almost immediately and I only cut about a foot across the throat and only an inch or so deep. What I did manage to do was get the dragon's attention. My plans never work out how I pictured them. I got my shield up as the dragon unleashed fire. I could hear Hawke crying out my name but I was so focused on this strange idea that popped in my head that I didn't respond. I simply held Frost Bite out and battled the fire with a cone of cold. I couldn't help but laugh as I had my first shower since entering Thedas. Let me tell you if there is one thing I really miss it's a nice hot shower. This was definitely one of those.

Suddenly the flames stopped shooting at me and the dragon let out a loud roar in pain. It wobbled above me and fell to the side finally dying. I'm just going to assume Hawke killed it. I saw her flip through the air like an acrobat and landed on her feet. All the while I was still laughing my ass off. Hawke rushed to my side with concern etched on her face.

"Where are you hurt?" She said as she slid next to me and checked my face. "You're laughing? Why are you laughing?"

"Do you have any idea how long its been since I've had a shower? An honest to God shower. I haven't felt this clean in over a year."

"Umm... Sean, what's a shower?" I sometimes forgot that Hawke didn't always know what I was talking about.

"A shower is like a waterfall really. Except its controlled and you can adjust the temperature of the water. Really, it's the running water version of a bath."

"Okay. But how did that happen?"

"Well, when the dragon decide the flame broiler Sean was on the menu I combated its fire with a cone of cold. Hence the shower." I sat up then and touched the side of her face. "I'm sorry for worrying you but when I saw that dragon almost take a chunk out of you I lost it. I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to you."

"Now you know what I've gone through." She said with a smile.

"Yeah, I'll try to be better about that going forward. I promise." I said and returned the smile. I pulled her up to her feet as I got to mine. Carver came forward then with a smile.

"I got the dragon's fang. Sol should be happy about that."

"Yeah, and it all it took was for me to almost get turned in a Sean-kabob." I said with a slight chuckle. "We definitely have earned a drink for this one alone, eh, Carver?"

"Definitely. So we ready to go?" Carver asked Hawke.

"Yes. We should head to the Dalish. If we're lucky we can get there before nightfall." Hawke responded but it was then that an idea hit me. I had been looking at the dragon thoughtfully and then looked down at my crap armor. I definitely needed an upgrade and I'm sure the others wouldn't mind as well.

"Wait! We can use those dragon scales. They make great armor and all we need to do is find somebody who's willing to work on it. Hell you find the right blacksmith and they'll practically do it for free."

"Are you sure? This will set us back a couple hours at least," Hawke asked to which I nodded.

"Yeah, it'll set us back a bit but not much really. There is no way we're going to go up Sundermount tonight. We'll need to camp out eventually anyways and this way we can take care of a major problem. I don't know how much longer my leathers will survive and dragon scale armor has the bonus of being highly resistant to fire as well as being extremely light weight. It's as much protective as Plate armor without being slowed down. We need this."

Hawke looked me up and down and I could see the agreement in her eyes. My safety being one of her top priorities all but sealed the deal. As it was I was going to have to try and get a temporary replacement.

"Alright, people. You heard Sean rounded up all the dragon scales you can. If we're lucky we'll have enough for everybody."

And so we began cutting off all the dragon scales we could. I really couldn't wait. Put me in that stuff and I wouldn't need to worry about constantly getting myself killed. That assassin wouldn't have stood a chance if I was in that stuff. Yeah, this was going to be good and next up on the agenda was the Dalish and Flemeth's amulet. This would be interesting.

A/N: Sorry, for the delay. It was a busier week at work then usual and I've been working on some ideas I have for a Mass Effect story or two. Thanks for the patience on this. I should be back to the regular Wednesday posting with a possible weekend one this week.