Oh my! I didn't expect such an enthusiastic response. By all means, please keep it up! Lol.

By the way, just some food for thought. Darktown might be a sewer, but what happens when those pipes or tunnels get clogged from uptown? Plumbers? And if so,...those people are probably severely underpaid.

Chapter 2

Blue eyes shone wide and pleading, lush pink lips set in a perfect pout. Her voice trembled just enough to pull at even the coldest heart, "Please, Varric? Just for tonight?"

He didn't look up from his desk filled with papers from his many businesses, the scratch of his quill sounding fast and loud. "No."

"I won't make a peep, I swear."

"No."

"I'll pay for the room."

"No."

She cocked an eyebrow. "I'll wax Bianca."

"No."

"I'll wash your clothes."

"No."

"While you're still in them."

"No."

"You're not even listening, are you?"

"No." Only the fact that he actually didn't react at all but to keep writing in his papers kept Hawke from smacking him. "I could say anything I want right now, couldn't I?" she said loudly.

"No.

"I found a dancing girl costume in your closet. Is it Bartrand's?"

"No.

"Is it someone else's?"

"No.

"I knew it! Oh, and Fenris says your gay. He's wrong, isn't he?"

"No-wait, what?" Varric blinked, looking up from his work in confusion.

"No, you've admitted it, you should be proud," she said a firm nod.

Varric frowned in bewilderment and some concern. "Admitted what?"

"No, you've already said it, you can't take it back now. I'll go tell Isabella, she'll be so disappointed." Hawke shook her head in sorrow. "Its a sad day for the lady dwarves of the world, but I imagine the fellows are dancing in the streets."

Her dwarven friend looked up at her with utter confusion. "What?"

She suddenly grinned. "Fenris will be overjoyed. Well, stoicly overjoyed, you know how he does it." The girl chuckled. "And after all this time that Aveline told him he was wrong, too!"

Varric arced an eyebrow. "What exactly are you saying that I admitted to?"

Hawke smiled beatifically at him. "Merril will be thrilled, she's always said there was something different about you."

"Hawke..." he growled warningly.

A sudden look of ecstatic joy formed on her face. "OOH! OOH! Do I get to tell Anders? Please let me tell Anders, it'll be great! The look on his face will be priceless! He's convinced you were tryint to hit on him that other night at the bar!"

Varric felt a thrill of panic at that. "Hawke, what the hell are you talking about?"

She couldn't take the look on his face anymore and burst out laughing, collapsing in the chair beside him. "N-nothing, its nothing Varric. But it got your attention, didn't it?"

He shook his head. "Crazy humans. Any particular reason you needed my attention that badly?" he asked, settling back in his chair and sorting a few papers.

"Gamlen's finally scraped up enough coin to clean out the privy and while I've got enough to put Mother and Bethany in a decent place for the next few days, ah," Hawke blushed a bit, her hand behind her head in a sheepish gesture. "I didn't have enough to get me in too. Can I stay here at night? Just on the couch, and I can pay you back when we get our next job-"

"Yes, you can stay here, Hawke," he said, shaking his head in exasperation. It turned to a wicked smirk. "Of course, there are other ways you could pay to stay with me, if you're interested."

She gave him a look. "This from the dwarf that's always said I'm too tall for his taste?"

"For you, I'd make an exception," he said with a smile, his voice slightly husky.

Her own light blush took her by surprise. "Well, I don't know how good I'd be at that, eheh, so you might want to choose some other kind of payment."

"Really? Alright then," the dwarf made a mental note of that pretty blush, and was quietly thinking of ways to make it happen again. "So, how's your penmanship?"

She blinked in confusion. "My penmanship? Its decent enough, Mother taught us High and Low Common writting styles. Why?"

A slightly embarrassed look came on his face. "Well Hawke, I must confess, I can talk fast but I can't write fast. I'm getting, ah," he glanced back at the three piles of paperwork still to be done, "a bit behind in my work. But if you could help me get this under control, consider your room and board on me."

She smiled and walked over to the low table, pulling an ink set within reach and taking a quill in hand. "Sounds like a good deal to me. Wait." Hawke blushed to the roots of her hair. "You're not going to have me write any of your stories, are you?"

His grin was positively wicked. "Why Hawke, one might think you were a bit scandalized at the idea."

"No, just not sure how fast I could write anything like that," she said with a faint hint of nervousness in her voice. Damned if that blush wasn't back too!

Oh, he was so tempted to tease her for the surprising display of maidenly modesty. The return of the blush was all that stayed his hand. This dwarf was very good at reading people, always had been. And from the sweet, almost awkward way that she dealt with men, he knew for a fact that as shocking as the thought was, Marian Hawke was a virgin. He'd need to take his time with a girl like her.

Varric's smile was kinder when he answered, "No, nothing like that. Just keeping the house records and some of the smaller investments. And some of my own little projects, but we can keep those just between us, right?"

The girl smiled, not just in relief, but in happiness at the trust he was showing her. "Cross my heart."