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"You!” Cassandra roared, slamming into his quarters.
Rather an auspicious start, really. Varric winced inwardly and put down his quill. She was in a rare mood tonight; her cheeks were flushed crimson, her eyes wild, and in spite of all this – hell, maybe because of it – she was gorgeous. She had a familiar few pages in hand.
“’So lovely was she, his lady warrior, bright and prickly as like a thorned rose’,” Cassandra read, though Varric rather thought she was more or less reciting: there was no way she was reading that page, the way it was crumpled in the fist she was shaking in his face.
“Not my best work, I’ll admit,” Varric offered, scratching absently at his stubble. “But honestly I don’t know why you’re so upset. I made you look dapper.”
Cassandra made a noise of pure frustration; she seemed to have reached new heights of aggravation. Must be exciting for her. “Dapper!”
“You like dapper. It's professional. Neat. Trim. Smart.” He folded his arms, grabbing his quill and dropping it into the ink well. “I didn't think you'd want me to paint you too fru-fru. Not your style.”
Cassandra balled up the advanced copy he'd given to her further; the paper crunched so hard in her hand that he knew the copy was going to be barely readable.
“You – you!” She threw the paper, purposefully missing his head. “You're terrible!”
“I know, I know.” He jotted a few more notes in the margins of his latest epic – Lady Cassandria of Navarria, super-hero? – then looked up at her. She certainly had the temperament for it. “But you love me anyway, right Seeker?”
“How can you even ask, you – you jerk!” She bellowed; her hand remained a fist and he thought about renaming his pet-name for her. Seeker was a relic of an earlier time in their relationship; a title more than an expression of her personality.
He looked at her face, bright red and furious, and wondered how she'd take hellcat. It was a pity Bull and the chargers hadn't followed them to Kirkwall; he had a feeling Bull would have appreciated the nickname.
“So I take it you didn't like the guardswoman's newest recruit, Cassandria of Nevaria? An orphan of a prominent family who rose to glory on the battlefield and captured the attention of the guard captain of Kirkwall?”
“Of course I did!” Cassandra sputtered, indignantly. “She was blatantly pandering,of course –“
“I don't do any other kind of pandering...sweetheart,” he said, playing it safe. Even flattery could negate the ire of the savage beast, he thought. “When I pander, I want you to know I'm pandering.”
“Yes, well – I, I wouldn't say it was...unappreciated.” Her lips quirked together in what may have been a hint of a smile. “To think I would meet the approval of the great guardswoman of Kirkwall – “
“Aveline does like you, sweetheart.” He scoffed. “She invites us over for cake every sunday.”
“She likes you, dwarf.” Cassandra's eyes flashed for a moment, and he knew she just remembered that she was mad at him. “She tolerates me. But – “
“That's not true.” He guffawed. “She never made scones for me.”
“Don't try to flatter me,” She said, raising a hand.
“But you're so easy to flatter.” He said, rolling his eyes as he picked up his pen. Cassandria – secret sisters? - he scribbled in the margins. He debated for one moment making it Varricio, surface dwarven rogue and romeo extraordinaire – they were both redheads after all – but who would believe a dwarf and a human woman could be related? “That's why I introduced Varricio, her paramour who – “
“Varric, you proposed to me in the middle of the chapter!” She wailed, slamming her hands down on the table. “In the middle of a chapter! In a battle scene, no less!”
“Yeah.” He said, looking up at her, unintimidated. He'd gotten used to her moods, and knew when to say things and when not to. “Frankly, I’m a little hurt you haven’t answered yet.”
“Of - “She stopped herself from responding, pouting. Her mouth was cute, he thought; distracting. Perfect cupid's bow on the lips. Bianca would be jealous – if she had a mouth,that is. “Couldn’t you have done it at the end?”
“Hm.” He ruffled a few pages, moved back to his last chapter.
“Hm? Is that all you have to say? Hm?” He scoffed softly. “And here I thought I had set it up very romantically – just the way you like. Wine, candles – even a hymn to Andraste. Maker, I made you a scene that should make me the very paragon of romance.”
“It was...very nice.” She scoffed. “But you – you ruined all sense of dramatic tension!” She pursed her lips. “It should have been at the end of the last chapter, a line that would keep your readers in suspense until the next serial.”
“Hm.” He made a note – move the proposal scene to the end of chapter 7. “You're right.”
“That's – that's all you have to say?” She snarled. “I'm right?”
“Well – I am still waiting on an answer.” He folded his arms. “Gonna be harder to write the next installment without knowing what she says, you know.”
He stood up, walking toward the back door. Time to haul out the big guns.
“Where are you going?” Cassandra asked; he could hear her footsteps behind him, quick and hurried.
“Seek and you shall find, seeker.” He motioned for her to keep following hum and led her through the door, out toward the backyard. It was fenced in; private. All the better for what he had planned.
“Varric--" He heard her gasp as she saw the candles he'd laid out for the past couple hours while she'd been reading the three newest chapters she'd given him. He lit the last two as he pulled out a bottle of champagne he'd kept chilling – Orlesian stuff, the classiest.
“What ...is...all-all this?”
“I should think that's obvious, sweetheart.” He got down on one knee, a bottle of wine in one hand and the ring that had been burning a hole in his pocket for the last hour in the other. “You ever going to let me know your answer?”
“You!” Her mouth pursed into something dangerously close to a smile. “All of this...for me?”
“The best for the best, Seeker. Not too many women I'd be willing to accompany across the Waking Sea, you know.”
“Well – of course.” She said, flustered. “Don't think this means that you can stop writing their story. But – what will happen to Cassandria and Varricio now?”
“I don't know, seeker.” He popped open the champagne and handed her a glass as she sat on the blanket he'd laid out. She took it and smiled as he poured his own glass. “Guess we'll just have to wait and see.”