Under Darkness [AU]

[Tethras Clan]

Zevran stares a moment, trying to parse that statement. "Heir of wh-" Naishe. "Ah. Well. I suppose we'll have to explain, in a pointed manner if required, that they can go get fucked, no?" he says after the first few links click into place.

[Isabela]

Isabela takes a deep breath, lets it out. "What they want doesn't exist. I... took care of it," she admits, unable to meet his eyes. "They must have seen me with the twins, thought they were mine."

[Tethras Clan]

"...how long do they think it takes to give birth?" Zevran winces. "Ah, sorry, it's just... I'm terrified of babies and even I know that-" He shakes his head. "Sorry. Well, if they went right to slavers and kidnapping, I doubt simply explaining that you shed the fetus would make them leave you alone. So... any idea how many people we'll have to assassinate?" he asks, slipping into a crisp, almost professional tone.

[Isabela]

Isabela smiles, faintly. "Nope. Varric has some ideas, though."

[Tethras Clan]

Zevran snorts. "Varric always does. How good they are can vary, but always with the idea," he says, smiling back. "...are you..." No, of course she isn't. "How are you dealing with... her coming back up?

[Isabela]

"Shouting and drinking, just as always," she admits. "How about you, my love?"

[Tethras Clan]

"I... mixed," he admits, eyes warming at her endearment. "Relieved Hawke is awake. Heartsick at what a girl I once knew had to go through. Enraged at those that did it to her. Proud of Merrill for coming into her own. Optimistically wary that her newfound... tolerance of seeing me, of talking to me directly, might last." Her jerks a shoulder. "Grateful you're asking for company."

[Isabela]

"I was worried you wouldn't... appreciate the things Isabela had to do to become Isabela," she says carefully.

[Tethras Clan]

Zevran cocks his head to the side. "...love, I'm- I was a professional assassin. A whore. I lied, I cheated, I stole... I have no moral high ground to speak of," he says in a very carefully controlled voice.

[Isabela]

"You have every ground to speak on," she says, glancing away. "You were a tool. I had choices. You risked, I don't even know how much to save my life, and I couldn't--"

She breaks off. What is wrong with you today, Isabela?

[Tethras Clan]

Six days without food, chained to a bench in a tiny metal box, my back a bloody- "Nothing I was unwilling to risk- or pay," he says easily, eyes dark. "ma'bela, look at me. I do not blame you for what you did to survive. You were left, broken, bleeding, alone and with only a pouch full of stolen jewelry, a dagger and vague directions to someone that might be able to get you passage far enough away to make a new life. That you have made yourself into the incredible, amazing, wondrous woman before me is... I have not the words."

[Isabela]

"I couldn't find you," she says, her voice a bare whisper. "I looked everywhere, but I couldn't repay the favor."

[Tethras Clan]

"You did. A thousand times, a thousand nights, a thousand moments, you saved me," Zevran murmurs, gripping her arms too tightly for a moment. "When-Whenever it got... whenever I considered... letting go, to death, to worse, I... I was able to remember you. Saving you. Giving you a chance, and convince myself there was still something worth... life. Sometimes it was thinking about how another might not have helped you. Might have simply added you to the pile or never spared you a thought after killing the sick fuck. Others it was the thought of how... betrayed you'd be, taking the path I made you promise to spurn. Those and a dozen other ways you saved me."

[Isabela]

"Zevran," she whispers, and she can't bring herself to say it, hut it's in her eyes: how many nights she did the same, letting the memory of his disapproval, his love, spur her onward. How she kept that night going, how she thought of him every day for months afterward. "I made Isabela to be someone who would save you, next time. Someone who you would be proud of. But I never could. I finally gave up hope just before Hawke did what I could not -- and your love for her is the thing that made me take a second look. You gave me this Clan, after all I failed to do for you. I love you. I-- if you asked for my hand I would give it." He knows she's not talking of her physical hand -- but that might be easier to win from her.

[Tethras Clan]

"I don't... I don't need it," he says softly, voice husky, eyes telling her plainly how much that moves him to hear. "Knowing you would is enough. Is more than I would have dreamed of having." Zevran gently kisses her brow, then rests his own against hers. "Know that I would ask, would accept, just as you. I'll not consider you mine, but I... I consider us, ours, if you ken."