who_is_she (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
who_is_she) wrote2014-12-02 02:32 pm
who_is_she) wrote2014-12-02 02:32 pm
im done with this family
The moment Varric sees Cole running towards him, panic written all over his face, he knows something horrible has happened. They were just on a routine scouting mission to the Emerald Graves, meant to clear out whatever petty criminals were trying to take root, so they'd just gone with the three of them: Cole, Varric and Jean. Cole and Jean had gone to have a quick look around the area while Varric cleaned up their breakfast and had a word with the couple of guards stationed at the camp. They were only meant to be gone a minute, but by the time Cole runs back to the camp it's been half an hour.
Cole is gasping and quivering, trying to speak and breath at the first time, and Varric has to grab him by the shoulders.
"Breath, Kid," he says sternly, his heart in his throat, "Tell me what happened." Cole takes a deep, shuddering breath and wipes at his eyes before he can speak.
"It was the Freemen," Cole says, his voice quivering and hitching, "They had... Something. Something magical, it was so loud, I couldn't hear and I couldn't see," Cole covers his ears with his hands and starts to shake his head wildly, turning his attention back on Varric when he squeezes his shoulders, "It hurt Jean, made him fall, and they took him." Varric's heart stopped for a moment and when it started again it was beating too fast, his mind reeling.
"He was alive?" Varric asks, his whole being revolving around that question. Cole nodded quickly.
"I felt his hurt, white hot pain and screaming, Varric, please, no, but I couldn't follow. It was too loud."
"Show me where."
They both run off and find another camp that's either stupidly or brilliantly close to the Inquisition camp, and it's empty save for one dead body, still smoldering from one of Jean's fire spells. Varric finds a map and a phial of red lyrium on the body. He stashes the map in his coat and smashes the lyrium under his boot, and turns back to Cole.
"Cole, I need you to go back to camp, take one of the guards, and get reinforcements," Varric says, his voice grim.
"Varric, no--" Cole starts to protest, and Varric yanks him into a quick hug.
"There's nobody else I'd rather have watching my back, you know that, but we can't both go after him, not if they're strong and not if they have a weapon that disables mages. I can buy you some time, keep Jean alive long enough for you to bring the full force of the Inquisition down on these assholes," Varric snarls, pulling back to look Cole in the eyes.
"Assholes," Cole echoes, his mouth twitching a little, and nods.
"Go," Varric says, and Cole takes off back towards the camp while Varric starts in the opposite direction, Bianca's familiar weight in his arms. He heads towards the hideout marked on the map, his heartbeat thumping in his ears every step of the way and his mind chanting an unrelenting don't be dead don't be dead don't be dead don't be dead don't be dead.
It takes him almost an hour to locate the camp, because he has to move slowly and quietly to avoid detection and without backup a stray bear could take him down easy. As soon as he locates the hideout he drops the stealth, opting instead for the scream-at-the-top-of-your-lungs-and-take-as-many-with-you-as-you-go-down strategy. They overwhelm him in the end, but that was the plan all along, and Varric doesn't even stop to think about how stupid a plan it was until Bianca is ripped from his hands, something inside her making a terrifying crack. They take him alive, try to taunt him, but Varric just spits in their faces until they break his arm, at which point he blacks out.
He comes to a few minutes later when they're throwing him into a cell, his broken arm slamming hard against stone and making his vision white-out from the pain. The guard locks the cell and then leaves, and Varric spits out a mouthful of blood and looks around.
"Jean," he says, his voice cracking as he crawls across the cell to the body laying on the floor, "Oh, Maker, please don't take him," Varric prays as he presses his good hand to Jean's chest, then his neck, laughing deliriously in relief when he finds a pulse. He pulls Jean into his lap, wrapping his good arm around him shoulders and holding him tight, muttering his thanks to whichever diety was responsible over and over.
Cole is gasping and quivering, trying to speak and breath at the first time, and Varric has to grab him by the shoulders.
"Breath, Kid," he says sternly, his heart in his throat, "Tell me what happened." Cole takes a deep, shuddering breath and wipes at his eyes before he can speak.
"It was the Freemen," Cole says, his voice quivering and hitching, "They had... Something. Something magical, it was so loud, I couldn't hear and I couldn't see," Cole covers his ears with his hands and starts to shake his head wildly, turning his attention back on Varric when he squeezes his shoulders, "It hurt Jean, made him fall, and they took him." Varric's heart stopped for a moment and when it started again it was beating too fast, his mind reeling.
"He was alive?" Varric asks, his whole being revolving around that question. Cole nodded quickly.
"I felt his hurt, white hot pain and screaming, Varric, please, no, but I couldn't follow. It was too loud."
"Show me where."
They both run off and find another camp that's either stupidly or brilliantly close to the Inquisition camp, and it's empty save for one dead body, still smoldering from one of Jean's fire spells. Varric finds a map and a phial of red lyrium on the body. He stashes the map in his coat and smashes the lyrium under his boot, and turns back to Cole.
"Cole, I need you to go back to camp, take one of the guards, and get reinforcements," Varric says, his voice grim.
"Varric, no--" Cole starts to protest, and Varric yanks him into a quick hug.
"There's nobody else I'd rather have watching my back, you know that, but we can't both go after him, not if they're strong and not if they have a weapon that disables mages. I can buy you some time, keep Jean alive long enough for you to bring the full force of the Inquisition down on these assholes," Varric snarls, pulling back to look Cole in the eyes.
"Assholes," Cole echoes, his mouth twitching a little, and nods.
"Go," Varric says, and Cole takes off back towards the camp while Varric starts in the opposite direction, Bianca's familiar weight in his arms. He heads towards the hideout marked on the map, his heartbeat thumping in his ears every step of the way and his mind chanting an unrelenting don't be dead don't be dead don't be dead don't be dead don't be dead.
It takes him almost an hour to locate the camp, because he has to move slowly and quietly to avoid detection and without backup a stray bear could take him down easy. As soon as he locates the hideout he drops the stealth, opting instead for the scream-at-the-top-of-your-lungs-and-take-as-many-with-you-as-you-go-down strategy. They overwhelm him in the end, but that was the plan all along, and Varric doesn't even stop to think about how stupid a plan it was until Bianca is ripped from his hands, something inside her making a terrifying crack. They take him alive, try to taunt him, but Varric just spits in their faces until they break his arm, at which point he blacks out.
He comes to a few minutes later when they're throwing him into a cell, his broken arm slamming hard against stone and making his vision white-out from the pain. The guard locks the cell and then leaves, and Varric spits out a mouthful of blood and looks around.
"Jean," he says, his voice cracking as he crawls across the cell to the body laying on the floor, "Oh, Maker, please don't take him," Varric prays as he presses his good hand to Jean's chest, then his neck, laughing deliriously in relief when he finds a pulse. He pulls Jean into his lap, wrapping his good arm around him shoulders and holding him tight, muttering his thanks to whichever diety was responsible over and over.
hey brother
"Maker," he cries, a tear forming in his eye from the pain as he looks up, and sees Varric leaning over him. "This has to be a dream. Please don't tell me they got you too."
Re: hey brother
"They didn't so much get me as I handed myself over to them," Varric says with a wince, realizing how stupid that sounds when he says it out loud, "They thought they disabled Cole, thought he was a mage too, so I run in, crossbow blazing, and they think they've captured the backup. Gives... Cole enough time to get the real backup," Varric says, gasping a little in pain when he moves his arm to reach into his pocket.
"I have an extra healing potion, a small one," he says, gritting his teeth as he leans over to pull a small vial out of his opposite pocket, "Should help with the pain, at least."
Re: hey brother
"Your arm," he wheezes, breathing laboriously, "You...take it, I'm...I'll be all right." He rests his hand on Varric's, pushing the vial away with what slight strength he could muster
"You shouldn't have come, Varric," he chokes, letting his eyes fall shut again. "I could have been dead, and you'd be locked up in here for nothing."
Re: hey brother
"It was the only way," Varric says, his voice more gentle now, "I couldn't... Even if you are going to die, I'm not letting you do it alone." His voice is fierce but wrecked and he bows his head over Jean, his fingers resuming their journey through his hair.
Re: hey brother
"It's no good if you die, too," he says, sadly, but a weary smile forms on his lips. "Who's going to look out for the others, now? Cassandra? She can hardly manage them when we're there to mediate. Can you imagine her trying to deal with Sera without us? Or Dorian? They already drive her up the wall."
He hopes the joking will take Varric's mind off the worrying. If they were going to die, he wanted it to be peacefully.
Re: hey brother
"At least we can die peacefully knowing our friends will soon join us when they murder each other," he says, the smile quickly dropping off his face, "You're not dying on me yet, all right? We have to live through this so I can write about it, play up the rippling muscles and play down the coughing up blood so everyone can coo and swoon about how brave you are. Also, I want to shove an arrow up every one of those Freeman's asses. They broke Bianca." Varric's voice actually breaks a little on that last word, his heart aching at the thought of his girl, lying broken and alone in the mud.
Re: hey brother
"Remember that fight with the ogre that tossed you around? You landed on her and she nearly split in two." The pain is almost blinding him now, and he can't think clearly enough to string together sentences that have any meaning anymore. He rolls onto his side, and with a cough, wretches the contents of his stomach out onto the floor.
"Leave that part...out of your story as well, would you," he asks, once he can speak again.
Re: hey brother
"Of course not," Varric says gently, staring down at Jean and feeling tears pricking at the corners of his eyes, "It'll be much better written down. We won't have been caught by surprise, we heard wind of the plan weeks ago and we set up the camp as a trap. We needed someone on the inside, and you volunteered, because you're stupid. They'll smack you around a little bit, just enough to get the audience's sympathy, not enough to damage your beautiful face at all. And you'll stare defiantly back at them and say rude things about their mothers. You'll get your shirt torn off at some point, too, so I can describe your rippling, bulging muscles shimmering with sweat and blood as you refuse to comply with their demands," Varric babbles on because it's better than thinking about Jean's blood seeping out onto the floor or the searing pain in his own arm, loses himself in the story and doesn't think about how quiet Jean has gotten.
"And then, just when the audience starts to wonder if something's gone wrong, I smash down the door and squeeze Bianca's trigger five times, one for each thug I see. Then I say a cool line, like did I put too fine a point on it--only not that, that's terrible--and I rush over to you and kiss you passionately, and we boink right there on the floor."
Varric isn't sure how long he talks, but eventually his story turns into aimless rambling that isn't a story at all. He falls silent finally at the sound of screaming and crashing, smiling a little because that sure sounds like backup.
Varric watches the door blearily and startles when it suddenly explodes, and for a terrifying second Varric thought it was a hurlock, but then a huge smile breaks over his face and Varric realizes it's much scarier; it's The Iron Bull.
Cole darts into the room around Bull, while Bull turns away to yell for a medic, and he flits around them both too fast for Varric to focus on him.
"Calm down, Kid," Varric says, feeling slow and seeing darkness creep into the sides of his vision, "Everything's... fine," he says, and then promptly passes out.
Re: hey brother
He sees the outline of Cole's hat, sitting some ways off with some of the other wounded, and Iron Bull, grunting and trying to shove the medics off him, and he can make out some of his protests despite his clouded head. Sera is with them, too, sitting near Bull, and Jean can hear the sounds of her snorting laughter as Bull slightly headbutts one of the healers tending to him.
He rolls over onto his side -- his ribcage feels in tact, now, but he notices that his leg has been wrapped in a cast -- and sees Varric, lying there, still unconscious and bloodied, but bandaged and breathing visibly. He heaves a sigh of relief, and extends a hand as far as he can reach, taking him gingerly by the hand.
Re: hey brother
"Bianca," he gets out finally, remembering the sickening crunch, and then looks over and sees Jean on the next bed, his hand out and cupped around Varric's, "Jean," Varric says, relief flooding him, "Thank the Maker." He squeezes Jean's hand and smiles over at him, squeezing his hand properly.
"He's awake! The big hero himself!" comes The Iron Bull's booming voice, and Varric looks over at Jean, expecting the fanfare to gather around the Inquisitor, but instead Bull steps right past him and looms over Varric. Cole scurries over to squat next to Varric, smiling warmly, and Sera follows them both with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Uh, what?" Varric says blankly, smiling bemusedly even though he doesn't understand what they're talking about.
Re: hey brother
"It's all good," Sera says, "We got your Bianca thingy back from those Freemen shitebags, or whatever they call themselves now. They're all talking about you, how you saved the Herald. People already making up rumors about how you fought off a hundred of those pissbuckets on your own with your wee little dwarf hands. Weird change of pace, innit? Usually you're the one makin' up shite like that about people, aren't you?"
Re: hey brother
"And modest, too!" Bull cries, laughing, and Sera laughs, too.
"I just--! I just got beat up by a bunch of assholes! I let them capture me! That's not heroic, that's just-- Stupid!" Varric protests, his face starting to turn red as he gestures emphatically.
"Just like all the greatest heroes!" Sera says, and her and Bull dissolve into laughter again.
"Varric prefers to follow and watch, to tell the stories and not be in them, he's not the hero," Cole says, and Varric is monumentally relieved for a moment, until Cole continues, "But it's not true, Varric! You care deeply for everyone, and hate to see suffering! You risked your life to save Jean. You are a hero."
"Here, here," Bull says warmly and Sera nods enthusiastically.
Varric groaned and covered his face with his good hand, though that did nothing to mask the bright red hue of his ears and neck.
Re: hey brother
"I'm not sure Varric's quite ready to deal with his adoring public yet," Jean snickers, "You think you lot could give us a few minutes alone? It's been a rough day."
"Day?" snorts Sera, "Three, more like. You two've been sleeping your lives away while the rest of us do all the heavy lifting without you. Glad you've come round though. Even if you have to put up with all this hail the conquering hero mess. But all right, don't start sucking each others faces off until I'm out of here."
She exits, and the others follow, Cole more reluctantly so. Jean cocks his head and grins at Varric, scratching at the bandages on his face.
"You okay?" he asks.
Re: hey brother
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Varric asks, tilting his head to peer over at Jean. He sighs again, easing himself up and wincing a little at a twinge in his arm and then walking to Jean's side and sitting back down, reaching out to cup Jean's face.
"You feel okay?" he asks, his blush fading a little but still visible.
Re: hey brother
"I'll be fine," he says. "As long as you are. Sorry about accidentally giving you an adoring public. I'll do my best not to need to get my life saved by you again."
He leans forward, kissing Varric softly and carefully before pressing his forehead into Varric's, heaving a grateful sigh for this moment.
Re: hey brother
Suddenly the stress of the last several days comes crashing over Varric, how scared he'd been, how much he didn't let himself think about at the time.
"You almost died, Jean," Varric says, his voice gruff and wobbling embarrassingly a he's overcome with emotion. His hand curls into the hair at the nape of Jean's neck, squeezing his eyes shut and breathing shakily.
Re: hey brother
"That's happened to me a few times before, if you'll recall." He tries to joke, but there's more relief than mirth in the short laugh he gives after. He curls his fingers against Varric's chest and lets out a shaky sigh.
Re: hey brother
"I'm not a hero," he croaks, shaking a little as he desperately holds back tears, "I'm not, because what I did was selfish. I didn't do it because the world needs you, or whatever other shit, I did it because I need you." Varric loses the battle with his grief, his shoulders shuddering with a sob, "I can't write the story where you die. I won't. I'd die first."
Re: hey brother
"Hey," he says, pulling back to stroke his hands through Varric's hair, "hey. You don't have to. It's all right, Varric. I'm here, and I'm not dying any time soon."
Re: hey brother
"You better not," he repeats against the skin on Jean's neck, sobbing quietly into Jean's shoulder.
It takes him a few long minutes to calm down, so he just clings to Jean and cries on him until he can breath again, when the sobs taper off into uneven, hitching breaths. He leans back, wiping a little at the wet mess he's made of Jean's shirt.
"Sorry," he says, his voice hoarse.
Re: hey brother
"Feel better?" he asks, wiping his own damp eyes of sympathetic tears.
Re: hey brother
Varric yawned suddenly, realizing how exhausted and sore he was.
"Maker, I need a nap."