Jess! This is beautiful! Let me tell you: it's been hard to have this story sitting in my inbox and be good enough to wait to read it when they've all officially gone up. But I did it, and it was worth the wait!

I think my absolute favorite thing about this is how you've portrayed Hawke's humor; the hmmm, today looks momentous bit made me grin so hard that right from the start I knew you'd done a great job. Hawke's gorgeously three-dimensional: she has the humor, she has toughness and the hardened-by-necessity exterior but the camaraderie for her companions (whether she agrees with them or not) and the affection for Fenris, she has the wistfulness about Bethany and the incredible sorrow of losing her mom. I love all the sides of her you've shown.

I also love how she sees Fenris in this. I tend to think you've hit the nail on the head with a lot of what's there to attract her to him, and I really enjoyed her observations about him and how he carries himself. I'm also a big fan of the bit where she thinks in such a straightforward manner about how she can handle facing down blood mages and dealing with the Qunari but has less confidence with Fenris on a romantic level.

And Hawke's interactions with all the characters! I love the picture you painted of her teaching Fenris to read, the conversation between Varric and Merrill about the mirror, the idea of Varric and Isabela walking Hawke back to the estate after a night of drinking at the Hanged Man, and the read she and Aveline have on each other.

You've gone a long way to making me buy the three years! That one-two punch of Fenris leaving her after their night together followed by the painful awkwardness of him showing up to comfort her (while wearing her favors! I love that she noticed that detail!) but still holding back too much to repair their relationship had to hurt.

Thank you so much for writing this for me! I really enjoyed it! In fact, I'm going to read it again right now.