An Anders Appreciation Blog

millilicious:

The arrow wounds were deep and he’d been sitting in the cold for too long. Too much exposure and blood loss. He could curse the day that Hawke had been born inept at healing. He’d tried to teach him, but the stubborn brute had told him he was too busy learning other things. ‘Healing is overrated,’ he’d said all those years ago.

As Hawke’s breathing became laboured, all Anders could do was choke the air in with gasps. He’d tried to press the last of his strength into the heat of knitting the flesh together, but the blood wouldn’t stop. He’d used up all that was in him and was teetering on consciousness. The only thing keeping him in place was the cold hand touching his cheek. He was well aware of it, too, as his face felt frozen with that touch.

As Hawke’s lips grew blue and his eyes stopped focusing, he breathed out as best as he could, ‘Hey, now. You did your best.’ There was still a smile in his voice. ‘I don’t feel any pain.’

‘I was supposed to protect you…not the other way around. Why didn’t you listen to me?’ The last words were caught by the lump in his throat.

A calloused thumb crusted with blood wiped under his eye. ‘Shh, you’ve protected me all these years. It’s about time I gave back what I owe.’ His voice was barely a whisper and Anders could hear the wounded lung gasping for air. ‘My sweet, you’re crying…you know I fall apart when you cry.’

He reached up to press Hawke’s hand closer to his face, the old staff falling into the snow. Sobs shook his body as he pressed a kiss into the matted hair. Though it was too quiet to hear, he saw Hawke’s lips move before the hand against his cheek slid from his grasp. He cradled the still body in his arms and rocked back and forth on his heels. The snow fell gently about him, masking the sound of his weeping. 

‘I know, I know,’ he whispered to himself, ‘I do, too.’ 

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Mmph. Commission for Payroo of her Hawke and Anders. Yeah, I had this all in my head while drawing it, but I’m basically rubbish on paper unless it’s in comic form :u So there you go hahaha~