"It's just...it's not particularly safe? For any of us," Merrill says, gesturing between the three of them. She sips her drink, and then nods to herself.

"Right. You two must come with me tonight to meet Hawke! Having a friend like him will keep you safe."

Awww! Bless her cotton socks.

"We'd love to meet your friends! You should tell us about them."

Tabs tucks her head into Anya's shoulder to silently scream about how cute Merrill is, holy shit.

"Oh! Well, you'll meet them all tonight, but Hawke is funny, and very sweet. Carver's a little grumpy, but he cares, really. Varric sort of hovers over everyone, Isabela's very naughty, Aveline is...well. Domineering, but cares, really! I don't know much about Fenris, other than that he hates mages, and Anders is tall and hates Templars."

Anya grimaces. "Yikes. I guess I'll avoid Fenris then? Or maybe not mention the mage thing at all..."

"Oh, I don't know. Hawke certainly doesn't care. He's very friendly with Fenris! I even saw him blush once."

"Same constants in the nexus, the most common ship for Garrett Hawke is Fenris!" Tabs murmurs to Anya.

She nudges Tabs lightly with her elbow.

"That's something, at least. Plus, blushing is always adorable."

"It's very sweet. I just hope Hawke knows what he's doing, Fenris has made his distrust pretty clear, and Hawke is such a good person, and-" Merrill cuts herself off, blushing herself. "Well. I just don't want to see him get hurt."

"We all feel protective of our friends. Especially ones who have helped us. Hawke sounds like a really good friend."

Merrill ducks her head, smiling into her cup. "He is." 

Anya has some of her tea.

"Have you been in Kirkwall long?"

"We got here just before the Fifth Blight started. We were from Ferelden, originally."

Merrill runs a finger around her cup. "All our halla died. Some kind of sickness, and they're highly empathetic. When one went, it wasn't hard for the others to follow."

Tabs reaches over, to take Merrill's hand. "Merrill, I'm so sorry. Falon’Din enasal enaste."

"Ma serannas, lethallan."

Shit, fuck, she made her sad again.

"I'm sorry. I have that foot-in-mouth disease. It's incurable."

"No, no! It's okay! It's better to talk about it. I don't like keeping things bottled up. Hurts more."

"I think you're probably the most healthy out of all of us. I have bottles and bottles of stuff I keep squirreled away."

Merrill smiles softly. "I do understand that. It's hard, being that vulnerable. And it doesn't always work out well."

One of her fingers strokes along an old scar on her hand.

Tabs leans her head on Anya's shoulder. "You can always talk to me, babe."

"Words are hard sometimes. But I know."

Tabs kisses her cheek.

"Aww! You two are so sweet."

"We are the most cute. It's true. Also infectious, so watch out."

Merrill pretends to hide. "Oh no!"