Bookshop AU + “aroused by her voice”
Fenris head whipped up from the newspaper he’d been scowling at. That voice... it was her.
“He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her close, so she could feel his... ahahahahAHAHAHA GLORIOUS ELVENHOOD against her hip”, the dangerous woman belonging to that dangerous voice howled from somewhere in the Romantic Literature section. “Varric really has outdone himself with this one!”
Ah, they were reading the new Tethras. Fenris had had to compile copys of the book into a pyramid a couple of days ago and at the moment he hated nothing more than the terrible cover of a scantily clad woman clutching an even more scantily clad man-elf-person.
The woman... Hawke... it was probably time to admit to himself that he knew her name and that she worked at the record store around the corner and that she was pleasing aesthetically speaking and also an auditory delight and fine, he was pretty sure she didn’t need to show up at his bookshop every other day to “look something up”, just like he didn’t need to go over there to listen to the new releases and... where was he going with this. Ah. Yes.
He nodded, giving Hawke a short smile as she leaned against the counter and handed him the Tethras romance.
“I’ll take this one. ‘Love me, baby, one more time‘? Amazing title! It’s gotta be a great read, don’t you think?”
He nodded again, scanning the barcode and handing the book back, pointing to the price on the monitor.
“Mhm, so quiet again today, what a pity.” Hawke winked and Fenris wished she’d stop talking too, because it was difficult to not stare at her lips and hearing her say ‘grabbed her by the waist’ playing in his head over and over.
He took her money, returned her change and then slapped himself mentally to stop staring and actually fucking say something.
“Want to go out tonight?” Ah, shit.
”Wh...” Hawke spluttered and dropped a couple of coins on the counter. He busied himself with collecting them stoically, refusing to look at her while he ran through several escape routes in his head. “Sure! Uhm, yeah! Sounds good! See you later then, Fenris.”
He looked up then, taken aback, just in time to catch her winking at him as she dragged her madly cackling friend out of the store.
That went... just as he’d planned, of course.