anderrrrrrrrrrrrrrs

[jaebility]

Of course she couldn't stay away after that, and when Fenris grabbed her she shook him off. "I won't let him be alone," she told him and the elf scowled as he stepped out of her way. "I'm going to him. Now."

"Be careful," he insisted darkly. "He's a mage - a renegade - and he has that creature inside of him."

The thought of Justice prickled inside of her, as if she were the one possessed. "It doesn't matter," she said, realizing as the words left her how true they were. "He's still Anders."

"He could have killed -"

"But he didn't," she snapped. She slid by him and around Isabela, who clucked her tongue before dragging the fuming Fenris out of eye sight. She said again as she stomped away, "He's Anders. Our Anders."

And he was - tired and frayed, almost angry at her when she slipped through the crowd of waiting patients and into a damp privacy of his clinic - but still a man. When he had confided in her the secret path through the gallows, he had stepped close enough for his breath to ruffle her hair, but now Anders gave her a wide berth and refused to meet her eye, even as she handed over the papers he'd been so eager to find.

But once he had them he looked up, eyes bright, and his thanks made her feel ridiculously triumphant.