Of Freedom and Family: Ch 5

Title: Of Freedom and Family

Author: ~LightsAurora

Game: Dragon Age II

Characters/pairing: F!Hawke x Fenris (or more accurately, Leto)

Disclaimer: BioWare owns all, of course!

F!Hawke, captured by slavers and sold to Magister Denarius, finds friendship and love in the slave Leto. But she can't forget the family she left behind, and neither can he forget the family he swore to free. Rated M for future chapters.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Has anyone noticed the increase of time between each chapter? Yes? I'm SO SORRY! Now that I'm getting to the meat of this part of the story, I'm finding it difficult to maintain a balance of characterization and plot progression. Also: I got distracted by smexy Fenris on a new playthrough of Dragon Age 2. Wut? I did it for RESEARCH. Totally.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ryna waited for Leto to lift his blade from her neck, fighting the drag of spent adrenaline and the ache of magic. Whatever Danarius' taunts, it was he who had bested her, and she would not take this victory from him. And while Leto may have won this small battle, she would win her war. A small voice cut through the whine of exhaustion to say it was too bad they were not even in the same campaign.

The guards all must have known this was a significant moment, for no one ordered Leto to stand down, or for Ryna to stand up. It felt an interminable amount of time later that Leto gave her a small nod and sheathed the greatsword. Ryna gave him a lopsided grin, hoping he wouldn't notice that no, she hadn't gotten to her feet yet.

No luck. He gave her a small frown, and when she still didn't stand, he held out a begrudging hand to help. Ryna was sure the hot feeling in her cheeks was from the exertion of the test. No way did she blush, or need help standing up. No. No way.

With a great effort, Ryna all but shoved herself to her feet. She wasn't sure how, but she was up. Surprised, though she knew she had no reason to be, she gave Leto a triumphant smile.

He didn't seem convinced. "Are... you all right?"

She was about to reply that yes, she was perfectly fine, thank you, when suddenly Leto tilted into an angle that Ryna was sure was not in alignment with the ground. He must have realized, because his little frown turned to wide eyes. Ha! Who's gonna need help up now, elf?

Next thing she knew, Leto had an arm around her shoulder and her back was pressing against his knees. It was uncomfortable, but better than slamming her head on the ground. The sudden change of view jolted her into awareness, and Ryna could feel herself shivering, despite the growing heat of the morning.

"Andraste's flaming tits, this is embarrassing."

"What happened?" Leto shifted out from under Ryna, who sat forward and cradled her head in her slightly shaking hands.

"Ugh. Adrenaline."

A shadow fell over them as Goreth and one of the Sergeants, Boreaus, came forward. Thankfully, none of the other guards crowded Ryna, though they did watch. "What's going on here?" The Captain sounded absolutely bored.

"She… decided to stay down here, Captain."

Ryna giggled, and even she could hear the slightly manic tinge to it. Leto had a sense of humor after all. She'd worried he would be a complete bore.

"Just… give me a moment, Captain. Or ten."

"You didn't get hit, so no concussion. Explain, trainee."

Ryna cringed a bit at the title. "Imagine going a month with adrenaline constantly building up in your system, but no way to expel it." Looking up, she saw a sea of blank looks from all the men, and sighed. "Imagine being cockteased for a month with no release."

The groans that filled the yard drew a smirk from Ryna. She was only slightly disappointed at the lack of reaction from Goreth, though not surprised. Another wave of fatigue made her sway, and she was comforted by the feel of Leto's hand bracing her shoulder.

She could feel the Captain's stare before he said, "Bedroll until midday meal, then training."

"Yes Captain."

With Leto's help, Ryna got back on her feet. Thoroughly embarrassed by this show of weakness after such a display of strength, Ryna knew she would only look even more an idiot if she didn't lean on Leto, who's rough hands kept her steady. It seemed he was an expert in half-carrying, half-dragging people around, because it didn't take long to get her to her bedroll.

However much she wanted to sit and analyze every move, every word from her testing, Ryna knew it would be better if she just slept. One thing she already knew though; she would have to be more careful around Leto. He had been the only one to have a sense of her tactics, and that told her he was far too observant for her liking.

It felt like moments later Leto was shaking Ryna awake. She groaned and grumbled, but eagerly followed him outside at the mention of a midday meal. The bright sun forced her to squint and rub her eyes of sleep as she waited for everyone else to get their rations.

Chewing on her dried meat, Ryna sat against the shaded wall of the guardhouse. Her body felt out of tune, awkward. She hated taking naps, even though she knew sometimes they were necessary. At least she felt ready to spar again.

"You feeling better?" Leto's voice, while quiet, still startled Ryna. She looked up from the patch of dirt she had been staring at and was immediately drawn into those green eyes of his. It was only the unique color, really, and nothing to do with the concern she saw in them.

"Um, yeah. Fine." She took a sip of water. "What about you?"

A stupid question. He hadn't collapsed. But he answered al the same. "Fine. Though, I don't know how well our fellow trainees are faring."

Leto gestured with his chin at the group of bandaged men. When Ryna turned her gaze on them, they all immediately turned away. She snorted, and shook her head.

"I'd meant to pull my punches better than that. To be honest, I'm shocked I was able to do half those maneuvers. All that adrenaline did wonders."

Beside her she felt Leto stiffen, his gaze on her sharpen. "Adrenaline cannot give skill were there is none."

Ryna huffed, and berated herself again for showing off. She had meant to use just enough of her skill to escape notice, either good or bad. Instead, Danarius' attention was now firmly on her, and she wouldn't be able to fake her way dumb.

"No, it doesn't, Leto. But it does enhance. Most of those maneuvers are things I've been training up to. I'm aware of the mechanics of each one, have attempted them many times, and failed."

"And then you didn't fail."

"Because I had the extra push of adrenaline to put me over the edge. If I tried to do those moves again, I'd probably just end up hurting myself. Just… just consider the testing a show of what I will be capable with after some more training."

When Leto nodded slowly in acceptance of her reasoning, Ryna breathed a bit easier. In a small way, she was glad she wouldn't have to dumb down her combat skills while she waited and searched for an escape. While the guards may get an eyeful of her abilities and tactics, she hadn't lied when she'd told Goreth she was adaptive.

"Trainees, to the yard." Ryna glanced up as Sergeant Corr strode past their group, and wondered how she would pay for bringing him down during her testing. He didn't seem like the kind of man to just let that go. Big egos were hard to sate when wounded.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leto kept an eye on Ryna as he sparred with Torpa and Nicos. He had seen the stormy look on Corr's face when Ryna had taken her place beside Leto for the pairings. It was only right they train together; the Master himself had paired them, though in a creepy, unclear way. Still, it wouldn't be long until Corr put her through her paces again.

For now, though, the Captain had taken her to Sergeant Wilm and his archers. From what Leto could tell, Ryna favored the school of "one hit one kill", which didn't help much in a full out battle. And the way she had moved during her testing gave Leto no doubt she would be joining them in the melee training.

"She's a sweet thing, isn't she?" Torpa swung around to slice at Leto, who parried just in time. "It's nice to have a… curvier view."

"What?" Leto pressed forward, striking out at a flanking Nicos. He knew what Torpa was talking about, but at the moment was more concerned with Brekle at his back.

"Ryna. Her curves aren't dramatic, sure, but they are mesmerizing."

Leto scoffed. "Torpa, you're going to get hit again."

Torpa just laughed and threw out his shield arm to block Leto's cut, rejoining the fray.

Not long after, Leto felt more than heard her come nearby. She didn't join, just watched as Nico and Torpa attempted to flank him again. They, along with Brekle, would spar against Leto until one of them managed to break through his defenses and get a hit in. When they did, or if he managed to keep them at bay for a week, three others would trade out, and the process would continue.

"Why aren't you taking the offensive, Leto?"

He hid the startled twitch of his shoulder by shoving Breckle bodily from him before the rogues daggers could get any closer. "The exercise is meant to keep me on the defensive."

"Oh."

She watched awhile longer, and Leto could feel the roil of anger and embarrassment from Sergeant Corr as he came around to inspect the gathering. The tension among the six of them grew. Ryna and he were the only ones not actively engaged, and Leto wanted to yell at her to do something before Corr's temper got the best of him.

"And were are your daggers, trainee? Too good to spar with your comrades?"

There was a not so subtle lull in the action.

"Well, I figured I'd get smacked whether or not I asked for them, so I decided a slave would be passive about it."

Leto's breath caught as he pulled his greatsword out of the way of the charging Corr. From the corner of his eye he could see that Ryna hadn't moved. Indeed, she simply watched as Corr bore down on her.

A resounding crack rang through the air, and Leto cringed. Corr had yet to remove his heavy plate gauntlets, and he didn't envy the bruise Ryna had earned herself. Damn Ferelden impertinence.

The backhanded slap was enough to send a small girl like her to the ground, but Ryna didn't let herself get that far. She twisted and pivoted on the balls of her feet to land a step to the right of the Sergeant. Leto wished he could reach out and force her defiant eyes to stare at the ground instead of at Corr. He didn't want to have to nurse her back to health.

No one in the immediate area moved for fear of redirecting Corr's anger on themselves. There was heavy breathing from both Ryna and the Sergeant, and Leto could see her grind her teeth against the pain of the blossoming contusion on her right cheek. A part of him wanted to defend her, a part he was sure had something to do with his bodyguard training, and nothing more.

With obvious effort, Corr refrained from laying in on her. "You will learn to show deference for your betters."

"Yes, Sergeant." Leto was relieved to hear the tone of respect in her voice, even if it was a tad too late.

"You will spar with no weapons. From what we've seen, you don't need them."

"Yes Sergeant."

Corr stormed off to the barracks, yelling a gruff "as you were" before slamming the door. Nearby, Leto saw the Captain watching with his arms crossed. Goreth did nothing, and everyone took it to mean the matter was settled.

Sighing, Leto sheathed his greatsword and went to Ryna. She hissed when he grabbed her chin and angled her face to see the bruise better. He was pleased to see it was only her cheek; her eye had escaped any damage, though blood did weep from a few cuts.

"Corr is not a forgiving man. You should not provoke him." He gave her a hard stare to get across the point.

Ryna pulled away from him and worked her jaw. "I provoked him when I pulled that stunt with his sword during the testing. At least he got it out of his system." She sighed, rolled her shoulders, then turned to the others of his sparring group. "Come on, the day isn't over. Let's see if we can get at Leto."

"That should be cleaned, and a poultice put on it before it swells." Torpa added a salacious grin as he added, "I could help you put yourself right."

With a shake of his head, Leto waited for Ryna to beat him up. It served Torpa right; the woman had quite vehemently rebuffed him the night before. While she needed to learn to show deference to her superiors, Torpa was her equal.

"I'm not getting near a bandage with a ten foot pole unless Sergeant Corr or the Captain says so." Her frosty retort soften into a smile that favored her injured cheek. She chuckled softly. "I've had worse; don't worry. I'll survive. Come on, I've pissed enough people off today."

Leto wasn't sure if a sharp retort coupled with an indulgent smile made her intentions clear to Torpa. Or himself. But the others were already getting into position, and she was right.

Daily life had been interrupted enough already.