"Then we get a divorce and resume living in sin," Hawke intones, painfully serious, because that is, yes, painfully familiar, and so he responds in kind. Where to banter and where not is a balancing act he ...rarely bothers with, but he's bothering now. It still means saying shit like that, and yet.

He studies Anders' closed lashes, maybe counts them like a besotted idiot, because ...well, they are talking about this, at least, and Hawke loves him especially when he's difficult, even if he wishes it didn't come from a place of such bedrock self-worth. Maybe, despite the fact that his own emotional sophistication is occasionally also uh, bedrock level, he's amassed over the years the understanding that Anders needs to be loved especially at times like this. It's not hard to demonstrate.

"What do you think will change, exactly?"

Considering. And not a rhetorical question even if it could be.