This. Was an awesome story. I love Varric and Anders' building relationship throughout DA2 (always thought they'd be good buds) and this has made me so very happy. I can see this happening quite easily, it being believable and true to the characters. The idea of Varric having an odd moment of sorrow for his own losses and problems is quite interesting considering his usual storytelling of other people's tragedies, as you've said in your story, and it makes the fact that Anders helped him out in the end that much more special.

(I'm also a bit bitter about how everything focused so much on Hawke, and left Varric's brother incident kindda out there. Or maybe that was just in my playthrough lol. Oh well. In any case, great story, I really did love it!)