Other Fan Fiction ❯ Stupid In Love ❯ Elfs love birds of prey ( Chapter 5 )

I do not own Dragon Age or its characters.

I do not make any money off the stories I've written for it.

Unless you count the fact that I can't sleep or work when a story takes hold, so writing it allows me to get back to being productive. But I don't think that Bioware can sue me for that.

Stupid In Love

Chapter 5

“What did you do to Hawke?”

His deep brooding interrupted, Fenris glanced over at the Dalish pariah who had spoken. She had spoken softly enough to ensure that Hawke and Aveline, who were walking ahead of them in the marketplace, would not have been able to hear the conversation over the noise of the Lowtown bazaar. Discretion was not normally part of Merrill's make-up, so that fact alone gave him pause. It was odd. Still, it wasn't anything he wanted to talk about. Especially not to her.

One eyebrow raised in an is-this-really-any-of-your-concern manner, he replied with a expelled breath of discontent and then looked away, determined to ignore her.

“Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about, Fenris,” she continued undeterred. He should have known better than to expect her to realize his response meant he refused to discuss this. The girl was completely lacking in social skills and criminally naïve. Literally. “I know you must have done something. I've never seen her looking so sad - and you! You've been crankier than normal all day. So what did you do to her?”

Again he remained silent, shaking his head in negation - to express that he'd done nothing, that he was exasperated with the elf beyond the capacity for speech, or that he just flat out refused to respond. Or perhaps a mix of all three. It was difficult to say with the taciturn ex-slave.

Exhaling loudly in irritation, Merrill continued, “Ignore me if you like, but if I find out that you HAVE done something to her - if you've hurt her in any way - I will find a way to do something about it!”

That got his attention. He looked over his shoulder at her and responded dryly, “Really. Well, that's a change: you caring about something other than your own selfish wishes? Perhaps I should mark this day down on a calendar.”

“Gah!” she exclaimed in exasperation and stomped off.

Fenris nodded to himself as she walked away. He did not want to lie about what had happened between himself and the beautiful human whom they all followed. It was too important to lie about. So he intended to keep silent.

The fact was, just thinking about Hawke hurt. Hurt his heart. Made him ache. It was a month later, and he couldn't imagine that this pain would ever go away.

He would stay by her side as a friend. The pain of being so near and not able to feel her touch again was a fitting punishment.

His pensive musings were interrupted momentarily as they reached Merrill's home and dropped her off. The three of them, Hawke, Aveline, and Fenris, all lived in Hightown, so it made sense for them to walk Merrill to her home in Lowtown, to assure she didn't encounter anything bad. Like thugs. Or Templars.

The typical routine was then to drop Hawke off, and then Aveline and Fenris would go their separate ways. Tonight, however, Hawke broke off almost immediately after they'd exited the Alienage, claiming she needed to go meet Varric, as she'd been promising for weeks to join him for drinks, cards, and tall tales. She truly was a terrible liar - it was obvious that something was bothering her. After all, even Merrill had noticed. But they let her go without comment.

With a sigh that was half relief, half regret, the former slave returned to his pointless contemplations, heading toward that empty shell that he used as a house. Aveline and Varric often tried to convince him to move elsewhere, but he always refused. He appreciated the symbolism: the house truly was a match for him.