"She's gone."
Her mother.
Leandra Amell.
Gone.
The worst part was that this was not the first time that she had lost someone.
He remembered carrying her the remainder of the way out of The Deep Roads when Bethany died and she collapsed from the pain. He remembered wiping the silent tears she wept every time she looked up at him with those lost caramel eyes, as if she were searching for an answer to a question she could not ask aloud: "What do I do now?"
He had nothing to say, just like he didn't have anything to say then. He only squeezed her closer to his chest and offered a kind smile when those same lost eyes looked up at him. Not for the first time Fenris wondered if there would there always be so much loss for her. His heart broke.
He remembered this morning and the frantic way she screamed his name as she busted into his mansion, begging him to help her with sobs wracking her body as she slapped the drunk out of him and shook him awake.
Fenris walked like a ghost through Kirkwall and through the doors of her estate, taking care when he stood her up after closing the door to her room, immediately disrobing her as she stood - still in shock.
"You need rest, Marian. Come, let me lay you down."
She did not protest. He carried her to her bed and laid her underneath the sheets. She simply did nothing at all - her eyes staring into nothingness.
He turned to leave, when her small voice broke the deafening silence in the room.
"Please, don't leave me alone."
He turned to her then and watched the first tears fall.
Without hesitation he removed his armor and climbed to her side, grabbing her and placing her head on his chest, gently carding his fingers through her hair as she cried.
He wondered then, selfishly, if she cried like this just two weeks ago when he left her bed cold after the night they shared together.
She squeezed him tightly then, and he knew she had. She missed him just as much as he missed her. All that was left of him was hers, and he knew it in that moment.
A lyrium lined finger lifted her chin so their eyes met, and he swallowed hard. The words that would leave him would come from the heart, so why were they so hard to say?
"I was a fool to ever leave your side. I am yours, Marian. I'll never leave you alone again. This I swear."
He used his thumb to wipe her tears away and immediately went in for a kiss that she was all too happy to return, and in that passionate moment - despite all the loss and the pain, it was known that though they were both broken, they would fix this. Together.