Original prompt from the Dragon Age Kink Meme (anonymous prompter):
Let's see some ladies with scars and the lovers who love them. Big scars, little scars, heroic scars, silly scars. Scars that mean "hey I protected you" or "man I was clumsy when I was six" or even just "this skin is lived-in." Meme needs MOAR FEMSLASH so OP would prefer some lady/lady lovin', but any fill that has a lover appreciating a woman's scars for the interesting or admirable things they say about her is welcome.
The Scar
"That long wound on your back… it looks like it must have hurt."
In the morning light, resting after a bit of playful exertion, Isabela studies the woman before her as if for the first time, marveling at the collection of nicks and scars upon her body. As she explores, Marian indulges her, remembering the skirmishes and long gone foes responsible for each one.
"I got that from a would-be assassin, during the year I worked running jobs for Athenril... long before Kirkwall taught me how to walk through an alley properly."
With a finger, Isabela traces a whorl of proud flesh, the remnant of what once must have been a frightful gash.
"And this one, on your thigh?"
"Two months ago, from that adult dragon we encountered at the Bone Pit. Remember?"
"Oh yes... how unbelievably lucky we all were that day."
The lines cross and meld over Marian's mighty, muscled frame, each mark telling its story. For a moment she imagines herself to be reading a different sort of nautical chart, mapping all the currents and storms in the life of her champion.
"Were I you, I'd walk around naked. The people of this city should be able to see all that you've been through for them."
"Ha! You make these blemishes sound so glorious."
"They are. More than that. They're trophies of war... and on a fine, strapping warrior like yourself, they're so heroic... so very intimidating." With a hand, she follows an oval-shaped scar as it curves around a shoulder. "It makes me weak in the knees just to look at them, and think about how you survived each one."
"Well, I would much rather have smooth and flawless skin like yours... but I suppose we can't all be skilled enough in combat to dodge everything that comes at us."
Isabela shakes her head at the suggestion, that Marian could ever be anything less than a consummate fighter. The woman's powerful body has shrugged off injuries that would have ended the lives of most others.
Besides, evasion is easy. To be able to stand one's ground, resolute… to endure... that is an ability that she has never understood, and before which she will always find herself in awe.
The woman turns beneath her touch, offering more to her eager hands.
"You've plenty of blank space left... but don't fret, we'll fill this body of yours up yet."
"Please, no!" Marian laughs and flinches playfully. "Not when I can afford such better armor these days!"
At last, Isabela reaches a marred patch of flesh just beneath the heart, and the question stops upon her lips, unasked. A reply is offered anyway, quickly and without hesitation.
"That was from a Coterie ambush, last year."
Isabela wants to believe her, but she knows this scar too well, remembers being there at the moment when it was made, watching as the duel being fought for her life was almost ended with that terrible stroke. She knows that she bears the blame for this wound, even more than the cruel Qunari blade that created it.
This scar is hers, and she will never be comfortable with the fact that Marian must wear it for her.
There are so many words she wants to say, even though she knows they will never be enough. For now, she chooses the ones that will let her twist and slip away yet again.
"Bloody Coterie. Damn the whole lot of them."
Marian smiles, and Isabela leans closer into marked and muscled arms, trying to hold the scar and its wearer even more tightly against her.