A/N: Ummmm, hi guys! *ducks rocks and sharp objects* I know, I know! I'm soooo sorry - I really really am! Reallife-itis has had me in it's awful grasp. But I'm back now and I come bearing a chapter! So after this exceptionaly long break please enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own nothing - NOTHING!

Also, my fabulos and wonderful Beta Arquen has also been infected by the dreaded Reallife-itis; so for the foreseeable future this fic is now un-beta'd - So if you see a mistake or think something different should have happened or someone gets OOC please let me know. Con-crit is my friend.

Onward!

Little Things.

Fenris replayed the short conversation with Hawke in his mind as he made his way through the night time shadows of Hightown.

"Mira's gone missing." Hawke said; his voice low and serious.

For a moment what Hawke had said hadn't registered in Fenris' mind, the Mage might as well have told him "the purple cats have gone swimming" for all the sense it made.

But finally his mind realised what his ears had heard. And his sleep-fogged brain had cleared instantly.

'This is exactly what I had feared might happen.' Was his first thought, quickly followed by 'Has she run away, or escaped?'

"How long has she been gone for?" He asked Hawke.

"I don't know!" The Mage replied. "Anders woke up and she was just gone, after he came and got me he went back to Darktown to keep looking."

"Was anything taken?" He had asked Hawke, knowing it would be a true indication of Mira's real intentions.

The Mage must have caught on to his musing and shook his head as he answered.

"A set of clothes Anders had left for when she woke, and her shell, nothing else."

It was somehow worse, Fenris mused as he strode through the Hightown market and down the flight of stairs that led to the Lowtown bazaar.

'A thief and a liar disappearing after a successful con is one thing, but a newly freed slave, from another world no less, alone, traumatised and frightened...'

He hurried through Lowtown's alleys, an icy night time breeze viciously clawing into the gaps in his armour. Even if Mira didn't intend to do something drastic, Kirkwall nights were not safe. Fenris knew that well and he was worried.

He was also angry; she should never have had the chance to do something so stupid! And she should have known better.

"Was he not watching her? Was anybody?" Fenris had asked Hawke incredulously.

'Surely even Anders has the presence of mind to keep a watchful eye on someone so obviously unbalanced? But, no, that would indicate common sense now wouldn't it?'

He silently cursed the Abomination as he descended from Lowtown into the Docks.

"No." The Mage had answered. "Anders thought she would sleep through the night given her state of exhaustion and weakness."

Fenris had sighed and shook his head.

"And if she had woken?" He had asked. "It is more likely than not that she would be plagued by nightmares..."

Fenris stopped himself there, Mira was missing and time was wasting...and Hawke was giving him a knowing look, but Fenris didn't want to discuss this, especially on the heels of his latest nightmare.

'Not a nightmare, a memory.'

He had mentally pushed the thought away and refocused his attention on the situation at hand.

"I suppose you have a plan?" He asked, already knowing the answer. It was one of the reasons Hawke was the leader, one of the reasons that Fenris trusted him – Hawke was good at plans.

"I'm going to the Keep to get Aveline and see if she can put out an alert for Mira with her men, and then I'll start searching Lowtown with Griffon, maybe he can catch her scent from Anders's clinic."

"What do you need me to do?" Fenris asked. Hawke had run a hand through his already dishevelled hair.

"Anders is already searching Darktown, but we don't know how far she may have gotten, can you search the Docks?" He had asked.

Fenris had nodded his approval of the plan and went back upstairs to his room to dress as Hawke hurried away to the Viscount's Keep.

Fenris paused at the entrance to the Docks, the Qunari compound to his left, the Dockmasters office to his right. He was grateful the Qunari kept their space guarded and gated; there was no telling what trouble Mira could get into with them.

The Dockmasters office was similarly guarded, this time by a pack of Mabari hounds. As he approached the entrance he was growled at warningly, but the dogs seemed undisturbed. No one had been there this night it seemed.

Fenris was left with two choices – Left or right? Both avenues mostly contained warehouses, few of them very secure. The closest entrance from Darktown was to his right, but how far had Mira managed to get?

Fenris chose to go right, and later he would wonder in idle moments whether providence or luck had been involved that night.

He moved along the cold street, trying each door he came to. None yielded to him. He didn't think Mira could pick locks, nor was she strong enough to force a door open. He came to the end of the lane where the tunnel entrance to Darktown was, and still there was no sign of Mira.

'Where is the Makers name could she have gotten to?'

He huffed in frustration and turned to keep searching when he saw it, placed on a plinth next to one of the many small sets of stairs that led into the ocean.

Glowing faintly in the sliver of moonlight was Mira's shell. His gaze was drawn to the water of Kirkwall's harbour.

Fenris could still see the faint ripples in the water, as if it had been disturbed a while ago and had not yet settled. A horrible premonition settled into his mind like a spike of ice.

'Venhedis!'

He pulled Lethendalis from its sheath and dropped it with a clatter as he ran down the stairs into the water, diving straight into the depths.

The icy water nearly pushed the air right from his lungs, but Fenris held his breath and swam down through the dark water, pushing against the natural instinct to float. He kept his eyes open despite the stinging from the salt water.

He swam down into the darkness, scanning for a darker shadow in the water, the flash of a limb, anything.

And finally he saw it, a small, pale, hand floating beneath him, Fenris pulled himself closer through the water and a pair of deep blue eyes in a colourless face looked up at him from a swirl of dark hair.

He grabbed Mira's wrist tightly and kicked upwards, heading for the surface with the woman in tow. He heard her gasp and begin to cough when they broke the surface but he didn't stop, swimming to the steps and hauling her up them, yanking her along when her legs nearly gave out under her.

Only when they were at the top of the steps, distanced from the water did Fenris finally release his unyielding grip on Mira's wrist and she fell in a heap on the dock, still gasping for air.

He let her, listening dispassionately. Water streamed down off her hair and clothes to puddle on the dock. And inside Fenris seethed; Mira had run out into the night time dangers of a city she knew nothing about, and had then tried to kill herself.

"What were you thinking?" He snarled.

Mira was coughing so hard she started to retch and her heart was thudding so hard in her chest she was sure it was going to burst out of her. Finally her lungs got the idea that, yes, there was enough air, and she could breathe properly again.

Just in time to hear her rescuers venomous question.

"What were you thinking?"

Mira closed her eyes in defeat.

'Fenris...Shit, this was definitely not the plan.'

Granted it had never been a well-thought through plan, and given the evidence she was faced with it hadn't been working at all, but still...

"I asked you a question." The elf's gravelly voice was ice cold and calm and that was somehow worse than if he had ranted and raged.

She risked look at him. And unbidden the small, insane part of her mind that noticed stupid things thought to itself Oh, wow, soaking wet elf...Eat your heart out Jane Austin.

'Shut up, shut up, shut up you moronic piece of brain matter!'

"This...isn't exactly what it looks like, really." Mira finally answered.

'That is possibly the stupidest thing you have ever said.'

"Really..." One dark eyebrow arched, and she had never seen an expression that so perfectly said 'I do not believe one fucking word you say'.

"I was trying to go home." She explained. She wanted to make him understand why, why this was so important.

"And you thought that you could get there from the bottom of the Kirkwall harbour?" he questioned incredulously.

"Yes. I thought about it and it seemed like the best option, you know, go back the way I came..." She trailed off.

His face didn't really change all that much, but his eyes narrowed and his jaw tightened as he took a step forward, towering over her.

"You thought about it? I cannot see any way in which you applied any sort of intelligence to this...this plan!"He spat the word out like an epithet.

And it was all too much. She was freezing, soaking wet in the cold air. Her body ached, her eyes itched and her mouth tasted of salt and she was still here!

"Fine - Fine! So I was expecting to die as much as I was expecting to get home, and truly either option kind of worked for me! I. Can't. Stay. Here. Alright? And no one made you dive in after me, you barely bloody know me, so why the fuck do you care Fenris?" Mira yelled up at the elf standing over her.

His face lost the murderous look and smoothed out, and from the way his eyes had widened she thought maybe she'd shocked him. He looked away for a moment before he answered.

"It is...To kill oneself is a sin in the eyes of the Maker." He said as his eyes swung back to her.

Mira scoffed, causing a protest from her stinging throat, when she finally managed to stop coughing she glared at Fenris.

"They say it takes one to know one, and I've never been particularly devout, especially to Gods I've never heard of, and you don't strike me as a seriously pious person. So try again Fenris. Why do you care?"

There was silence, nothing but a sound of the waves and crickets and water still dripping of the both of them. After a while Mira thought Fenris might simply walk away.

And then he sighed and lowered himself to sit beside her, cross legged on the cold stone. He held his arm out to her, palm up so that the moonlight caught the strange raised marking that swirled across his skin. The light made them almost glow.

"Do you know what these are?" Fenris asked her.

"No. They kind of look like tattoos but..." She trailed off as Fenris pulled his arm back. He stared out to sea as he began to speak.

"They are Lyrium. Raw magic, only certain Dwarves can mine it safely, as long as it doesn't get into the bloodstream. For Elves and Humans the effects of Lyrium are...Disastrous, both physically and mentally. Mages can only use a refined, watered down version; contact with unrefined Lyrium will kill them." Fenris paused for a moment and then continued.

"My former master, Danarius...Had me undergo a ritual that placed Lyrium under my skin. It is what gives me my...abilities...And is the only reason I am free today."

"I...I'm really sorry...Fenris..." But the elf only shook his head at her words.

"I do not want pity, yours or anyone else's. I am trying to explain, why I care. My freedom cost me, dearly. The...agony the ritual caused wiped away my memories. When I woke up I didn't know who or where I was. It was Danarius who gave me the name 'Fenris'. I don't know what my name was, even now."

His hands had clenched so hard the knuckles were white, and Mira wondered if he had even noticed.

"What I am trying to say is...I understand what it is to have nothing Mira. To be alone and frightened, but I also know these obstacles can be overcome. I do not wish to see you throw that away. Especially when so few get the chance that you gave been given."

He looked at her, and she stared back at him, unable to think. His still wet fringe was stuck to his face, framing his eyes. And against the stark whiteness they were so green...She unthinkingly reached up a hand to brush away a few strands that were nearly in his eyes.

Fenris' arm came up defensivly and both he and Mira jerked away from each other. Fenris recovered first and coughed in an almost embarrassed manner.

"I...apologise. After the pain of the ritual I find it difficult to accept physical contact." He explained as he began to stand up.

"Oh." Mira paused while an inner voice berated her as Fenris turned and reached down to grab his sword and slide it back into its sheath.

'What in the seven hells was that! What are you doing woman?'

"So, um. What do we do now?" She asked after some of her embarrassment faded, aware that the question went deeper than it seemed.

His smile was quick, a quirk of his lips that fled almost as soon as it came, and he turned and reached down again, this time handing her what he had picked up.

Her shell. She stared at it.

"Little things." She thought she heard Fenris whisper.