The next morning [Time for some fluff! :3 ]
Fenris woke with a silent groan in the back of his throat, and a pounding headache of a hangover. He didn't open his eyes, but allowed his other senses to adjust. His back was on something hard, perhaps a floor, but his head was lying on something soft – a pillow? And there was a weight on his unarmored chest – where did his chestplate go? He blinked his eyes open, and when his blurry vision adjusted, he saw the back of Marianna's head lying against the black of his linen tunic. While trying not to startle her awake, Fenris looked around and saw that they had fallen asleep on the floor, one of her plush pillows beneath his head. She was curled against his chest, seeking comfort in sleep. Her arms were at her sides, one hand on his stomach. Forgetting himself for a moment, Fenris reached out with one un-gauntleted hand – where did his gauntlets go? – and brushed back a few stray hairs behind her ear. He tried to repress a smile when he realized her short auburn locks were just as soft as they looked. She sighed in her sleep, and turned her face when his fingers brushed against the shell of her ear. Fenris freezed when he saw the wet tracks of tears on her cheeks. Had she been crying in her sleep? Fenris clenched his hands in silent war with himself, as he tried to decide what to do. As he did so, he found that his other hand was resting against the soft, bare skin of Marianna's waist, since she often lounged around her home in little other than a breastband and leggings, even in the company of her friends.
Marianna groaned awake, rubbed her eyes with one hand, and snuggled further into her pillow. "When'd the pillow get so hard?" She grumbled, and blinked her bleary eyes open. Her gaze was met by the large, forest green of Fenris'. Marianna went as stiff as stone, as her mind blanked and she was caught just staring at Fenris. Finally she managed to mumble a meek, "Good morning."
Fenris half-smiled and replied the same, "Good morning."
Marianna could feel his chest vibrate as he spoke, his words rough with sleep, and suddenly wished to hear him speak again. Still not moving, she really didn't know why she hadn't moved yet, she said, "So... Um, thanks for staying with me."
"Of course," he said, his voice still a bit hoarse. Without much thought, Fenris reached out and touched her cheek with the fingertips of his free hand. "You were crying."
She moved her head a little, and looked down, "Yeah."
They stayed like that for a few minutes, offering comfort and receiving, before Marianna sat up and Fenris removed his hand from her waist. He sat up after her. "You're handling this loss... differently," Fenris observed.
"This loss is different," she replied and raked a hand through her hair. "And I think I exhausted all my explosive emotions when Seamus died." She tried to sound lighthearted, or at least not too upset, but failed.
They fell into silence again, and Fenris cursed his ineptitude with such situations. Here, sitting next to him, was the woman he cared most about – one of his closest, and most trusted friends – and he couldn't think of anything, anyway, to ease her pain.
Finally, he remembered the way she had held onto him when Seamus died, and decided that perhaps all she needed to keep her grounded, to keep her from falling completely into misery, was a reassuring touch – a tether to prevent her fall.
Slowly, in case she did not want him to, he reached out and laid his bare hand on her bare shoulder. The skin-on-skin contact seemed to rouse her from her troubling thoughts, and when she looked at him with red-rimmed eyes, messed hair, and slouched posture, Fenris, as reassuringly as he could, repeated his previous words, "Marianna, I am here."
…...
Note: See? Now you understand why I went all AU with the order of Following the Qun and All that Remains, right? [hint: So Marianna would seek comfort after her mother's death with her LI] Thank you all for reading, reviewing, favoriting, etc.! I hope you liked the read, despite all the sadness :(