I remember seeing a headcanon about the Lyrium markings on tumblr and how Danarius could have used Fenris' markings as instant healing and casually place his hand on his back all the time. I would like to give credit to whoever came up with that but I can't find it. So, whoever came up with it, Kudos to you, here's the idea this one spawned.

As always, he watches her. She fights, hard and brutal. There is grace in her movements but it's not the grace of a dancer. She hits just as hard as him, often using the same techniques as him. He wonders sometimes how she would move in a dance with him, a dance to music or a dance to the song of lust and sex.

But that will not happen. She is nice to him, just like she is to everybody, but he is no one special to her.

In the beginning he thought there could have been more, maybe he had even hoped she would look at him differently. He is even willing to forgive how she treats the mages so nicely, like she treats everybody else. He has to admit that they are useful in the fights but he doesn't trust them, none of them and the least of all that Grey Warden Apostate. How can she trust him, the abomination? His Lyrium lines burn at the thought of her smile aimed at the mage. But Anders is indeed useful, providing healing in the fights.

A scream abruptly pulls him back into the fight. Hawke has screamed as a burning scythe of a raised dead has seared her face. Fenris curses, how could that happen, how could the thing get so close to her? He rushes over, using his Lyrium powers to slip through the fight like a ghost and hits the skeleton at the same time as she does. Their swords scrape against each other, singing a screeching song of death.

As suddenly as the fight had started, it is over and Hawke orders the companions to check the area. Fenris feels his Lyrium tattoos burn under his skin. He could help her, if he let her touch him. That had always been a favorite function of him for Danarius. His Lyrium infused markings would provide healing for his master and the mage would rest his hand on his back and absorb the power, regardless how his hand burned on Fenris' skin.

He had felt so proud, how well he could help his master. It was an honor to suffer the pain for him. Fenris gags at the memory. How he hates this, how he had been, how he had felt when he was the mage's slave.

The pain has recently receded to a dull throb but he still doesn't want anybody to touch him. His skin is sensitive, pain the answer to every touch.

But Hawke is in pain, Anders is exhausted and his Lyrium markings could help her. He takes a breath and steps in her view. She is using a piece of cloth to wipe the blood from her face and he grabs her arm to stop her.

"Touch my skin," he orders.

Hawke stares at him. "What, now?" Amusement, that he doesn't understand, plays around her lips. "I had hoped for a more intimate location for that."

Fenris shakes his head, she is so confusing, always smiling, always joking and teasing. "No, it will heal you. You have to touch my Lyrium markings."

Her face suddenly turns serious and she stares at the glowing lines on his arm. "But you said it hurts to touch them. I don't want to cause you pain."

Fenris shoves his arm towards her and she jumps back as if he tried to hit her. Is he that revolting to her? "The healing is in them, you just have to touch them. It will help you." And I will be useful.

Hawke's brows furrow and she pins him with her eyes in a way that is almost like magic. "Danarius did that, didn't he? He used you for healing in a fight?"

Fenris shakes off the wave of hate at that blasted name on her tongue and nods sharply. "That was one of my functions for him."

Hawke takes a deep breath and a range of emotions flash across her face until it firmly settles on hurt and anger. She yells at him, loud enough for everyone around to hear, "And you think I would do this to you? Use you like he did? Like a walking, talking health potion? Do you really think I would hurt you like that?"

Fenris opens his mouth but he doesn't know what to say. At one point she had asked to touch his skin and when he had declined, she had looked hurt. But now she is angry that he wants her to touch him, even though it would be useful. "But it would help you," he stammers.

"I would never do that to you, Fenris, not like this," Hawke says and turns away. He sees her drop her gauntlets and rummage through her pockets until she finds a health potion. As she swallows it, the color returns to her skin, golden and glowing. She looks at him over her shoulder and he can't grasp the pain he sees on her face. He's done something wrong but he isn't sure what.

"Aww, Kiddo, you really screwed that one up," Varric says next to him.

"She is too confusing, first she wanted to touch, now she doesn't..." Fenris shakes his head and consciously calms the glow of the Lyrium in his markings.

"Of course she wants to touch you, just not like this." Varric looks up to him. "Do you know why we're here?"

"Because Hawke agreed to rid this – "

"– to make coin, Broody, to make coin."

Fenris shakes his head in disbelief. Hawke is ruthless, even calculating sometimes but she doesn't spill blood just to get rich. "No, she wouldn't –"

Varric raises his hand to stop him, "Hawke found a mage enchanter who might be able to remove the Lyrium from your markings. It would probably stop the pain or at least make them less painful."

Fenris stares at the dwarf, his mouth gaping open like a fish.

Varric continues, "She didn't want to bring your hopes up yet and she couldn't pay him anyway. That's why she took on the last few jobs, to make the coin to pay this mage enchanter."

"But I never asked her for that," Fenris says, "Why would she do that?"

"Oh, boy, you don't even know how much she likes you," Varric says and laughs. He shoulders his crossbow and walks over to Hawke, while Fenris struggles to breathe.

Hawke wants to help him? She likes him that much?

He walks over to her and waits behind her until she acknowledges his presence. Her shoulders drop and she turns a bit to look in his eyes. "I'm sorry for yelling at you, Fenris. I know you only wanted to help and I acted like –"

"It's alright," Fenris interrupts her.

"No, I don't want you to think that I find you revolting or that I hate you," she says and she turns away. "I just don't want to hurt you."

Fenris takes off his gauntlets and lets them fall to the ground. He places his hand on her shoulder and feels her wince. She turns around and raises her hand to his on her shoulder but she doesn't lower it all the way, she hovers over his hand, her eyes searching his face. He lays his other hand on top of hers and lowers hers down. When her palm touches the Lyrium markings on the back of his hand, he waits for the familiar searing of pain but it doesn't come.

There is a slight pinch, short, uncomfortable but it falls away when the warmth of her hand seeps through his skin. She looks at him, almost scared, searching his face for a reaction. Her other hand comes up to his face, featherlight ghosting over the skin on his cheek. He leans into her palm, pressing against her hand. The Lyrium starts to glow again and he feels it as a heat that, for once, doesn't burn him.

"Does it hurt?" she whispers.

"No," he says, his voice somewhere deep in his throat. "Hawke, Varric told me of the mage enchanter."

"I'm sorry, I should have talked to you about that."

"Maybe, yes. But I want you to know that even if it doesn't work, touching you and you touching me..." his heart threatens to jump out of his chest, could he dare to say it? Could he dare to ask her for feelings for him that he doesn't even know himself? "If you would..."

Her face is suddenly right in front of him. "May I kiss you?" she asks.

Something has his heart in a fist, pressing it into a glowing ball of red. "Maybe?" he stammers.

Her lips touch his, so soft and light and he doesn't know how it's done and if he had ever known it it is gone but he stumbles forward and presses his lips against hers, his arms wrap around her and it is the most natural touch he had ever known and his heart is suddenly free when her lips open for him, on him, with him.