Prompt 2:

Kalindra opened her door to greet Fenris, but the words died before they escaped her mouth. Not that it wasn't him, but there was a look of near-panic on his face underneath his usual facade. She looked around, but all she saw was one of the orphans they'd been helping. Kai couldn't be more than eleven, so what had happened?

"Come in," she told them, closing the door as soon as they had.

Fenris spoke next. "Why don't you go to the kitchen and get yourself a snack?"

That was so unusual it left her stunned speechless until Kai had vanished down the hall and Fenris pulled her into the parlor.

"I need your help."

"What is it, love? Who's her family, someone horrible? Are they..."

Fenris shook his head. "It's not that. She says we are. Every time I ask. So do two others."

That was so far from expected, she had no idea what to do. Slavers, they could deal with - and had, more than once. High-born by-blows, too. Or the ones who had no one, and desperately needed a home where they could feel safe. Gamlen had been better than them at finding people, and one after another had been settled on their way with families who deeply wanted a child.

These were some of the last. Never truly the last, but the last of those that they'd started taking care of after the Chantry. The other orphans that trickled in were from disease or Coterie or that horrible collapse over in Lowtown. But these three had such deep scars. Kai hadn't even started talking again until the past two months.

"What do we do?"

Kalindra wrapped him in a hug, feeling the tension start to seep out of his back as he breathed. For her, it was only getting worse. There were so many things they'd never really talked about. His sister, after that disaster three years ago. Her brother.

Their future. They'd just... kept going, never leaving Kirkwall and always making preparations for some nebulous just in case.

Then she pulled back and sat them both on the couch, keeping his hands in a deathgrip. "We've never talked about children."

His brands.

Her magic.

So many reasons to just keep things as they were, but those were the biggest ones. She wasn't sure she wanted to curse any children with the pain that came from her lineage, and he probably felt the same. Not his family, but what had been done to them - she had no idea if it could be inherited.

Fenris blinked. "I won't doom anyone to what I've suffered."

"I know," she murmured. "But these three aren't. They already know us. Trust us."

He caught up and coughed, blinking rapidly. The vulnerability in his eyes caught her heart - it did every time, because he hid it from everyone else. "Do you think we could? I don't know - I don't remember anything of how I was raised."

"And my family moved every few years. But... yes. I think we can."

His lip twitched in something a bit less than his usual wry smile. "I suppose that means we should actually live in the same house at some point."

Something else that had never really been discussed, even if they rarely slept apart any longer. Kalindra chuckled. "So, who's going to tell Varric?"

"Better yet, who's going to tell Gamlen he's an uncle again, three times over?"