He wants to roll away, to disrupt the way Astarion looks at him. He doesn't. He has been a coward in many things, he will try not to be one now. Fenris lifts his gaze, fully meeting Astarion's again.

"Companionship," he answers, hesitant and quiet. "For years Danarius was my world. I could remember nothing else, no one else. Not my mother, not my sister. Not my name. Even now I use the one he gave me when he made me his dog. His pet experiment. I had no--"

It sounds ridiculous in his own mind, the word on the tip of his tongue. It sounds frivolous. He thought it was frivolous. He says it anyway.

"Friend."