For all the chaos that had plagued Kirkwall during his residency and even after his departure, Hawke would’ve honestly thought that some peace and quiet in the nights would help him. This wasn’t his city, after all, and he honestly couldn’t care as much for any suspicious characters sneaking around at night here as he had back home.
But it was lonely, and in the quiet, agonizing way that ate at him. He felt each tick of the clock more than he heard it, and the silence spoke more as a reminder than any sort of comfort. Here, there was no crack of the fire and no snoring of a dog; here, he was alone, left with the regrets and failures of wars he could’ve stopped.
...Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to get a new pet, even if it did feel kind of like betraying a friend he’d never meant to leave behind. But actively doing something was much more like him than sitting around moping, so naturally, when he next saw the friendly boy he’d recently met in this strange city, Hawke wasted little time in approaching with a wide smile and a wave.
“Well, I certainly don’t mind seeing a friendly face two days in a row. Say, you’ve been in this city for much longer than I have, right? Do you know if there’s some sort of shelter I can look to adopt a dog? Preferably big ones that look like they can maul you in half a second, but friendlier?”