AN: Mini-fill for a SKM prompt requesting two characters meeting for the first time. Figured I'd play with Astrid and Arnbjorn for a bit, since I've always been curious about just how Arnbjorn ended up in the Dark Brotherhood and how members other than the Dragonborn get recruited, and that seemed to lend itself to having the pair of them meet. I wrote this forever ago, but I forgot about it and only just thought to post it here. Oops.
The first time Arnbjorn sees her, he's on a job, and she's slipping away through the trees near where his target was last seen. Apparently, quite a few people want this poor fool dead, and two people have gone about it with very different means. Someone openly calls to the Companions, and someone else enlists an assassin. He doesn't speak to her, doesn't even make eye contact, but he's no idiot. By the time he reaches the prisoner, he's dead already, and she was the last person in the area. If he's not careful, Arnbjorn will have a dagger through his chest, too.
The next time, he's just drinking at the Bannered Mare. He hates Whiterun, hates all the noise and the irritating barmaids that hang around the taverns. But the taverns are where the ale is, and Whiterun is where his coin comes from, so he's stuck there for as long as he can imagine. When he looks up and sees her, he's more than a bit surprised. She looks familiar, and yet he knows he's never seen her in town before. To be fair, the Companions are something of celebrities, and more people recognize him than he recognizes, but hers is a face he wouldn't forget. She doesn't seem to notice his staring from across the room. In the morning, he gets word that one of the kitchen maids is dead and gone, done away by a knife between her ribs.
The third time, he's just finished some work. Art, more like it. He went out on this job by himself, so that Kodlak couldn't goad him for his methods. What does Kodlak know about methods, anyways? The man always goes in headfirst, tipping the targets off, and never seems to savor the kill. Arnbjorn makes sure to get the target alone, somewhere they feel uneasy, and springs the trap on them. For a few moments, they can experience true horror. And he's done just that when he sees her through the trees of Falkreath. He thinks nothing of it and goes to take a nap at a campsite nearby.
When he wakes up, a man is standing over him, and Arnbjorn doesn't know where he is. The man explains a few things about the Dark Brotherhood. His objective is clear: fulfill a contract, find the sanctuary, join the gang. Arnbjorn considers just slaughtering the man and heading home, but truth be told the Dark Brotherhood seems to be the one group in Skyrim that appreciates the art of killing, and he's been at odds with Kodlak for a while. This is his chance to do things his way.
This kill is sweet, like meat off a fresh deer, and Arnbjorn knows he's made the right choice. He follows the man's directions back to Falkreath, says exactly the right answer to the cryptic door, and walks into what will hopefully be his new home.
She's the first one he sees as he steps inside.
"Glad to finally meet you properly," she says. Her voice is lower than he imagined it, but he doesn't mind. "I've been the one watching your kills, and I must say, I'm rather impressed. All that pure power." She smirks, and Arnbjorn grunts. "I'm Astrid, by the by. Since you didn't ask."
He isn't sure what it is about her that he can't take his eyes off of. It might be her brow, which is sharp and makes her eyes seem darker somehow. It may be her armor, the way it makes her naught but a silhouette. It could be the way her hair clings to her neck, and how that cowl must have made her sweat enough for it to stick.
He'd like to make her sweat, too.
He can't help but crack a grin as he stares at her. "Arnbjorn," he states, though he has a feeling she already knows more than he'd usually like.
"So I've heard." The way she smiles is almost sinister, and he swears the corners of her lips actually curl around. "You know, Arnbjorn-" she lingers on the 'o', and he almost falls to his knees right then "-I think we're going to get along splendidly."
Arnbjorn doesn't pay half as much attention to the rest of the people he meets that day (though, he admits, that vampire kid leaves an impression). He knows he'll have to make the trek back to Whiterun eventually, make it clear to Kodlak and the rest that he's cast his lot and won't be returning, though he'll never give them the reason why.
For tonight though, he'll just make himself comfortable, and sleep with some relative peace just knowing her name.