For a Kink Meme prompt requesting fluffy childhood moments. It took me much longer than I intended to actually write and post this, but I like how it turned out. I ended up making seven drabbles about different Companions.
Disclaimer: The Companions and the world they live in are property of Bethesda. The characters Nereus and Mhiralda are mine. Others (Demith, Alarik, and Borak) were made up expressly for this fill.
Of all the fun and exciting places for young children to live, Falkreath is not one. Falkreath is small, and quiet, and boring. The only landmark of note is the cemetery, and the other children are few and far between and, for whatever reason, almost all several years older than the youngest child in town.
But Ria doesn't mind.
Ria is five years old with a gap-toothed smile as she chases her older brother through the town, laughing and smiling and maybe wishing she were a bit faster. She's easily the smallest child, and probably still would be even if she weren't so much younger than the others.
But she chases them without fail in their game of tag. She chases Valdr and Lod and Mathies and her own brother, Nereus. She runs down the main path through town as Nereus speeds up to get away and Valdr and Lod slow down to give her a chance to win.
Eventually she catches up with one of them. She catches Lod, who is maybe seven years older than her and has slowed almost to a halt by the time she reaches him. He's panting, and if she weren't so young and so proud of herself she might have noticed how exaggerated his labored breathing is and how his eyes twinkle just a tad. But, as she is young and proud of herself, she calls out You're it and dashes away.
And she laughs.