The bitter wind stirred up his bronzed hair, but he didn't seem to mind. He walked through the huge gates of the college, and was greeted by one his fellow apprentices, Onmund. The two Nords exchanged a few words before they both went each their way. Fenris himself walked through the doors to the Hall of the Elements to meet with Tolfdir. The elder mage introduced him to the newest member of the College. "Fenris, there is someone I think you should meet," he said and gestured towards the blonde haired woman before him. She turned around when Tolfdir addressed the other student, and shot him a brief smile. "Hello, my name is Fenris," he said and held out and shook her hand. The woman introduced herself; "I'm Maria, it's nice to meet you," and quickly let go of his hand. "Why can't you show her around, boy?" The elder mage asked and placed a hand on his shoulder. Fenris nodded and replied; "Of course, I'll get back to you later," and smiled at his superior. Tolfdir left the two Nords alone, and when he was out of sight Fenris turned to face Maria. "This is the Hall of the Elements, but I'm sure Tolfdir already told you that," he said with a smile, and the blonde woman simply nodded back at him. He studied her as they walked side-by-side around the pool in the middle of the room. She started talking, but he couldn't make out what she was telling him, and as she kept talking he couldn't help but smile a little. Maria described how things were with huge hand motions, and her voice turned into laughter at some points. She was charming, he'd have to give her that. He pulled down the hood of his robes, so his head was exposed, and he ran a hand through his coppery hair. He cleared his throat and said: "Walk with me, please," more like a question than an order. He started to walk towards the Arcanaeum, and smiled when he noticed she was following him.
After the brief tour of the College he turned to face her once more, this time to ask her a question;" You don't look like a normal apprentice, what is it that you do here?" Of course, he was only being curious, and he immediately regret asking when he saw the look on her face. Her shin dropped ever so little, and he quickly added: "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so disrespectful." His gaze fell to the ground and he stood before her like a scolded child. "It's okay," She said and waved it away with a hand. "I suppose I don't look like a typical mage; probably because I'm no mage at all." She explained and looked at him, and smiled a little when their eyes met once more. His brows narrowed a little, and he muttered: "I don't understand. Why would.." he just stopped talking. He had already made a total fool of himself; he was not too keen about doing that again. "I met Urag a long time ago, deep inside a Nordic ruin. He explained to me he was looking for four long lost books, and he asked me to help him retrieve them. After that we made an agreement; I could come and go to the Arcanaeum as I would see fit, in exchange for retrieving books for him from time to time." She explained and looked at him. He kept quiet while she spoke, and nodded faintly from time to time. When she had finished talking, he looked somewhat troubled and scuffed at the stone floor with his boot. "Have you eaten supper yet?" He asked out of the blue, and looked at her. She was caught off guard by his impulsive request. "Well, no," she replied and tilted her head slightly to the side. The corners of his lips turned into a charming, but faint smile as he asked:" Would you like to eat with me?" Now his head was tilted too, and he looked her in the eyes, switching between them. She simply nodded at him, smiling, "Of course," she added after a bit of thought.
They kept each other company that evening, and when it was time to go to bed, her walked her to her chambers. She stopped in the doorway and turned to face him. She gave him a faint smile, and he responded with the same. "Good night, Maria," he said and reached for her hand before he brought it to his lips, and kissed it lightly. Her eyes widened and her chin dropped before she jerked her hand back and looked at him like he was some sort of disease. He turned his gaze to her eyes, and the look on her gaze burned him inside. He felt crushed and blown apart at the same time. "I... I'm sorry," he stuttered and stood up. He felt like an idiot, no worse than that, he felt like a monster. He turned around and walked away with hurried steps. On his way out he slapped his face with both hands and sighed before he ran a hand through his hair. Once outside he closed his eyes and collapsed against the stony wall of the College. He covered his face with both hands, and pulled one closer to his chest. "What have I done?" He whispered to himself before putting his forehead to rest in the palm of his hand, and supported the elbow on his knee.
She stood there, barely inside her chambers, looking at her hand still trembling. Maria stood against the cold wall when her legs collapsed underneath her, and she dumped down on the floor. Without thinking, nor wanting to, she started sulking and buried her face in her palms. A million questions raced through her head, but she couldn't answer any of them. She turned her head towards the door, whipping her tears away from her cheeks, when she heard it got opened, but when she saw who did it, her gaze fell to the ground. "Maria," he began, but before he could continue she stood up, and held up a finger to make him keep quiet. "Its not your fault, Fenris," she said while she walked over to her bed, and sat down on the edge. Her gaze ran across the floor, as if she was looking for the words she needed. "You caught me off guard, and I overreacted." She said, almost whispering. He stood there in the entrance to her room with his arms crossed over his chest. The corners of his lips turned slightly up before he moved over to her and crouched down before her. "I still want to apologize," he said and looked her in the eye. She shook her head and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go grab a bottle at the Frozen Hearth," she said with a smile before she stood up.
The two Nords stumbled into the inn with snow-covered boots. Because of the blizzard outside; Fenris' beard was now full of snow and ice, and when Maria saw this she broke out laughing. He just looked at her with his head tilted slightly to the side when he asked: "What are you laughing at?" She just pointed at his face, and continued laughing. He rubbed his face with one hand and looked at the snow that transferred to that hand from his beard. When he realized how silly he would have looked with all that snow in his face, he chuckled too. The two of them walked over to the innkeeper, and he bought a couple of bottles of mead before he found a table they could sit by. He dumped down on one of the three chairs around the small table, and placed all the bottles at the center of it. He opened one of the bottles and handed it to Maria, who accepted it willingly before she gulped down half of it. He opened a bottle of his own and started drinking too.
After they had consumed about five or six bottles each, they were hanging over each other's shoulders laughing merrily and just joking around with the other visitors. Fenris stood up from his seat and walked over to the innkeeper once more, to buy more mead, but on the way over he tripped in the edge by the fireplace and stumbled right into the bard. "I… I am truly sorry, Miss Bard," he said laughing as he tried to get to his feet. The red haired woman looked shocked by the way he addressed her, and gave him a hard shove in another direction. Drunk as he was, he stumbled around and crash-landed across the counter. "Two more bottles, please," he said and tossed a half empty coin purse on the counter. He got his bottles, but when he turned around to walk back over to Maria, he couldn't see her where he had left her. His eyes searched all over the inn before they landed on her; in the opposite end of the room, fighting a big, dark haired Nord. He walked over to them with long, wobbly strides, and placed the mead bottles on a nearby table. "What do you think you're doing?" he asked, and pulled Maria away, the question of course aimed at the larger man before them. "Calm your sweetrolls, I've got this!" She exclaimed and jerked free of his hold on her. He fell back a step, and stood there watching her pounce her fists in the man's face. Shortly after the man crawled around on the floor begging for mercy. She brushed away some blonde locks of hair that had fallen into her face. "Come now," he said as soon as she straightened up again, and grabbed her wrist and pulled her with him to their table again and handed her one of the bottles he had snatched on the way back. "After this bottle, I'm going to hit the bunk," he said, slightly slurry before he opened his bottle. She drank from her own bottle and just nodded in response to what he said. They finished their bottles without another word, and he rose from his seat. "I'll go rent a room, just wait here," he said and walked over to the innkeeper and rented the biggest room she had available. He looked over at Maria, and smiled when he saw she was looking back at him. She stood up, and walked over to him and asked: "So, bedtime it is then?" before she grabbed his arm and dragged him with her into the room he had rented. He followed her like a domestic pup, and dumped down on the bed before he started to undo the buckles on his boots. She did the same, only standing beside the bed. He got rid of his armor, and wore only his tunic and pants when he laid down on the bed. She was stripped from her armor as well, and laid down beside him, with her back towards him. He rolled onto his side, and put one arm around her, pulling her close. He was gone in seconds, but she was still awake, just staring out into the room for several minutes before she closed her eyes to sleep.
She awoke to the voices of the innkeeper and her husband arguing in the main room, and moved one hand up to her face and rubbed her eyes. Until that point she was unaware of Fenris' presence, but when she realized he was laying right behind her, holding her close to himself, she let out a scream and jerked out of bed, furious and disoriented. She made a fist and punched him as hard as she could in the face. He awoke with a choked grunt and immediately put his arms in front of his head. She punched him again before she stepped onto the bed where he was still lying, and started kicking his abdomen with every ounce of strength she could muster. He was used to getting beaten up by the other Circle members, but none of them were this ferocious and angry. "Maria!" He exclaimed, still covering his head, curled into a ball. She didn't stop, and was now crouching over him delivering punch after punch to wherever she could hit him. He figured being nice wouldn't help this time, so he jerked up, pushing her off of him on onto the floor. He stood there wiping blood from his cheekbone, which had cracked open after one of her punches. "Stop it," he demanded in a harsh tone looking down at her with a very unhappy frown on his face. She looked up at him, feeling the tears pushing on from behind her eyes. He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair before he asked; "What have I done to displease you enough to ravage my face when I sleep?" She could not answer, nor did she want to. She just sat there on the floor covering her face. He crossed his arms across his chest and stood there waiting for her answer, an answer he would never get. After several minutes he broke the silence; "I'll be at the College, if you want to talk," he said before he walked past her and out of the inn. Once outside he ran both hands over his face and sighed before he walked towards the College. He didn't get far before he heard running footsteps behind him. "Fenris, wait," She said and slowed her pace when she had caught up with him. "I'm sorry… I don't know what got into me," She explained. He rubbed his cheekbone once more, but grunted in pain when he rubbed his fingers across the cut. "Why did you follow me?" he asked and stopped in mid-step, and looked down at her. Her looked up at him, and she could clearly see that something was troubling him. "I came to apologize," she said and tilted her head slightly before she added: "You have never done anything to deserve what I did, and I'm truly sorry." He looked at her as if her words had no effect at all, but inside he was smiling. He just nodded before he started walking again. "Can you just ask me nicely to move my big butt out of your way next time?" he asked and looked down at her again with a faint smile. She looked at him, gathering her thoughts before she said: "I... I will try, but I can't promise anything." His smile widened and shrugged before he replied: "That's good enough for me," and gave her a friendly pat on the back, to make it clear everything was okay between them. She flinched when he touched her, and jerked a couple of steps to the side. They walked side-by-side back to the College, where they went to their own rooms to study.