Vilkas could see Whiterun now and he felt his heart quicken a bit. Vilkas didn't really want to admit it but he had been thinking about Ariella a fair bit while he had been gone. It was only really bad at night though while Athis was sleeping.

He was being pathetic.

He wondered how Farka's job had gone and prayed silently that it hadn't gone too well. If Farkas' job had gone great he liked to celebrate with a mead or fifty. Normally Vilkas would have thought nothing of it, but he was with Ria…

"I wonder how the other's jobs went." Athis said as they were walking past the farms just outside Whiterun.

"Hopefully well."

"I just hope not too well. Last time Ria was on a job with Farkas and he got on the mead a bit I had to hear the story of how he looked like he was going to kiss her about a thousand times." The two laughed, Vilkas did like Athis. The nord and wolf in him had been wary of his skin when they first met but in some ways the two were similar.

"Let's just hope he didn't actually kiss her."

"Or worse." The two laughed again as they walked through the great gates of the city.

Vilkas and Athis stopped off in some shops to sell some loot they found with the bandits. The gold was divided equally and they made their way back to Jorrvaskr.

The mead hall was already full of life when they entered. Everyone was bustling around and seemed to be preparing the room for some kind of celebration.

"Aela." Vilkas called as she passed by. The Huntress was carrying a basket full of ingredients, it was unusual for her to help out Tilma. She usually thought such duties were beneath her. "What's happening?"

"Farkas and Ria brought back a fragment of Wuuthrad, celebration's in order don't you think?" She said with a smile. Vilkas' expression faultered and then Aela leaned in closer, "Fear not, the ice-brain hasn't so much as looked at Ria."

Vilkas let out a sigh of relief, which caused a laugh to come from Aela.

"Anything I can do to help?" Vilkas asked following Aela as she walked to the kitchen.

"Just rest, you've just come back. I think we have everything under control, even Skjor and Njada are helping out." Getting those two to help was far more of an accomplishment that having Aela herself offer a hand.

Vilkas went to his room and threw his pack onto the floor not really caring when some of the contents spilled out onto the floor. He could clean it up later but he wanted to go congratulate his brother.

Farkas, being one of the people to bring home the fragment, was exempt from any celebration preparations. Vilkas checked in Farkas' room only to find it empty. Considering Farkas hadn't been in the mead hall it meant he was probably outside, unless he had decided to go to the market for something.

Yet sure enough when Vilkas stepped out onto the porch his brother was in the courtyard training.

"Brother." Vilkas called out as he approached. Farkas stopped his training and turned to his brother.

"I was afraid you would miss the celebration." Farkas said smiling.

"You know I can sniff out a Companions Feast days in advance." Vilkas joked. The two laughed and went to go sit on a bench.

"So how did your job go?"

"Fine. A boring but essential job." Farkas nodded, "How did your job go? Aside from the obvious, of course."

"Alright I suppose." Farkas glanced around before leaning in close, "Ria kept getting in the way though."

Vilkas laughed and Farkas just grimaced. "Well tonight's celebration should go well."

"It's been too long since we had a good celebration."

"Two months?"

"Exactly." The brothers laughed and settled into a comfortable silence.

In the silence Vilkas closed his eyes and let himself relax. He listened to the sounds of the people of Whiterun, the sounds of Eorlund forging whatever new weapons and he could even smell the food being cooked inside Jorrvaskr.

"I think Tilma was saying before she needed help in the kitchen." Farkas said after a pause. Vilkas nodded and walked inside.

He found Tilma, "Do you need a hand Tilma?"

"Ah Vilkas." The old woman stirred a pot. "Would you help cut up the vegetables over there?" The woman inclined her head behind her. Vilkas turned and his heart fluttered when he saw Ariella cutting vegetables as well.

He walked over to the bench and sought out a knife and some carrots. Ariella seemed to only just notice him as he stood beside her.

"Oh Vilkas, I didn't know you were back." She said with a smile.

"I only got back an hour or so ago." Vilkas said smiling back at her.

"How did the job go?"

"Good. Bandits generally aren't too difficult to deal with." There was a beat of an awkward silence. "So uh, how was everything here?"

"Just a lot of training; hours and hours of archery. Nothing really interesting happened." She shrugged and kept cutting vegetables.

"So how'd you get roped in to doing this?"

"Uh, Aela kind of just put a knife in my hands and told me to chop. I kept burning the stew…" Vilkas laughed but the look on her face said she was being serious. She kept her focus trained on the task in front of her.

"Tilma knows not to stick me on cooking either. She asked me just was watch some sweet rolls bake and I managed to screw it up." She didn't look at him but he could see a smile on her face.

The rest of the vegetables were cut in silence but the good kind of silence.

"Thanks dears." Tilma said once that task was done. "I think everything is done now."

"So, uh what are you going to do now?" Vilkas asked once they had left the kitchen.

"Well unless Farkas demands me to train I was thinking about going to read outside for a bit."

"M-mind if I join you?"

"Not at all." She smiled at him and the two went downstairs to retrieve their books.

Once they were outside they sat side by side in the sunshine against a wall.