Disclaimer in Ch. 1
Thank you all so much for the lovely reviews! They make my day.
Vilkas is possibly a bit OC in this, but I justify it with the fact that he is alone with Elise and we are all a bit different when alone with our significant other.
Elise looked up as the door opened and Serana entered the room. "Stop that!" the woman hissed, coming over to pull the partially destroyed bouquet from Elise's hands where she had been absently tugging it apart from nerves.
"Sorry," the Bosmer woman murmured. "I am just uncomfortable and nervous."
"But you look amazing," Serana protested. Elise glanced over at the mirror that was set up in the small room reserved for the brides at the Temple of Mara in Riften. She wore an elegant dress in light green that was cut low in the front, displaying a jagged scar across her collar bone that she had earned during her time with the Dawnguard and dipped even lower in the back, showing off the scars she had received fighting Alduin. She wore a crown of braided flowers in her hair, simple dark green slippers on her feet, and the wolf's head necklace was cradled tastefully against her chest.
Elise looked back at Serana. "I do look amazing," she admitted, "but I do not look like myself." Serana had insisted that she take off her weapons and she felt naked without them. She always had at least a dagger readily available, even when she slept or bathed.
Serana flipped her hand in a dismissive gesture. "No bride looks like herself on their wedding day. I think there is a rule about it somewhere." The two women laughed and Elise sighed as she felt herself relax minutely.
A few moments later there was a knock on the door and she stiffened up again. "You in there lass?" a rough voice echoed through the door and Elise could not help the smile on her face as she tugged it open.
"Bryn," she said, and wrapped her arms around the man who had entered. Serana raised her eyebrows at the display of affection.
The newcomer stepped out of the embrace and held onto her shoulders eyes moving up and down as he took in her attire. "Well lass, I am interested to know how you plan to kill dragons wearing that," he quipped and she giggled, hitting him on the arm. "Or sneak into any houses for that matter. Dresses are awful clumsy things to move in."
"Oh, and how would you know that Bryn?" Elise asked, eyes alight with happiness.
"You just do not worry about that young lady," he responded.
Serana cleared her throat and Elise looked at her, laughing again when she saw the concerned look on the woman's face. "Serana," Elise said, "this is Brynjolf. He is a member of the Thieves' Guild and my surrogate brother. Bryn, this is Serana, she is a member of the Companions." She turned back to him as he tilted his head in greeting to Serana. "Is Eshne here?" Elise asked.
Brynjolf smiled, "Aye lass, she would not miss this for the world. Of course, after this she will be pestering me to do the same thing. I believe I saw her talking to Maramal earlier." He frowned and shuddered.
"Good," Elise said, "It is about time she made an honest man out of you." Brynjolf smirked and then reached out, rubbed her head, sending her flower crown askew and messing up her hair. "Bryn!" Elise protested.
He shrugged good-naturedly and stepped back, bowing to both of them. "I considered threatening the groom that if he hurt you I would hurt him, only then I remembered who you were and anything I could do to him would pale in comparison to what you can do to him." Both women laughed and Brynjolf pecked Elise on the cheek. "May Mara smile upon your marriage," he said and then grinned wickedly, "And Dibella on your honeymoon." Elise gasped and her cheeks flared red in embarrassment as he walked away laughing.
"Thieves' Guild?" Serana questioned, starting to close the door behind him.
"You do not know the half of it," Elise sighed. She watched as the door was pushed back against Serana and a small girl stepped inside. Serana gasped and threw herself between Elise and the girl, instantly on guard. "Serana," Elise said. "Calm down."
"No," Serana hissed, "this is obviously somebody coming to exact revenge after the death of Lord Harkon and you are unarmed."
The girl raised one eyebrow at the other woman and Elise snickered. "Serana, meet Babette, the eldest member of the Dark Brotherhood. Babette, this is Serana. Serana, Babette is a friend."
"I am not staying long," Babette assured her. "Not with this group, I saw the Dawnguard members out there." She paused and shuddered and then smiled warmly at Elise. "I could not let my Sister get married without congratulating her though." Elise stepped forward and knelt, wrapping the petite vampire in a tight hug. "Promise you will come visit soon," Babette said, "We have not hunted together for a long while."
"I will," Elise vowed. "I need to check on Cicero, Nazir, and Kirsikka anyway. Unless they came?" she sounded hopeful and sighed when Babette shook her head.
"Too many goody-goodies," Babette commented. "They knew I could slip in and out unnoticed." She reached up and fixed the flower crown, smoothing down Elise's hair.
"Thank you Babette. Please tell them I will visit soon." She nodded and then slipped out the door.
"Any other surprise guests I should be expecting?" Serana muttered, pushing the door closed.
Elise laughed and shook her head. "I doubt anybody from the College will want to come back here. Babette and Brynjolf though, they are family. Much like you." The two embraced for several minutes and Serana sniffled.
"Crying," she muttered. "Years and years without it and now, crying! Look what you are doing to me." A knock on the door startled them both and Serana opened it and then turned to Elise. "Ready?"
"As I will ever be," she responded.
After the wedding most of the group adjourned to Honeyside to celebrate. By the time the new couple finally escaped it was nearly midnight and both were tired. Elise threw a half-wave to Keerava as they made their way upstairs to their room at The Bee and The Barb. "Finally," Vilkas sighed, closing and locking the door before pulling her tight against him in a deep kiss. Elise moaned and her hands slid up his chest and into his hair. He moved his lips away from hers and began to kiss down her neck, nipping and sucking as he did.
"Vilkas," she sighed and he hummed against her throat. "Vilkas you never did tell me," she trailed off into another moan as he nibbled on her earlobe.
"Tell you what Love?" he murmured.
"Why you were so mean to me," she finished. She felt him freeze and pull back to look at her.
"You want to have this discussion now?" he asked, sounding almost pained.
"I know it is not the best time, but no time has seemed like a good time and we have not exactly had any time alone together recently and if I did not ask now I probably never would," Elise rambled. "And it would sit there in the back of my mind and eat at my thoughts until finally it festered over and became something terrible. You were nice to me once before and then became so cruel and I need to know why, please Vilkas."
He sighed and stepped away from her, dropping to sit on the bed. "Do you want the long version or the short version?" he asked.
She shrugged one shoulder. "I matters not, as long as it is the truth."
He rubbed one hand over his face and looked down at the floor. "Simply put, I was angry and afraid." Elise walked over and sat next to him, reaching out to take his hand. He let her, but kept his eyes on the ground. "You first came to Kodlak, proud as you please, so sure of your entry to the Companions. And the way Kodlak instantly trusted you. At the time I did not understand why he trusted you, I did not know what he knew, and oh it irritated me. I had spent my life looking up to that man and here you were, some stranger swooping in and earning his faith without trying. It filled me with rage."
"Vilkas," she started, but quieted when he squeezed her hand.
"And Farkas was quickly taken with you. I had no idea why that made me mad, not for a long time. I blamed it on your affiliations; that it was because you were not good enough for him. I realized later I was jealous. Jealous of how quickly you had earned his love, my brother! He was mine, my kin. Who were you to come in and take his affection?" He shook his head, "And who was he to take yours? I came to realize later, much later, that I wanted your affection. I wanted your attention. The relief I felt when you brought Jordis to meet him was not because my brother was safe from you like I told myself, but because I wanted you."
He looked up at her then and leaned forward, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against hers. "Then we had that month before Alduin. That month of friendship, of bonding, of learning, of seeing passed the surface. Up until recently that month was the best time of my life." His voice dropped and she squeezed his hand. When he spoke again it was laced with pain, "And you came back. I was so happy when you came back."
"Could have fooled me," she muttered and he chuckled.
"I know," he said. "When I fell asleep that day and then woke with your fingers in my hair it scared me. I had been relaxed; I had let my guard down completely. I have never, ever been completely at ease. Not for as long as I could remember, not even with Kodlak or Farkas. It scared me. It did not just scare me, it terrified me to be that comfortable with somebody. I realized then that you could be bad for me. With my guard down I could slip up, something could happen to one of my Shield-Siblings, something could happen to you and, Talos help me, if something happened to you because of me it would kill me. So I pushed you away. I pushed and pushed because I thought if I pushed enough you would leave, or at least fire back at me with as much venom. You never did though. You just got this look." He groaned and it sounded agonizing. "You got this look like I was killing you and it was almost my undoing."
He inhaled shakily and she could see tears glistening on his eyelashes. She shifted and kissed both of his closed eyes, kissing the salty liquid away. "Then the Silver Hand attacked, and you were not there. I was so angry, angry with them, angry with myself, and so, so angry with you. You are the Dragonborn, you had felled the most powerful dragon in Tamriel, surely if you had been there you could have taken out a few puny humans, but you were not there. It did not matter to me that you were helping Kodlak to find peace; all that I could focus on was that Kodlak was dead and you had not been around to help prevent it.
He inhaled shakily and turned, releasing her hand to reach up and rub his eyes. He laughed a bit and looked at her from the side of his eyes. "Believe it or not it was my forcing you to come with me that started to bring me around," he admitted. "You were beautiful in your rage as you took out the Silver Hand. I could see it all over you as you felled them with arrow and dagger, the hatred you had for them and the revenge you craved." He leaned back and looked her over. "As beautiful as you are now, you are more beautiful in the heat of battle," he said, reaching up to cradle her chin and slide his thumb against her cheek. "Fire and rage and strength all wrapped up in an amazing little package."
She smiled and leaned into his touch. "Stop distracting me, flatterer."
He let his hand drop and took hers again. "Then I read Kodlak's journal. I was shocked. All the things he had put in there. The visions he had. It made me realize that I needed to reconsider what I was doing. That some things in life were worth the risk." He squeezed her hand. "And then I met your family. I had never thought you were anything but what the stories said. To see you in that instance, so relaxed, so normal, suddenly you were no longer this heroic figure of legend and were just this woman who wanted to love and be loved, who wanted to raise her children in a world safe for them and it was incredibly easy for me to insert myself into that picture. I could see myself teaching Alesan how to fight with a two-handed sword and Sofie how to protect herself. I could see us all relaxing around a fire, the children playing and you and me reading or working our armor and weapons. Talos how I wanted that." He released her hand and ran both of his hands through his hair.
"I did not know how you would feel. If you would accept me back after I had been so callous, so cruel." He gave her a tilted smile and shook his head. "Lucky for me you are as forgiving as Mara. When you trusted me with your history, with a piece of you that nobody else had, I knew then that it did not matter. Nothing from before mattered. All that was important was that there was this amazing, strong, and gorgeous woman who was addled enough to want me and by the Nine I was not going to let her get away from me again."
"I am eternally grateful that you came to your senses," Elise murmured. She maneuvered around, adjusting her dress so that she was kneeling on the bed next to him. "I have always known Vilkas," she said, reaching out to hold his face between her hands, eyes locking with his. "I have always known it was you. From the first time I saw you sitting there with Kodlak, so cynical, so leery of me; I knew there would never be another for me, not in all of Tamriel." She slid one hand down onto his shoulder. "Mara knows you made it difficult for me, but no matter what you did, my heart could not let you go and now, it is the happiest heart in Skyrim."
Vilkas smiled and lifted his hands to her waist, turning more to face her. "Then mine is a close second," he murmured before pulling her to him in a deep kiss. After several minutes he pulled away and leered at her. "Now, how about we get on with our wedding night?" he inquired.
She grinned widely and reached up to run her hand down his chest. "I thought you would never ask," she said.