AN: Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating! No extra traditions today. Just enjoying Day 5!
Kirstte was bent over the alchemy table in her room, working on bolstering her health potion supply. She jumped when an arm slid around her waist and barely managed to salvage the mixture she was holding. "You can obviously see I'm busy," she muttered.
Vilkas burrowed his face in her neck, sighing contentedly as he wrapped his other arm around her. "You're making health potions for hangovers. Not crucial," he retorted. "You've been stuck in here all day, it's nearly time to go and watch the reenactment." He squeezed her and balanced his chin on her shoulder, watching her fingers dance across the ingredients, easily mixing them into several vials of health potions. "Jon Battle-Born came around earlier. He asked if Lucia and Sofie wanted to take part. They both agreed."
She blinked and twisted to look at him. "Sofie agreed?"
He laughed and pressed a quick kiss to her lips before he released her and settled into the chair next to the table. "Not so much agreed as allowed herself to be dragged away by Lucia once Anders promised he would go also." She nodded in understanding and scooped up the last few health potions, adding them to her shelf. He eyed them. "If that's not enough to last the rest of Jól, then we need to address the drinking problem running rampant through Jorrvaskr," he observed. She laughed and he caught her hips, pulling her down into his lap. "You know," he murmured as his lips danced along her cheek. "We're practically alone in here. Everybody except Lydia and Farkas has gone out to the reenactment."
She elbowed his stomach, ignoring his grunt as air rushed from his lungs. He frowned at her. "We're not doing anything like that until we've talked about what we are." She crossed her arms and glared.
He rolled his eyes. "That's what I was referring to," he said and then smirked at her. "What did you think I was referring to?" She felt her face flush and his eyes sparkled with glee.
"Shut up," she muttered, elbowing him again and ignoring his chuckles. "We don't have a lot of time, but I do want to say this," she began, staring pointedly at her hands that were clutched together in her lap. She swallowed. "I know I lived a long time before I met you, but now that I know you I can't imagine my life without you. You have been a great help to me since Kodlak's passing. You challenge me to be better. You make me incredibly happy and sometimes so angry I can't see straight, but I love all of those things about you." She let out a small breath. "I know it hasn't been easy. We've both done things the wrong way in this relationship, but I promise I'll try my hardest to do better because..." She shrugged and finally looked at him. "Because I love you."
He pressed their foreheads together, eyes dropping closed. "Kirstte," he breathed. "You saved me. Not because you're Dragonborn. Not because you cured us of the blood. Because you gave me a reason to enjoy life again." He shifted and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "Before you I was just alive, now I feel like I am living. You're right, we do piss each other off and sometimes we'll say the wrong things, but I promise to always come back and work things out. Because I love you too." He drew her into a kiss and she pressed against him, loving the feel of his body against hers.
"I swear to all the Divines, I've never seen a couple take so long to get to this point. I'm glad you're finally back to where you were a year ago." Farkas's voice startled them both and Kirstte twisted to glare at him. He grinned from where he was leaning against the doorframe. "It's true. At the end of Jól last year, you hadn't said it but you both knew you loved each other. Divines, all of Whiterun probably knew it." He shook his head. "Stubborn. You're both stubborn."
"Thank you, Brother, for pointing out our inadequacies for us," Vilkas growled, hand clenching against Kirstte's waist. "What are you doing down here?"
He shrugged. "Lydia fell asleep, so I'm going to the reenactment. If you want to see it, we better go." He motioned behind him towards the stairs.
She started to rise and Vilkas's arms tightened around her. She gave him a soft smile and kissed his nose. "As much fun as this is, I want to go support Lucia and Sofie." He grumbled under his breath but let her up and then stood himself. "Come on, you know it'll be fun."
"It'll be something," he argued, but still took her hand and together they followed Farkas out of the city. Ria waved from where she was sitting and Kirstte and Vilkas claimed a bale near her, Kirstte curling against Vilkas to help with the cold. Farkas dropped down next to Ria and they waited for Jon and Mikael to come start.
Vilkas nudged her and pointed. "There's Mikael. What do you think he's doing over there?" The Bard was sitting at the edge of the crowd, pouting. Kirstte shrugged and leaned towards Ria as the play began.
"What's with Mikael?" She jerked her chin in his direction.
Ria's eyes lit up and she scampered over, squatting on the ground next to them. "Earlier today during practice, Jon left to go up to Jorrvaskr and see if Lucia and Sofie wanted to be a part of the fun. Well, while he was gone I guess Mikael got a little fresh with Olfina. As soon as Jon was back, Lars was quick to tell him what happened and Jon laid out Mikael with one well aimed punch." A grin stretched across her mouth. "After that Anders told Mikael he needed to shove off, then recruited Toral and Athis to help."
Kirstte snorted. "It's about time somebody put Mikael in his place." She eyed the bard who was glaring pointedly at everybody in the reenactment. "And good for Jon. I know he gets a lot of grief about wanting to be a bard. I'm glad he stood up for her."
Ria's eyes darted over to where the Battle-Borns were watching. "Not sure how Papa Battle-Born is feeling about it though." Olfrid was glowering, more than usual. "The war's over and Skyrim is still part of the Empire. He shouldn't be so angry about it," she muttered.
"Olfrid Battle-Born will forever find a reason to be angry," Vilkas muttered, then pointed. "Look, it's Lucia." Lucia and Lars entered the stage as the goats, with Lucia miming perfectly the death of her goat. Vilkas laughed. "She has her tongue out." He pointed. Sure enough Lucia's mouth was open, tongue hanging out like she was actually dead. "She's almost better than Dorthe," he murmured. Ria shifted back over to sit by Farkas and Kirstte leaned forward.
"I wonder where Sofie is," she murmured. She could see Athis, Toral, and Anders as members of the Companions surrounding Jon who was reprising his role as Ysgramor. Lars and Lucia were off to the side, no longer needed, and Olfina had played Kyne again. The players froze and Frothar walked to the front of the crowd, Sofie walking with him.
He looked more confident than the year before and reached out, grabbing Sofie's hand and squeezing it before he addressed the crowd. "As the goddess Kyne promised, Ysgramor and the Companions survived by slaughtering their goats every night and having them come back to life each morning." He held his arms wide. "For this reason, we celebrate and honor Kyne each year by slaughtering and feasting on goats. Please join us as we continue this tradition."
Applause spread through the crowd and Kirstte jumped up, hollering and cheering for the girls. Most of the crowd surged towards the fire pits, but Vilkas caught Kirstte's arm and held her back. "We may have a problem," he murmured, tilting his head towards the stage area. Kirstte climbed up on the bale to see over the crowd and frowned when she spotted Frothar and Lars arguing. "Seems Sofie has a couple of admirers."
Sofie and Lucia were both with Anders and Ria, waiting to collect their food. Kirstte sighed and pushed her way through the crowd, arriving at the two at the same time as Idolaf and Balgruuf. "I saw her first!" Lars pushed the other boy.
"Yeah, well I made her smile!" Frothar retorted, shoving also.
"I made her laugh!" Another shove and Frothar landed on his rear.
"Well my father is the Jarl and I'll have him order you to leave her alone!" Frothar snapped, scrambling to his feet.
"Oh you will, will you?" Both boys froze and turned to look at the Jarl who had his arms crossed and was glaring down at them. "What are you two arguing about?" he asked. When neither responded, his brows raised. "Tell me or you'll both end up in even more trouble."
Lars sighed. "We're fighting over Sofie." He pointed to where she was sitting and eating with Dorthe, Lucia, and Mila, oblivious to their argument. "I was her friend first, and then Frothar came along and stole her from me!" He crossed his arms and glared.
"You can both be her friends," Idolaf commented and Kirstte could hear the agitation in his voice.
Lars shook his head. "I don't want to just be her friend. I love her. I'm going to marry her."
Idolaf rolled his eyes. "Divines, boy, you're twelve. You're not marrying anybody." He shot a look at Kirstte, who was doing her best to not laugh at the entire situation.
"You two seem to have forgotten something very important," Balgruuf interrupted. Everybody looked at him. "Sofie gets a say in this too. She might want to be your friends, she might even someday want to marry one of you, but that's her decision. Just because you have feelings for her, that doesn't mean she'll have them for you. And Idolaf is right. You're both young. Plenty of time to meet other men and women you may want to be with." He looked them over expectantly.
Frothar sighed and looked back at Lars. "Sorry," he muttered.
"Yeah me too," Lars responded. Their fathers herded them away and Kirstte sighed as she joined Vilkas.
"Well?" he handed her a plate of food and a bottle of mead that she downed in a few swallows. "That bad?" He took the empty one and gave her another full one.
She snorted and settled down next to him. "Lars is convinced he's going to marry Sofie. Frothar seems pretty set on it too." She nibbled at her food, spotting Frothar who was staring at Sofie. "I may need to have a talk with her before things get out of hand." Vilkas choked on his food and looked at her, confusion sweeping over his face. She rolled her eyes. "Not because she's at fault. I want to make sure she knows about certain… things and that she's able to protect herself if she needs to. They won't be the only ones interested." She sighed. "I already mentioned to Balgruuf that he should send Frothar down for weapon lessons," she said. "I think I'll set up some kind of session for the children in town. They should all know how to defend themselves." She grinned at him. "Want to help?"
"If it means I get to spend more time with you? Absolutely." He smiled and she slapped his arm lightly as she felt the blush crawl up her face.
"Come on you two." Anders appeared next to them, Lucia on his back and Sofie trailing behind with Ria. "We promised the girls we'd tell Jól stories, and I've heard that Vilkas has some of the best."
Kirstte grinned and stood, reaching out to ruffle Lucia's hair. "That sounds great, and I even have the ingredients for hot chocolate. Who wants some?" Everybody's hands shot up, including the adults. She laughed. "Well then, we'll have to stop by Breezehome so I can grab everything. Let's go."
A short time later and they were all back in Jorrvaskr, spread around the great room as Vilkas took a seat at the top of the stairs near the front entrance. The girls were on the floor, both wrapped in blankets and holding some hot chocolate, nibbling on the mint sticks that Tilma had also produced. Kirstte was on the floor next to Lydia, leaning against the side of the bench. "Better than last year's Jól?" She peeked up at Farkas.
He was sitting behind Lydia, arms wrapped around her abdomen. "So far? Definitely," he agreed.