Kaiah was sitting at the long table drinking a cup of tea and eating her morning breakfast. Her legs were crossed and she had a book in her hand, reading intently. She wore a leather cuirass with long leather and linen wrapped sleeve and with it long cloth pants that covered the length of her legs. She wrapped a red fabric with embellishments around her cuirass and it fell around her hips. The armor was complete with a long red scarf that she wrapped around her neck for the cold winter months. She made the piece herself, after many hours of work with Eorland at the Skyforge. She was quite proud of it.

Her attention was divided from her book when she heard the front doors of Jorrvaskr open. She was relieved to see Farkas and Ria return from one of their jobs. They had been gone for about three days to the Reach where they were asked to take care of a Forsworn encampment. She was glad they made it back safely and intact.

She seemed rather surprised, however, when she noticed that Ria and Farkas were gazing at each other with smiles on their faces. They were speaking to each other but it was in a low whisper and Kaiah couldn't make out any of it. Suddenly, Farkas parted ways with the Imperial and went downstairs to the living quarters. Ria watched with an almost love-stricken expression as he walked away. She then walked towards the long table and nearly jumped when she saw her friend already sitting there.

"Gods, Kaiah!" she yelped, "I didn't see you there."

Kaiah shrugged her shoulders, "I've been here the whole time."

The Imperial placed her hand on her chest and took a seat next to the Redguard. "Can I share something with you? And you promise not to breathe a word of it?"

Kaiah smiled as she folded the page in her book and closed it gently, placing it on the table. She rearranged herself where she was now facing her friend, leaning against the back of her chair. She gave her a reassuring nod and Ria went in, covering her mouth from the side and whispering in her ear. "Farkas kissed me."

Kaiah pulled back and gave her a shocked expression. "What?"

"Shhh!" Ria shushed her friend, "You want everyone to hear you?"

Kaiah then took a deep breath and then leaned in closer, talking softly, "When did this happen?" A large and flirtatious grin fell upon her lips. "Last night." Kaiah's eyes widened even more. "W-what? H-how… How did this happen?"

Ria looked up towards the ceiling and let out a sigh, the smile never leaving her face. "When we left Whiterun, everything was normal. The journey to the Reach was normal, and the first night was normal." Ria paused suddenly and Kaiah waited patiently for her to continue. She gestured to her friend to keep talking. "But after we cleared the cave and went back to the same inn, it was late and we were drinking, talking and having a great time. Then one thing led to another and he kissed me. And I liked it." She said the last sentence with almost a guilty expression.

Kaiah's shocked expression never faltered during the entire story. She had to admit, the entire situation was shocking, to say the least. She truly never expected Farkas to make a move on Ria, but she supposed anything was possible. "Ria," Kaiah started, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder, "You know I want you to be happy, and of course I support you no matter what you choose to do but…" Ria gave her a concerned look, "But what?"

She bit her tongue. She couldn't possibly tell Ria that Farkas was a werewolf. That was a secret she had to take to her grave. And Farkas was not an aggressive man by any means, so what was she worried about? She let out a sigh and continued, "I don't want you to get hurt." Ria let out a laugh, "I appreciate your concern but I'm a grown woman and I know what I'm doing." Kaiah put her hands up defensively, "Then I have nothing to worry about."

"You did what?"

Farkas sat in his brother's room. Vilkas was standing in front of him with his hands on his hips, scolding his twin brother. Farkas shrugged his shoulders innocently, "I kissed her."

Vilkas flailed his arms in disbelief, "But why?"

"Because I wanted to."

Vilkas scoffed, "Yeah, and there are a lot of things I want to do too. But there's a little voice in our heads that tells us that what we're about to do is wrong!"

"I don't have that."

Vilkas pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Of course you don't." He muttered. Farkas heard him clear as day and shot back. "What's wrong with what I did?" His brother glared at him, "The Circle cannot romantically engage with the whelps. We are their mentors, we are supposed to set an example for them!"

Farkas crossed his arms and glared at his brother. "So you can flirt with Kaiah but I can't kiss Ria?" Vilkas felt his face grow hot. "I do not flirt with her! And I have never kissed her!"

"At the party you were about to," Farkas deadpanned, "I saw you."

He was referring to the Festival of Lights celebration. He remembered vividly the moment Farkas was referring to. He was hoping that nobody saw. "But I didn't. Because it would have been wrong."

Farkas got up from his seat and looked at his brother. "I'm not sorry for what I did. And just because you want to be alone for the rest of your life doesn't mean that I have to be." And with that he walked out of his brother's room, leaving him alone. Vilkas rubbed his temples and sighed.

'Just because you want to be alone for the rest of your life doesn't mean that I have to be.'

His brother's words rang in his head over and over again. Did he truly want to be alone? Certainly no one wants to be alone forever. But he never thought about the idea of settling down with anyone. He thought he would live out his days in Jorrvaskr, mentoring the new whelps that would come and go. He imagined himself sitting in Kodlak's chair.

Alone.

But is that what he truly wanted?

It was nearly midday and everyone was outside training. Kaiah was sparring with Athis, and Ria was working on her balance with Aela. Torvar was working on his hand to hand combat with Vilkas, which he seemed to be failing at quite miserably. Vilkas punched Torvar right in the nose, causing the drunken Nord to stammer back. "Arkay's balls! That fucking hurt!"

Kaiah was currently besting Athis in a duel. All that was heard was the clashing of metal but it was apparent that Athis was getting worn out. Kaiah used her leg to pull the Dunmer from underneath himself, causing him to fall on his back. She held her sword at his throat. "You are certainly quick, sera." Kaiah pulled her sword away and reached out her other hand to help him up. She gave him a satisfied grin, "I try."

The Redguard looked over toward Ria and saw that she was talking with Farkas, laughing. Her brows furrow. 'So much for being discreet, Ria.' Kaiah's thoughts were interrupted when Njada pulled on her shoulder. She looked over at the angry Nord woman and gave her a scowl. "What do you want?"

"You're in my way." Njada shoved her to the side and Kaiah inaudibly gasped. "What's your problem? You don't own the entire training yard!"

Njada got up in her face, "My problem is you. You think you can just come in here and bat your pretty little lashes and expect everything to just be handed to you. Well, let me tell you something, Redguard. In Skyrim, you're a nobody. Desert crawlers don't belong here."

Kaiah felt her anger level come to a boiling point. She got up to Njada's face, their noses almost touching. "I will beat your racist ass into Oblivion." Njada stepped away and held her fists in a fighting stance. "Try me!"

Kaiah tackled the Nord woman to the ground, and everyone in the training yard stopped what they were doing to see the commotion. Njada pulled on Kaiah's hair and Kaiah elbowed Njada in the face. Kaiah stood up and braced for Njada's attack. The Nord woman tried to punch Kaiah in the face but she dodged just in time. Kaiah punched Njada in the cheek and then under her chin. The Nord tumbled back before wiping the blood off of her face.

"You fight dirty!" Njada yelled.

"I'm not fighting dirty! You just have shit aim!"

Just as they were about to go at it again, Vilkas stepped in between them and put his hands out, preventing them from hitting each other. "That's enough! What is going on here?"

Njada spit some blood out from her mouth, "Nothing."

Kaiah snapped back, "Nothing? You called me a desert crawler you bitch!" She attempted to get around Vilkas but he stopped her. "Calm down." She glared at him. "Don't tell me to calm down!" She then pointed at Njada, "She started this!"

"Yeah? Well I'm about to finish it!" Njada launched herself at Kaiah, shoving Vilkas to the side. Njada punched Kaiah in the eye and Vilkas tried to pull Njada off of her. The Nord woman, not realizing it was Vilkas, threw her head back and hit him right in the nose. He tumbled back, holding his hand to his nose and cursing under his breath. Njada looked up, almost horrified that she just hit a member of the Circle. He looked at his hand and saw his blood pooling from his now broken nose. He looked at the two women furiously.

"Vilkas, I-I'm sorry-"

"Shut up!" He yelled, not taking his hand away from his nose, "I don't want to hear another word from either of you! This is not how Companion's behave! Out of the training yard, both of you!"

Njada and Kaiah got up and walked towards the hall, opening and closing the doors as gently as possible. Aela walked over to Vilkas and patted his back rather roughly. "That's going to take a while to heal." Vilkas scoffed as he walked over to a nearby table and tried to wipe the copious amount of blood that was now trickling down the front of his neck. Aela handed him a small healing potion and he drank it quickly, not trying to savor the disgusting and foul tasting contents. He already felt the bleeding stop, and the pain was finally numbed.

It was dinner time and everyone started making their way into the main hall. Kaiah went to walk over to her seat but found that Farkas was already sitting in it. She sighed as she turned around and went to sit in his seat instead, which happened to be in between Vilkas and Athis. She sat down in his chair and started making her plate. Vilkas gave her a weird look and Kaiah noticed. "Your brother stole my seat." Vilkas looked over towards Ria and saw that Farkas was sitting next to her, chatting with the bubbly Imperial. He started preparing his own plate and heard Kaiah ask him a question. "Did Farkas tell you?"

Of course he knew what she was talking about. All of Jorrvaskr undoubtedly knows at this point with how they were behaving today. Vilkas nodded, never taking his eyes off his plate. "I told him it was a bad idea."

Kaiah kept her face expressionless, "Ria seems really happy now." She then let her lips curl into a smile. "Honestly, they look kind of cute together."

Vilkas nearly choked on his food. 'Not Kaiah encouraging it. Am I the only one who sees how wrong this is?' Kaiah looked over at him and examined his face. His nose was more crooked than usual with the broken nose Njada had given him. Kaiah honestly felt a little guilty. But then again, she wasn't the one who headbutted Vilkas in the face.

They continued eating silently and listened to the others' stories. Vilkas was trying to down as much mead as he could, but despite his efforts he could never get drunk. Not with his lycanthropy. Kaiah raised a brow at the Nord. "Gods, if you keep downing mead like that you're going to drop dead." Vilkas took a drink of his mead.

"That's the plan."

Kaiah rolled her eyes and continued eating. She watched Ria and Farkas from a distance, who seemed to be laughing at each other. While Ria was the same age as Kaiah, she didn't have as much experience when it came to romantic relationships. She loved her like a sister, but she had a tendency to be naive at times. Though she realized that Farkas was the same way in some respects. Kaiah just hoped that it would last, whatever they have.

Everyone finished eating and Kaiah was on her way to the women's quarters. She stopped in her tracks though when she accidentally bumped into someone. She looked up and saw Vilkas, who was now in black tunic that he wore underneath armor. His wet hair was slicked back and the dirt and war paint on his face was washed away. He had just taken a bath.

"S-sorry."

Vilkas was about to walk around when she suddenly called out to him. "Wait!" Vilkas stopped and turned around to face her. "I wanted to apologize about what happened." He brushed it off, about to walk away, "It's fine." She walked in front of him and stopped him. "No, no, I mean… I'm sorry for what happened at the party. I was a little drunk and if I said anything or did anything to make you uncomfortable, I'm sorry."

Vilkas looked down at her with widened eyes. She had nothing to apologize for. She was drunk, and he indulged it. If anything, he felt he was at fault. But it took just about every once of his being to not take her and push her against the wall and ravage her like a wild animal. 'What is wrong with me? Why am I having these urges?' He clenched his fists and took a deep breath before exhaling. "It's okay, it was nothing serious." And with that he walked away briskly from the confused Redguard. She didn't understand why he acted so strangely when they were alone.

Kaiah went into their quarters and saw Ria in her nightgown sitting on her bed, brushing her hair. Ria looked up at her friend and smiled. "Kaiah, can you braid my hair tomorrow morning?"

Kaiah leaned against the wooden archway that divided the two parts of the room. "Sure, I suppose. What's the occasion?"

Ria's cheeks grew hot and she looked away, "No occasion."

The suspicious Redguard raised a brow and gave her bubbly friend a questioning look, "What happened to keeping it on the down low?"

"Everyone knows?" Kaiah laughed, "Well, yes! You both aren't exactly subtle with your flirting."

Ria stopped brushing her hair and looked at her friend. "Since tomorrow is our day off, Farkas and I were going to go on a stroll outside the walls." Kaiah sat down next to Ria and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Sounds like fun. And hey, if you're happy, then I'm happy." She then stood up from her bed and went to her dresser to change out of her armor and into her nightgown. She looked at the mirror that was leaning against the wall above her dresser and examined her chest. She noticed the long and dark scars that trailed from her chest to her navel, a gruesome reminder of that terrible night.

She suddenly thought of Vilkas. Her scars reminded her not of him during that fearful night, but of him in the hallway just now. She threw on her nightgown and walked out into the hallway of the living quarters. She went down to the end of the hall and turned right and knocked on the door to Vilkas' room. After a few moments the door opened and she saw Vilkas, still in the clothes she had seen him in earlier. He raised a brow and looked down at her. "Can I help you?"

"Is there something wrong?" She just came right out and said. Although she was by no means afraid or shy around Vilkas. He furrowed his brows and scowled, "Of course not. Now goodnight." As he was shutting the door Kaiah stopped it with her hand. "You have been acting so strangely. It's almost worrisome." He looked down and saw she was wearing nothing but a nightgown. Without her undergarments her breasts were parted to the sides and her nipples were poking through the fabric of the nightgown. Her body was covering every inch of his thoughts, and all he wanted to do was pull her in and take her on his bed.

"I am the last person you need to be worrying about, whelp." 'Arkay take me…'

Kaiah scrunched her nose and glared at him, "There's no need to be acting like a brute. I'm just concerned-"

"Well, maybe you should try just minding your own business for once!" And with that he slammed the door in her face. Kaiah banged on his door. "This is exactly what I'm talking about! Acting like a damned brute!" Vilkas wasn't opening the door so Kaiah let out a scoff and then walked away angrily back to her quarters. Vilkas leaned against the door on the other side, breathing heavily. He felt the crotch of his pants getting tighter and more uncomfortable.

"Gods, what is wrong with me?" He rubbed his face in frustration and fell onto his bed. He needed to keep his distance, that much he knew. But she was always around him, always trying to talk to him. He needed to stay away. For his sake.

And hers.