Hello, readers. It's me again. After posting multiple chapters in one day to help you catch up with the story not long ago on AO3, I've decided that it's about time that I write Chapter 10. I could always use more comments, whether it's on ff net or AO3. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Reviews are love!

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Chapter 10: One Night In Whiterun

Shame warily glanced at the Dremora. Without thinking, the priest put his arms around the Dragonborn, holding her in a protective manner. Said Dremora let out a dark chuckle and said, "Scared, mortal?"

"Edrian fears neither man, nor mer, nor Daedra." Rosette said firmly. "If he wanted to, he could blow you away with just one spell."

"Hush, Rosette." Shame said with a note of fondness in his voice. "I won't be blowing anyone away today."

"It's just as good." Rosette sighed. "If you slew anyone in here, we'd probably have to stay here longer."

"Smart girl." Meris said dryly. "Same thing would happen if I picked the lock."

"You can pick the lock?" Sparkticus questioned.

"Yep." Meris replied, popping the 'p' at the end of the word. "I never go anywhere without at least one lockpick hidden in my clothes."

"So were's stuck here until the guards see fit to let us out." Sparkticus mused.

"Unless Lost-In-The-Forest bails us out, which seems unlikely to happen." Meris added. She looked at the pair in the other cell. "Looks like we're roomies until then."

"Delightful." Rosette grumbled.

"Rosette, behave." Shame said fondly.

The Dragonborn looked up at the Bosmer and took in his amber eyes. "Fine." She said with a smile.

As she took in his face, she finally saw the signs of aging that she hadn't noticed as a child. She noticed the laugh lines around his mouth and the traces of crow's feet at the edges of his eyes. She saw the worry lines on his forehead. For the first time in her life, it truly struck her how much older the middle-aged Altmer was than her. She also realized that even with the signs of aging that showed on his face, she still thought that he was one of the most handsome males she had ever met. Definitely in the top three, she thought. His amber eyes met her hazel eyes and he smiled at her. Rosette quickly looked down to hide the fact that she was blushing. By the Eight, what was wrong with her? Even if he were an Imperial, he'd still be more than twice her age. She buried her face in his tunic. If he were to ever seek out a female to court, she thought, he'd want a woman, not a girl. Wait a minute, she thought as she tightly fisted the Altmer's tunic. She was nineteen years old. She was a woman grown. But still, she thought as she loosened her hold, Edrian probably still viewed her in the same manner that he had when she was twelve. She was probably just a silly girl to him. She took a shy glance up at him and he gave her that smile, the one that she remembered him reserving especially for her. It was an open, sincere smile that showed that to him, she wasn't just a random, stupid Imperial. She was different. She was special to him. She still was and probably always would be. She couldn't help but return a shy smile. She heard the Dremora groan from the other cell and say, "Could you two quit it with the goo-goo eyes and just fuck already? I won't watch. You have my word on it."

Rosette felt the Altmer tense up when the Bosmer female grinned and said, "I can't make that promise."

"That's highly inappropriate." Shame said stiffly.

"Fiiiine!" the Bosmer huffed. She propped herself back against the wall and grinned at the duo. "I'm Meris." She introduced herself and gestured towards the Dremora. "This is Sparkticus."

"They call me Shame." the white-blonde Altmer said. "The Imperial girl is Rosette."

Rosette tried not to look upset when Edrian referred to her as a 'girl'. The Dremora gave them a once-over and lazily drawled, "Charmed."

"I can't believe this." Shame sighed. "I'm trapped in a cell near a Dremora and a salacious Bosmer."

"It could be worse, big guy." Meris said with a mischievous smirk.

"Dare I ask, how could it get worse?" Rosette asked.

"You could be watching someone else fuck." Meris replied.

Sparkticus let out a hearty chuckle, which sounded more menacing than amused. Rosette adjusted her position so she could glare at the duo. "Pervs." she muttered under her breath.

"What did I do in this life to deserve such punishment?" Shame whispered in Rosette's ear. He thought about it for a second before adding, "Oh, right. Now I remember."

"Thalmor stuff?" Rosette whispered back.

"Basically." Shame said sheepishly. "Subterfuge, blackmail, money laundering, bribing politicians, influencing public opinion with propaganda, providing legal representation to corrupt officials who have done unspeakable deeds. That sort of thing."

"Are you saying that in addition to being a wizard, you also unscrupulously manipulated politics from behind the scenes and you were a stereotypically amoral lawyer?" Rosette said, her voice nearly inaudible.

"Basically." a sheepish Shame whispered. "I drew the line at political assassinations, though. I'm not proud of it, but I had arranged for someone to take the fall if everything went to Oblivion. Plausible deniability."

"Oh Divines, you didn't!" Rosette whispered, alarm clear in her voice.

"It never came to that." Shame reassured her. "You have my word. It may not be worth much now that you know how much of a scumbag I was back then, but I swear to you, those days are behind me."

Rosette was silent for a moment before she finally whispered, "I believe you."

Shame frowned as he looked away from Rosette. She had always seen the good in people and treated them with kindness, even if they didn't deserve it. Stendarr knows he didn't. To quote one of the politicians he had blackmailed out of office, he had been an amoral fuck with a heart the size of a flea. Still, somehow the young Imperial had eventually found her way into his whithered heart. He remembered the day he first met her. It was a day that he would never forget. He also remembered the day when he first became a mentor to her. Back then, she worshipped the very ground he walked on. Shame shook his head. He hadn't deserved her respect. He still didn't. He heard Rosette speak up. "Hello? Tamriel to Edrian!"

"Sorry." He apologized. "I was just thinking."

Meris walked over to Sparkticus, who was sitting on the bed. She sat down next to him and muttered, "They're still cuddling. They totally dig each other."

"I know." Sparkticus replied. "It's disgusting, isn't it?"

"You won't catch me doing that with anyone." Meris huffed. "I am never, ever falling in love with anyone!"

"Likewise" Sparkticus said with an amused smirk. "I don't think either of us is capable of love."

"Yeah, fuck love." Meris said with a grin. "There's no way that some dumb bitch is going to find her way into that little black heart of yours and I'm too much of a cynical bitch for anything other than one night stands and fuck buddies."

"What are we, then?" Sparkticus asked, amusement clear in his voice. "Am I one of your 'fuck buddies'?"

"Nah!" Meris replied with a grin. She then gave him a pat on the bicep and said, "You and me, we're friends with benefits."

"We would have to be friends first." Sparkticus snarked.

The thief gave the Dremora a light punch on the arm, more of a firm tap than anything else. "You bastard." She said with a grin. "You know that you like me."

"I will neither confirm nor deny that statement." Sparkticus shot an evil grin at the Bosmer.

Meris rolled her eyes. She knew that Sparkticus liked her. He wouldn't put up with her sass otherwise. She leaned against his side and said, "Welp, it looks like we have some waiting to do." She looked into the other cell, over at the Altmer and the Imperial. They weren't going to do it now, but they were going to do it eventually.

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Shame woke up to the sound of singing. He looked over into the other cell to see that it was the Bosmer who was belting out a song. "One night in Whiterun and the world's your oyster! The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free! You'll find a god in every golden cloister! A little flesh, a little history! I can feel a Daedra sliding up to me!"

Shame groaned and said, "Could you please stop that?"

Meris simply grinned wickedly at him and continued. "One night in Whiterun makes a hard mer humble! Not much between despair and ecstacy! One night in Whiterun makes the tough guys tumble! Can't be too careful with your company! I can feel a Daedra walking up to me!"

Sparkticus simply chuckled and said, "You're an idiot."

"Says the guy who punched a messenger for calling me Morris." Meris snickered.

"He was annoying me anyway." Sparkticus said defensively.

"Does she know any other songs?" Rosette asked.

Shame groaned audibly and Meris grinned evilly. "I do have one." the Bosmer replied.

"What is it?" Rosette inquired.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, prepare for this sad, sad song." Meris grinned before she burst into song. "Nice to meet you, where you been? I could show you incredible things. Magic, madness, drinking, sin. Saw you there and I thought, oh Divines, look at your face! you look like my next mistake! Life's a game, want to play? New armor, sword and slice, I can read you like a newsletter. Ain't it funny, it's the truth, and you'll know that I am better. So hey, let's go drink. I'm dying to know what you think. Grab your brandy, turn your tail. The good boys try to turn me good, but they will fail."

"Oh, for the love of Stendarr!" Shame groaned.

The priest massaged his temples. Morning couldn't come soon enough.

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At last, they had made it through the night in one piece. Once again, Rosette had made her way into Shame's lap and fallen asleep there. He heard the sound of footsteps and one the guards walked to the door of their cell. "How long will we stay here?" Shame asked.

Rosette began to stir before sitting up and looking at the guard. "Normally, you'd be here for a week." the man said. He then pointed at the Bosmer and the Dremora and said, "They'll be in here for another day." He looked at Shame and Rosette and continued, "You got lucky, though. Someone posted your bail."

The guard then let the pair out. When they got to the center of Whiterun, they immediately figured out who had bailed them out. The Khajiit female folded her arms over her chest and said, "You are lucky that the world needs saving, otherwise Izeera would leave you there for what you did." She paused for a moment and asked, "What did you do?"

"I punched Heimskr." Rosette replied. "He called Edrian a pervert."

"Oh." Izeera replied. "Izeera thinks that you shouldn't have been arrested, then. You were doing the public a service. Izeera knows that many of them wanted to punch him, too."

"Right." Rosette said. "Well, let's go. We have a world to save."

With that said, the three of them retrieved Hildegard from the Bannered Mare and left Whiterun, heading off to their next destination.

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"Welp," Meris said, "Looks like the man has stuck it to us again."

"I blame your singing." Sparkticus snarked.

"Maybe it's your fault." the thief snarked back. "Your farts smell like brimstone."

"Mortal, Dremora do not fart." the Dremora said with a frown. "We emit the bitter aroma of concentrated wrath from our posteriors."

"You make wrathy butt-burps." Meris said with a shrug. "I once knew a guy who did so much skooma that smelling his farts gave you a contact high."

"It sounds as if you once associated with an unsavory crowd." Sparkticus remarked.

"I still do." the Bosmer shrugged once more. "I've gotten into the habit of having sex with a Dremora."

"You consider me to be 'unsavory', then?" the Dremora said with a hint of amusement in his deep voice.

"I'm not one to talk." Meris said. "I was the best thief in Markarth, so I'm defined as unsavory. You're a Daedra, so you are by definition unsavory. The Argonian with tits that could frighten a dragon is merely unsavory by association."

"That's big talk for someone with small breasts." Sparkticus said.

"Hey, they're more than enough for you." Meris retorted. "At least I don't have to wear a magic, gravity-defying brassiere like your master."

"They are pretty huge." the shirtless Dremora admitted.

"At least she's thick." the Bosmer said with a smile. "She has an itty bitty waist and a big ol' bubble butt, nice hips, and thighs with plenty of meat on them. Not fat, but also not skinny. She's got hella curves to hold onto, you know? If I were into women, I'd be like, daaaamn!"

"I've never really noticed." Sparkticus said with a shrug.

"Well, it's true." Meris also shrugged. She then laughed and said, "Farengar is probably staring at her lovely lady lumps as we speak."

"He's staring at my what, now?"

Sparkticus and Meris quickly turned to see the Argonian in question looking at them with an indignant expression on her face and her hands resting on her ample hips. "Oh, hello, Lost-In-The-Forest!" Meris said with false cheer. "What are you doing here?"

"I can't believe I'm doing this," the conjurer replied, "but I'm bailing you two idiots out. I decided that one night was enough."

One of the guards let Sparkticus and Meris out of the cell. The Dremora folded his arms over his chest and said, "I hope you have my armor and sword."

"The guards have it." Lost-In-The-Forest replied. "You can get it on the way out."

Meris gave Sparkticus' broad-shouldered, muscular form one last ogle. It was a good thing that he looked almost as sexy in that Daedric armor of his as he did out of it. With that thought out of her mind, she followed her companions out to retrieve Sparkticus' gear. After that, they would return to their search for Neema's killer.

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Extra points to anyone who can figure out which songs I parody-fied.