Late the next morning, activities were disrupted by a loud crash from the war room. Ulfric and Galmar were on their feet but they didn't have to wonder long what had happened.

Kodaav bounded out of the room, a boot held firmly in his jaws and he turned back to the door in a playful bow, his tail wagging. Astaria hobbled out after him, her face red and her hair a mess, her eyes locked almost angrily on the pup.

"Give me the boot Kodaav." She practically growled.

Those nearby who were watching in amazement, took a moment to realise why Astaria was so invested in the boot the pup had, when they saw that she only had one on.

Kodaav just growls playfully back.

"Come on Kodaav, now is not the time for this." Astaria took a slow, cautious step forward.

The pup predicted her lunge and bounces away as she crashes to the floor again, he yaps happily through the boot in his mouth, as Astaria struggles to get to her feet. At that moment, the main door was opened.

"Shut that door!" She yells.

It was too late, Kodaav had noticed and in a flash of white, he was out the door. Cursing, Astaria hoped on one foot for a moment, taking her one boot off before tearing after the pup in bare feet, leaving the room in stunned silence.

"Well, that's not something you see every day." Galmar said, a smile spreading across his face.

"The pups quick, I'll give him that." Ulfric was still staring at the door, unsure of how to react.

"I hope they didn't do any damage to the war room." Galmar moves off to investigate as the room filled with a small amount of nervous laughter, this, after all, was not something they were used to seeing from the Dragonborn.

About an hour later, the door opens and Astaria and Kodaav return, both covered in mud. Kodaav looked very proud of himself, while Astaria was very disgruntled, her boot in hand.

The silence of the room was only broken by Galmar breaking into laughter.

Astaria scowls, mud dripping off her. "Next time, I'll get him to steal your boot."

This doesn't ease the old bear's laughter and he has to sit down to try and control himself. Kodaav yaps happily at her side.

Ulfric found himself grinning too, but he managed not to laugh. "Kodaav beat you, Dragonborn?"

"Out run me until I fell into pile of mud, more so." She says, both of them leaving a trail of mud along the ground as they walked. "Then he jumped in with me to see if I was alright, where I still had to wrestle it off him." Kodaav barks, his tail wagging madly as if he was pleased he had gotten her filthy.

Galmar laughs harder.

Ulfric found himself chuckling now, which earned a very dark glare from her.

"If you don't mind and everyone is done staring, I wish to go and clean up." Astaria had no intention of waiting for a response and stormed away to head upstairs, Kodaav bounding ahead of her.

Laughing, Ulfric follows after her. "Come on Astaria, we all have our moments."

She scowls as she walks up the stairs. "Sure, I know that, but I would much rather that it didn't have to involve me making an ass out of myself."

"It's still no reason to be angry."

"I'm not angry, I'm embarrassed." She glances at him. "Why are you following me anyway?"

"To calm you down."

"I am calm." She stops outside her door, letting Kodaav in, and turns to him. "Once I get cleaned up, I will be fine."

"I also have your other boot." He holds up the one she had unceremoniously thrown off earlier.

"Oh." She holds out her hand. "Thank you."

But he doesn't hand it back over. "Why did he have your boot anyway?"

Astaria sighs. "I get the feeling he was annoyed with me for going on patrol without him. That wolf is too intelligent for his own good."

"He is." Ulfric agrees. "You've been teaching him well."

"Not well enough obviously." She goes to take her boot, but Ulfric moves it away. "Ulfric, may I have my boot please? I'm all muddy and would like very much to go and get clean."

"I'm not stopping you."

She stares up at him and sees his amusement at her condition. "You're enjoying this."

He feigns surprise. "Of course not. Why would I enjoy seeing you in such a distressed state?"

Astaria's eyes narrowed. Two could play that game. She steps closer, trying to get her boot, and he moves it away again, so she takes another step, almost pressing herself into him.

"Please Ulfric." She looks up at him through her lashes and he was taken back for just a moment.

But the moment was all she needed, grabbing the front of and pulling his mouth to hers. He grunts in surprise and automatically goes to grab her, but this was what she had wanted, snatching her boot away and dancing back to her door, a wide grin on her face.

"Thank you." She giggles and quickly ducks into her room, shutting the door, and leaving him there a little stunned.

He couldn't believe she'd just done that, wiping his mouth, it came away with mud and he found himself laughing.

"You win that one." He says to her door.

"You asked for it." She laughed through her door.

Laughing to himself, he turns to his own room to clean off the mud.

Astaria returned a few hours later, Kodaav happily walking ahead of her, his white coat gleaming. She walked straight to the table, sitting down heavily and piling food onto her plate, ignoring the amused stares she was receiving. Kodaav whined next to her until she gives him some meat.

"Glad to see you cleaned up Dragonborn." Galmar says, not hiding the amusement in his voice.

"You do know that I could order Kodaav to follow you around all day." She says lightly. "And he would quite happily oblige."

Galmar snorts. "Try me."

Her mouth twists into a half grin, but she just continues eating in silence and Ulfric knew, even from where he was sitting, that she had no intention of just letting it slide.

Once she was done, she retreats out to the courtyard, Ulfric wishing he could follow but he was stuck in a meeting, so he knew he was simply going to have to wait.

Outside, Astaria had decided she was going to start to teach Kodaav how to attack. He was only young, but he was growing quickly, and she knew that if was going to follow her around as he did, he was going to have to learn to attack.

So, using the training dummy, she starts to teach him.

He was over enthusiastic about it all to say the least, growling and tugging at the dummy until bits of straw were falling out. She stood for a moment, knowing that this may not have been the initial best course of action.

"Alright Kodaav, praal." Kodaav sits, his tail wagging, and she smiles, glad he was getting used to Dragon speech as well as English. She'd decided not long after she first trained him that it was going to be better for him to know both.

She rests a hand on her chest. "Alright, start with the basics. Attack." He looks at her confused, she hits her chest. "Jump." She pulls a chunk of meat out of her pouch and holds it level with her chest. "Iidah. Thral."

Kodaav looks nervous for a moment, she was using the same order she had on the dummy, but he had been biting and ripping it, something he didn't want to do to his master.

Astaria realised this. "Hmm, okay." She walks over to the dummy and tugs at the hole. "Bite. Fiit." Then walks back to where she was and taps her chest again. "Jump. Thral."

He seems to understand this a little better and stands on his feet, waiting. Bracing herself for what was going to no doubt be a very painful hit, she nods.

Kodaav leaps and slams into her chest. The wind rushes out of her but she doesn't land entirely on her back, instead falling on her bottom, the wolf landing on her lap.

She laughs and gives him the piece of meat, ruffling his fur. "Good, just make sure you don't hurt yourself."

Kodaav licked her cheek and bounces off, his tail wagging.

She continued until he got bored and switched it to other orders, such as bite (practised on the dummy), dodge (using the wooden sword for the moment), and scare (something proved more difficult than she thought). She was in the middle of getting him used to being aggressive with her when Ulfric walked out.

She didn't notice at first, crouched low, staring at Kodaav, her armour a bit scuffed from ending up on the ground, and she was frustratingly trying to get him to do it again.

"Come on Kodaav. Scare. Gefaas." And he just growled at her, his ears back and she sighs. "Well, it's a start I guess." She throws him another bit of meat.

Ulfric watches calmly as she stretches, still not noticing him there, and he leans against the door, having no intention of letting her know.

"Alright, one more of each, then you can have a bone." She says and he yaps happily.

Readying herself with the wooden sword, she starts.

"Gefass." He leans low, his ears back, and growls.

"Unviig." She leaps, swinging the sword down and he leaps out of the way.

"Fiit." He turns to the dummy and rushes it, biting it and ripping it even further apart.

"Thral." Kodaav turns and pelts at her full speed and she doesn't brace herself enough, both flying to the ground as he leaps and collides with her.

She groans but laughs as Kodaav rights himself and starts to lick her face, whining apologetically.

"It's alright, it's alright." She rubs his ears affectionately. "Good work." She then notices Ulfric standing there, watching with an amused expression, and blushes. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to see that remarkable performance." He says with a grin, walking over to her and helping her up. "Don't you think he's still a bit young?"

"Maybe, but he's doing well." She brushes herself down. "Anyway, he's got to learn some time." Kodaav was sniffing around her, his tail wagging and looking at her expectantly. "Alright, here." She pulls a bone out of the same bag and he jumps up and takes it before she give it to, happily moving away to a corner, laying down and starting to chew on it.

Ulfric laughs. "Well, at least he knows what he wants."

"Patience isn't his strong suit yet." She mumbles, shaking her head. "I hope that will come as he gets older."

He looks at her as she watches the young wolf with affection, and grins. "By the way, I still owe you."

Her eyes meet his with surprise. "For wha-"

He grabs her and kisses her hard, a shocked mumble leaving her mouth, but Ulfric has no intention of kissing her long, his leg hooking around her foot and he steps away, sending her crashing back to the floor.

Astaria glares up at him, her face flushed. "What was that for?"

"The muddy kiss earlier." He laughs. "Do you have any idea how distracting that was?"

"That was the idea." She grumbles, standing and brushing herself down again, and she noticed Kodaav watching them with interest, but when he sees her watching, he goes back to chewing his bone.

Ulfric had grabbed the second wooden sword, still smiling. "Come on, your turn to practice."

Scowling and silently swearing to herself she would get him back for this, she readies her own sword.

They spent the next several hours practising, Astaria trying again and again, unsuccessfully, to disarm Ulfric, what frustrated her more, was that he knew what she was trying to do, and had great delight in telling her so. His grin was usually quickly taken away when she landed yet another bruising hit, she couldn't disarm him, but she could get around his defences.

It was only as night was falling, that they stopped, both sweaty and out of breath, and taking a seat next to each other on the only bench in the yard.

Ulfric was grinning. "You're getting better at least."

She grunts in response, running a hand through her hair to pull it back, somehow coming untied in the midst of their fighting, she was going to tie it loosely back when she found his hands in the way. "Ulfric-"

"Shush." He gently pushes her hands out of the way and lets his fingers run through her hair. Astaria stills as his fingers continue to brush, not entirely sure of what to make of it. "Do you know how frustrating your hair is?"

Astaria raises an eyebrow. "How can hair being frustrating? I mean, apart from when it gets ridiculously messy."

"Because I always want to touch it." He says softly and starts braiding it. "And up until recently, I haven't been allowed to."

She looks back at him, a little confused. "It is just hair."

Ulfric just hums, finishing the braid, taking the tie off her and tying it around the end before letting it go, the braid sitting neatly down to her shoulders. He meets her eye, smiling, and she looks away blushing.

"Still just hair." She mumbles.

He was confused by her reaction for a moment, until a thought occurred to him. "You've never received a compliment before, have you?"

She purposefully avoids his questioning stare. "Of course I have, not very often but-"

He grabs her chin and forces her to look at him, his eyes concerned. "Astaria…what exactly did those women tell you growing up?"

Astaria stands, walking away, her arms wrapping around herself. "It doesn't matter."

"Of course it bloody matters," He growls, following her. "Astaria, I'll be damned if we are not going to talk about this. You told me at the ball that they had been troublesome for you growing up, now what bullshit have they been feeding you?"

"Please Ulfric, I don't want to talk about it."

But he turns her to face him. "If we don't now, I get the feeling you will ever talk about it. Please Astaria, you know you can trust me."

She avoids his eye. "I was told that I would never be desirable, alright? Its part of the reason I kept running away from…from this. Between my height, my hair and my damned eye colour, I was always told that I wouldn't be wanted, and it wasn't just those two, my father always used to complain about how hard it would be to find someone for me, he always-"

Ulfric stops her, seeing that anger and tears building up as she talks and she glares at him.

"You wanted to know." She snapped angrily and tried to break free from his grasp.

"I know, but I certainly was not expecting that." He said gently, not letting her go. "Astaria…you do realise that none of those things matter to me?"

"And that's just supposed to make up for years' worth of hurt is it?" She wasn't giving up but she was refusing to let the tears fall.

"No." He admitted. "But I'll be damned if I'm not going to live every day without telling you that you are beautiful, even once you believe it, I am going to keep telling you, and I hope that my word will definitely end up meaning more than all of them." She stills as he says this, her amber eyes meeting his. "I say these things because I mean them, not because I want you to feel insecure."

Biting her lip, she looks away again, unsure of how to respond.

He frowns, but instead, pulls her tightly into him, making her whimper slightly. "Astaria…" He sighs and instead just rests his head on hers, shutting his eyes.

Astaria returns the embrace, allowing herself a moment of weakness as she rests against him. "Thank you Ulfric." She mumbles.

"You will never feel unwanted or undesirable with me, I promise." He said softly. "I don't care how long it takes, I will make you believe it."

They stayed like that, well until nightfall, not wanting to move. It was only until Kodaav came over and nudged them that they did, holding hands briefly until they walked inside.

As winter started to die off over the next few weeks, Astaria and Ulfric's relationship was kept very secret, any moment between them was made sure that there was no one else around, usually in the courtyard. Even then they had to be careful, as Galmar had a habit of bursting out the door, so most moments were brief, a few kisses or Ulfric unashamedly keeping his promise, often leaving her blushing furiously, which always left a grin on his face.

In public however, they were only seen as Commander and soldier, but even this happened in small amounts, Astaria taking patrols further and further away, even though Ulfric did not agree. They'd shared a few arguments on the matter, but she'd insisted until he'd relented, his comfort now, was that Kodaav was joining her and he was now somewhat trained to fight, the wolf having grown a lot more in the short time, although, he still had a fair way to go before he would be fully grown.

She'd at least relented on not going on night patrols as often.

It was a cold night when Ulfric found himself awakening from an old nightmare, groaning as he stared up the ceiling. He'd been sleeping better since they'd started their relationship, but some nights he still followed his old habits of thinking too much or, as he was now, awakening from ridiculous dreams.

He sits, rubbing his face in frustration and wondering what he could do to now pass the time, when there was a soft knock on his door.

Frowning, he wonders who would be bothering him at this time of night. "Come in." He grunts.

The door opens and Astaria steps in, looking half asleep herself.

"Astaria, what-?"

"I couldn't sleep." She mumbles, shutting the door behind her and walking over to the bed.

He watches, stunned, as she climbed in next to him, it was completely different from the shy self she had shown him this whole time. "Astaria…"

But she just laid down, looking at him through half asleep eyes, but as he looked, he realised she wasn't half asleep, she was asleep, her eyes unfocused on him.

"You're sleep walking." He said, amazed.

Her eyes sink shut for a moment. "What's for breakfast?"

Ulfric laughs softly but nervously, unsure of what to do. He had no doubt that if he laid with her, it would be difficult to explain in the morning, but then, if he moved her and she awoke, wouldn't that be even harder?

Astaria mumbles, her eyes drifting shut again, and he decides that the first would be easier to explain, no matter the consequence, so he lies down next to her. Almost automatically, she moves and snuggles into him and he can't help but smile as she starts to breathe deeply, sleep properly taking her again. Accepting it, he cuddles her and finds too, that sleep takes him again.

Astaria awoke first the next morning and it takes her a long moment to realise that she wasn't in her room. Once she'd realised that, it took her even longer to realise that there was an arm wrapped around her.

Blinking, she tries to make sense of it, tries to understand what had happened when she clearly remembered going to sleep in her own bed.

Whoever's arm was wrapped around her, moved, and a sigh tickled the back of her neck. Without even thinking, she freaked out, and moved as quickly as she could to get out the bed, landing hard on the floor with a yelp.

There is a grunt from the bed as Ulfric wakes up, having been disturbed by her sudden movement and loud yelp.

"What are you doing?" He mumbles sleepily.

Astaria gets to her feet, her face bright red with embarrassment. "Ulfric?"

He rolls onto his back, rubbing his eyes. "Who did expect?"

She looks around the room and she realises that it is his, her face turning an even darker shade of red. "What….what am I doing in here?"

"You were sleepwalking." He said with a yawn. "You just walked in and lied down."

She stares at him in disbelief. "I've never sleep walked before…" He just shrugs, resting his hands behind his head in another yawn. It was then she realised that he had no shirt on and her eyes took in his bare chest, almost slowly, the blankets having been pushed down as she'd moved.

He notices out of the corner of his eye and smirks. "You're lucky I decided to wear pants tonight."

It was only because he wasn't looking at her properly that he missed the brief flash of anger in her eyes, but next thing he knew, he got hit very hard in the face with a pillow.

He grunts as it hits him and quickly pushes it off his face with a frown. "What was that for?" He asked, slightly angry.

Astaria folds her arm. "I hardly find it an appropriate time to be joking."

Ulfric props himself up on one elbow to look at her. "So your solution was to throw a pillow at me?"

"It was the easiest thing in reach." She said, still standing her ground, although she knew how ridiculous it was. "Now, can we please-"

But she found herself ducking as he threw the pillow back at her, and she looks at him stunned, but seeing the amusement in his eyes, she smirks.

"You've got to be quicker than that to hit me."

The next few minutes were spent throwing pillows at each other, Ulfric discovering just how quick on her feet she was, not a single pillow hitting, while she got him more than a few times, it didn't help that he remained on the bed.

She was laughing as she dodged yet another one, and stuck her tongue out at him playfully as he aimed another. They only had two pillows, but she usually waited till he had thrown both before picking them up.

He threw the second one, a tad high so she had to duck, distracting her attention away from him. As she came up laughing, a small scream left her throat as he suddenly grabbed her around her waist and pulled her back onto the bed.

"This isn't fair." She giggled, finding herself on her back.

"Neither was waiting till I had thrown both pillows." He growled playfully above her. "But that didn't stop you."

"I wasn't raised to fight fair." She said through a grin, glad to see the joy on his face. "And it still didn't stop you throwing both each time, did it?"

"No, but then my plan wouldn't have worked."

"What plan?"

"To get you back here so I could kiss you." And he closes the distance, pressing his lips to hers.

Astaria makes a small noise of appreciation her hands reaching up into his hair, the kisses light at first, causing to giggle occasionally. Ulfric was smiling into the kisses, unable to help himself.

Her hands lightly tug at his hair and he groans, deepening the kiss, silencing the giggles into a needy moan. They kiss until they both need to breathe, but it becomes only a brief pause, hungrily continuing the kisses. Ulfric's hands slowly and gently moved down her body, her shirt only light, and she shivered under his touch.

He breaks the kiss, only to move along her jaw, she sighs lost in the moment, tilting her head away so he can start to kiss down her throat, something he gladly does, his beard tickling her throat.

It wasn't until his hands crept under her shirt that Astaria entirely registered what was happening, gasping as his tongue joined increasingly heavy kisses, and she stirred uncomfortably.

"Ul…Ulfric." She managed to get out.

He grunts in response, preoccupied with exploring her throat and stomach, his thumb running along the scar leading up from her belly button, causing her to shudder.

"S-st-stop." She gasped.

Groaning, he pulls away, looking down at her, his face slightly flushed and his eyes filled with desire. "What's wrong?"

Astaria greatly resists the urge make a noise at the sound of his voice, something she normally enjoyed listening to anyway, but gravelled with desire made her want to hear it a lot more.

"N-nothing." She says softly, staring up at him.

He frowns in confusion, her face flushed a lot more than his, and the desire also evident in her eyes, but something had clearly made her want to stop. "Astaria…if nothing is wrong, you would not have asked me to stop."

She swallows hard, desperately ignoring the response of her own body to the sound of her name on his lips. "I…" Embarrassment welled up then, suddenly realising she had no idea of how to say what she wanted to. "Um…I…can't…not yet at least…I just…"

Ulfric watched as the embarrassment flushed her face further and she bit heavily into her lip and avoided his gaze. But he understood. "You are a maiden?"

Her face practically turns scarlet and she nods once. He can't help but grin at her response, shaking his head in silent laughter.

Astaria notices and looks at him. "What? I don't think it's funny."

"It's not." He reaches up and brushes her hair away from her face. "I had already assumed as much, but the way you are treating is as if it is such a big deal."

"It is, isn't it?" Now she was confused, and already feeling ridiculous, it made her sound more irritated than what she was.

Ulfric seems to think for a moment, his fingers still lightly brushing through her hair. "No? Either way, I would have done nothing until you wanted to." His blue-grey eyes meet hers, filled with nothing but kindness and understanding. "There is nothing to be ashamed about Astaria."

"I…I'm not ashamed." She mumbles, looking away. "I'm just…just…"

"Astaria, look at me." She looks back at him. "Nothing until you want to, alright? Nothing until you are completely comfortable with it." He said it with conviction and saw her relax slightly.

"O-okay."

He kisses her lightly on the lips and rolls over, lying flat on his back next to her, shutting his eyes with a sigh. Astaria feels slightly lonely without him suddenly there and looks at him, he was breathing deeply. She rolls over, draping her arm over his chest and resting her head on his arm, he opens one eye for a moment to look at her, before one arm rests around her and the other sits on her arm over him.

"One step at a time, that's all it has to be." He says quietly.

"Just as long as that means we don't have to get out of bed yet." She mumbles, causing him to smile.

"I think I deserve a sleep in."

"That makes two of us."