A/N: So hi again! Haha, I'm so super happy from all the reveiws on the last chapter made me so happy! Teehee! I was all like squeeeeee! People love me again! This is the result! I get uber happy to type and this kinda semi longish short chapter! I was originally gunna make it only about 800 words, but poof! It's 2,500! xD Thank you so much for all those reviews! I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Lvl34potato: I'm so happy you like them! honestly I'd love to maul that brat -.- and I couldn't help picturing Shadowmere kinda looking like Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji. Perhaps not quite so lean though. I'm glad you like the idea of the short-long chapters!

Teddy bear 007: Teehee, I'm glad you love her personaility that much! I'm still working on yours, I'm kinda combining two idea on your prompt that I had, so it's taking a little while to peice it together but I promise I haven't forgotten!

mrsmiawallace88: I'mm glad you love her! Don't try to steal her from Ulfric though! He gets mean.

lita2extreme: I'm sorry about your net and comp! I've missed your reviews! I was like, no no! Did I lose lita?! Happy to see you're around! And I kinda wanna do more happy time parts, I probably will with your idea, it's absolutely adorable and is something Koudelka and Ulfric would totally do xD Oh lord. Maybe that'll be my next short chapter, but it's gunna have lots of good times. I'm still kinda not too confident in my lemon skills, but I'll try my best for my lovely readers! (Goes on non-stop tangent)

Metal Strike: This is very true! She is teh unstoppable Koudelka! Unless Ulfric has his hands on her. She's too tiny to get out of his grasp without some foulplay.

Disclaimer: Don't own, blah blah blah.

Chapter Prompts from Katschaba! I didn't forget!

1: Snow

2: Horse

3: Roof

Important Notes for This Chapter:

No number notes, but this is before they're together. It's kinda like the beginning of her starting to actually like him. Their relationship wasn't always sunshine and rainbows xD I'll get into that in another chapters, perhaps.

And also, (slight spoiler come back and read after they find their shelter for the night) The place I imagine them in is just like a big Dwemer machine parts room. Sometimes the have bits of glass cieling if it's high enough. Enjoy!

Chapter Rating: K. Nothing bad happens

It wasn't as though harsh winter storms were something foreign to the frozen terrain of Skyrim, although they always seemed to be colder than the last. No, it was that getting stuck out in the wilderness in the middle of said storms was bad. Very bad. However, this wasn't the first time Koudelka had been stuck out in a harsh winter storm. The one detail that was making this trip miserable was the man next to her.

Ulfric Stormcloak.

While the woman undeniably fought for the Stormcloaks, there were innumerable factors about their leader she couldn't stand. Regardless whether it was the current war on saving the Nord race from rule of the Aldmeri Dominion or not, the man was far too much of a racist towards Elves and Imperials who were just trying to make an innocent living in the land. Furthermore the man always had this damned smirk on his face that she would just love to-

Deep breath.

Something strange happened next.

See, the thing about Dwemer ruins is that, well, their architects were dead. So, there was no one to keep up with the housework. Sure as Sithis the Falmer weren't doing it. Which means if you were to happen to step on a frozen skylight with a heavy footfall (as if you were in a completely hypothetical snowstorm) you'd likely fall right through.

Which Koudelka did with a small yelp of surprise.

'Figures.' She twisted to land on her feet.

When Ulfric heard the distinct crystalline shatter of glass behind him, he feared for his silent and spiteful comrade. He whipped around just as Shadowmere brayed in a startled panic, hoofing at the quickly accumulating snow near an inky black hole. The Jarl quickly knelt down by the hole.

"Koudelka!"

"I'm fine. Damn skylights in these stupid subterranean ruins!" He heard a loud crash, which he presumed was her kicking or shoving something metal out of anger.

The Nord male thought for a moment before glancing up towards the sky. "How far is the drop? The storm is getting pretty bad; we may as well camp in there instead of out here." Ulfric offered, an odd sense of strong relief at her well being filling him.

"It's only about ten feet," she addressed Shadowmere next, "let Ulfric take off our supplies and head back to your realm until I resummon you." Ulfric sent to the task of stripping the Deadric beast of supplies.

When Ulfric jumped into the old ruins, Koudelka assumed the man would be half frozen from how bad the storm had become while he was tossing their tack and supplies down to her. She glared lightly to see the man wasn't even slightly chilled.

"You work fast." He commented, nodding once towards the rather large fire she had started.

"You work slowly." Koudelka retorted, nodding mockingly towards their gear. She saw the man sigh in exasperation and chose to ignore the noise. Ulfric tossed her one of the two bedrolls carelessly, maybe slightly upset, which she caught and set up close to the fire.

"You know, if you sleep too close to the pit you may roll into it overnight." He muttered in a light jest, laying his own makeshift bed just within the fire's heat.

She huffed and glanced lightly at him, settling to sit on her bedroll before drawing her knees up to her chest. "I don't know how you don't freeze in this weather." Her sentence was involuntarily emphasized with a shiver she had been trying to suppress. Unfortunately for her it didn't escape the older man's eye.

He stared at her for a moment curiously, as if he didn't believe the assassin was chilled enough to shiver. "I'm a Nord... As are you." Ulfric stated the last part in an almost questioning voice.

"Yeah, well I have my suspicions about that..." She trailed off and rubbed her arms slightly, hugging her knees closer to her body. The Jarl slowly stepped towards the fire, settling down on the floor close to the woman's bedroll.

"Well surely you could answer any questions by thinking to your mother and father." He offered, leaning back against the wall of debris behind him.

"Tch. You think I haven't tried that? I can't recall a single memory before Helgen. I'm rather lucky I managed to fish my name out before they tried to cut my head off." Koudelka glanced away and pouted behind her cowl.

"Take off your cowl." Came the soft murmur. She looked at Ulfric as if he had asked her to strip.

"Excuse me? Why?" He chuckled at the look of panic in her eyes, waving his hand dismissively.

"Certain races have certain tributes. Perhaps I can tell by seeing you." Ulfric suggested, shrugging lightly. He would admit it was slight curiosity to see Koudelka's face, but also honest intentions to aid in discovering her heritage. She canted her head, tempted to ignore him.

But as per usual her curiosity got the better of her. Maybe if she knew... She could figure out where she came from? It's always been something that bothered her.

"... Fine." Koudelka slipped her fingers under her hood to quickly slip it off over her head, figuring the faster she got over exposing her face to a man she disliked, the faster she could hide again. She undid the messy bun her hair was in to allow the blonde locks to cascade over her shoulders, catching the light of the fire. The assassin clenched the tie in her fist and glared lightly at Ulfric.

Said man stared at her face for a moment, surprised at the unexpected work of the gods she kept hidden before he sighed softly and shook his head, moving to kneel in front of Koudelka. "You shouldn't hate me so much so silently. At least tell me what your dilemma is with me…" He trailed off and grasped her chin gently between his somehow warm fingers, tilting her head slightly. She surprised herself by not flinching.

"What causes you to believe I have any issues with you?" She questioned, striving to make this conversation as difficult for him as possible.

"Oh, I'm not completely sure about it," he ran the pads of his thumbs over her cheekbones, and Koudelka unexpectedly blushed at the contact making herself almost mortified at the heat in her cheeks, "although it might be all the glares, the mocking, the attitude, the distance, the venom in your eyes, just perhaps." If the man noticed the blush, he showed no sign of it, much to her relief. Ulfric busied himself with the texture of her hair next, not even attempting to catch her evasive eyes.

"Maybe if you weren't quite so raciest against innocents in this land maybe I wouldn't dislike you as much." Koudelka whispered, confused at her desperate mental pleas for the man to stop touching her all the while wanting him to continue.

Much to her relief and disappointment he stopped and pet her on the head teasingly, a soft smile on his face. "You seem completely Nord, Koudelka. Maybe you're just a runt."

He evaded her aggressive punch with a laugh, falling back onto his back. She couldn't help the slightly victorious smirk that crossed her features.

"And I'm not raciest," Ulfric sat up slightly to lean on his elbows, "It's just difficult to trust people, especially Elves and Imperials when anyone of them could be a spy, an assassin, a traitor…" He trailed off and met her gaze.

"For all I know you could be one."

At first Koudelka was offended by his accusation, furrowing her brows lightly before she understood the meaning of the words.

"Yet you're willing to turn your back to me, trust me, and sleep in my presence?" He nodded and sat up completely, resting one arm on his bent knee.

"Yes, because ever since I first turned my back to you, you have made no violent actions towards me. You've even protected me in a few cases." She remembered the several times he was overbearingly protective of her in battle, resulting in the rebellion leader to be harmed. That only got the chance to happen once before she fought with him about being able to take care of herself. "While you've been rather… disliking of me, I trust you'd never harm me. However," she met his stare curiously, "while I turned my back to you in cautioned the first time trust, how can you expect me to do that to hundreds of people when two out of ten could have a knife for my back? I can keep an eye on one person, but not hundreds."

She canted her head to the side curiously, honestly never considering the fact the Ulfric was simply being careful to lead Skyrim to freedom and that he wasn't being raciest. "But… people in Windhelm always say you turn your back to those who need help. You don't assist the Khajiit when their caravans are attacked, and you keep the Elves in slums…"

He frowned slightly and Koudelka wished she could take back what she said, somehow it was… nice to see such a toughened man smile in playful humor.

"Koudelka, do you honestly believe I can afford to repair and rebuild the Gray Quarter in the middle of a war that's raging about in our lands? I provide what money I can to them; I don't even have Jorleif firmly collect their mortgage taxes on their residences." He sighed lightly and shook his head, and the woman pouted lightly at being so wrong.

"As far as the Khajiit caravans go, I do send men out to investigate the crimes and even kill off any wolves, bears, cats, anything that are reported to be bothering them. It's just that unfortunately that's the only thing they're best at; killing. As far as thieving and such goes, they're no good at investigations." He paused as if debating if he should continue explaining or not. Seeing that he had her interest still, he chose to. "I can't properly train them to be city guards right now. I need soldiers."

She understood where he was coming from, and looked away from his gaze almost shamefully. "I'm sorry, I really didn't even think…" Koudelka saw him wave a hand in the air dismissively from her peripheral vision.

"Don't worry about that. You didn't know. I guess now that I see it from your eyes I can easily see how I come off as raciest." Ulfric pushed off the ground, offering her a smile before stretching lightly. "We should get some rest. I doubt this place is completely clear of Falmer, knowing those creatures they're just waiting till we fall asleep. I'll take first watch. You rest."

Her brow furrowed again as the man sat against a cracked pillar, ready to argue against him before he held a hand up to stop her, recognizing the look on her face. "Don't argue. I have plenty to think about, I wouldn't be able to sleep anyhow."

She pouted, unable to stop herself from feeling slightly at fault and glared lightly. "And what in the world makes you think that I'll be able to sleep after discovering that I've wrongfully spited a man for well over a month?" He chuckled softly and shifted over to his left a bit, patting the space next to him.

"Come keep watch with me in that case. A runt like you must be frozen in here. You've been shivering off and on since we started talking." He invited her to him warmly, displaying absolutely no form of a grudge for her unreasonable behavior. She was bewildered at it.

She was also bewildered to realize he was right, she was completely frozen.

Koudelka hesitantly left her spot by the fire to sit by his side. If he could trust her with his life, she could return the favor… Right?

However the man didn't get off without a punch to the side and a disgruntled grumble of something along the lines of 'I'm not a runt, you gargantuan oaf.' Yes, something along those lines. He simply laughed and shook his head, rubbing his side in mock hurt.

How did this feel so right?

She felt another bought of shivering coming on and glared up at the hole in the glass ceiling where snow was innocently falling through.

The man next to her took notice well enough, and debated her reaction to his action before deciding to forget the consciences. He pulled part of his cloak over her shoulders before wrapping an arm around her waist, pulling her against him. He almost laughed at the gasp that left her lips. Almost, before he felt how tense she was against him.

"Relax. I'm warm and you're half frozen, you idiot. Just accept it." Koudelka huffed shakily and rested her head on his shoulder, even if it was to simply prevent him from seeing the pink blush across her cheeks. She had never been in such a personal situation. Was this even personal? Or was it completely normal for people to get so close? They did have a fire…

Sometimes she felt like scolding herself for staying solo for as long as she could remember… which wasn't long.

Fucking Helgen.

For a while, thoughts about her current situation buzzed around in her head, along with her discoveries about the Stormcloak Leader, and strange feelings in her body and head. Eventually she realized she had long since stopped shivering and before she knew it, she was asleep.

The first time she woke herself up was to check on Ulfric and to see if everything was alright. Koudelka knew she had been asleep for at least a few hours and it was well into her turn for keeping watch. Much to her surprise, the man was still wide awake and looked deep in thought. Koudelka felt slightly guilty about it, but she fell back to sleep promising herself she'd take over in an hour.

The second time the blonde woke up she had somehow managed to migrate herself practically into the man's lap, snuggled flush against his chest. Ulfric had wrapped both arms around her, covering them both with his cloak. The woman kept her breathing even, trying not to show the man that she had awoken again, if he was even awake. Heat flooded her cheeks and she buried her face further into his chest.

They were still safe from Falmer, albeit the fire had long since died out. She took a deep breath and braved tilting her head up to glance at the man above her. She was almost mortified to see him look back down at her, causing her to instantly attempt to get off of him.

He held her fast against his own body. "Calm down, you were still cold. It's honestly no harm done, Koudelka." Ulfric addressed her softly and smiled, causing her blush to worsen. How could she have spited a man like this so wrongfully? He had never been anything but kind to her and people surrounding him. Even playful at times to a few.

"I'm sorry, I don't wish to be a liability to you, and obviously you haven't slept. Let me take over." Koudelka requested. The Jarl instantly retaliated.

"There's only about an hour before we should head out. Then a few hours walk to Windhelm, I will rest there. For now, you rest and I'll wake you in an hour." He left no room for argument in his voice, and for some reason she respected his wish and nuzzled back against him slightly, mumbling incoherently with a pout.

After she was long asleep, Ulfric smiled and rested his head on her own, completely alleviated about how their current predicament managed to put some sort of bond between them. The Jarl wished for nothing more than to see their relationship grow.

Although finding their way out of these damned ruins was going to be a pain.

He sighed and shook his head. Talos help him.

I hope everyone enjoyed! Lemme know if you did or if you saw anything I should fix!