She felt it the first time her blade met his. Something… electric seemed to run off of him and through his blade until it met hers. Then it traveled through hers until it reached her. It gave her a startling, but not unwelcome, shock. When their blades clashed a second time, it happened again. Each time their blades touched, she felt a stronger connection to the Companion she had just met. She had a feeling that he would become someone very important to her life.
How right she was. After that first training session, she and Vilkas had met every day they could in the training yard to spar. Somedays their match would go on for over twenty minutes. Others it would be over quickly. Each time though, it was fierce and passionate. After they had sparred, they would sit on one of the benches or chairs outside in silence for awhile. They would occasionally make small talk or speak of a deed they had done, but they did not have long conversations. Vilkas was very intelligent and did not waste words explaining things. He assumed that she knew what he meant and kept going.
At first this particular trait of his bothered her, but eventually she came to love it. He always knew what he meant to say and trusted her to understand. It made her feel like more of an equal that way. No over explaining as if she was an idiot child who didn't know which end of a sword to hold.
Even though their friendship had little verbal communication, she felt as if she knew Vilkas very well. Each time they fought she learned something new. Each bolt of electricity gave her some new insight to how he felt or what he thought. Eventually she began to realize that Vilkas spoke more through his fighting than anything else. As time wore on, she became so in tune with him that after their first exchange of blows, she would know exactly how the sparring match would end.
She felt as if Vilkas was sharing a beautiful language with her and became determined to learn to speak it herself. She tried to put the words she never got to say to him into the way she fought. Once, during a late night training session when she was trying out Vilkas's language, she thought she had read his message to her wrong. He had seemed to be telling her, through simple strikes and electricity only she could feel, that he understood what she meant.
After that fight, when they sat in silence, he put his hand on her knee. She was shocked. Vilkas rarely did physical contact with anyone other than his twin. She looked at his eyes and saw that they were locked onto her. They gazed at each other for a few extended moments and she felt electricity arc between them. Then he stood and broke the eye contact.
The next day his fighting style had changed, it was less reserved, less defensive. He attacked and twisted and parried with the same exact precision as always, but something was different. She was confused, and it showed in her fighting. She became more withdrawn and defensive, rarely attacking unless she had to. The fight drug on for what seemed like forever. Then she realized what he was saying. The electricity that coursed through him and into her spelled I. Love. You. with every hit.
The instant she had discovered what he was trying to say, she attacked fiercely. With every stroke she declared I. Love. You. Too.
That sparring match changed their lives. Their feelings were things that they never could verbally express, but the sparring worked just fine. Eventually their verbal conversations grew as their relationship developed. They were married three years after she had joined the Companions.
Even after they had expanded to almost normal conversations, when they were frustrated with each other and couldn't figure out how to say it, they would go out to the training yard and spar. The invisible electricity of understanding would arc between them and they would feel closer to each other than they had ever been. No one else understood it. They couldn't explain it. But they spoke through electricity and swords. And they loved through them too.