Disclaimer: I don't own The Elder Scrolls or any of the characters from the game.

I'm currently in the process of re-writing and fixing this entire story. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it. There never was supposed to be all that many more chapters, so it should be quite possible.

I'm so grateful for the reviews that's been dropping in and I want you to know that's why I finally decided to make a real attempt to finish this. Not giving you promises, but I WILL do my very best. Thank you again and thank you to Lorraine.

I'll notify in the beginning of each chapter as I re-place them. Until the rest, this is a new chapter, I'll probably fix it too, but it gives you at least something for your amazing support. Thank you!

23

They were just lying there for quite some time, tears streaming down Keilah's cheeks and suddenly she felt moisture in her hair. She turned around to see that Vilkas was crying as well. She was stunned, the big warrior had tears streaming down his face.

She did the only thing she could think of - she put her arms around his neck and held his head against her chest. She could feel his arms around her waist hugging her closer. They were lying like that for a long time, when he finally pulled away her tunic was soaked with their tears .

He looked up at her and she leaned down to kiss his forehead, then put a trail of soft kisses down his cheeks to his chin. He put his hand behind her her head and steered her mouth to his. Kissing her carefully. She could taste the salty tears on his lips and knew that he could taste hers the same thing He broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers, closing his eyes.

"Tell me about him, Vilkas. What he was like when you were children?"

She scooted down and laid her head on his arm. He held her close and looked down on her. She noticed tiny smile on his lips.

"He was extremely patient. When we came here, both me and Farkas were just scared kids. We couldn't remember a life before we were with the cult. They..." He stopped speaking and hugged her closer.

Vilkas didn't have many memories from before he came to the Companions, the ones he had was disturbing.

"The necromancers took special interest in us since we are twins, I never understood why. Jergen found us just before we turned five years old and he quite soon left to go to war."

"You once said you thought he was a close friend of your family."

"I believe so. Kodlak told me that he was looking for us for the better part of a year before he found us. He knew things about us, like which one of us that was the oldest, our birthday and had a locket that he said belonged to our mother."

"Where is this locket?"

"Farkas has it." He had given it to him, since the notion of a biological family seemed more important to Farkas than it did to him.

"Do you know much about your mother?"

"No, as far as I know there was nothing special about her. The necromancers killed her when they kidnapped us." He had no memories of his mother, so that wasn't something that was hard to tell.

"Do you know why they did it. Was it just because you were twins?"

"And the eyes. Light eyes and twins, but they needed us to be older so they kept us."

"The eyes?" Keilah sounded confused. He wished he could offer a better explanation, but he couldn't. Not just for her, he would've liked to know as well.

"They kept looking at our eyes." He remembered that - the old man in the black robe who held up a torch in front of their faces and looked at their eyes. He seemed fascinated by them. Farkas had tried to attack him and the man had just laughed at them. Said they were feisty little kids.

"They are quite stunning." She said with a smile, trailing her fingers along his eyebrow and down his cheek.

"Thank you." He kissed her.

"What happened after Jergen left?"

"Kodlak fathered us." He had been angry at Jergen for leaving them and had talked Farkas into running away. "We tried to run away but as we were passing Honningbrew Meadery, we saw Kodlak sitting on the wall, waiting for us."

They hadn't seen him until they were just next to him, he jumped down from the wall and smiled at them.

"What did he say?"

"He asked us if we wanted something to eat before we left." He laughed at the memory. "Farkas completely bailed on me and said it would be great because he was really hungry. We walked back with him to Jorrvaskr and that was it."

"You never wanted to leave again?"

"No, he talked to us into staying while we ate." He had been so impressed with Kodlak who talked to him as if he were an adult. Vilkas used to hate that people talked to him as if he didn't understand what they were saying. It took him years to realize that it was simply due to the fact that he understood more than he should at his age. Kodlak had known from the very beginning. "He was kind, so we agreed to stay."

"I think that's why you are so patient with me, in a lot of ways you are like him."

"He did loose his patience with us once. He actually spanked me." It hadn't hurt much, it was more the humiliating of being spanked than the actual pain. He'd also been upset because Kodlak had been so very disappointed with him.

Keilah laughed, "He spanked you?!"

"Yes, it upset Farkas so much he cried until he threw up." That made her laugh even more and Vilkas started to laugh as well.

"He threw up?"

"Yes, he could never stand when I got into trouble or got hurt, he preferred getting hurt himself. Kodlak knew that, of course, so he spanked me because he knew it would have the biggest effect on both of us."

"What did you do? It must have been something very bad to push Kodlak into physically punishing you."

"Farkas was in love with Ysolda. I believe you know who she is?"

"Yes. He was in love with her?"

"Yes, we were nine or ten, he tried to kiss her but she hit him with a shovel." That made Keilah laugh once more.

"I assume he wanted revenge?"

"Yes, and I of course was going to help him, the plan was mine." They always did everything together and if someone hurt one of them, both of them retaliated. Pretty soon everyone knew that it was always the two of them you were fighting, never just one.

"What did you do?"

"We cut of a huge chunk of her hair." It had been years, but he was still ashamed of it.

"Vilkas! That's horrible!" She rose up and hit him on the chest. "Poor girl."

"Yes, Kodlak seemed to think so as well. Hence the spanking."

"You were bad already as boys."

"That was the only time he spanked us or even lost his temper with us though. He said he hadn't thought us how to fight so we could use it on innocent girls."

"I bet he spent a lot of time apologizing around town for the two of you."

"Yes, as we got older we had to do it ourselves though."

"What was it like, growing up here?" She once again settled down next to him. "You must have been very different from other children, I mean."

"I don't think so, but then, I wouldn't know. This is the only life I have ever really known."

"Do you like it?"

"The lack of privacy is driving me crazy sometimes. But I would probably feel lonely if I wasn't in a house full of people. Thank you."

"For what?"

"I know what you are doing." He looked down at her and saw her smiling. "You're making me remember the good things about him."

"I should have known you'd see through that." She looked embarrassed, so he kissed her.

"Kodlak once told me that from the first moment he saw me and Farkas he knew that I was the brain and Farkas the muscles. We were like wild animals and Farkas pretty much attacked anyone who came close. I was just looking at everyone, evaluating them. He told me I was smarter than what was good for me."

"Farkas told me something similar once. That you never just do things because you can predict the consequences of your every decision."

"Hmm, I guess that sums it up. I still appreciate it, even if I know what you are doing, it still works." Vilkas knew Farkas was right. He did have a tendency to over think things.

"Don't you think you should be with Farkas instead of me now?"

When he had gone over to Farkas room to inform him they wanted to gather the Circle the next day he had offered to stay with him, but Farkas declined saying he wanted to be alone and that Rabbit probably needed him. He did love how the two of them always though of the other, as if they were scared to keep him away from the other person.

"He said he thought I should be with you. He also scolded me for lashing out on you when you came back. I am really sorry about that." Farkas had said that he should apologies 'hundreds of bloody times for that'.

"It's ok. I understand. It is hard to think straight in a situation like that. Besides, I should have been here."

"Don't you dare blame yourself! Kodlak was alone upstairs, none of us were there to defend him. When we ran up we took care of the attackers easily, but it was too late."

"I still feel bad about it, but thank you for trying."

Keilah looked at him. It wasn't hard to imagine him as a boy, already more cleaver than most men. For a boy like that it must have been wonderful to grow up with a man like Kodlak, who would know the value of his intelligence. Who would love to teach him. She wondered what kind of man he would have been without him.

"I love you, Vilkas." It felt very strange to say. The last time it just came to her, she had almost felt compelled to say it.

"I love you too. Very much." The way it felt when he said it made her understand why people said it to begin with.

"What do you think will happen now?"

"We will probably go after them. There aren't that many Silver Hands left and we have maps of their forts." He looked uncomfortable when he said it.

"Would you prefer to not go after them?"

"No. We need to put an end to this. It's been going on for too long."

"I'm sending words to the College. I'll stay here for as long as you need me. Brelyna and Onmund can explain to the teachers, they'll understand."

"You should probably be careful with what you say. I always need you here." The comment made her smile.

"You always want me here. There's a difference."

"True. I'm glad you are staying, though. And at the moment, I do need you here."

Then she remembered something. "Why is my locker in the hallway?"

"Me and Farkas was moving it when..."

"I'm sorry."

"We'll bring it in here tomorrow."

"Don't worry about it. I don't really need the locker."

"Don't you even try! That bloody locker is being moved in here. You're staying in here from now on."

"That's not what I meant. If you have somewhere I can put my things I can just move them here instead."

"Ok, I'll fix it for you. It was extremely heavy, what do you have in there?"

"Quite a few Luna Moths and Torchbugs." The comment made her think of the time when she had them catching bugs she didn't need. It felt strange that two of the men there were dead. Killed by the same group. She very much felt the need to make sure that they all died. She saw that Vilkas was thinking about the same thing. "It's odd, that both of them are gone."

"Yes."

"Did Kodlak ever talk to you about me?"

"Yes, many times. Is there something special you are thinking about?"

"The first time I met him, when you where there as well... you were very rude by the way!"

"I was, I couldn't understand why someone so tiny would want to join the Companions. You looked like a small child."

"I still look the same. Was that the only reason you didn't want me to join?"

"I don't know to be honest. I was upset at the time. We were talking about a cure, about us not being able to go to Sovengard when we cross over." Vilkas went silent.

"I think we might be able to solve that for Kodlak." She felt the need to say it, because she knew that was what he was thinking about. That Kodlak had died before he had the cure.

"Really?" He looked very skeptical. "How?"

"Can we talk about it tomorrow? When Aela and Farkas is with us. I can tell you that it includes the witch-head in the bag." That made him look extremely skeptical. She kissed him, "Please Vilkas, I promise to explain everything tomorrow.

"Ok. Where was I?"

"You were telling me why you didn't want me to join the Companions."

"You were so small, I think I felt very protective of you, and..." He lost track and looked at the ceiling with a big smile on his lips.

"And, what?"

"You were beautiful. And when I protested you talked back. You were... I don't know. Annoying and cute and just wouldn't back down.."

"You liked that?"

"Yes, no person your size or even bigger than you has ever dared to talked back at me the way you did. And when we walked outside you even teased me. You weren't the least bit scared. I was amazed, and extremely annoyed."

"I was terrified!"

"What?"

"You're huge, and smart. Usually my biggest advantage when I fight is that I'm smarter and faster."

"You were faster. You really hit be bad on the back of my leg, you managed to hit me right in a crack in the armor."

"I know."

"You know?"

"Of course, I was walking behind you on our way out to see were the soft spots were on your armor."

He looked at her with big eyes. "Are you kidding me? You hit me in all the bad places on purpose, so it would hurt as much as possible?"

"Yes. I didn't dare to tell you. I thought it was better if you thought it was by accident."

"And you are calling me a bad person."

"You deserved it, considering how rude you were to me."

He pushed her down on her back and kissed her. "You naughty girl!"

"Did you really think I was beautiful?"

"I did. Your eyes were the most fascinating I had ever seen, they still are. And you annoyed me in a way no one ever had. Every time I talked to you I couldn't decide if I wanted to kiss you or spank you or both."

"Spank me?"

"I still do sometimes. And I'm still as attracted to you as I was then."

"I really thought you hated me but I couldn't stop looking at you," she admitted and could feel a slight blush creeping up her cheeks.

"I never notcied you looking at me."

"I'm very sneaky. But that was actually not why I brought this up. When I came the first time, Kodlak looked at me like he had seen me before. Did he ever mention anything about that to you?"

"No. Like he recognized you?" Vilkas was still hovering above her, resting on his elbows.

"Yes."

"And you are sure you had never met him before then?"

"I hadn't even been in Skyrim before."

"He never mentioned anything like that. He liked you, a lot, and put a lot of hope in you."

"But he never said why?"

"No, he was very happy for me though," Vilkas said with a smile and leaned down to nudge her nose with his.

"He said that?"

"Yes, he said I should be nice to you. Everyone says that, I think it's your size again."

"It is a blessing and a curse." She couldn't stop a yawn from bursting out.

"I'm sorry, I'm keeping you awake," he said and laid down next to her again. She settled on his arm and he kissed the top of her head.

"It's ok, I want to hear more."

"You need to sleep, love. I'll be here when you wake up."

"I wish I could say that to you, just once."

"You're here when I wake up."

Vilkas smiled when Keilah turned around to look at him. She put her hand on his cheek. "Do you still watch me when I sleep?"

"Yes. I do other things to you as well," he admitted with a smile.

"What?!"

"I kiss you. Wuite often."

"I think I like that, you can keep doing that."

"As if you could stop me." He gave her a kiss and then drew her closer. "Thank you for this. You made this night a lot easier for me."