Title: Curiosities

By: CypressArtemis

Summary: Lucien was an assassin from Cyrodiil, his Listener, the fabled Dovahkiin from Skyrim. Surely they must overcome a majority of contrariety to work well together.

Weather

Lucien sighed as he lounged back into the hard wooden back of the chair. The crackling fire pleasantly warming the surrounding room and his spectral form as he stared out the window. A blizzard was raging, drifting in from the mountains and covering all of Winterhold in a blinding white sheet.

He could hear the people below in the main room of the inn warming themselves around the cooking pit and discussing politics with heated voices. Trivial matters really. He didn't have to lean over the banister like a gawky housewife to know too many men crowded together with mead and opinions was just asking for trouble.

Still he could envision the sight now. A cluster of men, a few with pretty little wives hanging off their arms, cloistered around the fire and spit shivering themselves dry as they debating chancing the blizzard again to paying the room fee.

He rose slowly and advanced towards the door, gently sliding it shut with the utmost care. The lock clinked as it shut and the noise from the lower floor was gone. A good thing about thick oak doors was it blocked out virtually everything. The Nords really did know there way around a construction site and a forge.

Black eyes wandered the dimly lit room in search of some means to occupy the hours of waiting. His current caster and listener was curled beneath a snow sabre cat pelt, her expression seldom peaceful during the night was strangely at ease. Her dark hair draped over the alabaster fur and blending nicely with the equally ebony specks along the pelt. The firelight cast upon her face, illuminating her form just slightly. Enough to see but not quite to interfere with her rest.

There was an oddly familiar twinge that went through him as he stared for a long while, watching the steady rise and fall of the soft furs with slightly envious eyes. He had never been one to sleep for great periods but he missed doing so none the less.

More than that though was the way, despite the storm of ice and snow outside bringing the temperature inside drastically low, she barely gave a shiver. In fact she seemed to thrive in it. On occasion kicking her blankets off completely and stretching out like a satisfied cat.

What he wouldn't give to be so resilient to the extremes of the cold. Or what he would have given anyway. It would be entirely irrelevant at this point, but it is certainly a handy gene to be blessed with.

Lucien could remember the warm days in Cyrodiil and the hot summer nights. The lapping of water against the various sandy beaches. Rarely ever did he have to endure the cold unless he was traveling to Bruma for a contract, or the time he spent traveling through Skyrim.

Before he knew of such harsh climates he had occasionally wished, on those nights when the temperature was much too hot and his body much too sweaty, that Cyrodiil would grow colder. Safe to say after his trip through the coldest regions of the North he was thankful Sithis did not plague all of Cyrodiil with his request.

Glancing back out the window he watched the edges of the glass frost over in a circular pattern, slowly creeping into the center. It was coated in snowflakes and mist that during his mortal years would have initiated him to swipe his hand over the pane to clear it.

Through the fog however he could still make out the blur of white and scarlet berries that overwhelmed the lot of small bushes.

A grin touched his lips as his thoughts wavered from the pleasant warmth of the sun and beaches to the unmistakable memory of warm blood glistening in the snow of the Pale.

Author's Note: Hello everyone. For those of you who aren't familiar with my work this is basically just more continuation of my Dovahkiin Rosalind and of course Lucien of the Dark Brotherhood. Those of you that do know of my other stories I promise I am working on them. I feel bad it is taking me so long but school is getting progressively more complicated and unfortunately that does come first. Anyway as I usually warn people drabbles are not my forte, but I tried. Hope you liked this one.