My Random Skyrim Stories

Green Bottles

(Vilkas x female Dragonborn/Harbinger
So I had just finished the Dragonborn DLC on one character on my PC and was trying to decide what to do next... and ended up snooping around Vilkas's room, and I found some... concerning things...
So I started brainstorming and wound up with this... I originally thought I would likely revise and incorporate this scene —or pieces of it— into a more fleshed out story at some point in the future, and I still might... or I might come back and write more with this Dragonborn... we'll see...
Enjoy!)

Vilkas woke with a start... someone was in his room... he reached for his sword reflexively, but then recognized the intruder's scent...

It was the Harbinger... Lillia... the Dragonborn...

Vilkas hadn't liked her when she first arrived at Jorrvaskr... she had white-blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, a strange accent, and she always smelled of soot and ash. She was a Nord, but she had come to Skyrim from Solstheim.
She was an outsider, and Vilkas simply hadn't trusted her...
...of course he hadn't realized she was the Dragonborn back then...
To say she'd impressed since then was an understatement.
She came to Skyrim seeking to defeat the dragons, and she had done just that. Then she'd gone on to help the Companions be forever rid of the Silver Hand, avenged the death of Kodlak, and even cleansed the former Harbinger of his beast blood after his death.
Vilkas hadn't questioned why Kodlak would name such a worthy woman as his successor...

...but none of that explained why she would be in his private room now...

"Lillia..." Vilkas growled warningly, "what are you doing in here?"
The new Harbinger jumped with a start, but she turned to him with an accusing glare.
"Vilkas, what's this?" She demanded holding up a stout green bottle. Her accent always got thicker when she was angry, and she sounded fresh off the boat from Solstheim right now.
Vilkas cringed as he realized what bottle she was holding... she wasn't supposed to find that...
"Why are you snooping in my things?" He barked back irritably.
"What is this?" She repeated insistently, not answering his question....
"It's a potion," Vilkas growled.
"It's a poison!" She exclaimed. She grabbed the stamina potion that had been sitting beside the poison. She looked from one bottle to the other and then back to him in alarm. "Tell me you're not poisoning yourself to sleep at night," she pleaded.
Vilkas just fixed her with a steely glare. "How I sleep at night is none of your damn business," he growled.
"It is my business!" She argued, "you could kill yourself like this!"
"I..." Vilkas knew she had a point... "I have better sense than that," he grumbled uncomfortably.
"What would Farkas say about this?" She asked.
Vilkas rolled his eyes, "if he says anything I'll ask him how much alcohol he drinks just to do the same thing."
"Farkas doesn't drink that mu—"
"You never see at least half of what he drinks," Vilkas interrupted irritably. "Everyone knows Torvar's the drunk... no one realizes Farkas drinks three times what he does."
The Harbinger just blinked at him at a loss for words.
"This is what Hircine's curse does," Vilkas said darkly, "as the years go on, it just gets worse."
"There... there's got to be... a safer way..." she shook her head, eyes wide in concern now.
"Heh... let me know if you find one," Vilkas rolled his eyes, "and I still don't see how this is any of your business," he added grumpily.
Her brow furrowed angrily at that. "Because I care about you... you stupid ass!" She exclaimed.
Vilkas blinked... that hadn't been an answer he was expecting...
Obviously she just meant as the Harbinger... she cared about all of them, they were shield-siblings... but for the briefest moment Vilkas felt his heart jump with hope...
He'd be a liar if he said she had never graced his dreams. Ever since he'd witnessed her defeat of the Silver Hand at Driftshade, he'd wanted to see more of her... in and out of battle.
But she had housecarls... she never needed his help... and she seemed to think being Harbinger meant she had to take every job that no one else wanted. She was good for the Companions... she certainly upheld their good name and brought in the coin, but she was almost never home.

Vilkas was suddenly pulled from his shocked thoughts as he realized she was still standing in his room, holding his bottle of poison, and glaring at him with hints of tears in her eyes.
"Apologies, Harbinger," he sighed, "I just... I wish I had been worthy of the second chance you and Kodlak received... but I was unworthy to enter the tomb... I... I'm just trying to live with that now." He hung his head, shamed by that admission.
For several moments, a heavy silence hung in the room, then...
"Vilkas..."
Suddenly a surprisingly gentle hand reached out and cupped his cheek... her smoky scent filled his nostrils and he realized there was also an underlying sweetness to it...
"When I defeated the Glenmoril betrayers I collected all of their heads as well... and I still have some of the foul things..."
Vilkas looked up hopefully as her words registered. Her blue eyes full of concern and sincerity made his heart skip.
"If you wish to be rid of this... you need only ask," she added quietly.
"You... you would journey all the way back to the tomb of Ysgramor... for me?" Vilkas asked in hopeful disbelief.
"I would," she nodded, "especially if it will stop you poisoning yourself," she added scoldingly.
Vilkas chuckled guiltily at that. "I do wish to cleanse myself," he admitted, "that I might know glory in the afterlife... and a peaceful sleep in this one."
"Then ready yourself for a trip," she smiled, "we leave as soon as you're prepared."
"Aye, Harbinger," he grinned.
Vilkas's heart swelled with an excitement he hadn't felt since he was a boy as Lillia turned back toward his door.
"I'm taking this away though," she added sternly looking back at him and holding up the stout green bottle.
Vilkas's brow furrowed, but he wasn't about to argue...
As his door shut behind her, Vilkas realized she never did tell him why she'd been in his room in the first place...