From Housecarl To Companion

Over the Weeks

The next morning Farkas slept a little later than he normally would have. The night before he'd been out later and drank more than he normally would have...
"Thought I told you not to get too drunk," Vilkas teased as Farkas opened his door. Ok, if Vilkas was up already he must have slept a lot later than he normally would have.
Farkas grunted at his brother in reply. It wasn't easy for a werewolf to get drunk enough to have a hangover, but Farkas had a little bit of a headache, and the light wasn't helping.
"What kept you so late?" Vilkas laughed.
"Bar fight broke out, then I got challenged to arm-wrestle, loser bought drinks," Farkas shrugged. He didn't feel like telling his brother about Lydia; he wasn't sure how he felt about her, but if he told Vilkas about her he would assume he was interested in her... was he interested in her? He'd just met her... she made his beast blood crazy... the wolf wanted her... did he? Why wouldn't he? She was strong, and she was pretty... not likely she would want him though, she wasn't anything like the silly barmaids that tended to flirt with him... that was one of the things he liked about her; she was a proper woman. Farkas had always thought he'd break one of those flimsy looking barmaids if he ever actually took one of them up on their offers... not Lydia though... she looked like she could handle him...
Wait, what was he thinking? He blinked and shook his head, and realized Vilkas was waving a hand in front of his face.
"What?" Farkas grumbled.
"You didn't even hear me, did you?" Vilkas asked sounding a little annoyed now.
"You asked what kept me?"
"By Ysmir!"
"What?"
"Come on brother," Vilkas shook his head, "let's get upstairs and see what Tilma's made for lunch."
***
The next day Farkas got back to his usual routine, training in the yard. In about the middle of his usual exercises the wind shifted and he caught the scent of steel and lavender... curiously he stopped and looked up at the guards post at Dragonsreach and saw a female guard on duty, looking down to the yard at him. He couldn't see her face, but he recognized her smell. Farkas smiled and waved up at her. The guard froze for a moment, but then waved back. Farkas went back to his training with a little more energy than before... if he had an audience, he'd better put on a good show...
***
In the weeks that followed Farkas figured out the guard rotation well enough to know when to expect Lydia to have the post at Dragonsreach. He made sure to be out in the yard, training at his best as often as he could... which occasionally meant he went a little rougher on Torvar than he really should have when sparring with the whelp... but that had at least once earned him a soft giggle from the guard watching from the walkway above.

He wanted to go up to Dragonsreach and talk to her, invite her to go out for drinks again, but he thought that was probably a bad idea. Farkas could tell by the way she watched him from her guard post that he'd caught her eye, but she was a Whiterun guard, and a proper Nord, it was unlikely she'd stay interested if she found out he was a werewolf...

Farkas also noted the way his beast blood responded to her, and that actually had him a little concerned. The last thing he wanted to do was lose control of his beast and end up hurting her.
So for weeks that was all he did. He did his best to show off while she was at a guard post where she could see him, and he would always smile and wave up to her, but beyond that he kept his distance.
Then one evening he was just coming home from a hunting trip in time to see the guards change out.
"Hail Companion," the female guard that had just gotten off duty greeted him.
Farkas smiled and responded with a nod. With their helmets on most of the female guards looked the same, but Farkas smelled the hint of lavender, and he recognized her voice.
"Off duty?" He asked.
"I am," she nodded.
Farkas knew he should just nod and keep walking... he was a werewolf, he shouldn't get involved with a guard... but she was walking the same direction he was...
"Where you headed now?" He asked with a slight smirk.
"I hadn't decided yet," she answered in an even tone, "I thought about the Bannered Mare... but that depends on who's there."
"You looking for someone or avoiding someone?" Farkas chuckled.
"Maybe a bit of both," Lydia shrugged. Farkas wished he could see her expression, it sounded like she was smiling.
"I can always go for a good drink after a long day of hunting," Farkas shrugged.
"I'll meet you there in half an hour?" Lydia asked hopefully. Farkas's heart skipped a beat and he started to worry Lydia would be able to hear his pounding heart.
"Alright then," he smiled, and he had no idea how but he'd managed to keep his voice calm.

After that night Farkas met Lydia for drinks on several other occasions, but all of their interactions remained mostly platonic. They looked together enough that the silly, dark-haired new barmaid left him alone at least.
Lydia made it more difficult to keep his wolf spirit under control, but Farkas still enjoyed her company. She loved listening to his stories of beasts he'd slain on jobs he'd taken. She had a few good stories about bandit raids and such herself.
It wasn't until she told him she'd accepted a promotion to housecarl that Farkas regretted that he never mentioned his feelings for her... just as suddenly as she'd appeared in his life, she was gone again.