To Protect the Dragonborn

Warpaint

The sun was well over the horizon by the time they began to pack up and clean up for the day. Farkas took care of his business and then joined Duna at the small stream to clean up. He found her grimacing and shivering as she stepped into the cold water.

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" Farkas asked in concern.

"N-no," Duna shook her head, looking back at him with a soft smile, "it's j-just c-c-cold," she shivered as she stepped further in to the water, "a-and I-I th-thought I w-was d-done... b-b-but I-I'm g-gonna have t-to w-w-wash a l-lot m-m-more..." she gestured shakily to the smear of his warpaint beneath her breasts.

"You're not gettin' that off with water," Farkas shook his head, "come 'ere."

She obliged eagerly and Farkas wrapped his arms around her.

"Gods, you're freezing," he noticed in concern as he rubbed her vigorously for a moment.

"Water's cold," she grumbled, leaning eagerly into his touch.

"So I noticed," Farkas nodded. He pulled out his bearskin cloak and draped it across her shoulders.

Once she got dried off and warmed up, she sat comfortably on one of the rocks beside the stream and Farkas tried not to get distracted by how sexy she looked wearing only his cloak... instead he pulled out one of his small cleaning towels, wet it in the stream, and busied himself trying to clean his warpaint off of her.

"Sorry," he mumbled sheepishly as he tried to scrub it off gently, "this stuff takes some pretty good scrubbing to get off..."

"It's ok." Duna giggled as he scrubbed at her sides, which made Farkas chuckle.

He finished cleaning her off and then scrubbed his own face vigorously with his cloth while Duna got dressed. She finished with her armor in time to watch as he reapplied his warpaint.

"Farkas..." Duna asked curiously, "why do you wear your warpaint like that? Is there a story to it?"

"Looks scary," Farkas shrugged as he wiped his fingers off on his towel, "our father, Jergen, had red warpaint he wore like this, and Vilkas says having something dark around your eyes helps you see in the bright sun, so I mixed up this color and Vilkas and I have been wearin' it since."

"I see," Duna nodded with a smile, "so its functional, and honors your father..."

"Yeah," Farkas smiled. It had been a long time since he'd given any thought to the way he wore his warpaint...

"Does it actually helps that much in the sunlight?" She asked curiously a moment later.

"I think so," Farkas said with another shrug, "helps with the glare off the snow at least."

"Do... do you think I should wear some?" She asked uncertainly.

Farkas looked back to her face thoughtfully... she was an archer... and they were about to be traveling in more snow... it certainly couldn't hurt...

"If you want to," he nodded.

"I mean... if you think I should... I... I would like to try it..." she replied, then looking embarrassed she added, "would... would you put it on f-for me? I... I've actually only ever put my own makeup on a handful of times... Laeka and some of the other servants usually did that for me," she admitted sheepishly.

"No worries," Farkas smiled. He examined her face thoughtfully again. "Got any particular style in mind?"

"Nope," she smirked, "however you think it should look... you're my husband, you'll be the one who has to look at it the most."

"Alright..." Farkas chuckled... he loved the comfortable, matter-of-fact way she called him her husband...

He gently ran his thumb along her cheek as he considered how she should wear her warpaint... he couldn't bring himself to obscure her face too much, so he decided to just start with functional dark lines around her eyes and then decide what to do from there...

"Close your eyes," he instructed gently as he dipped his fingers back into his container of paint...

Duna obliged and Farkas gently ran a thick line across one eyelid, then the other...

"Look up..."

Duna opened her eyes and looked toward the sky so Farkas could trace an even thicker line under each eye as well. He could tell she was used to having people do her makeup for her, she barely flinched as his fingers passed close to her eyes.

Then he stopped to consider again... just that would be functional, but he thought she needed some kind of design... she should look fearsome...

"Close them again..."

He smoothed the lines around her left eye into one, and then traced out along her cheekbone into a tapered point. He paused to consider that... he decided it looked a little like Ria's paint and he didn't care for it...

He dipped his fingers back in the paint and continued the thick line out to her temple, then down the outside of her jaw, and then brought it all the way down to taper into a point at her neck...

He liked that look much better and repeated it on her right side...

"Look at me?"

Duna opened her eyes and looked back at him, and Farkas's breath caught in his throat. The dark paint made her blue eyes stand out much more brightly... the effect was beautiful... and definitely fearsome.

"See what you think," Farkas grinned and pulled out one of his skyforge steel swords. It had enough of a shine for her to see her reflection.

"Oh..." Duna breathed, quietly taking the sword and examining her reflection... "divines... Farkas you're an artist! I barely look like myself... you... you think I look good like this?"

"I do," Farkas nodded, "you still look like my beautiful wife to me..."

"Yeah, but you think I'm sexy in dragon scale armor," she replied with a smirk.

"You are," Farkas shrugged, "and fearsome," he added with a grin.

"A fearsome little rabbit, huh?" Duna giggled.

"Might have to start callin' you my little dragon..." Farkas chuckled.

"Nah," Duna smiled, "I'll always be your little rabbit."

Farkas's heart skipped happily at that. "Doesn't mean you're not also my beautiful dragon," he grinned.

Duna just giggled and put the sword down before leaning in to kiss him...

But then Farkas suddenly realized a potential problem with the warpaint design he'd just settled on...

"I might have to rethink your paint design though," he grumbled when their lips parted.

"Why's that?" Duna asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I'm gonna smudge it all up when I start kissin' you like I want to..."

"I guess you'll just have to repaint me then," Duna smiled.

"Mmm..." Farkas raised an eyebrow and considered her face again... he decided he'd just have to think about it...