【Skyrim】 Nightshade Oneshots

The Beauty and the Thief

Cortana wins the Just Dance contest

***

Gabriella and I give one last twirl before the song is over, almost losing our balance. Once the scores are posted, we eagerly check on who won the most points.

By now, Nazir is now joining the party, shaking his head. Babette laughs at him before turning her attention to the scores. Arnbjorn is still in Astrid's bra with pigtails, and Kaito accepts the dare to stay shirtless with Arn. Veezara licks his lips in amusement.

Gabriella lets out a low chuckle, and takes a deep breath. The song Babette chose had lots of jumping and exercise, I can tell you that.

"Cortana won!" the vampire sings, swinging her legs on the rock. I double check the results, just to be sure.

I sigh heavily, dropping to my knees in exhaustion. I don't have to wear a maid outfit!

Astrid stands in front of us with a smirk. "Bring some supplies, everyone, we're going to Riften!"

"Wear something small," Babette winks, and the Dunmer, shakes her head, laughing. "Time to seduce the leader of the Thieves Guild!"

Astrid, Festus, and Nazir stayed at the sanctuary, since our leader needs some work done. And the old men... well, he's lazy, and doesn't want to travel with us.

***

"So, what type of women is Mercer into?" Babette asks all of us, and we shrug. That's a difficult question, almost impossible to answer.

"Um, Bretons?" Veezara guesses.

"Wenches?" Arnbjorn suggests.

"Rich women?" I propose.

Kaito sits beside me on the carriage, listening to our conversation as he snacks on maple candy.

As we're close to Riften, we jump off the wagon in casual clothing, stopping at the front gate. A female guard prevents us from entering. "Halt. All visitors are to pay a tax before entering the city," she says, holding out her hand to receive the septims.

"We aren't even visitors," I shrug, noticing not one of us is pulling out a coin purse. She shakes her head, pulling off her helmet so we can see her scowl.

"Pay the tax or leave," she demands with no accent, unlike other Nords. "Eighty septims."

Kaito takes the maple candy on a stick out of his mouth, walking towards the sentry. All of our jaws drop as he pins her to the wall, whispering something intimidating and persuasive at the same time. The woman has a horrified / flustered face, then nods, allowing us to enter Riften.

"You're quite the charm," Gabriella chuckles, strolling into the city. Veezara and Arnbjorn follow behind her, and Babette giggles at the guard.

I catch up beside Kaito. "You're terrible," I huff, and he laughs softly, placing his hand on my shoulder. We travel to the graveyard to the right, and press the button on the coffin.

"Did you know this was here?" I ask Veezara, Babette, and Arnbjorn, smiling. They shake their head, and we head inside the wooden door. The cistern hasn't changed. It smells like shit, sewer, and skeevers.

"Where's Mercer?" Gabriella asks Sapphire, who immediately recognises her as Vex's friend. She points to the training room, scowling at Kaito as we wait outside in the mini corridor.

Babette giggles. "Did you intimidate Sapphire or something?"

Kaito runs his hands through his hair. "I wouldn't call it intimidation. Just a friendly negotiation to call off a debt." She laughs, and leans onto his arm. He doesn't mind, her being a child. A 300-year-old child.

Gabriella walks into the training room, alone with Mercer. We gave her about a thousand septims in a heavy satchel, for bribery.

We listen around the corner. "So, leader of the Thieves Guild?" she questions him in her seductive voice.

"You better have a good reason to be bothering me," he snarls, but she laughs in reply. There's clinking of coins.

"I do," Gabriella purrs. "How about a few hours with me? It can earn you a bit of coin."

There's a growl. "A few hours for only a bit of coin? There has to be more than that."

"One thousand, just for you," says the Dunmer.

An hour later, Mercer is still persistent.

"Look, thief," Gabriella has now lost her patience. "You want your guild to step it up? Then accept this amount of gold." Her voice returns to a sweet formality. "All you care about is gold, right? Nobody will ever know about this one night."

We're all cooped up by the corner in a circle, sitting down.

"...Mercer sure is a tough nut to crack," Babette mutters, glancing at the entrance of the training room filled with mannequins and locked chests.

"So is this little elf," Kaito pulls my head to his shoulder, giving them half a smile. Veezara chuckles at my flustering, and Arnbjorn just shrugs.

Babette giggles, hands on her lap. "You two are someday going to get married here, right in the Temple of Mara."

I scoff. "You wish."

The lizard smiles. "Fortunately for Babette, her wish will be granted the next couple or so months."

"That's not true!" I snap, causing the Dragonborn to smirk. He reaches in the knapsack he always carries, and pulls out a yellow ring.

Kaito takes my hand, raises it, then slips the jewelry on my finger. A small garnet rests on the centre, an expensive look to it. "There. I found it while clearing a dungeon. Wear it always, so you'll know that someday, you will marry me."

"You're only doing this so everyone will think I'm married," I sneer, and he shrugs, smiling. Babette squeals, clapping her hands together.

There's a weird noise coming from the training room, and we slowly turn our heads to the source of the noise.

We all exchange looks in silence. "...I think she succeeded."

"Should we leave..."

"...yeah," Arnbjorn agrees with Veezara, and we relocate to the cistern, receiving awkward looks.

Minutes later, Gabriella steps out, wiping her mouth. "What in Sithis did you do?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Relied on a woman's natural resources," she shrugs, chuckling. "On the bright side, I did the dare."

"Don't worry, we'll get the money back. This should be easy," Veezara reassures us from the downside of losing septims. That brings us into a bigger grin, and we cheer.

Gabriella winks at Brynjolf and Thrynn before we exit the cistern, causing them to blush the shade of blood.

"That isn't necessary," the Dark Elf says, shaking a bag of septims. "And who says assassins can't be thieves?"