Delayed introductions (Farkas)

Anna and Farkas go on a little trip and run into old (and new) friends. Also there's dogs and tree hats because Alex wanted to help.  :)

Also this is 5041 words and took around a month so happy reading I'd like feedback please!

Something, or someone, falls on top of me with a slight thud at impact. I open my eyes and look down, it's Anna. Of course it is. She looks up at me with a grin “Hi.” I don't say anything for a moment which confuses her. She reaches up and pokes my cheek “Say something!” She goes to poke me again but I stop her “Can you get off of me please?” Anna slumps her shoulders but complies, sitting next to me instead. “I have a question.” I look at her and she begins to explain. “So I was just on the phone with my mom and she asked if we wanted to come visit them sometime in the next few weeks...so can we?” I swallow and look away thinking for a second before turning back to Anna “I-I don't know. I guess?” I shrug. Anna looks at me silently with an expression of what I would consider a mix of angry and concentrating. “You're nervous.” She says after around five minutes. I scoff “what, no I'm not nervous. Definitely not.” She looks at me blankly. I sigh “Okay fine I'm slightly nervous.” I admit, once again breaking eye contact. Anna takes her hand and turns my face towards her, looking me in the eyes. “You'll be fine.” She reassures me, though a small part of me still doubts it. “And you never gave me an actual answer. Yes or No. Because I have to call her back and say whether or not we're coming.” I evaluate the situation in my head. “Please Farkas, please can we go? Please please pleaseeee.” Anna pleads. I slyly grin as I come up with something “On one condition-” Anna sits up, her attention gripped. “You have to write and verbally recite the entire alphabet in Nordic.” She bites her lip “Fine.” She says rather un-enthusiastically and goes to get a piece of paper and a pen. Eventually, after around fifteen minutes Anna completes the writing part successfully, which to someone still learning the basics of the language is rather quickly. She finishes the speaking mannar quicker, as it is writing that is mainly an issue. She looks at me when she finishes for clarification, I nod “Okay we can go.” She smiles and runs out of the room and down the stairs. I sit there for a minute, then sigh and get out of bed. Might as well get dressed and see what the day brings.

I quietly walk down the staircase and stop before I get to the bottom, I can see Anna talking on the phone in the other room and start to walk back up the stairs but she notices me and waves her hand telling me to come down. I stand at the entrance of the room as she finishes her conversation and writes some notes on a piece of paper before hanging up and turning to me. “We're going to see them in a week. They already sent two train tickets in fact, I found them today.” She gives me a bright eyed, almost giddy, smile. I don't think I've ever seen her this happy...except maybe one other time now that I think of it. I smile back before going into the kitchen and searching for something to eat for breakfast, though if anything it's really more brunch. Due to the fact that one: it's almost eleven thirty in the morning. And two: it's a Sunday. Anna sits down at the table and watches as I try, and fail to reach a bowl on one of the higher shelves, of which I'm not sure how it even got there as neither of us can reach the shelf. Must have been Everan or someone, though I have no idea why he'd be doing our dishes. Anna casts a spell which takes the bowl from the shelf and gently places it on the counter. I turn towards her, “Told you telekinesis can be helpful.” I nod “Indeed it can.” I fill the bowl with cereal and sit down across from Anna as she drinks a cup of coffee and reviews the notes of her conversation with me. “Okay so already told you about the train and stuff. Umm I can get in contact with Xavier and Juliette and see if they want to hang out sometime that week and grab dinner or something. I know Isabelle will be there too so we can see if she's around.” Anna goes through the list but then straightens up as if a lightbulb has gone on “Also I talked to one of my close friends from when I was a kid and she said she'd love to see us!” I raise an eyebrow “anyone in particular?” Anna quickly pulls up a picture of a blonde haired woman, that looks quite similar to her, though with slightly different features. And seems to be a bit taller. “This is my friend Jillian. I've mentioned her before. Jillian Jones, she lives across the street from us.” Anna explains, I do remember Jillian being mentioned before now that I think of it. “Does she know about me?” I ask and Anna nods “I've told her about you don't worry about it.” I put my arm and rest my head on it. There is a period of silence, Anna focused on going through a checklist, and me, simply staring at her. “You're cute.” I say and get up, going off to see what I need to get done. From the other room I hear Anna laughing very slightly and laugh to myself as well.

Around a week later

The two of us wait at the train station, standing on the concrete platform. Currently baggage is first being loaded onto the train before passengers are allowed on. There is a loud whistle and a man who is assume presides over those riding the train comes and tells the group of people standing clustered around us they may begin boarding, punching a small hole in their ticket as they get on. Anna doesn't seem to notice such things happening and so I grab her hand and walk towards the line of people waiting to board. “You have your ticket right?” I ask her and she holds it up. “Good.” I let go of her hand then and take out my own ticket. The two of us hand the pieces of paper to the man punching the holes in them and he hands us them back afterwards. I follow Anna onto the train and she finds a seat, closing the sliding door after the two of us have entered the small room like seating area. There are two padded benches, one on either side and a small table in the middle, as well as a large window. Anna sprawls out on one side, leaning against a small carry on bag and reading a book. The train begins to move slowly, speeding up eventually until it evens out to a moderate pace as it chugs across the country side. Anna for the majority of the time is engrossed in a book, or sleeping, and so I look out the window to entertain myself. Seeing which animals I can spot, the differences in the terrain, simple I-Spy games like that. Though I've for the majority become calmer with the idea there is still a bit of anxiety surrounding the whole ordeal tucked away in the back of my mind.

“Cmon!” Anna excitedly grabs me and runs towards the gates of Daggerfall. Wow, she was right, the cities huge! Two guards dressed in a navy blue uniform with an insignia of a dagger on the chest open the gate allowing the two of us inside. The city has a similar layout to whiterun though on a far larger scale. Divided into districts and surrounded by a stone wall, the castle sits above the rest like Dragonsreach in whiterun. Though Daggerfall is built on the water and has one of the busiest ports in all of Tamriel while Whiterun is built on a naturally rises formation of land in the middle of a large plain. Anna points to a moderately sized house across from the guard tower and a larger house “That's my house.” Though considered small in comparison to the other larger house, which Anna explain belongs to Jillian's family it's actually larger than it seems. She walks up to the door and knocks on it. A blonde haired woman comes to the door and opens it, a smile breaking out across her face. Anna grins “Hi mom.” She says and the woman looks at her not saying anything for a moment. “Oh just give me a hug already Anna.” She says and Anna obliges happily. The woman then ushers us into the home, calling to another person sitting in the study. I stand next to Anna silently as she talks to her parents before she gestures to me. “And this is Farkas.” I shake both of their hands and say hello, they remind me of their names, Sophie and David, and say they're happy to finally meet me in person. Having talked to them before either by phone or email I know they're nice people, and they're mostly to fully positive reaction to the albite delayed introduction dispels most of the lasting worry that had been lurking in the back of my mind. Anna gives me a tour of the house, we store our bags in the guest room on the first floor. It has a fairly open layout. When walking into the house there is a living room with a door over on the far left quarter to Mr. Lenox’s office, the kitchen lies straight ahead. A door to a guest room is near the kitchen over by the stairs leading upstairs. When upstairs Anna's bedroom is the first on the right, with a bathroom directly across from it, then her parents room is at the end of the hall. It's a quaint little house, though is as Anna said bigger on the inside than what you'd expect from the outside.

Anna takes a set of keys from a key rack by the door and goes out the door, I follow her out into the cobbled street. A window from the upper floor of the house across the street opens and a young woman sticks her head out and yells down “Anna Lenox is that you?!” Anna waves up to her “Yep!” The woman goes to go back in the house but sticks her head out again with a hand signal. “Hang on I'll be right down.” She closes the window after her and disappears. “Who's that?” I whisper to Anna. “That's Jilian.” I had guessed so. And she was right, they do look a lot alike. The door from the larger house opens and closes as the woman quickly bounds down the steps and out into the street, nearly tackling Anna as she hugs her. “How's it going Len?!” She excitedly shakes her. I can see why these two are friends, similar ways of doing things. Anna laughs and pushes her off. “I'm good, I'm good. Tired and slightly stiff from the train ride but good.” I give her a look “How are you tired? you slept most of the time.” Jillian acknowledges the comment “He's got a point.” She turns to me “You must be Farkas.” I nod and look at Anna out of the corner of my eye. “I've told her about you.” She mouths silently. I turn back to Jillian “Uh yeah, I am. Nice to meet you.” I point to Anna “she's mentioned you before.” Jillian smirks and walks in a circle, wandering around “of course she has.” She mutters. “So how's the gal pal?” Anna asks in a singsong tone and Jillian perks up walking back over. “Who Jordan? She's good, got photo or something today. I dunno. But she's doing pretty good.” Anna gives her a smirk and finger guns “Nice.” The door to Jillians house opens again and a man pokes his head out, he seems young but a few years older. “What're you doing Jill cmon we got stuff to do!” He calls to her, she groans and makes a face. “Coming!” She yells. “Bye guys. Nice meeting you. Len don't get into trouble...or I will hunt you down and murder you in your sleep. Not literally of course, just- don't do anything stupid.” Anna rolls her eyes “yeah yeah just blah go do your paper or homework or something.” The two laugh and Jillian runs back into the house. I turn to Anna “Did she just threaten to murder you?” Anna stifles a laugh “Inside joke pal. Tell you later.” Seems like a bit of a strange inside joke, but Vilkas, Aela, and I likely have stranger ones. “Shall we go hunt down our friends?” I nod and she takes my hand, leaning against me as the two of us walk towards the main part of the city.

Anna walks the streets with an easy familiarity while I let my eyes wander, looking over each and every detail taking in my new surroundings. I guess the places are switched from when she first ended up in whiterun. I see a glimpse of movement from over by a set of bushes, it seems as if there is people hidden behind there. A ginger haired person slowly raises his head ever so slightly out of the bush and puts a finger to his lips. Though the light isn't very good at this time of day I'm nearly certain it's Xavier. Silently he sinks back beneath the bush. I stare at it for a second, processing what just happened until he pops back up again and harshly whispers for me to stop staring. I scoff and turn away continuing to walk straight ahead.

The two of us walk up a stone staircase to another district, that seems more affluent than the one we were just in. Not that the other one was bad, just, different. Anna sharply pulls me onto a side street and moves out of the way before I crash into her and instead I hit the back of a brick building. “Was that really necessary?!”. Anna shrugs and attempts words but fails. “Sorry about that.” I wave my hand signaling it's fine and the two of keep walking down until we get to the end of the street. Anna rings the doorbell on a large stone house as we wait patiently for an answer. Someone looks through the curtain and hurriedly comes to the door. “Hi guys!” Isabelle says cheerfully taking us both aback. “I'm not sure I've ever seen you this happy.” Anna says bluntly causing Isabelle to laugh “same here. But I'm glad you could make it. Are the other two meeting us at the restaurant?” Isabelle rifles through a closet and finds a long twill coat. Anna nods and Issy gives a thumbs up then walks into another room and comes back with a small bulldog in her arms. “This is Pidge. Or as I call him, Pudge...cause he's fat and cute.” She holds him out for us to pet him. “Whys his name pidge?” I ask as I pet the little dog and pat his head. “He likes chasing pidgeons and at the time we hadn't named him yet so it just kind of stuck.” She explains and Pidge barks in happy agreement. Issy grabs a leash from the coat rack by the door and attaches it to the dogs collar, putting him down on the floor. “My parents aren't home so he has to come with us, but he's a service animal so it's okay.” Pidge walks over to Anna and begins pawing at the material of her dress but Issy restrains him. “Shall we?” The two of us nod and follow her back towards the original area we were in.

“The restaurants just up here.” Isabelle calls back to us. We look up to where she points. A stucco building with a striped awning sits in the opening to a quiet side street. Lampposts light the sidewalk with flickering light, getting brighter with the oncoming darkness of night. A few tables are places outside the building though most are unoccupied two people sit drinking and chatting at one of them leisurely, not yet unaware of our presence. Isabelle hands Anna the leash and says she'll be right back. Tucking in her white dress shirt and buttoning the middle button of her jacket, she walks over to the table and speaks to them in French. They look at her and all three burst out laughing. Anna and I walk over to the trio then. Anna gives Isabelle the leash back and we look at the two others, once again identified as Juliette and Xavier. “Hi!” Juliette leaps out of her seat and pulls Anna into a tight, and for her unexpected, hug. She waves excitedly to me but luckily doesn't give me the same kind of treatment. The three of us sit down and look over the menu. Anna pokes me and points to two items in particular, pointing them out as the restaurant's specialties. A blonde haired waiter comes to the table and introduces himself as Gregory, and asks if we are ready to order, which we all are. Gregory takes our orders and menus then runs off towards the kitchen. Now might as well catch up with our friends.

“Hey Xavier.” He turns towards me with an ever expression. “What's the deal with the tree hats earlier? Why exactly were you hiding in a bush?” Juliette stifles a laugh and gives Xavier a look as if she's trying to say ‘go on, explain it!’ He sighs and chuckles “Eh, the those things? More for things that need camouflage, or perhaps you accidentally stole something and need to escape quickly, like what happened today. Simply put on the hat and dive into any nearby shrubbery and boom you're invisible!” Isabelle leans down on the table and buries her face in her hands, making what sounds to me, a severely annoyed noise almost like uuugggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh, just more exasperated. “You two are so stupid that's something Lucien would do.” Isabelle says through her hands. “Wait, why don't you just cast invisibility?” Anna asks the two. Isabelle looks up and claps her on the shoulder “finally the goddamn voice of logic speaks. Thank you Anna.” She shrugs “trust me I make more than enough illogical comments. Ask him.” She gestures to me and I look at her, then at our friends. “It's true.” Juliette speaks then, talking with her hands as well as her mouth, “Hey hey hey, everyone makes illogical comments from time to time. Some just do illogical and stupid things more than others.” Issy scoffs “Well that explains a lot.” She tosses her head in Xavier's direction, who is attempting to balance a napkin in his nose. Juliette quickly confiscates it and puts it in her bag, saying he'll get it back when the food comes. Luckily for him it came moments after.

After the meal is done and the bill paid the five of us split up, going back to our respective homes. Xavier walks with us until we get to the Lenox’s and waves goodnight as he disappears outside the city gate, towards his own home. Anna unlocks the door and drags me inside, as I had still been staring at the gate. She puts a finger to her lips, signaling the need for silence. “My parents are asleep.” She whispers and walks toward the room set aside for us. I check the time and follow her into the dimly lit room, closing the door behind me. Might as well try and get a somewhat decent amount of sleep.

THE NEXT DAY:

Opening my eyes and sitting up I look around, forgetting where I am for a moment. Anna sleeps curled up next to me and doesn't stir. Stretching and grabbing my watch from the side table I check the time, 10:00 AM it reads. Why am I so tired then? I feel a hand around my arm then “Remember it's five hours slower here? It's five AM.” Anna explains and pulls me down. The time difference, right. Had forgotten about that. There's a thud against my chest, looking down I see Anna once again fast asleep. I run a hand through her hair and down her side dozing until I fall into a deeper sleep. Only to be woken a few hours later by a knock at the door and light streaming in through the window. Mrs Lenox makes us breakfast and leaves us a small amount of money to go for lunch or something if we feel like it. “So what do you want to do today?” I ask Anna as we sit in the kitchen. She takes a bite of the muffin she's eating and pauses to think. “Hmmm. Oh, I know! You wanna see my art school?” I give her a confused look “I didn't know you went to art school.” She nods “That's what I did after I had finished high school.” Huh, well that explains a lot. “Uh, sure?” I shrug. “yay!” Anna says excitedly and claps. Her dad comes into the room and pours a cup of coffee before exiting out the back door. “Where's he going?” I ask, as I happen to not know what he does for work. “He's going to work. He's an accountant.” Well that's interesting “You certainly didn't inherit his math ability then.” I tease and she frowns. “That's mean!” I smirk “I'm kidding. So you wanna go before it gets too late?” She nods and grabs her keys that lay on the kitchen counter and practically runs out the door. I stand there for a moment, processing, then coming back to reality I grab the bag of medications and run out after her.

“So where are we going?” I ask for clarification as we walk to a section of the city we were not in yesterday. “The school I went to after high school. It's just up here.” She looks at a large concrete building that would be rather plain if it hadn't been for the colorful stained glass windows. Interesting, I wonder if some of the students made those, though it would have been a lot of work. The two of us get to the building in a number of minutes and push open the doors into a lobby. A middle aged woman sits at a desk reading a book looks up at us. “Miss Lenox is that you?” She asks putting on her glasses and squinting at Anna, leaning over her desk to get a closer look. Anna nods and gives the woman a kind smile “Yep! I brought someone I wanted to show around, if that's alright?” The woman laughs heartily “For you? Of course! Besides classes are out for the holiday so feel free to take a look at some of the classrooms.” Anna thanks her and comes back over to me, handing me a name tag identical to hers that identifies the two of us as visitors. We go up to the seventh floor, which is labeled as Illustration and graphic design. Anna peaks her head around a corner, looking down a corridor before signaling me to follow. I give her a look “this isn't a barrow or anything it's not like you need to be sneaking around.” I point out. “But it's more fun that way!...oh I'm just kidding lighten up. Or well I'm mostly kidding.” I stare at her blankly “anyways you had something to show me?” She nods and opens a paint splattered door, which I'm going to guess was not originally, or intentionally, made like that. She wanders around the room, easily walking amongst the metal stools and wooden tables strewn about the room as if she could do it in her sleep. I look into the room and step inside. It's got higher ceilings than I'd expected and the windows let an adequate amount of light in. Anna stops at a wall towards the back of the classroom and seems to be looking for something. “Found it!” She exclaims and point high up on the wall to an intricate charcoal drawing of dragon signed with the initials A.L on the bottom left corner. “Did you do that?” I ask in awe. She nods proudly “I was uhhh...hmm, I think I might have been around nineteen.” For a nineteen year old, even a talented one, something of that magnitude is quite a feat. “It was my final project for the semester. I don't think anything else of mine is hanging up here. But I did a couple of things like that and a watercolour painting the first semester I was here.” She explains and goes to look for another room in which we do in fact find the painting. After walking a bit more throughout the building we decide to go for lunch at a small market a few blocks away and spend the day doing mostly nothing of interest besides being generally lazy, no extravagant meals or running around meeting people and slightly awkward introductions.

The day goes by quickly and soon enough night falls. Anna falls asleep quickly but I am left unable to sleep, and so doing what I normally do when I can't sleep, I throw on some clothes and go for a walk. Leaving Anna a note I slip silently out and stand in the street for a moment deciding where to go. Though my focus is interrupted as I hear a door close and look to the source of the sound. It's Jillian again. She walks over to me and seems slightly concerned. “What are you up to? Is everything alright?” I nod “Couldn't sleep,that's all.” She gives an understanding smile and runs a hand through her hair “Well I was just going to meet up with my girlfriend Jordan you can tag along if you like. Or, say aren't you friends with Xavier and Juliette? I saw Juliette about fifteen minutes ago she's still up I know. I could walk you over there if you like.” She explains. I think it over wondering how much time I'd have before either I get tired of Anna wakes up. “I think I'll be seeing Juliette soon enough anyways but I hope you don't mind if I come with you.” Jillian smiles and nods “No problem. It's just up ahead at the place I saw you two earlier.” Thus I return to the same little market from this afternoon though in different company. Jillian gives me some insight onto Anna's childhood and general past as we walk and enter the dim confines of the building. Jillian gets the attention of a brown haired young woman who sits at the bar to come over. “Who's this Jill?” She asks gesturing to me. “This is Farkas. He's visiting with Anna. Only he couldn't sleep and went for a walk so I asked if he wanted to join us for a bit.” She explains and the woman offers to shake my hand, which I do. “The names Jordan.” She says. “Nice to meet you.” I reply. The two find a table and begin to chat while I wander the portion of the building where business transactions and selections would be made, rather than the restaurant portion. After some amount of time I begin to feel sleepy, and so bid goodnight to Jillian and Jordan and head back, entering the small house as quietly as I can and climbing into bed.

SEVERAL DAYS LATER

After having a rather eventful trip Anna and I bid our goodbyes. Anna hugs both of her parents tightly while I simply wave before being coaxed into a hug as well. She tells them she'll try to keep in touch more often and with that the two of us exit the house, instead going to say a much lighter hearted see-you-later to our friends, as we’re to see them in a few weeks when they come to Skyrim. Jillian nearly tackles Anna again as she goes toward the city gate while Jordan watches from further back and seems to be trying not to laugh. “You thought you'd get away without saying bye to me did ya Len?” Jillian exclaims hugging Anna tightly and shaking her around. Jillian puts her down and waves as the two of us head toward the train station. Now that the trip is over and the delayed introductions and awkward goodbyes are over its time for yet another long and hopefully less boring train ride.

TWO DAYS LATER

The two of us depart the train and grab our luggage from the terminal before beginning to walk home. It's about one in the morning and both of us are exhausted. Finally getting home we sleepily walk upstairs and fall into bed, already asleep before we hit it. Hours later I'm awoken by something pawing at my arm, it's Vigilance, the dog. Letting Anna sleep I get up, feed him, and take a shower. When I come back into the room it's around noon and daylight streams through the window, though she is still asleep. Nothing that throwing back the covers and a couple of prods couldn't help though. And so I wake her up, though she agrees reluctantly. I help her get dressed and the two of us go downstairs for a late breakfast. I sit looking through the paper when there is a knock at the door. Since Anna had gotten up for tea she answers it. I can't quite see who it is, all I can see is the bright almost flame red hair. I'm not sure what Anna and the man are discussing but it seems important.

Anna drops her tea with a clatter then and I get up to see who it is. It's Landon I see, wonder what he's doing here. “I have some news for you. It's important.”

To be continued...