Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jesper knew soulmates were a thing ever since he was little. Everyone knew they had a soulmate, it was one of those facts people threw around along with the sky being blue, but despite knowing soulmates existed, very few people ever tried to find theirs. Admittedly, sharing someone else’s pain doesn’t give much insight when it comes to finding your other half. Tamriel was a big continent, and trying to find that one person that you were destined for was like looking for a needle in a haystack, and considering that life in Tamriel wasn’t the easiest, there were also a good portion of the people who’s soulmates had died.

This was the case for Jesper. At least, he believed that was the case; he had no way to confirm, but he hadn’t felt any pain from his soulmate in years, which was usually interpreted as a sign they had passed. The thought of it always made him sad; being the hopeless romantic he was, he had always hoped to find his soulmate one day. But considering the amount of pain Jesper has been dealing with almost daily, maybe it was for the best that his soulmate was no longer of this world to feel it; ever since he’d joined the Whiterun guards, he never went a day without getting hurt, and now with the Dragonborn around, somehow it had gotten worse.

He had long since started tuning out the pain; he could barely feel the bruises anymore and he had gotten used to being hungry most of the time from having his rations stolen by other guards. He’d learned to keep a low profile and not draw attention to himself, he knew blending in was the best way to stay safe. So he kept quiet when around the others and always kept his uniform on, never removing his helmet so no one would notice his face; with the current climate in Skyrim, his pointed ears would definitely attract the wrong kind of attention, so it was for the best.

It wasn’t easy, but he got used to it. However, he never got used to the loneliness; isolating himself from the rest of the guards and most of the townspeople meant he didn’t really have any friends beside Hulda the inn keeper. He found himself lucky enough to be part of the guard exchange program that allowed him to meet new faces; like Kevin and Dave. Even Alder, although he didn’t quite understand his vibe. He was grateful for having met them, it made him feel a little less alone, but he couldn’t exactly say he felt welcomed in places like Windhelm or Riften.

Especially Riften; that place was the worst to him. He thought the guards in Whiterun were bad, the ones in Riften were ten times worse, and even if Lenny was generally nice to him, he knew that he was just as corrupt as the rest and it really rubbed him the wrong way. So he tried to avoid having to go there as much as possible. It’s not like he could do much there anyways; it was the home of the Thieves Guild, so he considered the place to be a lost cause.

Speaking of thieves, Jesper had a particular thief that made it a point to be a thorn in his side. He had arrested him a few times, not that it mattered much because the thief had escaped the cell in records time, but at least he was playing fair and never hurt him in any way. He didn’t understand the thief’s motivations; the thief had said he was doing things for his own entertainment, which Jesper couldn't wrap his mind around what in the world was entertaining about stealing stuff, but after he built a pad above the entrance to Whiterun, it appeared he’d be sticking around.

Jesper knew the thief was friends with Dave, but they just couldn’t get along. Every time they met, they would be arguing; he supposed they just had two completely opposite views of the world, but regardless, Jesper didn’t mind him as much as he said he did. But that didn’t change the fact that the thief could be down right annoying at times.

“Seriously? The Jarl’s desk? Why would you even steal that?” Jesper had asked.

“I don’t know, because I can,” the thief shrugged.

“Why are you always stealing from the Jarl? Did he do something?” Jesper asked.

“Beside being the Jarl? Not really. The guild just encourages us to steal from the nobility at any given opportunity,” the thief replied, “And who am I to turn down a good steal? Also our boss is going to love her new desk.”

“Please tell me you’re joking and that you’ll return the desk,” Jesper sighed.

“Nope. Also took the chair; gotta have matching furniture,” the thief laughed.

“You’re giving me so much paperwork, honestly I should arrest you just to make up for my overtime,” Jesper replied.

“Right, like you could catch me if I actually ran. You’d fall on your face before even making it to the gate,” the thief told him.

“Ugh, at least can you not do it when I’m on shift?” Jesper asked.

“Well, I try, but you’re always on shift, so that’s kinda on you for having such a busy schedule,” the thief replied.

“I hate that you’re right,” Jesper said, crossing his arms.

“I usually am,” the thief replied, “Anyways, gotta go. I have a desk to deliver to Riften.”

Jesper grumbled as he walked away. That thief was always such a pain to deal with; with the sarcasm and jabs at his job, Jesper never truly understood him. But even if he was a pain, Jesper would take dealing with him over having to deal with the Dragonborn and his chaos any day. The guard much preferred filling out paper work than being thrown into the moat or shouted halfway to Falkreath. Besides, the thief had a good side to him, despite not showing it often. Jesper knew it was there because he often found himself on the receiving end of his ‘good act of the month’ which Jesper also didn’t understand. Maybe it was his way of making up for all the trouble he was causing him? Jesper would have much preferred if he’d just stop stealing, or at least left to steal somewhere else, but apparently the thief was having too much fun in Whiterun. Whatever that meant.

So Jesper had resigned himself that dealing with the thief was going to be part of his daily life for a while; and considering how bad his daily life could be, this was barely making a dent in his armour. Between being picked on by the other guards, the townspeople mostly ignoring him and the Dragonborn being an agent of chaos, the thief was honestly the easiest to deal with, even if it was annoying.

Jesper just hoped his luck would change one day and that he’d find a way to be happy again despite the circumstances. Maybe if he could find someone; not his soulmate obviously, because they were probably dead, but he didn’t need a soulmate, he just needed someone that loved him enough, cared enough... But he’d probably never find anyone like that. Not in Whiterun anyways, maybe not even in Skyrim. But it’s not like he could leave anyway, it was just wishful thinking.

Chapter Text

The past few years had been very frustrating for Keith. Not because of work; he was and remained one of the best in the field. No, his frustration was caused by someone he didn’t know and likely never would; his soulmate. Keith hated that they shared feelings of pain with each other for the simple reason that his soulmate seemed to be in pain every other day; some days it was simple aches and sores, or the feeling of starving, others they were punches to the gut and flaring pain. The thief found it incredibly annoying, and at one point he thought his soulmate must have been doing it on purpose to spite him or something.

“Which one is it this time?” Lenny had asked one day as Keith was once again bent over in pain.

“Gut punch, I think,” Keith replied, angry “I fucking hate this.”

“Hey at least it’s not the feeling of drowning from last week,” Lenny said.

“How long do I have to endure this Len’?” Keith asked.

“Until one of you dies, I guess. But you should go out into the world and try to find your soulmate, maybe you can find out what the hell they’re doing to get hurt so much. There’s no way they’re doing it on purpose, unless they’re insane,” Lenny replied.

“Well, considering it’s been a few years since it started, I’d argue they might actually be crazy,” Keith replied.

“Eh at least you know they’re alive. I’m pretty sure mine’s dead,” Lenny shrugged.

“This sucks. I don’t want a soulmate, I don’t need one, so why do I have to deal with this bullshit?” Keith complained.

“You say that but I’m sure that if you find them, you’ll fall in love within a week,” Lenny replied.

“Why would I fall for the person who’s been annoying me for years now?” Keith asked.

“Because the universe said so, and also because you are a sentimental fool when it comes to things like that,” Lenny answered.

“Piss off, I’m not sentimental,” Keith said, offended.

“Oh trust me, you are,” Lenny grinned.

“Even if I was, which I am not, the chances of finding them are so low I wouldn’t be counting on that happening any time soon,” Keith huffed.

“Well, you’d better your chances if you got out of Riften more often. For the so called ‘Prince of the Thieves Guild’, you sure don’t go out much,” Lenny pointed out.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right regarding that. I should do more outside work,” Keith admitted.

And that’s how Lenny convinced him to do outside jobs more. Keith started by doing contracts in Windhelm and Falkreath, before expanding to the other holds. He’d met a few people on his travel and made some new connections; like Dave in Dawnstar and Alder in Falkreath, but there were still no signs of his soulmate. It’s not like he was actively looking for them, so he might have walked right past them without knowing. Finding one’s soulmate was extremely rare, so he wasn’t exactly surprised he hadn’t found them; he didn’t really care to find his soulmate, he had no reason to outside of making the random and frequent bouts of pain stop.

What he had found, however, was an awesome spot for him to have his own bacchelor pad. He had made it above the entrance of Whiterun and it was a pretty sweet spot; Whiterun was central and having a place to use as a pit stop between Riften and Solitude or Markarth made travelling a lot easier and a lot more efficient. But not everyone was agreeing it was a good idea; one of the guards, Jesper, wasn’t a fan of his new pad, however it did little in making Keith want to leave.

Jesper was, for a lack of a better word, a curious guy. Ever since Keith had met him, he couldn’t help but find him a little off. And it wasn’t because he was easily distracted, or because he was too soft when he was scolding him, or even from the lack of an actual sword. There was something in the way Jesper held himself and the way he talked that just felt off. Keith couldn’t put his finger on it, but it was there; lingering after every sentence and radiating from the guard like an aura.

But Keith didn’t have time to think about it too much. It wasn’t his problem anyways; he had places to be and things to steal. The thief had been praised for his recent steal; his boss had been very happy to be getting an ornate solid pine wood desk from the Jarl of Whiterun, with the matching chair of course, and Keith was only getting started. Maybe the guild would enjoy some paintings and tapestries next, it would definitely brighten up the Cistern a little, but first he could really use a new bed and mattress.

“Are you kidding me? The guest bed!?” Jesper had exclaimed.

“I would have taken the Jarl’s, but the palanquin was too big to fit in the Cistern,” Keith replied.

“Do you intend on furnishing the Thieves Guild with furniture from the Jarl!? How much stuff can even fit down there!?” Jesper said.

“Absolutely. But don’t worry, it won’t just be from the Jarl of Whiterun. The Jarl of Solitude has great paintings and tapestries I think would look really nice down there,” Keith grinned under his mask.

“...I heard they have great rugs in Dawnstar; imported from the Empire,” Jesper said.

“Are you giving me a tip?” Keith asked, surprised.

“Well, yeah. If you’re going to steal stuff, I’d rather it be in other holds, where it’s not causing me trouble,” Jesper replied.

“And yet you won’t accept a bribe,” Keith stated.

“Never. I’m not corrupt; just tired of dealing with paperwork,” Jesper told him.

“Thank you for the tip then, I’ll be sure to check those rugs next time I go north,” Keith replied as he disappeared into the shadows, “See ya!”

Well that was an interesting development, but all Keith could think about was how off things had felt again; there was just something about Jesper’s presence and tone of voice that gave Keith the same feeling he had whenever he was talking with someone that was obviously lying. However the thief knew Jesper wasn’t lying; the guard had the inability to lie, and he had no reason to try either. But there had been something in that conversation, something odd, fake, even.

Now even if Keith knew he had better things to do than investigate this weird aura Jesper had, he couldn’t shake the feeling off, so he made up his mind and decided to find out what exactly was giving him that vibe. Maybe he’d find out something useful he could use for blackmail or bribery, never had enough of those, and it’s not like spying on Jesper would be difficult or time consuming; the guard spent most of his time sweeping around Dragonsreach or in town. Keith expected an easy and even relaxing day or two of spying on the most boring target that he could later report as doing ‘information gathering work’ for the guild.

Sounded like a win to him.

Chapter Text

Jesper did not have a good week, in fact it may have been the worst week he ever had so far. It had been one of those weeks where things just went from bad to worst, and even when Jesper thought things couldn’t get any worse, somehow they did. First he had to deal with the thief, which admittedly was easy enough, but it was annoying, and then he had to deal with the Dragonborn playing with levitation and treating him like a rag doll.

As if it wasn’t enough, the other guards were being particularly mean to him this week for some reason; his rations had been stolen every day, leaving him starving the whole day as he worked, and he had to take in a few punches to not get his pay stolen on top of it. By the end of the week, he was battered and bruised and when his lunch break came around on Fredas, Jesper decided he needed to be alone for a bit and went to the Jarl’s library.

The library was barely used; the Jarl had most of his important records in his office, so the library was just filled with old books and research from the past court wizards. Nothing of significant value was held there, so nobody ever guarded the doors; meaning it was the perfect place for someone who wanted to be alone. Jesper had found it as he was sweeping the upstairs, and it quickly became one of his favourite spot for the simple fact that nobody would ever think to look for him there.

As he entered, he made his way to the very back of the room, past a table and some chairs, and into a small nook behind a bookcase. The space was small and hidden, nobody would know he was there, and even if they came looking, they likely wouldn’t find him; it was a like a pocket of non-existence, where once he walked in, he could forget the outside world and it could forget about him, which was exactly what Jesper needed right now.

Since he was the only one who ever came back there, he had left a bag with some food and some drinks in case he needed it; it wasn’t much, just some cheap mead, a loaf of stale bread and some old cheese, but he was starving so it was more than enough. The guard sat down on the floor, removed his helmet and started eating. This was one of the few place he felt safe enough to remove his helmet in, which made eating a lot easier since both of his hand were free. When he was done eating, he curled up on himself, bringing his knees to his chest and hiding his face against his arms as he felt tears burning up in his eyes.

“I can’t do this anymore...” he said to himself.

He stayed there for a while, quietly sobbing. He hated his job, this town and everybody in it – with the sole exception of Hulda, of course – and he hoped and prayed that one day he’d be able to run away from it all; but so many things needed to happen for him to even be able to quit his job, nevermind leaving Whiterun. But he could always dream.

Then, when he realized his lunch time was over, he wiped away his tears, put his helmet back on, got up and went straight back to work as if nothing had happened. When he finally finished his shift, he went straight to the Bannered Mare, ordered enough mead to get wasted so he could forget this awful week and passed out at his table.

However, the next morning he found himself in his bed. He didn’t remember making it up there; maybe Hulda had taken pity on him and helped him up, but how he made it there didn’t matter at the moment because he had a splitting headache to deal with before he could even think of getting up. Luckily for him, it seemed like he still had a hangover potion left, so he drank it and went back to sleep. When he woke up again in the early afternoon, he tried telling himself to get up, but he simply didn’t feel like moving; his entire body was hurting every time he moved because of all the bruises and other injuries he had accumulated over the duration of the week.

So he decided to stay in bed, spending most of the day drifting in and out of sleep. When he woke up later in the evening, Jesper found a bowl of venison stew waiting for him on his bedside table. Thinking Hulda must have brought it up for him, he made a mental note to thank her later before he sat up and started eating. This was the first warm meal he had eaten all week, and the stew tasted amazing.

Now that he was no longer hungry, he found it in himself to get up and go downstairs. Getting up and walking was slow and difficult cause of his aching body, but he wasn’t planning on going out, he simply thought he should at least go thank Hulda for her help.

“There you are, was wondering when you’d come down,” the innkeeper said.

“Thanks for helping me to my room yesterday and giving me a meal, Hulda,” Jesper said, “That stew was delicious, by the way.”

“No need to thank me, I didn’t do anything,” Hulda replied.

“Wait, so who helped me? Dave and Kevin aren’t here so it can’t be them,” Jesper asked.

“A mysterious man showed up, didn’t see his face but he clearly wasn’t from here. He picked you up from your table and brought you to your room. He came back again today to bring you that bowl of stew,” Hulda replied.

“Did he say anything?” Jesper asked.

“No, beside ordering the bowl of stew, he didn’t say anything,” the innkeeper told him.

“Well that’s odd. But it’s a shame he's not here, I’d like to thank him,” Jesper replied.

“I’m sure he’ll come around again,” Hulda nodded.

He didn’t spend too much time talking with Hulda before going back up to his room. When he got back, he retrieved his journal from his nightstand and started writing; he had started writing journals a few years back, when he first became a guard. At first it was meant to keep track of his achievements, but it had soon turned into some sort of therapy where he would vent out his frustrations. When he was done he put the journal away and went back to bed, hoping he’d find a reprieve from the aching and the pain in his sleep.

Tomorrow was another day, and hopefully it would be better than the one before it.

Chapter Text

Keith’s spying mission had started quite easy; Jesper was rarely doing anything other than busywork, so he didn’t go outside the city walls too much. All Keith had to do was find himself a nice spot he could watch and eavesdrop from and wait for something to happen. At least he thought that’s all this venture of his would require, and technically he had been correct, but he ended up learning way more about Jesper than he had bargained for, and not in the good way.

If from the outside, Jesper’s life had looked peaceful and, in Keith’s opinion, awfully boring, the thief was forced to come to the realization that it was all a front. He hadn’t paid attention before, but now that he was, he saw how awful most of the citizen where to Jesper, and how the other guards were picking on him when the commander or the Jarl weren’t around to reprimand them. And if at first it looked like a simple case of people being mean, Keith soon learned that it was way deeper and way worse than that.

As the week went on, Keith watched as the Dragonborn treated Jesper as his test subject for new weapons and spells and shooting at him as target practice. Now, Keith knew the Dragonborn was chaotic and had very little consideration for other people’s lives, but he found him to be particularly uncaring towards the guard. The thief was honestly surprised Jesper was still able to stand at the end of the day, because he sure was having trouble sneaking around.

But the worse were the other guards; because it turned out that they weren’t just picking on Jesper, they were bullying him for seemingly no reason, even when Jesper hadn’t done or said anything. Keith couldn’t do anything but watch the events as they unfolded; he saw them steal Jesper’s rations, letting Jesper starve for the rest of the day, and on Turdas one of them even tried to take part of his pay, and when Jesper stood up for himself, he was rewarded with a few hits once the commander had left.

However the real kicker was that Keith had learned that Jesper was his soulmate. He hadn’t expected it at all, but as he watched Jesper get hurt at the hands of everyone and acting like he was completely fine, Keith had felt it all, and it had hurt like hell. Yet, Jesper was still walking around acting like none of it had ever happened. At first, Keith thought that maybe Jesper had developed a very high pain tolerance and wasn’t bothered by any of it, but that assumption would soon be proven to be completely wrong.

On Fredas, he saw Jesper leave his post to go on his lunch break; Keith had followed, expecting to witness the same scene of Jesper’s rations being stolen by another guard, but instead of going to the refectory, Jesper went upstairs and into a room Keith had never noticed before. It turned out to be the Jarl’s library; he had never been there before, mostly because there wasn’t anything for him to steal there, but it seemed Jesper knew his way around. He followed Jesper and saw him disappear in a nook between bookshelves. Keith stood on the other side of the bookshelves and listened in. He heard Jesper eat; which he was grateful for because if the pain Keith was feeling in his stomach was any indication, the guard had been starving. After Jesper was done eating, the thief heard him move around a little before everything became quiet. Keith kept listening, and before long, he heard Jesper speak.

“I can’t do this anymore...” he said.

Keith had heard the tears in his voice and felt the deep sadness these words had come from; and when a small, quiet sob broke the silent stillness of the library, the thief felt a tug in his heart and had to fight the urge to go comfort him. Keith stood there for a moment, trying to process everything before he left, needing to go outside so he could think about what to do next. When he got back into the streets of Whiterun, he went to his pad above the entrance and sat down. He needed to get his thoughts in order.

First, Jesper was his soulmate. He had figured it out earlier in the week, but it didn’t take a genius to come to that conclusion. Keith had quickly picked up on the fact that he also felt pain when the guard got hurt, in the same places too, and with how much Jesper had gotten hurt the past few days, he’d had plenty of opportunities to confirm it. He didn’t know how he felt about that discovery yet, but he knew that Jesper absolutely could not find out no matter what.

Second, there was the shared pain. Now that Keith knew who his soulmate was, he now knew the source of the pain, which admittedly was a good thing, because that meant he could figure out a way to make it stop. The downside being that he couldn’t simply stroll up to Jesper and tell him to stop getting hurt for the simple reason that Jesper had little control over the roots of his own pain.

Which brings him to Jesper himself. After what he had witnessed in the library, Keith had finally figured out what about the guard had made him feel like something was off; it was because Jesper was hiding, well, everything. It was no wonder why Keith’s lie detecting sense had been ticked off, the guard was actively lying to everyone around him, including himself that everything was fine when in reality, he was already at the end of his rope.

This realization made everything else he had seen make a lot more sense, because Keith also picked up on other behaviours that pointed towards Jesper not doing as well as he pretended to be; stashing food and hiding to eat, flinching when someone raises their voice, always wearing his helmet and armour also when off duty, even when he ate, he would only lift the helmet enough to uncover his mouth. The guard didn’t have a high pain tolerance like the thief had initially thought; Jesper was just putting all of the little energy he had into pretending everything was alright. Not because he didn’t want anyone to worry about him, but because he didn’t want to stir the pot and bring in even more trouble onto himself. It wasn’t consideration, it was survival.

It was when he reached this conclusion that Keith decided he had to do something about it. For years now he had wanted to make the pain stop, and knowing what he knew now, Jesper probably felt the same way. So he was going to do both of them a favour and deal with it at the source, and he wasn’t going to half-ass it either. Jesper and him had to endure all of it for years and Keith wasn’t going to make it a one and done deal, so he needed to plan ahead and set things up perfectly.

He was going to give them the greatest payback in history.

Now that he was done thinking, he got up and went to work. He needed to get his work done before he did anything else. When he finished his work, it was already past midnight, and he decided to go check in on Jesper; while he was planning their revenge, he needed to make sure that the guard was alright. So he went to the Bannered Mare and saw the guard drunk and passed out at his table. At first Keith wanted to turn around and leave, but he didn’t have the heart to leave him there, so he picked him up and brought him to his room, laying him down on the bed before heading out again.

The next day, Keith woke up in the afternoon and started planning; now that he was done with work, he had the entire day to sit and think on how to bring the people of Whiterun to their knees. However he quickly hit an obstacle, which turned out to be Jesper himself; with him around, it wasn’t unlikely that he’d get caught in the crossfire, so he needed him to get out of town for a while...

It was then that he had a brilliant idea, but he needed to head out to Riften first. Since it was already evening and the sun was setting, he decided he’d go the next day and get things sorted out. In the meantime, he decided to go check in on Jesper again; Keith hadn’t felt any pain today other than the residual aches and sores, so he was a little worried. He had felt the hangover headache in the morning, but nothing since, which was weird. Jesper was clumsy enough that even on days where the others weren’t picking on him, he always managed to trip on a rock or stub his toes, so this nothingness was really unusual.

However when he went to the Bannered Mare, he found Jesper fast asleep in his room and by the looks of it, he had probably spent all day in bed. Relieved to know he had nothing to worry about, Keith when back downstairs, and knowing Jesper probably hadn’t eaten all day, he bought him a bowl of stew and went back up to leave it on the guard’s nightstand before disappearing into the early darkness of the night.

It was time to start setting things in motion.

Chapter Text

Jesper had been feeling better lately. Ever since that awful week, things had started to die down and return to a more ‘normal’ state. The guards were still picking on him, the townspeople were still ignoring him and the Dragonborn was still chaotic as ever, but it seemed like Jesper’s luck had finally come around; when the guards stole his rations, he seemed to always be able to find something else to eat, and there was constantly food ready for him when his shift ended. He also noticed that he appeared to always have a healing potion available in his room on the days he got hurt, and that he always seemed to have enough coins in his pocket to buy the things he needed and always found the things he thought he had lost. It was like someone was looking out for him and helping him make his days a little less difficult.

But Jesper knew better; obviously he was just being lucky and nobody was actually looking out for him. He knew it was only a matter of time before his luck ran dry again and he’d be back to square one, but at least for the time being, he could enjoy this small respite in the never ending cycle of bad luck he seemed to had found himself in the past few years.

However he wasn’t the only one who noticed his new luck; Dave and Kevin had also noticed and were just as puzzled as Jesper was. They didn’t question it; they were glad Jesper’s life was improving, especially considering how bad it had been before. Dave and Kevin had always made it a point to come to Whiterun as often as they could so they could help Jesper out and support him when he needed it, but unless they officially transferred to Whiterun, they couldn’t be there as often as would’ve been necessary to keep the bad luck at bay.

“I don’t know where you got this luck from Jesper,” Kevin told him, “But I’m glad things are finally looking up for ya.”

“Me too. I’m a little less scared of going back to Riften next week,” Jesper admitted, “I don’t know why, but they requested me specifically.”

“Well that’s weird. Maybe they’re finally doing something about the Thieves Guild?” Kevin said.

“I wouldn’t count on that,” Dave replied, “The Thieves Guild is doing great at the moment.”

“I almost hope they’re not. I feel safer around the Thieves Guild than the other guards...” Jesper admitted.

“Well, that makes sense, Dave’s got friends in the guild,” Kevin said.

“That is true, my friends are also your friends, Jesper,” Dave stated, “And that includes some members of the Thieves Guild.”

“I would hardly call the guy I argue with all the time and don’t know the name of my friend,” Jesper replied.

“I’m sure you guys will get along eventually, the two of you are more alike than you think. You just need some time to get to know each other,” Dave said.

“Whatever you say Dave,” Jesper chuckled.

Jesper spent the rest of the week with Kevin and Dave, which allowed him to heal from the previous week’s sores. The Dragonborn was also gone, so it helped a lot when it came to staying out of trouble. When the time came to head to Riften, Jesper was very apprehensive of the welcome he’d be given once he got there. However, when he arrived at the main gate, Lenny greeted him and he seemed to be in a good mood.

“Heya Jasper, good to see you,” Lenny said.

“Hi Lenny, good to see you too,” Jesper replied, nervous.

“Staying with us for a while yeah? Hope you won’t miss Whiterun too much,” Lenny told him.

“Yeah, I’m not sure why I was requested specifically... I’m just going to keep a low profile, I don’t want trouble with anyone while I’m here,” Jesper told him.

“You worry too much Jasper. I’m sure you’ll be just fine here; but since you’ll be staying a while, we’ll have to get you properly outfitted. Don’t want you walking around in Whiterun’s colours while in Riften,” Lenny said.

“Oh, I suppose you’re right, it would be a bit odd,” Jesper agreed, “Do I have to pay the fee to get in?”

“Nah, not this time buddy. I’m in a good mood so you get in for free,” Lenny told him, “Just head in and wait for me near the keep. I’ll join you in a minute once my shift is up and help you get settled in.”

“Thanks Lenny, I appreciate it,” Jesper said.

Jesper walked into Riften and found a bench near the outer walls of the keep to sit and wait for Lenny. He knew he wasn’t liked very much by the locals but to his surprise, things didn’t seem as bad this time around. Still, he knew better than to attract attention so he stayed put until Lenny arrived.

“Alright, let’s go get you your uniform and then I’ll show you where you’ll be staying,” Lenny said.

Jesper agreed and followed Lenny into the barracks where he was given a Riften guard uniform. He put it on and followed Lenny to his house.

“Uh, Lenny?” Jesper asked.

“Yes Jasper?” Lenny replied.

“Aren’t you supposed to show me where I’m staying? Why are we at your house?” Jesper asked.

“Because you’ll be staying with me this time bud,” Lenny said, “Lucky you I have a guest bedroom and my wife loves to have people over.”

“Oh, okay...Thanks Lenny,” Jesper said.

This entire thing was starting to feel weird; first he was requested to go to Riften for an extended period of time, was given the Riften uniform and now he was staying at Lenny’s house instead of the barracks or the inn. Jesper had no idea what to make of all this, but he decided not to question it too much; he knew that the one thing he shouldn’t do in Riften is ask questions, so he kept his mouth shut and did as he was told.

The next few days were more or less the same, however Jesper noticed how differently he was treated compared to the last time he was in Riften; the other guards didn’t bother him, most of the citizen were friendly enough and the Thieves Guild...Well, they’d always left him alone for the most part, but he had crossed the path of one or two guild members, and they’d given him a quiet nod before disappearing. He had no idea what the meaning behind all of this was, but he didn’t mind it at all. If anything, this was miles better than Whiterun. Even his tasks were better; instead of sweeping Mistveil Keep all day, Jesper had been given various small tasks around town. They weren’t anything to write home about, but tending to the flowerbeds and doing basic maintenance around town was much more rewarding than sweeping all day.

Since his luck had apparently followed him to Riften, Jesper decided to try and enjoy the city as much as he could. He had been in Riften for a few weeks when one evening, Lenny seemed to be in a good mood because the Riften guard had decided they had to go out drinking together. Jesper didn’t mind, but he was surprised to end up at the Ragged Flagon down in the Ratway rather than the Bees and Barbs inn. Jesper didn’t mention it; by now he knew how closely Lenny was working with the Thieves Guild, so he knew better than to put his nose where it didn’t belong. However, that didn’t make him feel any less uncomfortable.

“You play the lute right?” Lenny asked him after a few drinks.

“Yes, I do. It’s just a hobby though,” Jesper replied.

“Sweet, did you bring your lute with you, music man?” Lenny asked.

“Of course, I always bring it with me,” Jesper replied.

“Then why don’t you play us a song? Come on, it’ll brighten up this gloomy place,” Lenny said.

“I’m not sure...I’m not exactly a bard,” Jesper replied.

“Come on Jasper! You can’t be that bad! Besides, it’s not like you got much competition,” Lenny laughed.

“Alright then... I suppose I can play a song or two,” Jesper agreed.

“Attaboy!” Lenny cheered.

Jesper got up and grabbed his lute. He went to the centre of the flagon and began playing a few cords before starting on a song. He had to admit he had fully expected to be interrupted and told to can it, but it never happened. He was able to finish the entire song and when he did, he was met with applause. He decided to do another one, and the same thing happened; he played the entire thing uninterrupted and got cheers and applause at the end. Jesper decided not to push his luck any further and stopped, but he was glad that his music had been well received by the patrons of the bar.

After getting a few more drinks with Lenny, Jesper decided to call it a night and left to make his way back out to go to Lenny's house. Not being very familiar with the Ratway, he was very much stumbling around trying to find the exit. However, as he was about to fall on his face after tripping on a hole in the stone flooring, he felt a hand grab him and pull him back straight, but when he turned around to thank whomever had helped him, he was met with the damp darkness of the Ratway. Thinking he had imagined it, Jesper turned back around and finally made it out of the confusing tunnel system and got to Lenny's house.

The next day, the guard had all but forgotten about what had happened in the Ratway the night before. At least until the same thing happened again; he’d been pushed by one of the locals because he was standing in their way, but instead of falling, he found himself being caught by someone behind him; however once he looked back to thank the person, there was nobody there.

And these occurrences wouldn’t stop there; clumsy as he was, he found himself tripping over the unfamiliar terrain a lot. But every time, a hand would grab him or an arm would catch him, preventing him from falling and getting hurt, and every time Jesper turned to thank whomever had helped him, he only found an empty space where a person should have been. This was both confusing and a little freaky, to say the least. He was certain someone had helped him, so somebody had to had been there to do so, but he never saw anyone. Was a ghost watching over him? Or maybe he was catching himself and imagining that someone had helped him?

But it was happening so often during his stay in Riften, there was no way it was all a figment of his imagination. And ghost couldn’t interact with the living like that as far as he knew, so someone had to be doing this. Maybe it was a Riften thing of helping people and disappearing afterwards. When he left Riften he fully expected those instances to stop.

Surely this had been one of those weird Riften things and it wouldn’t happen once he got back to Whiterun.

Chapter Text

Keith had spent a few days plotting and getting the resources he would need to execute his plan, while always making sure Jesper was doing alright; he made sure the guard had food to eat, coins in his pockets and potions if he got hurt. It was the least he could do while he was getting everything sorted for the payback plan. After he was done planning, he’d gone to Riften to take care of the first step of his plan, which was to get Jesper out of Whiterun so he wouldn’t get caught up in the crossfire and become collateral damage. Keith had figured out exactly how he’d get Jesper out of the city, and he would even get him to the safety of Riften. Well, Riften wasn’t currently safe for Jesper, but that could be changed with minimal effort on his part. So when he arrived, he went to Lenny’s house to ask for a favour.

“Hey Lenny,” he’d said as he entered his friend’s home.

“Hey Keith! Glad to see you back in Riften,” Lenny greeted, “How’s it going?”

“Not bad. I found my soulmate,” Keith replied.

“The person that’s been making you keel over in pain every other Fredas for the last few years?” Lenny asked.

“Yeah, and the thing is it’s all out of his control,” Keith replied.

“Uh-oh, I smell a bad situation here,” Lenny replied.

“Yeah, it’s bad, I am planning on doing something about it, but I need you to do me a favour” Keith said.

“Sure thing pal, what do you need?” Lenny asked.

“I need you to request Jesper be transferred to Riften for a while,” Keith said.

“Jasper? The goodie-two-shoes Whiterun guard that won’t take a bribe?” Lenny asked.

“Yes, that one,” Keith replied.

“Do I get to know the reason or?” Lenny inquired.

“He’s my soulmate, but I need him out of Whiterun for a while so I can deal with his...Situation,” Keith told him

“By the Nines, I would’ve never guessed that Jasper of all people was your soulmate. Why didn’t you just bring him here?” Lenny asked.

“He doesn’t know we’re soulmates yet; and I want to keep it that way. It’s better if he never finds out,” Keith replied.

“And why is that?” Lenny asked.

“Because he hates people like me, duh,” Keith replied.

“You were always the most dramatic thief in the guild. The universe wouldn’t give you a soulmate that hated you, dumbass, that would defeat the whole point of being soulmates in the first place” Lenny told him.

“Well maybe that’s the case here, nobody really knows how that soulmate thing works anyways,” Keith replied.

“I’m telling you, I’d bet good money that he wouldn’t reject you if you told him you were his soulmate,” Lenny replied, “But since that’s not my secret to tell, I’ll do what I can to bring him over here. Anything else?”

“If you could make sure the other guards don’t gang up on him, that would be great. I’ve been watching over him, and with the Dragonborn walking around, it’s kind of difficult to keep him from getting hurt all the time,” Keith admitted, “If you could also make sure he gets to eat three meals a day, that would also be really helpful.”

“Right, of course. You can count on me,” Lenny told him, “But I really think you should tell him. Finding your soulmate is extremely rare. I’m sure he’d warm up to you if you sat down and talked to him. Properly, without all the sarcasm.”

“I’ll think about it,” Keith agreed.

“Good! Now come over here and have some dinner!” Lenny cheered.

Keith was glad Lenny would be keeping Jesper out of trouble while he dealt with the situation in Whiterun, but he couldn’t help but wonder if Lenny was right and that he universe wouldn’t have given him a soulmate that hated him. But he wasn’t in any hurry to find out. Right now he was happy with just keeping Jesper safe and fulfilling his contracts with the guild.

After finishing dinner with Lenny and his wife, he went to the Cistern to complete the second step of his plan, which was to make sure Jesper would be safe in Riften. Once he got down into the Cistern, he headed to the boss’ office and knocked.

“Come in!” the boss said from the other side of the door.

“Hey there,” Keith greeted as he sat down in one of the empty chairs, “So how’s the new desk?”

“Keith, my employee of the month! The desk is wonderful, you did a great job at picking it out,” the boss said, “But I get the feeling that you didn’t come all the way here to ask me about the desk.”

“Yeah, actually I have a question; do we have a policy on soulmates?” Keith asked.

“Hm, no, we don’t. I never thought anyone in the guild would find their soulmates, but I suppose the policy on spouses would apply,” she told him.

“Well, here’s the thing: My soulmate doesn’t know we’re soulmates yet, but I need to keep him safe. Does the policy on spouses applies even if we are not dating, or even friends?” Keith asked.

“That’s a good question. Soulmates should be protected by the guild regardless of relationship status since the pain is shared...So yes, the policy would apply once a clause is added regarding soulmates,” she replied.

“Okay great, because he’s going to be coming to Riften soon, so I want him to be safe here while I’m dealing with a few people,” Keith told her.

“I see. Let me know the details and I will let everyone know he has to be kept safe,” she said.

“If you could also make sure the soulmate part doesn’t get out of the guild, I’d be very grateful,” Keith requested.

“Of course, I understand. You want to tell him on your own terms. I’ll make sure nobody opens their big mouth,” she smiled.

“Thanks Livia, you’re the best,” Keith said.

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” she grinned, “If there isn’t anything else, you can take your leave.”

Keith nodded, got up and left. Now that he knew Jesper was going to be safe in Riften, he went to cash in on his contracts before going to the Ragged Flagon for a drink. He chatted and drank with the other members of the guild until late, when he finally decided to call it a night. The next day, he didn’t waste any time and he gathered his gear, bought a few things he would be needing in the execution of his plan and went back to Whiterun.

For the entire week, he simply followed Jesper around and made sure he was fine until he left for Riften. Thankfully, Kevin and Dave were there, meaning the other guards were behaving themselves so Keith didn’t have much to worry about. Once Jesper left to go to Riften, the thief finally set up the third part of his plan, which was the revenge.

Chapter Text

Keith had decided to start small and work his way up. The reason being that not everybody needed the same level of revenge, because while some people were just mean, others where the scums of Nirn. So the first week, he had set up traps and pranks that wouldn’t really hurt anyone, but they had definitely ruined people’s day for the vast majority of them.

After he had finished hurting everyone’s egos, he spent the beginning of the second week getting the guards in trouble with the commander, making them go against orders by riling them up and generally being a menace around town, stealing every valuables and family heirlooms he could. People were putting in more complaints than ever, and the guards were swamped with endless paperwork while the townspeople were mad about their precious heirlooms and it sparked more than a few fights around town.

In the later half of the second week, he got to do some good old property damage; breaking windows, removing doors, destroying stalls, defacing sculptures and paintings, leaving a few graffiti on the walls, anything he could get his hands on was fair game. The few people he was doing this to were tearing their hairs out trying to keep anything intact in their homes and the guards weren’t spared either; Keith had broken a few beds and destroyed any property the targeted guards had.

By that point, people were already going crazy, fighting with each other and accusing others of being behind everything that was happening, but Keith wasn’t done. He still had the pièce de resistance left; the thief had been able to get his hands on multiple letters from the Dark Brotherhood, all thanks to his dear sister. The letters were simple, but they were a very efficient warning. He had given the letters to his targets, guards and civilians alike, that had been particularly cruel to Jesper and Keith could only revel as he watched them squirm nervously when they got the letters. And to add to the paranoia, he had made sure that the letters would arrive when the Dark Brotherhood actually had a contract in Whiterun, making all of them fear they would be next.

It had been the perfect revenge; he had made his target’s lives just as miserable as Jesper’s had been for almost a whole month and given them a taste of their own medicine while also giving them a clear warning not to mess around again, lest they find themselves on the other end of a Dark Brotherhood contract. And now that he was done and satisfied, he was able to go back to Riften knowing that Jesper would never have to endure what these people had put him through ever again. Of course, Keith hadn’t been able to do anything regarding the Dragonborn, but he had another solution for that that was a little less drastic that mostly consisted of distracting him so he’d leave Jesper alone. If it worked for the guild, it would work for Jesper as well.

Once he arrived back in Riften, he went to talk to Lenny first to see how Jesper was doing. Considering the lack of aches and pain he had felt, it was safe to assume Jesper was doing just fine, but Keith still wanted to know how things had been going.

“Oh he’s doing great,” Lenny said, “I gave him some tasks around town and he seems quite happy with that. I don’t think he ever spent a day without tripping over something, but he hasn’t gotten hurt otherwise. The wife also loves talking with him at lunch and dinner.”

“That’s good to hear. I’m done in Whiterun, so when he goes back there shouldn’t be any problems,” Keith said.

After talking with Lenny for a while, Keith went back to the Cistern to check in with the guild, letting the boss know that he had dealt with what needed dealing with, and took on a new list of contracts. He went to the Ragged Flagon to drink and celebrate his perfect revenge, however, he was surprised when he saw Jesper up at the bar with Lenny, in a Riften uniform no less. Why did Lenny bring him down there of all places? Keith stuck to the shadows in the corners so Jesper wouldn’t spot him, stubbornly determined not to tell Jesper about them being soulmates, but when Keith heard him sing, his resolve wavered.

He’d never taken the time to think about how he actually felt knowing Jesper was his soulmate; he’d just accepted it because it was fate. But as he watched Jesper play, and listened to his voice echo throughout the flagon, it sparked something in him. It was a feeling he couldn’t quite describe but it was one he understood too well; it felt like a wish, a longing, a hope. Keith felt like Jesper’s voice was speaking to his very soul. It was then that he understood why the universe had decided they were to be soulmates.

If only he could tell him...

Once Jesper was done and called it a night after a few more drinks, Keith followed him into the Ratway. He knew Jesper was a little drunk, and the Ratway wasn’t exactly the easiest to navigate, so he followed, and when Jesper tripped and fell, he was there to catch him. Of course, he made sure that Jesper never spotted him, so when he caught him, he disappeared into the shadows as soon as Jesper was standing.

He repeated that process multiple times over the remainder of Jesper’s stay in Riften. The guard really was clumsy, so Keith made sure that he’d be there to catch him at every fall. He knew Jesper had noticed someone was helping, but he also knew that the guard didn’t know who it was. So as long as he remained hidden and had some invisibility potions at the ready, there was no harm in him doing that.

“You’re being dramatic again,” Lenny told him.

“I’m not!” Keith argued, offended.

“You’re sighing like a fool in love. So yes, you are,” Lenny replied, “Save us the theatrics and go tell him.”

“First of all, fuck you. Second of, it’s not that simple Len’,” Keith replied.

“But it literally is that simple. You’re just overthinking everything like usual; you made up that idea in your head that he would hate you and reject you so now you’re being dramatic like this is a forbidden love story or something. He’s your soulmate pal, even if he reacts badly at first, I’m sure he’ll come around within day or so,” Lenny told him.

“That’s the thing; I don’t want him to react badly! And what if he doesn’t come around? What then? I just avoid him for the rest of my life?” Keith said.

“Well, wouldn’t be the first time you ran away from your problems,” Lenny chuckled.

“You’re an asshole,” Keith sighed.

“An asshole that speaks the truth,” Lenny retorted.

Keith groaned before leaving to go back to the Cistern and get ready to make his way back to Whiterun as Jesper’s stay was coming to an end. He also bought a lot of invisibility potions; he knew for a fact that he'd need them if he wanted to keep Jesper from getting hurt because of his own clumsiness.

Chapter Text

Leaving Riften felt...Weird. He had gotten used to the city and he had to admit, his time there had been so much better than before, and so much better than his average day in Whiterun, that if Jesper was being honest, he would’ve liked to stay there. However, he had to return to Whiterun. He could always request a permanent transfer to Riften, but it could take a while just to get through the paperwork. He was hoping that things would be better in Whiterun now that his luck had changed, and that things wouldn’t go back to how they were before, but he wasn’t exactly counting on that.

However, much to his surprise, when he got back to Whiterun it seemed that things had changed for the better; people were nicer, the other guards were leaving him alone for the most part, and for once Jesper wasn’t feeling trapped by the city walls. He felt safer, more at ease in his own home, so to speak. It seemed like something had happened while he was gone, he didn’t dare to ask, but Dave and Kevin had a lot to tell him. They hadn’t been there either, but they had been told exactly what went down and it wasn’t pretty.

“Yeah, apparently there was a lot of theft, property damages, and even the Dark Brotherhood came to town and gave some people warnings,” Kevin said.

“That sounds insane. Are we sure the Dragonborn isn’t behind this?” Jesper asked.

“The Dragonborn isn’t this meticulous. He would have gotten caught. Who ever did this had a vendetta against very specific people,” Dave said.

“Well, I’m glad it’s over and that I wasn’t there to deal with any of it. At least people are nicer now,” Jesper replied.

“Speaking of, how was Riften?” Kevin asked.

“Surprisingly nice! Didn’t get in trouble or anything, I even got to play a few song at the Ragged Flagon and the patrons actually enjoyed it!” Jesper said cheerfully.

“That’s great! Hulda is planning on having a music night soon, think you’ll sign up?” Dave asked.

“Maybe...Hopefully my luck continues until then,” Jesper replied.

“We’ll make sure to be in town so we can cheer for you bud,” Kevin said.

They kept talking and walking, until Jesper tripped on stray bag of produce near the market but instead of falling flat on his face, he felt a hand grab his shoulder to bring him back up. It was the same one from Riften, of that he was certain; the hand was strong, stable and sure. But as soon as Jesper was standing up straight again, it disappeared and when he turned around, he was once again met with nothing but the cold air of Whiterun’s street.

“You alright there Jesper?” Dave asked.

“I’m not sure... Something weird has been happening lately. Ever since Riften; every time I trip over something, someone catches me, but when I turn around, there’s nobody there,” Jesper told them.

“Sounds like a ghost,” Kevin pointed out.

“I don’t think that’s how ghosts work, Kevin,” Jesper replied.

“Well, maybe it’s not a ghost, but a person who’s invisible,” Dave said.

“So, a ghost,” Kevin reiterated.

“No no, ghosts are dead, invisible people aren’t. Trust me, I would know,” Dave replied.

“But why would they be invisible if they ain’t a ghost?” Kevin asked.

“I don’t know. Plenty of people make use of invisibility spells and potions for various reasons,” Dave shrugged.

“Why would they use it to prevent me from falling on my face?” Jesper asked.

“Well, you know how your soulmate shares part of your pain right? Maybe that’s related to it,” Kevin chimed in.

“Oh I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure my soulmate is dead,” Jesper admitted.

“Why’s that?” Kevin asked.

“I felt a lot of pain when I was younger, and nothing since,” Jesper explained, “I’ve asked around and most people say that when that happens, it means your soulmate has passed.”

“Maybe they’re just being very careful now? Soulmate stuff never made sense to me,” Dave shrugged.

“I still think you’re being haunted by a ghost. A well-meaning one, but definitely a ghost,” Kevin stated.

“I suppose I’ll have to wait and see. I just wish I could thank them for helping me out,” Jesper sighed.

“I’m sure they know you’re grateful for their help,” Dave replied.

They walked away as they kept talking. Jesper now wanted more than ever to know who was helping him, but how could he catch someone who’s reflexes were probably much quicker than his own? He knew there was no way any of it was related to his soulmate like Dave had proposed, but he still wanted to know who was helping him and why were they invisible? Surely there was a reason behind these invisible interventions; maybe whomever was behind them also had something to do with his sudden change of luck. The gears in his mind were turning faster than a windmill in a storm; he had to find out who was helping him and what their motivations were.

As he was thinking, he remembered the mysterious man Hulda had said helped him when he was drunk and had gotten him food the next day. Maybe the two were related; maybe the mysterious man was also the invisible person helping him. However he had no real way of finding out unless he found a way to establish communication with the ‘ghost’.

That night, as he was writing in his journal, Jesper had a great idea; he could establish communication with whomever the helpful ‘ghost’ was through writing! So he grabbed a piece of paper, and wrote a short note:

‘Hello ghost!

I know you’re not really a ghost, but I don’t know your name. Thank you for helping me and making everything easier, I’m really grateful, but I wanted to know why you’re doing all this?

Thanks,

Jesper.’

He then folded the note and put it in his pocket for the next day. He knew the person helping was likely also behind all those lucky happenings, which included always having money in his pocket, so he put the note there to make sure that when the ghost – he knew they weren’t a ghost, but it was easier to call them that for the time being - went to put coins in his pocket, they’d find the note.

Surprisingly, it worked, because the next day, when he finished patrol, he found that the note was gone. Now all Jesper had to do was wait and see if the ghost would reply to him; fortunately for him, he didn’t have to wait for long. That same evening, he found a new note in his pocket. He took it out and read it;

‘Hi,

Name’s Keith.

That’s all you need to know.

- Keith the Ghost.’

Well, it was better than nothing. At least now he had a name he could use instead of calling the guy a ghost. Unfortunately, he tried writing to Keith again to ask more questions, but he never replied back, so now Jesper was back to square one, the only difference being that now, whenever Keith would help him, he would thanks him out loud. He might not be able to see him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be polite to him.

Sadly he didn’t have the time to try other ways of communicating with him, because troubles arrived in the form of one too many bandit raids, and once they had dealt with them, Jesper felt exhausted. It also didn’t help that it seemed his luck was beginning to run out because the other guards were starting to tease him again. However he was grateful that it appeared things weren’t going to be as bad as before; everything they were doing was very mild in comparison to how it had been before, and most of the other guards were leaving him alone still. It seemed like he still had some luck left, and he was hoping it would last.

Chapter Text

Keith had been surprised to find the first note, but he had to admit it was a smart move from Jesper to think of it. He had replied to the note, giving Jesper his name. He didn’t see any harm in doing that; the guard only knew him as ‘the thief’, so he wouldn’t be able to link it back to him. He hadn’t replied to any of the other notes, however. Jesper was asking too many questions and Keith didn’t want to risk it. On top of that, things had been a little rough lately; Keith had a lot of work to do, meaning he had less time to keep Jesper safe. He still tried his best, but of course he couldn’t follow the guard during every waking hour, that was simply ridiculous. He was only one man after all, and he already had a full time job, so he couldn’t dedicate all his time to preventing Jesper from getting hurt because of his own clumsiness. Thankfully, Dave and Kevin where there for a little while, so at least that meant Jesper would be safe for the most part, at least from others. That was one less thing he had to worry about.

However despite his previous efforts, it appeared some of the guards still needed to be taught a lesson, because they had started picking on Jesper again. It wasn’t as bad as before; Keith didn’t feel much pain, but he still made a note to give them some payback when he had the chance. Didn’t want them to think they could get away with it now; and he still had some of those Dark Brotherhood letters left. He had kept them exactly for that reason, so he would be sending them soon. However, right now, he was busy getting caught by the only guard he ever let himself be caught by, which was Jesper.

“Oh, you’re back,” Jesper said when he caught him, “I had a feeling you were the one behind all those recent robberies.”

“Missed me did you?,” Keith teased, “So, are you taking me to jail or will you finally accept a bribe?”

“No dice, thief. It’s prison time for you,” Jesper replied sharply.

“Shame. I was hoping to get you on my side since you were getting along with Lenny back in Riften,” Keith told him.

“You were there?” Jesper asked.

“Well, yes. It’s Riften, Jesper, home of the Thieves Guild. Why wouldn’t I be there?” Keith retorted.

“Good point. But I wouldn’t count on that happening, that time in Riften was just weird,” Jesper admitted.

“How so?” Keith asked.

“Well, for one, I wasn’t beat up by the other guards as soon as I arrived. And I wasn’t told to shut up when I played a song,” Jesper told him.

“Guess everyone was in a good mood,” Keith said, “And your songs were good, so nobody had any reason to interrupt you.”

“You were there when I played?” Jesper asked, surprised.

“Well, yeah. You were at the Ragged Flagon. That’s practically my house,” Keith replied.

“Right. Well, I’m glad you thought my songs were good. I was wondering if people actually enjoyed them or if they were just being nice,” Jesper admitted.

“Why would you care about what I think of your songs? I’m just a thief,” Keith said.

“And? Because we don’t see eye to eye most of the time doesn’t mean I don’t value your opinion,” Jesper replied.

“I suppose. Well, I did like you songs, and so did our boss, so you are free to come back and play at the Ragged Flagon whenever you’re in Riften,” Keith told him.

“I’ll think about it” Jesper said, cutting their conversation short.

Now that they were done talking, Jesper put him in his cell before locking him up and leaving. Keith proceeded to escape, not wanting to waste any time. He had much better things to do than wait for the next guard he could bribe to show up. Disappearing into the shadows once more, he went back to work, knowing that since Dave and Kevin were there, Jesper would be mostly safe. However, as he kept helping Jesper here and there as he was invisible, he didn’t expect that he was outing himself to Dave. He only found out when the Dawnstar guard came up to talk to him early in the morning.

“So you’re the ‘ghost’ that’s been helping Jesper around?” Dave asked him.

“How do you even know that?” Keith asked.

“Maybe because Jesper says ‘Thanks Keith’ every time you prevent him from falling?” Dave replied.

“Right. Forgot you knew my name. Just keep it a secret will you? He doesn’t know it’s me,” Keith requested.

“Oh fine I’ll keep it a secret. But why are you helping him?” Dave asked.

“Because he’s my soulmate, and he gets hurt a lot,” Keith answered.

“Uh, that checks out. But I’m glad you two found each other, I’m sure he’ll be very happy when you tell him,” Dave said.

“Yeah... About that,” Keith said.

“You will tell him, right?” Dave asked.

“I don’t know. We’re not exactly on the best of terms, don’t want him to be disappointed,” Keith admitted.

“You’re afraid you’ll be rejected?” Dave asked.

“Yeah... He’s not exactly fond of criminals like me,” Keith admitted.

“You know, he’s a lot more open-minded than you give him credit for,” Dave said.

“Well, we talked yesterday when he arrested me and he didn’t exactly sound very pleased,” Keith replied.

“Of course not, you were stealing. If you actually sat down and talked with him without doing any prior crimes, I’m sure he’d be more than happy to talk,” Dave told him.

“I’ll think about it,” Keith replied

On that, Keith left to go finish up his work so he could go to bed. On his way back to his base above the entrance, he couldn’t help but think that maybe Lenny had been right in saying that the universe wouldn't give him a soulmate that would reject him. If what Dave said was true, maybe he did have a chance with Jesper after all; but he still wasn’t sure he should tell him. Because being soulmate demanded more than just tolerating each other’s presence, and he didn’t know if Jesper would accept that the supposed love of his life was the embodiment of everything he was fighting against on a daily basis.

He knew the guard wasn’t a fan of people like him who stole from others for a living, that he’d made pretty clear. So even if Keith were to try and worm his way into Jesper’s heart, he knew his chances of succeeding were pretty low; although they were civil with each other, they weren’t exactly getting along and Keith could tell Jesper wasn’t exactly thrilled to be talking to him. He could only imagine the disappointment, disdain and anger Jesper would feel if he found out; so he decided to save both of them the trouble and keep this soulmate thing under wrap.

Keith would still help Jesper, because even if he wasn’t going to tell him about being soulmates, he still wanted him to be alright. And even if he knew that it wasn’t enough to help Jesper heal from what he had to endure; no pulling of strings or bribes could ever help Jesper in the way he needed to heal from all of that. But he hoped that it would lift some of the weight from his shoulder and allow him to find his confidence, and eventually, his happiness.

A happiness Keith knew he wasn’t a part of, but one he wanted for his soulmate nonetheless. And if he had to remain invisible to make it happen, then so be it.

Thought as much as he had wanted to remain mostly anonymous to Jesper, he still felt compelled to talk to him. He didn’t want Jesper to think he was ignoring him, so one day he put a note in his pocket.

‘Sorry for going quiet. I wasn’t ignoring you.

I can’t answer all those questions.

- Keith.’

And later that day, he found Jesper’s reply.

‘It’s alright. Just glad to know you’re still there.

Sorry for causing you so much trouble.

- Jesper’

They started talking to each other via notes. He wouldn’t leave them in Jesper’s pockets every time; sometimes he’d give it to him with a plate of food, or would put it on his pillow. But no matter where or how he gave Jesper the notes, the guard would always reply. Keith knew he was playing a dangerous game, but deep down, he was happy; because he was talking with his soulmate, but also because Jesper was glad to have him around, and he was hoping to keep this up and make it last.

Chapter Text

Jesper had been surprised to find the note from Keith, but he was glad that he hadn’t been ignoring him. They started exchanging notes again and the guard made sure not to asks too many questions, he didn’t want to lose this connection he had made with Keith. Instead, the guard would tell him about his day and the likes, and as time went on, he found himself confiding in Keith more. He told him about his soulmate probably being dead and how lonely he felt at times knowing that the one person that was supposed to be his other half had passed years ago, and Keith would reply kindly to him, telling him that he’d find someone regardless, that soulmates weren’t the end-all be-all some people made them out to be. Keith always had the right words to make him feel better, and Jesper was grateful that he had someone to talk to.

Jesper had also gotten used to Keith’s invisible presence; despite not being able to see him, the guard knew when he was close. There was an unmistakable shift in the atmosphere when Keith was there with him, like he could feel approximately where he was. It never lasted for very long; Keith would always show up, do his thing and disappear afterwards, but it was there. So when a fresh plate of food appeared at his table after a particularly harsh shift, Jesper knew Keith was there, right beside him.

“Hey Keith....Can you stay for a while?” Jesper asked.

The guard had been feeling down lately. Even if things were going fine, he couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. He felt like his life was going in circles, that he wasn’t accomplishing anything and that eventually life would pass him by...But at least with Keith besides him, he felt safe and a little less alone. The guard felt Keith’s hand on his shoulder; finding the weight and warmth reassuring. He then saw the chair next to his move ever so slightly, and knew Keith had just sat down beside him.

“Thanks,” Jesper said.

He didn’t say anything else and ate the food Keith had brought him, lifting his helmet to eat as per his habit, and when he was done, he got up and went to his room. He knew Keith was following him, he could feel his presence beside him and once they were in his room, Jesper grabbed a quill and some paper and put them on his bedside table.

“Here, you can use this to write,” Jesper said.

The first thing Keith wrote down was ‘Are you alright?’.

“I’m just...Tired, I guess. Of my job, of Whiterun... And even with Dave and Kevin here, sometimes I can’t help but feel alone...” Jesper sighed, removing his helmet and setting it aside, “It feels like I’m not doing anything with my life. Like I’m not good enough at anything and not worth the attention of anyone...”

Feeling tears burning in his eyes, he stopped talking and closed his eyes. Then he felt a hand on his cheek, wiping the few stray tears away. Jesper leaned into the touch; Keith’s hand was warm and gentle, it felt so good to have someone be there and listen to him. He stayed like this for a moment, before speaking again.

“Sorry for dumping all of this on you...I guess I just needed someone listen to my ramblings and be there for me,” Jesper admitted.

Keith moved his hand away to write on the piece of paper ‘I’ll always be there for you.’

“Thanks, Keith,” Jesper said, “You know... If I could pick my soulmate, I’d want it to be you.”

‘Why?’ Keith wrote.

“Maybe it’s a little selfish, but if I had to pick someone to be tied to, I’d want it to be the person that cares about me the most,” Jesper replied.

‘It’s not selfish.’ Keith replied.

“It kinda is...Because I wouldn’t wish anyone to be my soulmate. All I ever do is get hurt, I can only imagine how it would feel for them. I’m glad they passed before they had to endure all of it because of me,” Jesper confessed.

Then, he saw the quill frenetically write down; ‘Anyone would be lucky to have you as their soulmate. You are kind, caring, resilient and generous. You also have the most beautiful voice and the prettiest face this side of Skyrim. You didn’t deserve all the pain they put you through.’

Jesper blushed at the compliments. It also made him realize that he had taken his helmet off without thinking. He just felt so safe around Keith that he hadn’t thought twice about it. Then, out of nowhere, Jesper felt himself being embraced. It was weird to feel the warmth of a hug without seeing anyone, but he reciprocated nonetheless. He really needed that at the moment so he was able to look past the initial weirdness of hugging someone that was invisible.

“Thanks, I really needed that,” Jesper admitted.

Keith picked up the quill again and wrote ‘Don’t mention it. Now have a good rest, alright? We’ll speak again soon.’

“Alright, goodnight, Keith,” Jesper told him.

Keith wrote a simple ‘Goodnight’ before leaving.

Now that he was alone again, Jesper started his usual bed time routine. It had been a rough day and he wasn’t going to stay up longer than he needed. He was hoping that he’d feel better after a good night of sleep. The next day, Jesper found that he couldn’t stop thinking about Keith; it seemed that even if he had never seen him, the guard had still fallen for him. He wanted to confess, but didn’t really know how to go about doing that, and he didn’t even truly know who he’d be confessing to.

The guard had a lot of things to think about and he needed some peace and quiet. As he was sweeping Dragonsreach, he kept wondering about all the possibilities of who Keith could be and what was the deal with the whole invisibility thing. When his lunch break came around, he skipped the refectory and went directly to the library. When he entered the library, he was quite surprised to find books piled up on a table. Maybe Farengar had come to look up some historical accounts? The court mage was pretty much the only other person that would come to the library so he wasn’t too fazed by it. Clearly whomever had come here was gone, so that was good enough for him. He walked past the desk and went to his hidden corner. Since he was hidden and alone, he felt safe enough to remove his helmet to eat. It had been a while since the last time he’d removed it and it was starting to feel stuffy. He took a deep breath and sighed.

“I should quit,” he sighed.

“Yeah, you should,” he heard.

Jesper stood up suddenly and turned towards the voice only to come face to face with the thief. What was he doing here? There wasn’t anything of value for him to steal in the library.

“Relax, Jesper. It’s just me,” the thief said.

“What are you doing in here?” Jesper asked.

“Looking up some stuff, nothing you should worry about. I didn’t steal anything other than knowledge,” the thief chuckled, “What are you doing here?”

“Having my lunch break,” Jesper replied, “There isn’t usually anyone here.”

“Explains why your helmet is off,” the thief said, causing Jesper to scramble, “– oh don’t put it back on because of me, I’d much rather look at your pretty face when I talk to you then that soulless helmet.”

Jesper felt himself turn bright red, that was the second time he had been given compliments within twenty four hours and he definitely wasn’t used to that.

“Thanks, I guess... I usually don’t remove it when people are around,” the guard replied.

“And it’s a real shame, you look much better without it. Honestly, you really should quit, that way you won’t have to wear it anymore,” the thief replied.

“It’s not that simple. I can’t just quit my job, I don’t have anything else lined up, I’d go broke within a week,” Jesper told him.

“You could become a bard,” the thief said, “Or, if you’re open to more...Grey-area work, the Thieves Guild might have something for you.”

“Didn’t think the Thieves Guild was poaching people while they were on their shifts now,” Jesper said.

“Nah we usually don’t do that. I’m just doing that because it’s you,” the thief said.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Jesper asked.

“Anything you want it to,” he replied and Jesper could tell he was grinning at him, “But I do mean it; if you quit your job as a guard, I’m sure we can find something for you at the guild. If anything, Riften could use a good bard like you.”

“Oh...Uh, thanks for the offer,” Jesper said, flustered.

“Anyways, I’ll let you be. See you around,” the thief said before disappearing.

This had been quite the weird interaction; for some reason the thief had been really nice to him and Jesper had been quite flustered by the compliments. Before he leaving at the end of his break, Jesper became curious to know what the thief had been researching; the pile of books on the table he had walked past before were probably from him, so as he was walking back, Jesper took a peek at them.

All the books on the table were about soulmates.

Chapter Text

Keith learned a lot by exchanging notes with Jesper; first he learned that he thought that his soulmate was dead. That explained a lot, actually. But even if this was technically an advantage for him, Keith didn’t feel like it was right to let him believe he didn’t have a soulmate. But he also couldn’t say it was him, that would make everything more difficult.

The second thing he learned was that the guard felt incredibly lonely. He supposed it made sense, he didn’t exactly have that many friends in town, most people were neutral towards him at best, and Kevin and Dave weren’t there too often since they had their own duties in their own holds to take care of. So when Jesper asked him to stick around that evening, Keith didn’t have the heart to leave so he granted his request and stuck around. He followed him to his room, but was caught off guard when Jesper removed his helmet. Keith couldn’t help but stare for moment; he had never seen Jesper’s face before, and as it turns out, his face matched his voice. The guard was beautiful, gorgeous even, in way that wasn’t flamboyant or flashy. It was a quiet beauty that Keith couldn’t deny he was falling for. But right now, those beautiful brown eyes were full of sadness and Keith wanted nothing more but to comfort him.

So he gently wiped away the guard’s tears and tried his best to reassure him, tell him he’d always be there for him, but as he listened to Jesper put himself down, he couldn’t help himself; Keith picked up the quill and quickly wrote everything he was thinking in that moment, and when he was done he put the quill and paper down before going to hug the guard. Jesper seemed surprised at first, but after registering what was happening, he reciprocated. They stayed like that for a moment, Keith was glad he was invisible because he could feel himself blushing the more the hug lasted. After a while, they both let go and Keith left so Jesper could go to bed.

Once he was back outside, he waited for the potion to wear off by stealing something to eat. His mind was running wild; what was he doing? He was basically setting himself up for failure. The more he interacted with Jesper, the closer he was to outing himself as his soulmate and as the thief that had been a nuisance to him ever since he had stepped foot in Whiterun. However, he couldn’t help it, every time he saw Jesper look like he was down on his luck, he just wanted to hold him close until he felt better. It was as if they weren’t sharing only the feelings of pain, but sadness too, and Keith could feel himself being pulled towards Jesper and wanting to help and protect him more and more.

Maybe he needed to do some research on soulmates and the bond they shared. Clearly it wasn’t just a sharing each other’s pain thing anymore. There was something else at play here, something he couldn’t name and couldn’t rationalize. Unlike the fact that he was harbouring feelings for the guard, that much he understood and knew he had brought upon himself, but it’s not like he could do anything about it; the more time he had spent with Jesper, the more he fell for him, and he couldn’t blame the universe for them, he knew these feelings were his own. He only hoped that they wouldn’t get in the way.

The next day, he decided to pay a visit to the Jarl’s library. Of course, since it was a private library, he had to sneak in, but considering how unused the place was, it wasn’t that difficult to get inside in the first place. He started looking around, picking up a few books on soulmates and how they worked. Surely some scholar had studied the phenomenon at one point in time and had figured out how deep the connection really was.

He sat down at a table; the place being basically abandoned meant he didn’t need to hide, nobody ever came into this room of Dragonsreach anyways. There weren’t even guards protecting the door, so Keith was confident he could do his reading in peace. The first few book didn’t give him any information of substance, however there was one book that seemed to go fully in depth regarding the soulmate phenomenon. As he kept reading, he finally found his answer;

‘Soulmates, no matter how far apart, will gravitate towards each other. Of course, if they are on both side of the continent, the gravitational pull will be lesser. The proximity to each other determines the strength of the pull.

Over time, soulmates who are in close proximity to each other will begin sharing more than their pain. They may start by sharing feelings of sadness, and before long, feelings of anger and fear will also be shared. Feelings of joy and love are always shared last.

The leading theory regarding the sharing of feelings between soulmates is that they are meant to help the soulmates find each other once they are in close proximity.’

So there was more to it than just sharing one another’s pain. It also explained why he felt the need to help Jesper so much and stay close to him; the universe was literally pulling them together. Now that he knew that, Keith knew he couldn’t hide forever; he would have to tell Jesper eventually, and he might as well confess his own feelings while he was at it, he would much rather be rejected only once.

As he was getting up from the table, he heard the door of the library open. Keith ran to the shadows to hide, watching who was coming to this dark corner of Dragonsreach. Of course, he shouldn’t have been surprised when he saw Jesper walk in, the guard was pretty much the only other person that would come to the library. Jesper seemed to immediately notice the desk and his little piles of book, but he didn’t do anything and kept walking until he reached a far corner with a nook between the walls and the bookcases. Jesper sat down and looked around as if making sure nobody was there. Then Keith watch as the guard removed his helmet.

As he observed him, Keith became so lost in his own thoughts he momentarily forgot he was hiding and replied when Jesper spoke. The reply came out of instinct; of course he thought Jesper should quit, the guy was miserable being a guard, and if he could get him to Riften...Well he didn’t want to think too far ahead. But the look on Jesper’s face when he spoke; a mix of surprise and fear, a fear he knew got instilled in him because of how everyone treated him only made him want to take him away from this place even more, but all he could do was talk. At least this time, his interaction with Jesper turned out positive; the guard seemed to like the compliments he gave him and they didn’t argue for once.

After he left, Keith decided to go steal a few things from the Jarl since he was already there and started thinking about how he would go about telling Jesper everything: that he was Keith, that he was his soulmate, and that he was in love with him.

Chapter Text

Jesper wondered why the thief had been researching soulmates, but he didn’t have the time to give it more thoughts because the Dragonborn came back to Whiterun, and of course he was tasked with dealing with him and cleaning up his messes. Jesper had hoped that his luck would have made it so the Dragonborn wouldn’t come back for a while, but unfortunately it seemed that no matter how lucky he was, he wasn’t ever going to be safe from the Dragonborn. At least it appeared that the Dragonborn was going easy on him because for once, as he was always distracted by something else and Jesper did not care to find out what.

Regardless, going easy for the Dragonborn didn’t really mean the same thing it did for regular people, so Jesper still got hurt to some extent. At least this time it was mostly just bruises and sores; nothing too difficult for him to deal with. One night he’d gone back to the Bannered Mare with a couple of new bruises that hurt any time he moved his arms and a slight limp in his gait because he hurt his ankle after landing wrong when the Dragonborn shouted him down the stairs of Dragonsreach. It wasn’t anything particularly difficult to deal with, just very inconvenient for him. He entered the inn and slowly made his way to a table in the far back to finally sit down and eat his piece of bread, but before he could even begin eating, afresh bowl of stew appeared on the table.

Right, Keith. Somehow, he had completely forgotten about him, but he had probably been there the whole time. There wasn’t much Keith could’ve done to help him not get hurt this time around, so this was probably his way of trying to make things better. Grateful for the meal, Jesper lifted his helmet to uncover his mouth and started eating. He knew it would be easier to remove his helmet to eat; eating with only one hand and being unable to see anything around him while doing so wasn’t really ideal, but even if things were better than before, he simply didn’t feel safe enough to remove it in public. The helmet was his shield; the one thing that made him blend in with everyone else. He knew that if he removed it, he’d stand out, and he also knew that nails that stand out gets hammered down. He was used to eating with it on anyways.

However tonight was a struggle; his arm was hurting pretty badly, so he was having trouble holding the helmet up. He was constantly having to lower it back down so his arm could rest. That was until he felt a hand over his holding the helmet up. He couldn’t see who it was because his helmet was blocking his eyesight, but he knew it was Keith. Jesper could recognize the feeling of that kind yet firm hold anywhere now with how much he had caught him falling in the past weeks.

“Keith!” Jesper pipped-up.

He tried pulling his helmet down, but Keith wasn’t letting go. He then felt something being traced on the back of his hand, it turned out to spell the word ‘eat’.

“Alright, eat now, talk later,” Jesper said.

He ate his stew and when he was done, Keith let him pull his helmet back down.

“Are you still there?” Jesper asked.

He then felt Keith’s hand on his shoulder, signalling that he was still there.

“Alright, follow me to my room, we can talk up there,” Jesper said.

As the guard started making his way towards the stair, he suddenly felt like someone was putting his arm around him for support. Of course, he should’ve known that Keith would notice he was limping ever so slightly and would help him get to his room. Keith always had the tendency of blowing things out of proportion. Not that Jesper minded the help, it was just a thing he had noticed over time. Once they made it up to his room, Jesper sat on his bed.

“Okay now that we’re here, we can talk,” Jesper said as he got the paper and quill out of his nightstand.

He didn’t get a reply from Keith, but he did see his things being moved around.

“Hey what are you doing!?” Jesper exclaimed, not a fan of having someone go through his stuff.

Then, Keith grabbed the quill and paper and wrote ‘You’re hurt. We need to take care of that first.’ Right, Jesper should’ve seen this coming.

“You know I can take care of that myself – Ouch! Did you just pinch me!?” Jesper exclaimed, “Ugh, fine. I have bandages and salves in that drawer over there.”

He watched as Keith opened the drawer and took out what they needed. Jesper removed his boots so his ankle was accessible. It wasn’t too bad, but it was a little swollen. Keith applied the salve and wrapped his ankle with the bandages; the cool sensation of the salve did ease his pain a little and he was hoping he’d be fine the next day. Once his ankle was dealt with, Keith moved to apply the salve to his arms and when he was done, Jesper felt him pull his helmet off. The guard half wanted to stop him, but remembering this was Keith and that he probably just wanted to make sure he didn’t have a bruise on his face, so he decided to let him do his thing. He had fell on his face a few times, so he knew he might have a small bruise or two, the helmet was made of metal after all, and metal isn’t great at breaking falls.

“I’m fine Keith, you worry about me too much,” Jesper said.

Keith picked up the quill again and wrote ‘You know I hate it when you get hurt, and I couldn’t prevent it from happening so I’m at least going to heal it. Your face is too pretty for a black eye.’

There was a pause, then Jesper felt a hand on his cheek where Keith was applying the salve; but his hand lingered, cupping Jesper’s cheek and caressing it with his thumb. The guard leaned into the touch; it felt nice and warm and Jesper realized how long it had been since the last time anyone had been so affectionate towards him like that. Then, the hand pulled away and Jesper spoke.

“I’m glad you’re here. I’ve missed you, you know,” Jesper said.

‘How can you miss someone you don’t see?’ Keith asked.

“You might not be visible, but you still have a presence,” Jesper replied.

‘Fair enough. I’ve missed you too,’ Keith wrote

Jesper blushed and smiled. It felt good to know Keith had missed him.

“I wanted to ask you something; do you know the thief that live above the gate into town?” Jesper asked.

There was a pause before Keith replied ‘Yes.’

“He went to the Jarl’s library a little while ago and was researching soulmates and I’ve been wondering why. Do you know anything about that?” Jesper told him.

‘I don’t know. Maybe he wanted to learn more about how soulmates work?’Keith replied

“Probably. It just felt really sudden and kind of random,” Jesper pointed out.

‘Maybe he found his soulmate in Whiterun’ Keith wrote.

“Maybe. If that’s the case I wonder who it could be,” Jesper said.

‘What if it’s you?’ Keith asked.

“There’s no way. Like I said, my soulmate is most likely dead. Besides, I don’t think he likes me very much. I’ve been nothing but a thorn in his side since he got here since I don’t take bribes,” Jesper replied.

‘I don’t think that’s true.’ Keith wrote

“Okay maybe he doesn’t dislike me, but it doesn’t really matter, I’m probably not his soulmate,” Jesper said.

‘What if you were, though? Would you be happy?’ Keith asked.

“I don’t know how I’d feel. I’d probably be happy, but I would also feel like I should apologize for all the pain of those past few years,” Jesper told him.

‘You don’t have to apologize for that. It wasn’t your fault.’ Keith stated.

“I guess you’re right...What about you? If I did find my soulmate, would you still stick around for me?” Jesper asked

‘Maybe. I would have to leave if you didn’t need my help anymore.’ Keith replied.

“See, that’s the thing. I don’t want you to leave. So even if my soulmate is still alive, at this point I’d rather not find them and have you by my side instead,” Jesper told him.

‘What if we were soulmates?’ Keith asked.

“I’d be very happy. Like I said before, you’re the one person that cares about me the most, I’d be lucky to have you as my soulmate, Keith,” Jesper admitted.

‘What if I was also a thief? Would you hate me?’ Keith asked.

“Never! You’re a good person Keith, being a thief doesn’t suddenly erase everything else,” Jesper told him.

‘You’re too kind for your own good.’ Keith wrote ‘I have to go now. Sleep well, and try not to get hurt.’

“I’ll try my best. Goodnight Keith,” Jesper smiled.

And on that, Jesper watched the door of his room open and close. Once he was alone, he picked up his journal. Their conversation was running on loop in his mind; Jesper knew he shouldn’t be making any assumptions considering the little information he had, but the timing of everything and the questions Keith had asked were too specific for it to be a coincidence, but he needed more information before he could jump to conclusions. He didn’t want to break the connection he had with Keith in case he was wrong, so he decided to be careful and play it safe.

But he knew there was something there he needed to investigate.

Chapter Text

Unfortunately for Keith, the Dragonborn came to town shortly after his encounter with Jesper at the library, which meant Jesper was likely going to get hurt a lot over the next few days, and Keith couldn’t do much to prevent it. After a few days of the Dragonborn running around and causing chaos, Keith ended up cutting his workday short because the pain was getting in the way of his job; he could feel bruises all over his body, his ankle was hurting and he felt like he was starving, meaning Jesper wasn’t getting to eat as much as he should. Once the Dragonborn finally left, he immediately went to the Bannered Mare to make sure Jesper would have something to eat. When he got there, he saw the guard already sitting down and eating a piece of bread. That wouldn’t cut it, so Keith went to the kitchen, stole a bowl of stew, drank an invisibility potion and went to deliver the food to the guard.

When Jesper started eating the stew, Keith almost left, but then he felt the pain in his arm, and how Jesper was struggling to keep the helmet up, he decided to step in and put his hand over his to hold the helmet. When he heard Jesper call out his name, Keith smiled, but he didn’t let him pull the helmet back down. He knew he couldn’t speak, otherwise Jesper would definitely know it was him, so instead he spelled the word ‘eat’ on the back of the guard’s hand.

It appeared his message got across and Jesper started eating again. When Jesper was done, Keith let him pull his helmet back down and put his hand on the guard’s shoulder when he asked if he was still there. Since he had already intervened, he thought he might as well make sure he treated his injuries properly; he felt the pain in his ankle when Jesper stood up, so he helped him get to his room and made sure they treated it first before he they talked. He made sure the guard had his ankle and other injuries taken care of, and even removed his helmet to patch up a small bruise on his cheek.

As he did, Keith found himself mesmerized by Jesper’s face again, and he let his hand linger after applying the salve. He saw the way Jesper leaned into his touch, like he was craving the affection the thief was giving him, and Keith wanted nothing but to give him more. He removed his hand before he got carried away and they got to talking. Since Jesper was asking about ‘the thief’, Keith took the opportunity to ask a few questions, and to his surprise, Jesper all but confessed to him. Of course, he didn’t say anything word for word, but reading between the lines made it pretty obvious how Jesper felt about him. Keith almost wanted to drop the charade then and there, but he opted to leave instead, still unsure if he should tell Jesper about them being soulmates.

The next day, Keith had to leave for a few days to go back to Riften to turn in his assignments, so he had hoped that Jesper would be alright while he was gone. When he got there, he found out that the boss and pretty much everyone at the guild had fully expected him to come back with his soulmate. He told anyone who asked that he was working on it, but that it was going to take a little while before he came back to Riften with his soulmate. Of course, while he was in Riften, he stopped by Lenny’s place to have dinner and chat with him.

“So, have you told Jasper about you being his soulmate yet?” Lenny asked him.

“No, but I’m working on it,” Keith replied.

“It can’t be that difficult, come on now,” Lenny said.

“Well, I think I fucked up,” Keith said, “I’ve been helping him while invisible, but he doesn’t know it’s me. He thinks Keith and ‘the thief’ are two different persons and he’s fallen for Keith, but I’m not sure how he’ll react once he finds out ‘the thief’ and Keith are the same person...”

“Oh for the love of Julianos,” Lenny sighed, “Keith, you dumbass, you just said he’s already in love with you. Literally all you have to do is tell him! I’m sure that as long as you were being genuine with him you’ll be fine.”

“What if it’s not fine though? What if he’s upset that I’m...Well, me,” Keith asked.

“This kind of incompetence isn’t like you, Keith,” Lenny scolded, “Where’s the infuriatingly confident guy that gets shit done? Because he’s certainly not in the room with us right now.”

“This is not as easy as a contract, Len’,” Keith said.

“It’s only difficult because you’re making it more complicated than it actually is, Keith,” Lenny told him, “Stop overthinking and confess to your soulmate before I do it for you.”

Keith didn’t respond immediately. Lenny was right; Jesper had already confessed to him in a way, so that meant Keith’s feelings were reciprocated, and the guard had even told him it didn’t matter if he was a thief when he’d asked. All he needed to do was tell Jesper that he and Keith were the same person, and that they were soulmates. Realizing he had blown everything out of proportion again, Keith laid back in his chair with a sigh.

“You’re right Len’,” he admitted, “I’ve been making mountains out of mole hills again... I’ll tell him when I get back to Whiterun.”

“Finally! And I better not see your face around here until you do!” Lenny exclaimed.

They both laughed and drank their mead. The next day, Keith left to head back to Whiterun; he knew he had said he’d confess to Jesper when he’d get there, but he wanted to do so tactfully. Dumping the information on the guard really wasn’t the best way to go about it and it wasn’t his style anyways. So Keith decided to wait until a good opportunity presented itself. In the meantime, he still had to pretend that him and Keith were two different person.

“Oh, it’s you. I wasn’t expecting to see you for a while,” Jesper said as they ran into each other.

“Sorry, you can’t get rid of me that easily,” Keith replied.

“No, I meant, it’s going to be the rainy season soon, and considering you don’t have a roof over your base here, I thought you’d stay in Riften until it passed,” Jesper explained.

“Crap, I forgot about the rainy season,” Keith said.

“Well, maybe Hulda has another room to rent. If not maybe the Drunken Huntsman has one,” Jesper told him.

“I’ll check in with Hulda. Don’t really want to live in the same building as Nazeem for a month. I can only hear about the Cloud District so often before I go crazy,” Keith said.

“Yeah, I don’t blame you. By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask but is there a guy named Keith in the Thieves Guild?” Jesper asked.

“There is. Why are you asking?” Keith replied.

“Oh...It’s just, he’s been helping me a lot, but he’s always invisible so I don’t know much about him,” Jesper said, “He’s been gone for a bit and I’ve been wondering if he was in Riften, since he said he knew you and implied he was also a thief.”

“Yeah, he was in Riften,” Keith replied.

“I hope he comes back soon,” Jesper admitted.

“Oh? You two close or something?” Keith asked.

“You could say that...Although I’m a little concerned it might be one sided,” Jesper told him.

“It’s most definitely not. I can tell you that much,” Keith replied.

“Wait, he told you about me?” Jesper asked.

“If by that you mean he wouldn’t shut up about you, yeah,” Keith said.

“Did he ever mention soulmates?” Jesper asked.

“He might have. Wasn’t listening though,” Keith replied.

“What about you? Have you found your soulmate? I saw the books you looked through at the library, they were all about soulmates,” Jesper asked.

“That’s a very personal question, Jesper. And who said the research was for me?” Keith answered.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to ask so many questions. I’m just really confused lately; I thought my soulmate was dead, but now I think maybe they aren’t? Anyways sorry for bothering you,” Jesper told him.

“It’s whatever. Anyway, see you around,” Keith replied before leaving.

Once he was far enough away, Keith ducked into the shadows and disappeared. He knew Jesper was onto him, clearly those questions were an attempt at gathering information, information that he had willingly given him. He didn’t know why he had felt compelled to answer him, but he did and now he was about to blow up his entire cover before he could even confess.

He didn’t know how far Jesper had made it into his investigation, but the more he thought about it, the more he thought that maybe Jesper finding out wasn’t that bad of a thing to happen... That would certainly make this whole confession thing easier for him. So he decided he’d leave him a clue; but first he needed to know how much he had already figured out. He snuck into Jesper’s room and grabbed his journal, he knew the guard wrote a lot about his thoughts, so he went through a few entries. He wasn't really a fan of this kind of privacy breach; unless it was for a job he never looked into people's personal accounts, but this was pretty much the only way he could find out how much Jesper knew already without blowing his cover. So he read a few entries, some of the older entries he read were quite sad, but he didn’t have the time to dwell on them too much and skipped to one of the more recent entries.

‘Loredas, 20^th of First Seed, 4E 201

I talked with Keith again today. We talked about soulmates again, but this time he asked me some oddly specific questions; I think Keith might be a thief of the Thieves Guild like that other guy, and maybe one of them is my soulmate? I’m not sure, but I feel like soulmates are involved somehow. I’ll try asking the thief if he knows anything about Keith. I still don’t know why he hides with invisibility potions and doesn’t talk to me. Maybe he doesn’t want me to recognize him on the street? But I’ve only ever seen one thief in Whiterun... I’ll do some investigating and see what I can find.’

Jesper definitely was onto him. Keith closed the journal and put it back where he had found it and decided he’d leave Jesper a note as a clue. Nothing too obvious, but enough to help him make the connections.

‘Came back from Riften today. Sorry it took so long.

I should bring you with me next time. The Ragged Flagon is gloomy without your singing.

-Keith’

That should do it. Jesper was smart, so Keith had full confidence that this would tip him off and have him make the connections he needed. Now all Keith had to do was to play along and wait. This was much easier than finding the right opportunity to confess, and a lot more fun.

Lenny would scold him once he’d find out, but that was for future Keith to deal with.

Chapter Text

Jesper was surprised to find the note on his nightstand, but he was glad to learn Keith was back in town. However, he also took note of the information it gave him; it confirmed Keith was a thief, that he had been there when Jesper last performed at the Ragged Flagon and that he had come back to Whiterun the exact same days as the other thief. Adding the information the thief had given him during their conversation that day, Jesper found that everything seemed to be connected and was able to come up with various potential theories regarding Keith, the thief and his soulmate.

They were all relatively confusing and sometimes contradicted each other, but he needed to keep looking; however by now, the one and only thing Jesper was sure about was that his soulmate most likely wasn’t dead. There had been too many conversations and too many clues pointing towards his soulmate being alive and to top it off, probably someone he knew, that telling himself his soulmate was dead at this point would be a lie. With that in mind, Jesper was able to think more about his relationship with Keith, and thought that maybe they were soulmates; and based on the notes Keith was leaving him, he thought he might be correct in thinking that.

‘Did you hurt your elbow today?

Sorry I wasn’t there, I had work.

– Keith’

‘You stubbed your toes on a crate again?

You should avoid the market around noon.

You always trip over the new shipments that comes in.

- Keith’

And adding that to the fact Keith was the one actively trying to prevent him from getting hurt, and the questions he had asked before, Jesper was now almost certain that Keith was his soulmate. It would explain how he always knew where Jesper was hurt without the guard ever telling him, and why it was so important to him that he avoided getting hurt, since they shared each other’s pain, Keith had endured the same painful years as him, so now he was doing something about it.

Jesper wanted to bring it up, but other things were making him doubt that he was right. The main one being that the thief had started flirting with him; it felt random and came out of nowhere, but Jesper didn’t dislike the attention. And considering his last conversation with Keith and the fact the thief had been looking up information on soulmates, Jesper was thinking that maybe the thief was the one who was his soulmate. Recently, it seemed that every time they ran into each other, the thief was finding a way to flirt.

“Hulda rented me a room for the rainy season,” the thief had told him, “But I’ve been thinking, maybe I should room with you instead.”

“Why would we do that?” Jesper asked.

“Well, I wouldn’t mind waking up next to your pretty face, for one,” the thief had replied, “And we’d save some coins.”

Jesper had been too flustered to reply; and this was one of the many instances when the thief had said things that definitely would be qualified as flirting. However the guard didn’t understand why the thief was flirting with him, other than the fact that they might be soulmates. But Jesper knew he couldn’t possibly have two soulmates, so he had to figure out which one of them it was.

But before he could even make a plan to find out who of the two his soulmate was, everything came crashing down when out of the blue, the thief was the one who saved him from getting hurt. The thief had caught him before he fell down the stairs in the middle of town. At first Jesper had thought it had been Keith, as usual, but then he heard the thief speak.

“You really should be more careful,” the thief had told him, “Your face is too pretty for a black eye.”

“Right...Sorry. Thanks for the help,” Jesper had replied.

And once the thief was gone, Jesper’s mind started going into overdrive. Not only had the intervention felt exactly like when Keith helped him, but the thief had said the exact same thing Keith had told him before about his face being too pretty for a black eye. As he stood there, registering everything, it dawned on him that both of his conclusions had been correct.

Keith was his soulmate, and so was the thief. Because they were the same person.

Everything made so much more sense now; it explained why he had ever seen one thief in Whiterun, why Keith and the thief were always gone at the same time, why Keith didn’t speak and why the thief and Keith were never around at the same time. It all made sense now: Keith was the thief and he was his soulmate. Jesper felt relieved to have reached that conclusion, he was already in love with Keith, and knowing that him and the thief were the same person, he now knew his feelings weren’t unrequited if the flirting was any indication. All he needed to do now was confess.

“Hello, Nirn to Jesper,” Kevin said, bringing him back to reality.

“Oh, sorry Kevin, I was lost in thoughts,” Jesper replied.

“Well don’t think too hard or you’re going to walk right into the lantern post again,” Dave said.

“What were you thinking about anyways?” Kevin asked.

“Oh, just soulmate stuff,” Jesper replied.

“Wait wasn’t your soulmate dead?” Kevin asked.

“Apparently not. And I think I found them,” Jesper told them.

“Aw that’s great bud!” Dave said.

“I haven’t talked to them about it yet, so it’s not confirmed,” Jesper admitted.

“Well, let us know how it goes! I’ll be crossing my fingers for ya pal,” Kevin said.

“Thanks Kevin,” Jesper smiled.

“Seems like your luck hasn’t run out yet,” Dave mentioned.

“Apparently. But I think I get most of my luck from Keith,” Jesper admitted.

“The ghost? Is he still haunting you?” Kevin asked.

“He’s not a ghost, he just a guy who’s invisible,” Jesper replied, “And I learned recently that he works for the Thieves Guild, so that explains where he gets all the potions from.”

“A thief eh? Sounds like you are quite popular with them thieves as of late,” Dave pointed out.

“Oh, not all of them, just this one,” Jesper replied bashfully.

“Uh-oh, sounds like the thief stole you heart,” Dave chuckled.

“Well, he might be my soulmate, so I suppose it’s on par for the course,” Jesper said.

“Wait, hold up, so the ghost is your soulmate?” Kevin asked.

“Maybe. I still have to confirm that,” Jesper replied.

“Man this sounds complicated,” Kevin stated.

They kept talking as they finished patrolling the streets. The rest of the day went without incident; he did spend most of his time with Dave and Kevin, and the Dragonborn wasn’t there, so it was a pretty normal day, outside of the whole soulmate thing. That night, Jesper wrote everything down in his journal to make sure he wouldn’t forget anything next time he spoke in private with Keith, which might not happen for a little while. In the meantime, he would keep exchanging notes with him. He didn’t mind the wait, at least it gave him some time to figure out how to approach the topic.

He just hoped he was right.

Chapter Text

Keith had been enjoying the past few days; mostly because he was spending most of it flirting with Jesper and leaving clues for him to piece the puzzle together. He followed Jesper’s progress by reading his journal, and Jesper was figuring things out a lot faster than Keith had anticipated. He didn’t mind it at all, the sooner Jesper figured everything out, the sooner Keith’s double act would end. The one thing it seems Jesper was having trouble with was figuring out Keith and ‘the thief’ were the same person, so Keith decided he’d give him a very good clue by helping him out without hiding. Of course, he’d played it off as just being at the right place at the right time, but he knew Jesper would recognize the way he’d caught him, because Keith always did thing in his own way.

Unsurprisingly, the day after his intervention, Jesper had it all figured out. Keith had read the long and detailed journal entry Jesper had written, and smiled. Now he just had to wait for Jesper to initiate the conversation and everything would fall into place. The thief had read other entries, and from their past interactions, he knew they reciprocated each other’s feelings. It was now only a matter of who would confess first. And it wasn’t going to be Keith.

Because as confident as he seemed, Keith had no idea how to bring up the topic, or what to say to the guard. He had never been very good at communicating, well, anything really, but he was especially bad at communicating his feelings; he could never find the right words and would stumble and his everything always came out weird when he did, so he thought it was better if he simply didn’t do that. He was willing to wait as long as it took for Jesper to say the first words and open up that can of worms.

In the meantime, the rainy season started, meaning they were mostly stuck inside the Bannered Mare when they weren’t working. The season also meant that outside of tripping because of the slippery stone road, Jesper was out of dodge from getting hurt for the most part, and now that they were stuck under the same roof, it meant Keith was able to make sure Jesper ate three meals per day and the thief would toss a coin to decide if he went invisible or not when helping out the guard. That way, he was certain that Jesper knew with one hundred percent certainty that he was only one person.

However, despite giving Jesper multiple opportunities to bring up the topic of, well, them, the guard still didn’t say anything. Keith didn’t mind, he figured that the guard still needed some time to process everything before he said something to him. Although Keith wasn’t in any hurry to talk, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to flirt with Jesper every chance he got. Especially now that Jesper knew who he was, the guard was being a lot more receptive to his flirting and even reciprocated sometimes, although most of their conversation would quickly divert from flirting to banter or light arguments.

“You know, even if the weather is absolutely terrible, I am enjoying this housemate situation,” Keith told him one evening as Jesper was eating the food he’d brought him.

“I would hardly call this a ‘housemate situation’. We’re just two patrons of an inn,” Jesper replied.

“Well, I would sleep in your room, if you’d let me. I could make it worth your while,” Keith grinned under his mask.

“And have you snoop all over my room? No thanks,” Jesper chuckled.

“Bold of you to assume I haven’t already done that on multiple occasions,” Keith replied.

“I thought you had more respect for people’s privacy,” Jesper told him.

“Well, maybe if we talked more I wouldn’t have to,” Keith replied, “But I had to find out if you had food allergies somehow. Wouldn’t be able to get you food every other day otherwise.”

“Really? That's the only reason you went and snooped around my room? Allergies?” Jesper asked, doubtful.

“Well, it also gave me some ideas of other things you might like,” Keith smirked.

“Oh really? Such as?” Jesper inquired.

“That’s for you to find out,” Keith replied.

“Maybe I should go snoop around your base. Fair is fair after all,” Jesper said with a smile.

“You’re welcome to, if you can get up there, that is,” Keith chuckled.

“Oh I’ll find a way. I’ll have the Dragonborn levitate me up there if I have to,” Jesper replied.

“You would cheat your way up there?” Keith said, faking offence.

“Oh like you using invisibility potions isn’t cheating,” Jesper chuckled.

“I don’t use potions, I’m 100% skills,” Keith retorted.

“What kind of ‘skill’ is stealing anyway?” Jesper said.

“No no, not stealing. The skills are sneaking, speech, lockpicking and pickpocketing, thank you very much” Keith corrected him.

“Speech? You obviously neglected that one,” Jesper replied.

“Rude. I’ll have you know I’m a master negotiator,” Keith said.

“Never heard you negotiate anything, except maybe your prison sentence,” Jesper said.

Jesper started laughing and Keith smiled. As they began interacting more, they had discovered that they both loved this kind of banter; arguments with very little stakes that in the end, were just an entertaining back and forth and poking fun at things that didn’t really matter. It was a weird way of having a conversation, but it worked for them. And Keith would be lying if he said that hearing Jesper laugh whenever they had their silly arguments didn’t make his heart skip a beat. He loved how much more confident Jesper had become now that he was no longer fighting alone and Keith would give anything to hear him laugh and see him smile every day.

Unfortunately, they weren’t quite there yet. Keith was still waiting for Jesper to say something or make a move, but the guard didn’t seem to be in any hurry to do so. Keith was a patient man, but his growing feeling were making a few days of waiting feel like an eternity. But what was a little waiting compared to the months he had spent hiding and pretending to be someone else just to help his soulmate and now the man he was in love with? So he waited, knowing that his patience would eventually be rewarded. He was the luckiest of thieves, after all.

But that didn’t mean he wasn’t hoping things would happen sooner rather than later, he could only keep up his charade for so long and he was exhausted to say the least. Living a double life wasn’t easy and the sooner he could stop pretending to be two different people, the better. He was definitely going to need a vacation after this; maybe he could convince Jesper to quit and take him to Solitude or something, anywhere but Whiterun would do really, but that was something for later, right now they were playing the waiting game.

And Jesper was winning.

Chapter Text

A few week passed and the rainy season came and went. Jesper had taken the time to process everything he needed to, and since he had been stuck with the thief at the Bannered Mare, he had also taken the opportunity to get to know him a little better. Jesper knew that he needed to say something soon, but it didn’t feel right to do it in the middle of banters or bad flirting with the thief. He needed to talk to Keith privately and when the mood would be more appropriate.

He was a hopeless romantic, sue him.

However, finding a way to get Keith to stick around long enough for them to talk proved to be more difficult than he had thought. The thief had become more elusive when it had stopped raining, so Jesper couldn’t predict when or where he’d show up. He assumed it was because he was busy with work, but he also knew Keith would show up if he had a rough day, so all he had to do was wait for it to happen. The only part of that plan that sucked was that he knew he’d probably get hurt in the process, because he always did. Oh well, he’d endured so much already, what was one more bad day?

And his patience was rewarded. Well, rewarded wasn’t exactly the right word to describe the Dragonborn showing up and causing absolute mayhem where ever he went, but it would have to do. For once, Jesper was glad the Dragonborn was there to mess with him, because at least this time he had a purpose. After finishing his shift on that particularly difficult day, Jesper went to sit down at the Bannered Mare and he didn’t have to wait too long before a fresh meal appeared on his table, indicating Keith was there.

It appeared – or, more precisely didn’t appear- that Keith had decided to use invisibility again today. Jesper really didn’t know why he bothered with that anymore, Keith had made it pretty obvious who he was during the rainy season, so there wasn’t really a point in him being invisible anymore, but it seemed like the thief still felt the need to keep pretending until Jesper told him he knew. Good thing Jesper was planning on having that discussion today.

“Hi Keith. I was hoping you’d show up, do you mind sticking around again today? Today sucked and I could use the moral support,” Jesper said.

It wasn’t a lie; he was a little hurt, but he could’ve probably taken care of it on his own. As expected, Keith put his hand on his shoulder to show him he’d stick around and Jesper’s confession plan was now in motion, but first, he wanted to eat the meal he was given because he was actually starving since he hadn’t eaten all day. Once he was done, he moved to his room with Keith following him; Jesper could feel his presence hovering over him.

After closing the door to his room, Jesper removed his armour, including his helmet. He had a few nasty bruises and he could almost feel Keith rush to the paper and quill on his table. The invisible man wrote ‘You have too many bruises. Sit down, I’ll help.’ and Jesper obeyed, sitting down on his bed and letting Keith grab the salves and bandages to try and mitigate the bruising.

“You know, I was hoping we could talk today,” Jesper said as Keith was finishing up wrapping his arm.

‘Is everything alright?’ Keith wrote.

“Yeah... There’s a lot of things I want to say, but I guess the first thing I should say is that I found out who you are. You’re the thief, aren’t you, Keith?” Jesper said.

There was a long pause. Jesper could see the quill hovering over the paper, meaning Keith couldn’t find what to say. Jesper then reached his hand out, finding the face of the invisible man in front of him; he could feel the hood and the mask of the thief. He had been one hundred percent correct; Keith and the thief were one and the same. He took his hand away, not wanting to push too far.

“It's alright, you don't have to reply, you weren't exactly hiding it the last few weeks. Honestly I'm surprised you still chose to be invisible," Jesper told him, "The second thing I wanted to say is; we’re soulmates, aren’t we?”

There was another pause before Keith wrote ‘Yes’.

“I’m glad we are; if it had to be anyone, I was hoping it would be you. Not just because you care about me, but also because I love you,” Jesper said with a relieved sigh, “I just hope my feelings are reciprocated.”

Keith took a hold of his hand; Jesper knew the thief wanted to speak up, but it seemed like there was still something holding him back. The guard intertwined their fingers together, letting the gesture speak for itself, wanting to give Keith time to think. Then, using his free hand the thief scribbled ‘You’re not disappointed it’s me? And you’re not mad I didn’t tell you right away right?’.

Those questions explained a lot about why Keith had used invisibility and had pretended to be someone else to help him; the thief thought that Jesper would be upset that they were soulmate and for not having come out as his soulmate right away. The guard felt a little sad knowing that his soulmate had been thinking he didn’t like him, or that he’d be mad for not being told right away.

“Of course not. You might have irritated and annoyed me at times, and sure we didn’t get along all the time, but you’ve shown how much you care about me, being soulmates is actually the best outcome I could hope for,” Jesper replied, “And I’m glad you didn’t tell me right away. It gave me time to process everything so I could do this right.”

Then, Keith let go of Jesper’s hand and wrote ‘I don’t deserve you’.

“Tell that to the universe,” Jesper chuckled, “But let’s be honest, I’m the one who doesn’t deserve you. For years I was getting hurt thinking nobody else but me was feeling the pain, but it turns out I was hurting you. I shouldn’t have assumed you had died and been more careful. I’m sorry, Keith.”

At that moment, Jesper felt both of Keith’s hand cupping his face and the thief finally decided to speak up.

“Don’t you dare say that. None of it was your fault. If I could I would kick the arses of the entire garrison for how they’ve treated you and for making you feel alone and unsafe in your own town. Fuck, I’d fight the Dragonborn if it meant he’d leave you alone,” Keith said.

“Thank you, for caring so much about me,” Jesper smiled.

Jesper could feel how close their faces were to one another; he could feel Keith’s breath on his face and he barely had to move for their foreheads to be pressed together. Then, Jesper raised his hand to put it on Keith’s cheek again but this time around, he couldn’t feel the hood or the mask; instead he felt warm skin and a bit of stubble, as well as a strand of hair.

They didn’t say anything more before their lips pressed together, slowly erasing all of the tension that had been hanging in the air. The first kiss was quick and tentative, the second lasted for a brief moment, just enough to make sure the first hadn’t been a mistake, and the third was sure and passionate, filled with all the feelings they didn’t know how to put into words.

When they separated, Jesper found himself face to face with the thief, who now had no hood or masks on; striking blue eyes looking back at him and dark hair, tied up messily with strands framing his face, highlighting a sharp jawline. Jesper blushed, he found Keith to be quite attractive and definitely his type.

“Is something wrong?” Keith asked.

“No, just wondering why you had been hiding your handsome face from me,” Jesper smirked.

“Same reason you were hiding yours,” Keith replied, obviously flustered.

Jesper smiled as he kissed him again. Keith kissed him back before speaking again.

“Please tell me you’ll quit being a guard,” Keith said, “I can’t stand having you get hurt so often. And I’m not just saying that because I can feel the pain too.”

“Like I said, I don’t have anything lined up, I’d go broke if I did quit,” Jesper replied.

“You can rely on me. I’ll fully support us both until you find something else you’d be happy with. We can go to Riften, you can try being a bard there if you want. I can put a word in with the boss, maybe we could find something for you. If you don’t like it, I can save up some money and buy us some land somewhere for us to live, and if Skyrim just isn’t welcoming to us anymore, we can go to Cyrodiil or High Rock. Maybe even Hammerfell,” Keith said.

“Are you sure?” Jesper asked.

“Of course I am. I wouldn’t be saying it if I wasn’t,” Keith smiled.

“...Alright, give me a month to think about what I want to do next. Then I’ll quit,” Jesper said.

“Alright, but only one month! No extensions! Four weeks from now, you are no longer ‘Jesper the Guard’,” Keith reiterated.

“Yes yes, I promise, no extensions,” Jesper laughed.

Keith smiled kissing him again. It was a kiss full of promises; of unconditional love, happiness and a future that they would build together as soulmates.

And Jesper couldn’t be happier.