authors note.

After two years of not touching this story, I am back. I'm not going to lie, I don't remember what I had planned for this story, but we will just make it up as we go! Thanks lovelies for all the support and letting me know that you really wanted me to finish this! All of your comments and your kindness make my day brighter and inspire me!

•••

With a small snore every now and then, the guard sleeping next to me looks at complete and utter peace. His face is completely relaxed, and his dark hair lays sprawled around his face and the pillow. My heart aches for all that he has been through, but I was nervous for what Sheogorath had planned next. I softly fiddle with my guards hair until I find myself spiraling into a deep sleep. I go to rest my eyes for just a moment, but when I open them I find myself somewhere completely different.

I'm now sitting at a bar and my guard is crudely dancing on a chair across the room. He drunkenly twirls his helmet around as he oddly jostles and contorts himself. He locks eyes with my for a few seconds before continuing focusing on his dance.

I can't help but to let out an airy laugh at his carefree dancing. I hear a familiar laugh from behind me and I turn around on my stool to see Sheogorath wheezing and giggling uncontrollably. "Oh, Dragonborn! Look at that!" He says as he points to the guard who is now fanning himself off. Beads of sweat roll down his face like raindrops on a window. The beads curve around his features in a consistent flow and I can't help but watch the beads trickle down his neck or fall onto his helmet that he held onto so dearly.

"Yeah-" I say meekly.

"You're distracted too? Watching him sweat just really gets me going too," Sheogorath cackles and dramatically fans himself off. "Are all guards that beautiful under those ugly helmets?"

"I couldn't tell you." I shrug as I rest my head on my hand and continue to observe my guard.

"Soooo~" he says in a sing-song tune, "do you like him? Like like-like?" He giggles and snorts like a school girl.

I give a simple eye roll and Sheogorath returns it with a scoff.

"You act like it's a simple question."

"Well, I just want to know! No need to be so unbelievably sassy!" He huffs like a child and crosses his arms.

"Why don't you just read my mind if you want to know so badly?"

"Because that's too much wooooork. Besides, it's probably good for you to just admit your feelings anyways - or something cheesy like that. Ha, cheese!"

"I hardly know the man!" I shout. Sheogorath makes a funky face towards me before clearing his throat. The guard locks eyes with me once more and I can tell my words struck his heart.

"Well, maybe you two just need to bond on an adventure together! It just so happens to be that I lost my, uh-" he stops in thought for a moment, "magical socks!"

"Your magical socks?"

"Absolutely! Now you've done crazier things, and you're looking at me like I'm the crazy one here! I'm a man who is missing his socks, and you're the Dragonborn. Helping people with dumb tasks is what you're supposed to do!"

I sigh and motion him to continue as my guard had fallen asleep on the chair he was once dancing on.

"Okay I'll get you out of his mind and back into the real world, and when you wake up the information of where my socks will be..." he stops to think once more, "it will be in a flute at the bards college!"

"Alright." I nod sternly.

"Oh come on, be more excited, party pooper! Now don't be afraid to come visit me more often now you hear! If I'm not invited to your wedding I will wreak havoc upon Tamriel with cheese wheels falling from the sky. So anyways, toodles lovebirds!"

•••

I open my eyes to see that I'm laying on top of my guard. We both are collapsed on the floor in the Blue Palace's Pelagius Wing and once I begin to move, he jumps up and draws in sword.

"Hey!" I say, trying to diffuse the situation.

"We just met the Sheogorath and you're acting like it was nothing!" He replies in a rushed voice.

"He's clingy and annoying!" I shout as a slice of cheese flies at my head. The guard blocks the possessed cheese from hitting me with his shield. We are inches away and I can tell he is shaken up from all of this. I have to keep in mind that not everyone is used to talking to daedric princes everyday.

"Hey, lets just a drink and we can talk it over. Sheogorath gave us a quest if you're still up for an adventure?"

The guard sheathes his swords and sighs. "Alright-"

He seems disconnected from me and unwilling to explain why. Maybe a few drinks would loosen him up. Drinks definitely loosened him up in his mind, so maybe Sheogorath was trying to hint that to me before. I hated seeing him like this, and I could tell something was plaguing his mind. I just had to find out what exactly was eating away at his mind.