Giant snake dude is really handsome. I think his wife is prettier tho.
Oh, I love this. I love this more than you know. LOL!
They are both incredibly pretty and very vain people. So, I am sure this would lead to a bit of a squabble between the two of them. Noctine and Chryssi are one of my favorite pairings in all of the writings that @mooreaux and I do. I cannot wait to one day share their story entirely with you guys. Because, and this is in early early development, that is going to happen. And oh man is their story a wild one. :)
Author’s Notes | I don’t really believe Ivar would know what to do, but I think it’s funny to have a man of that times narrating such an unknown moment for them!
Universe | Vikings
Pairing | Ivar x Reader
Info | Viking Age AU, requested by @sallydelys for 5CW7
Words | 1992
⁑ Warnings: Mentions of blood, graphic description of labor and childbirth. Keep in mind that this document may contain clinical/medical mistakes.
Middle Winter.
How the hell did I come up to get my wife heavily pregnant right in the middle of the Winter?
Y/N was swollen like a balloon, ready to pop. And I was nervous as fuck with the proximity of that event. Our firstborn child.
Something I never thought could be possible.
"Where is daddy?"
Shit.
I had called Floki through a slave that left what... three hours before the snow started falling outside again? I could bet Floki wouldn't come and I would have one less slave in my house cause that girl would end up frozen outside my house. Damn snow!
"He was supposed to be here already, love, but the snow started falling outside again. I think we may have to wait a little longer."
"I want my dad..." she cried.
Shit. Again.
Y/N was my everything. My queen, the love of my life, my first, my one, and only. But fuck... Since she got pregnant, she was completely changed, every day acting with a different mood... She was driving me crazy!
Mom told me it was the pregnancy, that I should be patient. But things sometimes would run out of my control and we would fight for hours! Just to end up with her tightly embraced on me, saying she could never live without me as much as I couldn't imagine my life without my Y/N.
Things didn't get better with the Winter arriving and her final months making her less able to move around. She wanted to walk, to go out, but the midwife told her to stay more inside the house since she started feeling dizzy once again. There was built the battlefield: she even tried to sneak out of my sight once! Imagine how good it was to have to bring my wife back home, crying because she wasn't able to reach the central square and almost fell in the middle of the way.
Since then, we thought it would be safer to be with her at Floki's cabin. Floki could help me to take a look at her, Helga could help me to keep her entertained. Their slaves could do everything for us and she would be safe when the time to give birth has come. Perfect!
If Bjorn didn't have decided to ask for a bunch of boats in the middle of the fucking Winter.
I would castrate my brother if I could! Why the fucking damn heck did Björn wanted to navigate the gods' damn sea in the middle of the freezing Winter? Couldn't he fucking wait my wife to give birth before taking Floki out of our cabin right in the day Helga said she finished my mother's dress and had to leave too?
Now we were completely alone and my little precious balloon was sadly mourning around because somehow, she wasn't feeling well and wanted her father exactly when he couldn't be there for her.
"Babe, you shouldn't be out of the bed," I complained, walking towards her when she sprouted at the living room's door, in her nightgown, walking slow like a little swollen duck.
My charming swollen duck I loved so badly.
"But Ivar... I'm not feeling well. I don't wanna stay in bed. The baby's feet are on my ribs and I can't breathe," she complained when I slowly started guiding her into our room once again.
"I know. So, we can walk a little through our room ok? Come," I insisted, ready to open the door when she held herself on the wall, pressing my shoulder with the other hand and moaning in a tone I didn't want to hear in a million years.
Her body bent forward and she let go of the wall to touch her belly.
She was in pain...
Her eyes, full of fear found mine, full of affliction.
And then, that happened.
A small moment of silence before a wet sound denounced the water flowing in the middle of her legs, making a poll around her feet.
"Ivar..." she mumbled.
"Fuck!" I answered.
Right before she bent once again, this time, growling in pain.
"Fuck!!" I cursed again, trying to guide her with me to the bed.
Cursing my legs for not being able to lift her into my arms.
Cursing the snow for not being able to go out for a midwife.
Cursing Floki for leaving with Helga.
My mom for ordering that stupid dress. Björn for wanting his stupid boats!
May Thor smite them down into the ocean!
"Ivar... It hurts! It hurts so bad!" she cried when we finally reached the bed to lay her down.
Fuck! I was the younger of my brothers! Ubbe had seen my mother giving birth to three after him! Hvitserk? Two. Even Sigurd would be able to do something if he wasn't so young when I was born! But what did I know about birth and labors?
Shit! I knew shit about it! I slid my hands through my hair looking at her. And Y/N noticed I was completely lost.
"You need... To boil water... And you need to bring the towels that are at my mother's locker. Be careful when you get the towels wet into the water. It will help me with the pain and... you with the... blood!" she growled the last word, bending forward again.
And I almost could see her big belly contracting.
Blood? Blood.
Blood... Yeah. I remember Ubbe saying my birth was full of that shit and that he was scared of seeing the maid coming in with towels and out with red clothes dip in our mother's blood.
I wasn't ready for that shit!
I wasn't raised for that shit!
Fuck Björn's boats! A thousand times!
I sat down, getting rid of my braces - dragging I would be quicker and it wasn't time to be prideful. I then went to the heart of fire, placing a big pan I found at the kitchen over the fire and bringing water into it until it was full.
I could hear Y/N grunting inside the room, trying to breathe. And I then looked outside, seeing the snow becoming higher.
"Damn... Damn! Why the fuck are you doing this to me?" I asked the gods, lowering my head for a moment. "Frigg... Mother... I beg you, guide my hands. And for the gods' sake, end this damn storm!"
The water took some time to get hot enough so I could bring a pot to the room with the towels, leaving the bigger pan with more water to boil at the fire.
When I came into the room, Y/N was sitting in the bed, her back supported by the pillows, her knees flexed as she was breathing quickly, short.
"What do I do now?" I asked, looking at her.
About to panic at the sight of the big poll of blood that had been formed in the middle of her legs and that I was able to see as soon as I got up to the bed.
"Calm down, Ivar," she grunted, looking at me. "I'll bleed. This... This is supposed to happen. Gimme a warm towel," she asked.
And I did what she said, seeing when she placed it over her belly.
"I want you to place another in the middle of my legs, over the bed, ignore the blood, Ivar... Just... Place it over it."
Again, I did what she said, confused.
"Ivar," she called, causing me to look at her. "I want you to stay where you are. And when our child comes... You'll hold it, did you hear me?"
H... Hold it?
"You mean..." I moved my hands, looking at her.
"Take off your... gloves!" Another word grunted and I saw her pushing as something started showing up in her entrance.
And for a moment I was totally taken by that vision at the same time magic and bizarre, intense and terrifying.
My child would be born... And I would be the first one to hold it into this world.
That mix of feelings took me as I was removing my gloves, washing my hands on the water to get them clean.
What I was doing was more than I ever thought I was able to do. But what she was doing there, facing all that pain to bring my dream into this world...
What were all the fights we had?
What was the anger we had against each other?
What was everything in the face of all that love?
I raised my face to look at her. My sweaty, tired, and panting wife, putting all her efforts on pushing our child out of her belly, into this world. Her whole strength, focused only on making my dream become reality.
If she was strong enough to face all that pain for me, then I could face my fears for her.
"It's coming!" she warned, and I approached as she started pushing one more time, allowing me to support our child's head, watching as its whole body slowly came out from her body entirely, finally permitting her to sigh in relief as a strange bag of blood and meat came out as well, connected to our child by the cord.
"Oh, gods..." she cursed, relaxing in bed. "What is it, Ivar? How is my child?" she questioned.
But I was too wondered, astonished, looking at the baby moving in my hands, bothered by the air, by the temperature, by the mere sound of my breath - all new things he wasn't prepared for yet.
"Ivar?" She called, worried.
The fear growing in her voice again just to die completey when her eyes found my image, hands bathed in her blood I was now completely able to ignore, holding our child over that wet and warm towel we placed under her legs.
"It's a boy," I muttered, teary.
And our voices seemed to bother him even more because my son's forehead frowned and his voice could be heard a quarter further away from that house in such a strong cry I could never describe with my own words.
It was alive, full of strength, experimenting life for the first time...
In my hands.
I giggled, completely taken by that experience as Y/N showed me how to cut the cord, clean our baby with the towel, gently packing him in a dry towel so she could bring him against her chest, offering him the breast he accepted in goodwill, hungrily suckling from her.
I watched that scene in awe.
It was Frigg herself, with Baldr in her arms. My own goddess with our child against her chest, the product of her womb, the fruit of our love.
"We've heard the cry of a... Oh, gods... It's here, Floki!" I've heard Helga's voice and I knew she arrived at the bedroom's door such as Floki also arrived, too late to help. Soon enough to see the same wonder I was watching now.
I felt his heavy hand landing on my shoulder, but I didn't want to take my eyes from my beautiful Y/N with our son in her arms, to look at his teary eyes.
"Welcome to the boat of the ones who have already seen the gods, son," he mumbled, giggling that characteristic way of his to laugh.
But I smiled bigger, looking at Y/N who smiled back at me.
She was sweaty, covered in blood, and tired. But I was sure I would never see a woman more beautiful in the whole Miðgarðr.
"No, my friend... I didn't see the gods. A goddess lays in my bed every night. And she produced life as a gift to me."
Floki giggled again. I was speaking of his daughter after all.
But at that moment, all I could think was that if being whole was the best thing in this world, it should feel exactly like the feeling I had in my chest by looking at Y/N.
Author’s Notes | I decided to write this one from Ubbe's POV cause I wanted to focus on the changes and the impact of her presence in Ivar's life and someone who's out of a relationship but was present since before the reader's arrival - and knows Ivar as much as an older brother could know - gives the perfect point of view I wanted to this fiction! I hope you like it!
Universe | Vikings
Pairing | Ivar x Reader, Ubbe’s POV
Info | Viking Age AU, requested by anon for 5CW7
Words | 1901
⁑ Warnings: Historical inaccuracy.
She came into his life out of nowhere. But she already arrived showing what she was able to do.
"To be honest, the Ragnarsson has spread some good pieces over this table..."
In a matter of moments, she solved a deadlock that was keeping us from determining a plan for our next battle against the Christians through the last three hours. And she did it by clarifying to all of us...
...That Ivar was right...
"It's a matter of prediction. Foreseeing what your enemy will probably choose to do and set up a trap in each one of his options; prepare yourself for each one of his possible movements. This way, wherever the Christian prince decides to move, we'll catch him. Here, here, or there. He's locked."
Her fingers sliding through the map, making us all able to see what my little brother's blessed mind had already seen before us, placing little details that would complete his plan and make it practically foolproof... They caught Ivar's eyes pretty more than our attention. They convinced Ivar's heart pretty more than Björn's suspicious mind.
And I didn't let it pass.
She was completing my brother's plan, but I also could see there was a part of her that was causing her lips to curl in a smile whenever he would come to complete her sentences; every time their ideas would sound unison as if they were made to work together.
"Imma losing an advisor, ain't I?"
More than that.
Harald lost pretty more than just his advisor or one of his best warriors that day.
He lost her attention. Completely. Because their plan was a huge success, but it was with us that she came to sit and celebrate.
Beside my little brother was where she shared the mead of a victory we didn't expect to see coming so easily. And the gods are witnesses: Sigurd wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for her sweet voice into my little brother's ears; her tender hands over his trembling and tense hands.
"It doesn't worth the price, Ivar. You're just giving him what he wants. You're losing control and proving him right. A child would throw this ax. But you're not a child... A man wouldn't be affected by such vicious words. So, what are you, Ivar, the Boneless?"
I saw my brother hearing her low voice more than he ever heard my screams. Her words caused his hand to stop shaking when my speeches were never that effective. Ivar sat down once again and his eyes went from Sigurd into her orbs.
"I won't let a childish stupidity ruin the victory we conquered today. Nor my plans to take the men who want to fight with me. We'll spread our fingers through these lands and they'll know and fear my name. And then..." his eyes got back into Sigurd's, catching that surprised expression in our brother's face. "Then I'll show you that crawling like a baby I'm better man than you'll ever be with your perfect walking-legs, brother."
The ax fated to my brother's chest was sunk on the table that evening. And that same night, Ivar called her to come with us.
"I want you with me. I want your words and your mind by my side. Together we are invincible!"
But even at that moment, even under his praises, she had humble words full of wisdom.
"No man is invincible, my prince. No flesh shall live forever. But two similar minds are pretty harder to be beaten than one. And like you, I want to see how much of these lands we can cover with the mantle of your fame."
They covered the whole place... Wherever my little brother's chariot rode, the lands would somehow become his. In a matter of months, the whole East Anglia was taken. And Ivar's army was now advancing over Mercia. Sigurd stepped back to care for Aelle's lands. I stepped back to care for East Anglia's settlement. Harald stepped back being left with York under his care.
But the two of them along with Hvitserk... They were insatiable.
I saw that woman convincing my little brother that there wouldn't be vengeance bigger over our mother's name than forcing Lagertha to a long and peaceful life...
I watched my little brother smile over Lagertha's funeral boat, watching on the wrinkled face of our mother's murderer the proof she would be nowhere to be found in the halls of the gods to where I saw Ivar carving his way.
But the time came for him to come back even for our homelands. With his claws established and our people spread all over the places he conquered, Ivar came back to take our homelands from the Rus' hands with his iron fist. With our reinforcements - Sigurd's, Harald's, and mine - Ivar came back to take the crown from the prince Rus who dared to attack our homelands and claim the life of our older brother who perished by their army right after being made king of all Norway.
A messenger of our kind invited me with the news of my little brother's marriage...
"The people of Norway invites with pleasure and joy your highness, king Ubbe from East Anglia, to return to your homelands and celebrate the marriage between king Ivar, the Boneless and his soon to be queen Y/N, the Crow."
Today my feet were once again touching Kattegat's docks after years away. With a small fleet of my men, along with Sigurd - who had also come to honor our little brother's marriage - and a small part of his men, I arrived my homelands to see the market twice as big than I could remember, cleaner, more full of people with all parts of our kind.
"A deal placed the fisherman in Vestfold and the clean products in our lands to ensure a clean bay. It made our market more attractive, our merchants richer, and increased the number of tents." I've heard Hvitserk's voice - kinda hoarser than I could remember - speaking beside me where he had stopped without my acknowledge. "He made us bigger, brother. He fulfilled his promises. Ivar is known everywhere from Mercia to the ends of Ringerike, where I just came from to celebrate with you." he smiled.
A crown in his head, smaller, possibly something under Ivar's. But something I could see Hvitserk wasn't ashamed of walking around with. We exchanged an embrace before my eyes could run over the place once again.
"Everything changed," I mumbled as Hvitserk was hugging Sigurd before he could look at me once again.
"Biting my own tongue about him, after all," Sigurd mumbled and Hvitserk giggled.
"You better hold your teeth, brother. You might need to have your tongue whole to be bitten when you meet our little brother once again." he boasted.
His words were not enough to prepare me for what I would find inside our great hall. The braces in his legs were completely different from the ones I remember seeing him dressing the first time Ivar stood on his feet in front of my eyes. My little brother's hair was longer, braided tight, well cared. And so were the beard in his face, shorter than mine, but there: something I thought I would never see.
A heavy crown in his head - a huge sign of his power - was something I was already waiting for. However, Y/N's dress held an even bigger surprise for us all. One that made Hvitserk smile cockily over the confirmation of the words he had just spat on Sigurd's face.
"I told you to wait before biting your tongue there, Sigurd... Now I think you have more reasons to swallow it whole, uh?" he mumbled, joking as we followed the gorgeous image of Ivar's queen - belly swollen with his child - approaching to receive us as our brother kept himself sitting on the throne that was once Björn's; our father's, before his.
"King Ubbe, King Sigurd, welcome to Kattegat," she smiled, respectfully saluting us both, ignoring Sigurd's jaw almost dropping down to the ground in front of him.
I, however, felt my lips curling in a proud smile when my eyes crossed with the icy blues looking at us from that higher spot. If someday I had expected to see my little brother in a good situation, those were all my dreams for his life becoming true.
He had the crown he pursued so far, the heir his nightmares told he would never be able to produce, the name many believed he would never build. Ivar's broken legs had taken him further than any of us had reached with our bodies whole and I was proud of what he had conquered. Of him.
But inside I knew behind all that strength, was the anger. I knew behind all that wisdom, was the little man I saw crying inside his room, punching his bed, cursing the gods for his painfully broken bones. Behind the whole curve of that cocky smile Ivar had conquered the right to wear in front of each one of us, was the mark of the tears and sweat I saw rolling down his face since the beginning.
And if someone had helped him to find the right way to where he was standing now, realized, this person was her.
Y/N, from Vestfold...
The woman my people had learned to call "The Crow" for, like Huginn and Muninn to Odin, she was the crow cawing in my little brother's ears, whispering wisdom to his troubled mind, teaching him where and how to drive his strength so he could become the huge man I was alive to see in front of my eyes.
She was everything Ivar ever needed by his side. And because of Y/N, I saw my little brother flying higher than my best dreams could plan for him. Ivar has built himself, forged in his own strength, bathed in his own talent. But she was the hammer and the fire; the forge and the hits that turned him into the man he had become.
I held her hand Y/N had offered me in salutation. And there was a tender smile in my eyes. Proud for Ivar. Full of gratitude for her.
"Thank you, Queen Y/N," I said, smiling at her figure with happiness when she landed her hand over the beautiful belly swollen with my nephew or niece to come. "It was never this good to return to my home."
It was never that good to stand in Kattegat's Great Hall and look around to see the whole effort I made when our father was absent had turned into something so majestic.
He wasn't my son, but I was proud as if it was a child of mine with that crown in his head.
He wasn't my doing. And I was happy to see my little brother walking by himself.
Somewhere in Valhalla, our father was toasting for him, lowering his head in shame and apologizing for ever have doubted his strength - such as our brother Sigurd was doing now, shocked by Ivar's ability to prove him wrong.
Somewhere in the halls of the gods, our mother was smiling down telling everyone something I would be happy to hear if I could...
I know I shouldn't say I told you so... But I told you so.
Author’s Notes | It took me too long, I know, but I hope you like the final result!
Universe | Vikings
Pairing | Ivar x Nomad Reader
Info | Viking Age AU, requested by @nyx-daughterofchaos98 for 5CW7 and posted as later work.
Words | 1416
⁑ Warnings: None
Her fingers were touching everything she could reach; her eyes looking, observing, scanning everything she could touch before she could place the objects back on their original places and go to the next piece of her interest, leaving everything untouched, organized, as if she had never passed through that place. Factual proof of the story she told when he brought her into his hall.
"I'm a wanderer. A learner. I come to know, to understand, to learn, and to teach if someone wants to learn from me. I tell stories in exchange for stories, tales for tales, words for words. I fight the ones who fight me first. I kill the ones who tried to kill me first."
His men had started that fight, he was convinced.
But Ivar never saw someone dealing with so many of his men before. Of course, he had among his armies, tons of shieldmaidens that could face dozens of men at the same time as she did, but not unarmed as she was. Not using nothing but her bare hands to disarm and disable those men as if they weren't the same warriors who faced so many battles alongside him. As if they weren't the ones holding swords, shields, axes against her.
She was something more. A goddess maybe? She didn't claim to be one. Instead, she claimed to believe in many, disbelief many... A learner, she said.
"What brought you into my lands?" Ivar asked from his throne, kinda annoyed that she didn't interrupt her observation of the runes sculpted in his hall's pillars to look at him while answering his question.
Satisfied that she wasn't denying him any answers at all.
"Knowledge," she answered quickly, sliding her fingers through the pillar, feeling the runes. "Your gods... I don't know them. I know Budha, Rá, Hécate. Cernunnos, Christ, Zeus. I know Amaterasu and Oxalá. Ogum and Apolo. I know many gods. But I don't know yours yet."
Her eyes continued to slide through the runes along with her fingers.
"The names you say... Few of them are familiar to me. Who's Osalah? What is Ohgaum? What are those gods you claim to know?" Ivar asked, wrongly speaking the names, attracting her attention for a single moment, a glance before she started looking at the runes once again.
"Oxalá. Obatalá. The Iorubá creator of humanity. King of the White Cloth, purity, the beginning of everything," she explained as if it was natural for her to speak about those unknown names Ivar never heard before. "Ogum," she corrected his pronounce once again, continuously speaking with that tone of impassibility. "The lord of war, sire of fights, owner of the iron and everything that can be done from it. Gods from lands unknown to your people just like your lands are unknown to me."
"Why don't you look at me as you speak?" he finally complained, attracting her eyes once again, heavy and at the same time, empty like the sky in the middle of a clean night.
Mysterious... Inexplicable.
"Don't you respect a king when you see one?" he insisted as her eyes lost itself from his image once again into the runes sculpted on the wooden pillar.
"Crowns are nothing. Invalid pieces of twisted metal to mark the heads of leaders I saw rise and fall like the stars in the sky and the grains of the sand in your clear beaches. You're a man, like all the others under a crown. And one day you'll fall, like all the others before you."
Those words hit Ivar's chest like an arrow straight into his chest. To be confronted with his mortality, his vulnerability spoken like something so usual, so normal, so natural... It wasn't something he was used to facing every day.
"I could order your killing. Tomorrow you would be burned and it would be the end of your journey!" Ivar's voice sounded harsh.
But her expression remained unaltered, untouched by his anger or his threats.
"Others have done it before. I live, they died. And they successors gave me what I wanted before they also fell like their precursors. The fall is the fate of everything that rises, king. If I have to die by your hands, then be it. If don't, then I'll find my way out, and I'll come back for the knowledge when you're no longer ruling over these lands."
Once again, her words hit his chest and this time, Ivar got up, using his crutch to walk towards her, finally attracting her attention towards his legs.
He was ready to make a speech about how his rule would never end, how wrong she was about him, but her eyes fixedly looking at his legs infuriated him more than her impassibility in front of his threats.
"What? Something you never saw, wise one?" he mocked, looking at her with contempt.
But she lowered herself ignoring his glare or the emotions in his eyes, observing the braces in his legs the same way she was observing the pillar before.
"A beautiful work of good smithery," she said, totally disconcerting him as her fingers lifted to touch the unions and mobile parts of his braces. "Heavy metal, mobile structures to make it lighter... A magnificent way to deal with your condition, king."
Ivar was completely out of himself.
Who was that woman?
No. What was that woman?
Was she even a woman?
"Ivar," he said, looking at her. "My name is Ivar the Boneless, son of Ragnar Lothbrok. A descendant from Odin."
"Odin," she repeated, lifting herself up. "Then, you're a demigod. Many others claimed this before. I wouldn't doubt a crippled man who can walk could somehow have divine blood in his veins."
She walked away from him as his eyes followed her steps towards his table with total disbelief. She didn't refuse his claim. She didn't go against it. What was that woman after all?
She took one of his chairs and inverted it before mounting the seat, resting her face on her arms crossed over the wooden back of the chair to look straight into his eyes.
"Tell me about your ancestor. Who's Odin? And Ragnar? Are you the first human of your lineage? Tell me your answers, then, I'll answer your questions. Ask me, and I'll give you what I have. Give me what you have, and I'll leave your lands as I found. I have no intentions to destroy nor intentions to build. I don't want to conquer, nor to be conquered. A learner, I said. That's what I am. A word for a word, son of Odin."
Ivar leaned his head.
She could tell him secrets he could never have the chance to touch once again. And if she was bluffing, archers could surely put her down better than the warriors she faced, right? After all, he was a descendant from Odin! What god would be bigger than his?
"Slave!" he called, and a woman answered his call, lowering her head and receiving his words yet he didn't have stopped looking at that strange visitor in his chair. "Bring food. And mead. And prepare our visitor some good accommodations. There are tales to be told and questions to be answered, too many for a single night to hold."
Her lips curved in a smile. She would have the knowledge she came for, she could see it. Like others before him, that man in front of her was ambitious enough to give her everything for the knowledge she could hold.
"I'm Y/N," she introduced herself, knowing it would be his first answer once he had already introduced himself first. "I’m daughter of nobody, I came from nowhere, my destiny is the next step, and whatever the gods have prepared for me into it. I follow no god; I believe in all of them. I saw all lands; I belong to none of them. My home is the world, the roads, the dust. Ask, King Ivar, and you shall be answered."
Ivar pulled a chair to himself, his smile bigger on his mouth.
That woman wasn't something to be ignored. A blessing, of course. Maybe Odin itself, maybe Loki shapeshifting to mislead. Whatever she was, wasn't important.
He would want her to stay for as long as he could keep her by his side. And thank the gods his tales were as many as Yggdrasil had branches.
Author’s Notes | Despite being for 5CW Ivar, it is Hvitserk who’s getting the loot tonight hahaah
Universe | Vikings
Pairing | Hvitserk x Reader
Info | Modern AU, requested for @lordsexmachine for 5CW7
Words | 1052
⁑ Warnings: None
"I can't believe you really did this!" Sigurd spat, laughing kinda drunk, watching the screen of Hvitserk's cellphone Ivar had in his hands.
"I told you! You owe me 5 dollars now!" Ivar spat back, challenging.
"Oh, no! No, no! We were pretty clear in our bet, Ivar! IF she answers you! And you were supposed to send the message as yourself!" the older one answered, pointing Ivar with the same hand he was using to hold his beer. "You're cheating!" Sigurd accused.
The two of them were alone at the table of a club they went with their brothers to share some drinks. However, Ubbe and Hvitserk were, of course, already busy sharing the same chick who flirted with the two of them for a moment at the VIP room and since Bjorn was too busy for a night with his brothers, Sigurd ended up alone in a table with Ivar and some beers - these last ones maybe the reason why the two of them were betting and not fighting as usual.
Yet, the bet was clear: Ivar should message Y/N and get an answer from her at Whatsapp. Nobody said he should do it by himself.
"You said: message her and get an answer. I got the easiest way to be answered, little Sigurd! Hvitserk is the motherfucking blessed dick around us, girls will always answer to his messages and..." the cellphone Hvitserk had left at the table with them shook in Ivar's hand and the younger brother showed the screen, victorious. "Here it is... I got my answer. You owe me five!"
"What did she say?" Sigurd asked, taking the phone from him to look at the screen, frowning as soon as he saw the messages exchanged at Y/N. "No way! It's not worth five dollars for an exchange of 'Hi's, Ivar!" he contested, pushing the device to his younger brother once again. "Since you want to cheat and use Hvitserk's charm, then I want something more. Set him a date and I increase the bet to thirty!"
With a defiant smile in his face, Ivar placed his beer can on the table and picked up Hvitserk's phone.
"Challenge accepted, brother!" he said, starting a conversation on Hvitserk's molds with the girl.
Ivar was sure of his victory: after all, Sigurd was too drunk and inattentive to notice he was exchanging windows at Hvitserk's device to take some hints of what to say from Hvitserk's last answers to other girls around his Whatsapp. Easy busy, he thought: all he had to do was to use Hvitserk's words and bang, Y/N would be in his hand.
Except for the fact that she decided to call him as soon as he answered he was at the club with his brothers tonight.
"Fuck... Fuck!" Ivar cursed.
"What?" Sigurd answered before Ivar pushed the device in his direction.
"Messages are one thing. Speaking is not on our bet, brother! You put us in this situation! Now what?" Ivar said, putting Sigurd in the front line of that shit...
Hvitserk would NEVER miss a call from a girl. If they didn't answer that one, then their brother would surely know they fucked up his chances with Y/N and Ivar would certainly push the blame over his back... Sigurd knew he was fucked.
What cannot be medicated...
"Hello, kitten..."
Ivar had to break a rib to avoid exploding in laughs while watching Sigurd playing the scene of his life at that phone, speaking just like Hvitserk was used to doing to his girls, trying to dodge the fact that the girl, for a fucking coincidence (or for the gods' punishment) was right on that bar, now trying to locate their brother with sudden and intense interest.
The two of them were so distracted - Sigurd trying to play Hvitserk. Ivar trying not to laugh - that none of them noticed their older brothers coming closer, Y/N by their side on the phone, until it was too late for them to have any excuses...
"I think I can see you now... red and tall collar under a black coat isn't it... Sigurd?" she said at the phone and Sigurd turned just to see that Ivar was silent, swallowing dry as Hvitserk, Ubbe and Y/N were looking at the two of them.
"Gimme this fucking shit," Hvitserk said, taking his phone from Sigurd's hand.
"It was a bet!" Sigurd started. "Ivar sent her the messages and freaked out when she called, so..."
"So, you started playing your best imitation of our brother," Ivar completed. "I have to say it was hilarious!"
"And I was here, really thinking Hvitserk wanted something with me tonight. Have the two of you thought there was a third person involved in this stupid prank of yours?" Y/N said, annoyed, silencing the laughs and diminishing the smiles in Sigurd and Ivar's faces. "That's not funny!"
Especially when Ubbe knew she liked his brother for real. Bad contact for them to troll and Ubbe didn't hide it in his frown.
"I have a good way to solve this situation," Hvitserk said. "How much did you bet?"
"Thirty," Ivar answered, annoyed when Hvitserk extended his hand towards them both.
"My phone, my contact, my money. Thirty, from each one. Now."
Both of them extended the money Hvitserk folded placing on his pocket and turning himself towards Y/N with his best smile.
"My brothers spoke for me, but can I compensate by inviting you to share a drink with me now?" he said, causing Y/N to blush with the idea of really having that drink Sigurd was promising passing by Hvitserk at the phone.
"It sounds pretty sweet," she said, smiling.
And Hvitserk gently touched her waist, conducting her closer to the bar, shaking his phone on his free hand as a signal for his brothers to look at their devices to what he wrote a simple message for them both.
"And since you guys tried to fuck me up, tonight, my drinks and Y/N's are in your bill. Have a good night, bros."
"Fucking bastard!" Ivar cursed.
"That's not fair!" Sigurd complained.
"Know your crime, pay your price," Ubbe smiled, sipping from his cup as the younger brothers were mourning each cup they watched Hvitserk share with that beautiful girl they earned for him.
Author’s Notes | Late, but here! Hope you guys enjoy! Thanks for the request!
Universe | Vikings
Pairing | Ivar x Reader
Info | Modern AU, requested by anon for 5CW7
Words | 1719
⁑ Warnings: Some cursing.
"So... She's your partner, uh?"
There were them!
The pair of sons of whatever bitch that had slept with my father and delivered them into my mother's arms so she could raise them as if they were my brothers and not the pair of motherfuckers I was seeing at the kitchen - Hvitserk lazily chewing on an apple and Ubbe with both of his hands on his trousers' pockets as if they weren't asking me about the girl I was fallen for.
Ok.
I didn't tell anyone.
Fuck it! What does it matter? Y/N was my partner, from my class, at my university! My shit! Not theirs! And I could bet those bastards were thinking about sharing her.
They were doing this to every single girl they had after Ubbe finally got his freedom from that premature marriage to Margrethe.
"Uhum," I answered, disinterested, trying to see if the wolf pack around me would understand I wasn't up to tell them about what their minds were classifying as their next lamb.
"She's your age?" Hvitserk asked, jumping off the table he was sitting on - although our mother had slapped his nape dozens of times not to sit over that table.
"Uhum," I mumbled again, opening the fridge and pretending I didn't know exactly what I wanted into it, just to hide my furious glare into the refrigerator instead of pushing my wheelchair against Hvitserk's knees and take the bad-bones' day as a chance to break his legs and get myself rid of that asshole at least.
"Uh... Is she single?" Ubbe asked and I pressed the cheese knife in my hand so tight that my knuckles became white.
"I don't know, Ubbe," I answered, cutting a piece of cheese as if it was his dick I would cut off in a lot of damn pieces if he was to come near Y/N with it!
"Come on, Ivar," Hvitserk giggled, "Stop hiding the treasures," he said, sliding himself between me and the refrigerator, stealing the piece of cheese I had just cut and getting a bite of it before looking at me once again with that cheese stick in his hand, moving as if it was some bait to get my sharp eyes' attention. "You have a piece of heaven working with you and you don't even know if she's free? Jez... Don't you talk to her, lil' brother?"
I do. About our gods' damn work, Hvitserk!
But I didn't say anything but grunting before starting to cut a new piece of cheese to myself, this time imagining I was cutting Hvitserk's light fingers so used to stealing things from me.
He just giggled again, chewing on the rest of my cheese in his hand before sitting on our kitchen balcony, right beside our mother's cooktop. Would it be too cruel to want that shit wasn't electric? Too evil from myself to wish so bad Hvitserk would end up burning his ass when sitting on places he shouldn't be sitting on? I don't know...
Maybe.
"I talk to her, Hvitserk," I said, placing my cheese in the middle of a pair of slices of bread for a quick snack. "It doesn't mean I investigate her private life."
"Read up: little Ivar knows nothing about the girl he's sitting beside through this whole year," he joked, getting my blues sharp over him once again, this time, enough for Ubbe to shush him with a waving hand.
"Stop it, Hvitserk," he mumbled, landing his free hand on my shoulder as if I didn't hate to be so lower than him on those chair days. "Ivar is right, after all. We shouldn't be investigating girls' lives around. If he doesn't know, I guess we might discover it for ourselves, uh?"
That sentence sent cold shivers down my spine: they would try to hit on her. On Y/N.
On my sweet and beautiful Y/N.
I couldn't hold myself, slapping Ubbe's hand out of my shoulder and giving up on the sandwich I just threw back on the refrigerator carelessly, moving my chair away from those assholes.
I couldn't keep listening to them planning to invite Y/N for a drink, or to some stupid dance club, a bar, whatever! Whatever place they could make her laugh and smile at them! Whatever place they could use that fucking charm of them to lure her into their bed so I would spend a whole night listening to her moans on their room.
"No fucking way!" I growled, throwing my cane on my bed after slamming my bedroom door.
No fucking way I would allow them to have her.
No fucking way I would sit and wait to see her in our class, trying to text one of those motherfuckers after they had her number blocked after exchanging her for another chick of the time!
My fingers started shaking at the cellphone before I touched the green button - what was I doing?
But at the same time, I couldn't stop! - it was me, or them...
"Hi... Ivar?" her voice sounded on the other side.
I wasn't a man of text messages.
"Did I forget something at your house?"
Of course... What other reason would I have to call her in the middle of the evening, around one hour after she left my house after working with me the whole morning in our project for the science fair competition at the university...
"No," I answered, trying to find the words. "I just... I mean... Yes. You..."
Fuck.
How could I be a gods' damn talented mind and not being able to speak properly to a girl?
"Ivar? Sweetie, I can't hear you. Damn, we need to work on an amplifier for these G-signals around," she giggled.
Such a sweet laugh... My favorite sound in the world. I swallowed dry: this sound could be exchanged for something I would hate to hear muffled by the wall between Hvitserk's room and mine.
No.
I wouldn't let it happen!
"There is something I need to tell you. Can you hear me better now?"
Come on, Ivar. Fucking speak!
"Yeah, loud and clear!" she answered on the other side.
And there was my safety running down the drain.
"Ivar?"
It was now or never.
"Are you free today? I mean... It's a bad-bones day for me and I don't wanna spend it whole studying in my room with my brothers around so I was thinking about going to the central square to eat some fries and chill for a while and..."
Why couldn't I just say "Do you wanna go out with me?"? Why was it so fucking hard?
"Fries are perfect. Especially if you're up to eat them with me. What time can I meet you there?"
Did she accept?
Did she just accept going out with me?
"Ivar? Can you hear me? Damn Gs..." she cursed, thinking my silence was a problem of the signal once again and not my mind completely broken with her easy acceptance to something I thought was impossible.
"Loud and clear," I answered, mimicking her way to answer me, getting a new giggle from her on the other side. "I was thinking about... Going now... If you're not occupied."
"That's great! I'm almost there, to be honest. I'll take five minutes to arrive so I'll make our order in advance: this way you won't have to wait for the fries to come when you arrive. I know you hate to wait."
She knew details about me...
"Back table, right?"
The minimum ones.
"Yes..." I mumbled. "Y/N," I started.
Feeling my throat close once again, swallowing the words.
"What?" she answered, but I just smiled, holding my phone.
"I'll tell you there. See you soon."
"It better be soon indeed, because you know I hate to be curious for too long!!" she reprehended me, causing my smile to become bigger.
"I know."
I knew.
I knew she hated to wait. She hated to see me sad - and so she would do anything to make me smile, even when I didn't want to. She hated to be curious for too long, but she loved surprises.
And I had a hell of a surprise for her this time.
I chose my best clothes, with the overcoat she liked to steal from me whenever it was cold and we were at the university campus.
It was slightly cold outside - and I wanted to take the chance to come back home with her perfume on it.
I tried to make my hair look less like a mess, but without mom around to braid it, I had to go for a bun. - Yay... Hvitserk's style. Great. But no.
I tried to sneak out, but of course, Chip 'n' Dale would be outside waiting for me in the living room.
And Gadget Hackwrench wouldn't miss the chance to be with them, naturally.
"Going out, Ivar?" Hvitserk said, in a taunting tone, with the last piece of my sandwich he surely took from the fridge in his hand.
That douchebag was always eating! It was a miracle he wasn't rolling around.
"Wasn't it a bad-bones day?" Sigurd asked, carelessly.
"I'm using the chair. And yeah, I'm going out. Something else, dad?" I asked, causing Hvitserk to giggle and Sigurd to roll his eyes.
"Want a ride?" Ubbe offered, but I denied it.
I didn't want them around.
"No. And I don't know when I'll be back, so don't worry," I said, leaving through the front door.
I would speak to her and tell her how I felt.
I would ask her to be mine and put an end to those bastards' ideas.
And it would be today!
At the living room, right after Ivar closed the door.
"I can't believe it fucking worked," Hvitserk giggled, throwing himself on the couch as Ubbe smiled, cocky.
"I told ya. He just needed a push," the elder one said.
"The two of you are playing with fire, that's what you're doing," Sigurd warning but Ubbe just rolled his eyes drinking from his cup of coffee.
"He's out, isn't he? And I bet he'll come home with a girlfriend tonight, so..."
"Job's done!" Hvitserk joked, crossing his feet on the center table, throwing the last piece of sandwich into his mouth.
Author’s Notes | I hope you like it, dear anon!
Universe | Vikings
Pairing | Ivar x Reader
Info | Viking Age AU, Saxon Princess! Reader, requested by anon for 5CW7
Words | 3245
⁑ Warnings: None
When you first saw the man standing inside that hall, he was nothing but a rag. Young, dirty, a prisoner being carried around by your father's men like a bag of potatoes or something similar. You could still remember how his face was softer, his body was thinner, and his hair could barely cover his forehead with a strange hairstyle that caused your brother to call him "Nordic Acorn" for days…
Well, you had to notice Aethelwulf's expression since your brother's eyes were almost popping out of his head as the acorn-boy he liked so much to mock as inoffensive, was now standing in front of him - taller than him, by the way… - with long braided hair, fierce blue eyes, and a thousand soldiers wanting to put your castle down to the ground for his desires, held back by nothing but his command.
"Ivar, the Boneless," your brother stated as if recognizing that boy from years ago. "The second to last son of Ragnar Lothbrok."
You rolled your eyes when Ivar frowned, naturally not understanding your brother's colocation: Aethelwulf was convinced Kwenthrith's son was one of the sons of Ragnar indeed.
"I think you don't know my family as well as you think you know, Ecberth's son… I'm the last son of my father, but surely not his last legacy in this world."
Even his voice changed from what you had in your memories. Ivar was a grown man now despite the lack of a beard that you could say was even charming in him. He became a beautiful man. But your feelings for that Viking weren't something new.
The two of you weren't something to come from those glares Aethelwulf already had noticed. Ivar was the owner of your heart since the time when you sneaked into the dungeons to know him in a cell and spend entire nights talking to him about the most variable subjects as your father was deciding his father's fate. He earned your heart with his ways, learning how to read the parchments you brought for him, teaching you words in his language your father's friend Athelstan didn't teach. Ivar was the first man that ever touched your lips with his, even thou there were metal bars in between the two of you.
You never really forgot how hard it was to let him go without goodbyes, watching as the chariot took him away leaving you with nothing but his promise.
"What will happen after you go away?"
"I'll come back for you."
Aethelwulf never dreamed about this. He never understood why you became more astute after "the heathen" - in his words - went away with his desires that Ivar's boat would sink and no one would ever find his remains. Your brother would only repeat incessantly that Ragnar's visit was a curse and even you were different after those men appeared in your father's door - words that the following events that ended up with your father's crown in your brother's head confirmed in the peasants and your brother's minds.
But the truth was that Ivar taught you. He changed you and stimulated your curiosity. Because of him, you sneaked to read the whole library, you learned, you studied and understood. And regardless of what Aethelwulf was planning for you, you had in your mind that Ivar would never forget you.
And you were right…
"I see you're not aware of Magnus…" your brother started and, without respect, Ivar simply cut his sentence, remembering you of the frisson of seeing a Norseman facing one of yours.
They were fearless. And it always made you melt.
"Kwenthrith's son wasn't my brother. And I'm not here to speak of the past."
Firm, like the tone you'd always imagined his god Odin should have to speak.
"Then what brings you here, Norseman?" Aethelwulf said.
And you held your breath. It was always funny to hear how your brother used to say words like "heathen" or "pagan" or even "Norseman" as if they were curses or mocking terms. Well, if they were, Ivar wasn't as bothered by them as your brother wanted him to feel.
"I've come to keep my word for I might break a bone but I can never break a promise."
Aethelwulf's face frowned but you smiled. Those weren't words to your brother but to your heart. And you couldn't avoid showing how happy you were to know he didn't forget.
"I don't remember any promises coming from you nor your people other than killing my lineage and stealing our lands," Aethelwulf's pride taunted.
But Ivar's eyes remained on yours. He knew you understood and you stood forward, surprising your brother with the smile you had on your lips for that man he would call a pagan.
You walked down the stairs and stood in front of Ivar, and for an instant, nothing seemed to exist but those two sapphires clear like the sky looking at you with the same tenderness you remember seeing into them years ago. He was pretty taller than you now - standing, Ivar was imposing and huge, like any other Norseman you ever see. - and it was good to look up to see his face now: you could remember how much he hated people had to look down to speak to him and the many times you sat on the floor just to lower yourself to his level so the two of you would look at each other as what you were: equals.
Now, he was bigger, stronger, more beautiful. And yet he was looking at you from upon your head, his eyes were still the same. Your pretty boy was grown, but still yours such as you were a grown woman now, but still his were your heart and your soul.
"May I ask what, in the name of God, is happening here?" your brother's voice cut the scene and took your sapphires from you, to his face.
Ivar's glare was fierce and strong when looking at your (noisy) brother who was really looking bothered in his throne.
"You come into my kingdom, take lands that aren't yours, kill my men and invade my territory, stand into my hall with promises I don't recognize and now this... What is this that you have such intimacy with my sister?"
You looked back at Aethelwulf, sighing.
"When our father took him and Ragnar as his visitors..."
"Prisoners," Aethewulf corrected you, not giving you space to speak, causing Ivar to crisp his lips, annoyed.
But you only sighed again. You knew your brother, but somehow, you also knew it was soon to be over, so why bother yourself with his behavior?
"When our father took him and Ragnar as his prisoners," you repeated, correcting your word just to have Aethewulf's silence, "I took care of Ivar's cell for a while and he made me a promise when he went away."
"What kind of promises could a Norseman do to you, Y/N?" he cut you again and this time, Ivar's head moved that snaky way you knew were a clear sign he was about to get himself fed up of your brother's behavior.
"He said..."
"It doesn't matter anyway," Aethelwulf cut you once again and this time you sighed annoyed and Ivar frowned looking at him.
His ways towards you were really bothering the Norse Commander but it wasn't enough for Aethelwulf to stop.
"We have no time for these minimalisms when something bigger demands our attention," he said, standing. "I hope you came intending to negotiate the withdrawal of your army from my lands, Norseman."
"Kinda," Ivar answered, surprising Aethelwulf that from the top of his arrogance wasn't waiting for an attempt of negotiation coming from the enemies. "I think the lands I have are quite good and enough for my people to establish a settlement and since I'm about to become a king, I think I'll need a proper queen to reign beside me over my new lands..."
Despite the arrogance and intentional taunt in his tone, Ivar's words surprised you.
His queen?
Was he speaking of marrying you?
You never thought he would take it so far and your heart hushed into your chest with the mere idea of becoming his wife.
Crowns were never important to you, but the thought of being by his side was delightful, despite your brother's disbelief stamped in his face.
"So," Ivar continued, "My proposal is quite simple: you won't stand in my way as I take my precious Y/N to be my wife and I'll cease the attacks and settle in my new lands with my new wife. We can co-exist without problems and I may even be your ally in case you need any military support, which seems to be something pretty valuable for someone with men like yours."
A clear mock on the fact that Aethelwulf's army was losing terrain for Ivar's men like rats fleeing from a bunch of cats.
"What you're proposing is absurd!" Aethelwulf protested "I would never deliver my sister in the hands of a man I don't trust!"
Lies.
Your brother was offering your hand like a prize to any Christian king that was up to get his lands free from the threat the Norseman represented to your people. And Ivar's men were so strong and harsh that not even the promise of a future crown was enough to bring suitors to his proposal.
Yet, Ivar giggled at your brother's almost hysterical reaction.
"In this case, I see no option but invade your town, take the crown from your head, and marry my Y/N unfortunately without the blessing from my brother in law."
The sound of those words was enough to have all his men unsheathing swords, causing a huge tension to install itself into that Hall when your brother's men also did the same in what would be the prelude of war to happen in your house.
The most sensate thing to be done would be to cede: Aethelwulf knew he should accept Ivar's request and grant his people's safety by marrying you to him - it would be something to warrant the end of the Norsemen's threat over his kingdom once and for all and the price was low taking the fact that the lands Ivar's men had invaded were unused and idle since your father's time as king. However, your brother was no king...
Aethelwulf was a spoiled brat with a crown in his head and an ego that would never admit taking the same ways your father once took. For him, to negotiate with the heathens was to lower himself from God's grace somehow he thought was over him and you knew he would never accept what was obviously the best option to your people.
Even then, you tried to guide him in the right direction.
"It's a good proposal, brother. A low price for something we're longing for..."
"That's ridiculous! You're my sister! A Christian! A soon to be queen! I would never give you to these pagans as a sacrifice and a plead for mercy we don't need!" Aethelwulf cut you for the last time before Ivar was finally full of his bullshit.
He stood, chest stuffed, ready to speak in your favor, but, for his surprise, it wasn't his voice that echoed at the Hall, but yours, finally taking the reins of your own life.
"What's ridiculous is your stupid ego speaking louder than your mind, Aethelwulf!" you started, hearing his scoff as you proceeded, ignoring his outraged expression, "You're a king, my brother, no longer a spoiled child that can only hit your feet on the ground for what you want! You have dozens of people relying on you to protect them, to keep them safe, to get rid of the threats around them! What you're doing is not the right posture for a king! Even our father knew when it was time to cede and accept king Ragnar had won and if he wasn't stupid like you, maybe we had ended the Norsemen's thread earlier with that deal! You, men, seem to have your balls thinking instead of your head sometimes! We could have his people as our allies and once again this chance is presenting itself for you as once it did to our father!"
"And I'll take it as our father did and spit on these demons' faces! I have no intentions to..."
"Then it is my duty to decide for you, once you show you're not in the plenty of your mental faculties," it was your time to cut him and watch as the steam started to come up from his head.
You knew Aethelwulf never admitted your voice sounding louder than his. But this time, you wouldn't accept his stupidity.
"You have no say in this!" he insisted, but you stood for your ground, looking at him with strong eyes that weren't able to notice the amused and aroused expression in Ivar's face by your side.
Your Norseman was pretty taken by your strong behavior, thinking you had grown even better than his imagination allowed him to draw in his mind.
"Before speaking about lands and people, we're talking about my life, brother! I am the one who will marry for this alliance, I'm the one who will become his queen, and I decided long ago that if this ever happened; if Ivar ever came back for me; I would be his. It won't be you to prevent me from ruling my own life, not when you can barely rule your own men, my king."
Ivar's laugh echoed through your Hall along with the sound of his hands clapping. He never thought you could be so strong and whatever changed in your personality was really attractive for him, even more than what you were before.
His laughs were enough to infuriate Aethelwulf and he threatened to advance towards you, causing Ivar's smile to close immediately and his hand to raise a dagger that landed in your brother's neck as soon as his steps were close enough to you for him to almost touch your neck.
Aethelwulf grunted, angrily. Yet, you stood in front of him without fear.
"Our father died because of these pagans, Y/N and he trusted me to care for you after his death. I won't allow..."
"You won't allow or disallow me anything, brother," you cut him one more time causing him to clench his jaw, furious. "I've learned enough along the years to know I'm more than just a property for you to trade for your interests. I'm a free woman and the owner of my destiny and whether you want it or not, I'm leaving with Ivar today. You can take this chance and sign the papers to have my future husband as your ally or I can sit and wait as he comes to take this stupid crown from your hands and land them in the hands of someone that will surely take care of our people better than you do."
"Your hands sound perfect for me, my queen," Ivar said, looking at your brother's face.
Aethelwulf growled in fury. He knew he was defeated. With your support, Ivar would soon be accepted as King in his place, once the people of Wessex had you in their higher place of admiration and love. You would conduct them easily and his memory would be nothing but dust in a few years...
By letting you go, he could maybe take the chance to get some time, gather some support, maybe go against your husband later, despite knowing it would be hard to convince his people to betray the Norsemen one more time when the first time had such disastrous consequences. Yet, it was the best option in his mind.
He had no other choice.
"You leave with your filthy heathens away from my hall, Y/N! And don't you dare to claim our father's blood to your unacceptable progeny with this demon you'll call your husband! You abandon all your rights to Wessex's crown by deciding to get yourself married to this sinful man under his false gods!" he vociferated, angrily.
But you just sighed, looking at him.
"Don't worry, my brother. I have no intention to steal what you have that's most precious for you. Keep your metal crown, Aethelwulf. Freedom sounds better for me," you said, touching Ivar's hand and feeling as he lowered his dagger releasing your brother from the tension of imminent death.
With a single wave of his hand, Ivar's men sheathed their swords and the tension around started to dissolve slowly, despite your brother's crescent fury.
"I think there is nothing to be solved in here anymore, right?" Ivar mocked, looking at your brother. "You have my word as long as your men stay away from my lands, no new attack will be done and if you need any help, do not hesitate on sending me a crow... Brother."
That smile on the corner of Ivar's lips was taking your brother out of his sanity and you knew that, but Aethelwulf straightened himself, looking at Ivar with that attempt to pretend he was still upon the situation.
"If something ever happens to my sister..." he started trying that stupid theatre of a protective brother you knew he never was.
"Don't worry. I'm sure I'll be safer beside Ivar than I ever was into this castle," you said, looking into your brother's eyes. "And don't mind about coming to my marriage, brother. As you said, it will be under my husband's gods and we both know you must keep clean your image of a good Christian king so let us pretend you politely refused to take part in a heathen ritual and keep things among us restrict to the papers I intend one of our messengers to come and pick up tomorrow," you stated.
Getting one more amused smile from your soon to be husband.
"Our father would be disappointed with you, Y/N, but it is not like you didn't know that, right?" the last movement: an emotional shot that passed far from hitting your heart.
"Our father knew me as nothing but a coin to be exchanged, brother," you said, looking at Aethelwulf untouched by his words, "Let us think he would be proud that you knew how to exchange this coin for a good alliance instead of wasting it with that Southern King you thought would do more than pee on his pants if he was here when Ivar crossed those doors."
The more you spoke, the more Aethelwulf's anger was growing into him. But you had a life to enjoy outside those walls and now, with the Norsemen opening the castle doors, you wouldn't waste your time with your brother's tantrums.
"Take care of yourself, brother," you said over your shoulder.
Feeling when Ivar's hand embraced your waist, conducting you towards the doors in the hallway that his men opened for the two of you to pass.
You could still hear Aethelwulf breaking half of the hall's vases and decorations in an outburst of anger after you crossed the doors with your soon-to-be husband beside you.
But you were too happy with yourself to really pay any attention to him anymore.
With Ivar smiling by your side and conducting the horse, you stood in his chariot, looking forward to seeing how pleasurable it would be to be the owner of yourself.
