The request:
Author’s Notes | It took me some time, but here it is! I hope you like it!
Info | Viking Age AU, requested by @nyx-daughterofchaos98, Part I
Words | 1530
⁑ Warnings: Some cursing
She'd learned from him more than he really wanted to deliver. And yet, it was almost anything in face of what she had said to him. Ivar heard of lands he never dreamed about, people he never thought could exist. Colored people, different people, women with beauty unknown to his eyes, men with a strength he had never seen before, and different techniques to fight the wars he knew would reach his lands someday. That woman, Y/N, she was almost able to make him think his crown was really nothing at all. She was almost able to make Ivar think releasing himself from the weight of the metal piece in his head and break the bonds with his lands forever to explore the world by her side was something more desirable than the throne under his butt.
But she was clear with her words, as always.
"Where I go, I go. No one goes with me and I walk beside the wind. I have no partners, son of Odin. If you want to make the world your path and the knowledge your journey, you may do it by yourself."
It wasn't that attractive without her.
Somehow, that woman had taken Ivar's attention in such a deepness that it was starting to pull him away from the obligations as a king. Everything was being delivered to Hvitserk under him so he could spend more time learning, teaching, speaking to that amazing visitor he didn't know for sure when would leave his lands to never come back into his life.
It was one chance he couldn't lose.
But his absence was bothering Hvitserk - especially when the full work of a king was over his shoulders but no benefit from the crown was being ceded to him.
"And what is this that you do that's so more important than your obligation towards the people you fought so hard to conquer, uh, brother?" Hvitserk said, annoyed. "Since that woman came into our lands, you spend whole days with her, sometimes I noticed you spend even nights awake, speaking all sorts of secret subjects nobody is allowed to participate. Who's this woman after all? Will you make her your queen?"
Ivar didn't have to answer when Y/N entered the room right on time to listen to his brother's mischievous questions.
"I have no interest in occupying this place, young prince," she said.
That kinda bothered Ivar a little. It was stated that she wasn't interested in any carnal conjunction or relationships other than understanding the whole world around her, but it was annoying that she would say so explicitly that she didn't want him or he couldn't attract her in any way as she was able to do to him.
However, Ivar knew pretty well others had tried to make her theirs and they failed before. And as she said, others would try and would fail as well... She was a woman, but not a woman at the same time. It was complicated.
But easy to understand she wouldn't belong to him at all.
What would console him was to think she wouldn't belong to anyone else as well.
"And what is it that you want then?" Hvitserk turned his questions towards her and Ivar then sat; a malicious grin on his lips. He knew pretty well those questions wouldn't bother her.
It would be fun to see his brother's reaction to what had bothered him so long ago.
"She says she wants to learn. I'm teaching her," he said, catching Hvitserk's eyes for a moment before the older brother would frown, annoyed. "And she's teaching me too."
"Speak clearly!" Hvitserk charged. "Our men complain of your absence, our people ask about their king, some are even wondering if they're under you or under me, brother. Is this what you want? To cede me the crown and go learn or teach our new pet?"
"I'm no one's pet, young prince," the woman manifested again, short and calm, in that tone that was so annoying for Hvitserk as it was for Ivar when he first heard that impassivity.
"Then who the heck are you, woman?"
Ivar almost broke a rib not to laugh at his brother's annoyance, remembering his own irritation when he'd just met Y/N after that sick fight of hers against his men.
There she was, once again, sliding her fingers through the runes she liked so much to learn about, carved in the pillars of his halls, ignoring his brother's anger as much as she had ignored his own.
"A learner, I've said before," she answered, calmly.
"Then find yourself a teacher who has less to do than ruling a kingdom, for the gods' sake!" Hvitserk exploded, fully annoyed. "Or you find someone else to work for you like this, Ivar. I'm not your damn slave!"
She rose her eyes towards the prince. Ivar glared at her, paying attention to her reactions. With time, he understood her glances would speak pretty more than her mouth. She was alert.
Hvitserk was acting like a threat and she would treat him like that.
"I suggest you calm down, Hvitserk," Ivar warned, with nothing but the intention to tease his older brother into the flames he could see into his eyes.
"Fuck you, Ivar!" Hvitserk lost his mind, infuriated. "I have been doing your gods damn work all this time as you're here playing house with this woman as if you had nothing more important to do! What is it that a wanderer has to teach you that's so amazing after all?"
"There is always something to be learned, always something to teach," Y/N said, catching Hvitserk's angry eyes towards her.
"Well guess what, stranger, you're wrong! I don't believe there is anything you can teach to a grown man like me. All you do here is just to occupy my brother's time and throw services that aren't mine over my shoulders!" he grunted back, fully harsh.
But Y/N just walked closer to him with that same cold expression Ivar learned was something natural for her. Out of nowhere, she lowered herself down in a quick movement, swirling around herself with one of her legs stretched, making a circle with her foot around her own body, passing through Hvitserk's legs in the way.
Ivar's eyes watched fully impressed as his brother's feet were lifted up from the ground almost at the same time she lifted herself up, swirling in the opposite direction and using the weight of the movement to hit her stretched leg against Hvitserk's chest, throwing his brother's back against the ground with a loud noise.
Two seconds and Hvitserk was laid flat over his back, with all his experience as a warrior beaten by an unarmed wanderer, as he'd called her himself. His eyes were large in surprise: he was barely able to see that coming or reach for his sword or any kind of protection. She could've killed him without a single effort.
"What is this woman... These are the words your head is searching for, brother," Ivar mocked, giggling at his brother's impressed expression.
But Y/N was looking at Hvitserk with the same blank expression from before.
"As I said, there is always something to learn and something to be taught. You've just learned this, which is something new in your life. And by the expression on your face, I believe my techniques are also something you just discovered I can teach you and you want to learn. Here is the time you wanted, young prince. I may take a part of my days to let King Ivar be what he has to be and do what a king shall do. While this, I shall follow you into your training camps and you may teach me how do you handle your swords and axes. In exchange, I shall teach you what you've seen today. Sounds like a fair deal for you?" she said, offering her hand to Hvitserk who accepted the firm grip to get up from the ground still impressed.
"Who are you, woman?" Hvitserk asked.
And Ivar smiled as she repeated words he'd heard from her mouth before.
"I'm Y/N, I’m a 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. I'm a learner, young prince. That's what I am. But I can also be a teacher. And from now on, I think, we can teach each other."
"Go with her, Hvitserk. She'll teach you amazing things. But learn wisely. She won't stay forever," Ivar advised.
As his brother went away with the woman behind him, Ivar sighed. He would lose some of his precious time with her so she could teach Hvitserk her ways to fight. But if she had to teach someone else in his lands, then maybe she would stay a little longer.
It was a win/win game in the end.
And if there was something Ivar liked to do was winning...
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