Thinking about Viking Tommy x Thrall Buck again and the potential angst is so delicious
Like first the language barriers, Tommy not speaking English and Buck not speaking old Norse and so not being able to tell Buck what he expect when he brings him home
Buck being terrified, he can fight back against most people but Tommy is a Viking, a strong one and Buck is not armed and Tommy tries to speak but Buck can’t understand a thing
Tommy brings out the tablets his mother used to teach him to read and write and teach him basic words of the household by showing them to him
It’s very rudimentary but it’s enough for the couple days between the raiders coming back and the celebrations and life becoming calm again there
There is a missionary, Bobby, in their village, a Christian guy that preach, nobody cares about what he says but he stills try to preach to some, the Viking find him entertaining but he speaks Norse and English and so Tommy brings Buck there one day to have better lessons than what Tommy’s patience can provide
Buck is still terrified and waiting for Tommy to do what he could do to his slave if he wanted
Buck learning Norse as quickly as he can and finally being able to have small talk with Tommy and understanding what he wants, keeping the homestead clean, making food, taking care of the three horses Tommy owns and the grounds
His house is big, bigger than anything in the village and it’s on the outskirts, Buck isn’t sure why, Tommy is strong but feel like an outsiders to the village
And he has a nickname, Tommy the Berserker
He doesn’t know what that means or represent but it made men wary of Tommy on the boat back and even Bobby, the missionary had a moment of hesitation when they arrived for his first lesson
Still Tommy hasn’t beaten up Buck yet or assaulted him, he just looks at him or is absent
After days at Tommy’s home or at Bobby’s little hut he almost forget that he’s a thrall, a slave, just property
Until somebody barge in Bobby’s hut and drag him out, an old leering man looking at him like he’s just a piece of meat, reminding him of some men back in England and the way they looked at his sister when she developed
He doesn’t know the man that drag him out, he tries to fight back before being back handed so hard he sees stars, his tunic is half tore from him before the man is just wrenched from him
One second he was looking down at Buck in the middle of the road in front of Bobby and the next he can see the gray sky over him and when he looks to the side he sees Tommy throw the man to the ground and pull a short axe from his belt, not hesitating once second before bringing it down on the hand that was holding Buck not even a minute before
“He’s mine” he hears, it’s Norse but Bobby taught him that early, Viking are very protective of what’s theirs, he explained to Buck, and taught him anyway to say or show ownership over something
A shiver runs along his back when Tommy take the few steps between he and Buck and bring Buck back to his feet, blood covering the axe in his hand, and droplets on his face
Tommy pull him up and over his shoulder like a sac and bring him back to his homestead without a word
