(no subject)

[thewidewideworld]

{from here}

Sinric takes Athelstan's hand and leads him through an almost invisible door and down a couple of seemingly perfectly flat hallways that somehow open out onto the rooftop and a little flat terrace with a view of the eastern sky.

Sinric clearly spends some time up here because the spot is furnished with a daybed big enough to lay on or for two to sit together comfortingly and is draped with soft furry blankets of a cloth unknown in their time.

He helps Athelstan to the daybed and sits with him, setting the flask aside for now. The stars are still clear in the sky, even as dawn smudges the horizon with warmth.

Comments

[athelstanthescribe]

"As with Ragnar", he murmurs into the kiss, "if there was ever a time I could have run away, it's when he was bedridden and no one else would have stopped me. But I couldn't."

[thewidewideworld]

"You loved him, even then?" He asks softly, curling his fingers through Athelstan's hair.

[athelstanthescribe]

"I think I must have. I didn't know it for what it was, and it was long before anything happened between us, but something bound me to him."

[thewidewideworld]

"And him to you, I think." He smiles softly. "When did you first know, that it was more than duty that bound you together?"

[athelstanthescribe]

"I don't know if I can pin down a single day or time", he says, thinking. "I think there was an attraction from the first moment, though I was afraid and full of grief. Later... we were swimming together in the fjord, and he was playing around as usual, and I just - couldn't stop looking at him."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric smiles playfully, Athelstan's tale helping him out of his dark thoughts. "Was the water cold enough to hide your attraction?"

[athelstanthescribe]

"It was freezing", he says wryly. "But then he looked at me and our eyes caught, and - Lagertha called us from the shore."

[thewidewideworld]

"Foiled by the wife." Sinric smiles, still playing softly with Athelstan's hair, coaxing it into little braids. "Will you tell me about your first time?"

[athelstanthescribe]

"The first time - of anything - was the night we had a vigil for poor Gyda. He'd told everyone he wanted to do it alone, but asked me secretly to come to him when the house had gone to bed."

[thewidewideworld]

"You shared your grief together?" He didn't judge, he knows well how loss can drive you to need consolation.

[athelstanthescribe]

"We sat together on the beach by a fire and talked and talked, about Gyda and about the future and other things. He touched the back of my neck, and I let him." He remembers every single moment. "Then a touch turned to a neck rub, and talk of trust and taking care of the family, and then we somehow got to talking about Paris... and all the while looking into each other's eyes so I could barely string two words together."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric smiles, enchanted by the tale. "Did you kiss that night?"

[athelstanthescribe]

"We did. It was almost as if neither of us quite dared to be first, so we moved nearer and nearer - and of course Ragnar was the one to close the distance. And then we couldn't stop."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric smiles so warmly, heart-struck by their slow and gentle joy. "Was he your first?"

[athelstanthescribe]

"No", Athelstan admits. "There was a girl at Uppsala, and - some people here. But he was by far the one who meant most."

[thewidewideworld]

"The first you loved." Sinric asks, pressing a soft kiss to Athelstan's cheek. "Than means something very different to the others."

[athelstanthescribe]

"Yes." He strokes Sinric's hair. "Though I care very much for some of my occasional lovers here - without any doubt, the first I loved."

[thewidewideworld]

"He doesn't mind? That you have other lovers?" Sinric clearly doesn't count himself in that as he belongs to both of them.

[athelstanthescribe]

"We've never really talked about it. But I think he knows I'd never choose them over him, if both were here at the same time."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric nods, seeing the wisdom and love in that. They are both free to love and love each other first always.

[athelstanthescribe]

"He has a wife, after all", Athelstan says softly, "and though he doesn't love her, he owes her the duties of a husband. So, as long as I'm his first, he isn't jealous."

[thewidewideworld]

"You are first to each other, as I am to my Emperor. It makes sense. And makes you both happy, which it what matters."

[athelstanthescribe]

"It works for us, as we are and as things stand in our world. He, especially, must give the appearance of being Aslaug's above all."

[thewidewideworld]

"Ah yes. She doesn't sound like the sort to take being displaced well, even if she did it to another to gain Ragnar's side."

[athelstanthescribe]

"She doesn't even take it well when he flirts with other women. And if she knew it was a man, she could ruin us."