(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

[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."

[thewidewideworld]

"Then we shall see to it she never finds out." Sinric assures him, stroking Athelstan's hair.

[athelstanthescribe]

"We're as careful as can be at home. It helps that all the men touch and embrace casually, so we don't need to avoid touching at all."

[thewidewideworld]

"So you are safe to be physically affection but not showing your love in anything but passing touches? That must be hard."

[athelstanthescribe]

"Sometimes it does wear on us", he admits. "And at those times, we take ourselves away to our hunting lodge."

[thewidewideworld]

"Or here, when the door is willing." He shifts to start massaging Athelstan's hands and forearms.

[athelstanthescribe]

"Or here." He lifts his hands to let Sinric get a better grasp on them. "Which is even better."

[thewidewideworld]

He works his way carefully around the healing hole on Athelstan's palms, working is way down and along his fingers. "When you finally find each other, I'm sure you will have much to share."

[athelstanthescribe]

"Nothing I'll want to speak of", he says quietly. "I'll want to hear his news."

[thewidewideworld]

"He'll want to know how you are feeling, how you're coping." He brushes his fingers over Athelstan's brow and the tiny scars still lingering there from the crown of thorns. "I can talk to him, if you wish? Before-" He trails off, starting again. "I know how hard it can be, to talk of such things."

[athelstanthescribe]

"That might be good", he agrees. "If I'm there, I can be there in silence while you speak for me, or if I'm not - you can speak perhaps even more freely."

[thewidewideworld]

"When he returns, we will talk together, or apart, depending on how things happen. We will do as we need to do when the time comes. If he comes before you return, would you like me to speak with him?"

[athelstanthescribe]

"Yes", Athelstan whispers. "It's better he should know - and you have my permission to tell him all you know or can guess."

[thewidewideworld]

"Are there particular things you need him to know? Where or how not to touch you? Things you're not ready to talk about?"