(no subject)

[thewidewideworld]

{From here}

Sinric walks calmly till he is away from the bar and then runs. Something about Eric terrified him. Or thrilled him. Neither of which was good.

He ran till he came to a familiar door, Athelstan's. Having no place of his own and feeling that he owed Athelstan for interceding with Eric, he let himself in, meaning to wait for Athelstan's return to thank him.

He finds himself drawn to the window, sitting on the sill with his feet drawn up under him. He rests his head on his knee as he looks out over the lake, singing the elven song he learn this morning. The sound of it is soothing and he eases himself into a half doze.

Comments

[bigarmy_strangepants]

Ragnar looks daggers at nobody in particular.

"He did??" he says. "No pleasure? He had you come with him because you owed him, nothing else?"

He could argue that's already a breech of their deal.

"We need a law-speaker to appeal to. This is an uncivilised place not to have any!" he grumbles.

Vikings are proud of their laws and things.

[athelstanthescribe]

"Listen, both of you." His voice is firmer now. "There is pleasure. But there must by necessity be a little pain from the bite, and weakness from loss of blood. In the past he's paid for fortifying meals afterwards."

The other thing Eric does to strengthen him will stay between them.

[thewidewideworld]

Mention of weakness and Athelstan's pale features shift Sinric away from his own fears and onto the impulse of service. "You should rest? I can fetch food for you?"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Something to drink, too," Ragnar muses. "Hot mead? Milk and honey? Chocolate, maybe?"

He sounds worried.

"And he shouldn't have called in his claim on you at all," he continues. "It's dishonest. He had no right to Oriens to start with. He has no right to anybody who doesn't freely volunteer to be fed on."

Beat.

"Especially not anybody I care about or love."

[athelstanthescribe]

"Consider them separate matters", Athelstan says firmly. "I intervened, Oriens left, and then since we were there, I made him a payment. But I ought to eat and drink something."

[thewidewideworld]

"I will go to the bar and prepare you a meal." Sinric promises. It is the very least he can do and he's glad to serve.

And Ragnar's comment about caring for requires time to digest.

[bigarmy_strangepants]

Ragnar gives him a short, playful kiss. "Do that," he says. "Thank you, Orien, that's nice of you."

Pause.

"But you shouldn't make any payments at all, Athelstan."

[athelstanthescribe]

"It isn't worth making trouble with him over", Athelstan insists, adding with a squeeze of Sinric's hand, "Yes, thank you. Really, Ragnar - he even heals the bites over afterwards."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"But he agreed he would make you pay any more!" Ragnar blurts out. "You owe him nothing!"

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric slips out the door before the argument gets too bad, dashing for the bar to arrange food and drink for all of them.

[athelstanthescribe]

Athelstan goes very still, and steps back from Ragnar.

"He agreed, did he?"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Yes, because I made a deal with him!" Ragnar says. "Which he promptly broke! We need a law-speaker, as holmgang with a vampire would be just silly!"

[athelstanthescribe]

"He asked for nothing", Athelstan says flatly. "This time. What deal, exactly?"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Well, he obviously made you feel you owed him that payment, so that is exactly what the deal was about!" Ragnar fumes -- not at Athelstan, at the absent Eric. "He's not to make you. At all, ever again."

[athelstanthescribe]

"Ragnar." He's standing as tall as he can, staring straight at him. "What. Deal."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Well, he's not getting anything now!" Ragnar says, looking at his unusually determined lover. "That deal is off; he'd just take what he can and give nothing back."

[athelstanthescribe]

"Ragnar. Stop dodging the question and tell me what you've done."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Nothing yet!" Ragnar says. "I agreed to give him my own blood if you ever didn't want to, rather than call in that ludicrous debt which we have no sensible way to contest in this place, but he went and guilted you into feeding him more or less right after I spoke with him!"

[athelstanthescribe]

"You..." Athelstan stares at him for a long moment, then throws up his hands and turns away. "He did no such thing. We barely spoke of it before I offered, let alone guilt or asking. It was my choice alone. And as for you - " He turns back on Ragnar. "How could you do this without a word to me?"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"Because you would have said no," Ragnar says. "But you're not food. Not unless you want to be, and I want to make sure of that!"

Pause.

"Barely spoke of it, so you did. He guilted you into it! That's a breach of contract by my book."

[athelstanthescribe]

"He did not", Athelstan says, slowly and clearly, "guilt me into it. I was the first and only in that conversation to use the word 'debt'. If I'm a free man, Earl Ragnar, then let me manage my own problems, and when you know I would have said no, do me the courtesy of allowing me to."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"There are things anybody can only ever say 'no' to when offered before the fact," Ragnar says. "You just do them because they're necessary. He's not feeding on you against your will as long as I have blood to volunteer!"

Pause.

"And he's not feeding on our Sinric at all because he's not quite learned what consent even is. Should Eric ever cross that line..."

Ragnar fumes.

[athelstanthescribe]

"Not until he's better able to face it", Athelstan agrees, still eyeing him with crossed arms. "That's why I intervened. And stop changing the subject. He didn't feed on me entirely against my will, nor has he ever. Do you really think I'm so weak?"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"You're not weak!" Ragnar says. "But Eric Northman is a persuasive bastard. I don't want him to touch you unless you feel like it and invite him to feed, and we need to him to keep his fangs off Sinric altogether. I hate that he even knows Sinric exists and is off limits to him."

Ragnar looks at him grimly.

"That vampire could mess up our lives completely, back home in our world that isn't even his past."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric pushes open the door with his back, carrying a tray heavily ladened with food. He wasn't sure of Athelstan or Ragnar's preferences so he ordered and prepared his own favourite comfort foods - lamb with almonds and rice, spicy beef soup, minted yogurt with salt cucumber and a big jug of honey spiced milk. The bar however included a large bottle of mead and a heaped plate of brownies.

He carefully makes a show of not hearing any of the argument discussion as he lays out the table.