(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 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.

[athelstanthescribe]

"You're changing the subject again!" Athelstan snaps, seething. "This isn't about Sinric." Focused on Ragnar, he didn't hear the door open or Sinric's soft footsteps. "You went behind my back. Did you plan to tell me you'd been making deals with him, or do you not respect me even that much?"

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"That was the only deal I ever made with that monster, and I'm not going to make another as he doesn't keep his word even for an hour. Of course I went behind your back; you wouldn't have accepted, because you love me as much as I love you and wouldn't let me feed monsters with my own blood because I don't want them to have yours, unless you seek them out."

Pause.

"And you're changing the subject just as much: - this is about Sinric, it started with Sinric. I hope you didn't let on to Eric just how important he is. If he starts threatening Sinric to get back at you and feed more, we must go to the measly lawspeakers they have here!"

No, Ragnar hasn't noticed Sinric, either; he's too flustered at Athelstan's recriminations, and far too angry about Eric's treachery.

Eric knows about Athelstan and Ragnar, and he doesn't keep his word. Perhaps holmgang after all, using magic weapons or some such thing? By this rate, they are going to need Eric dead.

[thewidewideworld]

"And how important am I?" Sinric's voice is quiet but sharp as he steps to them. "You say I have freedom and yet you speak of me as a thing to be hoarded."

[athelstanthescribe]

"Well, perhaps if I'd known you'd struck a deal with him concerning me", Athelstan is as close to shouting as he ever gets, "I would have known he was more likely to try something like that to get around it. He asked why I interfered, so yes, I told him Sinric is important, but not why, how or when."

And then Sinric speaks, and the rage vanishes in an instant, replaced with something like guilt as he turns to the youth.

"Not a thing to be hoarded", he says quietly. "You can do as you choose, with whom you choose. But we do have an interest in protecting you."

[bigarmy_strangepants]

"You are quite important," Ragnar says, turning to Sinric.

Secretly, he loves seeing him speak up for himself, step out from his demure posture.

"We are going to have met -- in your future and my past. That's how I knew your name, and why I cared about you from the very first moment: because I knew you and cared about you already! Athelstan, lovely soul that he is, took to you even before I told him."

Pause.

"Would you have known, Athelstan, that Eric would break any deal the moment I tried to strike one? I think I must start finding out what weapons ..."

And then he makes that face, with that grin, and scratches his beard.

[thewidewideworld]

The air goes out of him in a huff and he steps back, hand on the table to steady himself. "You already knew who I was? You're protecting me because of who I will be?"

He crumbles a little, knees buckling. It's not that Ragnar cares, or that they want to protect him that shocks him. It's that he has a future. "Where? Where do we meet?" He needs to know if he escapes the palace.