#lil fluff

Earlier that day, he had Floo’ed from the Burrow to the Ministry of Magic for Lucius Malfoy’s trial. Voicing, publicly for the first time, a memory from his fourth year. That when Voldemort had been toying with him in the graveyard, he’d staggered backwards into a group of Death Eaters, and it had been Lucius who had firmly pushed him forward to what he had believed would be his further torture and ultimate death. The nightmare tonight was stronger than the recent ones had been. He imagined that the edges had not softened over time with the use that the others got these days.

Her voice in the ending dark now, soft and concerned: he could make out her features as dawn began to shift itself into the room. “What’s wrong?”

“You know.”

“Which one?”

“Never mind.” He tried to lay back down and turn his back to her, but her hand on his shoulder was surprisingly unyielding. She used her other hand to lift his chin to her face.

“I know you don’t want to talk about things. I know I don’t want to talk about things. But..that doesn’t mean they’re wrong or must be hidden.”

He sighed and dropped his head back, looking away. “It’s too much, Ginny. I can’t be the person you need me to, want me to, be. I’m not that. I can’t be that. There’s too much in the way.”

She fixed her eyes on him, not forcing his gaze, but seeming to call him back with the warmth of her own. “Harry. I want all of you. I want to see all of you. All of your scars. Not just that one,” she said, gesturing. “That one’s obvious. But I know there are more. And I don’t love you…despite them. I love you because of them. Because they’re all a part of who you are. You can show me.” She hadn’t said ‘love’ before, but it somehow didn’t surprise him. He realized they didn’t need to say more just yet.

He pointed silently to the place that Sirius had almost touched but couldn’t touch, the night in the forest before he went to die.

Ginny nodded. Gently, she pressed her lips to the lightning mark on his forehead, then kissed her own fingers and placed them on his heart.

“You…don’t know what you’re signing up for with that, Ginny.”

“I never have. That didn’t stop me. It won’t stop me now.”

She’d learned to cast non-verbally, but it was as though she wanted him to hear her, the confidence in her voice. She looked fully at him with the blazing look he remembered, then away, raising her wand. “Expecto patronum.”

A silvery horse cantered around the room before coming to a stop and nuzzling first her palm, then his. She stroked its neck lightly and then canceled the spell.

“Pretty strong, isn’t it?” He couldn’t disagree.

“You taught me how to do that. And you gave me that memory.” She took his hands in her hands—smaller and softer than his, but with equal power and a determination that sometimes, when he needed it, could outstrip his own.

It was dawn and Dunholm was quiet. You stepped over many drunken, sleeping forms as you moved through the main yard. The feasting had been magnificent as it always was in Uhtred’s victory, ale had not stopped flowing for many hours and you had no doubt that the celebrations would continue today and into the night once more.

You had partaken in drinking and games with your fellow warriors, enjoyed the buzz of victory and the end of a blood feud but you weren’t oblivious to the look in your lovers eye. Nor how he had left your side as you slept not ten minutes ago.

You hadn’t been with the quiet Dane for long, a few months at most, but in that time you had become inseparable. If he was sitting you would be found in his lap, if he was playing games you would be found beating him, and if he was in battle you would be found at his side.

You had kept a close eye on Sihtric as the square was made for Ragnar and Kjartan. You watched him bask in Ragnar’s revenge, Ragnar’s justice and Ragnar’s broken rage.

You also watched it break him in ways neither of you were expecting.

You saw the way his eyes watered, how he flinched as Ragnar just. Kept. Stabbing.

He had been quiet for the rest of the night. He never refused a cup of ale handed to him and he never denied your touch but barely a word passed his lips, physically your lover was there but the look in his eye was far away and it pained you.

The guards at the gate let you pass without argument, with Kjartan dead there was no threat.

Not right now.

You found him at the lakes edge. The sun was rising and you admired his silhouette, the light seemed to glide over the sharp angles of his cheekbones and jaw, even his arms. It softened them and bathed him in pale gold.

He did not hear you approach, and the way he flinched as you slipped your hand into his made your stomach lurch.

‘I did not mean to startle you, my love.’ You spoke the words quietly, his eyes were wide like a startled deer’s. You made small circles with your thumb over his knuckle and the movement seemed to pull him back to the present. He swallowed deeply, blinking rapidly before he spoke.

‘I came bathe…’

‘I shall leave you to it then, I only came to see what pulled you from our bed.’ You turned to leave with a smile but his grip on your hand tightened.

‘Stay Y/N. I would like you to stay...’ You could see his tears then, too stubborn to spill but they danced in his eyes regardless.

‘I will not leave you Sihtric.’

He nodded and started to remove his armour. As you were unlacing your own you heard him hiss through clenched teeth. He dropped his arms in defeat, half snarling at the garment as you stood in front of him. You started to remove it yourself and Sihtric didn’t stop you, his eye would not meet yours, instead he watched your fingers work. You loosened the ties with care, unbuckled the belts with trained efficiency and on your tip toes you pulled the main bulk of armour over his head with only the smallest indication of pain.

When he stood naked before you couldn’t help but take a sharp inhale, even with the purple bruise that was covering his ribs, he was a sight to be seen. There was little blood but the wound would still need to be cleaned. You bent slightly, taking your dress in hand and ripped a piece from the bottom, Sihtric looked down at you, confusion clear as day on his face.

‘You can buy me a knew one with all that sliver Uhtred keeps promising you. Now get in the water, I need to undress.’ He did as he was told with a small nod and the ghost of a smile. He still wasn’t himself but it was something.

Sihtric stood waist deep in the water, his face towards the sun once more. You announced yourself as you approached, a small cough and light splashes of water against your thighs. Only his head turned in acknowledgement, his eyes roaming over your form freely as you came to his side.

Neither of you spoke as you started to wash him, the rag of your dress was soft even soaked in water, the fabric glided over his skin smoothly, washing away the grim and dirt of battle. He smiled properly when you washed his face. He had closed his eyes in anticipation for the cold water not your warm lips on his cheek. You watched his eyes flutter open as you washed down his neck, following his tattoo down to his shoulders and chest.

He seemed to relax at your touch but not completely. Once the front of him was clean you moved to his back. It was broad and muscular and you admired it as much as you did the front of him. You took your time cleaning his wound, it had undoubtedly been cause by a fierce whack of a shield, only the tense of his muscles showed you how much it hurt. You brushed your lips over it once, twice, three times before you heard a tiny breathless laugh from above you.

‘I am no child Y/N.’

‘I know but even the most accomplished warriors deserve kisses.’

You went back to aimlessly running the cloth over the expanse of his back, eventually replacing the rag with your finger. Despite the chill of the water his skin was still warm and you found yourself humming, lost in the intricacies of his skin.

You joined every freckle with an invisible line and traced every scar with interest. You knew the story behind most of them, it was inevitable when you participated in pillow talk with one of Uhtred’s men. There was one scar that you hadn’t noticed before now. It sat just beneath his right shoulder blade and it was long and faded. Even so you could tell that at the time it had been nasty. Painful.

Had anyone else been watching they would have thought that running your finger over it caused Sihtric pain even now.

His whole body tensed. It was like his entire being collapsed in on itself and the scar was an vacuum, sucking him in.

‘Sihtric, what’s wrong-‘

‘Kjartan.’ His voice trembled slightly and your heart shattered. Grief and guilt and relief was the cause of Sihtric’s distance and tears. You chose not to speak, instead you pressed your cheek into his back and wrap your arms around his frame gently. ‘Kjartan was not fond of me – his bastard. He…he would beat me as punishment or as entertainment. For grieving my mother he had me lashed. It left that one.’ There was forced indifference in his voice.

‘That one … has he left many marks on you?’ Sihtric did not answer, you could feel as well as hear the shaky inhale he took. He took one of your fingers in his large hand and placed it up to his chest. He dragged the pad over the skin, enough pressure that you could feel the slight dip of another scar. When he lifted your hand you had expect him to place it back but instead he placed it onto another on his chest, and another on his thigh and another and another. Some where worse than others, all of them old enough that you hadn’t seen them.

Once he had traced the last of them he took your entire hand in his and brought it to his center of his chest. You forced your tears to stop and the lump in your throat to disappear.

‘You did not deserve such mistreatment. You do not… you do not.’

‘I was his-‘

‘There are no excuses for what he did to you. Bastard or not you were his son and you are a man that deserves many things and that- that was not one of them.’

‘I do not know what I deserve.’

‘Then I shall tell you Sihtric, if you trust me to be honest.’

You removed your head from his back and gently tugged him to face you. He did with little resistance and together you walked back to land.

The two of you sat in your under-garments on the shore line, Sihtric lay between your legs as you re-braided his hair. You told him again that his father was wrong in his mistreatment of him. You told him that he deserved respect and renowned as a warrior. You told him that he deserved the love and loyalty of Uhtred. You told him that he deserved the love of a good woman and many beautiful children , children that he was capable in loving in a way his father never was. And that was because he was a better man.

‘The things you deserve Sihtric are all good and they are endless, my love.’

-*-*-*-*-*-

(Your POV)  

You wanted Muriel to like you, you wanted to go to him and be able to have conversation like he and Asra would. You too, wanted to visit the giant out in the woods and spend time together. It was lonely when Asra was away, you had no one else. No one to talk to about Asra, no one who could tell you things about him that he himself wouldn’t speak of. Not his secrets, but rather, what he was like when he was young, his favorite color though you could guess that, where he goes when he’s gone for weeks at a time.  

You were jealous of Muriel. Asra didn’t hide things from him the way he did from you. He didn’t have to prove that he could handle it, Muriel wasn’t pitied by Asra. Asra seemed more comfortable around him and like he didn’t need to walk on eggshells.  

These thoughts plagued your mind on the walk to Muriel’s hut the morning of your trip. You weren’t unfamiliar with these woods but you never travelled this way, whenever you explored the woods you made sure to go the opposite direction of Muriel’s home. No, you never knew exactly how to get their but you sensed the mix of his and Asra’s magic more densely pooled that way.  

As expected, the news did not come well to Muriel. He wasn’t too happy to see you, it caused a pain to twist deep in your gut but you were prepared for the rejection. You decided to give him a little peace and quiet as not to overload him any more with your presence. Asra could do the talking.

The trek through the woods started off quiet, listening to Asra hum a song next to kept you relaxed enough. Even if you could feel Muriel’s gaze threatening to burn holes in the back of your head, you did well not to turn around and take a peek at the brute.  

Asra’s voice was low, just enough for you to hear but not Muriel.  

“Don’t worry about him, we’ll all be spending quite some time together and he’ll come around. Whether he likes it or not.” He sent you a wink, his reassurance was much needed and you chuckled in response.

“He’s quiet and shy, but you’ll find he’s really nice and soft. Just like you, you’ll get along fine even if he’s a little prickly at first. He’s just feeling confused on how to feel about you right now.” Asra let out an airy laugh and locked his fingers behind his head and looked towards the sky a bit before turning back to you.  

“He likes to stick to what he knows and what he’s comfortable with. What he knows is that he’s comfortable with me. You’re new and scary right now, but we’ll help him along the way. I want you two to be close. To be able to lean on each other when I’m gone on some journey.” The magician’s features softened even more than you imagined they could as he imagined a future where his two best friends were close and happy awaiting him to come home.  

That was when the two of your emerged from the tree line and looked forward to see a field of golden wheat ahead. Asra elbowed you softly in the side and leaned close to whisper in your ear.

“I want you to ask Muriel if he’d rather ride the Beast or take the scenic route and walk the whole way to Nopal.” He gave one last cheeky wink for good luck and you both turned to wait for Muriel to come from the tree line as well.  

(Muriel POV)

There he goes, whispering in their ears again, he discreetly rolled his eyes and caught up to you two. Standing closer to Asra but still out of touching distance. If Asra noticed he didn’t show it, but knowing him, as observant as Asra was, he knew he took note of his wariness.  

“Um, do you want to ride the Beast or take the scenic route and walk to Nopal?” You spoke, he leveled you with a stare but eased up when he took notice of how anxious you looked. Were they afraid of me?  

“Whatever’s quicker.” Muriel mumbled; he pouted a bit because he was taken aback by your sudden question. Why’d you care what he wanted to do?

“Ahh, beast it is. I had hoped you’d pick that one!” Asra sighed dreamily, “this is going to be fun!” He hooked his slim arms around you and Muriel’s elbows and skipped towards the edge of the fields.  

Muriel’s suddenly felt all too big, and the idea of riding any animal troubled him, what if he was too heavy? “This Beast big enough?” He asked, fiddling nervously with his cloak to keep his hands occupied.

“Of course, of course! No worries my friend, I have this all planned out well.” Asra unhooked his arms from you both and made quick work rubbing small circles onto Muriel’s lower back to ease out any tension, while his other hand rubbed up and down on his thick forearm. Muriel did feel at ease and he enjoyed the sudden attention from Asra. However, guilt quickly followed suit as Asra explained he came out to these fields all week to feed the Beast hearty meals so that they had the energy to fly three people off to Nopal.  Here Muriel was feeling as if he was causing too much trouble for the poor thing.  

Hours of walking was starting to take its toll on Muriel’s feet. Just as he was about to ask Asra if this really was the quicker route Asra skipped on ahead leaving him and the apprentice behind.  

He glanced down at you and quickly averted his eyes when he saw you were already looking up at him. He felt a heat rise to his cheeks and he was sure you’d notice how he got embarrassed, but you didn’t mention it. For that he was grateful.

“He must be with the Beast, I figured we were close,” you spoke focused your eyes back ahead to the golden field ebbing and flowing with the wind. “It looks like a golden sea, it’s beautiful.”  

Muriel only grunted and quickened his pace a bit to distance himself from you and catch up to Asra. But yes, he agrees, it does look like nice.  

Asra turns his attention back for only a moment, noticing Muriel had left you behind. He raises his brow at Muriel in a scolding, but playful manner. You quickly come into view not long after and Asra gives you a wistful smile, one that asked you for patience.

“There’s nothing here.” Muriel surprisingly broke the silence. You could almost see a literal light bulb light up above the magician’s fluffy pearlescent hair, he’s got an idea.  

“Hold your hands,” Asra said as he made his way over to his two friends, and you both followed his directions obediently without much thought. Asra poured some water chestnuts into your hands and some in Muriel’s too, he sauntered behind you both and urged you toward the open space in the wheat field.  

A ruffling sound could be heard, and Muriel noticed the shuffling of wheat going along with the sound. Must be the Beast, he thought to himself. He spared you a glance out of curiosity and saw you looking back to Asra with a worried expression. Must be scared.

He took a step forward and bent down a bit, so that whenever this Beast showed itself, they would eat from his hand first and give you a moment to compose yourself and see that there’s nothing to worry about. Why he thought to do this, he’s not too sure, but his body moved on its own accord.  

A large animal did finally show itself, and a wide tongue lapped up the snack from Muriel’s palm. The edges of his lips tweaked upward for only a moment, but the second you came beside him his lips formed a tight line to hide his smile.

You inched your hand forward and the Beast smelled more food, slowly it craned its neck to face you, its tongued lapped these snacks up as well and you giggled at the sensation.  

“It tickles!” you smiled brightly at Muriel and he held your gaze, not looking as rough around the edges as he did before but he showed no emotion. His mind however, was running a mile a minute. Why are they smiling at me, why are they so nice, after everything, what the hell?

Asra came up behind you both and clasped his hands together, Muriel straightened back up to his full height, not having noticed he was down to your eye level moments ago. Asra grinned mischievously, was this progress already, he thought to himself.  

“Well, you two don’t know the way, so I’ll be in front, Muriel, you’ll have to sit in back and, Y/N, you get squished in the middle!” Asra chirped, he moved forward to speak with the Beast and remind the creature where they were headed and if they were ready for it.  

Muriel felt like he could see steam was flying out of your ears, your face was dark with blush and you were sweating like mad. Yes, of course he didn’t like the idea of having to be so close to you but that’s all it was, he didn’t quite understand your reaction. At least, not yet.

Asra and Muriel sat on the Beast first, and Muriel was glad that the Beast’s poor legs didn’t give out from under them when he sat. He mentally sighed in relief, and turned to watch you attempt to mount with only Asra’s help. Asra gave Muriel a quick look, asking for just a little bit of help. Muriel shook his head ‘no’ and yet at the same time his body betrayed him and held out his large hand for you to take, you stared for a moment but quickly grabbed it and noted how his calloused hand felt holding yours. It felt nice.

Their hand is soft, he thought, but he pushed the thought aside as he hoisted you up and you took your seat. They smell nice, like flowers and lemon, his cheeks were dusted in a rosy tint at the proximity of you both but he vowed to not hold on to you during the ride.  

Without a moment to waste, the Beast leapt from the ground with a burst of speed. Asra whoops with laughter, barely audible over the sound of harsh wind whipping past you and Muriel’s ears, you both flail your arms a bit looking for purchase, afraid of falling off as you’re already hundreds of feet away from the ground in an instant.

You lock your arms around Asra’s waist and Muriel does the same to you, his face is a furious red as he subconsciously huddles close to you.  

“If my boundaries are going to keep getting testing like this, this is going to be a long trip.” He groans, not meaning to say it out loud, but you smile back at him softly and Asra laughs just a bit harder.