Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Come and find us Christian Girl…save us.

How?

Find us…we are here.

Where are you?

‘(Y/N)!’

You jump up and look around rapidly, hoping to find who had been speaking to you, but all you found were the amused faces of your new classmates.

‘Thank you for rejoining us, now how about answering question on the board.’

‘Um…twenty-six?’ you guessed.

‘This is History Miss (Y/L/N).’ she sighed tiredly.

‘…nineteen twenty six?’

At that she just rolled her eyes, thankfully before she could say anything, as fast as you could you gathered your things and left the room.

That dream again, you had been having it since your family had moved to Denmark last month for your Mom’s job as an archaeologist.

You went to your locker and thought back to when she told you of the move, you had been upset about the whole thing. You were a Texas girl born and raised. Now you had to learn a new language and get used to know a whole new country.

While it was inconvenient to you, you were happy for you Mom, she loved her job but in Texas it was harder for her. She had to leave you and your siblings for months on end, now she could make more and be at ground zero, and housing was included.

The place was beautiful and your siblings loved it too, they were making a lot of friends at their new schools.

The only major downside of it was that you hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep since you landed.

Every night someone far away called out to you in your sleep; asking you to find them. You’d ask who they were and where were they, but you always woke before you got an answer.

Once you hand changed out your books and closed your locker you went to walk to your next class.

As you walked you stretched and yawned, in doing so you closed your eyes and just as you opened them you bumped into someone.

Before you could apologize you realize you were the one who had gotten knocked down.

‘Shit, sorry.’ the guy said, bending down to pick up all the crap that had fallen from your book bag.

‘No I wasn’t looking, I’m sorry.’ you said, too embarrassed to look up.

‘Still I’m the one that knocked you down.’ he said.

‘I’ll accept yours if you take mine.’ you said.

‘Alright.’ the guy said as he stood, while you gathered the last of your pencils.

As you stood you He held out your bracelet with the cross charm.

‘Here you go, Christian Girl.’

That made your head snap up to look at the boy you had been speaking to.

He had chestnut colored hair and the bluest eyes you’d ever seen, he was really hot.

That wasn’t the point though, he had called you…

‘What did you call me just now?’ you asked.

He looked confused and held up the bracelet.

‘Christian girl? Unless you aren’t and this is just a fashion choice or a silent rebellion.’ he said.

You had heard that name before…and that voice too.

‘What is your name?’ you asked, your voice barely above a whisper.

‘Ivar…Ivar Ragnarson.’

You found him.

Chapter Text

‘I found you.’ you breathed, a feeling of relief washing over you.

‘Excuse me?’ Ivar asked in pure confusion.

‘What?’ you asked back.

‘Did you bump your head when you fell?’

That was when you snapped out of your own head and realized how nuts you probably seemed. This guy didn’t know you at all and knew nothing of the dreams he had starred in.

‘N-no um sorry, talking nonsense I guess.’ you stuttered.

‘You sure you’re OK?’

‘Yeah, um excuse me but I haven’t seen you around here before.’ you said.

He looked at you as if he was still trying to decide if you were alright in the head.

‘No… I usually don’t come out this way, but my normal hall got shut up because some freshmen spread oil on the floor. Had to go the long way, and…’ he paused and looked at his watch.

‘I’m definitely gonna be late now, it was nice meeting you Christian Girl.’ he said as he walked past you.

‘W-wait I-’ you tried to call out but he was already around the corner and you realized the hall was empty.

A quick glance at your phone told you that the bell was gonna ring in two minutes and your own class was at least five minutes away.

‘Dammit.’ you whined as you ran down the hall, in a desperate attempt to make it time.

Needless to say you were late and your math teacher chewed you out in front of everyone, and you were made to sit in the back of the class.

That was fine by you though, in the back you could sleep, hopefully not that you had finally seen this guy you could finally sleep.

You were wrong.

Find us…Save us.

I did find you.

Find us, Save us Christian Girl… bring us back.

Save you from what?

Bring us back. Bring us home

From where, who is us?

You were woken by someone shaking you gently.

‘Sorry, but class is over, it’s time for lunch.’ your classmate said before leaving.

You looked around and tried to shake yourself back to reality.

Save us?

What does that even mean, the guy you had just met seemed completely fine and safe. Nothing about him seemed like the cry for help you heard every time you closed your eyes.

Maybe there was something you weren’t seeing.

Quickly you gather your things and hurried to the cafeteria, the lunch room here was huge since everyone had lunch at the same time. It would take a while but if you looked around you could probably find him again.

You skipped the many lunch lines and searched the large room frantically looking for the boy.

As you walked around scanning the room you bumped into someone for the second time.

‘Dammit, you OK Sweetheart?’

You look up and see a guy with brown hair and kind blue eyes, not as stunning as Ivar’s, but very appealing nonetheless. He looked older too, had a rather large build on him.

‘Yeah, I’m fine, not the first time I’ve been bumped today.’ you said, still looking around.

‘Looking for someone?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, something like that.’ you answered.

‘Well I’m sitting with my brothers, our table has a pretty good overview of the cafe, wanna come up? Take it as an apology.’ he offered pointing to the second floor of the cafeteria.

‘Oh my God yes, that is perfect, thank you.’ you said thankfully as you grabbed his arm and began pulling him along.

‘Alright then Sweetheart, my name is Ubbe by the way.’ he said as you dragged him upstairs.

‘Ubbe? Unique name, even for you Danish folks; my name is (Y/N).’ you introduced yourself.

‘(Y/N) the American?’ Ubbe asked.

‘Yeah, didn’t know I was so well known.’

‘Well you’re not really, I just heard all the buzz when you first transferred.’ he said as you reached the second floor and he began leading you to his table.

‘Who’s the new girl Ubbe?’

You look up and see another handsome blue eyed upperclassman, his hair wad lighter and in a man bun. There was another boy beside him with red blond hair that looked naturally curly.

‘This is (Y/N) the American who transferred earlier this year, remember?’ Ubbe said as you both sat down.

‘Yeah, the girl who is now famous for falling asleep damn near everywhere.’ the blond said.

‘I heard you got caught sleeping in the boys locker room, under the bleachers and even the teachers’ lounge.’ the man bunned one said.

‘I was too tired to tell it was the wrong room, and the lounge was empty when I went in no one was using the couch.’ you defended, looking over the rail.

This was a far better view, surely you’d spot him from.

‘Oy, Christian Girl.’

With a startled gasp you turn and see Ivar sitting down between the other two boys.

‘Ivar.’ you said, again taken back by his gorgeous features.

‘Is this who you were looking for?’ Ubbe asked.

‘Uh…yeah.’ you said.

‘Why are you looking for me?’ Ivar asked.

‘I…uh…I never got to introduce myself, seemed kinda rude.’ you lied awkwardly, wincing at how lame you sounded.

Ivar looked at you a moment before chuckling.

‘You Americans are weird, but if you insist, tell me your name.’ he smiled.

‘(Y/N) (Y/L/N).’

‘Nice to meet you, but I think I like calling you Christian Girl better.’

‘So it seems Ivar doesn’t hate your company, looks like we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.’ the man bun said.

‘Mmhmm, seems like Ivar has decided to adopt you.’ the blond said.

‘Adopt?’ you asked, looking around.

Ivar nodded, as he picked up his apple and took a bite.

‘I don’t find her as annoying as others, we’re keeping her.’ he said.

‘Wha-’ you stuttered.

‘Well since you are ours now we should introduce ourselves; I’m Hvitserk, but you can call me Hvitsy.’ the man bun introduced.

‘I’m Sigurd, but you can call me Snake if you like.’ the blond said.

‘Ok Snake…um anyone want to explain this whole adoption thing or…?’

‘Isn’t it obvious, we are taking you in as one of us, something we don’t do often since this idiot hates everyone.’ Ubbe said pointing at Ivar who grinned in return.

‘So…we are all like best friends now? Just like that, I get a nick name and I join the band.’ you asked.

‘Pretty much, now eat something.’ Ivar said, handing you half of his sandwich.

It was then you realized you were actually starving, gratefully took the food.

‘Thanks, forgot to go through the line.’ you blushed.

‘So…I’m adopted now?’

‘Yup, I own you now Christian Girl.’ Ivar said.

Chapter Text

Eating with the Lothbroks at lunch you tried to learn as much as he could about them, anything to suggest that they needed saving.

In your dreams Ivar always said “us” and in your last dream he said “bring us home”. When it came to home the people you imagined being home with was family, so he must be talking about bringing his family home.

You made sure to keep the conversation light and tried not to seem like you were interrogating them. They didn’t seem to notice how often you’d a question.

‘You are a very curious girl aren’t you?’ Ubbe asked.

‘Well you guys are kind of the first friends I’ve made here.’ he deflected.

‘Maybe because you’re always sleep during lunch.’ Sigurd says.

‘Maybe so, the point is I still don’t know anything about this town outside of my neighborhood. So why don’t you all show me around since you adopted me.’ you smiled.

‘Ivar’s the one who adopted you, we are more adoptive uncles, ask daddy to take you out.’ Hvitserk teased.

‘Daddy?’ you cringed.

‘Not the first time I’ve been called that.’ Ivar grinned.

‘OH!’ Hvitserk cheered , giving his brother a high five.

‘Idiots, men are the same no matter what country they’re in. Will you take me to see the town or not? ’ you rolled your eyes.

‘Fine, we’ll show you around tomorrow, Its the weekend so you’ll see it in all its clustered glory.’ Ivar said.

‘Not me, I have a date.’ Sigurd said.

‘Same.’ Ubbe added.

‘And I have to make up my Chem test during Saturday classes.’ Hvitserk groaned.

‘So just us then.’ Ivar sighed.

‘Awesome, I’ll meet you at your house.’ you smiled eagerly.

‘No I’ll pick you up, our house is tricky to find.’ Ivar dismissed.

‘Tell me about it.’ you said under your breath as the bell rang.

‘What hall are you on?’ Ivar asked as he stood.

‘All my classes are in the center hall.’ you said.

Ivar nodded.

‘Come on I’ll walk to class.’ he said.

‘But won’t you be late?’ you asked as you grabbed your things and stood as well.

‘Not likely this is my free period, I’m gonna chill in the library.’

‘OK.’ you agreed as you both headed down the stairs, his brothers in tow.

‘I’d kill to have a free period, I’m the only one who doesn’t have one.’ Hvitserk whined.

‘If you got your grades up you could have one next semester.’ Ubbe comforted.

‘I’m missing two whole credits, I’ll be chasing them til I graduate.’

‘That’s because you skipped so damn much the first two years, serves you right.’ Sigurd said.

You all fell into the crowd of kids trying to get to their classes, something you hated passionately, its like on foot traffic.

But today the crowd seemed a bit easier to get through, a look around told you the crowd was separating to make a path.

‘What the hell?’ you asked.

‘I know, they are all so dramatic.’ Ivar sighed in annoyance.

‘I like it.’ Sigurd said.

‘Of course you do.’ Ivar teased.

‘So this is a usual thing?’ you questioned, looking around realizing a lot of people were looking at you as you walked.

Once you had exited the Cafeteria the population of the school went on like usual.

‘It’s our normal I guess.’ Ubbe said before he headed to the south hall which held the senior classes, and Hvitserk headed to the north hall that housed the junior classes.

‘Man I want to skip Bjorn’s class.’ Sigurd sighs woefully, looking at a open class door your group of three was approaching.

‘It’d break his heart if he heard that.’ Ivar said, pushing his brother into the class were a insanely hot blonde teacher sitting at his desk.

The teacher looked up as Sigurd stumbled in the class, he smiled at the blond before looking past him and sending a wave to you and Ivar.

You smiled awkwardly and waved back.

‘Come on before he tries to talk to us.’ Ivar said, while smiling and waving at the stupidly attractive teacher, before pulling you along.

‘Who was that?’ you asked, looking back at the classroom.

‘He’s just a teacher.’

‘A teacher too hot to exist outside of my wettest of wet dreams, oh my God.’ you swooned.

Ivar thumped your forehead, making you gasp in surprise.

‘None of that you hear me.’ Ivar scolded.

'Wha- why not?’

'One, he is a teacher and too old for you; and two, he’s my brother.’

'Brother? Your brother is a hot teacher?’

'He is just a teacher.’ Ivar dead panned before pushing you forward, you rolled your eyes but carried on walking until you were at your class door.

‘This is me.’ you said.

‘Alright, gimme your phone so I can save my number.’ Ivar said holding out his hand.

You handed over your phone and watched Ivar put in his number and save it before he handed it back to you.

‘Text me.’ he said before walking off.

‘Goodbye to you too.’ you mumbled before going to class.

You sat down and hoped to stay awake, but knew it was hopeless, lunch really was prime nap time for you and today you had missed out on it.

Just as you went to rest your head someone rapidly tapped your shoulder.

‘You’re friends with Ivar Ragnarson?!’ a girl you had never spoken too asked eagerly.

‘Uhhh…’

‘How? Ivar hates everyone, why is he talking to you?’ she asked.

‘I- I don’t know what you want to hear, I guess he decided I don’t annoy him yet.’ you tried, very confused about what was happening.

What the hell is going on right now, who the hell is this girl, and why is she so concerned with Ivar?

‘Everything annoys Ivar, in grade school he wrote a paper about how rainbows suck.’ she said.

‘Nice to know, excuse me if I’m being rude but why is Ivar talking to me such a big deal?’ you asked.

‘Don’t you know? The Ragnarsons run Kattegat High.’

‘What?’ you asked.

‘Their Dad was the school’s biggest investor when they started building it, now their Uncle is the dean. Their family owns half the town it’s one of the richest families in the country.’ the girl raved.

‘What?’ you repeated in shock.

‘You just became friends with millionaires.’ she says in awe.

‘WHAT?!’

Chapter Text

OK you had a big day tomorrow and you were fully prepped for it.

Homework done, chores done, you got the OK from your mom and now all that was left was for you to get a good nights sleep so you would have the energy to actually hangout.

You took two melatonin pills and laid down.

After not taking a good nap at school it only took about three minutes for you to clock out.

You were in a large clearing in the woods, you were always here in your dreams, Ivar’s mysterious voice calling out to you.

Something was different this time though, this time Ivar was actually there in the clearing with you, but…he was different.

His face was half covered by a thick and graying beard, if not for his distinguished eyes you probably wouldn’t have recognized him. He was dressed like something from a medieval festival and he seemed a few decades older than the boy you had just seen.

Ivar was sitting on the ground, leaning back against a large boulder, his eyes were unfocused and he seemed to not notice you at all.

‘Ivar?’ you asked stepping toward him, but you stopped when he threw an ax you hadn’t seen laying by his side.

You gasp in shock as it landed by your foot.

‘Stay away, Christian.’ the old man snarled.

‘Wha-’

‘Do your job and find us.’ he snapped.

‘Bu- but I thought I did find you.’ you argued, so confused about everything that was going on in this dream.

‘Find us…the real us and bring us home before it is too late.’

‘Too late? What are you talking about?! What the hell is this?! What do I have to do?’ you were begging for answers.

‘Find us…Christian Girl.’ he demanded.

‘Ah!’ you gasped as you shot up from your bed.

With a groan you cover your face with your hands, you were so frustrated with this crap.

All you wanted was sleep.

You look over at your clock, it was only a few minutes before your alarm would go off so you went ahead and disarmed it.

That was the most informative dream you’d had since you got to this country, but it left you with even more questions.

Like why was Ivar so old and dressed so weird, and why did he say the Christian like it was an insult?

You got out of bed and started getting ready, taking a shower and doing your hair and make up.

Ivar had let you know during lunch yesterday that he was a morning person and therefore you’d be going out early as fuck.

Granted he didn’t tell you he was filthy fucking rich, because holy shit.

You hadn’t known how to handle the info at first, you still don’t, but you were sticking to the acting like you don’t know.

If none of the Ragnarsons told you then they must have a reason for not wanting you to know.

Once your hair was done you went back to your room and got dressed, just as you got your necklace on you got a text.

Daddy Ivar: I’m outside

You rolled your eyes at the name Ivar chose for his contact.

Quickly you gather your purse, phone and house key before heading downstairs. You made sure to leave a note on the fridge to let everyone know you were going out.

Outside you found Ivar sitting in a beat up pick up, that looked like it needed a serious paint job.

Not what you were expecting.

‘Nice ride, can it get us out of the driveway?’ you asked with an arched brow.

‘Don’t listen to her sweetheart, she doesn’t understand your power.’ Ivar soothed his car, caressing the stirring wheel before he got out the car.

‘Seriously, can this thing make it down the street, I think this truck is older than my parents.’

Ivar grinned as he got out of the car and motioned for you to follow him to the hood of the truck.

With a smug grin he lifted the hood and revealed the most magnificent engine you had ever seen in your damn life.

‘Don’t judge a book by it’s cover Christian Girl.’ he said as he closed the hood.

‘Damn.’ was all you could say.

‘I know, she’s a beauty.’

‘If you have that beast of an engine why not soup up her bodywork?’ you asked.

‘Would you pester me for a ride looking at this truck?’ he retaliated.

‘No.’

‘That is why, now come on, first thing first we are hitting the actual hot spots. None of that tourist shit.’ Ivar said opening the door for you.

‘But I like tourist shit.’ you pout as you got in.

‘Fine you get one museum, other than that its all authentic Denmark.’ he said before closing the door and going around the truck to get back in himself.

Ivar cranked the engine and the truck came to life.

‘Alright lets do this.’ you said as he started driving.

For a while you both just sat in comfortable silence while he drove through your neighborhood.

‘So what’s the first stop?’ you asked.

‘The best cafe in town, then we are hitting the mall, then a walk through the town market. and lastly the museum since you just need to be a tourist.’ he answered.

‘A cafe? Thank God I need the fattest coffee right now.’ you yawned.

‘Get something strong, we have a lot to see.’ Ivar advised.

The two of you sat continued with small talk as he drove, him pointing at things you might need to know the location of. Like the quickest way to the hospital, where to find the go to guy for beer, things like that.

Once you got to the cafe you were in awe of just how nice it was, the decor was homey and the mood was inviting, but what hooked you was the powerful scent of coffee beans.

You all but skipped over to the counter.

‘Hello.’ the man smiled.

‘Hi, I’ll take the biggest and strongest thing you got; don’t ask if I can handle it, I promise I can.’ you replied.

The barista made a face of consideration and went about making your drink.

‘Also two braided danishes and a decaf for me.’ Ivar said

‘Coming right up.’

Ivar led you to a booth where you waited for your food and coffee.

‘So Christian Girl, you asked plenty of me and my brothers yesterday, I think you should tell me about you.’

‘Well I’m American, Texan to be specific. I am the oldest of seven, but I only live with three of my siblings. My mom is an archaeologist my dad is a truck driver in Georgia where he stays with his wife and other three kids.’ you said.

‘Geez, I’m the youngest of five…technically six, I’d kill to not be the baby.’ Ivar sighed.

Before you could reply the barista sat down your coffees and danishes.

You and Ivar politely thanked him before he returned to helping other customers in the cafe.

‘Trust me it’s no fun being oldest, you are responsible for everything your siblings do and you are also who your parents want to be the best behaved to set examples.’ you scoff.

‘Heavy is the head that wears the crown, that’s what Bjorn says.’

‘Bjorn, as in the hot as hell teacher?’

‘Bjorn, as in my brother who is just a teacher.’ Ivar clarified.

You and Ivar drink your coffees and ate, throwing in a bit of banter here and there. For how weird it was, you were very comfortable with the guy who threw an ax at you in your dream.

After coffee you and Ivar proceed to have a very lovely day. The market is awesome, many people selling fresh farmed produce; then the mall also super fun.

Ivar showed you where all the good deal stores were as well, for a guy with apparently millions of dollars he didn’t like to spend too much.

By the end of it you had way more bags than what you had meant to grab, Ivar had offered to pay but you really didn’t want him thinking you wanted his money.

‘God I wish I didn’t have to go home yet.’ you pout as you and Ivar pulled into your driveway.

‘Why? Like spending time with Daddy?’ Ivar asked.

‘Actually, despite the fact that you keep calling yourself Daddy, I did have a good time today.’ you smiled.

‘Well I’m glad you did Christian Girl, maybe next time we can go to the movies with everyone.’ Ivar suggested.

‘I’d like that, sucks we had to cut our day short, I wanted to go to the museum.’ you sighed.

‘Yeah well your mom said she got called in for work so you have to make dinner.’ Ivar reminded you of exactly why you were coming home so early.

‘I know, and my siblings will call any bag of chips they can find dinner if you don’t actually feed them.’ you said.

Ivar nods in understanding before he gets out and opens the door for you, once you were out of his truck he grabbed your bags.

‘We need to work on your impulse buying Christian girl.’ Ivar said.

‘Too little too late buddy.’ you said as you unlocked the door and lead him through your house to the kitchen.

‘Nice digs.’ he says looking around.

‘Thanks, even though SOMEBODY DIDN’T DO THE DISHES!’ you yelled.

‘I’LL DO THEM AFTER DINNER!’ your sister yelled from her room.

‘Bitch.’ you scoff.

‘Sisterly love.’ Ivar teased.

‘Shut up, you wanna help me put away the fruit and stuff?’

‘Sounds too domestic for me.’ Ivar said.

‘Fine then, be that way, anyways thank you for today Ivar. I had a lot of fun.’ you smiled.

‘Of course you did you were with good company.’ he boasted.

‘You ruined the moment, go on go home before my siblings find out I brought a boy over.’ you laughed.

‘Fine, goodbye Christian Girl.’ Ivar said before he gave you a hug.

As soon as he wrapped his arms around you an ice cold chill rushed over your body s the room around you became too fuzzy to see.

‘You have been cursed, your whole family they has been cursed, Ivar Lothbrok.’

When you open your eyes you aren’t in your kitchen anymore; you were in a great big room with a long fire pit right in the middle of it.

Everything looked like it was made of wood, leather, metal and fur.

You turn and jump in fright as you see a man with no eyes and black lips wearing a black cloak.

Then you see that he was not alone in the room.

Ivar, the old scary man Ivar from you dream, was the there along with a few older men were there.

No one seemed to see you standing right there so you risked moving closer to them to get a better look.

Once you were close enough you were shocked to see that you knew all these faces, you had sat with them at lunch.

Ubbe and Hvitserk were there, older like Ivar and dressed just as odd.

‘Cursed?’ Ivar asked from his seat on the floor beside the fire pit.

‘Yes, you and your entire bloodline…the living and the dead.’ the eyeless man said gravely.

The brothers all looked around at each other s if to see if they all knew what that meant.

‘Why? Who has cursed us?’ Ubbe asked.

‘Your father was ungrateful for what the Gods have blessed him with, and despite it the Gods gave him entrance to Valhalla. Now that your brother follows your father’s ways they will not be so merciful.’ the scary man answered.

‘What mercy have they shown me so far?’ Ivar asked pointing at his legs.

‘The Gods were with you in every battle and war that you have won, and you have won many.’

‘Exactly, I won them, with my battle strategy.’

‘That is the ungratefulness that got you cursed, Ivar the Boneless.’

‘(Y/N)!’

You shuddered as you were snatched out of the strange room by an invisible force and slammed back into your kitchen

You look around quickly and realize that you were laying on the floor and that Ivar and your siblings were all above you.

‘What happened?’ you asked.

‘You tell us, you scared us half to death falling out like that.’ your sister said worriedly.

‘What?’

‘I hugged you goodbye then you just seized up and fell out.’ Ivar said as he helped you stand up.

‘I’m fine…considering.’ you panted looking at Ivar.

‘I’m calling mom.’ your little sister said pulling out her phone.

‘And I am staying until she gets here.’ Ivar said.

‘I’m really fine, I don’t know what that was…seriously; but I don't think that it was serious. Really Ivar you can go home.’ you assured.

Ivar didn’t look so sure.

‘If you don’t call me every hour on the hour I’m coming back.’ Ivar said seriously.

He gave you one last worried look before he went to leave.

You sighed in relief.

What the fuck was that?

Chapter Text

To say your mother was worried about you would be a huge understatement.

She came gave you a look over, and even though you assured her you felt fine she still packed everyone up and headed to the hospital.

You tried telling her it wasn’t necessary, but she wasn’t having it. She had been arguing with a nurse for ten minutes when your phone vibrated.

Daddy Ivar.

You answered and stepped away from your fuming mother.

‘Ivar, there could not be a worse time.’

‘You were supposed to call me, I’m on way to you.’ Ivar said seriously.

‘Ivar, really you don’t have to, I’m not even home.’ you informed.

‘I know, you’re at the hospital, the slow one. Just hold on I’ll take you to the good one.’ Ivar replied.

‘What? How do you-’

‘When I put in my number I got your find my phone, any way I’m parking on my way up see you in a bit.’

‘Ivar!’ you yelled but it was too late, he had hung up already.

‘What are you yelling about?’ your mother snipped.

‘My friend from school is as much a drama queen as you; he’s on his way up, says this is the slow hospital.’ you answered.

‘Clearly, you could have had three seizures by now.’ she said, giving the nurse a look.

‘Ma’am there are other people here who have waited longer with more pressing ailments.’ the woman tried.

‘(Y/N)?’

You turn and see Ivar walking toward you.

‘Is this the friend?’ your mom asked.

‘Yes, he was the one there when she seized.’ your little brother said.

‘Hello Ms. (Y/L/N). I am Ivar, and I would like to suggest heading to Finehair Hospital its only a few minutes drive and they will have her seen much faster.’ Ivar said.

‘Will they take her insurance?’ your mom asked.

‘Trust me, you won’t have any issues with anything.’ he promised.

Your Mother looked a bit apprehensive, but eventually she nodded.

‘As long as she gets looked at, lord knows we could leave, come back and still be waiting.’

Ivar let out a chuckle before he began leading your family toward the family.

‘I thought you didn’t have friends.’ your mom whispered.

‘I hung out with him once, today.’ you whispered back, sending a weird look at Ivar behind his back.

Still you all followed behind Ivar’s truck to the hospital, this one obviously more lavish than the first.

‘Woah.’ your brother said as you all got out.

‘Come on, you there is already a doctor waiting for you.’ Ivar said as he got out of his car.

‘How?’

‘If I know anything its the ins and out of the medical care system.’ Ivar smiled.

As you all entered the hospital you were greeted by a nurse with a friendly smile.

‘Hello Ivar, Herald is in the usual office.’ she said.

‘Thank you Helga, while she is getting looked at can you set up everything with her mother?’ Ivar asked.

‘Of course, right this way Ms.(Y/N).’ the nurse, Helga says leading your mother to the reception desk

You had enough questions to fill a textbook; granted most of those questions consisted of What The Fuck.

‘Why did she listen to you?’

‘We go a long way back.’ he says plainly, as he opened a door to an examination room where a doctor really was waiting.’

‘Ivar!’ the doctor greeted with a smile.

‘Uncle Herald, good to see like always.’ Ivar smiled back.

‘Uncle?’

‘Not by blood, that would be entirely unprofessional, but I have been friends with his father since before Ivar was swimming in his balls.’

‘Gross.’ Ivar said.

‘So touchy, now onto my actual patient, Miss (Y/L/N), Ivar tells me you had a bit an episode.’ the doctor said.

‘Yes…I seized up earlier today, and I feel completely fine now. A little tired but past that I’m fine.’

‘Do you have any idea what might have brought this on? Any stress, migraines, eating habits or anything that might affect your mental health?’

You sent a quick glance over to Ivar then looked away.

‘I haven’t been sleeping, not since the first night of the move here.’ you answered.

‘How long exactly?’

‘Going on six months now.’ you whispered.

‘Six months?’ Ivar gasped, looking at you in disbelief.

‘You haven’t been sleeping right for six months?’

‘Hush Ivar, may I ask what is keeping from resting.’

Again you looked to Ivar and turn away from him before he caught you.

‘I…have these dreams. They keep me up and recently they have become more of a problem. I honestly think I didn’t even seize, it felt more like my dream happened while I was awake.’ you said as honestly as you could.

‘Alright it sounds like more of a psychological issue, but just to be sure I am going to run a few tests. Test that actually require privacy.’

This time it is the doctor that turned to Ivar, and he held the eye contact.

‘What? No way.’ Ivar denied.

‘I need her to change into a gown.’

‘There is a screen and I am a gentleman.’ Ivar dismissed.

‘Ivar, not to offend you, but I am not going to be naked in in the same room as you.’ you said, as politely as you could.

Ivar rolled his eyes dramatically.

‘Fine, I will wait with your family and I’m gonna juice your mother for every embarrassing story I can.’ he said as he left.

After that the doctor’s visit went on as usual, you took all kinds of test and scans and you were asked a lot of questions about your general health.

All in all it took around three hours, and you were happy to be done with it. You put your clothes on and headed to the waiting room.

Only there was more people waiting than you remembered.

Your sister was teaching Ubbe how to play an old clapping game you used to play when you were little; one of your brothers was showing Sigurd a video on his phone, Hvitserk was letting your youngest brother feed him fries from McDonald’s and Ivar was sitting and talking to your mother.

‘What are you guys doing here?’ you asked.

‘I called Ivar to ask why he hadn’t come home and he told us what happened. So we hurried over to make sure you were OK.’ Ubbe smiled.

‘For someone with no friends you have some good friends.’ your sister said.

‘I guess so, how long have y’all been here?’ you asked.

‘Almost an hour, we got food on the way?’ Sigurd answered.

‘We ate your fries tho.’ your baby brother added.

‘Thanks, hey can I talk to y’all real quick?’

They gave you a confused look but you made a very obvious “Shut up and come here” face.

Ubbe, Hvitserk and Sigurd stood and walked over to you, but Ivar had still been talking to your mom.

‘Scuse me, mom can I borrow Ivar for a minute? It’ll only take a second.’ you said.

‘Of course.’ your mom said.

With Ivar in tow you lead all the Ragnarsons down a pretty empty hall away from everyone.

‘OK, I didn’t want to say anything at first because I figured there was a reason you didn’t tell me, but this is too much.’ you started.

‘What is?’ Ivar asked.

‘This! The fancy hospital, the doctor you seemed to have reserved for me. I didn’t want to know, but holy shit.’ you started.

‘Does anyone know what she’s talking about.’ Ivar asked his brothers.

‘Alright, so I found out you guys are apparently stupid rich, and that’s fine. Good for you even, but this special treatment thing needs to stop; or at least slow down.’ you lectured.

Then a look of realization crossed their faces.

‘You forgot to tell her Ivar.’ Ubbe said.

‘I did, that’s my bad.’ Ivar sighed.

‘Well in that case we are sorry, we are all used to it being common knowledge.’ Ubbe apologized.

‘Yeah, my bad, but to be fair I didn’t really hide it when we hung out today. Wait is that why you insisted on buying your own stuff?’ Ivar asked.

‘I didn’t want you to think I only wanted to be friends with you because you are rich, I didn’t even know until after lunch.’ you blushed in embarrassment now that you realized you had over thought things.

‘Aw sweetheart, if there is one thing you need to know is that if I thought you would use me I never would have hung out with you.’ Ivar smiled.

‘He can spot a leech a mile away, partly why he hates everyone.’ Hvitserk said.

‘I don’r mind it, so long as they no its a short term thing.’ Sigurd said.

‘Shut up Snake, if you don’t want us spoiling you then fine, we won’t.’ Ubbe soothed.

‘They won’t.’ Ivar clarified.

‘Ivar.’ you whined.

‘Fine, I won’t as much, but if I want to drag you on expensive adventures I don’t want to hear any complaints.’ Ivar bargained.

‘I think I can deal with that.’

Chapter Text

Now that Ivar and his brothers knew that you knew they were disgustingly rich you had expected them to change. You were thinking being dragged on luxurious trips like in the movies, but you were wrong.

They were the same guys you sat with at lunch; they talked about classes and girls, not name brands and celebrity friends.

Honestly you were kind of relieved, you weren’t sure if you would be comfortable with it. Sure everyone likes nice things but if someone offered you something worth more money than you’d ever make it’d feel strange.

The only thing that had changed since your little health scare was that now Ivar was a total Mom.

He was constantly checking up on you, asking if you slept at least five hours, he’d have you a lunch tray ready so you wouldn’t have to wait in line and he made sure to get something quick and would try to make you sleep at the table after.

Today was no different, you walked into the cafeteria and went straight upstairs to your usual table and took the BLT and Gatorade Ivar slid to you.

‘Did you sleep?’ he asked.

‘Four hours, the pills Doctor Finehair gave me are damn good.’ you answered.

‘Not strong enough for eight hours.’ Ivar said.

‘Come on Ivar, he can’t give the girl a stronger dose without killing her.’ Ubbe added in.

‘Honestly it’s not the pills fault, I just can’t crash.’ you said.

‘Because of those dreams you refused to tell me about?’ Ivar grumbled.

‘Ivar.’ you groaned.

‘Dreams?’ Hvitserk asked.

‘She told Herald she has dreams so problematic that they keep her form sleeping.’

‘Oh, like night terrors?’ Sigurd asked.

‘Or is it wet dreams?’ Hvitserk asked with a grin.

‘No you pervy bastard, and no not night terrors either and I’m still not telling you Ivar.’ you explained.

Ivar rolled his eyes and went back to his salad, he was clearly angry and unsatisfied.

‘It’s nothing personal, I don’t ask you about your dreams.’ you tried.

‘I dream of taking this world over, and not in the business or wealthy way; I mean the bloody and destructive kind of way. I have no problem sharing my dreams with you.’ he said.

The table was dead silent, because what do you say after someone says something like that.

‘Dude…that got way too dark.’ Sigurd said.

‘It really did, and in any case your dreams don’t keep from sleeping or wake you up when you actually do go to sleep.’ you reasoned.

‘If they did I would tell my friends; see if they can help, or to have someone to talk to at the very least.’ Ivar argued.

‘Ivar…I know you are trying to help, but I just can’t.’

He sighed and grabbed his bag and his half finished tray before he stood up.

‘I think I’ll leave first today.’ he said before leaving the table.

‘Ivar!’ you called after him and stood to follow him, but Hvitserk pulled you back down.

‘Trust me (Y/N), he needed to walk away. Let him cool off in his library for an hour or two. He’s a very calm guy…until he’s not, and you don’t want to see that bastard angry.’ he warned.

You looked over and saw the crowd separate as Ivar exited the cafeteria, and all you wanted was to follow and apologize.

But you knew Hvitserk was probably right, so you sat and finished your food while the others continued to talk about things you weren’t listening to.

When lunch was over you went to class and for the first time you couldn’t sleep, because you just wanted to find Ivar and make things right.

‘MISS (Y/L/N)!’ you jumped as you looked up and saw the teacher glaring at you.

‘So if you aren’t sleeping through my lesson then you just aren’t paying any attention.’ she fired off.

‘I uh I’m sorry.’ you apologized.

‘If you are not going to listen why are you in here? Out, out of my classroom, if this happens again I will have you in the principal’s office and not the hallways.’ she said.

With your head hung low you stood up and grabbed your things and left the class with mixed emotion.

You wished you hadn’t been publicly scolded but now you could go to the library and see Ivar.

So off you went to the library, and you would never be over how big it was. It was about the size of the cafeteria but bigger, full of massive book shelves on the first floor and and all the tables and desks on the second floor.

You headed straight up the stairs to find Ivar sitting at the first table, he was looking through a history book and hadn’t even looked up to see you.

‘I hope you know you got me in trouble.’ you said as you sat down beside him.

‘And how did I do that?’ he asked, still not looking up.

‘I was so busy thinking up a good apology that I wasn’t paying attention and I got put out.’ you said.

‘Well I hope the apology is damn good.’ he said.

‘I’m sorry for not telling you about my dreams, you are just trying to help and I appreciate it.’ you said.

‘I don’t know if you notice this (Y/N) so I’ll explain it; I don’t have friends, because no one is genuine. So you are the only one I have and I want to take care of you, but it is hard to do that when you do not talk to me.’ he explained.

‘I would tell you anything because I trust you with the information, I mean the stuff you couldn’t find on Google. I’d spill it all if you asked, hell I’d spill it without out you asking if I felt the need to talk about it.’ Ivar finished.

‘Ivar…’ you said putting a hand on his shoulder.

The second your hand touched him a familiar and unwelcome feeling of ice cold chill rushing over your body. The library began to be filled with white bright light but you kept your eyes open somehow, and when the light faded and you were back in that strange place.

The place you were the last time you seized; that weird hut with the long fire pit in the middle.

You spun and looked around and jumped back in fright when you were met with the tall scary eyeless man right behind.

‘I have been waiting a long time to talk with you, and yet not long at all.’ he said with his deep and scary voice.

‘Who are you? What is this? And why am I here?’ you asked frantically.

Finally a person you could speak to without having an ax thrown at your head; finally you could get some type of answer.

‘You ask the wrong questions, you ask why and what when you should ask how. We do not have long before you return to your world.’ he said.

‘Fine, then tell me how. How do I help Ivar and his brothers?’ you asked.

‘The Sons of Ragnar have been lost, abandoned and cursed by the Gods. They have lost themselves, you must help them.’ he said.

‘But what does that mean? What do I have to do to help them?’

‘Ivar became ungrateful, and stopped thanking the Gods. They have denied him access into Valhalla and cursed him and his family to live on this horrid earth for all eternity.’

‘That’s not telling me how to help.’ you whined.

‘Tell them who they are.’ he said, finally answering one of your questions at least halfway.

‘(Y/N)! SNAP OUT OF IT!!!’

You jump and look around o see you were back in the library and Ivar looked ready to call an ambulance.

‘W-what?How long was I out?’ you asked in confusion as you backed away.

You were happy to say you weren’t on the ground but still in your chair and no one had seemed to noticed your episode.

‘Like ten seconds, I was about to yell for help. Come on we’re taking to to the nurse.’ Ivar said before reaching for you.

You quickly jumped away from, right out of your chair, a motion that left you light headed and panting.

‘What are you doing?’ Ivar asked.

Your mind went back to your first seizure/flashback thing, it was after you had hugged Ivar. It happened the second you touched him, then just now it happened when you touched his shoulder.

A quick glance and you saw he was in fact wearing a sleeveless shirt.

‘You.’

‘What about me? We don’t have time for this, you need to see the nurse.’ Ivar pushed as he stood and again reached for you.

‘Stop!’ you said quickly.

Ivar stopped and looked at you.

‘Just don’t move, sit still.’ you ordered as you got closer to him and nervously poked his chest, that was covered by his shirt.

Nothing.

Then you went to touch his arm and…nothing.

‘What the hell?’ you asked.

‘I should be asking you that, whatever.’ he sighed in frustration before he threw you over his shoulder.

‘Whew!’ you squeaked in panic.

‘Shut up I’m taking you to the damn nurse, then I’m calling Herald to tell him you need to be evaluated.’ Ivar said as he walked away from the stairs and toward an elevator.

‘I can walk.’ you complain.

‘I said hush, you can withhold your dreams but not a damn seizure you idiot, now just be quiet, other people are in class.’ he ordered.

All you could do was follow his instruction as he carried you through the halls and cooperate with the nurse once you were there.

You had to tell her about how you were waiting on test results to see if you had insomnia and about your first little seizure.

The nurse made you lay down while she stepped out to call your mom.

‘Now that’s done, wanna explain your little moment?’ Ivar asked.

You looked up and you bit your lip, he deserved to know, it wasn’t like you could avoid touching him forever.

‘It was…another dream, like the one in my kitchen.’ you answered partially.

‘And you poked me because…?’

‘…I think you triggered it.’ you mumbled.

‘What?’ he asked.

‘When we were in my kitchen we hugged goodbye and I seized, then just now I touched you and I seized again. And my dreams-’

‘What about your dreams?’

‘They’re about you.’ you said quickly before you could stop yourself.

For about twenty seconds there was complete silence; you didn’t know what to say and Ivar seemed too shook to speak.

‘Me?’

‘At first I didn’t know it was you, it was always just a voice calling me. Then I bumped into you in the hall and you called me that name and I knew it was you. At first I thought that seeing you would stop the dreams, but I was wrong, they got more detailed and harder and harder to ignore. Then the seizure…it wasn’t a seizure at all I think.’ you explained.

‘If it wasn’t a seizure what was it?’ Ivar asked.

‘I think it was kind of like…a vision, same in the library. I don’t know why I have these dreams or why its about you, but I know not talking to you about it is not helping me at all.’

Ivar went to speak but he was interrupted by the nurse coming back.

‘Your mother is on her way, she might be a minute since she was at work across town.’

‘Oh yeah, she told me they had great find she couldn’t wait to get her hands on.’ you noted as you sat up.

‘You can wait here or in the office.’

‘I’ll take the office, feels weird taking up a nurse bed when I don’t really feel like I need it.’ you said as you stood up.

You looked around for your bag, then you saw Ivar was holding it, he must have grabbed it when he picked you up.

‘Come on I’ll wait with you.’ Ivar said, but you knew he just wanted to continue the conversation.

Not that you blamed him.

Once you two were in the hall, he wasted no time.

‘Your dreams, what happens in them?’ he asked.

‘I think its too early to tell you that, at least I’m not ready to. All I have to say is that I need to find you.’ you answered.

‘Find me? I’m right here.’ he pointed out.

‘If only it was that easy.’ you said.

‘You don’t have to tell me the specifics, just tell me…am I hurting you?’

For a second you thought back to how older dream Ivar threw his ax at you.

‘Not really, there was a bit of a threat one time but mostly its just your voice or you didn’t notice me there at all.’ you assured.

‘And you have been having these dreams since you met me?’

‘No, from the day we landed here, before I had even met you.’

Ivar went silent and the two of you kept walking until you were at the office.

‘I can wait by myself.’ you said.

‘Like hell I’m going anywhere, I’m gonna tell your mom to make you go the fuck to sleep when you get home. Then I’m coming over after school and we are going to talk about this more.’ Ivar said with no room for negotiation in his voice.

You nodded in understanding as he opened the office door.

Ivar spoke with the lady at the desk and told he was going to wait with you until your mother to show up. She didn’t have an issue with it and told you both to take a seat.

Once Ivar was sure the administrator wasn’t listening he leaned over to whisper to you.

‘Are they bad? Your dreams?’

‘No, they are frustrating but nothing bad has happened.’ you answered.

He nodded silently.

‘Well in any case I am sorry.’ he apologized.

‘It’s not your fault, there is something going on here. I don’t know what it is or what it has to do with you or even me, but I know one thing.’ you said as you looked ahead.

‘What?’

‘I’m gonna get to the bottom of this, and you are going to help me.’

Chapter Text

After you had told Ivar about your dreams and his involvement in them Ivar was almost scarily eager to help you figure out what they meant and how to help.

He would ask you for details that you were still unsure about giving and he was also looking into all kinda shit online, Reading every single sleep study article he found.

Ivar had also taken to just being at your house, whenever he thought he found anything useful he would call and before you could tell him he didn’t need to come over he was already in your driveway.

This was one of those times.

You sighed as you put down your phone and stood up from your desk to go down stairs to let him in.

‘It’s Saturday you know, you don’t have to waste your weekend on me.’ you said as you opened the door.

‘Hush you, I think I found something.’ he said as he came in, heading straight for your room

With a sigh you followed behind him, leaving the door open to follow your mom’s rules.

‘What do you got?’ you asked.

‘First you tell me.’ he said as he pulled his laptop out of his backpack.

You though back to the dream you had last night.

This time there wasn’t anyone in your dream, or even a voice. You were just alone in a strange place. It looked like a Medieval theme park and quite honestly smelled kinda rank. It looked like you were in some kind of farmers market, a lot of stands lined up side by side like the stands at a carnival.

You waited for a moment for someone to show up or for a voice to come from nowhere and when none came you just looked around the abandoned stands until your alarm woke you up.

‘Nothing, no one was there this time, it looked like and abandoned market or something.’ you answered.

‘So not one of the seizure dreams?’

‘I think it was just this time nothing happened I just looked around.’

‘Well I found something by some guy with a shit name that he needed a degree to spell. Apparently he thinks psychics are super legit.’

‘Psychics?’ you scoffed.

‘Hear me out, listen to this; some people are born with a connection or fascination to another person. The most common form of this connection seems to be romantic and is often referred to as fated encounters or love at first sight.’ Ivar started.

‘You’re starting to sound like Sigurd.’ you sighed.

‘Shut up and keep listening, I’m not done. There also seems to be cases where someone fixates on a person who has already lived and died. This is a very rare happening in which a person may have dreams of someone else’s past life or even dreams of communicating with that person.’ Ivar finished.

Now that sounded like something, very vague and not at all specific but it did sound kind of probable.

‘That seems to make sense, except for one dream I had a while back.’ you said.

‘What happened in that dream?’

‘There was this…guy, he was really tall and had these really black lips and no eyes-’

‘No eyes?’ Ivar asked with an arched brow.

‘Yeah, not like missing eyeballs but more like his skin had grown over them or maybe he was just born without any. That guy talked directly to me and he was not at all who I “fixated on” and in any case the guy in my dreams is you.’

‘Or an ancestor that I look just like.’ Ivar said.

Now that got your attention, but something about it wasn’t right…the wording was wrong.

“Tell them who they are.” the words rang clear in your head.

‘No, not an ancestor… a past life?’ you mumbled.

‘Past life?’ Ivar asked.

‘Oh my God! A past life!!’ you yelled as you jumped up from your seat and began pacing, talking a mile a minute.

‘That’s it! That’s what the scary guy was trying to tell me! It’s not you, not this you but past you, if I find out who old you is then the dreams have to stop! Holy shit, come on!’ you said grabbing Ivar’s arm and trying to pull him off the bed.

Only Ivar wasn’t budging, he was still trying to process all the shit you had just said.

‘Wait a minute.’ he said, yanking his arm back making you fall back onto the mattress.

‘What?’ you whined impatiently.

‘Where are we going and do you mind explaining all that gibberish just now.’

You sighed and used the breath to calm yourself down a little bit so that you could explain your epiphany.

‘Look in my dreams the first time I saw you-the other you, you were an old man; you yelled at me and threw an ax at me to keep me away.’

Your mind goes back to that dream and you remember the ax that Dream!Ivar had thrown at you.

‘You threw an ax at me.’ you repeated as a thought crossed your mind.

‘I threw an ax at you?’ Ivar asked in shock.

‘Yes, and even better I have seen that ax before.’ you smiled as you stood up and started pulling out some clothes.

Just as you were about to start getting changed you remembered Ivar was very much so still in the room and looking at you.

‘Um Ivar could you like wait in the living room? I’ll be right out.’ you said.

‘What?’

‘Get out I need to change.’ you clarified.

Though you could tell Ivar was still completely confused he gathered his things and left the room mumbling about getting you evaluated.

You put on some jeans and a sweatshirt then you put you your shoes before you checked your purse and made sure you had what you needed.

Once you had everything you headed downstairs and saw Ivar sitting on the couch doing whatever on his phone.

‘Hey come on.’ you said.

With a sigh Ivar stood up and grabbed his bag and the two of you had got into the car.

‘Want to tell me where the hell I’m going?’

‘The museum, we were supposed to go the first time we hung out but I had to go home. My mom says that museum gets a lot of the things she and her team recovers.’

Ivar doesn’t say anything on the ride but you were talking up a storm, mostly about all the sleep you were about to get now.

‘Seriously if I wake up from a coma in thirty years still give me an extra five minutes, don’t let my Mom pour ice on me. I need every minute in those thirty years.’ you rambled.

By the time you had actually reached the museum you were almost bouncing with excitement and Ivar was looking concerned.

‘Are you sure you’re right about this (Y/N)? If this turns out to be a false lead-’

‘It’s not, I can feel it in my bones. Every fiber of my being is telling me that the answers we need are in that building and even if it is wrong its the first and only lead I got.’ you said as you took off your seat belt.

You and Ivar got up and headed for the entrance, the ticket collector asked for your tickets and you handed over the all access card your mother had given you and you were happy that it also came with a plus one.

She let you both in and the two of you entered.

Immediately as you entered the museum you were hit by a strong feeling, almost like wind but not quite. Maybe a better way of explaining it would be like getting the wind knocked out of you.

‘Woah.’ you breathed placing a hand on your chest.

‘Are you OK?’ Ivar asked in concern.

‘Yeah…just got a little overwhelmed you know? Must mean we are onto something. Come on.’ you assured as you walked further into the museum.

‘Do you want to join the tour?’ Ivar asked.

‘No, I can read the plaques myself.’ you said as you searched over the items for one thing in particular.

Finally you saw it.

‘There!’ you pointed dragging Ivar along to stand in front of a long display table.

On that table there was several items with little informational plaques underneath each item, but the one you were focused on was the ax head.

‘This is it, the ax you threw at me. This is one of the things that my mom found when she came here. They found so much that they wanted her to stay and moved the whole family out here.’ you explained as you looked at the ax.

Ivar looked at the ax then looked down at the plaque.

‘Late Viking age ax found buried with an unknown male, the handle was disintegrated but the ax head was well preserved.’ he read.

‘That was your ax…so that was probably your grave.’ you said.

‘Just gonna say hearing you casually say “my grave” is not my idea of a fun day out, so could you not.’ Ivar asked.

‘Right, sorry but this was the ax that was thrown at me and it belongs to whoever threw it.’

Ivar moved over to another item.

‘Viking chess pieces found in burial site, Vikings were often buried with their weapons, their favorite horse and their favorite game pieces.’

You decided to follow his lead and look at the other things on the table. There was a war helmet that you were reading about while Ivar was looking at what you thought was a belt buckle.

‘Listen to this. Apparent belt buckle that was found strapped around the legs of buried male suggesting the man may have had a disability that prevented him from walking.’ Ivar read.

‘Disabled?’ you repeated looking at it the buckle trying to remember if you had seen it before, but you drew a blank. You never looked at his legs but now that you thought about it you had never seen him standing.

‘Always sitting, whenever I’ve seen you in my dreams you were sitting, maybe you were disabled.’ you said.

Not that you noticed but Ivar tensed a bit at that and moved onto another nearby display table.

‘Come and look at this one.’ he said pointing to the plaque on the table.

‘The contents on this table were found buried with a woman, appears to be a blended culture burial combining customs of Saxon and Viking religion.’ you read.

‘Look here more game pieces…and a cross.’ Ivar said pointing to the cross necklace.

You look down at the pendant and were surprised to feel such a strong sense of familiarity, you found yourself rubbing your neck as if you were missing the weight of a necklace.

‘That is mine.’ you whispered.

‘What?’ Ivar asked.

‘Huh?’ you said looking over at him.

‘You said that was your cross.’ he clarified.

‘Yeah, I mean it feels like it is mine, but it can’t possibly be.’

‘Well if that was my ax why can’t this be your cross?’ Ivar questioned.

At that you had to take a minute to consider, you had to admit it made sense. It would explain why you were the one connecting with Ivar and why you started having the dream when you arrived.

If you lived here in a past life coming back would probably trigger something, and if you had a connection with Ivar in that past life then maybe some…higher power wanted the two of you to reconnect.

‘If this is mine and that ax is yours then maybe we knew each other back then.’ you suggest.

‘Maybe it was more than just knowing each other.’ Ivar said as he bent down to get a better look at something in the glass case.

You bend down beside him to look as well.

A wedding ring with some Old Norse Runes carved into it.

‘No way.’ you gasped.

‘Married.’ Ivar said.

‘No way, I mean there is no way. You threw an ax at me, that doesn’t sound like a proper greeting between husband and wife.’ you argued.

‘Well not every marriage is loving and who knows how far you went back, you could have went back before we-I mean they were married.’ he said.

‘Even if that were the case, which I’m still not too sure about, then that must mean one of us killed the other. Because the one time that I could actually speak with you it wasn’t very friendly.’

You and Ivar looked over the items a little more trying to learn as much as you could. You had read each of the plaques and Ivar was writing down the dates that the items were expected to be from.

‘Do you get anymore weird psychic vibes looking at any of this?’ he asked as he put his notebook away.

‘Well the cross felt the most…mine, you know. Like when you clean the attic and find a toy you used to have as a baby. You have no memory of it, but you’ve seen pictures of yourself with it.’ you tried to explain.

‘So no feeling with the ring?’

‘I don’t think so.’ you sighed in disappointment.

‘Wait, what if you try touching me while you look at it, that could help.’ Ivar suggested.

‘Maybe, give me your hand…wait, stand behind me, just in case seize up, I don’t want to cause a scene.’ you said.

Ivar moved to stand behind you while you looked around to make sure no one was looking at you, thankfully it wasn’t busy today.

You grabbed his hand and bam!

That feeling like ice cold water had just been poured all over you took over your body and when you opened your eyes you were in yet another strange place.

You looked down at yourself and found that you were no longer you in your own clothes. Instead you were in some weird long, thin white long sleeve dress, and it was itchy as hell.

‘What?’ you said in confusion as you scratched at your arms.

You looked around and found you were on a beach and there was a strange woman standing in front of you and she was much stranger clothes than you.

Her dress was brown and looked like it was made out of a long potato sack or something, she had a weird winged metal helmet and she was holding a golden bowl.

Cautiously you looked inside and saw that there was a a very red liquid inside and you really hoped you were wrong about what you thought it was.

‘Get on with it.’

You looked to your left and found Ivar…Dream!Ivar sitting on a tree stump beside you. Still just as old as he had been before but now he was looking even worse, angrier.

‘Yes, hurry this along.’ came another voice.

Behind you there was a crowd of people you hadn’t even noticed before, you recognized the men from your dream, Ubbe, Hvitserk and this time even Bjorn was there looking practically ancient and WAY less hot.

None of them particularly happy to be here, what was happening?

‘Are you sure you want to do this? In the eyes of the Great Many Gods, bound forever…and beyond?’ the woman asked, her voice much deeper than you had expected.

‘I swear it.’ Ivar said angrily.

‘Do you Wilda, swear you want to marry this man, in the eyes of the Great Many Gods, binding yourself to him in this life and in all the lives that come after?’

‘Uh…I-’

‘Hurry up already!’ he snapped.

‘I swear it.’ you squeaked in fear.

The woman reached into her long sleeve and pulled out a a bunch of leaves and twigs, you guessed that’s where she pulled the rings from too. She dropped the herbs into the bowl and mixed it with her fingers, mumbling something as she did so.

What the hell is going on? Clearly it was a wedding and it obviously wasn’t a joyous event.

‘Drink from the bowl, may the blood bind you and herbs guide you to find each other again.’

Dream!Ivar took the bowl and drank from it and you winced at the thought of how gross that must taste.

Then he handed the bowl to you.

‘Drink!’

The cold feeling rushed over your body the second you touched the cold metal bowl.

After a few blinks you looked around and found yourself back in the museum.

‘Woah there!’ Ivar whispered as he held onto you to keep you from falling.

‘T-thanks.’ you sighed, practically out of breath.

‘I take it you saw something.’

‘Yeah. It was-’

Before you could explain what you had just seen your phone rang, your mom and Ivar were the only people who called you and Ivar was here so you knew who it was when you answered.

‘Yes Mama.’ you said.

‘Where are your siblings?’ she asked .

‘Uh..they all went to their friends’ houses, I’m out with Ivar, what’s up?’ you asked.

Ivar looked at you in worry, wanting to see

‘Go get your siblings, we are going out for dinner tonight I have big BIG news!’ your mom said excitedly.

‘What is going on?’ you questioned, putting the phone on speaker.

‘I was going to wait until we were having dinner but I just can’t, act surprised when I tell y’all at dinner. (Y/N) I think I just made the biggest discovery of my entire career!’

‘Oh! Well that’s great, awesome! What did you find this time?’

‘You remember that grave I found, the one that made them ship us all out here?’

No way.

‘The one where you found an a man and woman buried side by side, with a lot of well preserved items?’ you asked, looking at Ivar.

Ivar looked over at the table you were just looking at and you nodded, this was all the stuff your mom found and she was talking to you about this stuff every other day while you helped her cooked dinner.

‘Yeah, that one well today they were giving the remains CAT scans and while that was happening I was with the restoration team. Ugh this is taking too long! What I’m trying to say is I think I found the grave of the most famous Viking in recorded history!’ your mother yelled excitedly.

There was no doubt she was doing her weird little excited mom dance.

‘Really? Who?’

‘I’ll tell you at dinner, I’ll meet you kids at the Chinese place by the house, and remember to act surprised.’

‘Wait! Uh can Ivar come, since he’s gonna be providing the ride? And you are totally on speaker right now.’ you said.

‘Hey Ms.(Y/L/N), congratulations on the find, can’t wait to hear about it over dinner.’ he spoke.

‘Awe thank you Ivar! You are welcome to join us, honestly you are the first boyfriend (Y/N) has ever introduced me to and I am so proud of her judgement.’

‘Mama!’ you yelled as you felt your ears burn in embarrassment.

‘I’m just teasing, see y’all at the restaurant.’ your mom said before hanging up.

‘Well guess we are about to get a lot of answers, come on tell me about what you saw on the way.’ Ivar said.

You nodded before quickly and as stealthily as possible taking a few pictures of the display.

‘Let’s go.’ you said.

In the car he told you that you were out for about thirty seconds and you gave him the run down on what you saw.

‘So we were right about the marriage.’ Ivar said.

‘Yeah, and it was not a loving kind either, but something else about it was off. I mean I’m not an expert on Vikings Age weddings but I think they don’t usually involve blood drinking and binding each other in this life and all the lives that come after it.’

‘Maybe you should ask your mom, what else did you get for us to work with?’

‘I think I got my name…her name? Wilda.’

‘Wilda? Doesn’t sound very Norse to me…sounds very Anglo-Saxon.’ Ivar replied.

‘And you know that how?’ you asked.

‘My favorite class is history, did a research paper on ancient Norse culture last term.’ was the answer.

‘When we get there we won’t ask too many questions just let my mom talk and I’ll squeeze her for info later.’ you planned.

‘Squeeze her? You sound like an interrogator…I love it.’ he smiled.

The two of you went to pick up your siblings and immediately shut down any talk about your past life. Instead you were now dodging your siblings’ questions about why Mama wanted them to go out so suddenly.

At the restaurant you send in your your two mobile siblings to go inside and get find a table while you got the youngest one out of his car seat, which always takes a minute since he puts up a fight.

Ivar helped you and it was hit to your pride how quickly your brother stopped fighting and got out the truck for a stranger after he had fought you for like five minutes.

Once Ivar had him out he handed you your sibling to carry.

‘You’re a little shit show you know that?’ you glared at the boy in your arms.

Finally you three headed inside and you started looking around for your other siblings when the hostess came up.

‘Oh what a cute baby.’ she smiled.

‘He thinks so.’ you replied politely.

‘He looks just like you Miss, you two made a beautiful boy.’

‘We what? Oh no! No no no! We’re teenagers, this isn’t our kid, we aren’t even dating!’ you panic as your cheeks burn.

The woman looked horrified with her mistake and apologized before showing you where your siblings were waiting for you.

‘Took y’all long enough, I already ordered drinks.’ your sister said as you sat down with your brother in your lap and Ivar took the seat beside you.

You took a sip of your soda and kept your eyes on anything but Ivar, still horrified that someone not only thought you were dating him but that you’d had a three year old toddler with him.

Eventually your Mom showed up, wearing sunglasses and big fur coat you know she didn’t own yesterday.

‘Hello Darlings.’ she said with all the dramatics in the world and then some.

‘What is going on here, where did you get this thing?’ you laughed.

‘I bought it, with the money I got from the museum, the restoration team gave them a call about my find and they are so interested they want to buy the WHOLE HAUL! Since it was my find I get a small portion, but considering what I may have uncovered even the small portion isn’t anything to sneeze at.’ your mother smiles as she sat down.

‘What did you find?’ you asked.

‘Okay, now I cannot say for sure yet, some things need to officially done first. Translations and what not, the usual red tape put up by museums, but I think I’ve found the real body of…Ivar the Boneless.’

Chapter Text

Ivar was confused.

He was in a strange place, a place he couldn’t remember ever being before, but he could tell it was definitely a forest.

The air smelled clean and it was all so peaceful, but he was not.

In all honesty Ivar was surprised by the anger he could feel bubbling in the pit of his stomach, he felt like he was vibrating with his rage. His complete confusion did nothing to brighten his mood,

He tried to think of other things rather than focusing on his rage, so he tried to figure out what was going on.

Ivar looked around to take in his strange surroundings, hoping he could figure out where he was and if he was lucky maybe he would remember how the hell he got here in the first place.

First thing he noticed was that he was sitting on the forest ground, leaning against a tall tree; the second thing he noticed was that he couldn’t get up...lastly he noticed legs.

They were aching, a deep hurt that was set in their very bones; a pain that could make you scream high and shrill if you were unprepared for it.

Or unaccustomed to the feeling.

Fortunately, perhaps unfortunately, Ivar had felt this sensation before and while he hadn’t felt it this intensely in years he was able to take it with a small grunt of annoyance.

Where the hell is he?

‘I-Ivar?’

He snapped his head to the side and saw…

(Y/N)?

She was in a long hideous brown dress, her hair was longer than he remembered it being and pulled into a ponytail.

He was so relieved to see her, he went to ask her what was going on, hopefully she could tell him how he got here, but what came out his mouth was not what he’d intended.

‘Stay away from me you filthy Christian!’ he spat.

The girl jumped back and looked as if she would cry, the fear on her face made Ivar feel sick.
Why was he yelling at her?

‘I-I cooked supper.’ she said with a weak voice.

‘I will not eat your disgusting Christian food! I’d rather starve...the faster I die the faster I can get rid of you.’ he scoffed.

He didn’t understand anything that was happening, he could feel himself in this body; he could think his own thoughts but he had no control over his actions or words.

All he knew was (Y/N) was right there and she was scared of him and while he was mentally screaming out apologies his body was still scowling at the poor girl.

He saw her throat bob as she swallowed what seemed to be a sob as her fear filled eyes changed into something harder. Her hands went from picking at her brown dress to balling into fist.

‘I didn’t ask to be here!’ she yelled.

‘You took me from my home, you dragged me to your Heathen world and forced me to marry you! You! A vile Godless man with no kindness or mercy in your twisted heart...I promise you are not the only one waiting on your death.’ she said.

Ivar’s treacherous body stayed silent as he stared up at the girl and he felt the rage in him subside slightly.

‘I see the church mouse found her voice, maybe you will be unfortunate enough to survive me Wilda.’ he smiled.

‘I pray I won’t, as you said death will be our freedom...for a while at least.’

________________________________________________________________________________________

Ivar shot up his bed, the hair on his arms was standing up and the back of his neck was slick with sweat, his heart was beating so hard it practically hurt.

What the hell was that?

He looked over at his alarm clock on his bedside table, it read four eighteen in the morning and he could tell he was not going to be getting anymore sleep tonight.

‘Wilda?’

That was the name (Y/N) had said earlier today...well yesterday now.

He remembered them driving to the restaurant, the hostess mistaking them for young parents, her mother telling them who she suspected the grave she had recovered belonged to and her telling them she couldn’t give anymore details.

(Y/N) tried to push for more information subtly but her mother had already signed a non-disclosure agreement and wasn’t allowed to say more than what she suspected.

Even still the energy in the restaurant had been good but he had felt a strong, almost overwhelming sense of unease.

Apparently his unease was visible, at least to (Y/N); she asked if he was feeling alright and he said he was probably just tired from staying up so late and getting up too early.

Her family, ever so polite and caring, told him he could go home and get some rest. He tried to decline but they insisted, (Y/N) promising him they would talk more tomorrow afternoon about all their new information.

Now he was in his “home” if you could call it that, sitting in his bed and feeling more confused than he ever has before.

One thing he knew for sure was he needed to talk to (Y/N) right now.

Again he looked at the ridiculous time shown on his clock and for a moment he hesitated to call his one and only friend, if by some miracle she was sleeping right now it would be rude to wake her up.

Then again friends are allowed to bother each other at any time right?

With his mind made up he took his phone off the charger and called her, the phone rang once...twice.

‘Hey! I was just thinking about calling you, I think I just had a really big dream.’ she said rapidly from the other end.

‘That’s crazy, because I think I did too.’ he said.

‘What?!’ she hissed.

‘Meet me somewhere, we need to talk like right now because I’m freaking out as calmly as I can.’

‘You want me to sneak out?’ (Y/N) asked, sounding appalled.

‘Yes.’ Ivar said plainly.
‘Dammit….where?’

‘Umm that dog park down the street from your house.’ he decided.

‘Fine, I’ll see you there.’ was all she said before she hung up.

Ivar sighed in relief as he pocketed his phone in his sweats and moved to get out of bed, the second his left leg hit the ground a shock wave of pain raked through his body.

He swallowed a loud growl of pain and took a few seconds to breathe through it, once he was able to breathe steadily he looked over to his bedside table and saw his medication beside his clock and took two pills dry.

It was good medicine but it would still take about an hour for it to kick in, but he needed to get moving and fast. (Y/N) would probably be at the park in thirty minutes or less and he couldn’t leave her there.

A teenage girl out in a park by herself? The creeps would think Christmas came early.

Even still he couldn’t walk right now, not like this anyway.

With pure disgust he looked over to the other side of his bed and saw his crutches, he hated them and normally he would fight tooth and nail in order to not use the damn things. Rarely did his legs hurt to the point that he needed them and if it did get to that point then he would just stay inside.

He couldn’t do that this time.

‘Dammit.’ he groaned as he took them and dragged himself up.

Everything was made more difficult with these stupid things, he nearly fell on his ass slipping into his slippers, the stairs were out of the question so he just passed them up and went to the elevator.

Ivar hated this damn thing, it was so damn pretentious, this whole mansion was pretentious but the elevator was the worst. It was the worst because it was just for him, a big expensive dramatic thing for poor little Ivar Ragnarson.

Sure his brothers would use it when they were too tired or hungover to think about their big fancy staircase, but in the end they all knew it was Ivar’s elevator for when Ivar’s legs hurt.

At last the damn thing passed the four floors and stopped in the parking garage.

He passed all his brothers’ cars, his parents’ limos and finally made it to his truck.

‘Don’t look at me like that girl, I don’t like driving like this either.’ he said to his beloved vehicle.

He wrestled himself into the car and pushed himself through the strong, yet fading pain to push down on the gas and drove.

As he drove his pain did seem less intense but it was still there and he doubted he would be getting out of this truck without his damned crutches.

He was pulling up to the parking lot of the dog park and was happy to see (Y/N) sitting on a nearby bench.

At least he wouldn’ have to drag his ass around the park looking for her.

Her eyes lit up as she stood up and ran to his car, even better no walking at all.

Quickly (Y/N) opened the door and got in.

‘Hey.’

‘Hey.’ he said back.

‘So… you had a-’

‘Yeah I think so, it wasn’t like any dream I ever had before. I was in a forest and you were there...but not really you.’

‘What do you mean?’ she asked.

‘I mean It was your face but your hair was way longer and I called you-’

‘Wilda, you called me Wilda...I came to tell you that I made dinner, we argued and you called me Wilda.’

There was a moment of silence as the information settled.

‘So we’re sharing dreams now, talk about friendship goals.’(Y/N) said.

‘Well if we have the same dreams, let's skip that and get to what all we have figured out.’ Ivar said.

‘Alright, well we were married that much I gathered and neither of us seemed happy about it, you were much older than I was.’

‘Excuse me?’ he interrupted.

She looked at him in confusion.

‘Did you not notice that you were like eighty or something?’

‘Eighty?! You looked like twenty tops!’ Ivar looked horrified.

‘Don’t freak out, different times, like literally different centuries.’

‘That doesn't change the fact that in a past life I was married to a girl young enough to be my granddaughter!’ he said as a sick filling took place in his stomach.

He should have eaten something before he took his meds.

‘Stay on track, figure out what all we know. So we were married, my name was Wilda and it seems like we were only together then so we could meet now.’ she said.

‘Death will be our freedom...bound forever and beyond?’

‘What?’

‘The museum, when I seized and saw the wedding, that’s what the woman said. She mixed some herbs in a bowl of blood then we both drank from it, she said it would bind us.’ (Y/N) explained.

‘That would explain why it's us, but I don’t understand why this is happening. What was going on that made them do this, clearly they were willing to die for it.’

‘I don’t get it either, but we are so close to figuring this all out. All we have to do is figure out who you were.’

‘Why do I need to know who I was when I’m someone else now? And what am I supposed to do after I know?!’ Ivar snapped.

‘Am I going to devolve back into a bloodthirsty Viking?!’

‘I don’t know!’ she yelled back.

‘You don’t get it (Y/N) my whole life I have been fascinated by Vikings, my mother named me after Ivar the Boneless. I can’t be him. I can’t be him.’ Ivar said softly.

‘Why can’t you be?’ she asked.

‘He took over the world, he was one of the greatest men to live. Ivar the Boneless struck fear in people with nothing but the mention of his name...I could never be someone like that, not like this.’

‘What do you mean like this? As a member of one of the richest families in the country or as the most intelligent person I’ve ever met.’

He took a deep breath and admitted to himself that he couldn’t keep his truth secret from her. Though he would miss seeing her face looking at him without all the pity.

‘As a cripple.’

Ivar turned around and reached into the backseat and showed (Y/N) his crutches.

She looked at them with wide eyes and he looked away before he could see the shock turn into pity.

‘I was born with brittle bones, my mother spent more money than even she could comprehend to keep it secret from the public. She spent even more on experimental treatments.’

‘Ivar.’ she said softly.

‘She did eventually find something that worked...something that was drastic.’

He closed his eyes, Ivar could feel the sting of tears and he refused to let the fall. There was no point in crying now.

‘I don’t have any bones past my pelvis, I have titanium implants to keep me standing, the nerves in my legs are shot and they always hurt. That is what millions of dollars and the most advanced medical treatment can do. I can’t imagine anyone living like this in the Viking age yet alone taking over.’ he said.

Finally he opened his eyes and internally cursed the tears that fell down his cheeks.

Angrily Ivar wiped them away and looked over and saw that (Y/N)’s face was tear streaked.

‘Are you crying for me? If you are then stop beca-’

(Y/N) smacked Ivar upside his head.

‘You dummy, why wouldn’t you tell me this sooner. Tell me when you are hurt you idiot!’ she lectured as she continued to slap at his arm.

‘Ow! Stop hitting me!’

She stopped her attack and huffed wiping away her tears.

‘You big rich dumb ass, don’t keep shit like that secret from me anymore, don’t put yourself in pain for dumb things. If you want me to trust you then you have to trust me.’ she said.

‘I do. I just liked having you not know...not worrying about me.’

‘Did you think I didn’t worry about you before? You have the lead role in my dreams. I ask myself all those same questions about after, what happens to you and me and will it even be good? I worry about you the same way I think you worry about me.’ (Y/N) said sincerely.

Ivar had nothing to say, he had never thought that way before. Everyone who knew about his affliction, that small few, smothered him. No one was just...casual about it, they always made sure he was comfortable and that he didn’t have to do anything.

‘T-thank you, for not treating me differently. I don’t want to make it a big deal about it but, thank you.’ he said.

She nodded and went to touch his shoulder but at the last minute she pulled her hand back.

Probably afraid to trigger another vision.

‘Before we move past it I just want to say that just because it would be crazy stupid hard it doesn’t mean it would be impossible to take over the world with a disability.’ she assured.

Ivar did appreciate her belief in him, or his past self, he simply couldn’t agree.

A long silence fell over the car, no one knowing quite what to say to break it in a way that was easy and natural.

‘Wait a second, Ivar you said that you dreamed of taking over the world the bloody way.’ (Y/N) said at last.

‘Yes, I have dreams of gore and violence.’

‘Maybe tonight wasn’t your first dream like mine then.’

‘What are you talking about now?’ Ivar asked.

‘What if your usual dreams are just flashes of your previous life, and you only noticed it now because this was the first time I was there.’

Ivar took a second to consider this, trying to recall one of his previous dreams.

He could remember one dream better than the rest.

There was a lot of noise, he felt like it was in a building of some sort. He could clearly hear a baby crying somewhere behind him. The smell of sweat and blood filled the air.

A headache was starting to form the more he remembered.

‘Ivar.’ she urged.

‘Shh!’ he hissed.

He could feel his leather clad hands the stone floor, his arms ached from dragging his body. There was a man, Ivar couldn’t really make out his face, but it didn’t matter. Because Ivar was soon pouring molten gold over the faceless figure.

‘Oh my god, Ivar your nose!’ (Y/N) panicked as she hurriedly wiped at his face.

Ivar looked down at her hand and saw blood there, confused he touched under his nose and sure enough it was bleeding.

‘Tilt your head back! Do you have any tissue- damn it.’ (Y/N) groaned before she took off her shirt.

‘Whoa! What the hell are you doing?’ Ivar asked, looking straight up at the ceiling of his truck, simply refusing to look anywhere near the passenger seat.

‘Shut up, and hold this to your nose until the bleeding stops.’ she dismissed, shoving the fabric in his face.

‘A normal person would look a little harder for tissues before taking off their clothes.’ Ivar said.

‘Well a normal person wouldn’t be in a park at this hour trying to understand their past life.’

Ivar rolled his eyes, but silently admitted defeat.

This time the silence was completely awkward, what do you say when you are in a car with a shirtless girl that isn’t interested in sleeping with you...while your damn nose is bleeding.

After a few minutes Ivar was pretty sure he’d stopped bleeding.

‘I think there might be a shirt in the back.’ he said as he pulled the cloth away from his face, the pink shirt was ruined and there was no way she could wear it back home.

‘Could you look?’ she asked quietly.

Ivar finally looked over at her and saw that she was turned away from him completely.

Her back was bare and immediately Ivar realized that she had on no bra.

Without turning to look at him (Y/N) knew Ivar had seen her dilemma.

‘I pretty much rushed over fresh out of bed, didn’t think I would be taking my shirt off.’ she justified.

‘No need to explain.’ Ivar said as he looked around the back seat as best he could.

Nothing back there but his crutches.

‘Maybe it’s under your seat.’ he mumbled as he absentmindedly reached around on the floor.

‘Ivar!’ she gasped at his closeness.

That was when he noticed he was suddenly very close to (Y/N) while she was not fully dressed.

Just as he was about to pull back and apologize something absolutely horrible interrupted him.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Both teenagers jumped back as they looked up and saw a cop flashing a light into the truck.

‘Shit.’ Ivar whined.

Chapter Text

You were internally screaming, wondering how the hell you got here. Top less, in a truck with a bloody nosed boy and a cop at the window.

‘I’m gonna need you both to step out of the vehicle.’ the cop said sternly.

Ivar sighed and rolled down your window.

‘Hello officer; did you happen to have a jacket or blanket she could use?’ he asked politely.

‘The male officer sighed.

‘Stay here, I already have your plates and it’s stunning how quick I can have every cop car in the city looking for you.’ he warned before walking to his car.

‘What are we gonna do? Shit what is my mom gonna do?’ you panicked.

‘Calm down. Just be quiet, look totally embarrassed and I can get us out of this.’ Ivar whispered, looking at the cop that was coming back.

The cop held up a grey scratchy looking blanket, but considering that the only thing keeping your nipples covered was your arm you weren’t too picky.

For a moment all you did was look at the cloth the man offered you, wary that moving too much would expose even more of yourself.

Luckily the officer took pity on you and just dropped it into your lap.

‘Thank you.’ you mumbled, pulling it over you.

Once you were secure in your coverage Ivar opened his door and you followed suit.

You sent a concerned look Ivar’s way, seeing how stiffly he was moving, he was visibly wincing with each step.

‘Now that we are all as appropriate as we can be, care to explain why you two are loitering in a closed park.’

‘We are so sorry, it’s just-well we are just, trying to…you know. Take things to the next level in our relationship.’

‘Ivar!’ you gasped.

‘What?! Am I supposed to lie? Kinda hard to do that when you don't have on a shirt, and I’m bleeding because we have horrendous coordination.’ he argued.

The officer snickered but quickly covered it up with a cough.

‘Look, Mr.Ragnarson. I have caught your brothers all over the city in a great many situations, as I’m sure your brothers can attest to. Do not think being rich will keep you out of trouble, however this is your first incident and everyone has been a teenager. Get outta the park and try hitting third base in a place that isn’t public.’ he said.

You were so damn red it was amazing you hadn’t become a damn tomato.

‘Keep the blanket...stay safe.’

‘Thank you officer we are sorry for wasting your time.’ Ivar apologized as the officer got back in his car and drove off.

Immediately you swatted at his arm, repeatedly, almost as hard as you could.

‘What the hell is your problem?!’

‘My legs are giving out soon so help me get back in the car.’ Ivar hissed as he as his knees buckled.

Just before it was too late you managed to catch him, in doing so you nearly hit the ground with him. Thankfully you found your footing and stabilized the both of you, all the while keeping the blanket over your shoulders.

‘Jesus! You’re heavy…’ you groaned out.

‘How sweet of you to say (Y/N), really I’m flattered. Can you drag my heavy ass to the car?’

‘I can try, but I don’t have too much confidence in myself to be honest.’ you confessed.

‘Just let me put some of my weight on you, I can make it.’ he grunted.

You nodded and let Ivar move around a bit, standing a little taller, taking some of his weight off.

Surprisingly enough the two of you moved very well together and got him in the car pretty quickly, all things considered.

‘Alright, you ok Ivar?’ you asked.

‘Yeah.’

‘Good because I need you in shape...so I can yell at you the entire ride home.’ you replied hitting him again.

‘Stop that!’ Ivar pouted.

‘Why did you tell that cop you were trying to cop a feel?!’ you hissed.

‘I didn’t tell him that, I said we were trying to have sex.’

‘Ivar!’

‘Did you want to be taken to the station to sit in a cell and wait for the police to call your mom and tell her what you were doing in my car shirtless?’

‘You are the most annoying person I’ve ever met, and that says something coming from someone with six siblings!’ you snapped.

‘Are you done?’

‘...yes.’

‘Good, because I don’t think I can make it to my house.’

‘Excuse me.’

‘My legs are sick of me, I didn’t give my meds time to kick in fully, I didn’t eat and it’s making me feel sick.’ Ivar said weakly, leaning back in his seat.

‘What were you doing driving when you felt this bad?’

‘Had to see you.’

It felt as if the air had been knocked out of you, Ivar had stupidly driven to meet you through pain you couldn’t even comprehend.

Sure you’d had friends before, but you couldn’t think of a single one that would even consider doing what Ivar had without any hesitation.

‘Can you get to my house in one piece?’

Ivar looked over at you, took a second to shake his head affirmative.

‘OK, me casa su casa I guess.’ you smiled.

‘Thanks.’ he said.

‘You’re still the worst.’ you joked before you ran around the truck to get back in the passenger seat.

Ivar closed his door and started the car.

‘My first slumber party, think we’ll get to braid each other’s hair?’ he said weakly.

‘Focus on getting us there buddy.’ you rolled your eyes playfully.

Ivar drove slowly and carefully, if you hadn’t personally witnessed him driving before you’d almost believe he was still a student driver.

Nonetheless, he did make it to your house and he parked safely, without blocking your mom’s car.

‘Good news is we made it, bad news is my couch is super uncomfortable but my room is upstairs.’

‘I can make it.’ Ivar assured you.

Deciding to have faith that Ivar knew what he was and wasn’t capable of, you held back your urge to ask if he was ok.

You got out and the two of you made your way into the house as quietly as you could, quickly you verified that no one was up on the first floor.

So far so good, your mom would have been waiting for you at the bottom of the staircase if she knew beforehand that you had snuck out.

Just as Ivar said, he made it up the stairs surprisingly quiet for a guy who had just nearly collapsed a few minutes earlier.

Once you two were safely in your room with the door closed, and locked Ivar quite literally fell face forward onto your bed.

You walked over to your desk and cut on the lamp, so that you weren’t moving around in nearly complete darkness.

‘Now if you don’t mind, staying in that exact position while I put on a shirt.’
Ivar wordlessly held out a thumbs up.

You pulled a sleep shirt out of your dresser, and just to make you feel a bit better you also put on one of your more comfortable bras.

Finally dressed you begin to fold up the blanket the cop had given you.

‘We’re good.’ you announced quietly.

‘Good, now where did you want me to sleep?’ Ivar asked as he sat up.

‘Uh uh, first I’m going to give you something to eat, you said you felt sick right.’

‘You don’t have to take care of me.’ he declined.

‘Shut up. You feed me everyday at lunch, let me feed you for once.’ you dismissed.

Ivar sighed in defeat and just laid back down.

You went downstairs and made two sandwiches, grabbed the family sized bag of chips that was more than half empty, took two sodas and a pair of bananas from the fridge.

Getting up the stairs and opening your room door proved to be quite the challenge but you prevailed.

With very visible relief you sat down your feast on the bed and took a seat in your office chair, wheeling over to the bedside while Ivar helped himself to one of the bananas.

‘Thanks.’

‘No issue, after that shit fest I need to stress eat...plus can’t have your first sleepover be a complete bust.’

‘So...do you wanna finish talking about-’

‘No, not now. The headache is finally clearing up, plus I’m not ready to get another nose bleed.’ Ivar interrupted.

‘Wait, so the nose bleed wasn’t a side effect of the medicine?’

‘No, neither was the headache. While I wasn’t feeling my bubbly self tonight, my head didn’t hurt until I tried to remember my dreams.’ he explained, finishing his sandwich.

You took a while to think this information ove as Ivar handed you a soda.

‘Yeah we should definitely not do anything that makes your head hurt, not tonight at least.’ you agreed.

The two ate in a comfortable silence, after such an eventful past hour the peace was very much so welcomed.

At last the food had been eaten and the soda cans emptied, so you threw away the trash and did your best to wipe away the crumbs from your covers.

‘So...am I sleeping on the bed?’ Ivar asked.

‘Yes.’ you replied like it was obvious.

‘And you will sleep...where?’

‘On the floor.’

‘No, you sleep in your bed, I’ll take the floor.’ he argued.

‘I don’t think so.’

‘I’m not letting you sleep on the floor in your own room.’ he said strictly.

‘Well I’m not letting you sleep on my floor either.’ you snapped back.

‘Alright then sleep on the bed, I won’t do anything if you don’t.’ Ivar bargained.

‘Don’t flatter yourself, I definitely won’t do anything other than snore and probably kick you out of bed.’ you scoffed.

Ivar rolled his eyes and awkwardly moved around until he could get comfortably under the covers and laid down.

Still partially annoyed, you walked over to the desk and took one of your prescribed sleeping pills and cut off the light.

After a moment of wondering if you were really about to share a bed with your guy friend you assured yourself that the only feelings you had for Ivar were platonic.

With that in mind you got in the bed and got settled in, you still made sure that there was plenty of space between the two of you.

‘Won’t your mom wonder why I’m here in the morning?’ Ivar asked.

‘No, everyone is going to Sunday morning church service. No one will be coming near my room, not until afternoon service. Benefits of being unable to sleep is getting a lot more opportunities to sleep in.’ you answered.

‘OK, if you’re sure.’ Ivar yawned before turning over.

With Ivar turned around and his breathing already evening out you also succumbed to your own exhaustion and went to sleep in record timing.

But of course you couldn’t just enjoy sleeping, not when your apparent past life was dead set on ruining your current life.

You were back in that strange room with the long fire pit, the smell of old leather and barn animals filled the air,

At first you thought it was empty, dreams like that had seemed to be becoming more common recently.

You sighed and turned, thinking you could walk around the area a bit more, maybe find something useful.

Just as you turned around you certainly found something...someone more specifically.

‘Ah!’ you squeaked out in shock as you were met by the eyeless face of the only man you could actively speak to outside of Ivar.

‘You are making progress with the Boneless one.’ he said.

‘I think I am, but I-we, we have questions and we need them answered.’ you replied.

‘You ask the wrong questions.’

‘You haven’t even heard my-’

‘I know your questions, you want to know why...why doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that he remembers, he must remember himself in all his glory, and his disgrace. He will deny it, and the memory will hurt him, but he must.’ the man said, his voice deep, heavy and grave.

For a moment his words took the very air from your lungs, they made the hair on your arms stand up and you wanted to wake up and leave this behind you; but you couldn’t.

‘Fine, I won’t ask you why, but you will tell me this. What will happen to him once he does remember?’ you asked, demanding an answer.

‘What happens when you remember things?’

You were startled out of your sleep by an iPhone ringtone.

Sluggishly you reached over for your phone that was on the nightstand and looked at it in annoyance but it wasn’t ringing.

You felt the bed shift and looked over to see Ivar leaning over to pick up his phone off the floor.

‘What do you want, Hvitserk?’ he answered, his voice deeper than normal.

‘I’m out with (Y/N)...shut up you idiot... yeah...I’ll be home for the damn lunch.’ Ivar said before hanging up and throwing the phone back down on the floor.

Just as you were about to ask what was going on Ivar rolled around facing you, he placed his arm around your waist and pulled you closer to him.

You were so close to Ivar’s chest that you could hear his heartbeat.

Ivar was most definitely sleeping if the quiet snore was anything to go off of, and you had no clue how you were supposed to deal with this. So you tried to mentally make a to-do list, if only to make it easier for you not to freak out about how you were cuddling with a boy in your bed.

First thing you needed to know was what time it was, then you needed to get the hell out of this bed.

Luckily you hadn’t put your phone down, it was still in your hand.

So at a very weird angle you held up your hand and strained your neck to look at the screen.

Eleven fifty four in the morning, a solid six hours of sleep you noted absentmindedly.

Ok, step one went without a hitch, now for the next step.

First you moved his arm that was draped over your waist, and did an awkward little skoot backwards until you were almost completely out of the bed.

‘Where you going?’ Ivar asked sleepily.

‘Um, out of bed?’

‘Get back here...I’m sleepy.’

‘I thought you were a morning person.’ you tried.

‘Not on days like this.’

‘It’s almost noon, my family will be back at like twelve thirty.’ you said.

Ivar made a unpleased noise and sat up, he put his feet down then he lightly stomped each foot.

‘At least I can walk now.’ he sighed as he stood up.

‘So...you like to cuddle.’ you smiled, trying to lighten the mood without talking about his legs.

‘Rarely, and don’t go telling people either.’

‘Why shouldn’t I?’

‘Because I could tell everyone you got caught with your twins out last night.’

‘Ivar!’ you shouted.

‘I’ll be quiet if you will?’ he bargained.

‘Deal, any...dreams last night?’ you asked.

‘No. What about you?’

You nodded.

‘And I got at least two of our questions answered.’

‘Which two?’

‘Well..I know that your nose bleed was because you were remembering. The man with no eyes said the memory would hurt.’

‘The man with no eyes, what else did he say?’ Ivar asked.

‘I asked what would happen if you did remember.’

‘Ok...and?’

‘He just said what happens to me when I remember things.’

Ivar squinted his eyes in confusion.

‘What happens when you remember things?’

‘I mean...nothing, I just have that information again I guess, but the information I remember is usually not an entire lifetime of memories.’ you said.

‘Well, maybe if you’re as lucky as me you’ll get to remember your old life too.’ he sighed.

‘Ivar, I know this all really sucks…’

‘Were you gonna finish the sentence?’

‘No that was it, this sucks.’

Ivar scoffed, but it quickly became a laugh, a contagious kind it seemed as you were also in stitches.

‘Come on, I gotta start getting ready for afternoon service, and I think you have some type of lunch thing with your family.’

‘Yeah. I’ll call you after.’ Ivar promised.

‘Cool, and not to smother you, but let me know how you are feeling when you get in.’

‘Fine. I can text you.’

‘Good.’

The two of you stood still for a minute.

‘Ok bye.’ Ivar said, actually leaving this time.

You weren’t sure why, but something possessed you to look out your window so you could see Ivar get in his car.

And maybe whatever made you come to the window also made Ivar look back up at you.

He smiled and waved, and you returned the favor.

You watched him get in and pull off and you let out a breath that you couldn’t for the life of you remember holding; your chest felt tight and your cheeks were hot.

Oh...this was bad.

Chapter Text

Ivar arrived home with a little over an hour to spare.

He was happy to say his legs were no longer burning in hot flames of pain and had died down to the usual dull simmering pain that he was used to dealing with.

As he walked to the stairs he took a moment to be childish and flick off the elevator.

He took a shower and for whatever reason his mind started to wonder, thinking about the series of unfortunate events that occurred last night.

The thought of himself being the great Viking king that his mother named him after was still too outlandish for him to think about. The splitting headache and nosebleed did little to encourage him to think about it.

So his mind moved on.

He thought of (Y/N), the way she accepted his legs, she didn’t immediately get that stupid look of pity or false empathy. No her eyes didn’t soften, nothing had changed in her eyes. She still saw him as she had before, and he was very happy for that.

Being in the family he came from he couldn’t find many friends, not any real ones anyway. His brothers could handle having friends who were drawn to the money and fame, but Ivar couldn’t stand people like that. He couldn’t explain it too well, but he could always see it, the hungry way people looked at him.

Like he was a walking ATM and if they could just get close enough to him then the money would never stop flowing.

All of them had the mutual understanding that none of the Ragnarson children ever wanted to be pushed into the public eye. No magazine articles or press interviews, but still they were hard not to recognize if only for the way their mother seemed to flaunt their wealth around.

(Y/N) had never seen the designer clothes his mother dressed him in or heard about out of country trips he had been dragged on.

Her eyes weren’t hungry, and he liked that.

Ivar liked to be around her, he liked the conversation with her and the way she never asked for favors, anything he did for her was his own choice and it always would be.

(Y/N).

His mind wandered to her in the car, when his nose had bled. With no hesitation she gave him the very shirt off her back. That thought made him think about her sitting in his passenger seat, topless and blushing. The way her face became an ungodly red when he had stupidly invaded her personal space.

Then it all went south, his mind decided to be treacherous and focus on that moment before the cop knocked on the window.

Ivar immediately shook his head and wrapped up his shower, if he set the water to ice cold for a few seconds then he’d never admit it.

Deciding to shut up his mind Ivar put in his earbuds and blasted his music while he got dressed, he walked past his real closet full of clothes he had picked up in shops and went to his second one.

The one his mother filled with brands that “people of their status” should be wearing, he picked up a suit without giving it a glance before he started putting it on with practiced ease.

As he was tying back his hair Hvitserk barged in the room, in a suit of his own.

‘Looking spiffy, bet (Y/N) would have loved to see it.’ his brother smiled as he sat on the bed.

‘Shut up.’ Ivar rolled his eyes as he took out his earbuds.

‘What did you wear to see her last night? Birthday suit?’ Hvitserk teased.

‘I said shut up, some people can be friends with girls and not have sex with them.’ Ivar sassed.

‘Of course they can, that just doesn’t seem to be the case for you Ivy.’

‘Don’t call me that.’

‘So you’re going to tell me that you...Ivar Hogh Ragnarson, got up in the middle of the night to meet a girl and nothing scandalous happened.’

‘Yes, nothing happened.’ Ivar said tiredly.

‘Well I don’t believe that for a second, why did you go out in the first place?’ Hvitserk asked.

‘I’m not going to keep talking about this, can we please just get downstairs before Mother comes looking for us.’ Ivar deflected.

Hvitserk rolled his eyes but he did sigh and got up, meaning that for now at least the subject was dropped.

The two of them headed downstairs to the dining area.
As expected the table was covered in large expensive dishes, and of course none of it had been prepared by their mother.

The cook had truly outdone herself today, Ivar new his father must have given her quite a bonus for this feast.

At the head of the table was his father and his mother was sat in the seat on his right, both dressed in expensive brands.

Ubbe and Sigurd still hadn’t come down yet, but Ivar and Hvitserk took their seats across from each other.

‘Ivar...I heard the elevator. Are you feeling well?’ Ivar asked.

‘Yes I am fine, I just woke up in the odd hours where my medicine wasn’t as effective as usual. So I went out for a drive while it kicked in.’ he said casually.

‘You went driving?’ his mother asked.

‘Yes, not too far, I was safe I promise.’ he soothed.

His mother bit at her lip and looked away before she took a sip from her wine glass, she always drank when she worried.

She was always worrying.

Thankfully before the silence could become awkward the two missing brothers came down and took their places at the table.

‘Boys, this lunch is with a very important client, one of my first clients when I started out and he brought me a lot of business by nothing but word of mouth. He is usually quiet and very much so a shut in, and he comes from old money.’

‘If he is a shut in why did he suddenly ask to have lunch?’ Ubbe asked.

‘No idea, but I couldn’t decline. Now, I know you all know how to behave in front of clients, but this client is completely blind so be sensitive to that. Do not mention it, do you all understand?’ his father asked.

Everyone agreed and the conversation moved to lighter things like school and stocks and what summer plans were in consideration. It was all idle chit chat to pass the time while they waited for their guest.

At long last their loud dramatic doorbell rang and one of the housekeepers led in a man using a white cane.

The man was very tall, and that was impressive considering the fact that Ivar was the shortest Ragnarson while standing at exactly six foot.

He had to be at least seven feet, his black suit was clearly custom tailored to his body in a way that made it hard to tell if his suit was filled out by fat or pure muscle. His eyes and forehead were completely hidden behind the largest pair of reflective sunglasses Ivar had ever seen.

His skin was as pale porcelain, it was very oddly accompanied by the most visible light blue veins beneath his flesh and the black lipstick that was smeared over his almost fish like lips.

‘Hello Ragnar.’ the man said, his voice large and raspy as he had been smoking since he could walk.

‘Hello old man.’ Ragnar said happily.

‘I’m as old as I’ll ever be and as young as I can be now.’ the man said.

‘There goes that wise man way of speaking you are so famous for.’ the father smiled happily.

‘And there is the smile you are famous for.’

‘You can see me smiling?’ Ragnar teased.

‘My eyes see nothing, but I see all...that is my curse.’ the man said as he took his seat.

The whole table was silent, not even his father, the great conversationalist that he was, could make light of such a cryptic thing.

‘Don’t be so tense, introduce me to your family so we can eat this delightful feast.’

‘Of course, family meet my great client Mr. Divine. This is my wife Aslaug, my boys that I’m always talking about; Ubbe, Hvitserk, Sigurd and Ivar.’

‘You are missing two...a boy and a girl…a poor sick girl no one here but you ever got to see.’

Ivar was stunned, and judging by the almost loud silence his family members were in the same state.

His father didn’t speak of his only daughter, the girl that died long before he had been born. From what he had been told his half sister Gida had caught a horrible case of influenza and she just didn’t have a strong enough immune system.

No matter how he tried he couldn’t imagine his father talking about Gida with a client, no matter how important.

‘Yes...we should enjoy the feast.’ Ragnar said, not as cheerful as he had been before.

At last the lunch finally began and while it took a minute the conversation did pick up. Despite that Ivar couldn’t shake this sick feeling.

The feeling he had at the restaurant when (Y/N)’s mother was talking about her findings, like his entire body was covered in ants. He was still polite to the guest, but he just couldn’t look at this man for more than a few seconds.

For such a large spread the actual lunch passed rather quickly, and eventually no one could eat another bite.

‘This was a fine lunch, but I do have several appointments lined up so I must be going.

All of a sudden Ivar couldn’t control himself, there was a question he needed to ask before this man left.

‘Mr. Divine? Is that your given name?’

‘Ivar.’ Ragnar warned.

His ears suddenly burned red in embarrassment at his rude outburst.

‘No need to worry Ragnar, with youth comes curiosity and recklessness. Walk me to the door boy.’ Mr. Divine said to him.

Ivar looked at his father and after he received an approving nod he stood and walked around to the other side of the table.

Mr. Divine stood as well and pushed back his chair from the table, he used his cane to get around the table.

Ivar didn’t move to guide him, partially not wanting to startle him but mostly knowing instinctively that this man wouldn’t appreciate him assuming he needed help.

The two walked out of the dining room and made their way to the door.

‘Do you remember me?’

Ivar looked at the man in confusion.

‘Have I met you before? I think I’d remember if I had, you do leave an impression if I must say.’ Ivar replied politely.

‘We have before, just not in this life.’ Mr Divine said as he stopped walking and took off his humongous sunglasses.

Ivar’s heart dropped so quickly into his stomach as if it had suddenly been turned to lead in his chest, his palms were nearly spraying out sweat and he felt like his body was turning into stone.

Mr. Divine didn’t have eyes.

Not empty sockets he could fill with glass prosthetic ones, but there was nothing but skin covering the place where eyes should have been.

“No eyes…” (Y/N)’s voice rang in his mind.

This was him, it had to be; the one who spoke to her directly.

‘I see you don’t recall me personally, but you are aware of me thanks to the Christian child.’ he said as he moved closer to Ivar.

‘You are the one who talks to her...how are you here, those dreams happened centuries ago?’ Ivar asked in complete shock.

‘Not dreams...you know they are more than that don’t you...Boneless one.’

This time Ivar outright flinched at his words.

‘I-I’m not-’

‘You are; run from it and deny it all you like but the fact remains you are and the faster you embrace it the better off everyone you care about will be.’ Mr. Divine said gravely as he put on his glasses once again.

‘I-’ Ivar didn’t know what he had meant to say but it didn’t matter, because the blind man had already walked away.

‘Long long years I have roamed this horrible world and I will continue until you accept the truth. I pray to all the Gods that you do not make the same selfish mistakes again, there are too many people at stake.’ Mr. Divine said before he left, closing the door behind him.

Never before had Ivar felt such an odd feeling, but the one thing that mattered was that he didn’t like the feeling at all.

He didn’t like the man’s eyeless, black lipped face and he liked his words even less than that.

Ivar didn’t know who this man was or how he was here but he knew that if he never saw that blind bastard again he would have no complaints. All he had done was say stupid things that didn’t answer his questions and left more confused than he was before.

Selfish.

Ivar wasn’t selfish at all, he donated a majority of his monthly allowance to multiple charities and whatever he had left he gave away to the homeless or beggars he saw on the streets.

Angrier than he had been in quite some time he gritted his teeth and walked back into the dining room.

The maids were cleaning the table while the others were still there talking about the lunch they had just had.

‘So you are telling people about her now Ragnar? You rarely speak of Gida even to me, he must be a very good friend.’ Aslaug said politely, but everyone knew it was anything but.

Ivar didn’t bother sitting back down and instead made his way back to his room, he heard his brothers coming up behind him on the stairs.

‘I honestly don’t understand why they have to fight all the time, don’t they get tired?’ Hvitserk sighed.

‘Lord knows they aren’t staying together for our sakes so what is the point? Not like Mom wasn't already an heiress before she met him.’ Sigurd asked in a sour tone.

‘Who knows, it doesn’t matter. I'm going out with some friends, I’ll be back in the morning.’ Ubbe said.

‘Can I tag along? I have nothing going on, but I certainly don’t want to stay here.’ Hvitserk asked.

‘Sure, you two wanna join?’ Ubbe offered.

‘Hell no, I have my own plans, taking a girl to a poetry slam and then a night on the town.’ Sigurd said dismissively.

‘No need to ask Ivar, he has plans with his girlfriend.’ Hvitserk said.

‘Oh he finally got official with (Y/N)? Good for him.’ Sigurd hummed casually.

‘I’m not official with her, I’m not unofficial with her because I’m just friends with her.’ Ivar said in his own defense.

‘Well I don’t believe that for a second.’ Sigurd dismissed.

‘Funnily enough I said the same thing.’ Hvitserk added in agreement.

‘That’s because you idiots have two brain cells between the two of you and you’re sharing one of them.’ Ivar teased.

‘Whatever, you in or not?’ Ubbe asked in mild amusement at his younger brothers bickering.

‘No, gonna catch up on some Netflix documentaries, there’s a good one abou-‘

Ivar was cut off by his phone ringing in his pocket, he pulled it out and looked at the contact.

My Literal Child

‘Might I suggest you change her contact info, looks creepy considering the change in your relationship.’ Ubbe said.

‘I would like to suggest you invite her over to Netflix and Chill.’ Sigurd grinned.

‘Shut up.’ Ivar said as he went into his room and closed the door.

He accepted the call and kicked off his shoes.

‘What’s up, except for your horrible timing?’ Ivar answered.

‘Hey so I’m super grounded.’ she said.

‘Can I ask why, hello by the way.’

‘Because my mother isn’t blind enough to miss a hideous truck in her driveway.’

Ivar outwardly facepalmed, he had been so pill loopy and pain struck that he hadn’t even thought about hiding his truck a few blocks down.

‘But luckily my mom likes you so much she isn’t mad enough to kill me. I am still on lock down with the exception of school and I won't be allowed any visitors unless it's a classmate for a group assignment for two weeks.’

‘That sucks but is there anything else, because I have some news that will blow your mind.’ Ivar replied.

‘Actually yes, the doctor called my mom on Friday to set up a sleep study for me on Monday night. Problem is my mom can’t make it and that hospital isn’t really walking distance from my house.’

Do you want me to take you, I can wait for you in the waiting room too.’ Ivar offered.

‘Thanks, now what is your news? Is it...you know?’ she asked quietly in a way that suggested she didn’t want anyone hearing what they were talking about.

‘Yeah. Do you remember that guy you told me about from your dreams, the one with no eyes?’

‘Hard to forget a face like that.’

‘I know tell me about it, I just saw him.’ Ivar said.

‘What do you mean you saw him? Like you dreamed about him? Did he say anything to you?’ (Y/N) asked eagerly.

‘No not in a dream, I mean I saw him. He was just sitting down with me and my family having lunch. He’s one of my father’s first clients, he looked no older than fifty tops.’ Ivar ranted.

‘That’s not possible, we already know that all this past life stuff happened in the Viking Age, that is centuries ago, there is no way he could still be alive. Maybe he’s like us and just looks like his ancestor.’ she suggested

‘No. I don’t think so. He pulled me aside and he asked me if I remembered him, he called me…’ Ivar didn’t even want to say it.

‘He called you what Ivar?’ she urged.

‘Boneless, (Y/N) he called me Boneless one. He said he’s lived many years and he will continue to live in this horrible world until I embrace who I am. He said the sooner I do the better everyone will be, he said too many people are at stake. The bastard called me selfish and he doesn’t even know me!’ Ivar vented, growing angrier with every word.

‘Ivar! Ivar calm down! Calm down!’ (Y/N) cried from the other line.

‘How! Some old fool just showed up speaking like a cartoon fortune teller and called me selfish!’ he seethed.

‘If you aren’t then why be upset!’

All at once Ivar’s anger left him, and it left his body feeling deflated like a balloon.

He still took a few deep breaths just to assure himself that he was actually calm.

‘Are you good now?’

‘Yeah, yeah I’m good; I’m sorry I didn’t mean to yell at you.’ he apologized.

‘I know, you only yell when we talk about who you might have been before; it’s like your twisted version of a defense mechanism. Not that I can blame you, I’m currently looking into this guy and yeah I get being afraid to be him, I’m scared reading it.’

‘I’ve read everything about him, I know almost every theory and legend that even mentions his name.’ Ivar replied as he laid in his bed and looked up at his ceiling.

‘Who is your favorite fairy tale character?’ Ivar asked.

‘Alice from Alice in Wonderland.’ she replied without hesitation.

‘Imagine some caterpillar showing up and saying you’re the real Alice and you just don’t remember.’

‘I’m sure I’d be too freaked by a talking bug.’ she joked.

‘Well the guy looks like an insect.’ Ivar snipped.

‘That’s mean. How about tomorrow after you get out of school you come over and we can talk about this eyeless guy for a while before I have to go in for my sleep study.’

‘I thought you said no visitors.’

‘I did but I did say she likes you and she seems to trust you to make sure I don’t take a nap before my sleep study. My neighbor is going to be checking on me during school hours.’

‘OK, I’ll be there.’

‘Thanks, so we are good to go. Oh and Ivar...for what it’s worth I don’t think you’re selfish; you’re the most generous guy I’ve met.’

‘I’m happy that you think so, I’ll see you tomorrow.’ Ivar said.

‘See you tomorrow Ivar.’ (Y/N) said before she hung up.

Ivar threw his phone down on his bed and closed his eyes.

She thought he was generous and that really made him feel bad about what he thought when Mr. Divine said too many people were at stake.

Why are they his responsibility?

Chapter Text

Sitting at the table you had continued the research you had begun the day before, you had been knee deep in articles since you had sent your sibling off to school that morning and it was almost time for them to get out.

Not that they would be coming back home after school; your mother had to stay on location for a few days and for tonight you couldn’t hold down the fort because you had your own appointment.

Dr. Finehair said he had a specialist come in to conduct a sleep study to see if maybe it was a brainwave disturbance causing your sleeping problems and he wanted you to try and sleep as long as you could.

Without meaning to you had let your mind wander back to your phone call with Ivar yesterday.

After you hung up you spared a moment to think about how abruptly Ivar decided to end the call, it seemed like something was wrong with him.

You figured he would tell you when he felt the need to talk about it, so you went back to your research on Ivar the Boneless.

History was one of your favorite subjects because it’s like a story that really happened once upon a dark and twisted time.

The more you read the more you wanted to put it all aside and never look at it again, which was odd for you. Normally you loved the dark part of history, you believed that no country can ever grow without looking back at its history.

American history was your usual topic but this was a completely new ballpark, and Ivar the Boneless didn’t really feel like light reading. Especially when you couldn’t help but picture your best friend performing a Blood Eagle in order to avenge his father.

His father was another matter that needed researching, you had to look into as much as you could. Any small piece of information could be vital to figuring out this whole thing.

Whatever this thing was.

Your stomach growled and snapped you out of your own head, you sat aside your laptop and stretched before you stood up from your kitchen table.

The kitchen window gave your neighbor a good enough view that she could just walk by and see that you weren’t sleeping.

It didn’t surprise you that your mother didn’t trust you to stay awake on your own accord, because you also didn’t trust yourself to not take a nap.

God you needed a nap.

With a sigh you went and made yourself a quick bowl of ramen to ease your hunger without overfilling yourself.

It was about an hour before Ivar would be released.

He was going to drive you to the hospital and wait for you, meaning he would sleep in an uncomfortable waiting room or even worse his truck. It felt odd that he would do that for you, and even though you had asked him to, you thought he’d decline.

Suddenly your phone chimed with a message.

I’m leaving early be there in ten - Ivar

Cool, we can just chill until it’s time to go - (Y/N)

You looked at the phone and couldn’t help but second guess if that message was good enough, or if you should have added any emojis.

Ugh, this was not good, how could you have suddenly developed feelings for him; Ivar of all people. The guy you were trying to get to remember his past life.

A life in which he was married to you while being old enough to be your grandfather.

You groaned in mild annoyance and complete confusion as you went upstairs to change out of the pajamas you had been lounging in.

The minutes passed like seconds and soon Ivar was at your door.

Fighting the urge to double check yourself in the mirror you went downstairs to let him in.

‘Hey, I got your schoolwork.’ he said handing you a folder.

‘Boo.’ you whined as you looked at the assignments.

‘You’re welcome, not like I went out of my way to get them for you or anything.’ Ivar sassed.

‘Thank you, think you can help me with this...I hate math.’

‘I know, sure I’ll help.’

You led him to the kitchen and subtly motioned to the open window and waved at your neighbor who waved back.

The older woman looked at Ivar in confusion and Ivar waved politely before he sat at your table.

‘So are we starting with math first?’

‘Hell no, tell me about the man with no eyes.’ you said bluntly.

‘I don’t know much, man doesn’t like being in the public eye. Got rich through genius investments but he seems to come from old money despite the fact that no information on his family is available. My father said he was one of his first clients.

‘So it's not like he just time traveled to get here, he’s well established. Covered in mystery but still real, does that mean he’s been alive this whole time?’ you asked.

‘I would guess so but that doesn’t seem humanly possible.’ Ivar said back.

‘Maybe he isn’t human then, at this point we can’t afford to think too logically anymore, the new motto is if we can explain it then we can accept it.’

‘Inspirational.’ he hummed.

‘Thank you, I’m truly a poetic soul.’ you joked.

‘Yeah... there is more though, he knew too much.’

That got your attention, not because of what Ivar had said but the way he said it, like he wasn’t talking about something he’d experienced. It was as if he was talking about someone else he didn’t know.

‘What do you mean?’

‘He knew about my family, but it didn’t feel like he looked us up. He just...knew too much.’ Ivar tried to clarify.

‘What did he know?’

‘Dad was introducing us and he said this wasn’t all us...he knew two of us weren’t there and he was right. Bjorn wasn’t there and he knew about Gida...almost no one knows about Gida, Dad never talks about her except on her birthday.’

‘Who is Gida?’ you asked.

‘My sister, well half sister if you want to be politically correct. My dad’s first wife had two kids Bjorn and Gida, when his first company was just becoming successful he had to leave town a lot and on one trip he was told Gida had died of influenza.’

‘Oh my God, I’m sorry.’ you said sympathetically.

‘It’s ok, she died way before I was born, I’ve only seen a few pictures but I don’t know anything about her, but that guy did. He knew that none of us ever saw her and he knew she was sick, and I could tell that dad was surprised by him knowing.’

Now Ivar was looking off into the distance as if he himself wasn’t even here sitting at your table right now. It was as if he was mentally somewhere else, probably trying to come up with a scenario where his father would have talked about this girl named Gida.

‘Hey, calm down. We can put a pin in it for right now if you want to, I actually do need to get some of my homework done.’ you tried to comfort.

Ivar nodded and took in a deep breath and let it all out.

You actually managed to put most of your focus on stupid equations that no one would ever need in real life, but you couldn’t help but think about how hard this was all becoming now.

Ivar was in complete denial of who he must have been in his past life, anytime you brought it up he shuts down or starts bleeding. How much more proof did he need and what will he do when he can’t deny it any more?

By some miracle you finished all your assignments with mild confidence that it was at least a B+, Ivar was apparently putting all his focus on helping you.

Pretty soon it was time for the two of you to head out if you wanted to get to the hospital in time for your appointment.

The ride was uneventful, just casual talk about school and plans for next weekend; pretty much you talked about anything but the elephant in the room.

While you rode you were very proud of yourself for keeping things casual. It was as if you had pushed aside that mild panic you felt about the possibility of you having a crush on the guy next to you.

At the hospital you filled out some papers while Ivar was chatting with the lady at the desk, it was the same one from your first visit.

Her name was Helga, she was a blond woman who looked no older than twenty seven tops, but she spoke to Ivar as if she were an forty year old aunt.

‘Are you her ride home? She could be here for a while, your mother will worry.’ Helga asked.

‘Mother always does, I let her know I’d be home late if it makes you feel better.’ he assured.

‘It doesn’t.’

You felt kinda awkward interrupting to let her know you were done with the papers.

She took them and led you into an examination room where a male nurse took your vitals and gave you a gown to wear.

After a minute Dr. Finehair came in with another doctor who you had to assume was the specialist who would be conducting the study.

‘Hello Ms. (Y/N), I’m Dr. Finehair.’

You made a confused face and sent a looked between the two men.

‘My little brother, if it helps you can call him Halfdan.’ your doctor explained.

‘Don’t worry the smarter one is in charge.’ Halfdan smiled politely.

It was strange how easily his charm seemed to relax you, but you guessed as a doctor he had to have amazing bedside manners.

‘I’ve looked over all of your test results and it seems to be nothing physically with your body, other than what could be expected from an exhausted teenager.’ he said as he began placing little stickers on your temples, scalp face, chest and legs.

Both doctors were very nice and the small talk did help to pass the time while Halfdan was placing sensors on your body.

‘The main purpose of the study is to see what your brainwaves are up to when you go to sleep. If there is anything unusual then we can know what to focus on and see what tests need to be run on you. OK?’ he explained.

‘I understand, how long do I need to sleep?’

‘As long as you can, did you need any sleeping aids, I see it’s been prescribed to you.’

‘Not necessary, I’m ready to crash whenever you give me the go ahead Doc.’ you smiled.

‘Oh well don’t let me stop you, we are going to leave the room, the sensors are connected to a machine, we will monitor the room as well record video.’

‘What if I have to use the restroom? I guess I should have asked before you started.’

‘It is fine, we can disconnect you, all you have to do is let us know.’

‘Alright you are all set to go, we will leave you to it ma’am.’

The two men left and it only took you about thirty seconds to go to sleep.

*******************************************************************
Ivar’s POV

The hospital was unusually quiet today, not empty by any means, but it seemed nothing horribly urgent had happened since he’d gotten here.

Every person that came in was calm and in good enough shape to explain why they were here and what they were feeling.

Of course that would be expected because this hospital was a bit out of the way, too far from the busy highways where most car accidents tend to happen.

There was also the fact that this was a very expensive hospital, with amazing security, top of the line technology and the best doctors you can get.

All of his surgeries had been done here, because on top of all those other great qualities this hospital assured each patient complete privacy. No matter who the patient was or how much money their secrets were worth.

Ivar was sitting there, in one of the uncommonly comfortable waiting room chairs, scrolling through social media on his phone when a sudden wave of lightheadedness hit him.

His vision blurred to the point where he had to sit his phone aside and shake his head in an effort to clear his head.

‘I see you Boneless.’

Ivar flinched at the sudden voice, but more than that he flinched at the name.

He looked up and what he saw was impossible, so very impossible that even the thought of it made him think that he was going mad.

There is no other explanation for what was sitting in the chair across from him.

It was himself.

His own face, slightly hidden behind a thick and graying beard, but all the same it was obviously his face. His eyes, nose and teeth...his face.

‘No.’ he breathed.

‘But yes, you wouldn’t believe what all had to be sacrificed for us to chat, and I’m sad to say that my being here is not good news.’

‘You aren’t here.’ Ivar whispered.

‘No, not really; neither are you, not completely. Neither of us can ever truly be anywhere until we are together. Until you accept that you are me, I did my part; I died...and I waited.’

‘Waited for what? For two teenagers to meet to clean up a mess you made thousands of years ago?’ he snapped angrily, barely managing to keep his voice down.

‘I didn’t want to do this, I saw no point in it. I was fully prepared to accept the punishment the Gods felt I deserved, but it wasn’t just me...and it isn’t just you. Everyone you love and care about, they are all being punished for my deeds, our deeds.’

‘Your deeds.’ Ivar spat.

‘Ivar.’

This time Ivar jumped clean out of his chair, partially due to being so suddenly startled but mostly to look away from this thing with his face.

Herald was there and just the look on his face told him something was wrong; horribly wrong.

‘What happened?’

‘Helga is calling her mother now, Ivar I need you to be calm. I can see how much you care for her and I know you will worry, but losing your composure won’t help anything do you understand?’ Herald said seriously.

‘Tell me what happened.’ Ivar repeated quietly, almost certain he didn’t want the answer but he needed it all the same.

‘(Y/N) is brain dead.’

‘What? She was just here for a sleep study. What the hell happened?!’ Ivar hissed.

The hairs on the back of his neck was standing up and he couldn’t think of a time where he had been this scared.

‘We don’t know. I wouldn’t even be saying any of this to you if her mother hadn’t listed you as one of (Y/N)’s emergency contacts.’

‘Tell me!’ Ivar snapped.

Herald sighed in mild annoyance but his look remained professional.

‘Her vitals were excellent, no sleep aids were administered. Neither me or Halfdan can explain what happened, I was monitoring her on camera and he was watching her brainwaves. Out of nowhere the waves flat-line and she is seizing up.’

‘She had a seizure?’

‘Yes. A non epileptic seizure, but a seizure nonetheless; we had to risk sedating her before she hurt herself. I wish I could tell you something, anything to explain what went wrong, but I don’t know. I checked her for every physical condition I can think of as a medical doctor and there is nothing to see.’

Ivar was speechless, he didn’t know what to say, even if he did he wouldn’t trust his voice to say it without breaking.

‘When her mother arrives I will explain it to her and what happens next will be her decision.’

‘Can I see her?’ he asked softly.

‘Yes, but do not move her. We are not sure what is causing the problem and we won’t know until we can get her in a CAT scan.’

‘CAT scans, do you think it’s cancer?’ Ivar asked, his eyes wide and his heart filled with dread.

‘I can not say, even suggesting it with no test done I could lose my license. For right now I need you to keep calm while we try to figure out what exactly is happening.’

Ivar nodded in understanding, he listened to the room number and made his way there; all the while thinking about everything.

He thought about the imaginary creature that spoke to him in the waiting room.

“My being here is not good news” that’s what he said and he was right.

He remembered when he had first met her in the hallway; he couldn’t stop thinking about her in class, when he saw her at the table with his brothers he was happy to see her. Even happier that he liked her and saw her as a great friend.

A friend was something he’d never had before and he had thought this was why he wanted to keep her so close, but it wasn’t.

Ivar knew that now, he wouldn’t be this worried and concerned for a friend.

He loved (Y/N), he loved her and right now she was brain dead because of the actions of a dead man.

Because of his actions.

Chapter Text

The sleep came easily enough, even easier considering that you had gone all day with no rest and unbeknownst to you it was the most rest you would receive in months.

In the land of the living it had been three days and you hadn’t had a clue, for you it was just like any other dream. Time was irrelevant and nothing important to worry about as you walked around the abandoned market. With the information you now had you came to the conclusion that this was a Viking age settlement.

And just knowing that much made you eager to look around and see everything. How many people could say they had seen something like this? It would be an opportunity lost if she didn’t explore.

You were still in your hospital gown and had been barefoot before you found some shoes that were too big but they stayed on.

Viking mud is still mud after all.

There was so much to see, there were stands that had vegetables and fruits and less attractive ones that had dead animals hug up on display. Further into the market area you found jewelry and long stretches of fabric. Most were brown or white but others were absolutely gorgeous colors like red, blue and gold.

It was while you were touching a blue silk fabric that you heard something behind you.

Muddy footsteps.

It made a wet squishing noise; squish squish squish, getting closer but not at a rushed speed.

Whoever was behind you felt no need to rush.

You turned around; fully expecting to see the man with no eyes to be standing there with a new riddle for you to solve, but that wasn’t who it was.

It was you.

The woman standing before you had your face, she was older maybe in her twenties or early thirties, her hair was longer than you could imagine growing yours and it was in a braid that rested plainly over her shoulder. She was wearing a brown dress and leather shoes.

Despite how much you had looked into mirrors you had never seen yourself like this.

‘Y-you.’ you managed to say when you found the will to speak.

‘You.’ the woman smiled.
‘Do you know who I am?’ she asked as she stepped closer to you.

Instinctively you stepped back.

‘Your name is Wilda, you are a Saxxon woman.’ you replied.

‘I am, or maybe I was. It is hard to understand even for me, I have been dead for so long and yet here I stand speaking with you.’ she mused.

She walked over to the fabric you were just holding and rubbed it curiously.

‘I had been wanting this fabric when I died, the woman who made this was the best seamstress in all of Kattegat.’

‘Kattegat? Is that the name of this place?’

‘Yes, this is where it all began. This is where it all happened, where your fate was sealed with the Boneless One. I must apologize, for I am also responsible for involving you in all this, but please know I didn’t wish for any of it.’ she said sadly.

It was weird seeing yourself like this, it was like watching yourself in a movie but you had no memory of acting in it. Either way this woman...this you, was talking and it was understandable.

‘Can you tell me what happened, why am I involved and what will happen after Ivar accepts his past life?’ you asked.

‘I do not know it all, but I will tell you what I know, come walk with me, I want you to see something.’ she said as she began to walk away from the fabric stand.

You walked beside her, still keeping a bit of distance.

‘I was a child of the church, in York. When I was a small child the city was raided by the Sons of Ragnar and their Heathen Army. I barely survived but after they took over Ivar took me in as a slave.’

‘Why?’

‘I was often the apprentice to the healers after men would come from battle. I would take care of his legs with salves and oils. He hated me, it was simply a fact but he valued my care through the years.’

‘Why did you marry him?’

‘Years had passed and I’d seen him do...horrific things, he’d won great victories and suffered massive losses then all at once he was just losing. Battle after battle his plans failed him, he was losing his fame, becoming a joke among warlords.’

As the two of you walked past the last stand of the market she led you through a trail in the woods.

‘At his wits end he called on the seer.’

‘Seer? The man with no eyes?’ you asked.

She nodded.

‘He sees peoples’ fates and speaks with the Pagan Gods. He told Ivar that the Gods had abandoned him; that they had favored his father despite the disrespectful way he viewed them, and they would not show Ivar the same mercy if he followed his father’s footsteps.’

‘Ragnar? I thought he was a myth.’

‘People spoke of him as if he were, but he was a real man with real feelings. Ivar loved him despite the strain his broken legs put on their relationship, and like his father he began to place too much pride in his own importance.’

‘Broken legs...he really couldn’t walk could he.’ you said in amazement.

‘Not on his own he made braces to keep himself upright, really they were amazing to see. Even I, who despised him, felt a small amount of admiration for his resilience.’

‘I grew up in his care, he never hurt me but he was cruel. When he came to me demanding my hand in marriage I didn’t understand. He told me it was life or death, he said he would have the church in York reduced to ashes if I refused.’

‘How romantic.’ you said sarcastically.

‘I thought so as well. From what was told to me Ivar had gotten everyone close to him cursed, exiled from all their nine worlds, left to wait for the reincarnations of both Ivar the Boneless and a Christian Girl to to reunite and his guilt alongside her love would be the light that lead them to Valhalla.’

‘My love?’ you asked in embarrassed shock.

‘Yes, you love him and I know it.’

‘How can you know something like that? Do you feel my emotions or something, because I’m not sure if it is more than a crush.’ you said in your defense.

Wilda laughed and was odd to hear it, you recognized it as your own laughter but you never heard from someone else.

‘My sweet girl, you are not the first reincarnation, and your Ivar isn’t the first either, if God wills it you will be the last.’

‘I’m not the first? How many have there been and what happened to them?’

‘They all end up here eventually.’ Wilda answered as at last the two of you had arrived at your destination.

You were in a large clearing. There was nothing else there to take your eyes away from what was in the center.

Two graves, both empty and two piles of dirt waiting to fill them in once there was a body inside.

Your heart was lead.

‘It is never painful, for any of them, you’ll just go to sleep.’

‘But I- I’m sleeping now...am I am I d-‘

‘No, you are alive outside I promise. All you have to do is wait, wait for Ivar to accept his faults and remorse.’

‘And if he doesn’t then what? You’re saying I can’t do anything for myself? What kind of misogynistic bullshit is this? I thought Viking women had rights of their own.’ you ranted angrily as you paced, looking away from the graves.

‘Unfortunately, I wasn’t Viking, even if I did follow their beliefs I was a thrall. I had no rights before my marriage and even with that title I was still Christian.’

‘So what? Just sit here with you and wait?’

‘Yes, do you have faith that your Ivar will save you?’

‘Of course!’ you shouted so suddenly that it surprised you.

All at once it hit you how much faith you had in Ivar, the one thing you had no doubt about was that he would do anything for you.

He cared for you, even if not romantically, he cared about you; and no matter what he had to do he would save you.

Or he would die trying.

‘Then wait.’ Wilda said sweetly.

Ivar’s POV

The last three days had brought about a lot of chaos.

(Y/N)’s family was devastated by the news, her siblings were scared and her mother was in complete shambles. Miss (Y/L/N) had called your father who flew out with his wife and other kids and had arrived on the second night.

His own family had been affected as well, he had been too shaken up and crushed by guilt that he couldn’t drive so he just sat in his car feeling sorry for himself and crying harder than he had since he was a child. His brothers ended up tracking his phone and once he had calmed down he explained what had happened.

No one in the Ragnarson family could ever remember seeing Ivar this distraught before, even his parents sat aside their marital issues enough to sit in the waiting room with Ivar and (Y/N)’s family.

It was strange to see for Ivar.

His family loved each other in their own odd constipated way, but they rarely got together like this. Even Bjorn and Lagertha showed up once, apparently they all wanted to be there for him but he suspected they just couldn't get over the fact that he had a friend.

Every day there were at least four people in the waiting room for (Y/N) and one of the most constant residents was Ivar.

He hadn’t even gone to school, all he could do was sit and watch...and think. Think about what he had to do, because no matter what logic told him he just knew this was his fault. She was a human vegetable and was because of him.

That thought alone made his head hurt, he was constantly taking pain killers that did little to ease his headaches.

He was on his phone watching the same video he had seen a thousand times it felt like.

The footage from (Y/N)’s sleep study.

Her mother had demanded the footage, in hopes to find some kind of clue about what led to (Y/N)’s sudden seizure. She expected to see an administration of medicine or maybe even a nurse sneaking in, anything to explain it.

Unfortunately there was nothing on the film that the doctors hadn’t already explained. For about an hour she was sleeping peacefully, a bit of uncomfortable tossing and then, like a firecracker had startled her, she shot up.

Her body convulsing as she thrashed around so violently that she fell out of the bed and if the visual wasn’t upsetting enough the scream she let out after she landed on the floor was absolutely blood churning.

She was screaming loud and shrill at the top of her lungs, all the while her body never stopped shaking, her limbs were endlessly flailing. The nurses and doctors had rushed in to restrain after only forty seconds or so but it felt so much longer to Ivar.

He watched how carefully Herald administered the sedative and the way (Y/N)’s body went immediately limp. Ivar closed the video once the doctors started hurriedly checking her vitals.

Ivar sighed and stood up to stretch, the joints of his shoulder blades cracking in protest as he did so.

‘Going home for the night Ivar?’ Miss (Y/L/N) asked as she yawned in her own chair.

‘No, just going to the restroom, might get a coffee.’ he assured.

‘Grab me one please.’

‘Of course.’ Ivar said happily.

He didn’t really need to use the toilet, just needed to move around. His legs were getting sore and he needed to take his pills and he preferred to do that in private.

‘I would have killed for a treatment like that in my life.’

The color drained from his face as he looked in the mirror and saw a most unwelcomed sight.

‘I get the feeling you don’t like me much...understandable I suppose.’ the old man said from behind him.

His heart suddenly swelled with anger as he turned and swung, ready to feel his fist connect with the bearded face of this bastard, but it didn’t.

All that happened was his fist went right through him, as if he were air, with nothing solid to connect to he stumbled to regain balance.

‘I’m sure had I been alive that would have been a solid attack, were you done or do you want to waste more time? Because your Christian doesn’t have much to waste.’ the old man said tiredly.

Ivar turned around and glared, but it softened a bit when he saw something he hadn’t noticed before in his anger.

The old man was standing.

There were unpainted metal braces on the viking’s legs that seemed to be the only thing keeping him up, along with the cane he was using.

‘Why are you here? Are you going to kill her now, brain dead not enough for you? She has nothing to do with this, whatever bullshit this all is, leave her out of it!’ Ivar shouted, not caring if someone heard him yelling to himself.

‘My Christian had nothing to do with my problems either, and had she been as selfish as I was she would have refused to take part. Then I would be cursed with no hope of redemption, and both of our Christians would have had longer and probably happier lives without us.’ he said tiredly.

‘But she was soft, she felt it was her stupid Christian duty to help others over herself. Despite her resentment for me, and mine of her, she agreed to help my family and for that I want to repay my debt to her. In order to do that I need you to see me.’

‘I do see you.’ Ivar argued.

‘No. You see an old man in strange clothes but you don’t see yourself in me at all do you? It's frustrating because you are the last and most important piece to this complicated puzzle. The Christian, her job was to find us, you and me, now you have to see us. Really look at me and see yourself...she will die if you don’t and the loss of her will drive you mad.’

He felt like ripping out his hair in frustration, Ivar had never been this angry. In his youth anger was the backbone of his personality, he was angry because his legs hurt, he was angry he couldn’t talk to anyone other than his brother because he didn’t have any friends, he was always angry. But this was pure rage; red hot and scalding, he was angry because he was terrified.

‘What do you mean she will die?’

‘Her body is here where you can see it, but her essence is in the void between the nine worlds and a living person can only stay there a short while before their body lets them go completely. Please if not for me and my family or yourself do it for her.’

For her, all at once his anger left him.

‘J-just look at you?’ he repeated.

‘See me...and look into you.’

Ivar felt like fire ants were covering his entire body, his stomach felt ready to rid itself of the crappy hospital lunch he’d had earlier, his heart felt like it was frozen in ice; and all that paled in comparison to his headache.

He had only met the eyes of the old man for a few seconds and already he wanted nothing more than to look away.

For her.

Ivar dug his nails deeply into the palms of his hand as he held the man’s gaze.

‘There you go, see me...see all we have done.’

Then as if zoomed in like a scene from a movie he could see images in the blue pupils, and what he saw made him want to look away even more.

He saw...a boy with a dirty face it looked like he was trying to pull something, suddenly he felt like there was something leather in his hand and he pulled it back he felt the boy in the eye pull it back and suddenly he struck his hand out with all his might and watched as the boy in the eye was hit in the head by the blade of an axe.

‘No!’ he gasped in horror.

‘Don’t look away, no matter how terrible or how ashamed. Do not look away.’ the viking said, but his voice was different now. It wasn’t as hoarse as before it appeared to be...younger in a way.

The boy faded away and he saw something worse than the boy.

‘Sigurd?’

In the eye there was his brother, his hair long, his clothes strange and he was talking and Ivar wished more than anything that he couldn’t hear what his own brother was saying, but he did, clear as a bell in his mind was his older brother’s voice.

‘It must be hard for you now that your mummy’s dead. Knowing she was the only one who ever really loved you.’ Sigurd said in a strange dialect as he sipped something from a chalice.

Hurt and anger swelled and he felt something wet and thick touch his lip and distantly his mind realized his nose was bleeding heavily, again his arm jerked forward and watched an axe fly and plant itself in his brother's ribs.

‘Sigurd…’ he whimpered as his eyes began to overflow with tears.

If anyone came into this restroom they would see him standing still as a statue, staring into space as his nose bled like a red river and his eyes leaked like faucets.

‘Don’t look away, don’t run from what you have already done.’

‘Sigurd...Siggy I’m sorry. I didn’t mean-’ he choked on the lump in his throat, the blood from his nose leaked into his mouth as he spoke and the taste was horrid but it felt nostalgic in a horribly gruesome way.

Again the image in the eyes changed and this one was more than the image it practically sucked him in like a portal.

No longer was he in a hospital restroom; he was in a stone building and there was so much noise, loudest of all was a baby crying. He could recall this, the dream, the one he remembered in the truck that night with (Y/N) the one that made his nose bleed.

This time it was so much more, it felt like his brain was exploding in his skull, he felt an aching throb in his ears but it didn’t compare to the horror he was seeing and hearing.

He could smell burning flesh, feel the heat and as the melted gold poured into the crying man’s mouth; the screams would haunt him until his last breath.

In horror he felt his chest shake in laughter.

Just when Ivar thought he would pass out from the pain in his head he felt something he hadn’t felt in years. His legs were breaking under his weight, but that wasn’t possible, he had titanium bones, they could never break but still he felt it. Even worse so he heard that familiar cracking noise as he fell to the floor.

‘Hold strong, we both know you can take more than this, and there is so much more to see.’ now Ivar was certain the voice he heard wasn’t the voice of a0n old man.

That was his own voice, and he suddenly processed that he wasn’t being sucked into the eye, but the eye was moving closer to him.

No longer was the phantom standing on crude braces as an old and ragged man. Now he was crawling, using his arms to pull himself along, his legs dragging behind him like a useless tail.

More than anything Ivar wanted to look away and see what the face of this man looked like now but he couldn’t.

For her… for (Y/N).

He stilled himself and tried to brace himself for more pain he was sure would come.

He had been right, more pain came and no amount of preparation would have made him ready for it.

A thousand or a million images flashed in the eye going so fast it shouldn’t have been possible to follow each one, but he could. Not only did he see and comprehend each image he felt them.

He saw the light go out in a fat man’s eyes as someone was chopping into his back with an ax, he felt the muscles in his arms ache with the effort it took to stab through the muscle and bones of a man in the heat of battle.

That was when he realized that these images, these senses were all things he’d seen and experienced before.

These were his dreams.

‘Yes, you are remembering. That is good, almost done now; look at me.’

At last that horrible eye closed, and Ivar nearly collapsed in relief, but he kept just enough energy to look up at the face that carried the eye.

There was no longer a beard to hide anything from view he could see the face in front of him with complete clarity.

This truly was his face, it was like looking into a mirror but this mirror showed what he looked like before.

What he looked like before.

‘Finally...you see me.’ He smiled.

Chapter Text

Ivar physically felt like he had been hit with a wrecking ball. His head was throbbing, his legs could have been set on fire and he would be relieved if they burned to ashes. In his chest his heart was trying to beat its way out of him.

All that physical pain didn’t hold a candle to how his mind was screaming at him.

YOU’RE A FILTHY CRIPPLE! A MURDERER! YOU KILLED A CHILD, YOUR OWN BROTHER AND THOUSANDS MORE!

It was world shattering to behold his own actions.

‘How does it feel?’

‘Like shit.’ he replied.

There was an amused breath of laughter from the now younger looking viking.

‘I closed off the connection before it got to the end, I wanted to explain it first. That way you could decide if you wanted to see it.’

‘Why, is it worse than killing my own brother.’

‘That depends on you.’

He wasn’t sure if it was the way his doppelganger said it, or if it was the weird energy around those words that made him brace himself for a powerful blow.

‘When I was younger than you are now, I had lost my father. He left his family behind and we didn’t see him for years. Then he came back and I tagged along on his suicide mission, that was where it all started.’ the ghost started.

Ivar moved so that he could sit with his legs out in front of him to relieve the pain in his knees and noticed that he was sitting almost mirrored to his own ghost.

‘When what started?’

‘That was my second birth, when I realized that Ivar the Boneless was not just an insult my father chose to mark me with, but a name that could strike fear into the hearts of enemies. I suggested the Great Army and I won truly amazing battles, I felt like I could not lose.’

‘How did it go wrong?’ Ivar asked.

‘It started with my brothers, after I-’ the viking seemed to want to stop speaking but he visibly forced himself to keep going.

‘After I killed Sigurd things weren’t the same between my brothers and me, so I focused on my own ambitions. So much so that I began to push them away from me. In a few years we went from taking over England together to warring against each other.’

Ivar tried to imagine his brothers, his brothers he loved almost suddenly looking at him with malice, he thought of Sigurd not being there.

‘I’m not sure when I stopped sacrificing to the Gods, or when I started to put too much faith in my own importance but once I realized it it was too late. I was losing battle after battle, I couldn’t find supporters or men willing to fight beside me, all at once it seemed my Gods had abandoned me.’

‘Why would they? You-I was awful.’

‘I was, and I couldn’t swallow my pride and admit it.’

‘So why then? Why marry that Christian girl, Wilda. Why all of this? Why did you have to drag (Y/N) into this?’ Ivar snapped tiredly.

‘I didn’t want to, believe me boy, I never wanted another person to feel like I did. Live the way I did and hurt so much. When I consulted the Seer I accepted all my fault and was prepared for my damned after life, but then it wasn’t just me.’

‘Your family?’

‘My family. I had upset the Gods so much so that my entire family was cursed, even the family that wasn’t blood.’

‘Who else? How many of us are here because of your selfishness?’

‘My mentor Floki, his lovely wife Helga, my most loyal friends Herald Finehair and his brother Halfdan. Even Lagertha, that bitch first wife of my Father’s and her daughter...I can never remember her name.’

‘Her name was Gida.’ Ivar provided, shocked at just how truly self important he had once been in a past life.

The ghost looked mildly surprised and leaned forward a bit to look closer at his reincarnation

‘I never met my Gida, and I can’t imagine you met yours.’

‘No, she died too young but she was my sister just the same as Bjorn is my brother. It’s only right to love her, or at the very least respect her memory.’

The ghost smiled as he reclined once more.

‘You really are a better me than I ever could have been, and when the day comes for it I will be eager to hear your tales in Valhalla.’

Ivar blinked a few times to process this new bit of information.

‘Valhalla? I can’t go there I’m-I’m not a warrior, I’m not gonna die in a battle am I?’ he panicked picturing what manner of death would be required of him to enter the great hall.

‘Who knows? It doesn’t matter, you have already earned your seat there of course you may deny it. If you’d rather sing disgusting Christian songs in Heaven, so be it.’

Ivar had a million things to say and a billion questions to ask but one question was so important that it immediately overthrew everything in his world.

‘What will happen to (Y/N) now?’ he asked.

‘Nothing, no harm will befall her, she will be protected and blessed by the Gods as will her family for as long as she lives. They are being very generous with her, considering how much was required of her when she wasn’t one of their believers.’

‘Good she deserves it. She deserves more for even thinking about doing something like that after the way you treated her.’ Ivar said, gasping at the sound of his own words.

As soon as he had heard it a memory took hold of his mind.

There she was, same eyes, nose and mouth he had seen when he first met her, but different.

Younger.

She was small and skinny and looked exhausted, her dress was ragged and covered in small rag patches. Looking at her he would think her to be either an average twelve year old or a small fourteen year old.

She was mixing something in a small clay bowl, her hands shaking horrendously.

‘Hurry up, my wounds will already be infected by the time you get done at that pace!’ he shouted, making her jump at his loud voice.

‘I’m trying your majesty.’ she said quickly.

‘No you aren’t! I bet you can’t wait for me to die huh? Maybe you’d prefer to wait, watch this wound fester huh?’ he continued as he crawled toward her quickly.
She tried to scramble away but she wasn’t fast enough, he caught her ankle.

‘Maybe you’ll make it faster if you have your own wounds to heal Christian Girl.’

He felt a terrible cold on his leg and jerked to look down at what caused it; a hand, wrapped in an old brown leather fingerless glove.

‘I don’t think now is the time to go looking through all your new memories just yet.’ his ghost said as the hospital’s men's bathroom came back into focus.

Ivar shook as his whole body seemed to recover from a massive chill he had been too overwhelmed to notice.

‘You are right, I was cruel to her, even as a child. Imagine how insulted I was when my brother suggested she be the one I tied my fate to. Of course I had no arguments, the circumstances as they were I had no choice. I needed a woman that I’d hated and who hated me in turn and she had to be outside of my faith. She couldn’t be a Viking woman because she couldn’t know what the consequences would be if all went wrong.’

‘She had denied, when you asked, every time you asked. You couldn’t force her, she had to be willing. She only went along when your brothers asked her and assured her their protection from you.’

Before his ghost could say anything there was a sound of running in the hallway outside the restroom.

‘We won’t have too much time left now, maybe the Gods will let me visit your dreams every few years.’

Ivar looked at the door in confusion but turned back to his ghost.

‘Before I go on, I want you to know that your feelings have nothing to do with me or Wilda. Your feelings are yours and yours alone. I also want to ask one last thing of you; tell Sigurd I’m sorry. Tell all of them I’m sorry.’

‘Where the hell is he?!’ it was Sigurd’s voice, Ivar could hear him running toward the bathroom.

Feeling a sudden need to hurry and ask one last question he looked to his ghost.

‘What do I do now?’

‘Live. Live better than me and never make my mistakes.’ was all he said as he smiled encouragingly.

‘Ivar! What the hell happened to you?!’ Sigurd gasped as he ran to Ivar’s side to help him up.

'I took my meds on an empty stomach on top of over the counter ibuprofen.’ Ivar lied smoothly as he got back on his feet.

He glanced at the spot where his ghost had been but he was not surprised to see that he had vanished.

‘What the hell were you thinking? As if we weren’t worried enough about (Y/N) already.’

Normally Ivar would argue, he and Sigurd always found something to pick at each other about but he couldn’t imagine fighting with his brother right now.

Not after he had just seen himself kill him.

Before he could even think about it he was pulling Sigurd into a tight hug. Even when the older brother tensed up he refused to let go.

‘I love you Sigurd, never forget that? No matter what; I love you, and I’m sorry. You will never understand how sorry I am for the things I’ve done.’ Ivar said as he buried his face into his brother’s shoulder.

Almost nervously Sigurd returned the hug, giving Ivar’s back a few awkward pats.

‘I love you too, dumbass, and whatever you’re apologizing for is forgiven. However; as fun as this is, we need to clean you up fast.’

Ivar pulled back and was shocked to find that he needed to wipe away tears. He glanced at his reflection and winced at his own image.

His skin was pale and his mouth and chin were covered in blood from his nosebleed.

‘Crap.’ he said as he grabbed some napkins to clean his face.

‘Why were you looking for me?’ he asked Sigurd.

‘(Y/N) woke up.’

‘What?’ Ivar said eagerly, nearly knocking Sigurd over in his haste to get to (Y/N)’s room.

‘Hold on you still like a horror movie disk cover!’ his brother yelled as he chased after him.

In the back of his mind he took into consideration his brother’s comment but he couldn’t care less about his appearance right now. He barely cared about anything but (Y/N) at this very moment; he didn’t care that the doctors would surely want to check over him once they saw his bloody face, he had to see her first.

He ran through the halls as fast as his metal legs would allow him to and when he finally saw the door he somehow ran faster towards it.

‘(Y/N)!’ Ivar cried as soon as he reached the doorway.

Everyone in the hospital room jumped, none of them expecting such a sudden and loud entry.

There was Helga on the right side of the bed who was checking her blood pressure and Halfdan was there on the left and appeared to be asking (Y/N) questions about how she was feeling.

When (Y/N)’s eyes met his they went wide and watery.

‘Ivar.’ she sobbed as she got out of the bed, ignoring Helga’s protest as she did so.

She threw her arms around him in a grip that was surprisingly tight, but Ivar returned it almost tenfold. He closed his eyes and tried to memorize everything about this moment. The way she fit into his arms perfectly, how she smelled and even the way her tears felt as they hit his shirt.

‘You did it.’ she said softly, her voice muffled as her face was pressed into his chest.

‘I had to, it was for you.’ he said, just as quietly as he pulled back to look at her.

Well he had intended to anyway; as soon as he pulled out of their hug (Y/N) had pulled him in, but not for another hug.

This time it was a kiss.

An honestly rather bad one if he was honest; it tasted like blood and tears and she was still partially sobbing. All that aside it felt so much better than any kiss he’d ever had in his life, it felt right.

‘Excuse me!’

The two of them were startled apart by Halfdan’s angry voice and turned to see the doctor was red in the face and looked ready to thrash the both of them.

Instantly he caught a glimpse as the doctor in his past life as a viking and for a second he was concerned he might actually have a sword in his doctor’s coat.

‘As lovely as it is to see young love, this is still a hospital and Miss (Y/L/N) needs to be examined at once to determine the cause of her being braindead less than an hour ago so if you could let me have my patient back please.’ the doctor almost seethed as a vein bulged on his forehead.

‘O-of course, my apologies.’ Ivar apologized as he reluctantly let go of (Y/N).

‘We’ll talk later.’ she said quietly before he turned to leave the room.

In the end neither of them knew that “later” would mean nearly a month.

Things were very hellish and chaotic once (Y/N) was awake; of course her family were ecstatic and they didn’t want to ever let her out of their sight again after nearly losing her. She had been surprised to find out that what she thought was no more than a dream during a sleep study ended up being three days of being braindead.

Ivar also had a bit of a time explaining to a doctor that his nose was bleeding because he mixed strong painkillers with over the counter ones that doubled as a blood thinner and could cause excessive bleeding.

They chewed him out professionally for a while, then they let his parents know and they did it a bit less professionally as his mother was a mess of tears as she scolded him for his recklessness. Ragnar had to escort her out of the hospital to gather herself but he also made sure to let Ivar know he was disappointed in his actions.

Of course Ivar felt like crap for worrying his family like this when they should all be celebrating (Y/N)’s recovery. Still; none of those feelings held a candle to his guilt for having cursed his family and friends.

After accepting his past life it was as if every moment he wasn’t actively fighting against them he was catching glimpses of his past life. He could see his family as Vikings; see his brothers staring at him with hate in their eyes, his mother’s familiar pitying eyes and his father looking at him with borderline disgust.

With the knowledge of his past crimes against them now fresh in his mind he was making it his mission to apologize to all of them, despite none of them knowing what he was apologizing to them for. He also swore off all selfishness and selfish actions.

He gave even more to charity, and was looking into strong activist organizations that he would volunteer for in the summer and also had plans to form his own once he was older.

Of course all of that meant a lot to him, but more importantly it all kept him busy.

All he wanted to do was be at (Y/N)’s side, he wanted to tell her what had happened in that hospital restroom and what he learned about the events that lead them here. Of course he couldn’t take away from her time with her family after such a tragic event, so he would just have to wait for things to calm down and for the two of them to have time alone to talk.

(Y/N)’s POV

Eventually after two weeks of being put through what to you felt like a million tests on everything from your brain to your blood the doctors simply had to accept that there was no explanation for your brain dead state. You would be going in for biweekly check ups just in case for about six months as a precaution, but you were finally allowed to leave the hospital.

Your family was happy to have you home again, your mother smothering you, your father absolutely spoiling you rotten, all six of your siblings were clinging onto their oldest sister and were eager to help wherever they could even if it ended in annoying arguments between all seven of you.

In the end your father had spent all the money he could afford while being financially sound, so he and his wife and kids had to return home so he could continue working. Two weeks after their departure your mother had used the last of her vacation days and she too had to return to her job.

At last you were given the green light to go back to school.

You never thought you would be happy to be waking up at seven in the morning and practically skipped to school.

Obviously you weren’t actually excited about class but you were aching to see Ivar, all you had been thinking about in your few moments of peace was him.

Ivar Ragnarson, Ivar the Boneless...your Ivar.

The one who you had kissed.

You still couldn’t believe you had the nerve to do that, and you were nervous about seeing how he felt about that. However your nervousness took the back burner to how badly you needed to talk to him.

He needed to know about your talk with Wilda, which of course you had told no one about when answering all the doctors’ questions. This information was only for you and Ivar, you wouldn’t think of talking about it with anyone else.

At school you were happy to find no one had been told of the cause of your absence, so there was no awkward moment when you arrived.

Everything was normal, until you got to your locker.

‘(Y/N)!’ all five Ragnarson sons cheered as you approached.

Sigurd, Hvitserk, Ubbe, Ivar and even Bjorn had been waiting for you.

‘Hey!’ you smiled brightly as you walked over to them.

‘Nice to finally meet you formally. I’m Bjorn Ragnarson, hopefully I’ll be teaching you Chemistry two next year.’ the eldest introduced himself formally at last.

your feelings for Ivar aside, Bjorn still remained a very, VERY attractive teacher and just him acknowledging your existence made your face a bit red.

‘Hopefully.’ you blushed.

‘Stop it.’ Ivar said as he thumped your forehead.

‘Ow.’ you pouted, looking fully at Ivar for the first time.

If you thought you were red before now you were practically steaming like a teapot.

‘I didn’t do anything.’ you mumbled as you quickly looked away.

‘You thought it.’ he said.

‘Thought what?’ Bjorn asked in confusion.

‘Nothing.’ Ivar snapped.

‘Calm down. Jealousy is an ugly color on you Ivy.’ Hvitserk teased.

‘Besides, it's only gonna get worse, cause we are all gonna hug our friend now.’ Ubbe said as he pulled you into a hug.

The hug soon devolved into an ungodly barely standing dog pile of limbs as every brother threw their arms around you as Ivar tried to pull them off of her.

‘Alright, fall back before you put her back in a hospital bed.’ Ivar complained.

At last you were freed from the forest of limbs as they backed away.

‘Never make us worry like that again. It’s already giving me wrinkles and I’m gonna need to put a lot of extra care into my skin to recover.’ Hvitserk said dramatically.

‘My apologies for my crimes.’ you bowed in turn.

‘Apologize at your party, this Friday. I’ll text you the details later.’ Ubbe said.

‘Party?’

‘It’s not a party; just us, our family, your family, a few of the nurses from the hospital and the Finehairs gathering in a venue to celebrate your active brainwaves. Also my band may make a quick appearance if you’re into that sort of thing.’ Sigurd said, rushing out the last part quickly.

‘That sounds like a party.’ you replied.

‘A family friendly gathering and everything is already planned, I just need your say so for everyone to let my band play the event for our music video.’ Sigurd confessed.

‘Keep me off camera and it’s deal Snake.’ you agreed.

‘Yay.’ Ivar, Ubbe and Hvitserk said dully.

‘Be nice, I love your music Sigurd. Now all of you off to class; bell’s gonna ring soon.’ Bjorn instructed before bidding all the students farewell and making his way to his own classroom.

The upperclassmen left, still speaking of the party plans leaving you and Ivar alone at last.

‘So…’ you said as you realized the hallway crowd was thinning out.

‘So.’ Ivar repeated as he also stood still, waiting for the hallway to empty completely before he spoke.

‘I have a lot to tell you.’ you both said at the same time.

‘Ladies first.’ Ivar insisted.

‘I wasn’t brain dead. I mean that’s what the doctors say I was, but to me it was just like a dream; one of my Viking dreams. But this was different, The Seer, the one with no eyes, he wasn’t there, and neither were you. This time it was Wilda; it was me and she was older and Ivar, she spoke to me.’

‘She spoke to you?’ Ivar asked.

‘Yes, directly to me just like I’m talking to you; no riddles or puzzles, just clear talk. She told me what happened, or what she understood at least. Ivar we weren’t the first reincarnations, there were so many others, some never even met, the incomplete connection drove them mad. The ones that did could never get it right, they rejected their truths and it cost them their lives.’ you said.

Ivar leaned against the lockers as he processed the information.

‘There were others.’ he said, closing his eyes.

‘I remember them too now.’

‘What?’ you gasped.

‘I met him; Ivar the Boneless, the night I took you in for the study. Just popped into existence in the waiting room. He tried to speak with me, to make me see myself in him and I refused.’ he answered.

‘Then what happened?’ you asked.

‘The doctor told me you were brain dead, and I knew it was my fault.’

‘It wasn’t.’ you tried to console him as you stood beside him and leaned against the locker as well.

‘It was, and you know it too. You could have died. Hell, you already have several times and each time it had been my fault. Because I am selfish. I know that now and it caused so much pain for so many innocent people and as bad as I feel for those people I feel the worse for doing it to you.’

You looked up and saw tears on Ivar’s red cheeks, instinctively you took hold of his hand and interlocked your fingers.

‘I remember it all, everything. I remember Wilda and I was cruel to her, I hurt her and I remember the other lives and how many times I chose to let you die for my selfishness.’ he finished, wiping his eyes with his free hand.

You released his hand and took hold of his face with both hands now, making him keep eye contact with you.

‘Listen to me, and I need you to believe what I am saying because I mean it. I, (Y/N), reincarnation of Wilda the Saxxon woman, forgive you Ivar, reincarnation of Ivar the Boneless. I forgive all your deeds against me.’

‘I can’t take your guilt, and you can’t forget or change your past; but I can forgive you and thank you for saving my current life, and you can make your own future and earn your own forgiveness.’ you said firmly.

Bright blue eyes filled with tears as they looked directly into your own teary (Y/E/C) ones and again let your body lead itself to where it wanted to be, into his arms.

His body seemed to be doing the same as his hands went readily around your waist to keep you close to him.

‘You can forgive me?’ he asked, placing his forehead against yours.

‘I was never angry with you, but I will forgive you everyday forever if you want me to.’

‘Forever is a long time, think a friendship can last that long?’

‘It could...but not ours, that friendship is over for me.’ you smiled.

‘Really?’ Ivar grinned down at you happily.

‘Yeah.’

This time Ivar pulled you into the kiss; this time it was perfect, it was a new beginning for you and Ivar.

More than that it was an ending; an ending to a story that began with a Selfish Cripple and a Christian Girl.