Work Text:
Kratos took a deep breath, feeling slightly overwhelmed with the situation. When he decided to look after his son Atreus to fullfill Faye’s wishes, he had no idea it would be this… tiring. Fighting wars was easy compared to raising a child.
Luckily, Atreus was a good kid and he usually wasn’t a nuisance. Even if he was too energetic and playful for him, but he respected his father nonetheless.
“Boy” Kratos finally piped up, demanding his son’s attention.
“Yeah?” The kid turned around to his father, expectant yet surprised.
“I need to be alone, boy” He explained, not really knowing how else to address the situation, he just said it bluntly. “There are some business I must tend to”
“Oh…” Atreus replied, surprised by this. “Okay”
“What am I to do with you?”
“I don’t know” The boy shrugged, feeling a bit awkward about it. “Maybe you can drop me off with someone else. Or I can explore around on my own!”
“It is decided then” Kratos stated with a sober nod. “The dwarf will do”
“Brok?” Atreus excitedly looked up to his father as they walked.
“The other one” Perhaps both of them were strange, but Brok seemed like a worse influence for a little kid.
“Sindri?”
“Precisely”
“Cool! I get to see him work and all!”
Kratos nodded again, not really minding what pastimes they engaded in as long as he was left alone for that task.
He had taken his son with him everywhere since Faye died, he had tried to teach him all he could and was comitted to her last wish. But that time, he needed to do it alone. It was far too dangerous for Atreus to be with him, he would come back to him. Kratos merely needed to know his son was safe far away from there in the meantime.
*
Sindri was glad to see his friends again, he happily greeted them as they walked closer to his tent.
“Anything I can do for you?” Sindri asked Kratos.
“The boy will stay with you” The Spartan stated, not admitting any complaints.
“W-What?” The dwarf replied, not ready for such an answer. “Here? With me? But I thought you wanted me to upgrade your axe or…”
“I must do something, and I must do it alone”
Sindri and Atreus exchanged a glance, and the latter shrugged while the first one sighed.
“Alright…”
With that, Kratos dissapeared into the forest.
The dwarf looked at Atreus, slightly clueless about how to take care of a kid. He knew it was Faye’s kid, but he really had no experience with kids. Nonetheless, he would try his best to look after her son.
“What is it that you do, kid?” Sindri asked him, slightly awkward. Was he supposed to play with the boy? Leave him alone? Feed him?
“I don’t know” Atreus showed him a soft smile, trying to relief the awkwardness. “Just hang out”
“I see. Well, since your father entrusted you to me, you… No, don’t do that!” Sindri warned Atreus, quickly walking over to him and taking his tools from the kid’s hands. “Please don’t touch anything!”
“Sorry…” The kid apologized, just then remembering how special Sindri was about his thing and about filth. And his hands were dirty from the hunting and fighting.
Sindri thoroughly cleaned the tools Atreus had been looking at and that now were dirty.
“Can you teach me anything? About your work or…”
“What do you want to know?”
“Anything really…”
“I know” Sindri carefully put his cleaned tools back on their place. “How to realm travel? That’d be useful”
“Yeah!” Atreus replied excitedly, sitting down on the ground, ready to listen to him.
“That way you can tell your father later” Sindri began, leaning on the counter and starting his explanation. “First of all, you need a bifrost”
Atreus nodded energetically, intently listening, amazed by the interesting subject.