Work Text:
Vendel period (724 AD).
“I keep wondering how you can eat that thing.”
The night was clear, dawn was approaching and, my precious wife, devoured her peculiar delicacy sitting on the edge of a cliff with a somewhat tired look while her shoulders slightly slumped. Keeping a night watch to wait for the sun was probably not the best plan for a woman in her state.
“What are you talking about? Is there anything yummier than chocolate with pickles?”
I looked at Anna with a 'nor even you can believe what you just said, isn't it?' smirk and she gave me a shrug and a wide grin.
“Do you want some?”
“How much crazy you think I am?” I replied sitting next to her on the edge of the cliff.
“Your baby seems to like it as much as I do,” she laughed as vigorously stroked her already round and bulging belly.
“Well, they shouldn't get used to it. You know there is little cocoa left in the village, and I doubt that Olaf will decide to venture out into the ocean again to see if the gods will take him back to the cocoa lands. He does not even know how he managed to arrive there.”
“We could seed it here.”
“It wouldn't grow. He already said that those were very hot lands. Be grateful that you have had the opportunity to taste it. I don't think it'll happen again.”
“Why are you trying to depress a pregnant woman?”
“That's not what I'm trying to do. I just don't want you to be disappointed when it run out.”
“You're a mood killer…”
“Nor do I know what you see in it. It is bitter and earthy… and stains a lot.”
“I know! Isn't it awesome?! Just my type,” she said, stroking my neck from top to bottom with the tip of her sensual pinky.
I contemplated her face, lit by that soft winter moon, and wondered what I had done to deserve her.
Anna was a young, beautiful, strong, brave, and funny woman. She was bursting with energy even in the middle of a pregnancy. As expected of a nineteen-year-old lady, her skin was still smooth, her lips rosy, and her figure had not yet suffered from the passage of time. My skin, however, was beginning to lose strength. My body was robust and, despite my thirty-six fucking years old, I was healthy, but the wrinkles that crossed my cheeks were not deceiving. Years don't pass unnoticed.
Fortunately, my job wasn't one of special wear and tear, but the anvil weighed more each day, and my back protested louder with each awakening. However, that incredible woman didn't seem to mind. Instead of choosing one of the wealthy suitors she had, she chose me; from the first day and without hesitation; without allowing her father to have a word in it as if knowing that I had always longed for her.
“Why are you here?” she asked slowly resting her head on my arm. “The celebration is still going on.”
“I've noticed that you were no longer by the bonfire and I assumed that you would have come here.”
“I like that you know me so well.”
“Why did you leave?”
“Too hot, too noisy, too many people…”
“You love hot, noisy, and too many people.”
“Except in the middle of the morning, with swollen ankles and a throbbing head.”
“Are you alright? Is there something I can do for you? Shouldn't you keep your feet up?”
“I can think of something you could do for me.”
Tempting… The last time I heard that phrase, I got her pregnant. It was a beautiful wedding, no doubt.
“Anna… I'm not gonna deny that I'd love to take you right here and savor every corner of your body just like I did yesterday, but… I don't think tonight is the right one. This night belongs to the god Freyr. I don't think it was would be…”
“Seriously, Kristoff, how do you manage to get me wet with just the memory of it?”
Probably at least half of the blood in my body got to my ears while the other half was concentrated at the level of my pelvis revealing the effect that the degree of wetness in Anna's inners had on me and, as it couldn't be otherwise, she burst out laughing.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“No?”
It was the first time since we got married that her suggestions didn't go on that way.
“No. What I want is to take advantage of the fact that we're here alone to give you your Yule gift.”
“You got a Yule gift for me?”
“Only if you want it.”
“Anna, I want everything that comes from you.”
The icy breeze caressed us ruffling her elaborate braids. It wasn't the first year that we shared that night, but it was the first year that we spent it as husband and wife. I had a lot to thank Freyr for.
Not at all disturbed by the sudden wind, Anna began to rummage through her tunic until she took a perfectly folded piece of cloth and offered it to me with the shyest of her smiles and a flirtatious flutter of eyelashes.
“Thank you,” I answered taking it curious and unfolding it with an uncontrollable smile on my lips.
Upon fully extending it, I found a thick, sturdy sash in my hands.
“I've noticed that lately your low back is sore. Your work is hard, and I wouldn't want you to really get hurt, so I made this to you thinking it might help. Will you use it? Will you take care of yourself for me?”
It was a sash. A simple and plane work sash. Why the hell couldn't I control the tears that were rolling down my cheeks?!
“Kristoff!! Are you okay?! You don't like it? You don't have to…”
“I like it! I want it, it’s mine!” I said with a ridiculously childish air making sure she didn't take it out of my hands.
“You do?”
I nodded and Anna smiled and wiped my tears away with her hands.
The first rays of the sun began to appear from the horizon and I knew it was time.
“May I… may I give you mine now?”
“You got something for me?!”
“You doubted it?” I replied chuckling at her enthusiasm.
“And what are you waiting for?!”
“Okay,” I replied trying to calm my nerves with a sigh.
Careful not to push my beloved wife and our baby in her belly off the cliff exposing them to certain death, I pulled a knife from my work belt.
“You're going to give me a blunt knife?” she asked arching an eyebrow.
“Patience…” I said laughing as I pulled the lower part of my hair to one side revealing the elaborate braid that rested on my shoulder.
In front of Anna's stunned gaze, I raised my knife and cut the braid.
“Kristoff…? What are you doing?! You love that braid!!”
“And now, it’s yours.”
“Your braid?”
I took her hand and helped her to her feet. Then, I carefully tied my braid around her fine, soft wrist.
“Hair, like my love for you, never stops growing, and I solemnly swear on a sacred day like today, under the rising Sun of Freyr, that, like this braid, I will live every single second clinging to you. I swear that my soul will live intertwined with yours forever; in this life and in everything that wants to come later.”
“Did you prepare your speech?” she asked showing me her mischievous smile.
“Sorta,” I answered cocking my head somewhat embarrassed.
Anna reached out and looked closely at her wrist.
“Wow… gross!”
“Ugh! I know… I’m sorry. It seemed like a better idea when I came up with it. But… on second thought, it might not be so romantic…”
“Are you kidding me?! This is the best gift I've ever received! After this one, of course,” she said taking my hand and guiding it to her belly where I felt with emotion how our baby was stirring in the place refusing to sleep as well.
“Anna… you don't have to force yourself to wear it, seriously. You can dump it, really.”
“Never! This braid has to be with me forever. Need I to remind you that an oath before Freyr resides in it.”
“And… you want it?” I asked somewhat cowed as the sun rays began to caress her face and set her reddish hair on fire.
“What it?”
“My oath.”
“I don’t understand your question.”
“My question is… really? Do you want me? I mean, I know that you have voluntarily married me and, honestly, you seem to enjoy it, but… why me? What have you seen in a dirty blacksmith? Why did you choose me without hardly knowing me? You had loads of powerful suitors and… all of them younger than me.”
Anna bit her lip holding back a smile, tenderly stroked her newly acquired bracelet, and fixed her intense gaze on me.
“I guess I can tell you now.”
So, there was something to tell? There was a real reason why such a woman had decided to share her life and her bed with me? Was there any reason for her to accept my heart and spend her time and effort taking care of my aching and worn back?
“You see… on my fifteenth birthday, I received a letter from a secret admirer.”
“What…?”
“It was a small parchment in which that person spoke a thousand wonders about me. Not just about how my body was blooming, but about how he was marveled at my personality.”
“That… happened?”
“Uh-huh. His words caught me, but they didn't end there.”
“No?”
“No. On my sixteenth birthday, I got a new letter. A deeper, more extensive, and more intense letter.”
“And… did you like it?”
“I still keep it. I keep them all. Also the one I received on my seventeenth birthday.”
“There was another one?”
“Yeah. In that last one, he told me about how much he loved me and how happy it would make him share his life with me.”
“Hm… And… what happened after that?”
“On my eighteenth birthday, there was no note. Only that wonderful man who had been working for my family for years smiling for me.”
“So… you chose me because I was there when your admirer disappeared?”
“No. I chose you because each and every note was slightly smudged with charcoal. They all had the prints of huge, dirty fingers. As big and dirty as these here.”
Anna took my hands and showed me the permanent black dirt on them.
“If you didn't want to be discovered, you should have worn gloves to write them.”
‘So she knew it. She knew it all this time.’
“Did you… did you fall in love with the owner of the notes?”
“With all my being. I love you, Kristoff.”
“I love you too, Anna.”
Anna hung onto my arms and leaned close to me as far as her belly allowed letting me feel her also bigger breasts on my torso. The lively and festive music could still be heard in the distance, the cold of the night gradually receded leaving in its place a soft and warm sun bath, and, the untimely interruption of my good friend Sven, totally torpedoed the atmosphere.
“Hey, buddy, what are you doing here?”
The cunning reindeer nudged me gently with his snout.
“Is someone waiting for his morning carrots?”
“Oh, for Odin's sake, Kristoff! Kristoff!!”
Anna clenched her hands tightly against my arms as she let that alarmed tone out of her throat. I feared the worst.
‘The baby.’
“Anna, I’m here. What do you need?”
Anna grabbed my hand and quickly sat at Sven's feet dragging me with her, then she raised her head, and, following her gaze, my concern completely vanished: a small mistletoe branch was tangled in one of Sven's antlers. I sighed in relief and Anna put her arms around my shoulders taking advantage of having me seated.
“You. You are all I need.”
And, finally, my lips surrendered to hers and ended lost in the morning light, preceded by promises to keep, and totally ready to fulfill them all.