Unbroken

Chapter 9

Chapter 9:
Frigga stayed down on the ground with the young frost giant until the healers got there. He was obviously very afraid, he kept flinching and mumbling inaudible words, but Frigga tried to keep him calm. They brought him to the healing room and he was almost unconscious. He hadn't gotten any sleep in the past seven days so he was tired from that as well as the massive beatings he had received. The only good thing about this situation was that they could take their time and go slow in taking care of him. He wasn't poisoned and even the open cuts weren't bleeding out, they were able to be very gentle with him and not cause further pain.
"We're going to need to take him and clean him up before we can start working on him. He's filthy" one of the healers said. She was right, he was a mess of grime and dried blood mixed with dirt, Frigga was starting to wonder if he had ever had a bath in his entire life.
When the healers said they were going to take him he looked more panicked again, he didn't understand that people here were different than the people on Jotunhiem. Frigga wasn't evil, but he didn't want to be taken away by these strangers. He gave Frigga a pleading look and she somehow understood him.
"It's okay, I'll take him to my chambers and clean him up there, I'll call you all when I'm finished" she said. The healers all nodded. Laufeys son seemed to calm down a Little bit but he was still scared. Frigga wished she could snap her fingers and make all his fears go away, but that wasn't possible, it would take a long time before he was comfortable here.
Frigga brought him to Her chambers and let him lay down on a couch while she filled the bathtub with water, when she came back out he was asleep, but it was a little scary because he looked dead, he always looked dead when he was asleep, heck, he looked dead when he was awake. he was so skinny from being underfed and his body was such a complete mess from being so abused that she would have sworn there was a corps on her couch.  She went over to the side of the couch where he was laying and put a hand on his face, he immediately snapped out of his sleep.
"I won't- I won't do it again" he said in a panicked tone. He hadn't done anything, but whenever he was woken up it was because Laufey was mad at him, apologizing became a reflex.
"It's okay, you didn't do anything wrong. I'm just going to give you a bath okay? I'll get you cleaned up" she said.
"A b- I'm sorry, please don't- I won't sleep anymore just don't-" she put a finger on his lips.
"I'm not going to hurt you" she said. She didn't know what Laufey did, but he obviously found a way to make the word 'bath' a threat. "Nothing I'm going to do is going to be painful. I'm only going to clean all The grime off you" she said, trying to make him understand that she wasn't going to beat him again. But that was clearly a very foreign idea, he didn't know what it was like to be with someone who didn't want to peel his flesh from his bones.
"But- it's not- I don't-" he couldn't form a complete thought.
"Just come with me alright? I'll show you" she said as she put her arm around him and helped him to his feet. He weighed nothing and she was able to bring him to the bathroom with no struggle at all. When he saw the bathtub she could feel him tense up like he wanted to run.
"Here, sit here" she said as she sat him down in a chair next to the tub. She then rolled up her sleeve and put her hand in the water to show him that it wasn't dangerous.
"See? It's fine" she said. But he still looked unsure, he was slouched down in the chair, his head was low and his shoulders were slightly raised, like he was anticipating someone hurting him and he needed to be able to curl up in a hurry.
"Alright, I'll have you you feel it first" she said as she helped him back up and had him kneel on the ground next to the bathtub. She took his hand in hers and brought it up to put it in the water so he could feel it.
He tried to pull his hand away and she could read the obvious fear in his face. When she made him put his hand in the water he winced for a moment but then relaxed. She was right, it didn't hurt, why didn't it hurt like it did on Jotunhiem? He looked confused but he didn't say anything.
"Will you go in now so I can bathe you?" She asked, she was going to find a way to get him in there, but she wanted it to be by his own free will. If he had any left.
He shifted his eyes- well eye, one of them was swollen completely shut- to her and nodded a little bit. She smiled weakly as she took the remains of some pants off of him and helped him into the bathtub. Once again he winced and then relaxed, realizing that it wasn't another means of torture.
As she cleaned him she was careful to not hurt him further, but she had to be a little bit firm to get all the dirt and blood off of him. She felt sick, not just because it was gross how dirty he was, but because it was disgusting that Laufey would treat a living person like this. She knew from the moment she laid eyes on him that he was severely abused, but every time she thought it couldn't get any worse it did. As she scrubbed the grime off his skin every cut and burn and scar became much more visible. The smaller injures had been buried under layers of filth but now that she was cleaning him she could see everything that had been done to him. His body had been used as a canvas for laufey to paint his picture of suffering. He wasn't just a slave, he was a toy.
There were no rules determining how far someone could go with him, if one of laufeys servants was bored they didn't even have to ask if they could use the young frost giant as a target for throwing knives, they would just do it and dump him back in his cell when they were done. That was the life he was used to, that was the life he was expecting to get from Asgard as well. Why would it be any different? He viewed himself as nothing but a toy just as much as Laufey did, so why would Frigga and Odin look at him any differently?
It took a long time for Frigga to clean him properly, she had to drain and refill the tub several times because the water got so filthy. she scrubbed away any sign of dirt or blood, she wiped his face clean with a soft wet towel so it wouldn't hurt the gashes and welts that covered his face, If he started to bleed she was sure to rinse out the cut with clean water. She even washed out his hair, though it was so matted that she wasn't really able to do a great job.
Finally she was finished, she had gotten clothes out for him so as soon as she got him out of the tub and dried off she helped him get dressed while he sat in a chair. The clothes were to big for him right now, but as soon as he starts eating and gaining a little weight they will fit him just fine.
Frigga went to get a comb and scissors to try and clean up his hair a little bit. She knew it was a silly thing to be worried about but she figured that maybe if he looked more like a normal person he would start to feel less like an animal. As she brushed out and cut his hair he stayed pretty still, he fidgeted with his clothes a bit just because he wasn't used to wearing any, but otherwise he didn't give Frigga any problems. After a while she was finished, she had to cut his hair pretty short, before she did anything it went past his shoulders, now it barely went past his jaw. But it was clean and brushed and actually looked like hair instead of a rats nest. He looked much better, which might not seem like a big deal, but when you've had no sense of self identity for your whole life, and then suddenly someone makes you look like a real person it can have a huge impact. When Laufeys son looked at himself in the mirror he was confused, Frigga bought him, she owns him, he's her property, why is she being so kind to him?
"Come on sweetie, I'll let you sleep in my bed for now and then I'll show you to your room later" she said as she helped him up again and brought him to a huge bed.
He had never slept in a bed before, so when Frigga had him lay down and covered him with the blankets he fell asleep almost immediately. He was still afraid and confused, but for the first time in his life he wasn't in agonizing pain.