Ubbe/Jordan Patrick Smith

Under One Condition (Modern!Ubbe)

"Good morning, love." Ubbe struts onto the rickety porch of the aged hunting cabin.

"Morning." You mumble, drawing the quilt tighter around your body. "Coffee?" expectantly you glance at him, wide eyed and hopeful.

"It's brewing." He assures you with a wink and a nod.

Temperature nearly freezing and Ubbe is standing there in his favourite, worn cotton lounge pants and a loose knit sweater that he found in his father's trunk of old clothes. Looking at him was making you colder than you already were.

Inside the cabin a fire roared in the small fire place, hand built by Ragnar and Rollo long before Ubbe was ever born. Inside next to the fire, drinking coffee, bundled in your favourite flannel pjs was where you wanted to be.

Ubbe had insisted that on your last morning here, the two of you needed to be on the porch over looking the small lake, as the sun rose. He was insane and there was nothing you could do to change his mind, although you'd tried several times.

What man gave up the offer of morning sex to a sunrise? Only Ubbe.

Silently Ubbe stands beside the door, the morning darkness giving way to that serene glow that only comes as the sun is beginning to rise in the eastern sky.

He'd been planning this trip for months, going as far to tell his brothers they weren't allowed up here for at least two weeks before your trip. Sigurd had a habit of coming and stinking up the place with weed and incense. Fortunately when Sigurd came up it was often him and his guitar, unlike Hvitserk who had a habit of bringing girls - sometimes two or three at once - for a weekend of raunchy sexual exploits.

Cleaning up incense and rolling papers was preferable to finding used condoms and a stranger's underwear in unmentionable places.

"Coffee." You remind Ubbe with a look over your shoulder.

"Hold your horses." Ubbe grins.

Alone, once again, in the cold dim morning, you wait for Ubbe. This time he doesn't come out until he has your coffee made just the way you like it. A blue tin mug is hot with the dark nectar of the gods, but you don't mind. The heated mug warms your hands instantly.

Settled in the Adirondack chair adjacent to the one you've been warming for the best part of an hour, Ubbe sips his coffee and sighs. This is turning out better than he had planned.

In his mind this morning would be nothing short of magical, but this...this is even better.

"Come 'ere." He pats his lap.

Without hesitation, you collect your blanket and move over to sit on his lap. Quilt wrapped around you, coffee in hand, you nestle into Ubbe's torso. Now this was worth sitting out here for.

"Suns almost up." Ubbe mumbles around the edge of his mug.

"'Bout time," you sniffle against the cold. "Could we not have done this from bed?"

Ubbe chuckles, his chest rumbling, he leans in for a kiss. His thick beard coarse and scratchy when it brushes your cheek. "But then we wouldn't get to see all of this."

Nature was where you and Ubbe disagreed. Ubbe would spend hours outside, working, playing, filling the need to wander and explore. He took pleasure in the simplest things like a colourful sunrise or the fresh smell of the buds on the trees.

You weren't entirely against nature, only when it was cold or wet.

"I suppose it is nice." You hum taking a drink of coffee allowing it to settle you.

In the sky the sun began to creep higher, waking the world. Brilliant pink and gold cascaded through the tree painting the sky. No civilization for miles and miles, it was as if the sun was there for you and Ubbe only.

"When we were little, my dad would bring us out to watch the sunrise." Ubbe reminisced. "He was doing it so that mom could sleep off her latest binge, but at the time we never knew that."

You knew Ragnar and Aslaug, as kind as they were, Ubbe had assured you that things hadn't always been the way they were now. Years and years had gone into making them the happy, adoring couple they were now.

Counseling, rehab, temporary separations, and the likes had all been there through Ubbe's youth. He and each one of his brothers had worked through it in their own way.

"Anyway," Ubbe replaced the dark thought with a smile, "Dad used to tell us; one day, boys, you'll be bringing your own kids here for the weekends."

The idea of schlepping a family up here had never appealed to Ubbe. He loved the hunting cabin and the weekends they had spent here a children, but the hassle was it ever really worth it?

Dragging kids through the woods, up the side of the mountain, across the river, and back. All for what? A few days away from a television.

It wasn't until six months ago, maybe seven, Ubbe had changed his mind.

"Do you think you'd like to do that? Maybe, one day?" Ubbe speaks, his gaze stuck on the sunrise that is dazzling the crisp morning.

"What are you trying to say, Ubbe?" You challenge, nestled into him for warmth and comfort.

"Thinking out loud, my love."

"Oh really?" Your brow quirks and you smirk. "Because it sounds an awful lot like you're asking if I want to have children."

"Do you?"

"Perhaps, one day, maybe. Although, I do have some stipulations of my own." You shift to look at him. His brilliant blue eyes crinkled at the corners, his lips drawn into a bright smile.

"Yeah?" Ubbe asks, you nod. "Huh, well then."

"So, Mister, if you think we need kids running around here then first I want to know that you're in this fully."

"Of course I am. Whatever you want, consider it yours."

"Good, then there is only one more thing to ask." You bite your bottom lip, the courage coming from somewhere - where you're unsure. "Will you marry me, Ubbe?"

"Will I marry you?" Ubbe burst into a fit of laughter. "Really?"

"What's wrong? Can't a girl ask a guy to marry her?" You huff, frowning at his stupid face and laugh.

"Well, yeah, but..." Ubbe nudges you to sit up. Standing before him, quilt pulled around you, a frown deepening. Fishing around the pocket of his lounge pants, Ubbe hands you a small white draw string bag. "Open it. Go on."

Fumbling with cold fingers to open the strings, you shake the bag, the glittering engagement ring sliding into your palm.

"Ubbe." You gasp.

"I was worried that you'd say no. I had planned to ask you this morning." Ubbe explained, "But, since you beat me to it." He snatched the ring back, sliding it onto the tip of his pinky. "Yes, yes I will!" His mocking of a crying bride was somewhat pathetic and over the top comical.

"Jerk." You smack his arm, grabbing his hand and pulling him from the wooden chair. "Now give me my ring and let's get inside. I've had enough of this nature shit."

Happy to oblige, Ubbe follows you into the cabin, inside the fire still roars, keeping the place toasty and warm. Nudging you with his hip, Ubbe winks. "So, do we get breakfast or go straight to working on those children?"