Warnings: Smut, fingering
"You are bothering me." Ivar sighed when he felt your breath tickle the back of his neck. He had promised for several days that you could look at whatever he was doing, but, he hadn't found time to explain it to you.
Ivar had made Floki commandeer your friendship as soon as he'd set eyes on you, all those years ago, and you could often hear girlish giggling and squeals with the squeak of wobbly wooden wheels. You'd say something brash to one of his brother's and burst from the main hall.
It caused Aslaug's heart no end of grief when, to Ivar's delight, you shot down the stairs with him in tow and everyone marvelled Ivar's strength when he gripped the side of his little cart and watched you run as fast as you could with hair whipping around from his seat.
"You promised Ivar!" You complained and stepped in the back of his chair, careless curiosity causing you to almost fall, if Ivar hadn't slung his arm over his chair to grip the back of your dress.
"Yes! And have I not let you in here, allowed you to listen to all of my plans. You are very weak, I imagine you would give up the information very quickly if pressed." Ivar scoffed at you and watched as you flopped onto the pile of pillows and furs, laid beside his chair for you, and only you, to use.
"Would that make you angry if I did. Even if they did all sorts of horrid things. Bjorn says they baptised your uncle Rollo!" When Ivar glanced down at you he couldn't help but laugh at the horrified and ultimately, innocently wide eyed, expression on your face.
"They would not do that." He mused, smiling when you jumped as he dashed a dagger to your neck, stroking the blade up and down. "They would return you to me piece by piece and I would have to send you off to Valhalla."
He watched you for a moment and clucked his tongue. It always irritated him, the lack of fear in your eyes when he used his weapons to tease you. Anyone else had the sensible idea of leaving him alone for a while. You however, pouted at him, with the look of a child who'd been promised a treat they wouldn't be receiving.
"Would you just leave me there! To get chopped up?" You asked, ridiculed at the idea and Ivar took a deep breath and started his sentence with an eyeroll that must have caused his eyes to ache.
"Why would I waste my men on your rescue? Hmm? My last three raids, what have I told you?" Ivar said a little bitterly.
"To stay in Kattegat and to not get in trouble..." You trailed off when he scowled at you and the blade manoeuvred you forcefully to kneel at his side.
"Three times you have been found on the boats, hiding from me. You are awful at hiding and fighting so if you were found by them. It would be your fault and I would not waste time rescuing you." He snapped forcefully.
Ivar didn't know what he expected. Perhaps an apology for causing him weeks of restlessness, constant disregard of his demands when he was simply trying to ensure that you stayed alive. He certainly did not expect and hard slap against his hand, which knocked the blade across the room, and a scowl sent his way that would have made any other man shrink back and take stock of what they'd said.
"Ivar, we..." Ubbe started as he and Hvitserk strolled into the main hall. They both stopped when you stomped over to them and Hvitserk stumbled back a step when you pointed at him. "What have you done now?"
"ME! He's going to let me be killed!" You wailed and gestured to the bored looking king behind you who made an odd growling noise followed by a clashing of his teeth.
"Ivar!" Hvitserk hissed as Ivar threw another dagger after you and both brothers watched as it narrowly missed you as you dashed through the door.
"Stubborn woman." Ivar grumbled to himself as his brothers took their seats. They shared a look, knowing Ivar would soften after a while and present you with a gift and treats until the next argument.
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"Ivar. You do not know if she is still alive." Ubbe warned as they stood watching the castle you had supposedly been taken to.
"I do not care. I will kill all of them until she is returned." He spat out sounding more beastly than ever.
"What if she believed Ivar?" Hvitserk asked glancing from Ubbe to his furious brother who had taken to silence unless he had to answer a question. "What if she has told them what she has seen and heard while hiding?"
Hvitserk and Ubbe stared at their brother, unsure of how close his obsession with finding you would bring them to their end. Ivar, however, was staring at the little bobbing smudge in one of the castles topmost windows.
The battle was quick. Ivar was in his element, avenging every imagined wrong that had been handed to you. Taking back the days, he had spent planning his revenge in the price of blood. Tiring his body until Ubbe demanded he stay put in the huge throne room and he begrudgingly agreed, ordering Thrall's and finding fault with everything to keep his mind from turning his stomach.
"Ivar, you are a terrible liar! You did come for me." You squealed as your feet pattered across the now clean throne room. "Ivar?" You sounded worried when he didn't look at you.
"What did you tell them? How many of my secrets have you whispered away?" Ivar asked shakily and let out a broken sigh when he looked at you properly.
"Not one! I promise Ivar! I swear not one of your secrets, honest!" You blabbered so quickly that the relief of finding you alive left his eyes and replaced with a cold, dead look that darkened the blue eyes to a colour that reminded you of a stormy sea that could swallow the strongest of Floki's ships whole.
"My little maiden has not told a single secret to my enemies. How is it then that she is bruised but not utterly broken after being kept away from her people for so long? Hmm? How is it possible for you, a stupid girl, who cannot listen when I try and keep you alive!" He had started gently, as if talking to a teary-eyed child who had confessed to an honest mistake. But when he finished he was bellowing so loudly that you were shaking, the Thrall that had carried clothes and a bath into the room at his demand, almost fell over themselves to get out.
"I am not stupid Ivar!" You shouted back. In a second he had your face in his hand, squeezing until you ached. But he did not move. You danced a blade over his neck and he swallowed, alarmed at a familiar look in your eyes. "Did you think I would spend my whole life trailing after you and learn nothing?"
You shoved away from him, the blade darting into the chair beside him with an accuracy he was unaware you'd ever learned. You undressed and angrily tossed your favoured underdress into the fire. He watched his burn as you climbed into the bath, finding humour in the fact that he was more worried that he couldn't replace your favourite fabrics at this time of year than of whatever lie you were keeping from him.
The familiar sound of Ivar crawling to you made you sigh. "Then I suppose I should not called you my little maiden, are you secretly a beast like me (Y/N)?" He hummed, sitting beside you and playing with the water, eyes flicking to meet yours when his fingers began to stroke your skin.
"You are the beast Ivar. You can cut through your enemies so fiercely that one day you shall have none. I was so scared." You whispered, relaxing against the arm that slid behind your back, one hand stroking your shoulder while the other continued its underwater tease until one soft stroke of his finger against you core melted you.
"You should not fear death." Ivar mused gently, watching your body fall apart as he pumped his fingers into you. "Nor them. They will not steal you from me." He spat, glaring towards the door to where the nervous flock of new Thrall had hidden.
"I told them a secret that not even you know." Your voice was now so quiet it was barely a whisper. "I lied too. I swore on the lie to the Gods and they will be furious."
"They may not." He said when you stopped speaking for a moment, allowing you to move closer, keening into him and the slow movement between your thighs he used to egg you on. "It would depend on what lies you told."
"I told them that... I was queen of Kattegat and they should not have taken me because you would come for them and... and that you would kill them all if I was harmed." You trailed off and he leant in, nudging his face against yours, wanting your pitiful look to vanish.
"Was that your lie?" He asked, knowing from the guilty look through your speech it had been. "What secret could you have told?" Ivar's voice was so soft that you would never know he was prepared to kill his beloved little maiden had she let slip some important secret.
"One of them asked me how I know you were still coming even after the long time and the different places they sent me." You could no longer hold his gaze and he put more pressure on his fingers, having slowed them to allow you enough sense to speak.
He needed to pull you to the spot Ubbe had taunted him with. That Hvitserk had dreamily talked about as he watched you from a seat beside his younger brother. He needed you to fall apart and tell him everything your mind had ever held. A hand tracing patterns into your arm, the other pumping your core as you gasped for him and his lips and teeth teasing your bare shoulder.
"I told him that I loved you and I had since we were children and that you had never let me get in enough danger to be harmed." You ended breathlessly and he brought you to your end, filling the halls with your final cries like music to his ears, all with four muttered words.
"I love you too." He smiled as you panted and gasped, stroking your skin so gently it tingled.