InsaneJournal

“They have a saying in this country,” Freyja said, approaching the man sitting under the shelter of her porch. It had been a long day at work, and her hair was damp and hanging down her back in a heavy braid, her thick winter coat keeping her safe from the elements. On another woman, a mere mortal woman, there might have been an element of drowned rat about the whole look; on the Aesir of beauty, it all seemed somehow intentional. “’Speak of the devil and he shall appear’.”

Sobek, half lounging on the swinging garden chair, gestured to his chest with one hand, fingers splayed. “Does that make me the devil? I’m offended.”

He didn’t sound offended.

“It means,” Freyja said as she passed by him to unlock the front door, “that I haven’t seen you in years, and yesterday I mentioned you to someone and here you are, come to find me in Washington.”

Sobek had risen and was leaning with his arms across, one shoulder against the wall beside the door so that he could watch her with interest. “Talking about me, were you?” He looked her slowly up and down, as though she were dressed in something far more revealing. When he raised his eyes, his smile was dangerous. “Guess I’ve been on your mind.”

His smile was also, Freyja had to admit, a temptation. That air of danger that Sobek always carried around with him should have been an alarm siren of the highest order- and it was, but it also spoke to something deep inside Freyja. Kissing Sobek – she remembered very clearly – was like tasting blood on a battlefield, was like every muscle screaming for the wild fury of victory or death. Freyja’s warlike nature was far overpowered by her other sides, sometimes barely a footnote to love and beauty, but when Sobek grabbed hold of her and pinned her to a bed, the Queen of the Valkyries felt like all that remained. With Sobek’s teeth on her neck, his rough skin against hers, Freyja felt like a warrior stripped of all else.

Freyja gave him a smile of her own, hers without suggestion of danger or temptation. (At least, not any more temptation than could naturally be expected.) “Someone was asking me about Nile,” Freyja told him, unlocking the door.

At the mention of their daughter, Sobek seemed to lose a little of his interest in flirting. Perhaps he was just surprised to hear her brought up at all- Sobek, as far as Freyja knew, didn’t have much contact with Nile.

He walked into her house and looked around before giving a low whistle. “Wowee,” he told her, turning to face Freyja and clasping his hands in front of him. “Aren’t you just domesticated as all fuck?”

“I’ve always been domesticated,” Freyja said, putting her keys down on the side table and unzipping her jacket. “You just caught me while I was slumming it.”

“Ouch,” he told her, though he didn’t sound actually offended. “That almost hurts my feelings.”

“Do you have those?” Freyja asked with a tilt of her head, her tone more teasing than cruel. Freyja had never been very good at cruel, even during their most vicious fights, even when they broke furniture and skin. Sobek was good at cruel, but casual about it. He never tried to dig in and break people, it was just that the right words always came tumbling out of his mouth. Sobek’s true cruelty was in his thoughtlessness. Freyja had to put real effort in to try and match that, and eventually it had been too exhausting.

It had been for a best, in the end. Their explosive love affair was a thing best kept brief, and when he left before Nile was born, Freyja found herself glad to be a single mother. (Besides, she hadn’t been alone. She’d gone to find Freyr and let him play the role of father for a time- something that had made him even more popular with the women around him.)

“I’ve got some feelings,” Sobek told her, coming much closer to her and looping an arm around her waist. “Want me to show you?”

Freyja sighed as his predictable action, because sighing was better than falling for it. “I have a boyfriend,” she said.

Sobek leaned closer, breathing in deeply against her neck. “Then I won’t leave any marks.”

Freyja slipped free of his arms (rather politely, she thought) and shook her head. “Why are you here, Sobek? If it’s just for the twice-decadal booty call, you’ll have to try again in another five years.”

“You know I don’t like being turned down,” he told her, dark eyes burning through her.

Freyja considered her words and did not say, and you know I could put you down if you tried anything. Those sort of words were just encouragement. Fighting Words between the two of them so quickly became Fucking Words. If they pushed each other’s buttons… well, they’d end up pushing all of each other’s buttons.

“Sorry, Sobek,” Freyja said easily, heading towards the open kitchen and the fridge. “Another time.”

She could feel his gaze on her, because it was impossible not to feel. He was intense, even at rest, even calm. Like his crocodiles, he was always ready. But she also knew he wasn’t going to try anything. For all his aggression, for all his desire to take whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it, Freyja had never been in a situation with him she hadn’t somehow courted.

And she knew today was no different. “You should leave,” she told him. “Before my boyfriend gets home and you have play nice and human.”

Sobek scowled a little and shrugged. “It’s too cold to play nice.” He approached again and ran his thumb across her cheek, hard enough that it felt possessive. (Hard enough that she sort of wanted to be possessed.) “Come see me when this all falls apart.”

Freyja’s smile was genuine and warm. “You still in Florida?”

“Yeah, still in Florida.” Another lean closer, his hand slipping into her hair. “You still smell amazing.” His voice was lower now, as though there might be other people in the room who would overhear. “But I wanna make you smell like me.”

Ignoring the thrill Sobek’s words had sent through her, Freyja said, “Go visit Nile.”

He pulled back, making a face, clearly annoyed to have their child shoved between them. “Why? She doesn’t want to see me.”

Freyja raised an eyebrow. “Did you ask her that, or do you just assume?”

Sobek shook his head, but Freyja wasn’t sure what part he was saying no to. Maybe to all of it. But instead of clarifying he drew a card out of his jacket with two fingers and passed it over to her. “I’ll be in town for a couple days,” he said, and Freyja looked down at the number of the hotel and the number written on it in blue pen. “If you wanna get fucked properly, drop by.”

Freyja knew that if she ‘dropped by’ Sobek’s hotel she would be well and truly fucked, but perhaps not just the way he meant.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Freyja told him, her amused tone making it clear that she wouldn’t be showing up. Sobek still looked smugly confident about it as he left.