Imhar the Clever (imhartheclever) wrote in onewaythreads, @ 2018-02-06 19:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | hakkon, imhar |
Who: Imhar and Hakkon
What: Imhar finally says hi to Hakkon
Where: Hakkon's dumb cave
When: Monday
Status: Completed
Imhar knew the moment he felt Hakkon arrive that he wasn’t going to be able to hide from his brother forever and if he went about trying for too long it was just going to make the man more testy about the whole thing.
This world needed jovial Hakkon not warlike Hakkon.
The funny thing was that for all his blustering and pride, if he hadn’t rejected his home for a cave he would’ve found Imhar that much more quickly.
Silently, the fox slipped through the forest at night, guided by the room and the unmistakable smell of Hakkon. There was no massive wall of magic in front of him anymore, no need to expend so much energy just to get through it and spend quiet hours with him. Not that Hakkon would know that. There wasn’t anything he could’ve done to save him. There wasn’t- He was too small and Hakkon in that dragon was too far gone. He could smell it. He would’ve been snapped up in one bite and whenever Hakkon was reborn again he wouldn’t’ve forgiven himself for it.
Better his anger than his guilt.
His brother was sleeping as he padded into the cave, and it took no effort at all for Imhar to hop quietly onto the bed and curl up next to him. He’d be crushed when he woke up. Better by Hakkon’s arms than his jaws.
Hakkon knew the scent of his brother, knew the texture of his fur. There was no question in his mind that the warm body beside him was Imhar. He should have chided him for hiding, made a show of his annoyance and frustration but he didn’t. He simply tightened his arm around the little fox and squeezed him tight, taking that little bit of comfort before he spoke. “Your nose is cold,” he said, his voice quietly rumbling through the cave. “The people here have these hats that cover their faces, like socks for the head. You ought to make yourself one.”
Any fear that Imhar had that Hakkon might still be as mad and violent as he was in the dragon fell away slowly as his brother held him. “And so the mighty lord of war and winter was brought low by the cold wet nose of a fox,” he teased. He changed forms in his arms so he could snuggle closer and make sure Hakkon didn’t worry about crushing him. “So much for cold resistance.”
“I can know it’s cold without feeling unpleasant. And a fox doesn’t need cold resistance, he has a fine fur coat.” He wanted to smile. He wanted to kiss his brother’s cheek and tell him how much he missed him, but that didn’t feel right and he couldn’t muster up a smile. Not yet at least. “I’ve been looking for you. I came here to see you. Why have you been hiding from me?”
“I meant your cold resistance falling apart in the face of a fox nose,” Imhar said. He shook his head. “I didn’t run from you,” he whispered. “I ran from the Wolf. He’s been trying to tear the sky open and I think he already killed the elves’ mother and maybe one of the Vints dragon gods. He’s consolidating power. I couldn’t… Pride was fine. Let him have his pride and think himself clever. I wouldn’t want to be the one responsible for him actually becoming so. So I ran.”
“If we were back in Thedas I could understand that, but here, I know you felt me arrive. Why didn’t you show yourself sooner? And it wasn’t as if you were hiding away from everyone, others spoke to you, I know they did.” He was still working out the little box but he had seen Imhar on it. Of course, he didn’t need Imhar to answer him now, he knew the truth. He could smell it in him. “What has being afraid of me ever got you? You know better. Of all, you are the one I would not hurt.”
“You were mad,” he whispered. “I remember when Ameridan sealed you in the first place. You would’ve eaten me then. You might still have now. I had...I had to be sure that you were the brother I knew and not that the dragon… I don’t know how much of her rage had consumed you on your next birth.” He kissed Hakkon’s shoulder. “I saw you with the boy.”
“I was not mad.” He insisted. In his head they’d already had this argument. Imhar would claim it was against Avvar way to invade so much of lowlander land, that they plundered for what they needed and then let the lowlanders be. That they did not conquer. He would argue that they had the opportunity to be greater, to have more and not fade as the elves had. That would go around and around and they would never agree so Hakkon decided to skip it. “You mean that very big thing with the eyes and wings stuffed inside a boy. Did seeing my kindness to him show you that it was safe to approach me?”
“You tried to kill me!” Imhar spat back. “Swooped in and grabbed me up in your jaws and the only thing that stopped you from shattering all my tiny vulpine bones was the damn elf.” It had hurt in more ways than one, but it was belabouring the point now.
“It certainly helped,” he huffed.
“You would have been fine.” He muttered. If he had killed him, Imhar would have just been reborn like they always were. They’d accidently killed each other before and it was fine, they always came back. “I’m glad then, but I wish you would have approached me first. I didn’t like thinking that you were hiding from me because you simply didn’t want to see me or didn’t care for me anymore.”
“I would not have,” Imhar said quietly. “I would’ve been intentionally killed by you. It’d be different.” And the guilt and fear never seemed to dig into Hakkon’s bones the way it did Imhar’s. “I’m allowed to be afraid.”
“Are you afraid of me now? You’re here in my arms, I know you’re quick but not enough to get away if I decided to hurt you.” Hakkon pointed out, needing to hear Imhar say it aloud. If it was confirmed aloud then all would be fine, Hakkon wouldn’t have to worry over him and his own mental state anymore.
“I might be,” he whispered. “I don’t know. I’m willing to take a chance.” That was good enough, he hoped. “You know if you’d gone to the home they gave you and not been a stubborn old man about it, you’d’ve found me on your own.”
“It’s not being stubborn.” Hakkon relaxed upon hearing that his brother wasn’t abandoning him out of fear. “I like it better out here, it reminds me of home. When the weather warms I’ll likely go back. I can contain the cold there without doing any damage to the local plants and wildlife.”
“If you’re having problems containing your cold, you’re not as good as you think you are just yet,” Imhar pointed out quietly. “Your parents would give you that look. You know the one.”
“I didn’t say I was having problems containing my cold or anything else. I’m saying it’s better in a place where animals won’t wander through and where no plants are growing, such as inside.” He bristled a little. “I’ve already seen them. Them and everyone else. They all looked me over and said I was fine. Don’t try to suggest that I’m at the edge of my sanity or my control, Imhar.”
“They like you at the edge of your control and the Great Bear is wise enough to know when you won’t listen to anything but what you want to hear,” Imhar pointed out. “I just want you to be mindful of yourself for a change. Can you do that?”
Hakkon let go of his brother and sat up before climbing out of bed. He was quiet for a moment, moving to the fire and pulling his long hair over his shoulder so he could braid it back as he liked. As he got closer to the ends he finally spoke. “I wouldn’t speak of Sigfrost. The bear was unkind when it came to my search for you. I am fine, Imhar. But fine will be a hard thing to maintain if I have to worry about you watching me and thinking everything I do could be a sign that I’m mad.”
“You spent eight hundred years in a dragon, Hakkon,” Imhar said, sighing as he sat up, blunt fingernails scritching the shaved part of his head. “No one’s okay coming out of something like that. The elves won’t be okay if the idiot wolf opens even a little bit of the veil he made and they free themselves from their city.” Not the same timescale at all, but the point absolutely stood. “I just want to know that you’ll ask for help. That you won’t be too foolish to think you have to handle everything on your own. Again. That gets you killed a lot and I don’t...I don’t know if we’ll be born again here.”
“It wasn’t as if I was awake for it, Imhar.” He reminded him, wrapping up the end of the braid. “It was more like a dream. I can assure you, I am okay. I am the same man I have always been.” He turned to look at him. “That’s really what has you worried, isn’t it? That I haven’t changed in eight hundred years. That I wouldn’t resist being bound to another dragon.”
“I know you wouldn’t,” Imhar said softly. “I know if you convinced yourself you could work things out in your favour, you’d absolutely do it again.” He sighed softly. “I love you. You’re my brother and I love you.” Theirs was a bond of choice, not blood, but sometimes he wondered if Hakkon forgot that Imhar knew what it was to be human. “I’m… So much has happened. We all need to be clever. I’m afraid you’ll do what you always do and blunder on ahead without listening to me.”
“A clever man can find a way out of a situation, a wise one is never in that situation in the first place.” He looked back to the fire. “I think you’re too frightened right now to think clearly, Imhar. You’re frightened of me, worried about me. But this time I’m not the problem, and your fear of the wolf or whatever else it is, is making you paranoid.” He shrugged. “We are more than likely safe here. Don’t let that paranoia tell you otherwise and then make you make it otherwise.”
“Look me in the eyes and tell me you’re okay and I’ll believe you,” Imhar said softly, knowing that Hakkon’d been avoiding just that since they pulled out of their cuddle.
He turned again, moving to his brother and putting his hands on his upper arms, lightly squeezing. Ice blue met copper. “I am okay. But I am not entirely sure that you are.” Imhar wasn’t the ideal Avvar, but he was enough of one that fear and paranoia didn’t suit him. “You ought to take better care of yourself. Enjoy your new life here instead of worrying that someone is going to cut off your tail.”
Imhar cupped his cheek. “Be glad you’ve missed the past few years at the very least,” he whispered, pressing his forehead to Hakkon’s. “Just not as glad as I am to have you back.”
Hakkon finally felt himself smiling. He embraced it along with his brother, hugging him tight as he beamed. “You know I’m here because of you, right? I wasn’t interested in anything other than seeing you again. I wanted to be with you, like we used to be. Maybe this time we can better balance each other, and make sure we stay as okay as we both claim to be.”
“Oh I never said I was okay,” Imhar laughed, “Not in the slightest.” He kissed Hakkon’s jaw. “I should’ve known you were going to hunt me down.”
“I’m like that rash you got after you had that Vint mage girl. I’m obnoxious and very difficult to get rid of.” He squeezed his brother tight before loudly patting him on the back and pulling away. “I’ve got a few kegs now. Will you drink with me, brother? You can tell me what victories you had while I was in stasis.”
“That was you, with the rash, not me,” Imhar said. “You just wouldn’t stop showing it to me.” Imhar flopped back and shook his head. “I don’t want to drink,” he whispered.
“You really aren’t okay.” Hakkon frowned, looking over him. He nudged him with his boot, “I thought you came here to put it all behind you.”
“I came here to not become part of the wolf,” Imhar said. “There’s a difference between all that and not wanting to- Nevermind.”
He nudged him again, “You always say talking is what helps. How am I supposed to know if I should talk or if I should hack it to pieces for you if you don’t tell me?”
“Talking does help,” Imhar agreed. “But you’re- There’s so much, Hakkon...so much and all I could do was run.”
He sat down beside the fox god, reaching over to pat his thigh. “Okay. Little bits and pieces then, whenever you want to tell me, go ahead. I’m here and by the look of things, we’re both going to be here for a while.”
Imhar tugged him back down, wanting to be wrapped up in him like they always were. It was always so much easier when Hakkon was half trying to crush him. “What do you know already?”
With a grunt Hakkon flattened himself out on top of Imhar, knowing he wanted that weight on him. “There were more blights. Borders changed. Our people kept shrinking but surviving. There was a hole in the sky but someone closed it. Something about the elf wolf.”
“That’s enough for now then,” he said softly.
“Rilla was very chatty. But she was more focused on just what happened with her devoted and anything that touched our clans. She never had a head for the larger world.” He said, likely confirming what Imhar suspected of the Mountain and the Sky, that they had told him next to nothing.
“Rilla’s always very chatty,” Imhar pointed out, wiggling a little under his brother so he could roll over and give him his back instead. “She focuses where she must.”
“When she isn’t otherwise occupied.” He said, “What is life like for you here? Meeting new people? Making new friends? The women here seem very friendly, though I haven’t had the chance to get to know any of them yet.”
“I’ve only had a few more days here than you,” Imhar said, “And I wouldn’t say I’ve made any friends yet, not really. It’s fine. I didn’t expect to.” He shrugged a little. “Mostly I annoyed a mage somehow ‘cause I didn’t feel like explaining the godsdamned Qun when I could barely type. Tony you talked to. Decent guy. Sent him a bunch of dick songs he seemed to like.”
“My dick songs or your dick songs?” He smirked at the idea. “They are very much different kinds of songs.” He didn’t comment on Imhar making friends. He would, he always did. Everyone loved Imhar, even if a few invoked him when they cursed someone.
“Your dick songs,” Imhar said, “They’re a bit more impressive and I was trying to avoid anyone knowing that I had songs at all written about me. Was half tempted to throw in one of Uvolla’s dick songs, but that’d just probably scar the poor guy.”
“Heh, his dick has been known to actually scar people.” He ran his fingers over the shaved part of Imhar’s hair. “I think maybe getting out and being more social would be good for us both. I’ve been thinking about going around and handing out my blessing, just to help them through the weather. Generate some good will, perhaps even some new followers. I haven’t heard prayers since I crossed over to this land.”
“They have internal heating. Doesn’t even require a fire going or furs on the walls or anything. You should come see it all. Get your phone charged up too.”
“I know that, I walked around before I found the cave. But people still have to get out, they work and have to travel in the snow.” He said, trying to remind Imhar with his tone that he wasn’t blind or an idiot, most of the time.
“How about we focus just for a little while on being men instead of gods. From the feel of it, there’s more than enough people who can claim divinity. Maybe we relax for a little bit?”
“I don’t think I can separate myself from what I am, Imhar. And you came in here as a fox, and while some men have magic and could do that, most don’t and can’t. But, I can see the benefit of focusing on ourselves and not going about proclaiming ourselves as gods, aside from on the magic box.” Doing things on the box was fine, it didn’t feel real.
“Not on the box either,” Imhar warned. “Too many people can see what’s on the box. It’s not a place for secrets. If it’s on the box it stays on the box forever.”
“You don’t think it’s safe to reveal who and what you are? Are you worried you were followed or is there something here to fear?” He pushed himself up onto his elbow.
“I don’t think it’s safe to do much of anything at all until we know more about this place,” Imhar said gently. “This is a whole different world. We know nothing at all. We need to play things close to our chests, does that make sense?”
“To a point, I suppose.” He said, not really wanting to admit that he was probably right. “We don’t have to hide away forever though. And I’ll take care of anyone who tries to harm you, just like always.”
“Not forever,” Imhar said, “Just until we understand more. No making Sigfrost feeling like they have to trundle over to this world just to yell at us for being idiots. This place can barely handle a bear your size. There’s no way one as big as Sigfrost would be welcomed happily.”
“Size has never been a problem for me.” Because, of course he would take it there. “Don’t worry, the Great Bear is busy with everything else. I believe that you and I are fine here and perhaps, one day, we can be open and truly enjoy ourselves.
“Size has absolutely been a problem for you, and you know it,” Imhar said dryly. “We can, I think, yes. Just once we’re sure we can trust this place.”
Hakkon poked Imhar’s side hard, “Don’t be such a shit.” He pushed himself all the way up. “Well, I’m still interested in a drink. Are you sure you don’t want one. They’re just as good as back home.”
“I’m alright,” Imhar said, stretching out properly again once Hakkon got up. “Delicious or not, I’m just not in the mood for it.”
“Alright.” He said, going back to his row of kegs and pouring himself a flagon. “How is the food here, or have you been like me and eating whatever you can summon.” They really didn’t need to eat but Hakkon enjoyed it and he found he liked food a great deal.
“It’s...it’s different. Half of it is made like it’s for a lowlander festival and the other half feels like something out of Orlais with less gold leaf. Not bad just...odd. Takes some getting used to.”
He wrinkled his nose before taking a drink, “Why would anyone ever cover their food in gold. I always said Orlais was far too concerned with their own shit, and that was before there started to be gold in it.”
“Who knows what they’re doing with their damn game,” Imhar replied, looking up at the roof of the cave. He knew what they were doing with their damn game, that was who. He just didn’t particularly care all that much. “Not our problem right now. More trouble than the Vints, that lot, though.”
“They should have let me freeze it, Thedas would have been a better place.” Hakkon pointed out, taking a quick chug of his flagon. “Anyway, back home will have to take care of itself. For now we are here and I think I would like to know more of the people here, see if any of them are foolish enough to put gold on their food.”
“It would not have and we both know it. You would’ve slaughtered most of the elves and not only are they very pretty, but half of us have some elf blood anyway,” Imhar pointed out. “Delicate kin. Be nice to them. They’ve been abused enough as it is.”
“It would be easier if they weren’t assholes on the whole.” Hakkon pointed out. They generally liked to think they were better than him. “And they’re only pretty if you like thin and unlikely to survive the winter.” He finished his flagon and came back to sit down next to Imhar.
There were a great many counterpoints that Imhar could have to that, especially the asshole bit. “I find myself not all that picky most times,” he said, shrugging a little.
“You didn’t used to be so fond of elves before.” He said, glancing to his face. “You had a thing with- Well, that was eight hundred years ago. I’m sure you had the time to expand your horizons.” There had been a girl when Hakkon became a dragon. She wasn’t a Hakkonite but she was fierce, and warm. Imhar had been downright sweet with her. She’d been mortal and there was an unspoken rule between them that they not mention their mortal lovers by name. Even after ages, the names and memories could still hurt.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a fondness for elves,” he said, “More a sympathy for what Andraste’s lot keep putting them through. It’s gotten worse. Part of me doesn’t blame the Wolf for wanting to tear the whole world down.” Andraste’s name was always spoken with bitterness. She’d been a traitor to them all even if they weren’t the Avvar at the time. A traitor to everyone. Especially Imhar who’d tried to help and whose cleverness she’d just used for other purposes.
“Hopefully a very small part. Do you remember before the veil? I’m not eager to go back to that.” He did his best to forget the woman, he hadn’t been involved with her and her uprising, her husband prayed to other gods, but he knew he could have stopped her if he had the mind to.
“I don’t remember a whole lot before the veil,” he said. “I remember losing our friends. My friends,” he corrected quickly. “I remember the library. I remember fleeing the library when the Wolf decided it and everything else rooted on both sides didn’t need to exist anymore.” He pressed his lips together. “I remember my mother.” Because she had been an elf, not that any of the Avvar liked to talk about that one- Imhar and his mortal parents. The elf who bore him hadn’t succumbed to the quickening yet. She was as ageless and beautiful as she’d been his first three lives, always seeking him out to continue where his studies had left off. “I remember being pulled between while the Wolf tried to catch so much in his net, anything close to divine. I remember her casting...something at me and sealing me on this side.”
“That explains some things. Though this time you’ve sealed yourself on the other side.” Not that Hakkon judged him for it. He put his arm around Imhar, “We are safe here, Imhar. Safe from anything that Thedas might wish to throw at us.”
“I know,” he whispered, “I know.” Imhar sighed heavily and shifted forms so he could curl up in his brother’s lap. “You stink.”
“You smell like a fox, you have no right to say anything about smells.” He teased, scratching Imhar behind the ear. “I could be the bear again, do you want to smell that?”
“You already smell like the bear,” Imhar countered fondly. “You always smell like bear.” He nudged Hakkon’s hand.
He moved that hand to scratch under the fox’s chin, “Bear and sweat, and probably leather. You’ll get used to it again, don’t worry. I plan on sticking close, I won’t go missing for another eight hundred years.”
Not in the mood for that kind of touch, Imhar changed back and scooted over on the furs to make room for Hakkon “I’m not sure if that’s a blessing or a curse,” he teased.
“A curse for you, I imagine. Who is going to want to take you to bed when I’m around?” He teased back, eventually deciding to lay down again. “I hope you and your hand are still on speaking terms.”
“Wow, not even going to offer to help yourself,” Imhar said dryly.
“Of course not, I plan to be busy with the pretty people around here. You can tend to yourself, or go find yourself a vixen and sire a litter. I haven’t seen a sweet little family of foxes in a long time.” He grinned to himself.
“Rude,” he said, “I’m sure the only one who’d be interested in you is the mass of eyes and pain you tried to heal.”
“Oh really? I think we ought to go out soon, see who ends up doing better. I won’t even count the little muse thing, he’s too broken for such things.” He looked to Imhar. “I will probably bathe though, they’re all lowlanders here, and if I smell good you have no chance.”
“For now. I’m sure if you nursed him like a little cub, you’d have him sucking more than your tit,” he teased.
“He went off somewhere else. I don’t expect him back anytime soon, but he’ll be fine. Better, probably, I was never a good nursemaid.” He shrugged. “Hard to think of him like that given how he was when I last saw him. He liked the bear though.”
“You liked him,” Imhar teased, nudging him. “Not often people go for you and the moldy fur beast.”
“Difficult to dislike someone who is bleeding, as long as you’re not the one who made them bleed, of course.” Hakkon nudged him back simply because he wished to. “He- Well, that’s a little too personal. Let’s just say he felt more comfortable with something that wasn’t human-shaped.”
“He made a post,” Imhar said, “On the...box thing. Just one word. Help, he said. I’m not sure how much good you managed to do in the first place.”
“I fixed the boy’s body but I couldn’t help the thing in him. He’s of a different magic. He assured me that there were those close that could help him. I did calm him and give him some peace though, sometimes, when you have trauma, the most helpful thing to do is to calm. Slow the heart, slow the bleeding out. It makes sense.” He said, feeling oddly defensive about the fact that he couldn’t heal him completely.
“Look at you talking about saving lives instead of ending them. You’re totally smitten,” Imhar teased, laughing richly. “I’m almost jealous. You haven’t spoken about me like that in centuries.” Not… Okay only a little including the time he was locked up in the dragon.
Hakkon frowned a little, “I talk about saving lives all the time, what do you mean? If I wanted death I would command that the trials be done with true, bladed weapons. Clearly you are jealous. Though I’m sure if you wait around the forest or some of the other arrival areas you’ll find someone who comes in injured and you can have your own person to tend to.”
“Saving and sparing the lives of our people is a different matter altogether and you know it,” Imhar said.
“Not when you’re me.” He nudged his brother. “Don’t be upset that you’re only now discovering I’m multidimensional. Take it as a sign that maybe not getting drunk is a great way to live your life. You start to notice all sorts of things.”
Imhar frowned up at him in confusion. “Okay, but I’m the sober one here…”
“You’re sober now, but you aren’t always.” He pointed out. He wasn’t judging, they had a lot of fun getting drunk off their asses over the years.
Imhar shook his head again. “I stopped drinking for the most part,” he said quietly. “There’s… You missed a lot.”
“I should hope so, I don’t want to think that you and the rest of the world just sat around waiting for me to turn up again.” That might have been great for his ego, but he knew better. “Like I said, I’m willing to listen.”
Imhar looked at Hakkon’s flagon, seriously considering it for a long moment. “Ostagar’s gone. Most of the northern parts of the wilds too. Lothering...most everything south of Redcliffe, really. All Blighted. Shortest blight ever so there’s that…”
“Can’t say I’m not thrilled when it comes to Ostagar. The slavery of our people built that place, it should crumble to dust.” Hakkon admitted, not all that concerned with the state of the land. It didn’t belong to their people anymore, he knew that.
“It was most of the way there when the darkspawn took it over in the first place,” Imhar said, trying not to think too much about home. “Haven got rediscovered and then destroyed, took half the mountain with it, but I’m sure you saw that.”
“Under that thing in the sky. Yes, I saw.” He sighed and looked over at his brother. “I toured around, I saw the land and the people and a few of our relatives. You’re what I want to know about. No one was forthcoming on what you had been up to.”
“And no one needed to be,” Imhar replied, shoving Hakkon a little. “They didn’t have anything to be forthcoming about. They didn’t know. They didn’t need to.” The Great Bear had known, but Imhar had spent a great deal of his time out of the mountains trying to find ways to separate Hakkon from the dragon without having to fight the dragon. And then he just kept getting caught up in other things with other gods and- The Avvar had busied themselves cursing and invoking him in turns as they always did.
Hakkon shoved him back, “And I didn’t need to know? Is that what you’re saying? I’m not going to demand anything, but I think it should be obvious by now that I do care about you and what you’ve been up to.”
“I’m saying no one needed to,” Imhar said, snarling a little with the strength of Hakkon’s shove. “It doesn’t matter, okay? Nothing came of it. I lived. I died. Here we are.”
There was so much more to it, there had to be. Imhar was never this timid. He was a trickster, he was supposed to be quick and clever and never brought down by the world around him. Hakkon remembered him being like that. Something must have happened. “Okay.”
“I don’t…” Imhar scrubbed his hands over his face. “I’m sorry. It’s… Some days I feel too mortal, that’s all.”
“We’re here now, it’s just you and me. Like you said, we can pretend to be mortal, or at least lie about what we are. A new world with new people in it, we can move on from everything that hangs on us from Thedas.” He suggested, watching his brother.
Imhar curled up on his side, back to Hakkon. “Just so,” he whispered. It was likely easier said than done.
“We’ll go out soon, explore the place, have some fun. It’ll be okay.” He tried to assure him, wrapping his arm around him to hold him again. “If I’m wrong you can hit me.”
“Hitting you is always an option. It’s just a terrible idea and I’m not in the mood to break my hand on your abs.” He rested his hand over his brother’s, squeezing gently. “At least your parents aren’t here.”
Hakkon chuckled a little at that, “I don’t think we’d even notice if they were. My boots are more talkative.”
“Talkative or not you can always feel them disapproving from somewhere. I didn’t know how constant that was until I got here and it wasn’t there anymore.” He shifted a little, twisting to get a little closer to him.
“Hmm, maybe you can. I never had to worry about their disapproval.” Hakkon smirked. There was never any question that Hakkon was the favorite, even if they had abandoned him to his stasis field for so long.
“I think they questioned for a long time why they needed someone so tiny and weak amongst their number,” Imhar said. Not that he wasn’t strong just...much less so compared to the rest of them.
“If you weren’t so damn charming they might have been able to shake you loose.” Hakkon smirked. “You’re good though, we need some cleverness.”
“I think they just like it that our people have someone to use as a scapegoat that isn’t them,” Imhar teased gently. “I should go home soon.” He didn’t want to leave Hakkon’s arms.
“If you have to. I may even let you, if you promise you’ll not hide again and let me know when you’re ready to go exploring. If you can’t promise me that I will have to keep you here.” Hakkon beamed.
“Foxes burrow and hide,” Imhar pointed out. “It’s in our nature.” The night. He could spend the night and be fine. Right?
“Then I suppose I have to build a cage for you, or at least a collar with a lead.” Hakkon said, patting his brother on the side.
“Do that and I’ll make sure everything you eat is covered in gold leaf. Let the Orleasians keep their bullshit to themselves.”
Hakkon wrinkled his nose, making a face. “It’s all so unsettling. But anyway, I won’t have to do that if you make me that promise and mean it. I don’t like hunting for you.”
“I can’t make you that promise right now,” Imhar said. “But we’ve got a limited world here. I can’t be that hard to find.”
He frowned, his tone turing serious. “You see how I am. You’ve seen and heard me. If you hide and run from me now I’m going to assume you don’t want to see me and I will not go after you. All I want is a little contact, that can’t be too much to ask from you.”
The fox god wiggled around in Hakkon’s arms to press his forehead against his. “You would hunt me to all the ends of all the worlds,” he whispered. “You can have contact. I just can’t promise that I won’t disappear sometimes.”
“Regular updates. In person or through the box. I mean it. You’re so sure of my devotion to you now, don’t upset me and make me break that.” He said, keeping his eyes open so he could watch his brother react.
“Gods, what are you, my thane?” Imhar asked, rolling his eyes. “What are you defining as regular?” He didn’t like it. It was very obvious he didn’t like it. He chafed at the idea of being snared by anyone at all even his brother.
“Worse than that, I’m your very easily annoyed older brother who misses you and wants to know how you are and what you’re doing.” Of course Imhar chafed, Hakkon would have been concerned if he hadn’t. “Once a week at least, if we don’t see each other that week.”
“You talk like there’s blood and not just magic between us,” Imhar said softly. “Once a week, fine. We’ll renegotiate later.” He tucked his head into the crook of Hakkon’s neck.
“There is blood between us, as much as can be between beings like us. You are my brother, through bond, blood and friendship.” He reminded him, rubbing Imhar’s back. “I came here for you, I will not be satisfied without seeing you or being near to you in what ways I can be. You have to live with that.”
“You could just come home with me,” he murmured. “We could fuse the walls of our homes and no one would have to know they were separate in the first place.”
“I was trying to give you a little autonomy, but that is something we can consider if you’re not content to live alone.” Being alone was such an odd idea for them and the clans that worshiped them. Family was always close, it was usually the same for gods, at least before Hakkon disappeared. He was surprised to come back and find no one together.
Imhar let that settle for a few heavy minutes before he answered. “I was trying to find ways to free you,” he whispered. “Roaming as far as I could to find something that might help somehow.”
“Should I be upset that you didn’t manage it? I don’t feel like I should. I’m fairly certain that you’re the only one who came to try to help.” He sighed softly, considering his words for a moment. “Thank you for trying. I do appreciate it.”
“I’m upset enough that I didn’t manage it, you can’t beat me up more than I already do.” He kissed Hakkon’s cheek. “I’m glad you’re free.”
“Me too.” He smiled sweetly at the kiss. “I love you, brother.”
“Love you too, brother. Now shut up and stop being sappy.”