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Eivor held her axe high above her head to deliver the last blow of the battle. Her axe warm with blood, dripping onto her face and rolling down her cheek. One foul swoop and it would be over, the last order member, dead. Peace restored and finally a safer England for the people to live in. Eivor took one more look into his eyes and swung. God it felt so good to be bloody, knowing that the fight was finally over. The corrupt ways of The Order had poisoned minds for too long and now, everyone can rebuild, relove and feel safe at home again. “Home… hmm” - that was a place that Eivor hadn’t thought of for a long time. Five winters she had been gone from Ravensthorpe. Five winters she had been travelling the country, taking down the infamous bad guys one by one. Now she come to her next big decision… to return home, or not? Eivor yanked her axe out of the order members forehead and blood sprayed towards her face, “yeah, I think it’s time to go home for a while.”
-
Eivor stood at the head of her ship, the winds blowing a gentle breeze through her braids and across her face. Homeward. She knew not of what waited there for her. There was a lot she left behind and knew not of how the land lay. Was Tarben still baking bread? Was Tove still providing everyone with her tattoos? Was Sigurd even still around or did he also go on a lengthy adventure? So many questions but she had the boat ride to ponder. The one question that kept repeating itself, “What is Randvi doing? Will she remember me? What we had? What I said before I left? Is she still with my brother?” When Eivor left to track the remaining members of The Order with Hytham, she had no idea how long she would be gone for. Explaining to Randvi that she was going to be gone for an indefinite amount of time shattered her heart into a million pieces, but Eivor being Eivor and stubborn as she is, she told Randvi not to wait for her to return. The theory was there in Eivor’s words,
“Randvi, you can be free. Free from sneaking around, free from keeping our love a secret. Free from me.” Eivor grabbed Randvi’s wrists and never broke eye contact. She meant what she saying… but not really. What she really wanted to say was ‘please wait for me’, ‘I’ll come back at some point’, ‘I will never stop loving you’ but it felt unfair. Why should Randvi have to wait? What if she met someone better suited? Who was Eivor to deny her that opportunity? She knew deep down, somewhere, reeeeeeeally deep down, that that was not possible. Eivor was as much made for Randvi as Randvi was for her, but there was always a part of Eivor that felt it was too good to be true and that Randvi was simply, too good for her. Eivor noticed Randvi’s eyes took a glossy look to them. She lifted her hand and placed it gently on Randvi’s face, rubbing her cheek with her thumb. “Please love, this isn’t any easier for me to say than it is for you to hea - “
“Eivor, I would wait a thousand summers for you to come home.” Randvi interrupted, a singular tear rolled down her cheek, voice sounding choked. “To watch you jump off that boat and run into my arms. To feel your calloused hands and your sweaty skin like no time passed at all. Stop being so fucking stubborn and let me in. Sneaking around or not. Please, let me love you.,” Eivor hung her head, defeated. She knew what Randvi was saying was true. She was stubborn. She felt hard to love and thus very much became that. Taking on this challenge with Hytham was Eivor’s version of running away from real life. From a settled life, once the secrecy behind their intimacy could stop. Not knowing what to do or say, Eivor grabbed Randvi’s face and gave her a kiss she wouldn’t forget. A kiss that would mess them both up forever. She could taste Randvi’s tears. Grabbing the back of her head and pulling her in closer, bodies touching, so close that Eivor could feel Randvi’s heart pounding alongside her own. She could smell that honey scent that always surrounded her. Randvi moved down to Eivor’s neck and began to nibble, leaving one more mark. Praying to the Gods that Eivor would sweep the figures off the alliance table and have her right there like she so often did. Usually one figurine digging into her back but it was oh so worth it. She would miss the way Eivor spanked her as she went to her room get ret redressed, wiping the red heads sticky sweetness from her mouth. But instead, Eivor pulled back and looked at her. “I… uh… I have to go.” Eivor turned and walked towards the docks and never looked back once. Randvi stood in the doorway of the Longhouse, a complete wreck. Whilst Eivor couldn’t look back, Randvi could not look away, as she watched her Drengr get on her boat, not knowing when they would next lock eyes. When she would feel Eivor’s lips on her own. For a warrior, they were soft, and they felt like home. Little did Randvi know, as Eivor marched towards the docks, she was in tears too.
/-/
“I see it!! I see it!!” Hytham yelled. “I see home!” Eivor couldn’t help but smile and laugh at his excitedness. It was fair, she was excited too. But as the sailed closer to the dock, Eivor’s heart raced in her chest over the unknown.
As they took some boxes of supplies off the boat, Eivor saw a few welcome and very friendly faces. Tarben, Valka, Tove, even Wallace and Petra. She knew she had made the right decision coming home. Seeing these people reminded her of how much she did actually enjoy being grounded. She had been away for so long and nobody had changed. A perfect homecoming. She jumped on a rock and shouted to the people close by, “Tonight we feast in the longhouse!! Let us catch up on the last 5 years. Bellies full of food and mead!!” The crowd cheered. Eivor stepped off the rock and said to herself, “now… just one more person to invite… VALKA!!!” She beckoned her to come over. Valka was the only one who knew about Randvi, so she knew she could ask where she was without sounding… weird.
“Ahh, Eivor!” Valka smiled and pulled her in. “Gods, you smell awful. It’s nice to have you back at last.” She grinned. Eivor grabbed Valka shoulder and leaned in close to her ear. “Where is she?” Valka could see the want in the blonde's eyes and it pained her to know what she was about to say might break her a little.
“I don’t know, Eivor.”
“You don’t know? What do you meant you don’t know?”
“Randvi has been… distant. For the last few years. She keeps disappearing for days. Sometimes to the alehouse, often to the hills. She does come back but she has been gone a few days now and I have not heard a thing. I’m sorry.”
“No. No, no, no.” Eivor heart sunk through her chest. This wasn’t the reunion she envisioned. She pictured Randvi waiting for her in the longhouse. In the map room where she always was, the sun breaking through the cracks of the wood and making her red hair glow. Eivor had to find her. Fast.
“Do you think the noise of a feast will bring her back? Do you think if she hears that, she will know I’ve come home?”
“Gods, I hope so Eivor.” Valka sighed. “I really hope so, for both of your sanity’s sakes. But I must say one thing.”
“Go on…”
“You leaving destroyed her, Eivor. She’s never been the same since. So quiet & guarded. She has still lead us through some tough times and made difficult decisions on our behalf, which was pushed by Sigurd being gone as well, but she is a shell of the woman she used to be. I pray that when she sees you’re back, that you’re physically in front of her, it will light the spark inside her again. She waited for you, Eivor. If you thought it was too good to be true, it was good and her love for you is true. If you thought she would be free from you once you left, well, you were very, very wrong about that. She’s been a prisoner of her own mind and emotions. Please, find her and make it right. Be Eivor and Randvi. She needs you.”
-
The night rolled and the feast was well underway. Everyone half full of mead & filling in the gaps from the last 5 winters. Eivor found herself sitting in the corner alone. Playing countless scenarios in her head of how her and Randvi’s reunion may go. She decided that if the noise of the feast didn’t bring Randvi back naturally, she would have one drink, for Dutch courage of course, make pleasantries and then go and search for Randvi. The night was trickling in and there were still no signs of her.
“This is my chance to sneak away.” She thought, standing from her stool. People were dancing, some were having drinking competitions, and the rest were mingling and sitting at the long tables, picking at what little food was left. Eivor crept along the wall towards the side door, turned the corner and slipped out into the night. “Odin’s beard, that mead hit me harder than I thought. Damn it Eivor, it was meant to be a couple for courage” The fresh air caught Eivor and made her realise she was a little more gone than what she thought. But her focus remained. “Randvi, I need to find Randvi.” She thought to go to the alehouse first as it was slightly closer and if Randvi would hear any noise from the feast, it would be from there. She staggered towards the docks and followed the riverside towards where she prayed she would be. She wondered of how their first conversation would go. Would it be awkward or like Eivor had never left? And what state would Randvi be in. Drunk? Upset? Angry? Would she still want to grab Eivor and rip her clothes off? Tease her rotten like she used to do. Randvi knew exactly how to make her weak at the knees. Eivor knew this wouldn’t be easy, after all, 5 winters, summers, springs, a lot of time had passed and Eivor didn’t exactly give Randvi the parting words she was after but, Eivor felt like she had grown since then. She was ready to be settled in Ravensthorpe with her red headed beacon by her side. Ready to face Sigurd and tell him the truth. Prepared to no longer sneak around the settlement. Gah, maybe it was the mead stalking her inner monologue. But often, Eivor’s drunken mind spoke a sober heart.
The closer she got to the alehouse, Eivor could hear muffled shouting. Walking turned into a brisk walk and before she knew it she was running at full speed. Beads of sweat run down the side of her face but she didn’t care about how she looked. She was just desperate to get there as fast as she could, praying to Odin that her love would be there. The closer she got the louder the voices become. There was definitely some sort of disagreement happening. After what felt like a marathon of sprinting, she reached the door of the alehouse and just as she was about to push it open, a very large Dane was thrown through it and collided with her. They both fell to the ground with a thud. She needed a second to register what had just happened. The man stood up, “you fucking bacurat!” He yelled. He looked down at Eivor, “the woman is wild!” Saying nothing else he disappeared into the woods. She already knew. Eivor stepped in and her heart simultaneously skipped and sank.
“Ohhhhhh, would you look who it is?! My prized drengr has returned from battle. Have you finally come to rescue me?” The woman shouted. Still rousing the ongoing scene that had been caused. The crowds in the alehouse cheered, egging her on even more. Eivor’s eyes widened, and she took a step closer...
“Oh, no no no, Randvi. We’re not doing this here.” She hissed through her teeth.
Randvi was slurring. “Awww, what’s the matter, sweet girl?” Randvi took sultry steps forward and put her finger under Eivor’s chin.
“Are you scared I’ll break you like you how you bro-” Eivor scowled, grabbed her and hurled Randvi over her shoulder and ran towards the door. She kept shouting hanging off of Eivor’s back.
“The damsel has been saved! Praise the Gods!” The crowd cheered again as they left.
Eivor tried to keep walking as far away from the alehouse as she could, but Randvi was making that task a difficult one. She could feel her kicking and hitting her on the back, like a child having a tantrum. They got to a lake and Eivor placed her on the floor.
“What the fuck, Randvi?”
“Ohhh don’t you dare! I think I should be the one asking you that.” Randvi stood up. “Or where the fuck? How long the fuck? Fuck, fuck, fuck!!” Randvi curled into herself and put her head in her hands. Eivor could tell Randvi was drunk but if this was the way it was going to have to be… at least she was still a little tipsy too…
“Maybe we shouldn’t dive into this now…?”
“So now you don’t want to talk? You’re keeping up tradition from the last 5 winters, huh? Do you reeeeeally think scooping me up like a ‘damsel in distress’ is going to make everything seem normal again? Is that your pathetic version of a sorry?” Randvi tried to storm off but tripped on a tree stump and fell into the lake. Eivor burst out laughing to the point where tears were streaming down her face. Randvi huffed, not finding the funny side quite yet. Eivor offered her hand but she ignored the gesture and got up herself. ‘Oh you’re little miss stubborn now?? Haha, gods, I missed you Randvi.” Randvi just glared at her, Eivor could see the hurt in her eyes. The feeling of abandonment, betrayal, loneliness was right there and was incredibly hard to ignore.
They both sat in dead silence for what felt like forever, until Randvi decided to speak.
“Why did you do it Eivor?”
“Hey, you know I have to do what I hav-“
“No!! Why did you leave me wondering if you would ever come back? To me, to us? Wondering if what we had meant anything to you? You left me with NOTHING!” Randvi spat.
“Honestly? I didn’t feel like I was enough for you Randvi. I felt that if somebody else were to come along you should at least feel free to give it a shot. Who am I to deny you that?” Eivor stepped towards her and reached out to grab her wrist. “I’ve only thought of you since I’ve been gone. I didn’t write you because it was too hard, I knew I had to totally disconnect myself, focus and get the job done so I could come back to Ravensthorpe in one piece and with the hope that you would still be here.”
Randvi scoffed. “Eivor, don’t butter me up. Do you have any idea how hard it’s been on me since you left? You practically told me to go and do as I please, like I wouldn’t be sitting pining for you, thinking about everything we could do if you were still here, as a couple and as leaders of this Clan. When I didn’t hear from you, I thought you were dead. Do you realise how hard that is to process? I thought you would never come back, and now you’re standing here, in front of me.” Randvi leaned in closer to Eivor till she was right in front of her face. “I missed the way you smell, how your hair gets tangled after battle.” She reached up and tugged at Eivor’s braid. She run her hand round Eivor’s cheek and stroked her bottom lip with her thumb. “I missed the way your lips feel on mine. How when you kiss me it feels like home.” Eivor followed Randvi’s eyes and could tell she was softening up. She knew she was in for a hard time when she came back and would have a lot of grovelling to do, but this was a good start.
“Randvi, I - “
“Don’t speak Eivor, please, just make me feel like I’m at home again.” She reached up with her other hand and grabbed the back on the blonde's head and pulled her hair, pulling Eivor in to kiss her. Randvi’s lips felt soft, exactly how she remembered, tastes of mead lingering in her mouth. That sweet smell of honey still surrounded her. Eivor moaned at the feeling of Randvi’s tongue playing with her own. Oh, how she had missed that tongue… her lips… her hands pulling her hair… she missed her everything. Eivor took Randvi’s hips and pulled her close, reaching round to grab her. Eivor spanked her and she let out a yelp.
“Ohhh, drengr, you want to play like that do you?” Randvi went back into the kiss and Eivor bit her bottom lip, pulling it slightly.
“I do recall you always loving when I’m a bad, bad girl.” Randvi threw her head back and almost growled. “And it would be really bad of us to fuck right here in the middle of these woods…”
Randvi giggled and Eivor looked confused. The red head thought she might play with Eivor a little bit, make her work for it.
“Oh, my sweet little Eivor. Do you think a quick, hot, sweaty fuck against a tree…” Randvi lost her breath. “Is going to make up for all this lost time?” She turned and tried to do a sexy walk towards the closest tree, but her body was still riddled with mead.
“Hahaha, Randvi, Randvi, Randvi.” Eivor was trying not to act needy but she followed like a lost puppy. “Is that you saying if I slid my hand up your leg and felt how wet you are, because I know that you are, you would stop me?” Eivor acted out what she said next. “If I put my hand up your tunic… grabbed your nipple and started twisting like this… you’d want me to stop? Even if I kissed and bit your neck, leaving my little marks that you always had trouble hiding, you... don’t want that?” Randvi bit her lip, her eyes rolled. Eivor put her leg between Randvi’s and applied pressure. “Besides, who said that this would be the only time I’ll be fucking you tonight?”
‘Fuck. She played me right back.’ Randvi thought to herself.
“Get on your knees.” Eivor dropped to the floor immediately, Randvi leaned back on the tree and propped her leg up on a tree stump. She slid her hand down her stomach and into her trousers, lifting her leg off the tree stump for a moment to put it on Eivor’s chest and push her back a little, making her watch. “You weren’t wrong about me being wet, love…” Eivor reached up to pull down Randvi’s trousers but felt a hand slap her away.
“Hey??!”
“You’re down there only to do as I say. Not to taste or feel.”
“Now that’s unfair.”
“Is it now?” Randvi took her hand out her trousers and put two fingers under Eivor’s chin and she rose to stand. She put her fingers into Eivor’s mouth, letting her taste the wetness she had caused. “Seems a lot of unfair things have happened as of late, huh?” Randvi playfully pushed Eivor and went to walk past her, but stopped when they were shoulder to shoulder and eye to eye. Randvi could swear she could feel the heat radiating off the other woman. “Did you honestly think I was going to throw my legs open and let you have your way with me?” Randvi lost her breath again. “Poor little Eivor, so, so pathetic.” Randvi started to circle Eivor, still muttering meaningless spits. She passed behind Eivor and ran her fingers along her shoulders. “The strong, war stained Drengr, gone for years but still quivers at the Jarlskona’s touch. Still craving, begging for me. Simply pitiful. Let me ask you, while you were lay on the floor alone in your tent, your mind wandering aimlessly alongside your calloused hands, did you think of me then?” Randvi knew she was pushing Eivor, but she was quite enjoying this tipsy power trip. She was in control, and she loved it.
“Of course I did.” Eivor narrowed her eyes to follow Randvi, curious as to where these questions were going.
“Hmm. And when you were in another’s settlement, behind the stables with a younger, more beautiful woman than I, your hands aimlessly travelling over her, did you think of me then, too?”
“I did no such thing, Randvi.” Eivor hissed. Randvi touched a nerve. “I would never do that to you, and you know it.” Randvi smirked, this is exactly what she wanted to hear.
“But, what about you, Randvi?” Eivor spun the question.
“What about me?”
“While I was gone, fighting for our clan, doing everything I could to keep myself alive so I could come back to you... who did you have in your bed?” Eivor looked Randvi dead in the eye and poked her in the chest as she asked. If anything played in her favour here, she knew that Randvi was a terrible liar. She had a poker face, sure, and the political brain to talk her way out of things, but there were few times where Randvi was able to tell a white lie to her without her noticing. That eye twitch caught Randvi out. Every. Single. Time. Almost.
Randvi burst out into laughter. “Did you suffer hearing loss whilst you were gone? Didn’t you hear any of what I just said?” No eye twitch, she was telling the truth, and from what Eivor had already heard from Valka, she knew anyway. But she had to ask. Can’t have Randvi having ALL the control now, can we? Eivor missed Randvi quick replies and sarcastic comebacks.
“Hm” Eivor grinned at Randvi, who had never broken eye contact. “So, I can say with confidence that you pined for me, just as much as I did you?”
“Eivor.” Randvi took a stray hair and tucked it behind the blonde’s ear. “That invisible string between us, it never broke. I can't say that I never thought it wouldn’t, because at one point i thought it would. You were gone for a long time, and when I tried to come to terms with the possibility that you might never come back... that you were...”
“You don’t have to say it Randvi, I underst-”
“You really don’t though, do you Eivor??”