in my dreams we are always together

Ragnar watched as Thistle bent in what he assumed was to soothe an itch, struggling for a bit, before she let out a sigh heavy with frustration, her following words holding an undercurrent of irritation that made the Viking’s ears rove back to stand at half mast atop his head in a manner that might have been considered sheepish if it had been anyone else but Ragnar. “I imagine that is how they feel,” He murmured softly, a gentle reminder that they were probably cramped and anxious to get out of her, just as she probably was to have them out of her. “Where is your itch, my love? Let me soothe it for you.” He offered to her, pushing himself into a sitting position and from that a standing one, stretching slightly. He had been comfortable but it hardly seemed fair that he was comfortable and able to scratch at any itch that plagued him while his wife was left to suffer because there were spots of her body she could no longer reach being so heavy with child as she was.

Ragnar did the mental math of moon cycles in his head, figuring that, realistically, she had been pregnant for about two full months now, even if the exact date of her conception wasn’t possible for them to know. It could have happened with Crete, or after with Ragnar himself. The truth of it was that they would never really know. That time had seemed to have flown by, though part of it was not, admittedly, spent as her husband. It was still nothing sort of amazing to Ragnar how they: two very different creatures from two different worlds had managed to irrevocably fall in love with one another. Especially given how Ragnar had been confident he had not had a heart - having never been able to have a single woman hold his attention for more than a few weeks before his interest and lust was entirely gone - and how angry his treatment of his past wives had seemed to make her, how angry Ragnar seemed to have made her, plus he had seen her initial fear of him, in the trepidation that had lingered within her eyes and movements; not to mention the fact that while he had realistically probably been falling for Thistle for quite some time, he had not based their mateship initially on any principle of emotion aside from the affection he had garnered for her. Mostly, it had been based on the sheer fact that Ragnar was selfish and that he wanted Thistle for himself because the thought of her seeking Kennedy or Gavriil as potential husbands had driven him quite mad.

Ragnar, momentarily swept up in the catacombs of his thoughts, had realized that he had began to grin though unlike some of his grins this one did not hold any coy, lazy, or carnal connotations. It was just a grin, as harmless as it could be on his marred face. So soon, Likely before either of them knew it they would be new parents - well no, that wasn’t strictly true - Ragnar would be a father to younger children, and Týr - he was still unconvinced that he would be able to rear up infants - was some experience even if the circumstances were entirely, off the charts, different. Suddenly (at least to Thistle), the silver Viking let out a snicker. “You will be a better mother than Floki,” Ragnar started to laugh then, thinking of his bond brother, and the soot that lined his eyes and slashed down on his cheeks, something to make the un-extraordinarily ivory creature stand out in a crowd (and indeed it worked). Realizing that she likely, would either get the wrong idea about that, or would be horrendously confused the Warden decided to explain, “I had been in between wives when we had captured Týr, so we told him that his mother died and Floki sort of, though I doubt the boy noticed, tried to take on the role of mother by helping me raise him.” Ragnar flashed a sneer then that exposed a deadly, gleaming row of his teeth. “He was very bad at it, even if his help was invaluable to me.” Ragnar’s tone was wistful. Out of all the wolves he wished to find their way to Teekon Wilds, he wished that Floki might be the next, though Ragnar did not hold his breath for his friend to abandon what Floki had there.