Chapter Text
"I didn't mean to fall!" A young Freyr sniffled, wiping away his tears with his dirty hand, "I thought the branch was strong enough!"
The hiccups kept coming as he desperately tried to put on a brave face. He did not want to fall, and this was so embarrassing. His sister had told him not to climb, but he wanted to look at the view! He had done this before and it went fine then. He only got so far when he fell down, the branch he stood on coming along.
"I told you not to go higher," Freya pushed the little braids out of her face with her dirty hands as she ran to her brother, "do you want me to get Father?" She sat down next to him where her brother fell. Checking him over, after all she was responsible for him. If he got hurt she had to help, her father told her so. Freyr got them into all types of mischief and Freya got them out of all of them.
"No, no, no! Please don't get him!" Freyr whipped his head around, in his usual animated way, his braids hitting him in the face. "He will only get mad!"
"But you are hurt, Freyr, you might have broken something."
"You're here now, that helps and besides I am fine!" Freyr tried with all his might not to let the tears fall, father would only make it worse.
"Okay, if you say so, you know," the hesitation in her voice was obvious, "besides I would totally go higher than you,-" the mischievous smile immediately disarmed Freyr.
"No way!" Freyr interrupted, his eyes widened.
"And stick the landing." She giggled as Freyr hit her shoulder. The smile on his face made her feel a little bit more at ease.
"You know, maybe I should have done a flip, maybe then I would have stuck the landing," the tooth missing in Freyr's smile, "I've done it before!"
"Pfft, now you are getting cheeky," she picked up a stick to draw figures in the earth, "I would always help you when you're hurt, always" Freya leaned into his shoulder, the adrenaline wearing off now, "even if you don't want Father to know."
"I know," Freyr threw his arm around his twin sister, "and I would do the same for you."
Freyr felt the white pain shoot up his arms, disoriented where he was, the events of last night slowly coming back to him. The hot bright flames, the sirens, Lúnda. It took him an immense strength to pry his eyes open from the heavy sleep. A heavy sigh left his lips as he took in the room he was in. The constant noise of beeps and pumps gave it away in an instant. Next to him he saw the wild hair style that belonged to his sister, someone had draped a blanket over her as she sat next to the bed, head on the mattress in a deep and seemingly uncomfortable slumber. He slowly moved his hand to her face, stroking the stray hair away from her temple. The sudden touch woke her up in an instant, almost as if she flinched awake.
"Hey," his voice hoarse, "that doesn't look comfortable at all."
"Freyr," she shot up, only to retract her hand when he flinched, "are you okay? Do you want me to call the nurse?" Immediately concerned about him.
"It's fine, you're here now although I wouldn't mind a cuddle."
Hesitantly Freya got up, Freyr trying to shuffle to make room, forcing his face to relax not to let Freya know of the pain he was in. She would only fuss about him and he hated that. As her head hit the pillow Freyr looked at her.
"What's going on in that tumultuous head of yours?" Of course he knew exactly what was going on with her, she had hated it so much when she was younger. Maybe it was some twin thing.
"This is no coincidence, Freyr."
"Can we for once not talk about the big elephant in the room and just," Freyr sighed, "be?"
She looked up to him.
"You asked, you get an answer."
"Fair."
Freya just hummed.
She couldn't see the sly smile Freyr had when he asked his next question, but she knew it for sure it was there.
"How is Kratos." She looked up at him, just to see his eyebrows wiggle.
"You have a whole lot of energy for someone who just almost burned to death."
"Ouch."
"Sorry, that was rude," she sighed, "I am just so tired of it all."
"No I understand," Freyr tried to scoot closer to her, "but you haven't answered my question."
"I want to punch you so bad right now, I can't believe this is where your priorities lie."
Kratos sighed as he looked over to the passenger seat. With one hand on the steering wheel he hit the top of it in anger. It seemed like the barrage of threats never ended. Odin would never give up unless he reached his end goal. He would only get more desperate, Kratos knew his gut feeling he had to have some hand in the fact Freyr's bar went up in flames just before opening. Who else would?
Once again he looked over to the passenger seat, Freya slept with her head against the window, something he doubted was comfortable. He had picked her up at the hospital after a, likely sarcastic text from her brother that she kept falling asleep and sleeping in a chair wasn't comfortable according to him.
As he drove upon the driveway of his house he took a moment to take her in. It felt to him it was the first time he saw her relaxed, he sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He opened the door and closed it as silently as he could, he didn't want to wake her up. She could use all the rest she could get. He opened the door on her side, quickly holding her shoulder so as to not let her fall, snaking his arm around her back. His other one under her knees and lifted her up in one smooth motion. She only stirred slightly, leaning her head more into his neck.
He was grateful that she didn't wake up as he fumbled with the keys to open the front door. Fenrir laid in the hallway and looked up at him as if to say, ‘you are home late’ . He swore that if that dog could talk he had stories to tell. He gently laid her down on the couch with care, stroking one of the stray hairs behind her ear. He picked up the blanket out of the basket next to the couch and draped it around her, pulling it up to her shoulder. Without trying to wake her he sat down next to her, he didn't know what to do. How to handle this situation now that it escalated. His conversation with Mimir made him aware of something that he knew deep down inside wasn't the path he wanted to go on. But he had to, he had to deal with how much of a threat Odin was to his family.
The gun in the safe was tempting, a gun he hadn't used for a long time. A long time for a reason. He knew as soon as he took it out, the implications of it. The idea's in his head on how to deal with Odin were running out, as long as that man was on the loose, they needed to be able to protect themselves, to protect Freya. He swore to never hurt another being again, to never go down that rabbit hole again. But was it the same when you try to protect your own? Kratos could feel a headache form in the back of his head. He looked over at Freya again, still in deep slumber. The couch was no way to sleep, he decided.
He carried her up the stairs, and opened the guest room with one hand. As he laid her down gently she stirred awake.
"Kratos?"
"Go back to sleep Freya," he pulled up the blanket to her shoulders.
"Stay?" she had a death grip on his arm, he doubted he could easily shake her loose. He sighed, overthinking it as he always does, "please?"
"Okay." She disarmed him so easily, it was almost scary to him. He carefully moved over her to lay behind her. She never let go of his arm and as his head hit the pillow she pulled him closer to her. "Thank you."
"Odin B. was convicted of attempted murder, severe domestic abuse, embezzlement, among other convictions and was sentenced to 25 years. He was transported from the prison to an unknown location 3 weeks ago now and has been on the run ever since. Why this information hadn't been disclosed sooner remains a mystery. A spokesperson for the victim told us it was not the first time the police had been incompetent." The news anchor read from the autocue as the tv cut to a pre-recorded interview with Gunnr. Her hair yet black hair that was braided, draped down on her grey blazer, her green eyes showed signs of anger and disbelieve, her jaw tense. She stood in front of the court house, looking directly at the journalist.
"The police had been incompetent in their case before, so no, it does not surprise me that it happened again."
"Tell them Gunnr!" The loud voice of Mimir cut through.
"Not only did they not inform my client of the escape from supervised parole, they withheld that information for over 4 days." Gunnr looked straight at the camera to show her disdain, likely to the police.
"Can you tell us a little bit about why Odin B. was in prison?"
"I won't go into detail for various reasons, the only thing I will say on that matter is that my client ended up in the ICU for a week."
"Will you be taking action against the police?"
"We have already looked into how the case of my client has been handled, I have strong suspicions but cannot go into further detail now."
"Do you think Odin B. is a danger to the public?"
"In my opinion, he very much is a danger to the public, but more so to my client and I know from previous experience with him that he would not let anything stand in his way from his goals."
"Thank you,-"
"I hope this at least will get the attention needed," Mimir pointed the remote at the TV and turned it off, "but I doubt it will move the police in action."
"They aren't even talking about Freyr's bar." Kratos sat down on the couch, defeated.
"Yeah, do tae know it was him?" Mimir sat down beside him, taking the coffee from the salontable in front of him.”They told Freyr they hadn’t found any evidence.”
"Who else would it be?" Kratos looked at the door that led to the stairs in the hallway. Freya was still asleep well after her normal wake up time. His concern rose every hour. She must have known it was no coincidence.
"Kratos?" Mimir paused, "I know we talked about this but, please don't go into somethin' yae can't back out of."
"How am I supposed to deal with it elsewise?"
"Let Sigrun and Gunnr handle it," Mimir followed Kratos' eyesight, "you should take care of her first."
"That would be getting rid of the 'Odin problem' Mimir and you know it."
"If it comes to it, if it is really that bad we make sure there are extra people here,-"
"It is already that bad Mimir," Kratos growled, "it has been that bad ever since that man got out. The moment the police decided it was not worth their attention. She almost died and now he put Freyr in the hospital too. Don't you think that's bad enough?"
"I am sorry, you are right." Mimir sighed, "I never thought he would do something like this."
"What do you mean?"
"I used to work for him."
"You cannot hide Freya, if I can't get to you I'll make sure to make your life a living hell" Bright bold red letters were written on the side of the wall of Freyr's bar, licked by flames as the building burned down. A police officer standing in front of it with his hands crossed, bright blonde hair in a small ponytail. A smile on his face as he watched the flames dance around the words, the flames reflected in his purple pupils. Over the walkie-talkie someone called his callsign, he raised it up, listening to it to answer. "No, no evidence here, I swept the place, probably electrical faults." He shook his head as he muttered, you done it again father.