Blood 2. 21.
(y/n) grunts in pain, not looking at ubbe whilst he cleans her shoulder, she’s staring at the floor of the boat, her breathing and sounds of pain were the only indication that she were alive at all.
since they left, ubbe has seen so much change in her, she’s quiet, eyes losing that beautiful glint in them, her words short and sharp, she barely ate anything.
and ubbe felt all the blame fall upon him, he should have made her stay, give her the order instead of the option.
she could have stayed with ivar.............and hvitserk.
he swallows thickly at the name of his brother who he thought would have stayed with him from beginning to end.
but he was wrong, just like he was wrong about (y/n).
he thought she would have surely stayed, ivar was more to her than just a brother or friend, he always knew, but knowing she chose him over ivar, ubbe couldn’t help but feel happy about her desciosion, but seeing how she’s reacting now, its cuts him deeply.
one man walks up and whispers in ubbes ear, and he pats (y/n) on her non injured shoulder.
(y/n) looks past him and sees the thing she’d been hoping yet dreading to see.
though, it has changed quite a bit since she seen it last.
the walls and barriars had grown substantually, and it was almost unrecognizable.
but it was still home, still smelled like home, felt like home.
the only difference was that her home was being ruled by her mothers murderer.
as if ubbe can read her mind, he wraps his arm around her side, holding her close to him.
“everything will be fine, stay with me”.
she nods numbly, returning his touch.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(y/n) looks up from collecting her hood, seeing margarethe all smiles as the boat docks and ubbe clambers over the boats side to meet her.
he runs to her, kissing her, picking her up, looking happy to be with his wife again.
(y/n) tries to smile, but she just can’t find the will to. she wraps her hood around her, keeping her warm from the breeze.
with the help of a common man, she also makes her way on to the dock.
but the man doesn’t let go of her hand, she faces him, a look of question on her face.
“welcome back to kattegat, princess (y/n)” the man says, laying his hands over hers.
she gives the man a small kind smile, giving his hands a squeeze.
he smiles widely, bowing his head to her in respect as he helped collect their belongings.
she sees ubbe pick margarethe up and walk towards the edge of the dock, looking over his shoulder at (y/n), waiting for her.
just as she goes to take a step forward, she spots someone she hasn’t seen for many, many months.
torvi stands there with her eldest son, guthrum, looking for bjorn over the crowd of people, but when she couldn’t find him, her eyes land on (y/n).
they stare at each other a moment longer and torvi expects (y/n) to ignore her, walk past her, not even ackknleowledge their presence.
but instead, (Y/n) walks forward and grabs torvi, embracing her tightly.
“i’m sorry for what i said to you” (y/n) whispers into her hair, tightening her arms around the woman she had unknowingly missed so greatly.
torvi is in shock, pausing, her eyes wide as her closest friend, who told her she never wanted to speak to her again, is holding her like they hadn’t spent almost a year apart.
torvi wraps her arms around her, closing her eyes as she struggles to keep hidden emotions to herself.
it felt good to (y/n), to have someone waiting for her, even if torvi actually wasn’t.
she was still angered over what had happened, but (y/n) knew and realized that torvi hadn’t truly did anything, just followed the orders of someone she beleived in, and (y/n) can’t help but realize she did the same with ivar.
and though she’d never fully forgive torvi, she could forget, she knew torvi was a good woman, and a good friend, something she needed right now.
they pull apart for only seconds when guthrum has to take (Y/n) in his own arms.
(y/n) laughs, almost falling over from his tall stature.
“hello to you to, guthrum”.
“i missed you, aunt (y/n)”.
she pulls back from him, placing her palm on his face.
“i missed you to, look how big you’ve gotten!” she looks him up and down, making both he and torvi laugh.
“a warrior in the making” she says, and guthrum smiles even wider.
they turn and see ubbe, still carrying margarethe.
(y/n)’s shoulders sag and she jerks her head in ubbe’s direction, offering them to come with her.
they nod, following closely behind her.
(y/n) takes one last look out at the open sea, seeing it empty, a almost longing tug at her heart as she remembers how far she is from ivar and hvitserk now.
would she ever heal from this?.
