Ivar the Boneless Imagines

Only When You Need Me

The only time Ivar felt at peace was in his dreams. There was no talk of Sigurd and the man he became by executing him, a world where his mother did not need to be avenged because she was still with him and most of all, the anger that consumed him was no longer there. All of those things were easier when his mind was at rest wrapped in furs. But those wonderful dreams could easily be trampeled– and they were, when he felt his bed creak. He lurched up in his bed, knife meeting the fleshy body of your neck.

Wait– your neck.

"What the fuck!" Ivar rubs the sleep of his eyes, the blurry spots in his vision clearing as he takes you in. A meager little creamy nightdress, hair down from your elaborate braids that tucked your hair behind your back and– and you were shifting back against his chest despite the knife against your throat.

"How did you get here, woman?" Ivar hisses.

He recalls you. You're the woman he's found himself in bed with many times– many times when he's too far out of his head to know any better. When he was sober, you never seemed to be around.

"Cuddlin'." You slur drunkenly. He recognizes the smell of ale on your tongue by the sloppy way you press your lips to him, lips running together in several sloppy kisses.

"Don't you have somewhere else to sleep?" He asks, lips marked by the several kisses. Ivar pushes his hands through your curtain of hair, grasping your shoulders.

"But the ground hurts. You're a better pillow. Hold still." You command him, wiggling out of his arms and back onto his chest. Ivar falls back with a forced grunt, hands splayed lazily at shoulder level over his bed in a hissing growl. A shieldmaiden should have been used to sleeping on the hard ground.

"You only come around when I'm drunk off my ass or you are. Why should I let you stay if you aren't my woman?" Ivar remarks, getting a deep hum out of your lips. In fact, he didn't even know your name and yet here you were, teasing the pendant of mjollnir on his chest. It wasn't as if you didn't know his. Ivar kept hold on his knife as you scooted up his chest, tucking your head just under his chin with a pleased smile.

"Makes your heart grow fonder." You mumble. "Now shut up Boneless, I'm going to bed."

Ivar listens as your breathing becomes gradually more quiet, stilling completely into soft little huffs on his chest. Yeah– he didn't know your name... and by the next morning, he would still be looking for the lovely shield maiden with the scar across her nose.