Blood Moon

Eyvor hated leaving the boys at home whenever she left for the night. Steven would give her sad eyes if she left before he’d gone to sleep; Marc wouldn’t say a word, just watch her leave with a blank expression she didn’t like; Jake would kiss her hard and make her promise to call him if she needed help. He couldn’t go out with her all the time now, not unless he wanted Marc and Steven to get suspicious. Eyvor, though, had never made any sort of promise to anyone about what she was going to do, and all of them knew that this was important to her, what she wanted to do. They weren’t going to stop her. 

Coming back home was better, though, in all kinds of ways. Not the least of which was the smile she got when Steven saw her climbing into the window, still wearing her armor.

“Wow! You look amazing!” Steven breathed, looking at her in awe. He hadn’t really had a chance to look at it when they were handling things back in Egypt, so he was taking the chance now. He got up from where he was reading at his desk and walked over, his hands skimming the armor gently.

“Hi. You like?” She held her arms out to be inspected, doing a little turn for him to see it in its entirety. It was Asgardian leather, a deep cocoa brown, with shining gold thread lining it while also creating the symbols of her parents, covering both sides of her upper chest. Eyvor hadn’t wanted the gold thread, but her father wanted her to be shiny, like his armor was, and she had a hard time saying no to her father when he asked so earnestly about something. It shimmered in the light, giving it a quiet shine as opposed to the all-gold armor he had wanted to give her at the beginning. She and Jake had armor that was built for subtlety. Hers was just embellished a bit more to suit the elegance her father always said she had (she didn’t quite believe him, but she wouldn’t tell him that).

“It’s very you,” Steven answered with a bright smile. Eyvor smiled and leaned forward to give him a kiss hello before stretching her neck and shoulders, working out the last little bit of tension from the night. “You alright?”

“I’m fine,” she replied. “Just a little stiff.”

“You’re not hurt, are you?”

“Not even a scratch,” Eyvor assured him. “Now, what’re you doing still up? Couldn’t sleep again?”

“Was waitin’ for you, that’s all.” Butterflies erupted in her stomach, and she kissed him again.

“That was sweet of you, but I’d rather you get all the rest you need. You promised we’d go out tomorrow, and I don’t want my boyfriend falling asleep halfway through it.”

“Right, right, sorry, love, just wanted to make sure you’re alright and all that.” Eyvor narrowed her eyes at him. He was a nervous person, she knew that already. He fiddled with his cuffs and hunched his shoulders and stumbled and stuttered his way through most conversations; she knew all these things and none of it mattered. She liked his little quirks. She didn’t like them right now, though, because he was lying to her. 

He always played with the hem of his shirt when he was lying to her.

“Steven.”

“Yes, darling?” She liked how he said it. “Dahling.” She knew there was an “r” in there somewhere, and he–focus, Eyvor.

“Something’s the matter.”

“What?” He looked startled and began to search her for any sign of what it might be. 

“No, not with me. With you. You’re lying to me. What’s wrong?”

“What? Nothin’. Nothin’s the matter. Everythin’s right as rain.”

“Steven.” She began searching him, in case there was actually an injury or something he was trying to hide. “Are you hurt? Did Marc burn himself on the toaster again?”

“No, no.” He sighed, ducking his head a bit. “I suppose it’s a bit silly now. I wanted it to be a surprise.”

“A surprise?” she echoed. “For me?”

“Yeah. Just lost track of time’s all. Got sucked into readin’.” She smiled and ducked her own head to find his eyes.

“You don’t have to tell me, if it’s a surprise. I like surprises.” Especially when they came from her boys. Last week, it had been Jake handing her a rose, the darkest red she had ever seen and covered in thorns. She’d begged Steven to help her learn how to preserve it, in case the little bit of skill she got from her mother couldn’t keep it alive. They’d spent two hours in the library searching together until they were both certain they could handle it, should she be unable to keep the rose from dying. It was still sitting in the beautiful glass vase she’d bought for it, on the windowsill above Steven’s desk. 

“No. It’s alright.” He took her hand and gently led her over to his desk, which was covered in its usual sheets of paper, notebooks, pencils, and piles of books, leaving only the smallest space for him to actually use it (she really needed to help him organize his bookshelves, if only so he would have more room for his collection). Gone were the piles of Egyptian culture and lore, though. Instead, she was staring at a page with a beautiful illustration of a woman, standing in an orchard and holding a basket full of apples.

It was her mother, one of the older drawings of her. Eyvor recognized it, though. Her mother had always adored people who drew her with her apples (which meant she loved most depictions of herself).

“My mother?”

“Yeah. Does she really look like that?”

“No. She’s much prettier. Why are you looking at pictures of my mother?”

“Oh, well, not just her.” He shuffled some papers around to show her all the covers of the books he was looking at. They were all on Asgard, her people, the myths people told about them, pictures and drawings and pages upon pages of runes, there were even old songs she remembered her father helping the skalds write. 

He was learning about her home. To surprise her.

“Steven,” Eyvor breathed, running a finger along a picture showing a drawing of her father and mother, her father mid-speaking (probably his latest poem), and her mother standing over him, holding a basket of her apples and listening intently. “For me?”

“Yeah. Don’t know much about Asgard, do I? It’s a long way from here, though, and you’ve never mentioned goin’ to see that bloke over in the States, so, thought that maybe you’d want someone to talk to about it.” She blinked back the tears that were stinging her eyes and threw her arms around his neck.

“You’re so sweet, solskinn,” she whispered. “I’m so lucky to have you.”

“I’m the lucky one, gorgeous girl like you?”

“If you say one word about not deserving me, I’m putting salt in your tea,” she threatened, sniffling and pulling back to make sure he knew she meant it, even though her voice was wobbling. He smiled at her, and she turned back to the books. “I can’t believe you’re doing all this. I would like to have someone to talk to about home. I don’t think it interests Jake all that much, and he’s the only one I’ve ever told.”

“You don’t want to go find–”

“Thor? No. He doesn’t know me anyway. Besides, he was banished here. This was his punishment. I chose to be here. Bit different.”

“How long have you been here, anyway?”

“Oh, I don’t remember now. A while before I met Jake. It’s different, I think. Asgard and Midgard don’t have the same passing of time. It doesn’t matter. I’m not going anywhere.” She nudged him with her shoulder, and he smiled. “Ask me again in the morning, and I’ll tell you some stories, if you’d like. Or if you want help learning runes, I can do that too.”

“You can read runes?” Steven asked, his eyes wide as he looked down at one of the pages on his desk.

“Of course I can.”

“And you’d teach me?”

“Sure. If you wanted to learn.”

“Yeah! Yeah, I do. Want to learn, that is.” She laughed.

“Tomorrow, Steven. It’s late. Let’s go to bed.”

“Right. Bed. Yeah. Sorry, don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep now. You can read runes!” She giggled and gently pushed him towards the bed.

“Sleep, Steven. You can read hieroglyphics. We all have our skills.”

“Lots of people can read hieroglyphics! Not everyone takes the time to learn, but–”

“And I am sure that many people can read runes, too. It’s not that special.”

“Well, sure, but–” She kissed him, silencing his ramblings before they could get started and then collapsed backwards onto the bed, kicking off her shoes and pulling her hair out of its braid.

“Tomorrow, Steven. I’m tired.”

“Right, right. Course you are. Sorry.” He climbed into bed, and she snuggled up next to him, the bubbling of the fish tank filling the room. She was nearly asleep when he spoke again. “Darling?”

“Hm?”

“I want to know everything.”

“Promise,” she replied. “Goodnight, Steven.”

“Night, love.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eyvor woke up first. That was nothing new. So she did what she always did: woke up, fed the fish (cooing at her funny fish that was stuck on the front glass of the tank so she could see his little mouth moving), and sat down with a mug of tea to enjoy the still morning. The sun had shifted to just hit the top of the bookshelves when she heard the shuffling of feet and was met with a tired smile. “Mornin’, love,” Steven mumbled, blinking at her and rubbing his eyes. 

“Good morning, solskinn. Are you hungry?”

“Starvin’.” She giggled and got to her feet.

“Well, I can go get something if you’d like, or we can just make it here.”

“Do we still have some fruit?”

“Do you want granola? I’ll make you some, if you’d like.”

“I can do it.” She gave him a kiss and gently nudged him towards the table.

“I thought I would, give you time to wake up and think of some questions for me about Asgard.” Steven’s eyes lit up, all traces of sleep disappearing, and he sat down without hesitation.

“Is there really a Rainbow Bridge? How does it work? It’s how you got here, right? Is it really a rainbow?” Eyvor giggled and turned to start making breakfast. 

“It’s called the Bifrost. And I don’t know how it works. I did use it to get here, but it goes to all the Nine Realms. And no, it’s not really a rainbow. It has all the colors of one, though.” She laughed a little as she set the bowls of yoghurt, granola, and fruit on the table for them. “You might be better off not asking me some of those questions, solskinn. I was a–what do they call it here–those teen boys who play sports in all the movies who hate book people like you.”

“Jocks?”

“Yeah! That. I didn’t ask Mimir those kinds of questions, and he didn’t tell me. And then I spent most of my time with Tyr, so I can tell you stories, but I don’t think I’ll have all the answers for you.”

“That’s alright, love. I like stories just as well.” She smiled.

“Well, I may not have been friends with anyone in Asgard, but Father loved to spread gossip, so give me a name and I can probably tell you something they did at a feast once.” Steven’s eyes lit up, the grin on his face widening.

“Odin.” She laughed.

“Went for the big ones, did we? Hmm.” She thought for a moment. “Most of them aren’t that fun, because it’s Odin. He’s an awful drunk. Heimdall, don’t you dare tell him!” Steven laughed. “Okay, the most recent one I remember was he was convinced that Lady Frigga had been turned into one of her statues and ordered that it be taken to his chambers.”

“Oh, he didn’t!”

“I don’t know, and I don’t want to. Someone else.”

“Sol.”

“Oh, he doesn’t come to parties. He’s actually pretty relaxed, as far as I know. Keeps to himself, doesn’t bother anyone. He and Máni are pretty close. Father’s convinced they’re more than just friends, but no one’s seen them in a few years to be able to tell you.”

“Máni being the god of the moon, yeah?” Eyvor nodded.

“Father says he’s kind. A little older than most of the other Asgardians, but kind. If the old bird ever hurt any of you, I was going to go home and see if he could do anything, being in charge of the moon and everything.” Steven blinked at her for a moment.

“You’d do that? For us?” She smiled at him and leaned over to kiss him gently.

“Of course. You deserve to be happy, all of you. If the bird wasn’t doing that for you, I was going to find someone who could.” He looked at her with shining eyes, a smile on his lips, and she scrunched her nose at him and laughed. “I don’t know if you understand just how much I love you, Steven Grant. The things I would do for the three of you…” She trailed off, watching his face shift into confusion.

“Love me?” he breathed.

“Oh, have I not made that clear?” she asked. “Let me take care of that right now.” She got up, pivoting to straddle his thighs and sit down, framing his face in her hands. “Steven Grant, I love you very, very much, and would do anything you asked me if it made you happy.” He blinked a few times, his gaze flickering between her eyes and her lips.

“You said it,” he continued. “I know you tell Jake, but you’ve known him for a long time, and–”

“Steven,” she said, gently interrupting his rambling, “I love you because of Jake.” She kissed his forehead and smiled at him. “I have known him for a long time, but we didn’t always go out saving people, you know? We sat in his car a lot, just talking. And we talked about you, Steven. And Marc. I wanted to know you so much, but he wasn’t ready to risk that yet, so he told me about you, the museum job, how much you wanted to be a tour guide, Gus. I knew you through his eyes, and–is he awake?” Steven paused, assessing.

“Nope. They’re givin’ us the morning, I think.” She smiled.

“Good, then he won’t fuss at me later for telling you this. He loves you so much, solskinn. He and Marc love you so, so much. I loved you before I had even met you because of Jake’s stories. When I finally met you? It felt like finally meeting someone you’ve only ever spoken to in letters or over the phone. I call you ‘solskinn.’ Do you know what that means?” Steven, whose eyes were watering and filling with tears, shook his head. “It means ‘sunshine.’ It’s how you make me feel: warm and comfortable. I’ve loved you for much longer than we’ve known each other, Steven Grant. I thought it was obvious, and I’m sorry that I haven’t.”

“No, it–I think I knew, yeah? Somewhere, deep down, but hearing you say it’s a bit different.” Eyvor smiled, ducking her head a little to kiss him.

“I’ll make it crystal clear, then.” She wouldn’t ever get over kissing him. He was so gentle about it. It made her stomach fill with butterflies every time. She loved it. And him, obviously. She pulled away to let them both breathe, and Steven stared up at her as if she’d just handed him the first edition of some book he wanted. 

“I love you, too,” he said, and she beamed at him.

“Mitt dyrebare solskinn,” she answered, kissing his nose and the space between his eyebrows. “I’ll teach you runes after we finish breakfast, okay?”

“Alright. Can’t reach my bowl, though.” He nodded towards his hands, which were settled on her hips to keep her steady in his lap.

“A tragedy. Right when I was comfortable.” She shifted, sitting back in her chair, though she smiled when she heard the quiet whine he let out. “Eat, solskinn. It’s just us this morning, and I plan to make full use of it.” Steven’s cheeks blushed red, and she giggled. She could think of much worse ways to start the morning.