a dream where the fallout lies {Beowulf}

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Sunny wished she could get beyond the churning feeling in her stomach. He was taking this so seriously. What would happen if she turned out to be dreadful with an axe? What if she accidentally chopped off half her foot, or worse, chopped off half of his foot? They would really have to take this purchasing business seriously. She'd have to call Violet and Klaus that very night and make sure she had enough money in her personal account to buy the very best axe she possibly could, because anything less than the very best would probably be bad for someone who didn't have the first idea how to use an axe to start with.

"Dinner!" she agreed readily, glad that the subject had turned to something she could talk about without feeling like her stomach was going to take off and fly away. Except...as soon as she thought about dinner, she couldn't help thinking...what if she cooked something he hated? Her mind conjured up a picture of Beowulf shaking his head disapprovingly at a bowl of her tomato soup, and she immediately felt her heart sink.

She reached both hands up, tucking her hair behind her ears frantically, and kept her hands at the side of her face for a moment, willing the blush in her cheeks to subside.

"Do you like lobster?" she asked, finally dragging her eyes up from the floor to meet his. "Or soup? Dessert, is pie good? Lemon pie?" What if there was something special Vikings had to do to their food before they ate it? What if she violated some sacred tenet of the Viking way of life? "Food needs to be blessed first?"

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Beowulf was pleased to see that Sunny was taking what he was saying seriously. If she didn’t then there would probably be serious consequences because of it. There were always serious consequences when Vikings were involved so it was a good idea to take them seriously. No one wanted to end up losing a limb of some kind. That wouldn’t be pleasant at all.

Beowulf was very glad that they could decide on dinner. He loved food so that wasn’t really an issue, but he also hadn’t wanted to impose. But as soon as she agreed to dinner something else seemed to be going on in her head. He wondered what it was that was making her uncomfortable because if he could fix that then he wouldn’t make himself uncomfortable. He really hated feeling uncomfortable.

Lobster. Beowulf had never had lobster. He’d had plenty of fish, but no lobster. He didn’t even know what a lobster was, come to think of it. They didn’t have those in Geatland. He furrowed his brow, trying to keep all of the questions in his head so he could answer them. “Never had lobster. Soup is good. I think I like pie. And no. Food does not have to be blessed.” He had covered all of the questions, he thought. Running them back through his head he realized he had and gave a decisive nod. He hoped that would help, but honestly whatever Sunny made he would eat. He wasn’t terribly picky.

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Sunny had the increasing feeling that this conversation was about to be over. That, surprisingly, disappointed her. Usually, she was eager to conclude conversations because she found the act of conversing so difficult - she was proud of herself when she managed to do it, but it could be genuinely exhausting to try and keep up with someone else's verbal abilities. But now...now she almost felt like she didn't want it to be over. She didn't have that much else to say, though, which was always a horribly awkward feeling, so she tried to figure out how to make her exit without just...dodging out the door like she had a habit of doing on other occasions.

"I will cook it then," she decided. "Everyone...everyone should try lobster. At least once. If you don't like it...." What was the word she was looking for? She'd make something else, she'd experiment, she'd..."Improvise!" she said, brightly. "I can improvise."

She shifted slightly and awkwardly, and twisted a strand of hair around her finger.

"Are you sleeping now?" she asked, and before she'd even finished saying it, she wished she could take it back. Why was it any of her business if he was going to go to sleep or take a nap or whatever it was he did in his own room when she wasn't around?

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Beowulf could feel that Sunny was feeling awkward again, which on turn made him feel awkward. This was why he didn’t associate with girls for the most part. They made him feel awkward. Really awkward. And this, of course, was absurd! Vikings were not supposed to feel awkward! They were supposed to be calm and collected at all times, which Beowulf was finding increasingly difficult to do when Sunny was feeling uncomfortable. Somehow he always managed to find people that made him uncomfortable.

Lobster. Good. He supposed it could be that bad. Well, actually, he didn’t really know considering he didn’t know what a lobster was, but he was willing to bet it would be alright. He trusted Sunny. He was quite sure she wouldn’t poison him or anything like that. He nodded. “That will be fine.”

That was a rather strange question to ask though. “No. Cleaning my weapons,” he replied. That was what he’d been doing before Sunny had knocked on the door and he might as well finish. He should probably get his armor out and polish that too. Or at least check it to make sure it was in good working order. One never knew when there would be a war.

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Well, Sunny didn't like feeling awkward any more than the next girl, but truth be told, she was kind of used to it. She hadn't ever been particularly good with more than one or two or three words at once, and when you had to think extra hard just to get a sentence out, it put you at a bit of a disadvantage right from the get go. So no, she didn't like it, but she was accustomed to it. Whether Beowulf was, though, was a matter of debate. For all she knew, he was the least awkward person in the village of...wherever he was from. She wasn't sure if that Geat-place was a village or a country or...what. Whatever it was, maybe he was an incredibly cunning warrior there, and didn't have to worry about things like being awkward.

She looked over at his axe, and wondered what kind of special cleaning such a weapon required. Would she have to invest in some special cleaning equipment? She had the money, but she would most likely need his help in picking out supplies with which to clean an axe.

"When I have axe. An axe," she corrected, adding the article. "Will you show me how to clean it? Or tell me things to buy. Maybe. Both?" She inched toward the door, not wanting him to think that she just intended to stay around all day...he probably would want her to leave at some point, so he could get back to the cleaning and all of that.

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Sunny was a much more optimistic thinker. She gave Beowulf the benefit of the doubt far too often. In fact, Beowulf was one of the worst Vikings in his village. Everyone else was cheerful as they went about their everyday lives. They enjoyed themselves. The fishermen fished, the young warriors trained and Beowulf sat by the fire every day, listening to the gossip by the fire. Most of his village thought of him as rather meek and a weak warrior. Which was just fine. Beowulf didn’t need them anyway.

Beowulf took in Sunny’s words, her question. He found it a little amusing that she kept asking him if he was going to show her different things. He would without question. He was going to try and teach Sunny everything he knew. And of course, caring for a weapon always meant knowing how to clean it and care for it properly. “Yes,” was his simple reply. “Both.”

Out of all the people he had met, and there were few, Sunny was the one person he would not have minded if she had stayed. She was relatively quiet for the most part and took what he had to say seriously. She was interested, even if he sometimes felt awkward and uncomfortable. Sunny, or Kettlingr rather, was probably the closest he had ever come to having a friend.

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Well, if anyone had tried to tell Sunny that Beowulf wasn't a good Viking, she probably would have called them a liar. It was pretty obvious that he was a good Viking, as far as she could tell. He was very serious about it. He took really good care of his weapons, he rescued people from bad things in dark alleys, and he was willing to teach his skills to other people. Sunny wasn't sure what else there could possibly be as a requirement for being a good Viking. He kept agreeing to all the things she asked to be taught, too, which made her both want to ask more, and not want to push her luck both at the same time.

And she wanted to say thank you, too, but just saying it seemed so...silly. As much as she struggled to find the right words to say things sometimes, the overused words still frustrated her. 'Thank you' just didn't seem to cover it when someone had saved your life and was sharing their culture and life-saving skills with you. Even lobster soup didn't seem adequate.

She was halfway to the door, sort of shuffling towards it awkwardly as she talked to him, when she figured out what she needed to do...or at least, what she felt like she should do. Hopefully Beowulf wouldn't turn into any animals or anything because of it...but she moved back over to where he was, wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

"Takk." she said, her voice a little muffled, then she pulled free and darted towards the door.

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Beowulf honestly wasn’t completely sure why he had offered to teach Sunny in the first place. She seemed eager to learn and she seemed like she would take everything he said seriously. And he wanted her to know. He wanted to help her learn. Again, he wasn’t quite sure why. He tolerated Sunny above all others. But by sharing his Viking ways with her didn’t mean he was letting her into his life. Oh no. That was not how this worked. He kept people at bay. He didn’t share his personal life or thoughts or feelings. He would teach Sunny, but not let her in. He was a Viking and a private one at that.

Beowulf, however, found that he was rather surprised to be on the receiving end of a hug. He didn’t do the whole touching thing. Physical affection was overrated anyway. He didn’t like being touched. It was awkward and uncomfortable and foreign. And yet he hugged Sunny back, which was strange, not to mention absurd. He didn’t hug people.

Beowulf was completely baffled and bewildered now. And then to make things more baffling and bewildering, Sunny said something in some language that Beowulf didn’t speak then ran out the door. And all he could do was watch it all happen.