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[b][center][color=black]Yearning [/color]
[color=#7EA7D8] Yearning [/color][/center][/b][/center][/h1][/sup]
[right][sub]location: In The Car | Freyja’s House
a [@Legion02] [@Fabricant451] & [@smarty0114] collab
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Hel pushed down the metal pedal with her heel as deep as she could. The engine in front of her was far beyond roaring and now well into letting out a dreadful wailing sound telling the goddess she was pushing limits she really shouldn’t. Behind her more than a few cars honked their horns as she wove through them. She watched them in her back mirror like specs of dust in the light of their headlights. That’s all they were right now for her. She didn’t mean them any malice but there were bigger things in life right now.

She took the off ramp her GPS told her to take and was forced by the roads to slow down. It didn’t do her much good. Now that the crazy race through the highway was over she was forced to think. What would she say? What wouldn’t she say? Would he even recognize her still? And what then? Would she embrace him? [i]Kiss him!?[/i] No, no never that last one. He was Aesir.

She took a turn right and then left. She couldn’t kiss him, of course. What else was she supposed to do though? What would be her duty now? Maybe she should take him home? Her GPS gave her a small ping to tell her she arrived at the right house. Hel parked her car on the driveway and stepped out. He would need a bath right? And probably a refresher on everything that happened too? Some clothes? She could provide for him. But then what? Did she keep him to herself, as her secret? What would her siblings say? What would the Aesir say? What would he say?

All those questions stopped as she rounded the corner and reached the backyard.

Baldr was seated on a leather couch, straight-backed and shaking. He was still naked, though his body had been splattered with blood. The couple who had owned this house lay on the floor in front of him, broken and bloody. He had not wanted to hurt them, or at least, he wanted to believe as much. He had hurt them though, despite his protests. The fogginess that had gripped his brain so tightly was lifting now, but it did not leave any answers. Rather, he only felt like his confusion had grown.

He glanced to his left, out the sliding glass door into the backyard, and he saw her. Her. She was unchanged, as beautiful as the day he’d last seen her. He stood with a start, rushing to the glass door. He blinked, fearful that she was just an apparition, waiting to disappear the moment his eyes left her form, but she did not. She was real, and she was here.

His hand reached up and found the glass and then he was punching through it, ignoring the shards that cut into his mortal flesh. The pain was unimportant in the presence of the most graceful guide of the graceless. He had searched for her after the Fall, and he had searched for her in his dreams, and he had not found her until today. As his feet touched the moist grass, he fell to his knees before her. Words he had not known before today flooded his mind, strange and alien sounds. [color=b8a857]“You found me,”[/color] he said, his voice thick with emotion and pain. He did not know how he’d known those words, or even what language he was speaking. Only that she was here, and the nightmare was ending.

[color=7ea7d8]“Always.”[/color] Hel said as tears welled up in her eyes. She fell on her knees before him as well. There were no walls so high that they could stop her emotions from flooding her in this moment. After far too long they were together again. A droplet traveled over her cheek. The first of many to come. With one hand she cupped his cheek. [color=7ea7d8]“I missed you.”[/color]

And finally she could not hold herself back. She embraced Baldr. She could feel his warmth on her skin. It melted the ice in her veins and around her heart. A sob went through her. Hel tightened the embrace as if she was afraid that she’d lose him again. [color=7ea7d8]“I missed you.”[/color] Emotions were overwhelming her now, completely. The goddess of the graceless dead had never felt anything like this for two millennia.

His head fell forward, pressing their foreheads together, and for the first time since his slumber had ended, he felt safe. He breathed in the scent of her and felt it soothe his body, felt his muscles relax as her hand came upon his face. [color=b8a857]“I’ve missed you as well,”[/color] he said, his voice cracking as tears threatened to drown out his words. He met her gaze, bringing his hands to her’s so that their connection would remain. For a moment, he could not find the words. They were lost behind the lingering fog of confusion, and the pull of those beautiful eyes. [color=b8a857]“What is this place, Hel? What realm have I awoken in?”[/color] he finally asked, certain that she would not lead him astray.

[color=7ea7d8]“Midgard.”[/color] Hel answered, slowly but surely she got up, guiding him to stand as well. She never let go of his hands though. The glass in one of his hands was stinging her hand as well now but she never let go. [color=7ea7d8]“But things are… different. We are weaker and.. there are others.”[/color]

A siren echoed far away. Hel looked up like a deer suddenly looking for a predator. It was the sire of the firefighters. Still, the goddess knew well enough the problems that could arise if the police would come. Knowing strong, unharmable Baldr it would not end well for them. [color=7ea7d8]“We must go. I know a place.”[/color] That was a lie. She didn’t have a clue where to take Baldr. Still, she tugged him gently along to her car. Where she held a blanket to at least cover his modesty. [color=7ea7d8]“We’ll be safe there.”[/color] Hel kept insisting with her little lies. The lies came easy to her. She had used those little lies before, in Helheim.

Baldr marveled at the chariot Hel had placed him in. The mortals had been even busier than he thought. This was certainly not the Midgard he had known. He jolted as Hel started the car, startled by the rumblings of the engine, but he calmed when he realized Hel felt no fear. He trusted her, more than he could ever put into words. [color=b8a857]“You said there were… others. What did you mean by that?”[/color] he asked, gripping the handle above him as the car lurched forward.

[color=7ea7d8]“Thor and Odin are here too.”[/color] Hel answered as she put her car into gear and drove away. Without her lights on for a little while. Then once on the main road she drove exactly as any other car would. Perhaps a bit more carefully but still, she made a real effort to drive as normal as possible. [color=7ea7d8]“Heimdal is here as well, in Midgard. As is Freyja.”[/color] Of course, she summed up the Aesir and Vanir first. They were his family and they would be delighted to know that their Most Beloved finally returned from Helheim.

Something that only made her mind swirl more as she was driving. Keeping Baldr was selfish. She realized that now. As much as she hated them, his family deserved to know he was alive. They would be able to care for him better than her. After all, Freyja asked everything in existence for his return. She couldn’t give that much love to Baldr, she never had that much to give to begin with really. In English she bid her GPS to lead her to Freyja’s address. Then she dictated a quick text message heralding Baldr’s arrival in half an hour to the Norse goddess of love, war and magic. Her eyes she kept glued on the road. It would make the farewell easier. [color=7ea7d8]“I’m happy you’re here though.”[/color] She did say. Her voice quivered a little bit.

The Most Beloved nodded at Hel’s words, unmoved by mentions of his family. It had been ages since he had last seen them. Civilizations had risen and fallen and risen again, entire bloodlines had been wiped from the earth, and he had spent the vast majority of it asleep, and if not asleep, then imprisoned. The family he knew… Well, he suspected that he did not know them anymore. Still, he saw nowhere else to turn, not in this world of iron carts and talking glass.

[color=b8a857]“I-thank you. For finding me. I would not have blamed you if you’d forgotten me in my absence. It seems I’ve been asleep for…some time.”[/color] Baldr watched Hel watch the road, grateful for this moment. If this all turned out to be one last dream before his final slumber, he would not mind. At least he would’ve seen her, one last time. 

[color=7ea7d8]“I could never forget you.”[/color] The words escaped Hel’s lips before she knew it. It was the truth, the absolute truth. For two thousand years, every day, she did find herself thinking of Baldr in some way or another. Now he was here beside her. There was something in her heart telling her to open up. To tell him she loved him, even now. Especially now, after Ragnarok must’ve already passed. She wanted to tell him that she wanted to feel his heat on her skin.

Those thoughts exhilarated her. Because of that though, she feared them now more than ever. Back in Helheim she felt the same. For the rest of the car ride, Hel closed herself off. She stopped talking, though answered any questions he might have. She became cold. This way - so she thought - was better. Safer. No one would get hurt this way. No one would cry this way.

Eventually, after a car ride that felt like it lasted a century, she reached Freyja’s house.

He turned to her with eyes that betrayed an ancient innocence. He trusted her, more than he trusted anyone. [color=b8a857]“Where are we?”[/color] he asked, glancing out the window at the unfamiliar home. He knew very little about this strange new Midgard, but he knew, at least, that he did not wish to lose Hel once more. 

[color=7ea7d8][i]Little lies, Hel.[/i][/color] The goddess thought to herself as she looked in Baldr’s eyes. [color=7ea7d8][i]Little lies for the greater good. For duty. Everything for duty.[/i][/color]

[color=7ea7d8]“Somewhere you could make a home here in Midgard. Trust me.”[/color] Hel said with a comforting smile. She hid away her own aching heart behind that smile. It was for the better. Hel got out of the car. He would be at home here, amongst his family. His brothers would embrace him. His mother would kiss his cheeks. He would drink, feast, and smile and laugh here. It was for the better. She kept telling herself that as she rounded the car and opened Baldr’s car door to let him out.

Baldr stepped out, still wrapped in the blanket Hel had given him. [color=b8a857]“You will stay, though?”[/color] he said, his voice pitching into a question. He reached for her hand and gently stroked her slender fingers, desperate to hold onto them until the world split apart once more.

For just a few seconds they just walked in silence. [color=7ea7d8]“I’m afraid not.”[/color] Hel answered and she kept walking. She kept herself tightly in control. No, she would not allow her voice to break or her lip to quiver. This is what she had to do.

From the wide picture window on the second floor of her home, Freyja, half finished glass of red cradled between her fingers, watched as the car rolled to a stop outside though she turned away before the doors opened. Sixty minutes ago she had just gotten home after a difficult birth and wanted nothing more than to enjoy a warm bath, a bottle of wine, and an episode of a far too long running medical soap opera that was so wildly inaccurate she couldn’t help but to love every tawdry minute. Thirty minutes ago she was onto her third glass and the bath water was steaming and the only thing separating the water from her body was a short robe that promptly introduced itself to the floor. Twenty-five minutes ago her phone pierced the relaxing silence of water and stress fading away with a shrill trilling ringtone. How had she forgotten to turn the damn thing off? It was like being on call, a constant string of annoyances only this time there wasn’t an emergency that warranted her attention. 

Or so she thought. 

When she read the message her first instinct was that it was Hel’s idea of a sick joke but that couldn’t be possible; in the eternity that Freyja had known Hel she couldn’t recall the last time Hel said anything remotely funny. It had to be true. Her son. After all this time. Not a day had gone by that Freyja hadn’t missed him; how could she not with how…protective she had been with him back when she had magic at her command. But of course she knew he had to be fine…she had willed it so…all except that damn mistletoe…but after so long she had every reason to believe that the death was…permanent. How naive. 

Fitting for one of Washington State’s ‘most eligible bachelorettes’, head OBGYN and fertility medicine specialist at the prestigious Hope Valley Medical Center, and one of the ‘medical experts’ on multiple seasons of the now canceled reality show ‘Couples Counseling’ and its much higher rated spin-off ‘I’m A Celebrity, My Relationship Is Fine!’, Katherine Nilsson’s home was a modest contemporary house that was far too big for the single person who lived inside. But Freyja had enjoyed the finer points of owning a home. Such as being able to enjoy a bath. Until that message. And the car arriving. 
Hel and Baldr didn’t even have to ring the doorbell or knock on the front door. The lights on the first floor turned on as Freyja descended the stairs, signaling that, yes, someone was home, and that someone opened the front door, having set the wine glass on an endtable en route, and though every emotion welled up inside of her all at once as her eyes laid sight on Baldr…Freyja didn’t cry. All those years ago when the Fall had just happened, Freyja spent years crying every tear out of her body. Even now, when every part of her from brain to heart was telling her to weep…she couldn’t. She could only blink, mouth open, breathing heavy, expression somewhere between relief, fear, shock, and warmth. What could she say? What could she do? 

[color=#23E733][b]“You’re…naked.”[/b][/color] 

In a similar state of shock, Baldr looked down at himself, blushing. [color=b8a857]“It seems I am. Hel was not quite prepared for my return,”[/color] he said, softly. There was a wariness to his words, a tension to this reunion. The centuries they’d lost seemed to stretch out between them, a wall that kept him from running into his mother’s arms. The sight of her conjured visions of a happier time, long before the Aesir had known tragedy, and yet what stuck was all the time they had missed. He knew how much he had changed in the wake of his death; who then, was the woman who stood before him? His mother, or someone else entirely? It appeared that he would be forced to find out.