Once they'd ascended to the loft, Vali was quick to herd the Alpha over to the trunk he'd discovered earlier that day, jumping up to sit on top of it before gesturing for the large man to sit with his shoulders bracketed between his short legs. 

At first, the Alpha found himself wildly confused with what the Omega could possibly be attempting to accomplish, even briefly wondering if this were his attempt at initiating some sort of sexual advance he'd never heard of. But once he obediently followed directions and Vali was able to get him situated just right, the sensation of nimble fingers disassembling his overgrown plaits made everything make sense.

Vali's hands were like freshly churned butter as they dissolved into Einar's scalp and began to massage the places where the plaits once were. The Alpha leaned deep into the touch, eyelids fluttering when something so simple as gentle contact made his entire body relax, hard muscles softening as they finally released themselves from decades of fight or flight.

Rendered to goo by his Omega's hands for the second time that day, Einar could barely conjure up the ability to move his lips and ask the question that had been lingering on his mind since the night prior. But luckily for him, once Vali concluded his scalp massage and got to work re-weaving careful plaits in the sides of his hair, the Alpha was able to regain a slim fraction of his mental capacity.

"Ástvinur," Einar's voice was gentle but probing. "How has your mind fared since the... events of yesternight? You do not have to answer if you are uncomfortable speaking of it with me, but I cannot help but agonize over your well-being. I... I worry." He finished, attempting to remain truthful to his emotions.

Vali's fingers paused their ministrations for a moment before continuing to weave. 

But in lieu of matching the honesty that he could practically feel wafting off of Einar in nervous waves, Vali opted to remain forthcoming as well. Or as close as he could get to it with only mere words as a tool to convey the profundity of his complicated feelings.

"I... am sad. There is an ache in my heart that is just so endless, like I have fallen down a bottomless well with no way of climbing back to the light." He described, and Einar leaned over as he listened, resting his temple against Vali's slim thigh. The contact soothed them both.

"A simple apology would be inconsequential in portraying the depths of my regret for playing a part in your sorrows." The Alpha turned, now resting his forehead against the soft skin of Vali's bare thigh that peeked from under his shift. In any other situation, his actions would have been considered scandalous and improper at best, but they both knew that this kind of touch was different. "If the choice were mine to make, I would have never..."

Einar's voice broke, unable to speak of the atrocities that he was ordered to commit, and Vali's hands faltered. This time he did not go back to his completed weft, but instead leaned down, wrapping his arms around his Alpha's neck and resting his cheek atop the crown of Einar's blonde head.

"Through the depths of my fright and despair, you have done nothing other than comfort me, keep me safe and feed me of your own ration." Vali whispered, eyes fluttering closed as he pulled in a shaky breath. Everything felt so clear now. "Although the blood may have been forced onto your hand, the fault was never yours to bear."

The moan of agony that broke through Einar's chest was like glass as it punctured through his ribcage, releasing all of the pressure that he'd tried his best to ignore for far too long.

"But I have hurt so many, ripped countless innocent souls from this very earth. And I have done nothing, nothing as I witnessed their blood flow, watering the very soil that I strode across as I pilfered their riches without so much a spare glance in their stead." Einar bellowed, iniquities falling from his lips like bile. "And beyond even this, I have not even been able to preserve myself as chaste for you." Einar croaked as he admitted to his greatest sin of all, and Vali's heart stuttered. He could no longer stand to watch his fated fall apart from afar. 

The Omega slid off of the trunk, eyes soft as he moved to kneel directly in front of his Alpha instead.

"May I touch you?" Vali asked, to which Einar harked out a humorless chuckle, as if finding the concept of being given any kind of choice laughable. The Alpha reached out then, bringing Vali's warm palm to his cheek. The smaller man translated the action as non-verbal consent. 

Without hesitation, he slid his smaller form into his Alpha's lap, straddling the giant's muscular thighs as he captured his other cheek with his spare hand. 

"Evil knows only the name that calls to it. And your tongue speaks only of repentance." He encouraged, lifting the Alpha's face which had fallen dejectedly down to stare at the floorboards. Their eyes met, moisture swimming there.

"I am not worthy of the title of Alpha." A single tear broke through then, cascading down Einar's cheek until it pooled in the space between Vali's fingers. "My existence in this world is a curse. A scourge in the face of humanity. In the face of you."

Vali's own eyes pooled over then, lips forming an impenetrable line as his fingers tightened on Einar's moist cheeks, keeping his Alpha from lowering his head with humiliation once more.

"Einar, look at me." He ordered, voice tight. Oceans of blue overflowed once more as the Alpha obeyed the command despite the shame that boiled in his gut. "The unfortunate circumstances that you have been made privy to do not define you. You are a good man, a kind man." Vali took a breath, thumbs brushing away moisture on Einar's cheeks. "And more than my Alpha, you are my fated." His lips parted, the last word spoken like a promise. "Do not speak ill of the other half of my soul which you hold."

"My ástvinur, I–"

"I'm going to kiss you now." Vali interrupted the persistent spiral of thought. And then, he made good on his word.

Einar breathed Vali in, arms encircling the smaller man in an enclosure of worship and protection as their breaths suspended between them, mingling together until lips searched, trembled, and finally met.

For years, Einar had lived in the constant state of twilight, a mere passenger in his body as he numbed himself to the burden of existence. But now, as he released his mind and body to the ownership of the beautiful man that he held so tightly in his arms, the Alpha wanted nothing more than to feel every moment.

The kiss was a glorious thing, equally desperate lips moving in a hedonistic dance, as if attempting to savor a moment that could be torn away at any time. Vali had moved up to his knees for better leverage as he licked into Einar's lips, arms wrapped around his Alpha's strong neck and tangling blindly into his blonde tresses as if trying to memorize thoughts with his fingertips.

Lips parting enough to allow his Omega the entrance to his mouth that he'd requested, Einar's hands became just as curious, gripping at the back of Vali's thighs with a needy kind of ferocity that made the smaller man arch into the touch, sputtering an airy moan into his mouth. Einar savored the taste, searching for more of that sound with his tongue as unquenched desire plunged into the fibers of his brain and cranked up the heat.

Einar wanted to sink into his Omega, to meld their bodies into one like metal in a blazing kiln. Vali mewled his approval as their tongues tangled and his Alpha's hands moved erratically along the short length of his thighs, as if trying to commit every slope of his skin to long-term memory.

His Omega was the opposite of everything that Einar's life was; soft, gentle, and filled with so much sweetness that over the course of the short time they had known each other, the Alpha's chest was already beginning to feel infinitely too small to contain his swelling heart. 

After being deprived of any sort of meaningful touch throughout the course of his life, the Alpha was like a starved man stumbling aimlessly in a desert, and Vali... Vali was an oasis. 

The growl that rumbled from his chest vibrated the walls surrounding them, and Einar sensed the characteristic throb of his cock as it reached for the heavens, filling rapidly with blood in reaction to the scent of caramel slick. It drove the Alpha wild with instinct, and he almost bucked when he felt a few drops drip down onto his hands. 

He was quick to rub the oily moisture into his Omega's thighs, slicking them up instead of shoving them into his mouth to sample the taste like he really wished to do. Then, the sank his fingertips back into the soft flesh once more, gripping tight.

Vali pulled back a bit, trying to catch his breath. But Einar, more than lost to the pursuit of pleasuring his fated, only chased after him, connecting his lips to the stunning swell of his Omega's slim neck when he moved out of reach. 

A breathy whine made Vali's trachea vibrate against Einar's probing tongue, and the smaller man shook, grateful that he had his Alpha's arms anchoring him down to earth lest he float away like a cloud, caught in a bubble of sensation that reduced him to matter lighter than air. 

"Furs..." Vali managed to mutter somewhere between the roll of his eyes to the back of his skull and a feeble, weepy sound when Einar's lips discovered his scent gland, kneading it with his tongue. "Take me to your furs."

Standing at once, Einar carried his Omega wherever he desired to go, all the while not even bothering to disconnect his mouth from the holy place where Vali's neck met his shoulder. A place that made the Alpha's canines slide from their sheaths in anticipation of bestowing a claiming mark there. 

An act he could never fulfill, no matter how much it burned him to resist the instinct. The wars he fought were much too dangerous, and the guilt of tying his lifeline to Vali's would only ever fester as he waited for the day he would inevitably be slain in battle, taking not just one, but two souls with him to Valhalla's gates. Linking himself to his fated in such a way was not an option that he would ever give himself permission to make.

Vali released a soft breath as Einar finally lay him across the bed of furs, and slick immediately dripped from between his thighs, soiling the spot beneath him with the oily substance. Half-lidded eyes drank his Alpha in, star-struck by the sheer mass of the man as he hovered over him, hard and sturdy as a roof. 

But even so, the Alpha did not pause. He couldn't pause. He wouldn't, not unless it was the wish of his ástvinur.

Part 2 in Next Episode