A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

"A- Asshole." She stammered. "You can't just say that!"

Erik's revelation that he now apparently knew about her past feelings flustered her, as memories of watching Erik and Edda with longing came back to her.

Releasing her foot, Erik lost his seriousness and grinned. "Well, I did. What are you gonna do about it?"

"This." She said, before rushing forward and enveloping Erik in a sudden, sobbing hug. The force of Astrid's embrace caused Erik to stagger backward before he steadied himself, chuckling softly as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I- I'm so glad you're still alive." She sobbed into his chest. "E- Even if you've clearly changed a lot." She chuckled a little through her sobs. "You're a much bigger asshole now."

Her candid description of his changed personality caused Erik to smile. "I won't deny that. It's not all bad, though. I enjoy fighting a lot more, for example. You won't have to spend an hour trying to convince me to spar anymore."

Despite her continued sobs, a wide grin appeared on her face. "Y- You better believe I'll be making use of that!"

Then she punched his chest despite her face still being buried in that same chest. Clearly, not all the aggression had left her system just yet. "And you need to accept every time until you've made up for being away for seven years!"

Naturally, her request was unreasonable, but Erik didn't mind. He liked sparring with her anyway. "Deal," he said while grinning.

They remained quiet for a moment as Astrid squeezed him tightly and continued to sob softly, while Erik caressed her short, strawberry-blond hair.

At the same time, Erik was throwing threatening glares at the shapeshifters who were still looking at the scene with gazes containing both awkwardness and curiosity.

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Luckily, when Björn, Anne, and Olaf noticed Erik glaring at them with a gaze promising a world of pain if they stayed even a second longer, they quickly decided to continue training and fled back to the front of the house.

Only Viljar was spared Erik's glare, but he decided to leave as well. He had met Astrid maybe once or twice, and he really didn't feel right staying.

And, naturally, the girls inside the house were spared as well.

Instead, he asked Emma through their link to prepare some tea for Astrid and him. Naturally, he could have asked Nora, but he knew Emma enjoyed doing these kinds of things for him.

He also asked her to take Nora and Emily with her, which meant that soon, he and Astrid were all alone.

"Finally," Astrid said with a scoff while continuing to embrace Erik. "If they continued staring at me any longer I would have started busting heads. Literally."

Astrid's senses were on point even now, as she had noticed the spectators despite having her back turned to them.

Erik chuckled, "I was beginning to think you hadn't noticed them."

Astrid huffed as if offended. "How could I not?"

It remained quiet again as they stayed in each other's embrace, while Astrid's sobs had finally died down. "So who was the white-haired chick?" she suddenly asked.

Thinking he was able to detect the slightest hint of jealousy in her voice, caused Erik to grin. "Is that jealousy I hear?"

In response, he received another punch against his chest. "Shut up! I- I'm not ready to talk about that yet…" She finally looked up from his chest with a frown, "I just thought she was weird. I attacked her, but she seemed more worried about me the whole time."

Hearing that, a brief flash of anger passed across his face, before he quickly suppressed it. Still, his voice sounded a little strained when he asked, "You attacked her?" m-vl _e mpY _r exclusive content

Seeing his expression and hearing his voice, Astrid suddenly got a little afraid that she ruined their reunion, and stammered, "I- Y- Yeah. I was confused, and needed information… But I was never going to hurt her! Not unless she attacked first!"

By now, Erik had completely calmed down as he shook his head with a sigh. "Don't worry about it, Astrid. I told Emma to warn me the moment anything changed with you, but she clearly didn't… it's my fault if anything, I should have stayed with you."

Relieved that he didn't seem angry, Astrid dove back into his chest and released a puff of air, "I can see she's important to you." She said with a slight hint of jealousy. "Who is she? Is she a maid? And if so, where the hell did you get a maid? And what was with that weird tattoo?"

Chuckling at her clear intentions, Erik answered, "Her name is Emma; I'll introduce you later. The reason she worried more about you than herself is likely because she has an unusually high intuition. You didn't intend to harm her, and she could tell. Therefore, she was more worried about my childhood friend coming to harm."

He didn't think it necessary to mention her status as his wife just yet. He figured it was probably a good idea to ease Astrid into that kind of information.

"I see…" Astrid mumbled, still with a degree of jealousy, not really happy that Erik didn't clearly define his relationship with that woman. "I guess you're important to her as well then." Then she sighed and said with somewhat surprising maturity, "I'll make sure to apologize to her later."

Her promise caused Erik to smile and caress her hair, "Thank you. I doubt she'll find it necessary, but I appreciate it nonetheless."

Astrid narrowed her eyes at him. "No problem, but don't think I didn't notice you avoided defining your relationship with her or answering my questions."

Finding it hard to suppress a grin, Erik kissed Astrid's forehead. "I'll tell you everything soon, alright? We've only just reunited, let's take things slow."

Despite the slight blush that appeared on her cheeks because of his kiss, Astrid scoffed. Yet, she couldn't deny she, too, wanted to enjoy their reunion a little longer before overcomplicating it all.

So instead, they simply remained in silent embrace for a little longer, before Erik said. "I asked Emma to make us some tea earlier. It should be ready now. Shall we continue this conversation in comfort?"

Not even wondering how he could have told Emma anything without her noticing, she just continued to hug his chest while nodding into it. Feeling her movement caused Erik to smile, before prying her loose and climbing back into the hole, hand in hand.

Astrid coughed. "Sorry about destroying your room, by the way."

"Let's say we did that together," Erik chuckled.