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Anders kneaded out the muscles in the back of his neck with his fingers. His deft hands pushed deep into the tissue and rolled along trying to ease some of the built up pressure and he bit his lip clenching his eyes shut. He couldn't remember a time when his tension headaches weren't a constant bother but he did remember the increase of pain and annoyance when he was a teenager. Usually he would have had Dawn try to relax the knots but he was currently staring at the deep ingrained wood of his brother's bar. And he was sure the only reason he hadn't been accused of having a hang over was because he was trying to push the headache away with his fingers instead of suppressing it with copious amounts of alcohol. There weren't a lot of things that triggered his headaches either. Stress was a major one, the headaches less frequent ever since Bragí had eased the burden his fucked up life, and loud noises. As a child he had been prone to bouts of over stimulation and as he sailed through the rings of puberty with shiny colors he also grew from holding his ears and shutting his eyes to feeling like his forehead was going to burst with an explosion of his brain matter. Loud noises, like shouting, was exactly the kind of trigger he needed.
"No," Ty said with a sharp clip of his tone. His pale face was stricken with the flush of anger coloring his cheeks. "Absolutely not."
"He's our father, Ty. Axl's father." Mike tried to reason but from the way he was grounding the words out from between his teeth Anders could tell he was starting to get impatient with Ty's stubbornness.
Ty shook his head with his fists tightening along his sides. "No. You can't seriously be falling for this bullshit. He must have found out that Axl was Odin and figured he might as well get back on his good side so he wouldn't be banished to his precious mortal sea!"
"He said he didn't want to interfere with Axl's life when he was a mortal," Olaf added in, drunkenly leaning on his hand and staring at his drink. "He respected Mike enough to try and let Axl live a normal life. He thought it was for the best."
"Bit late for that." Ty hissed. "What right does he have to say what was best for Axl or not?"
"The fact that he's our father is one." Mike bit back.
"Doesn't Axl get a say in this?" Anders murmured looking up at his brothers through blurry eyes. He raised his brows and popped his lips together resting his head on his hands.
"Axl wouldn't want to see him anymore than I do. Not some self serving prick that couldn't be bothered to at least try to be a decent father." Ty snapped.
"Would you stop with your immature grudge and consider for a moment that maybe this would be good for Axl?" Mike said leaning back and fiddling with his cleaning rag with his hands.
"How Mike? How would meeting that bastard help anyone?" Anders glanced over at Olaf in time to see him flinch at Ty's words before he swallowed his drink with one gulp.
"What's the worse case scenario?" Anders said. "Baby Odin finds out just how fucked up our family really is? Best case scenario he learns a few things about being a man and we are one step closer to find our Frigg. Aren't all those Hallmark cards talking about the shit they learn from dear ol' dad?"
"You should really shut up now, Anders." Mike said with a warning look. Ty was getting that constipated look on his face and the room started to grow drastically colder. Anders shivered and blew out a column of smoke with his breath. With a scowl on his face Ty turned back to Mike.
"He beat our mother, Mike! And he wasn't above taking his anger out on the world." Again another hidden wince from Olaf and Anders raised a brow to his grandfather.
"Funny how familiar that sounds." Mike hissed with a venom in his voice that impressed even Bragí. Ty looked like he had been smacked, reeling back at the implications of Mike's words. Mike matched his stare for a moment before he took a breath and glanced down at the floor. His expression softened but the edges were still hard as rocks. "He never touched me and he never touched Axl. If you would have just talked-"
"He hit me." Anders piped in flippantly.
"Stay out of this, Anders." Mike said the same hard tone back. Olaf was giving Anders another one of his looks where no one could decipher if he was drunk or if he was seeing something no one else could.
"No." Anders said with a flair of anger sparking in his gut. All his hard would was lost and the muscles in his neck tightened again."I'm sick of the both of you. Stop wallowing in your own fucking pits of self pity and get on board with the fact that he is here to see Axl, to see Odin, and who the fuck are you to think you should be getting in the way with that?"
"Says the man who thinks he can make his own destiny. Unlike you, we actually care about our brother. "
"Is that why you let our mother go to dinner on his own while you were banging your psychotic wife?" Anders asked standing from his perch at the other end of the bar and walking the short distance to his brothers. "If you think that our dearly beloved mother wasn't the one to throw the first punch every once in a while then you're kidding yourself. I've got news for you little brother: our mother was an emotionally and psychologically abusive bitch that ostracized Mike, favored you, ignored me, and left Axl. And I got in the way of too many flying plates to just forget that."
Anders rounded on Mike.
"But she was our mother, Mike. And he treated her badly. He would have done us a lot of favors by just leaving and never coming back. But he did. He kept coming back and now he's back again. The only difference this time is we know the family secret. But you're a fool if you think he isn't going to bugger off to the sea the moment he's done with what he needs to do with Axl." Anders stormed back to his previous spot in the bar and snatched his phone. "Our parents, the ones that were suppose to raise us and care for us, were some of the most selfish people on this Earth. Their relationship was toxic. Mike's relationship with Valerie was toxic. Ty's and psycho goddess chick's relationship was toxic. Yet somehow our baby brother hasn't had to deal with all of that because we sheltered him from it. But in the end it's his decision. So while you two dick heads are busy blowing smoke up each other's arses I'm going to go and tell Odin that Njord has requested an audience with him."
"Bragí, god of messengers." Olaf chuckled with a small drunken smile, though Anders could see the sincerity in his eyes.
"If I have to be. Better than being the god of daddy issues and the god of denial." He gave them a mock sigh and began to leave before he stopped and pointed at his brothers. "When you two have grown up call me but don't expecting me sober when I answer."
With that he left leaving Mike and Ty to heal their wounded prides and thinking he was more of a prick than ever. And when Olaf was on the verge of passing out in the corner of an empty bar late at night muttering brokenly "He's my son." They pretended not to notice.
a/n: Review!