Disclaimer: I do not on nor claim to own this franchise or any of its characters.
Author Note: I know I have other stuff to do but I felt sad and angry today and I had to fluff it up.
Decades
One Decade
It was such a silly little accident. Well not even that, it was just a little thing. Harald had a yellow pool underneath his mansion and Dragan wanted to see how it felt to swim in it. Harald concerned about Dragan's health did it for him. The silver haired man stripped right in front of us and jumped in.
"So how does it feel Harald?" Dragan asked.
"It tingles a bit." Harald replied.
"Is it a good tingle or bad?" Dragan asked.
"It's neither, it's just weird." Harald replied.
Stepping out of the yellow pond he dripped now turned silver liquid onto the ground and the whole pool had turned a clear colour. This was decades ago and that pool filled with yellow water had completely destroyed everything he had. We had rushed him to the doctor despite protests that he was fine and the doctor found nothing wrong with our friend. Harald smirked like he always did and told us he told us so. The next time we went to the pool it was gone.
"Quite peculiar." Harald said.
"Yeah, I wonder if something bad happened." Dragan thought out loud.
"Well it doesn't look that way." I said.
And we let the years pass without another comment.
Two Decades
Harald was looking good for his age of forty. His face was completely clear of wrinkles and his hair was as thick as ever. I was not quite as well. I had lines around my mouth where I had smiled and Dragan lines where he frowned. We assumed that the lack of lines was because of his lack of emotions. That was kinda stupid now that I think about it. Yuusei had pointed ou when we were visiting that it seemed strange.
"Harald you look like you did when you were in your late twenties." He said over coffee.
"Do I? I hadn't noticed." Harald replied.
"Do you happen to have a portrait in your attic or perhaps the fountain of youth in your basement?" Yuusei joked.
Dragan's closed eyes snapped open immediately.
"That's funny because there used to be one under Harald's mansion." He grinned.
"Yes quite." Harald agreed.
And no one thought anything of it. And Yuusei died in a house fire just before he hit fifty and Jack was in a car accident and Crow was wandering the earth. We were concerned about the rapid deaths to notice Harald was still as limber as ever.
Three Decades
And when I was in my fifties I finally took a good long look at the pale skinned man and saw that age was ignoring him. I told Dragan and we decided to bring it up to the oblivious man.
"Harald it's been thirty years and you haven't changed." Dragan said bluntly.
"It hasn't been thirty years surely? It seems like only months." Harald replied.
"Don't you see us aging Harald?" I asked.
"Well yes but I… can't be fifty." He said.
"But you are." Dragan assured him.
Harald blinked and frowned.
"But I look, ah. I am not aging but you are." Harald realized with all the light draining form his eyes.
"So what now?" I asked.
"We cure me."
We never did cure him.
Four Decades
Dragan burnt out. He had a heart attack and dropped and when I came home Harald was sitting drinking tea with a dead body by his feet.
"Hello, he's dead." Harald said.
"He can't be." I denied.
"Mmn, check his pulse."
I did and of course nothing was there. I remember thinking, 'So death finally caught up with him.' He seemed like the one that would live the longest, me first in my early thirties, Harald in his forties due to some accident. Because the innocent and the beautiful die young and Dragan was always so close to earth. So close to the ground.
Five Decades
I was old. Harald had gone on a trip to find a cure and he returned.
"Hello Brave, I have bad news." He said.
"What?" I asked.
"There is no cure."
"So you'll never die?"
"Correct."
"Sad. I guess that makes things weird."
"It does. I like you."
"What does that mean?"
"I love you but I couldn't tell you, I couldn't tell Dragan either and now it's too late for both of you."
"What do you mean?"
"People will see me and see you and things get awkward."
"Ah, maybe in another life."
"Maybe. When did you get so wise?"
"Decades ago but time isn't the same for you is it?"
"Glad you understand my world. Time passes fast for me and I didn't even notice the years pass me b but then again I don't have to worry about that anymore do I? I have all the time in the world. You know the world will collapse one day and I'll still be alive."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be, I am glad it was me and not you or Dragan. I'm sorry because I have to leave you."
"I understand. Can't stand being near me anymore."
"It's not that, I can't risk people finding out that I am me from fifty years ago. Goodbye."
Harald walked out and slammed the door behind him. I sat there and thought 'so what now?'
Six Decades
My health finally failed. I had to go to the hospital.
"Do you have any family or friends that can take care of you?" The woman asked.
"No, well one but he's hasn't seen me in years." I replied.
"What's his number?"
"You don't need that to talk to him. He just seems to know things. Also I don't know."
She looked at me strange and walked out of the room with her heels clicking. I blinked and Harald was already in my room.
"You are ill." He said.
"I know." I grinned.
"You are going to die one day."
"I know that too."
"I don't understand it."
"What?"
"Why it was there at the bottom of my mansion. It seems like someone put it there."
"You're paranoid."
"And you're joking with me. I missed that."
"You didn't think I was funny before."
"That's because I didn't know what I had."
"…"
And all there was, was silence for hours. The doctor came back.
"Oh who's he? I didn't see you come in." She said.
"He's my friend." I told her.
"Yes I am." He smiled.
"So cute, a young man such as yourself making friends with an older man! So gentlemanly." Squeed the doctor.
"Yes it is isn't it?" Harald smirked.
Seven Decades
I wasn't as healthy as I had thought. I thought I'd make at least ninety if I wouldn't die young, one year too early. The silver-haired man still came around to the hospital. The doctors would always say,
'How young he looks, he must be at least forty by now.'
No one ever realized that he looked like a man that should be older than me. Nobody ever notices something unless it involves them. It's sad. Harald stood by me.
"You're dying." He whispered.
"I'm sorry." I coughed out.
"I don't know what to do."
"Live."
"But I can't live unless I can die."
"Do you really believe that?"
"No, but I don't want you to die."
I smiled wide.
"It's alright, I would be upset if you wanted me to."
"Ah."
He stroked my forehead and moved to different seat.
"Harald?"
"Yes?"
"Could you please turn the light off?"
"If you wish."
Harald got up and turned off the light before coming back to me. I was dead by then.
"Brave? Brave! Wake up! You can live a little bit longer!" He pleaded.
When I got to Valhalla Dragan was waiting for me. Apparently death makes you look oh about sixty years of your life.
"Ah Brave glad you showed up, it's been rather dull without you." Dragan smiled.
"Yeah, I was the best thing that ever happened to you guys." I smiled back.
"Harald's coming too you know."
"Really? When?"
"When he solves the mystery."
"That doesn't make sense."
"Sense is for little girls."
"Yeah, you're still you."
Eight Decades
Nothing happened during this period. Harald made friends, they died. He tried to find a cure, it didn't work. He'd ask Odin, the conversations would go in circles. And really nothing got done.
Nine Decades
Standing under the crumbles of a broken building and standing on the ashes of the country that was burned in a black cloak walks Harald. He finally figured t out, you end how you started and he started, really started, here. He walks the exact same path he did before. He walks at the same pace, thinking the same things. Okay he's taking it a bit too literally but if it works for him. He walks back to the place where he picked up that bear and he sits there and he waits, he waits for us.
"Took you long enough." Dragan grins.
"Yeah we didn't think you'd ever figure it out and you'd be stuck down here forever." I chirp with the cheer I thought I lost.
"Neither did I." Harald smirks.
"So you ready to go?" I asked.
"I have been ready for decades."