The next day was going by slowly, what with being cooped up in the house all day long. Malfoy was reading while, secretly watching Brynjar watch Asta as she did her exercises. The big guy really had it bad for her, but she was completely oblivious about it.
Brynjar was trying to keep his admiring to a minimum, what with Malfoy around to catch him and rile him up. He couldn't help it, she captivated him with everything she did. It was slightly difficult to keep his fantasies at bay BEFORE she asked him to help her when she did her core strengthening exercises. NOW it is damn near impossible, what with the exercises she chooses to do and the positions it puts her in when she's close to him. When she first originally asked for him to help her, he thought she might actually feel the same way he does, but it turned out she just wanted him to hold her legs up while she did hang-man sit-ups midair.
Just as always, Asta has the worst timing in the bloody world!
"Brynjar!" Asta called from the sitting room.
"Yeah?" Brynjar called from the kitchen, where he was trying to figure out the nitro-wave, or whatever the fucking thing was called.
"Will you come hold me up so I can do my core strengthening exercises?" Asta asked, knowing he would say yes, like always.
Brynjar could have blasted a whole through the wall. Of course she would ask while the cocky hostage was sitting in the sittingroom reading. Of course!
Brynjar sighed. "Yeah. I'll be right there." He replied, trying to sound enthused.
"Thank you!" Asta called cheerfully.
"What are core strengthening exercises?" Malfoy asked, nervous that it might be something other than actual exercise.
Asta ran her hand up and down the middle of her torso, and said, "This is your bodies core. I do exercises to strengthen it so I can stay quick and agile in battle."
"Ohk?" Malfoy replied still confused, until he saw the self-loathing look on Brynjar's face. Then he understood what the exercises must be like, if the big guy isn't over eager to help his friend.
Brynjar walked to where Asta was sitting on the floor, doing a split to stretch her muscles, and let out a defeated sigh.
"You ready?" He asked putting on a fake cheery smile.
"Yep!" Asta said happily as she moved from the split, to on her hands with her feet up in the air.
Brynjar grabbed her ankles and pulled her up into the air. Once she was hanging in the air, she pulled her torso up towards the ceiling, using only her torso muscles, then lowered herself back down, and repeated the movements.
Malfoy was amazed at her strength and control. He was also amazed at the control Brynjar had, with not getting excited every time she lowered herself back down. Her face came level with his groin every time she lowered herself.
Malfoy looked at Brynjar's face, which was visibly showing his struggle to keep his blood-flow from settling on the one spot he didn't need it to go. Brynjar caught Malfoy's eye and rolled his eyes in frustration. He barely struggled to hold Asta up but, keeping himself from getting an erection was a different story.
"Why can't you conjure something to hang from?" Malfoy asked, trying to help Brynjar out. "I mean to do your exercise that is."
Asta stopped, mid air, and just looked at Malfoy. He couldn't tell if he had pissed her off, or if she was really considering his words. Her face was impassive.
"I suppose I could just conjure something to hang from." Asta began, looking as though this was a strange suggestion. "I just figured Brynjar would get an arm workout out, out of holding me up, you know 'two birds' and what have you." She lowered her torso back down, wiggled her legs to signal for Brynjar to put her down, before settling herself on her knees to look up at Brynjar. "Would you prefer if I conjured something to hang from?" She asked, looking very much like a child asking "Why?" repeatedly.
Brynjar struggled with his answer as he looked down at her, looking at him with big eyes and thoughtful expression. He didn't mind holding her up so she could do her exercises, he would mind even less if they were actually dating and he wouldn't have to worry so much about getting excited by what her head lined up with. But he didn't want to slip up and accidently frighten, or anger her with his arousal. He wasn't sure what answer he wanted to give so he gave the most useless one he could think of.
"I'm okay with either way you choose." He said feeling slightly relieved at the vagueness of his answer.
Malfoy shook his head with a knowing smirk, at Brynjar. He could understand why Brynjar wouldn't want to stop helping Asta with her core strength workouts, but he was torturing himself.
Asta eyed Brynjar with a curious look, wondering if he was just saying that to be nice. She honestly thought that it would help Brynjar too, he could work out his arms and she could strengthen her core. She didn't want to make him do something he didn't want to do.
"I can conjure a hanging bar for my exercises, and leave it for you to use for your arms." Asta said with a smile as she stood up, and aimed her hand at a spot on the ceiling. "That way you won't have to hold me all sweaty and shaking."
At her last few words, Malfoy barely contained laughter as he saw Brynjar's eyes close, and his breath catch in response. Luckily for Brynjar, Asta had already turned, and began to maneuver herself to hang from the newly conjured bar.
"Okay." Brynjar grunted out, as he let out the breath he was holding. "I'll leave you to it."
Brynjar began to walk casually out into the foyer, and Malfoy started walking after him. Just as Malfoy was crossing the threshold from the sittingroom to the foyer, he had just enough time to duck before Brynjar's fist connected with the wall where Malfoy's head had been.
"O-SHIT!" Malfoy exclaimed, as he threw himself into the wall opposite of where Brynjar's fist put a hole in the wall. "I was just trying to help you! I thought you would be happy to not worry about getting a hard on in her face!"
Malfoy was flattened against the wall, prepared to continue pleading for his head to remain un-smashed, when he saw that Brynjar was leaning against the other wall, clutching his right wrist.
"FUCK!" He shouted, as he clutched his wrist and lightly rocking back and forth. "Asta's going to fucking kill me!" He shouted as he sent his foot through the opposite wall, right next to Malfoy.
Malfoy ran to the archway to the sittingroom to see if Asta was coming towards the commotion. He was stunned to see that she was hanging from the bar, as though Brynjar didn't just destroy two walls. He was startled out of his confusion by Brynjar's voice through clenched teeth.
"Silencing charm." He growled as he sunk to the floor, taking slow heavy breaths to cope with the pain.
Malfoy made a silent, "Oh", and moved next to Brynjar, whose hand was starting to bleed again.
"Uhhh, maybe I should get Asta to fix this." Malfoy said, unsure of how he could fix his shattered hand.
"NO! WAIT!" Brynjar shouted out as he tripped Malfoy. "I have to figure out what to tell her caused me to punch the wall!"
Malfoy looked at him with an angered and confused look on his face, as he rubbed his elbow from where he landed on the floor. "Why don't you just tell her I was being a prick or something? Like I was accusing you two of being a couple or something."
Brynjar looked at him with smirk, and said, "That just might work."
Asta had just begun doing her next level of core exercises, where she hangs by her knees and pulls her torso upwards towards the ceiling. She extended the bar into a platform, and conjured straps to hold her ankles down. She was on her third curl up when she heard the commotion in the foyer.
"I told you, we aren't a couple!" Brynjar shouted.
"You two are awfully chummy to NOT be a couple!" Malfoy yelled back.
"We have been friends since we were infants! It's hard for us not to be chummy!" Brynjar shouted, sounding more hostile.
"So you two ARE together!" Malfoy pressed on.
"NO DAMMIT! We are just friends! So keep your fucking mouth shut or I'll shut it for you!" Brynjar yelled.
"Shit." Asta thought to herself as she flung her body upward and began to struggle with the straps on her ankles. Before she remembered she could just magic them off she heard a loud thud-like sound, and Malfoy scoff.
"Not quick enough, eh? Maybe you should have continued holding your GIRLFRIEND up!" Malfoy coaxed.
"Shit. Fuck. Fucking shit." Asta continued to say to herself as she magicked the straps off. She free-fell to the floor, and landed catlike on her feet, and ran towards the foyer. Just as she rounded the she saw Brynjar kick the wall out of pain and anger.
Before Malfoy could continue to coax Brynjar to try and make it even more believable, he felt a hard object hit the side of his face, and he hit the floor. When he rolled over he saw Asta standing over him, looking livid!
"One more word, and I will hit you so hard you'll forget who the fuck you are." Asta snarled through gritted teeth.
He watched Asta bend down to lift, yes LIFT, Brynjar to his feet before punching him in the jaw too.
"AND what the FUCK did I tell you about fucking punching people and objects before your FUCKING hand is healed!?" She shouted at him as she dragged him back into the sittingroom.
As Brynjar was about to disappear behind the wall, he flashed Malfoy a thumbs up. Malfoy could only chuckle at the whole situation, whilst deciding to NEVER piss off Asta again.
"What the hell were you thinking! Feeding into his bait like that!" Asta scolded as she summoned her pouch and began to fish out the skele-grow, pain potion, and the shot glass. She filled the shot glass with skele-grow and handed it to him. "Drink it."
Brynjar drained the shot glass, and handed it back to Asta, who then filled it with pain potion.
"He kept saying we couldn't be this close without being fuck buddies! What did you expect me to do?!" Brynjar countered, as Malfoy came staggering into the room.
Asta snapped her head in Malfoy's direction and leveled him with a glare so full of anger and hate, that Malfoy cowered into a chair in the corner and didn't move.
Asta turned her attention back to Brynjar and his thrice re-broken hand, and began to reset and bandage it. The room was silent for what seemed like an eternity as Asta continued to work on Brynjar's hand. A long, tense, anger filled silence. Just as Asta was finishing wrapping up his hand, Brynjar spoke.
"I'm sorry I gave into the twats coaxing and re-broke my hand." He said with sincerity. "I should have controlled my rage…. Or just told you what he said and let you handle it." He added with a smirk to lessen the mood.
Asta smiled a small smile at his joke, and then shoved his shoulder playfully. Then just as quickly as she became playful, she turned serious again. She flew up from her crouched position in front of the couch Brynjar was sitting on, and made it so she was looking down on him. She had one knee between his legs, her left hand on the back of the couch, and the other hand pointing her finger in his face.
Brynjar's eyes glazed over, his breath caught in his throat, and his head filled with the various dreams he's had about her in this position.
"If you punch one more thing before your hand is healed, I will likely beat the ever-loving shit out of you. You understand?" Asta said with a daring look on her face.
Brynjar trusted his mouth not one bit, so he just nodded his head.
"Good." Asta said as she backed away from where she was balanced. "Now go upstairs and relax your hand before I change my mind and beat you now."
Brynjar took a moment but got up and did as she said. After he could be heard on the second floor, Asta rounded on Malfoy.
Malfoy sunk into his chair as Asta came nearer to him. She looked as though she was going to tear him apart. When she finally reached his chair; she rested her hands on the back of the chair and leaned over him. But, interestingly enough, not the same way she had with Brynjar.
"You!" She growled. "Will keep your fucking mouth shut regarding topics you know nothing about. Brynjar and I are only friends, always have been, always will be. NOTHING MORE!"
"You two are awfully chummy for two people who are just friends! You're both protective of each other, you ask him to hold you up for an exercise that conveniently brings your head level with his groin…. That doesn't seem odd for people who are just friends?" Malfoy paused, and saw her face grow slightly pink. "Surely you understand why I assumed you two were a couple, or at the very least had feelings for each other?"
By now Asta's face went Gryffindor red. Malfoy couldn't tell if it was from anger or from him being onto something, but he was both excited and terrified at the same time.
"Brynjar does not have feelings for me." Asta growled shakily with anger. "I think I would know if my best friend fancied me. We are friends nothing more."
Malfoy internally smiled to himself. He had her trapped.
"You only said Brynjar doesn't have feelings for you. Does that mean you have feelings for him?" Malfoy prodded with an interested look on his face.
Asta went redder than it was before, but this time Malfoy was sure it was from embarrassment.
"Do you wish you two were more than friends?" Malfoy continued to prod her.
"Why are you so fucking interested into whether Brynjar and I are a couple or not?" Asta spat angrily as she pulled away from the chair he was sitting in.
"Because there is this tension when you two aren't in a life or death situation that resembles a tension between two people who won't admit they have feelings for each other. I am just calling it like I see it." Malfoy said with his hands raised in a submissive gesture.
"This topic of conversation is closed." Asta growled through gritted teeth. "If you say one more word about this, I swear to Odin, that you will regret it every day for the rest of your life. Do you understand me?"
Asta was glaring at him from only a few steps away, with the most angry look he had ever seen. He REALLY overstepped and thoroughly pissed off one of the four people he should never piss off. All's Malfoy could do was nod that he understood. After he nodded that he understood, Asta motioned for him to leave the sittingroom, and he quickly scurried off.
Asta sunk down into the chair Malfoy just vacated, cast a silencing charm, and let out a long loud scream. Why did she answer his questions? Why did she feed into him? Now he suspects her feelings, and even worse, he pulled those suppressed feelings to the surface. She had hid them away for so long, and now they were back and more prominent than ever.
While Asta was self loathing down in the sittingroom, Malfoy ran right up stairs to find Brynjar, to tell him what Asta partially admitted. He found Brynjar laying on the bed he was using for the next five days; shirtless, and looking through a defensive magic book from Alastor's library. He was slightly taken aback by the sight of all of Brynjar's scars, he never really paid attention to them yesterday or today, but they were hard to miss at the moment.
"Brynjar!" Asta called as she came running up the stairs.
Brynjar immediately jumped up from the bed and started to run towards the sound of her voice. He saw Malfoy standing in the doorway and immediately looked confused.
"Did…Did you… Was that you that called for me?" Brynjar asked looking slightly afraid and slightly angry.
"What?! No that wasn't me! That was Asta!" Malfoy said looking offended and disgusted that Brynjar thought his voice was that feminine like.
"Brynjar! I just got a… What are you doing in here?" Asta asked indignantly, as she looked Malfoy over. "If you are here to rile him up again, I swear to Odin I will kill you right now!"
"NO! No! I'm not I swear!" Malfoy pleaded, making the same gesture as he did only a few minutes ago. "I was just coming up to use the lou!"
Asta eyed him wearily as she moved past him to get to Brynjar, unsure of whether she should believe him or not. But while she was eyeing Malfoy, she wasn't paying attention to where she was walking and walked right into Brynjar, and almost fell backwards.
"Whoops! Sorry Brynjar." Asta said as she straightened herself up and tried to hide her blushing face.
"It's alright." He said with a smirk as he looked down at her. "I'm quite sturdy. It'll take a lot more than a small girl to knock me down." He playfully shoved her and laughed at her, before he felt her shove him back.
"Twat." Asta teased him before showing him the letter. "We will be getting a visit from her tomorrow. Her trust is the one we need to earn before the others will even think to trust us."
Brynjar's playful smile fell, and a nervous look took over his face. He nervously rubbed his right arm, where the bulk of his scars were. Apparently Asta knew what this meant because she pushed his hand off his arm, and gave him a sympathetic look. The silence was broken by Malfoy, who was feeling awkward intruding on this weirdly sweet moment.
"How did you get all those scars?" He asked sincerely.
He saw Asta's shoulders hunch and her body tense at his question, making him think he overstepped again. Brynjar rubbed his good hand on Asta's shoulder, before speaking.
"It's alright Asta. It's not your fault." Brynjar said in a soft comforting tone, Malfoy could not have imagined hearing from the big guy.
"Is it a story you don't tell? If so you can forget-" Malfoy began but was cut off by Brynjar who raise his hand to silence him.
"I can tell you, just prepare for a lethal reaction from her." Brynjar said as he gestured towards Asta who had buried her head underneath the pillows on Brynjar's bed.
"Ok?" Malfoy responded unsure of whether he wanted to hear the story now or not.
"What you need to know before I tell the story of how is, Asta's mum never liked her. She was sure she was going to give Abraxus a boy, an heir. So when she gave birth to Asta she was furious, she tried to give Asta away but Abraxus threatened her with a fate worse than death if she so much as bumped Asta the wrong way. Abraxus loves Asta, just the same as he would if she was a boy.
Now as to how I got the scars. Asta and I were about ten years old, wrestling in her sittingroom. It was one of the days we didn't have training so we were goofing off. Asta was squealing because I was about to pin her to the ground and I was laughing because I was going to win…. Again I might add. Ooooff!"
Brynjar was staggering forward from getting hit by a pillow Asta threw at him.
"Well I always won!" Brynjar chuckled as he threw the pillow back at her. "Anyways, we must have been making too much noise because her mother appeared in the doorway and started screaming at us for being annoying and loud. She was saying we are always a pain in her ass, running amuck around her house, and giving her headaches, and she couldn't stand it anymore.
She told Asta that her and her father hated her because she wasn't a boy, that Asta would never earn the love of her father no matter how hard she tried, and that she should have just killed Asta when she had the chance to spare her father the disappointment."
"Oh my God! Your mother actually said that to you?!" Malfoy exclaimed in and angry disgusted tone.
"Yeah she did." Brynjar answered. "After she said that to Asta I saw her hand aim at Asta, and I immediately jumped over top of Asta. Just as I covered her, her mum started sending cutting curses towards us. I was screaming for Abraxus to come in and help us and Asta was screaming 'Daddy help!' at the top of her lungs. I was getting hit a lot by those curses, her mum was trying to hit Asta so she kept circling the outskirts of the room."
Malfoy gave Brynjar a confused look at why a full grown woman would skirt around two ten year olds. A look Brynjar understood all too well and continued on.
"I was always a big kid, always very strong. At the time this was happening both her mum and I knew that while I wasn't good enough at spells to be able to disarm her, if I had gotten hold of her I would have taken her down. So she walked around the outskirts of the room, trying to get at Asta. When her mum realized I wasn't going to leave Asta to take the curses, she set herself in one spot but kept sending curses at us. All the while screaming how pathetic we are screaming for help when we are Viking children, and all that bullshit. I nudged Asta in the ass with my knee to make her crawl towards the side of the couch we were close to. When we started to move, my arm moved forward and a curse caught Asta above her right eye, and that sent Asta even further over the edge.
Asta started screaming profanities that no ten year old should say to their mother, proclaiming that when she was trained up enough she would venture into the depths of Hell and torture the shit out of her for all the pain she caused me and her. Finally Abraxus heard our cries for help and came barreling into the room and shouted-"
"You heartless bitch! What did I tell you!" Asta finished for Brynjar, and then continued to tell the rest of the story. "My father was, still is, furious about what she did to both of us. More so because of what Brynjar went through because of her idiotic idea that I wasn't good enough because I wasn't a boy. My father praises and thanks Brynjar for everything he did to save me that day, he treats Brynjar like a hero, as he should. My father stunned my mother and bound her up, before calling over Brynjar's mother and father.
As soon as my mum was incapacitated Brynjar collapsed on the floor, covered in blood that continued to flow out of his many MANY wounds. His mother came into the room and screamed in horror at the sight of her son. Before she rushed to tend to his wounds, she kicked my mum in the head, like she rightfully deserved. She scooped up Brynjar and carried him back to her house with me in tow. She was going to fuss over my eye before she tended to Brynjar, because I'm 'The King's' daughter, but I wouldn't let her. I kept pushing her away telling her to take care of Brynjar first. She patted my cheek and while she worked on healing his wounds, she told me how much my father loves me and not to pay any mind to what that bitch had said to me.
After Brynjar was all healed up, his mum fixed my eye, unfortunately for both of us my bitch of a mother used a curse that can't be fully healed. Brynjar's mum put Brynjar to bed and tried to lay me down with him, you know because of the traumatic incident that happened. But I wouldn't go to bed, not yet anyway. I went home and found my dad smashing every portrait and picture that had my mum in it. When he saw me he apologized for what I saw and called me over to him. I told him I wanted to go to the shed with him and Brynjar's father. My father said no at first, but I told him flat out that I was going to go to the shed with or without his permission. Then he conceded, and took me with him."
"What is the shed?" Malfoy asked, slightly afraid.
Asta got an evil looking smile on her face, and she turned to Brynjar he just chuckled and shook his head.
"The shed," Asta began. "is where people who commit crimes against the other people of the village, are stored until they get tortured and or killed. It's where my father and Brynjar's father brought my mother."
"Sounds…. Horrible." Malfoy said looking nauseas.
"It was wonderful actually." Asta proclaimed with a big smile on her face. "My father walked me to the shed and we went in and saw Brynjar's father using the cruciatus curse on my mother. She was screaming like a banshee it was wonderful to hear."
Malfoy shuddered at the thought of Asta getting pleasure from hearing her mother screaming in pain.
"When my mum saw me walk in the shed, holding my Grandfather's old dagger in my hand, she started to scream profanities at me. Profanities that were quickly silenced by my father, who cussed her out. I took my Grandfather's dagger and dipped it in a jar full of Basilisk venom, and let it sit in the venom for a moment. I kicked a stool over in front of where my mother was restrained and stood on the top of it to get right in her face. When I was looking her right in the eye I said, 'You're a terrible person and a horrible mother. You hurt my best friend, damn near killed him! You are going to spend eternity rotting in hell and when I'm strong enough I will come find you and I will torture the shit out of you.' Then I dragged the blade of the dagger across her chest, and listened to her scream at the pain she was in from the Basilisk venom."
Malfoy had a whole new respect and level of fear of Asta. She is one strong girl, no one can say otherwise.
"After my mother's screams were no longer amusing to me, I said goodnight to Brynjar's dad and my own father, and made my way back to Brynjar's house to go to sleep. I walked in the front door, walked into Brynjar's room, set my dagger down on his end stand, and curled up into bed next to him. I felt so bad that he took all those curses because of me. I was, and STILL AM, pissed that he took all those curses for me. I didn't leave his side until his mum told me that he was 100% better. I hate my mum, I'm glad she's dead, and the day I die I am going to venture into the depths of Hell and I am going to make her wish she was never born."
This was all so much for Malfoy to take in. What kind of mother treats their daughter like that? This girl had gone through so much shit at the age of ten, that makes the cruelty from his father seem like nothing. He now understood why they both got defensive when he questioned them about them having feelings for each other. Their bond goes so deep, that they only really know one another. They are afraid if they don't work out they will lose each other.
"Wow…. I…. I don't know what to say." Malfoy said finally, looking as though he had just saw it happen. "I'm sorry you both went through that. That sounds horrible."
To Malfoy's surprise, both Brynjar and Asta shrugged as though it was nothing.
"It's fine. We came out stronger because of it really." Brynjar replied as he laid back down on his bed and picked his book back up.
"Yeah I mean, I don't think we would be here on this assignment if we hadn't been subjected to what we have." Asta added as she picked up the letter she brought up with her, before walking towards the doorway. Before she left the room, she turned back and said, "Don't forget Brynjar, we need to be angels tomorrow when she gets here to meet with us. We can't blow this, it's our only real shot at redemption."
After she said her piece, she walked out of the room, leaving the two boys alone. Brynjar set his book on his stomach and raked his hands through his hair and sighed. Apparently whoever was coming to visit was a big deal and stressed him out.
Malfoy was about to turn around and leave Brynjar to relax, when he remembered why he came up to his room in the first place.
"OH!" Malfoy exclaimed as he turned back around to find Brynjar looking at him. "I thought you might like to know, I think Asta might share your feelings about you two getting together."
Brynjar shot up from the bed so fast, Malfoy barely had time to think before Brynjar had him by the collar.
"What is with you two and manhandling people!" Malfoy exclaimed partially scared, partially annoyed.
Brynjar waved his hand around the room, Malfoy assumed he cast a silencing charm, and spun around shoving Malfoy onto the bed.
"If you are fucking with me, I will snap you in half like a twig." Brynjar warned with an evil yet hungry look. "I'm not even kind of joking."
Malfoy raised his hands in a surrendering manner before he spoke.
"I used the same line on her that I used in our fake fight, 'You two are awfully chummy, blah blah blah.' And she said that YOU don't have feelings for her like that and that she would know if you did. So I called her out and said that she only said you don't have feelings for her, that she never said she didn't have feelings for you, then she got all flustered and red and threatened to do long term damage if I brought it up again."
"What exactly did she say about you saying that again?" Brynjar asked like he saw something Malfoy missed.
"She said, 'If you say one more word about this, I swear to-" Malfoy stopped briefly as Brynjar chimed in.
"Odin, that you will regret it every day for the rest of your life!" Brynjar finished Asta's quote from earlier with a cheer. "YES! I knew it!"
Malfoy just looked at him completely lost as to why he was cheering about Asta threatening to cause him long term damage.
"I must be missing something." Malfoy said slightly offended. "Unless you meant to cheer at my potential pain."
Brynjar was shaking his head, and still smiling.
"I've heard Asta say that before, multiple times actually, and she has always said that when she is flustered! You discovered something about her she didn't want people to know! So she threatened you because she was embarrassed!" Brynjar exclaimed as he flopped down onto the bed next to Malfoy, smiling like he found a pouch full of a million galleons.
"So she does?" Malfoy asked, starting to finally catch on.
"Yes!" Brynjar replied.
"So now you know she does, are you going to talk to her?" Malfoy asked.
Brynjar shot upright and looked at Malfoy as though he proposed he cut his prick off.
"Are you mad? No I'm not going to talk to her about it!" Brynjar exclaimed, only slightly losing his smile.
"What? Why?" Malfoy asked, surprised Brynjar wasn't tripping over himself to talk to Asta about this.
"Because it's not a good time to talk about it, when the time is right it will just happen." Brynjar explained as he made his way towards the door, while he removed the silencing charm. "Now if you don't mind I am going to celebrate with a drink."
Then Brynjar left the room, leaving a confused Malfoy behind.
As he made his way down stairs he saw Asta hanging from her bar, working on her curl ups. He could tell she had been doing them for a while because she was sweating up a storm. He walked into the kitchen and began to fill a glass with firewhiskey. Asta saw him and stopped mid-air, and called out to him.
"What are you doing up and about? I told you to go relax." She called out, wagging her finger at him.
"Call down warden I wanted a drink of firewhiskey." Brynjar laughed as he walked over to where she was holding herself up mid-air, and stuck his tongue out at her. Asta lowered herself back down and let herself relax, and she looked up at him laughing. "You should give it a rest, you have the strongest core I have ever seen."
She looked up and saw Brynjar looking at her in a way she hadn't seen before. She felt a surge of energy flow through her that made her nervous. She started to lift herself up, pausing briefly when she caught Brynjar's eye, then pulled herself the rest of the way up. She magicked her straps off, free-fell onto the floor where she landed catlike on her feet. She straightened herself up and then excused herself, and ran up the stairs.
Brynjar let out the breath he had been holding since she caught him looking at her, and rested his head against the bar in front of him. He knew she felt it too, that surge, but he wasn't going to push it. He was just happy to know she felt the same as him. At least he has hope now that something can or will eventually happen, and that's all he needs.
He downed the glass of firewhiskey, set the glass on the floor, and transfigured the platform into a solid thin bar to do chin ups. He reached up, grabbed the bar, and began to do his first set of ten chin ups. As he did his workout his mind wandered off to a distant place, where he and Asta were together and were expecting a baby. She looked so beautiful in her pregnant state, that Brynjar found himself involuntarily smiling at the image in his head. He couldn't wait until the moment came where they could finally be together. He didn't know when that moment would be, but the thought filled him with joy.
While he was off in his own little world, Asta had snuck back down the stairs to get a drink. She watched him pull himself up a few times before she shook herself out of her trance, before continuing on her way to the kitchen. She grabbed a cup and turned on the faucet, and let the glass fill with water. Occasionally stealing glances at her friend as he continued to pull his weight up. She happened to see his smile spread across his lips and thought he caught her looking at him, so she walked over to him.
She looked at the muscles in his arms tighten with each pull up, and briefly forgot what she was coming to talk to him about. She forced herself to focus, getting distracted by his muscular body was the last thing she needed, when they were five days away from a crucial task. She then remembered why they were there and snapped back to her right mind.
"What has you so happy?" Asta asked with a smirk on her face, before taking a sip of water.
Brynjar quickly snapped out of his happy little world, to see his friend leaning up against the wall smirking at him.
"Oh, uhh nothing." Brynjar said as he let go of the bar and fell to the floor.
His muscles were tight and prominent from the work out he just had. He moved towards Asta and stole her glass of water and drained it in one gulp.
"Hey!" Asta exclaimed as she slapped him in the chest. "I only got one sip!"
Brynjar laughed as he watched her pretend to pout, she could be truly pathetic when she wanted to be. He couldn't help but feel slightly bad for doing whatever he had done whenever she made that face, it was always a believable pout.
"Oh stop with the puppy dog pout, I'll get you another glass of water." Brynjar whined in defeat.
"Wouldn't have to give you the puppy dog eyes if you didn't down my drink, you big bully." Asta responded still pretending to pout.
"Me! A bully? Never!" Brynjar joked as he made his way towards the sink.
Asta laughed as she took up the seat at the bar counter that Brynjar had occupied the other day, and waited for him to give her her drink. Brynjar's back was muscular and massive, and also full of scars just like his arms and chest. His upper-arms were the size of Asta's head, and nothing but muscle. He is a very big guy, but it was all muscle. He was, all in all, a very attractive guy; he had a flock of girls trailing after him in their village to prove it.
Asta was startled out of her admiration of Brynjar, when he set her glass down in front of her, fully replenished for her.
"Here you go Princess." Brynjar said as he set the glass in front of her, catching a look in her eye he had never seen before. "A, uh, fresh glass of water for you."
Brynjar quickly grabbed the bottle of firewhiskey, that was still on the counter, and took a nice big swig. To try and get his mind off of the tension that was now extremely present between them.
"Th-thank you." Asta stuttered, before she realized she was getting flustered. "You gigantic pain in the ass."
Brynjar smiled, he loved this girl.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, avoiding eye contact with one another, until they heard feet coming down the stairs.
Malfoy appeared around the corner and walked into the kitchen and started rummaging in the fridge for food.
"Don't let my presence ruin your conversation, please carry on." Malfoy said as he pulled out a container full of left over stew, and set out to reheat it.
"We weren't having a conversation." Brynjar replied impatiently.
"So you two were just sitting in silence? Why?" Malfoy asked as he leaned against the counter waiting for the stew to reheat.
"Because we don't always need to talk?" Brynjar asked sarcastically.
Malfoy could sense he was really agitating Brynjar and that this wasn't an act like earlier, and quickly stopped talking and turned his attention back to the stove.
"Brynjar, we should talk about how we are going to convince her we are good and want to help them." Asta said breaking the tension, and giving Brynjar a serious look. "We really need her to trust us, otherwise we won't be able to help directly."
"Right. So what do we say if she asks why she should trust us?" Brynjar asked looking nervous. "I mean our peoples history doesn't really scream trust and good will."
Asta pursed her lips and nodded. He was right, they didn't really have a leg to stand on here. They really only could hope that she would sense their sincerity and trust their word.
Asta sighed. "We will… just have to hope that she believes our story. That's really all we have." Asta replied, looking slightly defeated. "We will offer to take veritaserum, let her look into our minds, I don't care. Whatever it takes to earn her trust! Her trust is key."
Brynjar reached across the counter and rested his hand on her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.
"I know it is." He said. "We will earn her trust."
Asta looked at Brynjar with grateful eyes, and a small smile. He could always make her feel better, even when she felt like there was no hope.
"Yes we will." She said with a little more hope in her voice.
"So what time tomorrow is she coming here? And what are we going to do with him while she is here?" Brynjar asked as he gestured towards Malfoy.
Malfoy, who had been watching the exchange silently, looked at Brynjar with and offended look on his face.
"I'm sorry." Malfoy called out, startling both of them. "I didn't realize my being a hostage was a problem for anyone!"
Brynjar rolled his eyes and took another swig of firewhiskey.
"Don't be such a sensitive twat, you twat!" Brynjar called before he took another swig.
"We will just ask, order really, that you stay upstairs while she is here tomorrow morning." Asta said nonchalantly.
"How long is this meeting going to take?" Malfoy asked slightly irritated at being treated like he is the plague.
"It depends on how long it takes to earn her trust." Asta answered in an annoyed tone.
"I'm sorry. I'm just trying to gauge my free time before, I'm sorry who is it that is coming?" Malfoy snapped back.
"Hermione Granger, if you must know." Asta snapped back shooting to her feet, as her patience diminished.
Malfoy's train of thought left him at the mention of her name. Brynjar and Asta must have noticed his shock at the mention of her name, because they exchanged looks that were a mixture of amused and nervous.
"Did… Did you… Did you say Hermione Granger?" Malfoy stuttered looking paler than ever before.