Holding His Heart
~insanity and co~
Chapter Two; "Mush, Ullr! To Penny!"
"Short, dark hair, younger – but the almighty Odin doesn't know how young." Anders sighs and throws his head back, sending Axl a glare over the back of the couch. "Not much to go on, is it?"
"I'm bad with guessing ages, lay off," Axl whines, spinning the bar stool he was sitting on and stopping when a loud squeak rings through Anders' apartment.
"But, she is the One?" Mike asks, accepting a beer as Olaf - who promptly ignored Anders' protests – passes the beers he found in the fridge around the room.
"I think so," Axl says, his voice smaller now that all of his brothers and grandfather were staring at him expectantly.
"What makes you think so?" Olaf asks after a long sip, smacking his lips.
"I saw her do the talking thing," Axl says, looking around the apartment over the rim of his beer.
"How do you know she's not just charismatic?" Olaf asks.
"She's a little geeky...aren't they supposed to be all awkward around people and shit? And by the way, she did the thing! Like Anders does. She talked to this guy and his eyes got all droopy and he smiled. Whatever she said, he looked like he was under a spell."
"And she uses it to get people to pay for their overdue movies. What a waste," Anders says quietly with a tsk, drifting off for a moment until Mike snapped his fingers in front of him.
"Is she a mortal?"
"I don't know. How would I know?" Axl says, quickly becoming defensive over the interrogation. He sips at his beer and glances around the apartment. "Did you do something with your place? New cactus! That's it!"
"You're shit at changing topics," Anders shoots at Axl as he quickly crosses the room to inspect a new cactus plant added to the collection on the shelves. Anders rolls his eyes when Axl raises his shoulders and widens his eyes – the complete image of innocence – and Anders' flips around on the couch, a witty (and likely low) shot on the tip of his tongue.
"Well, usually you can tell with that sort of thing," Mike says, quickly intervening on a spat waiting to happen between the two brothers.
Olaf sets his beer down on the coffee table with a loud smack. "Like with Eva, you just knew she was a Goddess."
"Yeah, got that one wrong, though," Anders mutters with a huff, shrugging off the shut up Anders look Mike sent him.
"Shut up!" Axl seems to voice everyone's opinion with that. "I didn't feel like I did with Eva, but what she did, that was not normal mortal stuff. That was God business. Or...Goddess business, I guess," Axl says, nose scrunching up as he added the last bit.
"Or she's too young to know she's a Goddess yet," Olaf adds.
"Is she that young?" Anders hisses, turning sharply to Axl and sounding more desperate than any of them had heard him in a long time.
"Love knows no bounds, and age is merely a number. I'm 93 for crying out loud," Olaf says, interrupting Axl who takes a long moment to sip (chug) his beer.
"Grandpa, please," Anders says, throwing a hand out to shush him.
"I dunno, probably," Axl said sheepishly after the beer was gone, flinching away even before Anders leaped off the couch at him.
"'Probably'?Jesus Christ, Axl! That is something you should have told me!" Anders screams out, shoving his brother's shoulder and pacing around the back of the couch. "I need another beer. I don't want to be a sober cradle robber!"
"You won't be doing any robbing-" Mike starts, shouting over the sound of Anders rummaging through the fridge.
"Thank you!" Olaf breaths out.
"-until we check this girl out," he finishes, earning a defeated sigh from Olaf and a whooping approval from Anders...who pauses only to chug his can of beer in one go.
"Let's hunt her down, Mike," Anders says eagerly, tossing the can and grabbing his jacket off the back of the couch. "I'm not going to be able to sleep at night until I meet her and get my powers back."
"I'm not a dog, you could say please," Mike says, watching with a raised eyebrow as Anders stops abruptly, jacket over one shoulder.
"You don't want to meet her," Olaf says, giving Anders a rude look over his own beer. "You want to see if she's a ten."
"Grandpa, I'm insulted," Anders says, hopping on one foot to tie a shoelace. "A seven or eight would be fine. Geeky...I think I can work with that. Hot librarian geeky? No time! Mush, Ullr! To Penny!" Anders yells, nearly shoving Mike off the couch and throwing his jacket fully-on. "Come on!"
"If only you were this enthusiastic in finding Frigg!" Axl shouts from the kitchen, sighing when Olaf and Mike slowly follow Anders. He chugs the rest of his beer, slams it on the counter, and follows his brothers out of the apartment.
"Today would be nice!" Anders' voice drifts up from the driveway, but Axl keeps a slow pace out to the car.
"This feels like stalking," Axl says, shifting uncomfortably in the backseat of Anders' car. His knees were pressing awkwardly into the driver's seat ever since they got near the video store and Anders insisted they all "stay low".
"That's because it is stalking," Anders whispers, sinking into his seat as they creep along the street at a crawl.
"Well at least none of us have any illusions about it," Olaf hisses back.
"So if we do find her-"
"When we do find her, Mike, don't sell yourself short," Anders cuts in.
"-what's your plan?" Mike finishes.
"Wasn't aware I needed a plan," Anders says with a shrug, turning down a smaller street. "Is that the place?"
"That's the one," Axl answers, pointing to a small video store squished between an auto store and a printing store. "So what now?"
"Can you find her from here?" Anders asks eagerly, finding a nearby parking spot where the video store was just barely in sight.
"I can find where she went after work but it's getting late." Mike looks around the dark street and everyone sinks further into their seats when a man on a bike flies past the drivers side.
"What, you need your beauty sleep?" Anders asks with a scoff and Mike swats his head.
"She's probably home, Anders. Sleeping. I can't imagine she'd want four men knocking on her door late at night." Olaf's voice of reason makes the three other men pause for just a moment until they finally agree.
"Alright, fine. So we find where she lives then." Anders nods and turns to Mike with an expectant stare. "Let's go, come on, boy."
"Shut up," Mike growls.
"This is definitely stalking," Axl grumbles with a sigh.
"Hey, if you've got a problem with this you can get out right now," Anders says, pointing a threatening finger back to where Axl is slouched in the backseat.
"Fine, let's get this over with, Mike," Axl says, crossing his arms.
"Drive that way." Mike points down the street past the video store and Anders starts the car up, everyone peaking up over the bottom of the windows as they creep along the street at a snails-pace.