Consumed by an unnameable horror, Loki barely had the whit to escape from that hellish scene, but somehow he managed to scramble to his feet and flee naked and barefoot across the ice, oblivious to the cold.
He was in pain, yes, but it was not the pain from the ice burning his feet nor the biting wind lashing his body. Loki ran and then stumbled, finally pitching forward onto his face, consumed by blessed oblivion.
Nikolai was scanning the ice with his powerful binoculars. He preferred to travel light and needed little equipment, but he had been careful to take what would be most useful from his past existence in the Russian army. Today, he did not need to hunt, having had a successful day’s ice fishing yesterday, but he was always alert to opportunity and he liked to know who and what was around.
Suddenly he saw something pale and bulky out there. A seal? Surely not, bigger than that, but it did not look like a walrus. He adjusted the focus and exclaimed in surprise.* h1;l3;n3;k6;n*
Letting the binoculars dangle around his neck, he slung his rifle over his shoulder and was running across the ice, pushing the sled ahead of him until he reached what he now knew to be a human body.
Loki became aware of himself again, waking gradually and wincing at the pain in his hands and feet. This was like a replay of the last time he had passed out on the ice and been rescued by the women, except that this time his naked body was pressed against a harder, equally naked male body and he was held in strong arms.
He opened his eyes and found himself looking into a sharp, angular face with piercing blue eyes, just centimetres away from his own. Alarmed, he tried to pull away, but the arms held him fast within a cocoon of blankets.
Nikolai had been waiting for the man to wake. On finding that he was alive, he had quickly wrapped him in skins and brought him back to the tent, where he had heated water and bathed his hands and feet, trying to restore circulation and prevent frostbite. He dare not rub them for fear of damaging the tissues further, so he had bound them with strips of cloth,
To warm up the rest of the man’s body, he had used shared bodily warmth, stripping off his own clothes and wrapping them both in his blankets. Then he had settled down to wait. He was intrigued by what had happened to lead to the man’s condition and he had to admit to himself that it was no hardship holding him like this.
Loki tried again to pull away, croaking through dry lips,
“No, let me free.”
His captor, saviour – whatever the fuck he was, made soothing noises and gently crooned a Russian lullaby, rocking him in his arms like a baby.
“Hush, be still. You need to be warm. I don’t know how long you were out there. Don’t want to lose you to hypothermia.”
“Already lost,” Loki found himself saying and a sob burst forth from deep inside his chest.
“You are safe now.” The rocking continued and Loki was alarmed to feel his body responding to the friction, but somehow, the man’s husky voice was reassuring and it did make him feel safe, so he stopped struggling.
“Da, da, my friend. That’s better.”
It was clear to Nikolai that this man had suffered some terrible trauma, yet apart from the danger of frostbite, he seemed to have no other bodily injuries. In fact part of his body was warming up very nicely. *Apparently no frostbite there, then*.
Nikolai chuckled to himself and then sighed in regret, because it simply wouldn’t do to take advantage of this poor soul in his current circumstances. When he was satisfied that the man was warm enough to be out of danger, he carefully slid out of the bedroll and hurriedly pulled on some clothes, before going to the cooking fire and ladling out a bowl of fish stew.
Sitting cross-legged on the floor, he helped the man into a sitting position and supporting him with an arm around his shoulders, offered him a spoonful of the hot stew. Loki managed to eat a little, before slumping back onto the furs and Nikolai finished the bowl himself,
“So,” he said, wiping his mouth on his sleeve,” I am Nikolai and who would you be?”
“Loki.”
“Loki? Aah! He was the troublemaker among the Norse gods. Are you a troublemaker? Is that what brought you to this?”
Loki turned his head away and wept.
“All right, we will not speak of it now. Let me make you comfortable so that you can sleep.”
He rummaged among his few belongings and returned with a metal can for Loki. Peeling away some of the bedding, he exposed Loki’s cock and held it so that he could pee into the can. Unable to use his wrapped hands, Loki submitted with relief. He found himself tightly tucked back into the cocoon and fell asleep again to the sound of his rescuer’s gentle humming.
Once Nikolai was certain that Loki was sleeping, he set out to the place where he had found him and followed the tracks back from there. He reckoned that in these temperatures a naked man could not have come far and soon came upon a skin tent with a dogsled outside and a team of dogs, who barked excitedly and begged for food. He threw them pieces of wind-dried meat from the frame nearby and they ate ravenously.
Entering the tent, he found it deserted, but there was a pan of caribou stew over the still warm embers of the fire and the bedding was thrown about, telling of a hasty departure. Nikolai picked up the various intricately carved artefacts and turned them over in his hands, finally choosing a fine comb and putting it in his pocket.
There was a bundle of men’s clothing, which he felt belonged to his visitor, so he picked them up. The tent and the dogs had a forlorn air of abandonment and he had no doubt that the owner would not be returning. He stepped outside and saw the tracks of snow shoes heading into the distance.
He packed the sled with anything useful form the tent, including the gun, a sharp knife and the pot of stew, harnessed the dogs and followed the tracks until they ended at the edge of a deep crevasse. He stood and looked into the darkness and it seemed to him that he heard a despairing cry, but it was only the wind and he turned the sled and went back to his own dwelling.
Loki woke to the sound of barking dogs and started up in alarm, but only Nikolai stepped into the tent and hung a pot over the fire, which he fed and stirred into life.
He took off his outer things and squatted by Loki, unbinding his hands and examining them carefully. Satisfied that there was no permanent damage, he nodded to himself and handed over the comb, closing Loki’s fingers around it.
Loki opened his hand, the fingers still stiff and awkward and stared at the comb, transfixed. He squeezed his eyes closed, but when he opened them, it was still there and he began to shake, looking up at his rescuer, his face stricken and eyes full of horror.
Nikolai pulled aside the blankets, stripped off his clothes again and slid his body close, pulling the man into his embrace. This time it was not to warm his body, but to comfort his soul. Loki let the comb drop and embraced him back, which led to kissing, caressing and a fierce and needy coupling.
Afterwards, Nikolai held Loki close, while he wept again and hesitantly told a fable so dark and terrible, about a beautiful young woman and an equally beautiful older woman and the man who came between them. The ending was one of death and horror and when Loki had finished speaking, Nikolai was silent for a long time.
Then he said,
“Hush now, Loki, that was all just a bad dream, a nightmare. Stay with me. Travel with me and I will keep the nightmares away.”
In the morning, they struck camp and Loki, dressed in his old clothes, helped Nikolai pack the sled and tend to the dogs.
With a rifle each, they drove the sled away, passing the abandoned tent, but Loki turned his head away and did not look in that direction. When they came upon the crevasse, they paused and Nikolai handed the carved comb to Loki.
He cast it far into the depths, turned to Nikolai and they kissed fiercely. Then they drove the dogs away, travelling north together and never once looking back.
Summary: Nikolai saves Loki from certain death
Rated: R
Categories: Crossovers Pairing: Nikolai Luzhin/Loki
Warnings: NoneChallenges:
Series: NoneChapters: 1 Completed: Yes
Word count: 1498 Read: 886
Published: 07 Aug 2009 Updated: 07 Aug 2009