Lorenzo, Charles and Arthur had been sitting in front of the fire pit. A cold blizzard had started raging outside the house, shaking the frame of the building that they had taken shelter in. The coldness was slowly settling into their bones. While the snow piles up endlessly.

Charles looks at the wall for a second, his eyes meet the shrine that Max had let made for Dakota. The wolf that had protected Charles so many times.

Charles had watched Max walk out of the door this morning to fetch them some food as this blizzard could last for a while. The raging storm makes everything very dark with the piling up snow. Charles has been shivering for hours now while reading a good book from his home country.

Charles had been having nightmares about that day that he lost his friend and Dakota. They have been reliving memories. The scene of Anthoine and Dakota dying on repeat would go through his mind. He can't keep the memories from repeating in his head.

His nightmares had all blamed him for their deaths, the big frame of Max had pinned him to the wall before telling him how much he hates him and blames him for being so weak that he had let his wolf and friend die just to safe his weak and pathetic ass. Charles knows that Max may not have said those words out loud, but he knows that Max feels that way.

In the last couple of days Max has been rarely home. He was either always out in the blizzard, hunting for food. His hair would always be completely filled with ice and snow. A beard had formed on the Hollandian man's face as he didn't shave or really ate the food that he hunted. Like he was only mere a shell of a man.

Arthur had asked what was going on with him. He even directly asked Max that question before the Hollandian had sighed and told him not to worry about him. That he's a viking and that this was their way of dealing with grief.

Jos had checked up on the four of them once in a while, but he only ever found the three princes. Charles told Jos every time that Max was out hunting and would only be home for a moment around dinner time. Jos nodded his head and told Charles that he would be fine and most likely spending his time in the secret hot water spring.

"I'm going to see if I can find Max." Charles says before the door opens.

They all look up to see Max dragging a deer into the house, blood and snow get dragged over the wooden floor. The three princes look as Max grabs knife and drives it through the carcass.

Charles looks away before he gets up on his feet. He desperately wants to help Max with dealing all of this. Arthur and Lorenzo say something about going to their bedroom to do something that Charles didn't catch.

He walks over to Max who doesn't say anything to the two leaving princes and keeps cutting of limbs and what not with a butcher knife. Charles jumps at the swing of the butcher knife detaching the head from the body. He gulps down a bile of vomit, using his hand to stop it from coming out.

"Max?" Charles asks.

The Hollandian turns to him, a look of voided emotions in his eyes. His hands trembling, Charles doesn't understand what is up with the Hollandian but if it's one thing he does know is that he hides every emotion and maybe to the point that it will make him break.

"It's okay to be sad, you know." Charles says softly as tears form in his own eyes.

Max sighs before he takes a seat on the bench at the table behind them. He runs his blood covered hands over, smearing it over his face. Charles can't figure out if Max is finally letting his emotions, but it will always be a hard thing to figure out with Max.

"It's my way of coping, Charles." Max says before he shakes his head.

If Max had done anything more in his life then hide his emotions since the kidnapping at the age of ten. He had been stuck in that dark cold room for at least five years, starved, beaten, kicked, raped for so many nights upon end and the only way of coping for years of being stuck there for years, was to shut everything out.

If it hadn't been for one night that he was done with it and pretended to be dead before he got tossed out of that prison cell and into a lake that he had made a long track home with nothing but thin clothing on his back and stuff that he found along the way.

Max had learned to get home all on his own with no one ever to be there to teach him anything. His family had been happy to see him and isolated him for a year to make the world believe that he was still missing. No one needed to know what had happened to Max.

"It's not healthy." Charles tells him before he grabs the boy's chin in his hand.

Charles turns Max's gaze up to look at Charles. For the first time since Charles had met Max, he can see a storm of emotions go through his eyes. Tears form in Max's eyes, emotions swirling in them like a raging storm while he tries to seem to hold them in.

"I guess, it's been my way of coping ever since I was ten. It's easier to hide and pretend then to allow myself to feel, because feeling it hurts more then not." Max says before tears slip from his eyes.

Charles steps closer to Max, between his legs and let's the boy cry in his woollen shirt. His grip is tight on Charles, sobs leaving Max lips and he hides in Charles. Charles hears the door open before it closes again. He turns to look at his brothers who look confused yet bad for Max.

Max had always been the rock and the person people could go up to and cry on his shoulder. He was always the tough one and never showed emotions in front of others, mostly because it hurt him too much to do so. He never wanted to show the pain that he had went through.

"Is he okay?" Lorenzo asks his little brother worries.

"Yeah, he will be. It's just hard on him." Charles says with a heavy hard.

He wishes that this had never happened but sometimes life will disappoint and do things that is unfair. Life is unfair as that is something that he learned when he was younger. He had many nights that he had denied that fact. But he has come to terms with it and that it will always hurt when you lose someone.

Max let's go of Charles before he gets up, without sharing another word does he go back to skinning and making dinner for everyone. He knows that Charles looks at him like he wants to keep an eye on the man that just cried his heart out in pain and what Charles also knows is trauma.

———

After dinner Max disappears into the bathroom to get some hot bath and time for himself. Charles can see the exhausted look on his face and the pain in his eyes as he walks away.

Charles wants to ask if he is alright but he thinks that Max wants some time for himself to deal with all these emotions for a while. He wants to help Max so badly but his own grief isn't any less painful. His heart is heavy in his chest while he looks at the door getting closed.

"I'm going to bed." Charles says before he gets up from his seat.

Lorenzo and Arthur nod their heads and bids Charles a good night. Before Charles gets up onto his feet, he leaves to the bedroom of Max that he is sleeping in. Some times he wonders why Max sleeps on the floor, he had gotten back pains by now. Not that Max says anything about that, but Charles can see that his back hurts.

Charles quickly changes into a long woollen night gown that Max's older sister had made for him since he would get real cold at night, he grabs a book from the shelf that Max had put up for him before he lays in bed with the blanket up to his chest.

One chapter of his book later and Max walks into the room, wearing nothing but a woollen towel around his waist. Charles tries to ignore Max as the viking gets dressed in a pair of cotton pants and a woollen shirt. Normally this would be the tike that Max would leave the room to sleep in the living room.

But he doesn't, he pulls away the blankets and crawls into his own bed. Charles looks in the corner of his eye as Max pulls the furs back over them and shuffles closer to Charles. Charles can feel his heart racing in his chest, it's really against his culture to be sharing a bed with someone you're not married to but that doesn't mean that anything will happen.

Max keeps shuffling until he wraps his arms around Charles his waist, using the Monaque's stomach as a pillow. Charles can't help but feel his cheeks heat up and a smile form on his lips. It feels really nice to have Max cuddling him like a big teddy bear. Charles runs his hand softly over the back of Max.

"I'm sorry." Max says.

Charles frowns, he doesn't understand why Max is saying sorry. They didn't have a fight or anything. But it doesn't matter much to Charles. He is just glad that he is getting somewhat of comfort from Max like he is trying to give the viking.

"What are you sorry for?" Charles asks softly.

"That I wasn't there to protect you. You needed me and I wasn't there. I failed my village and now one of them paid the price." Max says.

Charles knows that he opened the door to Max's emotions. He knows that he made Max feel them full force now. A part of him is glad that he gets to see this side of the viking, a vulnerable and scared side. But on another part, he feels bad too. Because he opened a door that Max had locked to keep him from being hurt and feeling everything at once.

"I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to open a door that you kept shut for obvious reasons." Charles tells Max.

Max hums softly before he tells Charles good night, Charles chuckles. He blows out the candle from beside him and pits away his book. It doesn't take long before Charles can hear soft breathing coming from Max. Charles knows that Max is completely passed out.

Charles decides that it's a good idea to go to sleep himself too. It will be a hard time for all of them, nothing will go ever easy. He knows that.