Charles stands in the kitchen, yawning softly. He hasn't slept that well in months, he stretches out his limbs before he lets Ange go out into the woods to do her business and let her be wild for a while.

He cleans up the dirt from the floor and picks up Percival from the floor to let the puppy do his business too.

Charles hasn't woken up Max yet, he feels that the viking still needs to catch up on a lot of sleep. Even when Charles woke up, the viking didn't stir at the movements. He just continued with sleeping like a hibernating bear at winter. He didn't mind, it gave him some time to get breakfast and a bath up to temperature for them.

Yes, he was gonna throw his societies morals out of the window. He is gonna go take a bath naked with Max being there. Not that he is gonna do anything that he shouldn't before he is married. But the viking needs a bath and can't possibly do it all on his own.

"Good morning." Charles looks up to see Victoria coming his way.

"Hey Vicky." Charles greets the girl back.

Ange nudges Charles at his leg before Charles puts Percival in the snow to let him do his business. The pup whines a bit before staggering to the tree that is not too far from them. Charles can't help but think that this pup has got to be a month old or less.

Once Percival is done, Charles picks the pup back up and looks at Victoria who stands next to him. She places her hand on his shoulder, she gives him a soft smile.

"How is he doing?" Vicky asks Charles.

"Hibernating like a bear. He didn't even stir when I got out of bed." Charles tells the young viking girl.

Charles had woken up many times in the night, his trauma of Max leaving to do something stupid again taking over his body. But he could easily fall back asleep when he felt the arms and the pressure of the viking on him. And when he woke up this morning, Max hadn't moved one bit all night.

"Oh that's go-..." Vicky says but soon gets interrupted.

"Charles?" The two hear from Max's house.

Charles turns to the door, Max stands in the door opening. Still rubbing his eyes sleepily, a yawn leaving his lips before he looks with a smile straight at them. Charles can feel his heart race in his chest with how Max is looking at him.

"I'm gonna go and give that stinking viking a bath." Charles says jokingly to Vicky.

"Yeah, bathe that baby." She chuckles for she bids him goodbye.

Charles walks back to the house where Max is sleepily leaning against the doorframe and yawning again. Charles can't help but smile at the tired viking, he gently pushes Max inside before closing the door behind him.

"I'm gonna make some breakfast, okay?" Charles says which he only gets a nod to from the viking.

He puts the puppy on the floor, who jumps happily over to Max. Max picks up the puppy, he takes a seat at the table while Charles makes some breakfast for them. The prince knows that his viking needs to eat a big pile of food.

By the looks of Max, Charles can see that the viking has lost a lot of body mass. Mostly in the form of muscle that he used to have, now he is nothing but flesh and bones. The lean and skinny frame scares him since Charles didn't make Max eat anything when he arrived back.

He makes some eggs, fruits and roosts some meat above the fire place he had lit up earlier this morning. If anything, Charles had been busy trying to make breakfast all morning. He needs Max to have all the food he loves to eat. It would make the viking eat more then he would want to.

"Max?" Charles his voice is soft.

He needs to know something, he needs to hear the viking tell him what has happened the last six months. To understand what he had gone through and to what extend his viking had been hurt.

"Yeah?" Max hums out the word, a bit absent but still able to hear Charles.

"Go through it again about what happened to you and how you got home." Charles speaks softly.

He hates hearing the things that had happened to Max. The pain and horror that he had to go through but he needs to know to understand his viking. To know how to properly care for him as to not to send him off.

"Do we have to? I told you already." Max whines.

"No you only told me in two words." Charles says turning to Max.

He sees the sad and broken look in the viking's eyes. Charles feels bad for him, the way he tries to hold back the tears. His lip quivering with his nose and cheeks turning red.

"Fine." Max's voice trembles. "They found me on that boat, stabbed me and threw me onto their ship before they set fire to mine. They dumped me into a cell, didn't feed me for days on end. They chained me to tables or walls, just to beat me, injure me and of course to rape me. That went on for three months. I spent three months in that cell." Max says with tear rolling down his cheek.

Charles wants to wipe the tear away but as soon as his hand comes near the viking he flinches. It breaks his heart to see his viking that way. To see him so vulnerable yet so strong that he had just undergone that to protect his people. To remind a king of what he is capable of when his people are hurt.

"How did you get out?" Charles asks the viking.

He walks over to the fire pit with the roasting meat on it. He uses a cloth to pick it up and bring it back to the kitchen to get it ready to eat and cut it in pieces like he had been taught was formal in his country. He even tried teaching Max to use cutlery but that never worked.

"I did it at night, I lured a guard to my cell and knocked him out before using the keys to escape. I went through with the plan and then had to escape on the way out. I broke my arm in the process and went up north, took a boat, sailed to my border and walked for two months before I came to the first village in weeks and got to loan a horse." Max finishes his story.

Charles sighs as he hates how Max had done all of this. He puts the food on the table and gets Max a bit of milk to strengthen him up. He slides in next to Max and before they can even begin with breakfast, there is a knock on the door.

"Come in." Charles shouts.

The door opens and Arthur and Lorenzo walk into the room. The brothers close the door and give the tired viking a smile before they look at their brother who gets up to hug them.

"What you guys doing here?" Charles asks his brothers.

"We just wanted to see how Max is doing." Lorenzo says.

Max gets up from his position on the bench at the table. Arthur is quick to give the viking a big hug since he had taken care of them when they needed a place to stay.

The two brothers sit down at the table and eat breakfast with Charles and Max. Who don't mind and get to talk about something more light then the subject that Max and Charles had been discussing.

———

Charles cleans up the stuff, putting away the left over food and washes the plates and cutlery in the sink. His brothers had left a minute or so ago to meet with some people while Max had crossed his arms over the table and fell asleep after he had enough food.

Which gave the three brothers the opportunity to chat a bit and talk about everything that Max had told the poor prince. He could shares some tears and could vent about everything to his brothers.

Charles hums softly as he can hear the soft snores coming from his viking sleeping on his arms. He knows that the viking still needs a bath. And he is gonna give one to Max but he needs to clean the stuff up first. They had a lot of food and Charles was glad Max ate a lot.

Once everything is cleaned and put in their respectable places on the shelves. Charles goes over to his snoring viking to wake him up. The slim frame of the viking rises and falls with his breathing.

"Max?" Charles says softly, not to frighten the sleeping viking.

Max stirs softly, moaning before he sits up and yawns while stretching his limbs. He blinks softly, his lips barely parted as he gives the Monegasque prince a sleepy smile. The viking's crystal blue eyes glacéd over with many emotions swirling around in them.

The Monegasque helps the poor unfortunate viking on his feet. Sleep still infecting his mind as he doesn't seem to realise what the Monegasque is doing. He steers the viking towards the bathhouse in their house. The viking's steps are wobbly and Charles has to hold him up to prevent him from falling.

Charles helps Max undress once they get to there, not a sound other then pained moans leave the viking's lips. His breath is short, chest heaving with just the small movements of getting out of his clothing, which has Charles his heart breaking. He can't not even do small things anymore without being too tired.

Charles helps the viking into the bath before he strips out of his own clothing. The viking moans at the hot water that hits his skin, his eyes flutter closed and lean his head back against the wood.

The prince steps into the bath too, feeling the hot water tingle on his skin. He relaxes into the bath and sees a smile appear on his viking. His ocean blue eyes lazily look at the Monegasque. His hand stretched out for Charles to grab.

"I love you." Max says sleepily.

"I know, you're very keen on telling me all the time." Charles says to the viking.

He laces his fingers with the tired viking in front of him. Not caring anymore that it's against the morals and rules of his society. This society doesn't care about nudity so will Charles not care about being naked with Max.

Charles yelps when the viking pulls on his hand, he falls forwards. He can just in time place on hand on the wooden floor of the bathtub. His face inches away from that of the viking. His heart races in his chest, his breathing hitches in his throat.

He had never been this close to Max with his face ever in his life before. And if he has to be honest, his drive to kiss the viking only in creasing with the sweet smile that plays on the other's face. He blinks softly as his cheeks heat up and turn red as a cherry.

His eyes widen when he feels soft yet rough at the same time. His stomach erupts in butterflies dancing around with his hands tingling in a good way. He places his hand that had been holding Max's on the viking's cheek.

The kiss is short but sweet, and they pull away to catch their breathes. He looks in the blue eyes of the viking, love is all he can see. A soft look in his eyes as he leans into the touch of the prince.

He can't believe he just had his first kiss, with the viking of his dreams. He knows that he still needs to wash the viking but the look of happiness on Max's face is all that the Monegasque needs in his life. Max looks so happy that it makes Charles his heart pound and swell with happiness himself.

"Come on. Let me wash you." Charles says as he adjusts himself.

"Yeah, then we can cuddle." Max smiles sleepily.

Charles chuckles before he grabs the bar of soap, if smells so much like Max. The fresh smell of fir trees and grass, the leather and wood. He loves how it smells and the way that it always reminds him of the viking.

He runs the soap bar over Max, scrubbing and cleaning the viking of dried blood, dirt and sweat. The viking sighs softly in delight of Charles washing him, the feeling of the prince's hand on him makes him feel giddy.

"Are we getting excited?" Charles chuckles when he sees Max's private part move.

Max just hums a bit but lays his head on the edge of the bathtub. Slowly falling back to sleep while Charles cleans him, the prince doesn't mind cleaning his viking. Who has fallen asleep in the meantime.