"Goodbye guys!" Arthur yells, leaving the house after he had told Charles and Max that he was going to meet some guys down in the village. 

Charles looks at Max, who was sotting tiredly on the bench. Still recovering but he was doing pretty good. Slowly munching on the stewed beef that Charles had learned to perfect since Max had woken up.

The viking told taught him how to cook while he had barely any energy to get up from his seat. Max was too injured to cook so he taught Charles by telling him how to cook. And to Charles' surprise he liked to do so.

"Charlie?" Max asks, Charles looks up at the viking. "I wanna take you somewhere." Max looks hopeful at the Monaque.

"Is it far?" Charles puts the metal cup down that he was cleaning on the sink. He gives Max a look that says that Charles doesn't trust Max at the moment when it comes near his health.

The viking had gotten pit of bed a couple of times before his sister had told him he was allowed to do. He had almost ripped open the stitches on his back. Charles hates how careless Max is about his health or tries to do more then he can at the moment.

"Not far." Max shrugs his shoulders. "Besides it's worth the trip, trust me." Max looks at Charles with these puppy eyes, like it would convince Charles to make this trip with Max.

"Okay, we'll go." Charles gives in, seeing how happy it makes Max that they are going there.

Max gives Charles a big smile. "You won't regret it." Max promises him.

—————

"You fucking lied." Charles huffs.

Charles is panting more then the recovering viking next to him. Who seems to be indifferent to the steep incline. Like Max suddenly wasn't almost dead three weeks ago and hadn't woken up only eight days prior.

"I didn't, I said it was worth the trip." Max grins evilly at the prince.

"How can you not be affected by the incline? You're the recovering one!" Charles asks out of breath. His hands shaking as he sits down on a stone. The two wolves running up the mountain like it is nothing. Of course it's nothing to them.

"I'm a viking, Charles. We ignore the feeling of out of breath. We just go on." Max looks at him as if it's the most normal thing in the world.

"But you're injured!" He points out.

"Yeah, and I ignore it." Max says casually.

Now Charles understands why Victoria didn't stop Max when he got out of bed. Why she only told him to take it easy and left. Charles hates the fact that Max doesn't care about his health.

"Come on, we're almost there." Max ushers Charles back up on his feet.

"No, I'm gonna catch my breath first and so should you!" Charles snaps at Max.

Feeling suddenly very angry at the viking. Max told him it wasn't far and yet they had been walking for over an hour now. Charles so desperately wants to shout at Max but he knows the stubborn viking better then that now.

Max moves to sit down next to him, looking up at the trail going up. Charles doesn't know why they are climbing the mountain or what there is but Max really seems to want to show him.

Charles looks at Max, he's seen this tired look in his eyes a lot. He knows Max is looking for and pushing the limits. He is pushing his luck and Charles doesn't like it. He fears that Max will collapse.

"Come on, we can relax once we're there." Max says, groaning as he gets up.

"Fine." Charles gets up.

Charles follows Max further up the mountain. He doesn't like the fact that they still have to walk the last bit. But he loves how the pine trees move with the wind.

His hearing gets run over by the constant clashing of a waterfall. It makes his worries about Max get put at ease with how in trans he is with the sound of falling water.

Max turns to him for a second to grab his hand, a smile tucked on his face as they walk up to the end of a dirt pathway. Charles frowns for a second.

"You're taking me to the end of a road?" Charles asks the viking confused, who doesn't do anything but smirk.

Max shakes his head. "No. It's what's beyond." He says before pushing aside thick and many vines covering an entrance of a cave.

Charles can't believe his eyes as he looks beyond the entrance that is littered with cave drawings and some very old toys. Which is odd to Charles but his kind tells him that Max must have known about this place for most of his life.

"Excuse the mess, my father found this place when I was young and told me if I ever needed time away from the village, this would be my hideout so my father would always know where I was." Max explains as be let's the wolves in.

Who skip down the cavern, Charles suddenly feels a pretty warm breeze heat up his cold bones. max takes off his fur and drops it somewhere on the ground. Not that Charles will, being the cold ass that he is.

His eyes catch the amazing and detailed cave paintings on the wall. Not an inch is left untouched, he wonders who has made this paintings are so talented. They're so beautiful and full of colour and details.

"this is beautiful." Charles comments on the cave paintings.

Max softly hums before walking to one of them, running his fingers over the wolf curled up on the wall.

"dankje, I made them myself." Max says as he smiles sadly at Charles.

Charles didn't know that Max is so talented in drawing as he had never seen Max with any drawing stuff ever in his life. To Charles' surprise, known of the People in Holland had ever walked with anything related to writing. Like they don't write.

"They're beautiful, I didn't know you were so talented." Charles says looking at the many drawings.

One catching his eye in particular, he knows the architecture of the houses on the painting. Reykvikian style of building. But he can't really make out what it's suppose to mean. It looks pretty sad but that's all he can see about them.

He walks up to the village like painting that he has been staring at for a second now. He runs his fingers over the paint, feeling the cold cave wall against his finger tips.

"Do they all have a meaning?" Charles asks softly.

He turns to look at Max, his expression unreadable yet at the same time too many to identify what he is feeling. He can't help but wonder what is on his mind. But Max shakes his head and gives him a smile.

"No, Just things that came to mind." Max says before he grabs Charles' hand and takes him down the cave tunnel.

Charles knows that's a lie, not that he is sure about it but he isn't going to press on that matter. He gets the feeling that whatever that is bothering Max or keeping him from opening up to Charles, must be something he is either not ready to speak about or just too painful to him.

Charles just lets Max lead him through the dark tunnel, a couple of glowing mushrooms lead the way. He can see that there some paintings scattered around the tunnel near the floor.

Some look bright and colourful, while some look dark and voided of colour. Like they were bad memories or painful drawings. Like they held more meaning than the colourful ones. He really wants to know, he really wants to know all about max and his scars.

They don't speak for the remaining walk through the cave tunnel. Charles feels really conflicted by what the cave walls are showing him. He learned that Max is not one to speak about his emotions so this must have been his way.

"You know, I would never judge you for anything." Charles tells him with a smile.

Max turns to Charles and nods his head with a fake smile. "I know, and I guess, everything that I have ever been through are painted on these walls. There are many rooms and tunnels, you can take one or more for yourself." Max says as they reach a clearing.

Charles can't believe the beautiful clearing that he sees in front of him, a small hole in the ceiling let's in the sunlight, lighting up the entire cave as it is some kind of dome with a waterfall running through the light hole. He can't believe how beautiful this place is. The crystal clear water with many shiny rocks on the bottom.

He looks at Max for a second to see him having stripped out of his clothing with nothing but his naked butt as he falls into the water. He feels his cheeks heat up as he can't keep his sinning gaze away from Max. His cheeks are bright red.

"Come in! It's nice!" Max says as he floats on his back.

Charles needs another minute, in his culture it's completely against the morals and laws to see other people then your family and partner naked. And since Max is neither of those, it's completely sinful to do what he has done.

"But you're naked!" Charles shouts back at Max.

"Oh yeah about that, this is a hot water spring with water melted from the big glaciers up in the big mountain range, it's water from Valhalla and you only are allowed to dip in that water naked. To keep the water as crystal like Valhalla has created it." Max tells him.

Charles feels like this has to be one of the weirdest way to worship your god but who is he to judge. He knows that his god is fiercely against nakedness unless your wed to each other. He would go to hell if he does so. His god is very strict when it comes to the seven sins.

"Your gods are weird." Charles comments.

Not moving from his spot on the cold stone floor. He can feel the heat of the water blowing in his face. It makes his chilly bones heat up. He watches as Max stands up in the water. His naked frame looking good and really sinful to him. He tries to avert his eyes from the delicious man standing in the water. He had never really seen Max without so much clothing.

His face heats up as he never had seen a man apart from his brothers and parents naked before. He can't keep his eyes from moving down south, trying to keep his mind from looking at the sinful parts of Max. Who doesn't seem to be affected by being naked at all. How can one be this confident while standing this naked in front of another.

"Mate, my gods don't make me be a prude. Not judging your god or whatever but he is making you wait until your married to have sex with someone and it's sinful to be naked with other people, even your friends. Our gods just encourage it to have fun and pleasure, not to care because we could die any second." Max says.

"So you have..." Charles begins before his face turns bright red again. "You know...had sex?" Charles asks when he looks at Max.

He can't keep his eyes at Max's face, they wonder down south again. Even lower then before, seeing how bog he is. It stirs something within him, something sinful as he wants to feel what it's like to have sex. It makes him feel real hot and bothered, he wants to know now what it feels like.

For a second he sees Max turn pale, wondering why. Most of the time, Max is very private about his childhood or memories as Charles recalls his childhood fondly, Max doesn't say much nor do his family ever talk about the past.

"I wouldn't call it that. It wasn't..." Max says, his voice hoarse and full of emotions.

Most of the time Max would speak with a void of emotions. Like he learned to stop feeling anything, it had Charles always wonder why Max showed no emotions other than maybe looking happy once in a while. He shakes his head, he gives Max a nod that he understands but actually doesn't understand what he means at all.

It hurts him a little that Max had been sexually active already. Like he didn't want to wait for the person he loves the most but if he had to honest, can he expect him to?

Charles sucks in a breath. He takes off his warm clothing, stripping all the way down to his naked frame. He knows that Max can see all of him now. Everything that the Monaque has or the lack of what he has. He feels the eyes of Max on him. Not judging or anything like that, but more understanding than anything else.

"I get why you're so sheltered and isolated from the world." Max says.

Charles feels his cheeks heat up, a fire in the pit of his stomach gets set ablaze. A fire he has never felt before but can't help that it makes him feel like a burning desire, something that makes him want to touch the Viking and kiss him. Something makes him want to have Max have sex with him. But he tries to withhold that feeling.

"What you mean?" Charles says as he doesn't get why Max said that.

"Well you're a man without a dick. Meaning that you're one of those who can get pregnant. They're rare, you see they are quite desired and the offsprings they create are extremely strong and intelligent too. Meaning that someone like you, is and will always be hunted. Since my kingdom is open for any type of person, we have quite a lot here. You're probably so heavily protected and isolated because of it." Max says as if it's the most normal thing to say.

Charles looks away. His parents had always told him that it was quite normal to be a man without the private parts of a man. He has never felt that his situation to get pregnant had been rare. He had always been told there were plenty of men like him.

"My parents told me that it wasn't." Charles said softly.

He finally steps into the hot water, his body warms up from it. He can't help but shiver of the warmth. It makes him relax quite a bit but what Max had said made a lot of sense. He was heavily protected and isolated from everyone. He didn't have friends nor any free time to do anything for himself.

"You might want to bring this conversation up with  Lando. He is just like you, he just feels like he is alone in this because he's afraid to talk to anyone and has no one he can talk to about this of his friends. I don't know anything about this apart from that's it's rare. He knows everything about it." Max says.

Charles nods his head and walks passed the Hollandian viking. He goes to the deep of the water, feeling how it makes him calm and relax from wearing so much clothing. He misses his home sometimes when he is alone. Too much time to wonder.

"I will." Charles says with gratitude.

He is glad that Max is not one of those vikings that is all about lust. It makes him happy that he is a gentleman like he came from Monaque. But looks the most viking of all people. He knows this will be a fun day just between the two of them. A hot water spring.