Your head was pounding.
The soft knock on your bedroom door had you pulling your blankets above your head and pressing the palms of your hands into your eyes in an attempt to ease the ache between them.
"Hey," Torvi poked her head inside the door, "you good?"
"No," your answer was solemn and she took the hint, slowly closing the door and leaving you alone with your hangover, which haunted you for almost an hour before allowing you to finally sleep again.
Your buzzing phone startled you awake as you scrambled to grab it from your bedside table.
Where are you? Study group started 20 minutes ago!
"Oh fuck," you said to yourself as you flew out of bed and into the shower.
Spending as much time as you did with the youngest of the Lothbrok brothers was a mistake and now you were paying for it.
Hurriedly, you slung your bag over your shoulder and rushed out of your apartment, almost sprinting down the stairs until your body collided with another. A yelp escaped your lips as you fell backward, bouncing off the person you had slammed into.
"Holy shit!"
He stumbled down the steps and backed hard into the wall.
"Watch where you're fucking going!"
"Sorry," your voice was small as you regained your balance, "I was in a hurry, I didn't know it was you."
His angry expression broke into a smile once he recognized you and you acted like his shirtless, toned chest didn't make you lose your cool, despite the fact that your bottom lip was tucked tightly between your teeth.
"Nerd," Hvitserk smiled and pulled you into a hug, "you're up early!"
"So are you, honestly, I can't believe you're alive right now."
"I've got a ridiculous tolerance, it's a gift from the Gods."
A silence fell between the two of you as Hvitserk scratched the back of his neck, "you want some breakfast? Ivar's cooking."
"Oh, no thanks, i've got to get to my study group, it started almost an hour ago."
"Yeah, I know," he suppressed a smile while wrapping an arm around your shoulder, "but you're so late that its almost over, so blow it off and come hang with us."
"Hvitserk, I really shouldn't."
"You should, I'll give you the notes, you'll be fine."
Before you could ask him how he knew you had study group and how he had the notes, he was pushing you into their apartment. The smell of pancakes and bacon assaulted your nose the moment you stepped inside the door and you knew that you weren't leaving any time soon.
"Ivar, we've got a guest!"
No response came from the kitchen as Hvitserk gently urged you further into their apartment.
"I'm not interested in entertaining one of your skanks this morning, Hvitserk. Send her off to class or something."
The two of you rounded the corner and you saw Ivar standing in front of the stove, a platter of pancakes on the counter beside him while he flipped bacon in the skillet below him.
"No skanks here," a cheeky smiled played at Hvitserk's lips as he walked up to his brother and pulled at his shoulder.
"Oh, hey," Ivar's face turned cherry red as soon as his eyes met yours, "I am surprised to see you up this early."
"I have—had—study group this morning. It's pretty obvious that I'm not going to be making an appearance."
"Well, the two of you can skip it together. Take a seat, breakfast is ready."
The three of you sat around the small table in their kitchen area and the boys proceeded to descend on the platters of breakfast like ravenous wolves.
"You going to eat, nerd?" Hvitserk smirked at you before shoveling a forkful of pancakes into his mouth.
"I was just waiting for the hounds to finish filling their plates."
"Funny, you're funny."
Ivar's voice was soft as he reached across the table with a pair of tongs and placed bacon and scrambled eggs on your plate. A silence fell over the table as the three of you ate Ivar's surprisingly delicious cooking.
"This is really good."
"It's hard to fuck up pancakes, but thank you."
The blush crept into his cheeks again as he cleared his throat and stood up with his dirty dishes.
"Nervous about the exam?" Hvitserk asked, "I don't think it'll be too bad but there are a couple of chapters I couldn't really get a good feel for, hopefully they're not on it."
He took a long drink of orange juice before focusing his green eyes on you, waiting for you to respond. It still made no fucking sense that notorious party boy Hvitserk Lothbrok was in your advanced class.
"It surprises me that he is as book smart as he is," Ivar quipped, basically reading your mind, "because he's such a big fucking idiot in most situations."
His lips molded into an infectious smile, showing off his perfectly white teeth and you had no choice but to smile back and laugh at his dig. Hvitserk was beautiful, you had decided earlier that morning when you'd run into him, but Ivar was something entirely different, something so much more.
You were beside him now, standing in front of the sink and helping him rinse the dirty dishes. Hvitserk had conveniently disappeared.
"It's a good thing though, if Hvitserk weren't so smart, I wouldn't know who you were and that would be quite a shame."
"What does you knowing me have to do with Hvitserk? We've been neighbors for almost a year and half."
"I'm not usually interested in the women he points out to me, but when he brought you up, and mentioned you were in his class, I was intrigued."
"Why?"
"Hvitserk doesn't care if they have anything going on upstairs, as long as they're pretty he'll jump in bed. I'm a bit more picky."
"Honestly Ivar," you bit your lip for a moment before spilling your thoughts, "that's really judge-y and kind of shitty."
He chuckled softly, "you're not wrong, but it doesn't change anything."
Ivar turned to his side so that his body was flush against yours, making sure you were pushed against the counter with nowhere to go.
"I want to kiss you," his eyelids were heavy above his lovely blue eyes, "can I?"
"Yes," you allowed yourself to melt into him, your arms wrapping around his shoulders as your lips and tongue hungrily played with his.
"Well," Hvitserk entered the room, causing you to pull away from Ivar, "as one nerd to another," he lowered his head, a mischievous look in his eyes, "fuck him stupid, even though he already is."
