Wherever you go, I will follow

1

There's a storm the day he leaves Denmark to return home. He talked a man into taking him back on his ship which is now rocking on the tempestuous sea. Heavy wind is slapping his face, some salty water with it too, as he's leaning out the taffrail to breathe in the clear air.

The long-bearded captain looks at him with narrowed eyes and yells through the loud noise of the waves: "Ya gonna get cold!"

He shoves his hands in the pocket of his thin jacket and, looking back at the man with a playful grin, shrugs. "I'm used to it. I'm from around here too, you know."

After the rocky ride through the North Sea, and an even rockier ride through highway E39 (which was only so rocky because he couldn't reach anyone except his ex-girlfriend to get him, therefore the ride included lots of bickering), so after all that ordeal, he gets home and falls asleep instantly. He can't even make sure he actually reaches his bed, by which his girlfriend wouldn't be too thrilled about if she was there.

When he wakes up the next day, the first thing he feels is someone poking him. He giggles with his eyes still close, and, assuming it's his unhappy girlfriend, pulls her to his chest.

Except that now he hears a man's laugh, feels his struggling and kicking. He doesn't really care though, squeezing him stronger and closer.

"Come on, I'm not Lagertha," says the man as he finally breaks free. "Now get up."

With his eyes still closed, he groans, and turns the other way.

"Ragnar, get up, or I'll do worse than poking."

He huffs and somehow manages to get into a sitting position. Rubbing his eyes, he sees Floki in front of him, just as he guessed.

"Well, good morning to you too," he flashes a mocking grin. "What's the rush?"

"Oh, I don't know... Maybe the fact that I've been here for long enough to hear this damn thing beeping constantly," Floki waves his phone in his face.

Ragnar grabs it. He has several notifications, as usual, but Floki has his Instagram DM page opened up. He has a new message from some kind of a company. After skim-reading it, he realizes it's a request for him to visit the UK on their behalf.

He raises his eyes back to Floki who is watching him with visible excitement.

"Can I come too?"

"I don't know, can you? And since when do you know my password?"

He gathers some energy to get up to his feet and walk to the kitchen. Floki follows.

"Hehe, it's actually not that hard. Björn's birthday, really? No wonder who is your favorite son..."

"I do not have a favorite," he states while grabbing the bread and a knife. "But he is my firstborn."

"Meaning, he's your favorite."

"Oh, shut up, Floki."

The man giggles as Ragnar strikes in his direction with the knife, along with throwing some crumbles.

"You are cleaning that up, right?"

Ragnar turns to see a very beautiful (as usual) and very threatening (as usual) Lagertha standing in the door. He flashes a wide grin.

"Well of course, my love," he says, approaching his girlfriend. He puts an arm around her slim waist and presses a kiss on her lips. As he heads back to prepare his sandwich, he asks: "Where were you? Your phone was off and I had to call Aslaug to get me from the port." He almost makes an "ugh" sound after the sentence, but he heroically resists the urge, instead he just settles with an eyeroll.