Unbroken

Chapter 12

"You want me to find out his name?" Thor asked Frigga as they sat down for dinner. It was later in the day after frigga had tried to get Laufeys son to tell her his name, he had avoided telling her when she gave him breakfast, and when she tried again at lunch time he seemed a bit scared and obviously didn't want to tell her, so she said never mind and left him alone. She didn't understand why he wouldn't tell her his name, but she assumed it had something to do with that fact that she does technically 'own' him, and he's probably afraid to tell her something she doesn't already know. Laufey didn't let him speak without permission, so there's a good chance that if he ever tried to inform Laufey of anything he was beaten. She thought that if she had Thor go ask him he might ease up a bit, Thor doesn't own him and they're close in age, maybe he'd be a little more comfortable around him.
"Yes Thor, he won't tell me. I thought maybe he'd be more comfortable with you" she said.
"Why? He doesn't know me, he knows you a lot better, and you said he was afraid of everything so why would he trust a stranger?" He said. He didn't really want to have to talk to this guy, he didn't like the idea of having a frost giant here, he understood that it was necessary because he had been so abused, but he decided that he'd just avoid him.
"I don't know, but I can't keep asking him and I need to know what to call him" she said. "After we eat I'm going to go give him his dinner and ask him if he wants something to read, he's probably bored from sitting in bed all day. After I'm gone you ask about his name alright?" She said, Thor sighed a little bit but nodded.
"Alright fine" he said, he was really trying to have a better attitude about Laufeys son, but he couldn't shake the nasty feelings he had for him. He felt terrible for his situation and he was glad Odin and Frigga pulled him out of there, but it was still weird. He's a frost giant, and he's the son of the king.
"Try to be nice to him. He's a fish out of water right now and he's terrified" she said. Thor nodded, Looking a little more willing.
"I know, I'll try not to make him panic" he said.
They finished their dinner and frigga went to feed him and ask him if he wanted something to read, Thor waited outside the room until Frigga left after giving him a book to read. 'Apparently he likes to read, that's good' Thor thought. After Frigga left Thor got up and went into the room.
When he went inside Laufeys son was looking at the book like it was an unknown object, he saw someone come in so he looked up, thinking it was Frigga, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw Thor standing there. He dropped the book and frantically pushed himself as far back in the bed as possible to try and get away from Thor.
Thor was just confused. He had no idea why he was freaking out so much.
"You alright?" Thor asked as he walked closer to the bed. Laufeys son panicked even more, he jumped back again and moved to try to get out of bed "what- Don't get out of bed" thor said as he went over to him and grabbed him so he couldn't leave, he didn't know why he was freaking out but if he got up he'd probably hurt himself a lot more. He grabbed his shoulders and held him down firmly enough to keep him from getting up but not firmly enough to hurt him. The young frost giant was getting more and more panicked by the second and actually tried to get away from Thor, which failed miserably "just Calm down. Im not going to hurt you alright? Just stop trying to get out of bed, you'll end up hurting yourself" he said, but Laufeys son still didn't want to cooperate "I'm Thor, Frigga's son" Thor said, Laufeys son stopped fighting when he heard Frigga's name, she's been nice so far, maybe he wasn't going to hurt him... but he was still terrified of him "I just wanted to talk to you" Thor said as he let go of Laufeys son and took a step back. The frost giant was staring at him as if he was a hundred foot monster who wanted to eat think alive.
"Did I do something? Why are you panicking like this?" Thor asked. There was a silence but then The young frost giant swallowed hard and opened his mouth to speak.
"You- you're big" he said, Thor almost laughed, that's not what he was expecting to hear at all, but the frost giant was obviously very bothered by this so he didn't laugh at him.
"Why is that a problem?" He asked as he pulled over a chair and sat down.
"You- you could break me in half" Laufeys son said, still looking at Thor like he was a predator. Thor couldn't believe this was actually something he was afraid of, but then.... he lived with frost giants, and he's really small, he's an average size for an Asgardian which is really small on Jotunhiem. Suddenly he had images in his head of this guy having his back broken by Laufey and the other giants. It's already been established that he's been severely abused, it's not surprising he's afraid of people who are bigger than him. Suddenly Thor felt really bad for ever wanting him to leave, this guy was genuinely afraid that Thor had come to 'break him in half', he was so afraid that he tried to escape when half his bones are broken.
"Well, I'm not going to" Thor said "I just wanted to talk and get to know you a bit. You'll be living here now" he said, it wasn't true ten minutes ago, but now it was. He forgot that he was a frost giant and just wanted to be a friend to him, he certainly needed one.  "I told you my name, I'm Thor. Want to tell me yours?" Thor asked him. He gave him a blank look
"I told the queen earlier that- Laufey always just called me-" Thor cut him off.
"Yeah I know, he called you nasty things, but I want to know your actual name, not just what Laufey called you" Thor explained. Laufeys son looked confused.
"What's the difference?" He asked. What's the difference?! How does he not understand this question?!
"What's-  okay, Laufey is the king so you call him 'your highness' right?" Thor asked. Laufeys son nodded.
"Okay, so you call him 'your highness' but his name is actually Laufey. Laufey is his name, your highness is his title. When laufey is calling you 'runt' that's not your name, it's just a mean title" he explained. Laufeys son looked like something terrible just made a lot of sense. He had that look people get when they realize how terrible a situation is.
"So- so runt and idiot are just titles... not names" he said. Thor nodded.
"Exactly" he said "so then what's your name?" He asked again. Laufeys son looked like he was afraid to speak.
Laufey had always talked about names and how they were important, he always said that 'anything of value has a name, if it has no name it has no value' the young frost giant always assumed he had given him the name 'runt' as a way to be mean, he didn't think that about the fact that it wasn't a real name, he didn't know it was just a title, he thought that was his name, but now....
"I don't have one" he mumbled