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JAMIE FRASER S1

BABYYYYYY JUST UNMUTE GOD

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On hunger and love: 1. Catherynne M. Valente | 2. Natalie Diaz | 3. Katherine Larson | 4. Edvard Munch | 5. Caroline Walker Bynum | 6. Hélène Cixous | 7. José Saramago | 8. Hélène Cixous | 7. Roberto Ferri

Get Me High When I'm Low

Pairing: Loki Laufeyson x reader

Words: 1.1k

Warnings: Dom/sub themes (Dom!Loki/sub!reader), choking, gagging, oral sex (m receiving), face fucking

Requested by: @vxngogh

Main Masterlist | Ko-fi

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Three of Loki’s long, agile fingers slip over your tongue like silk. He pushes them to the back of your throat, digging for your gag reflex. He finds it and the choked noise you make sends goosebumps racing over his skin.

“That’s it, my pet. You sound like heaven when you choke for me. Let’s see how it sounds when it’s my cock instead.”

You’re already on your knees, with your hands bound behind you. His cock hangs hard and heavy in front of your face. It makes your mouth water around the fingers that are still hooked into your esophagus. He feels the flood of saliva and smirks down at you.

“Does my little pet want my cock? You’re starving for it. That’s why you’re my pet, isn’t it? You’re a hungry little beast for me. A good little whore, aren’t you, pet?”

You nod eagerly, and retch as his fingers press against the back of your tongue again. His cock jumps at the noise.

“What a delightful sound.” He makes you heave again, and bile burns at the back of your throat. He pulls his fingers out of your mouth. They’re covered in a thick, slippery foam he fucked out of the depths of the snug channel. He spreads it over his length with a tight fist. He milks his cock until his eyes drift shut and he gives a satisfied hum. Precome drips creamy over his pale knuckles and you whine.

“What is it, pet?”

“Please, sir.”

“Speak up, darling.”

“Please. Can I suck your cock? I want to suck your cock, sir!” In desperation you let your mouth fall open and your tongue lie across your bottom lip just to make yourself extra clear.

“So inviting,” he teases, “so eager to please.” He milks a fat drop of precome out of his dick, and lets it drip onto your tongue. The salty tang melts over your taste buds. You close your eyes to savor the flavor, and Loki feeds the tip of his cock into your mouth.

You seal your lips around the fat head and deliver little kitten licks to the spot under the glans that makes him hum.

“No pet. Not today. I would like to fuck your tight little throat until you’re a mess for me.” His pale fingers momentarily circle your throat, squeezing just a little until you swallow with a click.

He hums at the way your throat works under his hand. He curls his fingers around the base of your skull and he drags your mouth down his shaft. He hits your gag reflex, which fights him. Finally the head of his cock pops through the reticent muscles.

He pulls out, just a smidge, “Deep breath, pet.” You have just enough time to suck in a breath through your nose before he drags you onto his dick. He groans loud and long at the way you feel around him.

“Absolute perfection,” Loki groans. A long finger hooks under your chin until you lift your eyes to meet his. “So beautiful on your knees. You were made to kneel for me, pet.”

He’s still holding his cock deep in your throat. The world is starting to go fuzzy at the edges, and you start to struggle a little. He’s a god, so his hand is as immovable as iron, no matter how hard you push against it it doesn’t budge.

Finally he grabs a handful of your hair and hauls you off his cock. a long string of spit arches from your bottom lip to the tip of his dick. Plump tears trail down your cheeks.

“Breathe,” and he barely gives you time to huff in a little fresh oxygen before he’s driving into your esophagus again.

“You feel so fucking good little pet,” he moans. He’s rutting into your mouth a little, the dark curls at the base of his shaft tickle your nose. He’s not fucking your face yet, but he’s definitely working up to it.

He pulls out of your mouth again, and you cough up creamy froth made up of saliva and precome. Loki tsks.

“I thought you were hungry for my cock, pet. You begged me so sweetly. You said please. You don’t seem very grateful to have been given precisely what you asked for.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” you sob. “Please. Again, sir, please.” Your desperation gives your voice a hysterical edge.

Loki bends to gently shush you. His hands frame your face and his thumbs brush tears from your cheeks. “Hush, pet. No need to fret.” He kisses your forehead gently. “I’ll give you another chance to please me. You shall do much better this time. Isn’t that right?”

You nod vigorously and whimper, “Yes, sir.”

“Open for me,” he purrs. Your jaw falls obediently. He slaps your tongue with the head of his cock a few times, and plunges into your throat.

He seizes a handful of your hair to hold you still and starts unrelentingly snapping his hips to fuck your mouth. Tears roll freely down your face, drool courses over your chin and patters onto your chest.

“That is a good little pet." His cock aggressively pummels your throat, making the filthiest sounds. A groan rumbles up from somewhere deep in Loki's chest. He's panting praise, and cursing in a language you don’t recognize.

“I’m close, pet,” he groans, “and I’d like to spill on this pretty face.” It’s his way of saying get ready, so when he pulls out of your throat you keep your mouth open, despite the overwhelming urge to cough and clear your airway.

The first hot spurt hits your tongue. That one is a treat—just for you. He paints your cheeks with the rest, because Loki loves to decorate you with his come. It pleases him when you service him with pearly drops of his spend decorating your features. When he’s done milking out the very last spurt you’re striped with his come. Some of it mingles with your tears and drips down your chin.

“Oh my," he breathes, "what a mess. How glorious you look. Such a good little beastie for me,” he’s still stroking himself, because he’s a god, after all, and he’s done only when he wants to be done.

“Next, I’d like to fill your gorgeous cunt, so bend over for me, pet.”

Around the Realms in 80 days- Chapter 12

Pairing: Reader x Loki

Story summary: You have fallen through a portal during the convergence into Asgard and come face to face with Thor, and his brother Loki. With no way to return, you must travel with the two men and their hoard of asgardian soldiers to get back home. Things get from bad to worse when you have to share a tent with the god of mischief himself.

Notes: Hello! hope you enjoy this chapter! Lil warning asshole Loki rears his head again in this chapter and the first half is a bit angsty!

The first thing that hit you was the headache. 

There was a little drummer inside your brain hitting the snare that was your temples. 

As you slowly came round, the other thing that struck you was that Loki was pretending to be asleep. 

The awkwardness that was the atmosphere between you and Loki seemed to still be around in the morning. Whether he had overheard your words last night or not, either way he still hadn’t spoken to you. 

You had slept in his bed enough times now to realise when he was pretending to sleep, like that time in the middle of the night when he had caught you staring.

Why he was pretending, you couldn’t be sure. 

You studied him, despite knowing he was awake and was aware of what you were doing. This was going to be your last morning waking up beside the God of mischief after all and you didn’t want to miss any of it.

You flicked your mind back to the night previous as best you could, although it was difficult considering the way your head banged and throbbed. You sat up and downed your glass of water. You frowned slightly, remembering suddenly that it was Loki who had provided you with it. On reflection, Loki had surprised you last night, he had asked why you were upset, a personal interest you didn’t expect.

He was almost acting like…a friend. 

Perhaps that made this day, your leaving day, all the more difficult; were you loosing a potential friend?

Or had you already lost him, before a friendship could properly bloom, by speaking those infernal words last night. 

Not that you regretted them, you meant what you said no matter how much you wish you didn’t mean them. Besides, after today you would probably never see him again. So it didn’t really matter anyway. 

Could one be friends with Loki? Well, now you’d never know. Which was a good thing, you tried to remind yourself. As much as Loki’s words had hurt you the morning before, he was probably right; you didn’t belong here and it was for the best you were leaving. 

Then why did it hurt so much?

The rain hit the tent in large droplets, seeming like it was just as upset as you were about leaving. 

You put the glass back down beside you, embarrassing bits and pieces were coming back to you, including a particularly strange one about blowing a raspberry at him.

Maybe it was better that he was pretending to be asleep, he might kill you when he woke up. 

Speaking of which, Loki was beginning to “stir.” He shuffled about, stretched and then opened his eyes, already frowning. 

A truly Oscar worthy performance. 

You tried to glare down at him, but making the facial expression made your head throb again, causing you to suck in a breath through your teeth. 

“Feeling ill girl?” He asked, his voice not groggy with sleep confirming your assumptions. 

Despite the fact that you were starting down at him, he still managed to somehow be looking down his nose at you, glaring with a hard stare. 

Great, so he was back to a stoic, moody god. 

“Hm just a bit. The wine didn’t make me sick though which is something, normally that’s my usual party trick even when drinking earth wine.” You tried to lighten the mood.

Unfortunately it didn’t work, and he deepened his scowl.

“Midgardian wine is disgusting and primitive, just like everything on that planet.” He spat.

You decided not to comment incase it made his clearly bad mood even worse. 

Drawing your knees up to your chest, you rested your aching head on them, listening to the rain getting faster and sighed quietly, looking forward to your trip back even less now the weather was so awful. The last time you had ridden in the rain was on the way to Deill, and you could still remember the way the cold had seeped through your skin to your bones. 

The noise of the men rousing and saddling up was getting louder alerted you that it was time to get ready. Stretching and slipping out of bed, you went to change. 

As you popped a light blue smock on, courtesy of Yrsa, you began thinking of home; well, of showers mainly and how the first thing you were going to do was get into one and then wear some of your own clothes. Maybe even your fluffy pyjamas if it was cold enough at home and then some…

“What’s that?” Loki’s sharp voice brought you out of your musings. 

“What’s what?” You turned round to face him. 

“What’s that, on the back of your neck?” His tone was harsh and cold still. 

Loki got out of bed suddenly and took two large strides to meet you by the chair. He stood directly in front of you, leaving you staring at the middle of his chest. It had taken you by surprise and you blinked a couple of times before craning your neck up.

He was very close, and you stepped backwards automatically, a lump forming in the back of your throat. Even with his stony face and all its harsh lines, he really was very pretty, and having his chest so close to your face made it difficult to not think about… well, how strong he was. 

Without asking for permission. he moved your hair out of the way, barring the left side of your neck to him. He studied it closely, frowning slightly, as he traced a mark along your neck. 

You shivered embarrassingly and stepped away, putting your own hand where he had just been touching.

“I’m not sure?” Your voice squeaking slightly. 

Loki irritably conjured a silver hand-mirror for you to look.

“Oh, erm this bruise here is from the trolls I’m pretty sure, and then this scar is really old I got it when I was a kid. It’s kind of a funny story actually, I was in a swimming pool and there must have been something sharp in the water; when I came up from doing a handstand there was a gash in my neck. But I swear I didn’t scrape it or anything. So weird. Anyway they had to evacuate the pool and I got like 7 stitches. It didn’t even hurt that much.” 

You looked back at Loki who was still frowning, something he had been doing all morning. You placed the mirror on the chair awkwardly. 

“Something in a swimming pool, cut your neck?” He said slowly. 

“Yep. It was my friend Harry’s 7th birthday party and he passed out when he saw it.” You laughed remembering the story. 

Loki stepped back too and gave you a look you couldn’t decipher.  

“So fragile.” He said, the first softly spoken words he had said all morning.

He quickly changed to his usual sneering face that usually meant bad news. 

“Mortals are so fragile.” His repeated harshly. 

“Alright, jeez.” You rubbed your neck. “You are in a bad mood this morning.” 

He narrowed his eyes and stared down at you,

“Why would I be in a bad mood?”

You shrugged, “Your guess is as good as mine my friend.” 

He continued to glare before raising a perfect eyebrow.

“I am not your friend.”

His words hit you in the stomach, and for all your confident words you were starting to wonder if you would be sick after all. You could feel the bile rising in your throat, and your heart thumping in your chest. 

Ouch. 

You composed yourself before speaking. 

“It’s just a saying on Earth. I’m aware we are not friends.” You spat. 

“Good.” He spat back.

“Well I’m glad we’ve cleared that up.” You made to leave the tent. 

Before you got too far however, you turned back around. It was like picking a scab, you knew you should just leave it but you couldn’t.  

“I, personally can’t wait to go home so I don’t have to deal with an arrogant asshole god every-day.”

“And I, personally can’t wait for you to go home so I don’t have to babysit a weak and fragile mortal every-day.” He retorted back, quickly.

You felt rage flow through you, you wanted to stomp your feet like a child, you wanted to scream and cry, you wanted to hurt him back. 

“I would never have wanted to be friends with you anyway.” 

You left quickly, like a coward before he could say anything. 

The rain shower had stopped for now, but the grass squelched under your feet. You could feel the all-familiar signs of tears growing in your eyes and threatening to fall. You walked as fast as you could before anyone noticed. You crossed the camp and into the woods behind to the water source. 

“Asshole asshole asshole” You chanted under your breath. “Ughhhh.” 

You stuck your hands into the water and flicked it over your face like they do in the adverts. Unfortunately you ended up with water in an unflattering place on your dress. 

“Ah!” You yelled out loud in frustration. 

“Ah!” You yelled out again, this time in response to Thor suddenly appearing through the trees. 

You rolled your eyes and put your hand on your chest, trying to catch your breath back.

“What?” You snapped, harsher than you meant to.

Thor looked sheepish,

“Apologies my lady, it was not my intention to frighten you. I merely wished to inform you we are leaving now.” 

You sighed. “Fine, I’m on my way.” 

“I also wanted to apologise for letting you drink the wine last night, I should have had more care.” 

“Don’t worry about it, I’ve had worse hangovers on flaming sambuka’s.” 

“What’s…flaming sambuka?”

“It’s…never mind.” You followed him back through the trees. 

“Loki thought you seemed down yesterday, how do you feel today?” 

“Loki said what?” You were taken aback. 

“He mentioned you seemed in low spirits during the ride to Rythja.” Thor responded.

You frowned but didn’t respond. What a strange thing for Loki to bring up, when he had made clear this morning he quite obviously didn’t care.

“Well, he can’t talk about mood changes, he was in a massive strop today.” You mumbled. 

Thor sighed,

“I don’t think he is particularly looking forward to returning to the Capital today. He has a long way to convince the people he could make a good king one day, there have been many who have not been too accepting of him.” 

“I wonder why.” You rolled your eyes. 

Loki was not exactly in your good books today, having thoroughly pissed you off that morning.

The kicker was, you had naively thought yourselves growing closer, even feeling upset about having to leave incase you never saw him again. 

You remained in thought, generally erring on the side of angry, until you arrived at the horses, saddled up and ready to leave. Halvor helped you up as usual in front of him, and you settled in for the journey. 

You peaked a look up to the front of the convoy, where Loki rode next to Thor, wondering if you could gauge any emotions he held about your earlier conversation. The princes were in deep conversation, Loki still had the scowl on his face he had worn all morning. 

“Are you alright Miss?” Halvor asked, when you sighed heavily.

“I’m fine, thanks though. Guess I’m just wanting to get home now.” You lied.

“Of course, you must be looking forward to returning.”

You hummed in a non-committal sort of way, and soon the party set off for the last time.

                                                     ***

The men’s excitement grew, like a hoard of bees, the close you got to the capital. It was a tangible feeling, almost one you could taste in the back of your throat. It was contagious, and as much as you didn’t want to return, your own excitement of getting seeing the capital was growing too. 

You had been able to see it in the distance for a while; something large, tall and golden, getting closer with every passing second. You felt like Dorothy heading towards the emerald city. 

“Not long now Latte.” Volstagg affirmed, riding beside you. 

“Are you looking forward to be home?” You asked politely.

“Aye my lady.”

“Do you have a family there?”

Fandral snorted from the other side of him. 

“Any child you find fatherless belongs to Volstagg.” 

Volstagg gave him a push. 

“Do not listen to him, ’tis Fandral who is the swain here, the ladies do not call him Fandral the dashing for nothing…”

While the men bickered amusingly near you, you once again attempted a look over to see how Loki was faring. The journey had been going on for a few hours now, and while your anger still bubbled, you were starting to regret your final words. 

There was a very real chance they were your final words to him after all; and while he was being a colossal dick this morning, you still felt some remorse for the way things had ended between you. 

Unfortunately you couldn’t gain much from the back of his head. 

You tossed between trying to say something to him before you left or just leaving how things were. He was the one that started the argument after all, and your prideful side told you to continue to ignore him. The softer part of you, told you that you would be upset if you didn’t at least try to end things cordially. 

Someone was shaking you gently out of your contemplation, 

“Miss? We are approaching the city gates.” 

You blinked rapidly, having been so lost in thought you had missed getting closer to the city. A sudden sense of nervousness overtook you, and butterflies fluttered in your stomach. The idea of facing more Asgardians that you had done previously was worrying you slightly.

As if he could feel you fretting in front of him Halvor mumbled,

“Don’t worry so much, just keep your head down. You won’t be the first mortal some of them have seen but they might be surprised to see one riding in with the Prince’s guard.” 

The city gates seemed to appear quicker than you would have liked and you swallowed a lump in your throat, preparing to be stared at as you paraded through. 

On approach, a loud bell sounded which seemed to alert the people that the Princes were arriving. Unfortunately this did nothing for your nerves and you jumped dramatically, nearly unseating yourself from the horse.

“We’ve taken one of the bottom entrances to the capital, so the Princes have chance to walk through the streets before we make our way up to the castle. This allows the people welcome them back after their tour.” Halvor informed you. 

The situation might have been a bit scary but you were glad to have someone with you to explain things as you went. 

As you started the journey up to the castle, people appeared out of their houses and shops, waving and shouting like they had done in Deill. You additionally noticed the questioning stares you received from the townspeople too; but apart from that the progression was fairly smooth. 

The streets were cobbled to begin with, and the town would have reminded you of an old-fashioned Earth town, expect for some extreme differences. Looking ahead, you could see monstrously large gold and silver buildings, some of them floating above the ground; none of them however compared to the largest building of all. A gigantic organ shaped building made completely of gold. It was a strange mix; riding horses in cobbled streets and floating metal shapes. 

While you were riding, you began to notice something; while the crowds were shouting and welcoming, the only name they shouted was Thors. Not that you were massively surprised from what you had heard of Loki’s reputation on Asgard, however there was no welcome for Loki. No cries or shouts or woman blowing kisses. 

A woman screamed from the side, bringing you back to the present moment. You struggled to see what she was screaming about, until a little boy, no older than 5 ran across towards the horses. Your stomach lurched as visions of him being trampled filled your eyes. 

The boys father, you assumed, ran out and grabbed him just in time, so you could breathe a sigh of relief. 

“Prince Tor!” The boy cried, looking up, apparently unaware to the fact he had nearly been trodden on. 

The parade stopped, and Thor jumped down from his horse chuckling. 

“You have to be careful my boy, you nearly frightened your mother half to death!” He exclaimed as he kneeled to be closer to the boys height. 

The boy looked a little contrite as he reddened and played with the edges of his tee-shirt.  

“I hold your hammer?” He blinked up at him. 

The boys parents looked abashed,

“We apologise your Highness.” His father stepped forward, “come along Sune.” 

“That’s quite alright. I’m afraid that Mjolnir is a very special hammer, young one and only I can hold it.” 

The boy looked a little disheartened “Okay.” He said sadly. 

“Here, maybe there is something we can do.” Loki swung down off his horse to bend next to the boy. 

You watched as Loki held out his palm. A green mist swirled in the centre of his hand, before disappearing and leaving a small version of Thor’s hammer. 

The boys parents seemed to let out a breath they must have been holding, as the boy took the hammer from Loki’s hand with glee. 

“Tank you prince yoki!” 

Loki’s face was the softest you had seen in that day, and your heart clenched looking at him, this time not in angst. 

You wondered for a second what it was like to be Loki, to be considered untrustworthy and to be so unpopular with his own people. That had to take its toil. You were half on the verge to feeling sorry for him a little. 

Thor and Loki did some more waving, before hoping back on the horses and the progression started up again. 

As you climbed higher and got closer to the oversized organ, the roads changed from cobbled to pure gold to match the buildings around you. The people got sparser, and you noticed a strange bridge coming in from the left. The bridge seemed to be transparent, with reflective rainbow streaks running through. 

“That’s the Bifrost bridge. Do you see that round bit? Heimdall the gate keeper resides there, controlling the Bifrosts power and who enters or leaves the planet. That’s how he will send you home.” Halvor explained.

“What happened to that part?” You asked him, pointing out the part of it that was blackened.

Halvor cleared his throat. 

“It was damaged not so long ago when Prince Loki unleashed the power of the Bifrost on Jotunheim.” 

“God, what happened?” 

“Well Jotunheim was near destroyed, it’s people alongside it.”

“Why…would he do that?” 

You were shocked. Although, given his track record of taking over worlds you probably should have expected it. It was just…Loki the destroyer of worlds seemed so far from the Loki who could banter with you and even be sweet occasionally. 

“Its complicated, Miss.”

“How complicated can the ethics behind destroying a planet and a people be?” You muttered. 

“I’m not saying what he did was right. Only…” He sighed. “As a young boy, Prince Loki had always felt inferior to his older brother. Destroying one of Asgard’s biggest enemies was his way of trying to prove himself worthy to his father.” 

That you could understand. You hadn’t been here long and already you could tell how difficult it must have been to live up to the mighty Thor. 

“You’re extremely wise Halvor.” You turned around and grinned at him. 

The teen blushed. 

The party had finally reached the mysterious golden building. A beautiful lady stood waiting, with blonde curled hair and a long blue dress. 

“My sons, welcome home.” She greeted the princes. 

“Queen Frigga.” Halvor murmured behind you, although you had already guessed who it might be. 

While the rest of you waited for further instruction, Thor and Loki jumped from their houses and conversed with their mother. Frigga shot you a quick glance, but her eyes were friendly, and she smiled at you. You could see Loki scowling again and rolling his eyes at something she was telling him, but then he seemed to nod. After a while, the two men returned. 

“Halvor, we are to take Latte to the Bifrost. The rest of you may return the horses to the stables. I will collect you and bring you to speak with Odin.” 

You sighed and prepared to say goodbye, smiling weakly at Fandral and Volstagg. 

“Well, see you around I guess.” 

“Latte, it has been an honour to meet you.” Volstagg bowed low on his horse. 

“Farewell my lady, we will never forget you.” Fandral noted.

You felt almost tearful. Bloody over dramatic Asgardians. 

Thor and Loki were back on their horses by this point, and Halvor steered the horse over to them, while the men went in the other direction. You watched them leave sadly, knowing now your journey was over. 

Thor nodded at Halvor and yourself, and you followed them around the castle and towards the Bifrost. To get over to the observatory, you seemed to have to cross over the rainbow bridge. Considering it was a sheer drop at both sides of the bridge, it didn’t feel wide enough to you and you gripped tightly onto the reigns. You weren’t overly keen on the fact it was quite transparent too, and you could see down into the depths below. You couldn’t work out if it was water or air beneath you, and you weren’t sure you wanted to stay long enough on the bridge to find out. 

“It’s very strong Miss.” You could hear Halvors amused voice behind you at your concern. 

You hummed in response but continued to eye the bridge suspiciously. You were pretty confident you shouldn’t trust a bridge with no obvious tethers. 

By then you were closer to the round, low ceiling building where Heimdall resided. Curiosity got the better of you and you strained to catch a look at the gatekeeper. You had a few things you’d like to bring up with him in all honestly, like why the hell he’d not taken you home when you first arrived after Thor had called. 

You hopped down off the horse with the help of Halvor and entered the…room? It was more like a room than anything else, with, inexplicably, a large sword sticking out of the ground on top of a circular podium. A man stood with his back to the four of you, displaying his long black dreadlocks and golden horns on his head. He was dressed head to toe in gold armour, as if he was expecting war anytime soon. Or maybe that was his work outfit. 

“Heimdall.” Thor greeted him.

The man with the sword turned to face you and you blinked in surprise. You had never seen golden eyes before. 

“Your highness.” He spoke with a low deep voice. 

He turned to you and nodded regally in your direction as he spoke your full name. 

“You have nice eyes.” You blurted out stupidly. 

Heimdall’s mouth twitched upwards as he turned to Loki. 

“Prince Loki.” 

“Heimdall.” Loki nodded stiffly. 

“We call upon your assistance to help our Midgardian friend return home.” 

“I know why you’re here.” He turned back around and faced the north wall. 

Nothing seemed to happen, and you wondered if you were supposed to do something, was there some special going home thing he was expecting of you?

“I called for you, days ago and you did not heed me.” Thor stated, questioningly. 

Heimdall paused, before turning back to look at you over his shoulder. 

“I was otherwise engaged.” He murmured, as if that explained everything. 

You flicked a glance at Halvor, who nodded, confirming this mystery was usual behaviour for the golden-eyed man. 

Thor had just opened his mouth, you assume to ask again to send you home, when the sword in the middle of the room started to light up. It expelled a bright white light that made you shield your face with your arm, this was accompanied by a loud grinding noise. You stepped back automatically.

“What’s going on?” You yelled over the noise.

“He’s opening the gate.” Loki responded.  In your confusion you had somehow gotten closer to him. 

“That’s not me.” Heimdall roared. 

The noise was almost deafening as the north wall started to open up.

“What do you mean that’s not you?” Thor shouted. 

You squinted, trying to work out what was going on. Something or someone was appearing through the now open gate, but it was still too blinding to see. 

“Who is it?” You yelled again but no-one answered. 

Slowly the light started to fade allowing you to see the shape of a person coming through the portal. 

You blinked a couple of times to get rid of the little black spots that had appeared in your field of vision. 

“To answer your question…” the mystery man began to speak. 

You rubbed your eyes hard, desperate to see who the voice belonged to, it was so familiar, a voice you’d heard many times before on the T.V. 

“Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist.”

The man stepped forward allowing you the first look at him. Goateed, brown-haired and smirking. 

“Tony Stark, at your service.” 

Taglist:

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Love Masterlist (A Loki x Female Reader Mini Series)

Part 1- Love Bites

Part 2- Love Destroys

Part 3- Love Burns

Part 4- Love Sees All Things

Around the Realms in 80 days - Chapter 11

Pairing: Reader x Loki

Story summary: You have fallen through a portal during the convergence into Asgard and come face to face with Thor, and his brother Loki. With no way to return, you must travel with the two men and their hoard of asgardian soldiers to get back home. Things get from bad to worse when you have to share a tent with the god of mischief himself.

Notes: I'm still alive and so is this story!! I'm so sorry this has been a long time coming but I hope you can forgive me with my slightly longer than normal chapter! This chapter feels kind of angsty to me. I hope you like it and are still interested!

The sunlight flitted through the tent easily waking you. You groaned and folded the pillow over your head. 

“Wakey Wakey.” You heard Loki’s far too jovial voice from next to you. 

“Are there any eggs and bakey?” You groggily replied. 

Loki was silent for a second, 

“What’s bakey?” 

You snorted and opened your eyes. Somehow in the night you had moved closer towards the middle of the bed, rather than lying on the edge. Loki was, rather disconcertingly, sat up and staring down at you with a puzzled look on his face. 

“What?” You snapped.

Loki narrowed his eyes

“I am going to ignore your impertinence given you are clearly half asleep. You snore by the way.” 

“I do not snore.” You said uncertainly.  

He grinned, “Sure you do. When I came back last night you were already sleeping like a babe and snoring like a boar.” 

It was too early to be dealing with Loki’s…Lokishness. You threw your arm over your eyes to block out the light and mumbled something about lying gods. 

“You should be happy, tomorrow you will be able to return to Midgard.” 

That made you sit up straight and look at him. 

“Tomorrow?” 

He raised an eyebrow,

“We will arrive at the capital tomorrow, Heimdall can return you as soon as we do.” 

You had completely forgotten that returning to Asgard would also mean returning home. For some reason, instead of feeling overjoyed like you assumed you would, you felt sort of…sad? Hollow? Anxious? Your time here had not always been pleasant, but you had got to experience things you thought you never would, and see things very few humans had ever seen. You weren’t sure if you were ready for your little adventure to end just yet. This realisation hit you with surprise. Your time here had been short, but you already felt as though you couldn’t go back to your everyday life on earth. What was magic, intrigue, kidnapping, trolls, princes and excitement in comparison to daily commutes and offices? 

“You seem…displeased. I thought you would have been happy about this?”

The sincerity of Loki’s voice took you by surprise, and you scanned his face for malice and found none. 

“I suppose it just passed me that I would be retuning so quickly. It’s very unlikely I will get to experience anything like this again.” You frowned. 

“You will be able to see your family and friends again. This is a good thing; Asgard in such a time of unrest is no place for a mortal.” He said, quite gently. 

You felt your stomach drop and creased your forehead more. 

“Yeah.” 

Now you knew you were being silly. Getting upset that Loki didn’t want you to stay? Well of course he didn’t. You weren’t even friends. Your actual friends and family would be worried sick and here you are being selfish because you didn’t want to end your unexpected jaunt. 

Still, his words had effected you and made you feel unwanted here. Embarrassingly you felt tears start to grow. 

You stood up quickly from the bed before you did something stupid, like cry. 

“I’m going to get ready.” 

You didn’t even bother telling him to close his eyes before whipping off your shirt and pulling on your clothes that lay over the back of Loki’s chair. Although you didn’t think much of the woman, Yrsa had been kind enough to gift you with a few dresses for your journey. All of them in the typical Asgardian style you had come to realise. You pulled on a lilac, loosely fitted dress and drew it in using the brown belt and your own Dr. Martens you had arrived in. 

“Where are you going?” Loki asked. 

You flicked your eyes up to him. He was still sat up in bed, the green silk sheets wrapped around his middle and bare torso showing. His hair was slightly more unruly than normal, curling more having slept on it all night. He looked so adorably confused that your heart clenched. 

“I’m going to see if there’s any breakfast about.” 

You didn’t make eye contact as you left. Once you were out of the tent, you allowed a few tears to slip down your face. 

“Ugh.” You chastised yourself. You shouldn’t have allowed yourself to get comfortable with anyone, now you were going to be upset when you said goodbye. 

You took a deep breath, trying to take in as much of the world as possible before you went back to stuffy offices and being coughed on by other commuters. 

Luckily, Halvor and a few of the other men were up and tucking into some bread. You walked over to them to join them in breaking their fast. 

Halvor greeted you with a smile which you appreciated. Maybe going home was a good thing, it was clear you were never going to fit in here, not by the way most of the men eyed you cautiously. 

You took the bread he offered and tucked in.  As the morning progressed, Fandral spotted you and walked sheepishly over. 

“My Lady, I wish to apologise for last night. I fear I was less than cordial and it was not my intentions to upset you.” 

He offered you his hand and you placed yours in his tentatively. He lightly kissed the back of your hand. 

“I wonder if you could find it in your heart to forgive me.” 

You stopped yourself rolling your eyes. The grandeurs of speech was not something you would miss.

You suddenly felt sad again, reminded of the fact that you would be exposed to these formalities any longer. 

“It’s fine Fandral.” You sighed. 

“You seem a little dispirited this morning Latte.” Volstagg commented, coming up behind you. 

“Of course she is dispirited.” Fandral retorted, “anyone would be if they had spent that long in Loki’s presence.” 

“There is no need to be so disheartened, we return to the capital on the morrow.” Volstagg’s eyes lit up as he continued excitedly.

“You will finally see Asgard in all it’s glory, you will adore it! It is the most grand most spectacular place in existence, truly a sight to behold. I am most looking forward to return.” 

“If I even get to see it before I’m whisked back to earth.” You blurted before you could stop yourself. 

The men looked at you quizzically, 

“I’m sure Thor will allow you to see it before you leave. I would have it no other way in fact. Since it was misfortune that brought you here and misfortune that has been with you during your stay, the least we can do is ensure you get to see what Asgard can truly be.” 

You smiled weakly. 

“You will enjoy Rythja more than the other places I think Latte.” Fandral explained, “it is far friendlier and less stuffy than the places we have visited so far. Rythja is a stopping point for many a traveler, and is well known for its public houses and relaxed nature; there are no differences between princes and peasants in Rythja, for everyone is treated the same.” 

The men grinned at each other and you dreaded to think what else it was well known for. Still, it sounded much more positive than the warnings you had received before visiting Boer or Deill and perhaps it would be a drama free ending to your time here. 

Soon, the party were packed up and ready to leave. Halvor helped you up onto the horse and you tried not to wince as your poor thighs ached. Thor and Loki returned from saying their goodbyes to Gunnvladr, and you were thankful you were not needed. Gunnvladr however, had been rather thankful to the Princes for helping to rid them of the bandits, and apparently the mens help in the field had been appreciated. Perhaps the trip would help the unrest after all. 

You settled back against Halvor and prepared to travel for one of the last times. 

                                                             ***

It was evening and you had made it to Rythja. Thor had spotted one of his favourite drinking establishment and you had all trooped in. 

The pub reminded you of old country ones you might have visited after hikes. It was effectively one very large room, full of wooden tables, benches and chairs, with a long bar north of the room. It was extremely busy and noisy, however unlike previous places you had visited, no one seemed overly bothered that the Princes of Asgard had just waltzed in. There was a large bar-maid with long curly red hair behind the bar and she currently had her work cut out for her drawing drinks for Thor and his men. Despite her impossible task, she remained jovial, laughing at Thor and Volstagg bickering while they stood at the bar. Having been there all of 10 minutes, Fandral had already whisked a blonde haired beauty to a darkened corner of the room.  

You on the other hand, sat staring bitterly out of the grimy window, as you watched a spider crawl slowly down. 

Your bitterness had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Loki was currently grinning from ear to ear, goblet of ale in one and and the other wrapped around the waist of the bar-maid on his lap. 

“…And then he stabbed my neck” Loki regaled some stupid boring story to the woman and she gasped loudly.

“That must have been so awful for you.” 

The bar-maid leaned in and placed a hand on his chest, fluttering her eyelashes. 

You rolled your eyes, hard, and made an audible sound of irritation. Loki heard you and grinned even wider. 

He clutched her hand and held it close to him, sighing heavily.

“It truly was the worst of times. The healers feared I would not speak again.” 

“What a shame that would have been.” You chimed in, unable to help yourself. 

Loki narrowed his eyes at you, while the bar maid looked rather shocked. 

“Indeed. Although, talking is not all my silver tongue is renowned for.” He all but purred. He brought the lady on his lap even closer, however continued to make eye contact with you. 

You felt a flush growing up your neck and tried to ignore it, and the girl on his lap giggled. 

“Gross. On that note I’m leaving to find some better company.” 

You stood up quickly.

“There is no company better than mine.” Loki smirked. 

“An empty chair is better company than you.” You hissed. 

You turned quickly before he could reply and huffed over to join Thor and Volstagg who were stood at the bar drinking and discussing in great detail how the best way to kill a bligespine is. 

“My brother causing you distress my lady?” Thor asked, raising his brows as he noticed your clenched jaw. 

“He is always causing me distress.” You sighed. ““Hey, is there anything here I can actually drink?” You added eyeing up the drinks behind the bar.

“Well you will soon be rid of him when you are returned home tomorrow.” Thor replied cheerily.

You looked back over your shoulder to find him talking about something that was clearly very amusing by the way the bar maid was simpering. Your stomach felt funny.

“Yeah.” You sighed, suddenly feeling tears threatening again. God what was wrong with you?“Can’t wait.” You dragged your eyes away from the couple.

“Anyway, about that drink?” 

Thor laughed heartily, 

“Let’s see…perhaps a small glass of Vanaheim wine will be fine.”

Volstagg snorted, “They always did make their wines as weak as piss.” 

The red-head behind the bar smiled and went to pour you one. As you waited, Volstagg and Thor went back to their previous conversation.

“Here you are love.” 

You suddenly realised she was the first Asgardian not to question the fact you were from Earth. 

“Are you not surprised that I’m a mortal?” You asked, taking a sip of the wine. 

It was delicious. Like nothing else you had tasted. You weren’t sure how to describe the taste, it was more of an emotional feeling, like summer days spent in the garden with your family, trips to the sea-side and long bike rides. You sighed happily. 

“Is it to your liking Miss?” The bar-maid asked. 

“It’s amazing! I could drink this all day!” 

She smiled,

“I’m glad. Truth be told Miss, we get all sorts around here. We have one regular customer, who I’m fairly sure is a dark elf from Svartalfheim ‘he comes weekly, dressed head to toe in black, drinks three Mermaid tails and leaves.” 

“Mermaid Tails?” 

“Oh, not real ones of course. It’s the name of a drink, a concoction of spirit mixed with juice taken from oranges and berries.”

You chortled, “Basically a sex on the beach then.”

This time it was the bar maids time to laugh, taken by surprise. 

“That’s what we call that cocktail on Earth!” You explained, giggling along with her and drinking more of your delicious drink. 

The drink went down rather fast.

“Can I have another please?” You asked. 

The redhead looked at Thor for guidance, but he was far too engrossed in his conversation to pay you any heed.

“I’m not sure…” She frowned. 

“It’s fine, I’m fully grown, I don’t even feel that drunk I’m sure I can manage another.” 

Her face cleared.

“Of course” 

As she handed you your second drink she continued. 

“We ‘ad another customer in earlier this week. ‘e was dressed completely in black too, and a mask covering his face. It’s not too uncommon that someone would hide their face around ‘ere. Except his eyes were red. Normally only Jotuns have red eyes, and he wasn’t the right height for one… excuse me.”

The bar-maid stepped away for a bit to attend to some customers and you tried to focus your brain to remember why the red eye thing was significant. You were sure that it was important, but you couldn’t remember why. Someone had mentioned something about red eyes before hadn’t they? Who had said that again?

You decided it probably didn’t matter. You were feeling floaty and soft. When the bar-maid came back, she refilled your drink. 

“Anyway, as I was saying ‘e probably wasn’t a Jotun but I can’t think who else would have red eyes. ‘e only stayed to drink a pint of ale and left.”

“Jotun?” You hiccuped

“Frost Giants.” 

“Frost Giants?” You chimed, your voice increasing as you hiccuped. 

“The people who inhabit Jotuunheim. You don’t seem many of em about half of em was destroyed when…”

“My, isn’t this a fun conversation.” Loki’s silky voice appeared from behind you. 

The bar-maid raised a brow.  “Did you want something Prince Loki?” She asked, with un-cruel amusement dancing in her eyes.  

You laughed loudly. It was unusual to see someone who wasn’t of nobility speaking to Loki so directly and that fact was absolutely hilarious to you. You continued facing your body towards the bar but tipped your head back so you could see him.

“You look funny upside down.” You giggled. 

“I was simply coming over to see why the midgarian was being so loud. But now I can see she is completely inebriated.” 

“You’re a knee…a knee…a knee grated.” 

“Oh?.” Loki stared at you with a mixture of mirth and exasperation. 

You noticed the bar maid left again to speak to some customers as you span round to face him directly very quickly, making you loose your balance. Loki reached and and caught you, holding your shoulders in place until you stopped wobbling. 

“Hey, get off me.” You tried to push at his arms. 

“For Norns sake woman I’m trying to stop you from falling.” He rolled his eyes, “What in the nine realms have you been drinking.’ He murmured. 

Loki picked up your glass on the bar and took a sip. His face seemed to get even paler and his eyes narrowed dangerously. Before you could blink he had span round and pinned Thor against the bar with a knife at his throat. 

“What?” Thor spluttered, turning around. 

“You let her drink the Vanir’s wine of Eden?” His voice was calm but deadly

“It’s fine Loki, the Vanir’s wine are notoriously weak.”

“For an Asgaridan you half-wit. It may be weak but mortals were not designed to consume drinks with unknown psychotropic properties.”

“The wine does kind of taste like feelings.” You hiccuped again. “I feel like I’m on a little cloud.”

You giggled at them. 

“You idiot” Loki hissed, “Why must I be cursed with an oaf for a brother.”

“Hey can I have another drink?” You asked.

“No.” The Princes echoed sharply. 

You pouted “fine…god I was only asking.” You murmured, wondering off to find a seat, you were suddenly feeling a bit dizzy. You thought you announced this, although you weren’t completely sure. 

Finding a nearby table you sat down on the bench, ignoring the few people already sat there. One of the customers sat at the table already looked at you strangely and greeted you. 

“Hi?”

“Hello!” You gave him a dazzling smile “I’m from Earth.” 

You could hear Loki from behind you, you realised he must have followed you over.

“Ha ha! Let’s get out of here shall we?” He said your name warningly.

“Trying to take me home?” You wiggled your eyebrows suggestively.

As the men at the table laughed, Loki rolled his eyes and put out his hand to help you up.

“C’mon, let's get back to the tent.” He murmured as you stood up, leaning on him for balance.

You winked at your new audience,

“I’m irresistible” 

“You’re annoying is what you are.” Loki muttered as the men around the chuckled.

“Hey!” 

Loki held you by the elbow and helped you walk out at a brisker pace than you would have liked. 

“Can we slow down my head hurts?” You whined as you reached the door of the pub.

Loki sighed heavily, but opened the door for you and set off at a slower pace.

The colder air hit as you walked out of the tavern, leaving the noise behind. The tavern opposite was in the process of throwing one of its drunker members out onto the street which made you giggle. Loki looked down at you and smiled too. You looked up into the quickly darkening sky, and stared at the beautiful stars and moons as they started to appear. 

You were going to miss this sight.

Loki kept hold of your arm as you looked up. 

“Much prettier than Midgard isn’t it?” He smirked at you.

You frowned and sighed, but didn’t answer. He was right of course, it was a fantastic view and one you would never see again. 

Loki pushed you gently to keep walking with him through the cobbled street and back to where the men were camping. It was strange, but you found your mood starting to dip quite drastically, and your memory of why you were upset was coming back. The floaty fuzzy feeling was still there but it felt heavier and it felt as though your heart was sinking. You started frowning harder and pouting again. Loki cleared his throat, 

“I noticed… you seem to have have been a little… down at points during the day.”

“Oh you noticed that huh?” You muttered. Under normal circumstances you probably would have been more careful of your tone, but you were drunk and sad.

Loki glared down at you.

“Your extreme brooding was unmissable.” 

“You would know being the king of extreme brooding.”

“I am not the king of…extreme brooding.” 

“Nice retort.” You snapped back.

Loki made a sound of indignation “Oh okay, I see.” 

You snorted “Hm.”

“You’re upset that Fandral was fraternising with a beauty in the tavern.” 

“Fraternising?” You snorted “I like your funny words magic man.”

“What?” Loki’s brow furrowed adorably again like he had that morning. 

“You look kind of cute when you’re confused.” You informed him. 

Loki’s eyes widened comically large and he blinked at you. 

You giggled “exactly like that.”

“I am the future King of Asgard, I am not…cute.” He sniffed.

You snorted “okay whatever you say.”

“So you were not upset about Fandral -“

“Fraternising? No why would I be upset about that.” You yawned. 

“I just assumed that was the source of your distress, you seemed upset when I mentioned you were leaving and you went to find Fandral and then tonight when he was with someone you seemed low again.”

This time it was your turn to stop and stare at him. 

“It’s not unusual for woman to find Fandral attractive but you should know…”

“Let me stop you there before I hear any unsolicited advice. I did not go out to find Fandral this morning. I’m not upset that - “

You tried to find your words while you started to get choked up.

“I will miss this place when I go tomorrow. I will miss seeing new things and learning more about the universe I live in, the new animals and creatures. I will miss the adventure, not knowing what my life will be like day to day. I will miss the people I have met and I mourn for the people I will never get to meet and the experiences I will never get to have.” 

You took a deep breath.

“I know how stupid I’m being and how no one really wants me here but I’m still going to miss it. I don’t know how to go back to my normal life now I’ve seen everything here, I don’t want to have to  but I also know I’m being selfish to my poor family who are probably worried to death. It’s.. do you know what it actually doesn’t matter.” You sighed running out of momentum.  

Loki frowned slightly before saying as though with some difficulty,

“You are not unwanted here.”

You snorted, 

“Sure I am, you most of all do not wish me to be here you basically said so yourself this morning.” You scrunched your face up, “It doesn’t matter I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” 

You tried to take your arm out of Loki’s grasp so you could storm forward but he didn’t let you and ignored your noises of frustration. He continued frowning as if in thought but didn’t push you further. You quickly arrived back at the tent and pushed yourself forward and stumbled into the tent and flopped onto the bed. 

“I don’t feel well.” You complained. 

“I’m not surprised, Thor should not have given you any wine.” He mumbled, as he started to take off his shirt. 

“Did we not talk about this like a thousand times? Can you not get undressed in front of me?” You groaned. 

“And I have told you that as this is my tent, I will undress where I like.” 

You blew a raspberry at him as he continued to take his shirt off, giving you a glimpse of his chest. You felt a weird feeling in your stomach and you decided it was probably the alcohol.

You pulled the covers over your head and sunk down into the mattress. Soon you felt the bed dip next to you as Loki joined you. You moved the covers down slightly past your eyes so you could see what he was up to. Loki was, as usual,  staring up at the ceiling.

“I’ve put some water next to your side.” He said, without looking at you. 

Things felt weirdly awkward between you and in the midst of your hazy state, you couldn’t quite tell why.

You cleared your throat. 

“Thank you.” 

He nodded and continued to look up. After a few uneasy moments Loki clicked his fingers and turned the lights off. You rolled over onto your own back and joined him in staring at the ceiling.

You lay awake for a long time, listening to the sound of the men returning in the early hours and counting Loki’s breaths beside you.

Maybe it was the remaining drunken boldness, the dark cover of night or the knowledge that this would be your last night here, but you whispered,

“I will miss you.” 

The darkness seemed to be a vacuum in which your words disappeared.

You did not get a response. 

Tag list:

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@kikster606  @slytherinintj13  @th0rswh0res @huntress-artemiss @jannieka394 

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“Some women are pleased with flowers that will sooner or later wither away. While some others prefer poetry that strikes like thunder, those lines reverberating within their souls endlessly, as though they’re permanently stamped there…”

— Random Xpressions

One does not know anything, what little we know we know together. citiesandsketches

A Dutiful Disaster (Prequel #1)

Pairing: Loki x Reader

Story Warnings: Arranged Marriage, Enemies to Lovers, Royalty, Pre-Thor (2011), Toxic Relationship, Smut, Angst, Drama, Slow Burn, Odin’s A+ Parenting, Reader is referred to as a woman and has a vagina, no Y/N usage, POC-friendly descriptors, Loki is a moody POS, Holy arguments Batman!, There is a LOT of yelling in the House of Odin, 18+

Chapter Warnings: BDSM, Bisexuality (Reader & Loki), Multiple Partners, Switchy Behaviour, Voyeurism, Exhibitionism, Degradation, sorry friends they don’t sleep with each other here, it’s a one-shot to give context to their history, seriously this chapter is very queer so biphobes kindly move along

One-Shot Summary: Sex without attachment has always been readily enjoyed upon Asgard, a favoured pastime to distract from the monotony of millennia. And while mockery and nasty remarks seem to be all that the two of you share – you and Loki both have certain tastes that can only be sated by a den of iniquity. 

Master List / Spotify Playlist

He’s here again.

Loki. Prince of Asgard. Son of Odin.

Your lifelong irritation.

It’s annoying—no, infuriating really, how often Loki attends these niche events just as you do. Held twice a year in the upper district – your home – only a select few of those from high society ever receive an invite, and even fewer attend. After all, only some of your peers have certain… tastes, and the rest are happier knowing that they don’t.

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No one is the center of attention. Catrin Welz-Stein

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A widow, a village vicar, and a mythical beast…are the rumors true? The Essex Serpent premieres May 13 on Apple TV+ 

Set in Victorian England featuring a star studded cast led by Claire Danes, Tom Hiddleston, Frank Dillane, Clémence Poésy and Hayley Squires, The Essex Serpent follows London widow Cora Seaborne (Danes) who moves to Essex to investigate reports of a mythical serpent. She forms an unlikely bond with the village vicar (Hiddleston), but when tragedy strikes, locals accuse her of attracting the creature.

Thor: Love and Thunder - Created by Vincent Aseo

You can follow the artist on Twitter and Instagram.

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oh to lay on someone’s chest as they read to you

Wanted

pairing: Loki x Reader: 18+

word count: 5k

summary: Even after inviting Loki to one of Tony’s parties, he believes that you do not truly want him to be there. Thinking that you and the team invite him out of pity, you follow him into the bathroom where you accidentally confess your feelings for him.

a/n: This is a long overdue present for my friend lmao. 

Requests that have been sent in are still being worked on and will be posted next!

Keep reading

Around the world in 80 days chapter 7

Pairing: Reader x Loki

Story summary: You have fallen through a portal during the convergence into Asgard and come face to face with Thor, and his brother Loki. With no way to return, you must travel with the two men and their hoard of asgardian soldiers to get back home. Things get from bad to worse when you have to share a tent with the god of mischief himself.

Notes: Okay listen, don't kill me and please remember at this is is a SLOW BURN. We have more to come for Loki and Latte, and remember that at this stage neither of them are aware of their feelings yet...

warnings: language and sexual content

Read this story on a03!

find all parts to this story on Tumblr here

You realised you must have fallen back asleep at some point. When you woke, you felt a lot better, the pain in your head having disappeared and your bones ached less. You shifted, and slowly sat up, stretching your arms and legs.

“Mortal.” The dreaded voice hit you like a tonne of bricks.

You looked over to the writing desk to see Loki sat looking at you.

“Better?” He asked.

You glared at him, and didn’t bother responding. You had no desire to talk to him.

Loki smirked, “Sulking little girl?”

You tried to bite your tongue you really did but he was seriously irritating you. You sat up straighter,

“Sulking? Why would I be happy seeing you after you took an attempt on my life?”

Loki had the audacity to roll his eyes.

“Are you hurt?”

“What?”

“Are you in pain? Are you bruised? Are you on deaths door?”

“ Well…no but that’s beside the point.”

“Then you cannot say I took an attempt on your life.”

“You’re literally gaslighting me!” You yelled and jumped out of the bed.

Loki looked unimpressed,

“Gaslighting?” He said carefully, copying how you said it.

“Trying to manipulate me into thinking how you acted wasn’t as bad as it was!”

“Mortal if I wanted to kill you, you would already be dead. Please sit back down you are still recovering and I would hate it if you ruined all the work I just did.”

“What work?”

“The work I did healing you.”

Erm what?

You were stunned for a second and continued to stare and blink at him. Loki looked far too pleased with himself for your lack of words.

“Thanks I guess.” You mumbled.

“You guess?” Loki looked at you incredulously.

“One good thing doesn’t make up for treating me like shit!”

Loki stood up, drawing himself to his full height and stared down at you. You took a step back instinctively, not wanting a repeat from earlier, however you held your glare and narrowed your eyes to match his.

“I am…” He began.

“A god and a future king, I know, your highness, you’ve told me. And I’m a lowly mortal etcetera etcetera but it’s not exactly an excuse to constantly act like a dick towards me.”

“I healed you, you ungrateful, wretched…”

“I know and I said thank you didn’t I? But it still doesn’t excuse your behaviour.”

You didn’t know why you were suddenly feeling so brave. Maybe it was something to do with being threatened by him already today and then nearly beaten up by a troll. Loki’s eyes flashed murderously, and for a second you thought they had flashed red.

“Interrupt me again girl…”

You held your breath for a second and waited for him to finish his sentence. There was a noise outside which distracted both yours and Loki’s attention and the next time you looked back at him his eyes were back to a steely blue. Maybe you imagined it.

Loki sighed,

“You’ve become increasingly loquacious during your trip here. Not everyone would be so lenient. I will not tell you again, try to be less spirited while you are here.”

Lenient? This is what he called lenient? Constantly insulting and threatening you? Also you noted, if you hadn’t known better you would have thought Loki’s mouth had quirked slightly.

You opened your mouth, ready to fight back again when Fandral entered the tent.

“Have I not told you to stay out of my tent?” Loki glared at him.

Fandral ignored him.

“My lady, I came to see how you were faring?”

“Better, thank you.” You beamed at him. It was nice to have someone who could hold a normal conversation with you without purposefully irritating you.

He smiled down at you.

Loki stepped in front of you blocking your view of Fandral.

“Was there anything else you needed?”

You rolled your eyes, and stepped back out from behind Loki.

“I was wondering if the lady would like to come and pick out a dress for tonight?” He aimed at you.

“No, she’s resting. Goodbye.” Loki opened the tent for him.

“She looks okay to me.” Fandral glared back at Loki.

If there was one thing you hated, it was being talked about as if you weren’t there.

You spoke up, “Actually I am feeling better, how long have we got before the feast?”

“Ah hour or so.” Fandral smiled at you.

“Maybe I should start getting ready then.”

“Good idea my lady! Come, Lady Yrsa awaits for you.”

You shot a glance at Loki, who looked for a moment as if he was going to say something but decided against it.

“Where are we going to look for my dress?” You asked, once you had followed Fandral out of the tent.

“Lady Yrsa has asked to speak to you, I believe she is going to provide you with one.”

You furrowed your brow slightly but said nothing. Loki’s warning was running through your mind, and as much as you disliked him, he was probably right in some ways. Best to keep your head down and not die.

Just a few weeks, just a few weeks.

“What was that?” Fandral asked.

Oops, you didn’t mean to speak out loud.

You cleared your throat, “Er - nothing. So what kind of thing will be happening tonight?”

“Well, there will be food of course, and probably dancing -“

“Dancing?”

Fandral looked at you, amused.

“Yes, dancing. Do you dance on Midgard my lady?”

“Not really.”

I mean you had danced in clubs and had once taken a salsa class in University with a friend for a laugh, but you doubted that was going to be helpful here.

“Ah, it is no matter. I’m sure you will pick up the dances quickly.”

“There are specific dances?” You asked, panicked.

If things weren’t worse enough now you had to learn some alien dances. You thought perhaps maybe you would prefer to take the troll on again.

“Well, yes.” Fandral looked confused. “Is there no dancing at all on Midgard?”

“We dance I guess, although for most people it’s just sort of jumping up and down and waving your hands around rather than a routine, unless you dance as a hobby and go to classes and stuff.”

Fandral looked fairly horrified at this. “Jumping up and down and waving your hands around? That is dancing on Midgard?”

“Yep.”

“Why?” He asked curiously.

“Erm-“

Much to your relief, you didn’t have to answer because you had arrived at Yrsa’s door. The lady herself stepped out.

“Ah, Lord Fandral and the mortal! Come in.”

Taking a deep breath you followed them in. You arrived in a rather spacious sitting room, with two, two-seater sofas and a large wooden table. The balcony curtains were open, letting you know it had just started raining again.

“Thank you for coming.”

You smiled weakly,

“Thank you for having me.”

Yrsa clasped her hands together, and said delighted, “How sweet!”

You tied to keep your face still and not form a scowl, but this was proving difficult.

Fandral seemed to sense you weren’t feeling entirely comfortable and stepped in,

“So, you said you had some dresses…?”

“That’s right! I asked my maids to find some dresses that could fit the mortal.” She looked down at you and smiled.

I have a name, not that anyone seems to use it, you thought.

“Girls!” Yrsa called, and three young girls came out from the door to the left.

“Please show the mortal her dresses and get her ready for the feast tonight!”

One of the girls grinned at you,

“Come in here mortal.”

You gritted your teeth and walked over to the next room.

The next half an hour or so was spent with the girls doing your hair and makeup. They seemed sweet enough, and even though you felt like an oversized doll, you let them play makeovers. The girls chatted between themselves as they did so, and you listened quietly.

“I heard you had a run in with a troll? Is that right?” The girl who looked the youngest addressed you eagerly.

You nodded. “He came into the room. Luckily Thor - I mean the princes were quick on the scene.”

“That must have been scary!” She squeaked.

“You are lucky the princes cam so quickly to your aid.” The maid with the curly brown hair spoke.

“What is it like travelling with them?” The youngest one asked excitedly.

You mentally laughed, but thought for a second. You realised you should probably not rant about how irritating Loki was, you didn’t want to get hung for treason or whatever the punishments were here.

“I’m very lucky they have let me travel with them.” You settled on.

“Which one do you think is the best looking?” The youngest asked again.

“Liv” The eldest who was yet to speak reprimanded. You suddenly recognised this maid as the one that had come in to alert Yrsa about the trolls.

“I personally think Prince Thor is better looking” Liv continued, “But Gro here thinks Loki is better looking.”

The girl with curly brown hair blushed.

“This is a silly conversation.” The eldest spoke again, as she continued to play with your hair.

“I can kind of understand why people find Prince Loki attractive, I suppose he has that whole dark and mysterious thing going on, but Prince Thor is more handsome and charming.”

Liv suddenly lowered her voice, “Although, it is said that Lady Yrsa may marry Prince Loki, Lady Audhild said it is her best chance of getting into the royal family.”

“Liv that’s enough.” The older maid said sharply.

Liv shrugged and shot the maid next to her a knowing look.

At her words your stomach clenched slightly although you weren’t sure why. Maybe you still recovering from earlier.

Interesting. You supposed the maids did not take you seriously enough as to not bother hiding their gossiping around you.

“Here mortal, we are finished!”

It was nice to see yourself wearing makeup and having your hair done again, made a change from wearing old clothes and looking like a drowned rat.

“Thank you.” You said honestly.

“Now you get to choose a dress!” Liv stated, clapping her hands together.

Gro went over to the wardrobe and opened it up.

“Feel free to pick whichever you like!”

Now this was more like it. You had always been obsessed with pretty things. There were many beautiful colours and fabrics it made it difficult to decide which dress you wanted to pick. You finally settled on a pale blue gown with dark blue ornate patterns along the trim and down the sleeves.

The girls helped you into the dress, which made you feel kind of uncomfortable. I’d be a rubbish princess you thought, there is no way I would enjoy being dressed every day. Although you thought you could get used to the outfits.

Finally, once the girls were satisfied, you were allowed to re-enter the main room.

To your surprise, Loki was sat on the sofa enjoying a cup of tea and chatting away to Yrsa, they had not seemed to notice that you had entered.

Gro cleared her throat. They looked in your direction and Yrsa stood up.

“Aw look! Well done girls, you have made look presentable for this evening.”

Cheers Yrsa, you thought and mentally rolled your eyes.

She smiled sickeningly at Loki,

“Come, let us go and join the feast.”

Loki smiled back and held out his hand for Yrsa to take.

***

You had been at the feast for an hour by now and you were wondering if you could find an excuse to leave. The best thing about the evening had been the food. Asgardian’s new how to cook clearly. Your altercation with the troll that afternoon had left you ravenous, and you had happily scoffed as much bread, meats and cheese as you could. Unfortunately, then the eating came to and end and people were dancing. You however, were stood with your back against the wall, as far away as the dancing as possible.

Dismally, the topic of you being a mortal had come up during dinner which was far from ideal, especially when Ylva, Yrsa’s annoying younger sister had joked that there was no point in giving you the good wine since you would probably die in a few years anyway. You were about to argue that if you were lucky enough to live your full lifespan you would live for a lot longer than a few years but Loki had glared at you, as if reminding of you not to speak up and you abided.

When you went to sit down to eat, Audhild, Yrsa’s mother, who hasn’t been present at lunch, had asked Thor and Loki wether you were allowed to sit at the table.

The icing on the cake however, was a thinly vailed question from Yrsa herself around whether or not you were basically some sort of pet of Loki’s and that’s why you were sharing his tent with him.

That one was pretty mortifying, you hadn’t particularly considered the implications of sleeping in Loki’s bed; what that might signal to others. Especially to others who consider humans to be a much lesser species, and one where being a sex slave wasn’t out of the question.

Overall, it had not been a great evening to a thoroughly shitty day.

You picked at the sleeves of the dress miserably and stared at the ground, wishing you could disappear through it.

A pair of black boots appeared in front of you. You continued looking down, staring at them.

“Having fun, mortal?”

Slowly, you dragged your eyes up a green and black ensemble to the face you had grow tired but used to seeing.

“Loads.”

“Would you care to dance?”

You eyed him suspiciously, having had enough of his games for today.

`’No thank you.” You turned away from him.

Loki stepped so that he was in front of your gaze again.

“Come on, why not?” His eyes gleamed.

You rolled your eyes,

“I don’t know how to dance.”

“I can teach you.”

You huffed, “I’m good.”

“You know, as a prince of Asgard, I’ve danced all my life. In fact I’m practically known for it, I didn’t win first place doing the Wyvern Whiz at Vanaheim’s inter realm contest when I was 350 for nothing.”

“I don’t want to hear about your whiz.”

Loki ignored you and continued “ I’m perfectly equipped to teach you how to dance. Or perhaps you’d rather hear some more about my dancing escapades…”

“Fine Gene Kelly, I’ll dance with you.”

Loki grinned and held out his hand,

“May I have the honour.”

You scowled and took it.

“I understand that reference you know, I met Gene Kelly once.” Loki said as he led you to the dance floor.

“Erm what?” You asked distractedly.

You couldn’t focus. His hands were a lot colder than you had expected, and they were incredibly smooth. It felt like touching marble. You panicked that your hands might feel gross and sweaty in his, and had the sudden impulse to pull them away.

“Are you even listening to my story mortal?” Loki asked, pulling you out of you musings.

You looked at him blankly and he rolled his eyes at you.

“Right, now, put your hand upon my shoulder.”

“What? No.”

“You are so irritating, I’m trying to teach you to dance. We cannot dance if you are sanding 5 feet away from me.”

You gingerly stepped closer and put your arm on his shoulder. He adjusted it slightly.

“There, that wasn’t too difficult was it. Now, relax and let me lead you.”

You tried desperately to match your movements to his, and stared, concentrating on your feet.

“You need to look up.” Loki whispered,

“Hm?” You furrowed your brow as you stepped the wrong way again.

You felt fingers under your chin pulling your head up until you were looking up at him. You tried to move your head away so you could stare at your feet again but he shook his head.

“Look at me while you are dancing, it will make it easier.”

“But then, how will I know if my feet are doing the right thing or not?”

“You need to feel the music as it moves through you.”

The only thing I feel like doing is leaving.

Loki starting to tell you another story, one which involved another creature you’d never heard of before and hoped to never meet, and Thor and his friends making fools of themselves. Soon, you had forgotten about what your feet were doing completely, focusing instead on Loki’s story, and they way his eyes crinkled when he was amused.

“May I have this dance with the lady?” A deep voice from beside you appeared.

You turned to see Fandral bowing slightly and holding his hand out to you.

Loki raised an eyebrow at him and was about to open his mouth when Yrsa appeared.

“Ah your highness.” She giggled girlishly which took you by surprise. “Shall we leave your mortal pet and have a dance ourselves?”

You inwardly rolled your eyes, and let go of Loki’s arm and hand.

Fandral smiled at you and whisked you away to the other side of the room.

“I thought you said you couldn’t dance!” Fandral said as you tired to remember where to put your hands.

Dancing with Fandral felt different. He was warmer, for one thing, you could feel a dampness on his shoulder, he also seemed to move quicker and more energetic, and you struggled to keep up.

There was slightly less talking with Fandral, and as you moved around the room you became more conscious of the other dancers. Thor was dancing with Ylva, who blushed and threw her head back as she laughed. You turned at the right moment to catch a glance at his face which seemed pleased if not confused. Volstagg had somehow found more food, and had a leg of something in one hand and a pint of ale in the other.

When you passed him, a young lady was asking him to dance and he looked so distressed about his decision to leave his food and dance or not that you laughed out loud. Fandral laughed too, confused about what was funny. This caught the attention of Loki and as you passed him, explaining to Fandral what had made you laugh, while keeping the insane pace Fandral seemed to insist upon, you thought you caught a quick look of irritation.

After a while, you needed to stop to catch your breath and quench your thirst. You left Fandral who quickly found a new, willing partner and went and stood by a table. As you drank, you noticed that you had lost sight of Loki.

It was getting late now, you had danced for longer than you had thought and the exhaustion of the day was catching up. You scanned the room one last time for Loki and then decided to head back to the tent on your own.

You made your way out of the castle and down to where the tent was currently set up. You dragged your feet along the ground, looking forward to getting back into Loki’s bed.

As you got closer you started to realise that something was wrong. You could hear noises when you had hoped to be leaving them behind. The moon was bright that night, allowing for a pool of light to illuminate the ground. That’s how you saw it, the shadows of two people fucking within, reflected from the bright light against the tent.

Today in Black Excellence: Maya Angelou—a literature titan whose 1969 memoir was the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman.

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” —Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

What was the early life of Maya Angelou?

She became a celebrated writer and Black icon, but it came from a childhood of tragedy. Born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, Angelou was quickly exposed to racism as a child. Her parents split when she was young, and while visiting her mother, aged eight, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend: her uncles killed the boyfriend in revenge. These horrors left Angelou mute for five years, as she discussed in an interview with Oprah, a close friend. At age 16, she gave birth and was forced to work grueling jobs to support her son—including fry cook, sex worker, and nightclub performer.

She recounted her traumas to close friend James Baldwin—fellow writer and Black icon. He challenged Angelou to write about her experiences, and she published the wildly successful memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. It catapulted Angelou to international stardom and was nominated for a National Book Award in 1970. It remained on The New York Times’ paperback nonfiction bestseller list for two years—the longest record in history.

What made her such a Black icon?

Angelou was a close friend of Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated on her birthday in 1968. Angelou stopped celebrating her birthday for years afterward. In 1964, Angelou helped another activist friend Malcolm X in founding the Organization of Afro-American Unity.

Spanning over 50 years, she published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, books of poetry, and plays. Her 1971 poetry collection, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’Fore I Die, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Because of her tireless work in literature and political activism, Angelou became widely respected as a spokesperson for the Black experience, particularly of women. You can even find her legacy in your pocket—she recently became the first black woman to appear on a US quarter.

Original portrait by Tumblr Creatr @inuqo

"I was filled with such deep gratitude while working on this illustration of Maya Angelou. Her talent, creativity, strength, power and resilience is inspiring to us all and I wanted to display how beautiful her Universe was. How important her words and life's journey was because it showed us that no matter how hard we fall, still we can rise".”

—@inuqo