Oh To Lay On Someones Chest As They Read To You

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

“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

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.” 

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fun facts about sharks

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. 

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