st_ratagem | Tension release valve

Tension release valve

The branch, oddly lumpy as a branch, with its bark stripped off and some shaping was definitely interesting. At some point in the tree’s life, honeysuckle had grown on it and choked the branches, and even though the flowers had clearly not been part of the tree for a long time, the twisting looked very much like a snake wrapped around the top.

Loki hadn’t budged from his room in days, wrapped up as he was in crafting something that wasn’t gong to be particularly useful as a walking stick or a weapon. At some point he’d propped his door open just so he didn’t have to split focus between what he wanted to do and dealing with knocking. Mostly the only people who came by were people he didn’t mind, anyway.

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"I can't reach your back otherwise. Unless we hug the entire time." Valkyrie cracked her knuckles. 'If he didn't like a normal massage, I doubt hugging will be much better.'

"That seems like it would be amazingly awkward for you." For him as well, honestly. It was rare that he didn't start feeling the need to escape most hugs either before they began or shortly afterward. It was probably more mistrust than dislike, all things considered, but the effect was the same: tension.

Loki shifted and put himself face-down. There was no real need to undo all of her work up to the moment by fighting both Valkyrie and his habits.

"Quite." Valkyrie approached the side of the bed, her gaze running up and down the length of Loki's prone form. Her fingers followed, palms warming a tightness sitting heavily in his lower back. Digging in with her thumbs, she opened the knot up in short, circular movements towards his chest. Every movement of her fingers was done with authority.

"I used to do this sort of thing--" She shoved her body weight down onto his trapezius, relishing in the way it pushed back, "with my Valkyrior sisters. Even the most skilled rider of us got stiff on the saddle. Usually it involved oil sans clothing…"

Loki laughed. “Which of us is the shy one, in your mind? If you’d rather not work through clothing that’s easily arranged.”

"Would you have rather I started this favor off with the command to strip?" Valkyrie brought her hands up for him to shed the cloth covering his upper half. "I considered it."

"Ah, you thought it was me." Loki pushed up enough to get his shirt off, then flopped down again. "For the record, I'm not."

Valkyrie's chest rose with a soft chuckle at watching Loki hit the bed unceremoniously. "How would you have taken that cold open, then?" She leaned back over, resting her full weight on his back through her palms, digging in a bit of nail. Judging by his physique, physical endeavors weren't something he neglected so much as he saw fit not to broadcast.

“Curiously.” Loki had to admit that hands on skin was already better than hands through cloth, but he was starting from less wariness than he might normally. “It’s an unusual request, but not an automatic refusal.”

"I'd hope you'd trust I didn't have nefarious intentions. I'd stab you in the front, not the back. So to speak." Valkyrie palpated around each notch of his spine. "Not counting this."

“If you wanted me dead, I’d be dead.” Stabbed in the front or the back, it hardly mattered; his odds of winning a straightforward fight were low. “Other than that... yes. You’re not me.” Not that she couldn’t be sneaky or tricky, just that it wasn’t especially her preference.

Valkyrie merely smirked to herself, bringing her hands back once the man's back had been given a thorough kneading.

"Turn over."

Loki turned over as directed. It was easier to watch her this way, which was obviously a pleasant side-effect for him rather than Valkyrie’s main goal. “Should your goal happen to be figuring out whether I’m ticklish, I am not.”

Valkyrie's hands cupped the muscle in the crooks of Loki's neck, her face lingering above his. "Was that invitation to try?" She followed it up with a threatening squeeze.

His eyes drifted closed while he focused briefly on breathing. Her squeeze wasn’t a choke, but it had a sort of ghostly potential to be one and was worth paying attention to. “I am entirely at your mercy.”

Hitching herself up on the bed, Valkyrie settled in her with her knees positioned on either side of the prince's waist. All the leaning over the wide bed was getting to be tiresome.

"Your faith in me warms my heart, Your Highness."

“If it helps, it may be more laziness than faith.” Loki assumed her statement was sarcasm. It seemed reasonable.

"We're almost done, Your Highness." She replied cordially, lowering herself almost enough to sit on his thighs as her thumbs traced each side of his windpipe. His pulse thrummed against her skin. She glanced up, catching his eye briefly as she lingered at his artery.

“Missing your knife?” he murmured, teasing, while he traced her calves almost absently with his fingertips, since they were convenient thanks to Valkyrie’s decision to straddle him. It was tempting to just try to kiss her and take whatever consequences rolled down on him. How often did these opportunities come up?

He suppressed the urge, though. He wasn’t especially interested in risking the odd ease they’d managed with each other.

“Are you?” Valkyrie softly asked, tracing her thumbs down to follow the steady beat of blood down the vein, coming to stop at his chest.

“A little.” The urge wouldn’t stay down, and this was as good an opening as any. Anything unwanted could be answered with violence, and equilibrium restored. It had been a while since his last terrible decision anyway.

Loki pushed himself up just enough to press his mouth to Valkyrie’s in a kiss, neither tentative nor especially chaste. If he was going to risk serious bodily harm to kiss a woman, he intended to make it count.

Just as Valkyrie was making to finish and pull back, there the man was once again, quick as a flash and springing the expectedly unexpected. Loki was stealing her breath more effectively than any blow or flash of the blade ever did. A moment of finding where her hands went and she was doing more than not stopping him, she was pressing back with as much force as she’d handled him with that evening.

And then, Valkyrie parted just enough a light shove to his chest. “Sharp my tongue may be, but you won’t find a blade hidden there.”

He’d expected to be shoved and possibly stabbed immediately, especially since Valkyrie was well aware that he’d probably enjoy it and that ambiguity had been a feature of many of their interactions. He had absolutely not expected her to kiss back, let alone so... enthusiastically.

When her shove separated them, he slid one hand up a leg to settle at her waist. Some encouragement - and an objectively fantastic kiss - was more than good enough to convince him to push his luck a little further. “I’m not sure about that. I may need to check again.”

"And risk your tongue becoming well and truly forked?" The pressure on her waist sent faint tingles up her spine. It was the first time he'd had his hands on her instead of the other way around. Valkyrie teased him with her lips as they almost made it to his, brushing Loki's bottom lip with her teeth.

"It would be worth it." He tilted his head enough to capture her mouth again, and slid the hand at her waist under the hem of her tank top to feel warm skin instead of cloth while the other simply pulled her closer.

Valkyrie arched and lightly drove down in a smooth wave with his cooler hands touching and sneaking along her back. Instead of shoving him back, she pulled back from the indulgent kiss, brushing some loose hair behind her air—and returning the favor to Loki’s.

“...” She paused as if she was ready for another follow up, but she placed a biting kiss to his lips instead, abusing the soft skin beneath her teeth.

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