Tension release valve

[st_ratagem]

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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[st_ratagem]

“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.

[st_allionofdoom]

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.”

[st_ratagem]

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.”

[st_allionofdoom]

"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.

[st_ratagem]

"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.

[st_allionofdoom]

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.

[st_ratagem]

Loki groaned against her mouth and returned fire by roughly scraping fingernails along Valkyriie’s spine. Her tank top was restrictive, though, interfering with his ability to touch freely, which meant that as soon as the kiss broke, he stripped it off and tossed it aside.

[st_allionofdoom]

Violence, however minute, promised excitement. The harsh nails sent sparks up her spine and little spikes of adrenaline through her veins and the effects were only emboldened when Loki saw fit to strip her of a layer, leaving the quaint excercise bra she’d grown accustomed to. It clasped in the front, a feature she appreciated for any fuss.

“Not much for armor, this.” She tugged on one of the dark straps, letting it snap back.

[st_ratagem]

“Midgard in general isn’t much for armor.” It felt like a good thing now, as armor tended to be complicated to take off whereas Valkyrie’s bra could be easily unclasped while Loki mouthed and bit at her throat.

[st_allionofdoom]

Midgard and armor...it brought up memories of Asgard in complete contrast. Distant ones. Valkyrie's thoughts then flickered back to her world, with her people onboard the ship, awaiting safe harbor and that came after--

Her thoughts were cut off from a nip and hot breath at the sensitive spot right under the curve of her jaw, and she pressed her chest into Loki's in approval.

[st_ratagem]

A lifetime of practice at illusions and other mental magics meant that When Loki was fully paying attention, he sensed things. In this case, that Valkyrie had gone far away in her head and the nip to her jaw had snapped her back.

He moved lower to kiss and nip at her collarbone, tasting her and enjoying the slide of skin on skin.

[st_allionofdoom]

Loki was skilled with his lips and his tongue and his teeth and Valkyrie couldn't find it in her to be surprised. He had a silver tongue when he wasn't being deliberately obnoxious. On one drunken occasion when he had chosen to be annoying over nothing that mattered whatsoever, she remembered thinking his face would be best used as a seat. She may have even said it aloud--not that this Loki could tell her.

Though she was less inclined to get angry at him for flapping his gums in the past month, she had no objections to putting his mouth for this. When that hand on her bare back moved, so did her hand buried in his hair, tightening it rhythmically, just to encourage the sound of his voice.

[st_ratagem]

Loki loved hands in his hair, and the rhythmic pulled did in fact result in a series of pleased noises, nonverbal (not quite groans) and muffled because his mouth was otherwise occupied. His hand on her back pushed her up a little more to let him shift attention from collarbone and shoulder to her breasts: lips, tongue, teeth, and free hand.

[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie had to give Loki credit--most men managed to either be too tentative or think they'd impress her by treating her body like a slab of ham. Hands and teeth everywhere, reading and responding to nothing. There was the right amount of finesse, the right amount of rough, and she couldn't help but imagine what they'd feel like elsewhere.

Not one to remain passive, she brought her knee down onto his crotch and parted his legs.

[st_ratagem]

The contact was delicious, and Loki bit harder for an instant in reaction. Then, just to see what Valkyrie would do, he used what leverage he had to try and roll then to put her on her back.Two pins in one day?

[st_allionofdoom]

While Valkyrie let it happen, she regarded the man above her with a curious look, one that asked Oh, THAT'S what you like? She took it less of a challenge and more of an affirmation that, yes, Loki was the red blooded individual she liked to imagine he was.

Before he could get too far into his own designs, she hooked her nails into his back and yanked him down flush, responding in kind by moving her body in a wave-like arch that pushed them up for that skin-on-skin friction. "If I didn't know you were Jotun, I'd have asked if you were well." He wasn't deathly cold, but he was cooler to the touch. It was far from unpleasant.

[st_ratagem]

Loki chuckled against her skin. “I’ve been asked that before.” It didn’t bother Valkyrie, clearly; if it did, there would be space between their bodies. “The first time, I didn’t know, so I thought I wasn’t.” He kissed her hard, then, rather than go down into that particular pit of memory; the tale had been popular proof of his cold nature for months, if not years.

[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie idly wondered if Loki could see her thoughts from lip-to-lip contact, surmising he could do a great many things if he was so inclined. She'd known and courted magic users in her time, including those who wielded Asgardian magic.

'Still time to find out about that seat remark...' She smiled against his mouth, one of her hands finding the tightness in his pants.

[st_ratagem]

“I can feel you thinking.” Actually reading thoughts took conscious effort and was rarely pleasurable for the person being read, but Loki did keep track of surface feelings and impressions. Yes, do that and This does nothing for me were excellent guides for someone who could never rely on affection to cover a shortfall in skill. He could feel the presence of Valkyrie’s thought and the curiosity/anticipation around it, but nothing more precise.

It didn’t help that she was making thought and concentration difficult. Loki’s hips ground down a little, pushing into her hand. They were both wearing too much clothing, but getting those leggings off Valkyrie meant backing away from her for a moment. “I’m game, whatever it is.”

[st_allionofdoom]

She quirked a brow, sliding her hands back up to his firm shoulders to give them a firm squeeze. "It involves letting me on top." If he was offering, Valkyrie wasn't about to turn him down. And without waiting for another polite acknowledgement, she took her turn and shoved him onto his back, straddling his hips.

"I'll make it good for you." A little smirk, and she was angling herself back to roll the stretching, black fabric down her thighs.

[st_ratagem]

“I believe you.” If nothing else, watching her rid herself of the last of her clothing was good. Valkyrie was a beautiful woman, and he currrently had permission, not just an excuse, to watch and appreciate.

[st_allionofdoom]

Lowering herself back down to straddle him once the garments had been carelessly tossed where the wind took them, Valkyrie hinged at the waist and reclaimed his mouth. She bit his lips softly and indulged in the taste of his tongue. His mouth tasted clean--probably a product of him mostly eating for utility, whenever she saw him bother to do it. Lazing around in his quarters as often as she did, she got a feel for many of his little quirks.

"Would you hold it against me if I said I've been waiting to do this?" She murmured into his mouth, dragging herself up against him to replace her lips on his with her sensitive nethers.

[st_ratagem]

“No, since you’re about to hold it against me,” he murmured back as soon as her aim became clear and half a second before his mouth had better things to do. More tongue, virtually no teeth, long licks, strokes and light sucks at her clit... and there was something thrilling, as always, in being at the mercy of someone who didn’t intend any harm.

He enjoyed giving oral, being being good at it (he was fairly sure) and enjoying the reactions and pleasure of his partner, so the only downside of this position was that he couldn’t also have Valkyrie’s hands in his hair while he ate her out. (Another time, maybe.)

[st_allionofdoom]

Though her hands gripped and scraped the golden rails of the headboard to bear some weight, she was perched atop her partner authoritatively, grinding and moving wherever felt the best. The best part was that she didn't need to direct Loki that much--chalk it up to his passive mind reading abilities or his exquisite attentiveness (a power he was now using for good instead of evil). His ministrations drew forth a soft yelp and a tightening of her thighs about his head as his tongue drew insistent little circles, gripping the metal hard enough to warp it as she bucked and whispered filthy encouragements all the way.

"I rather like you like this." Valkyrie gasped as she tilted her head down to catch a glimpse of him, hair draping over her upper arms.

[st_ratagem]

“Mmmm.” It was a nonverbal hum; Loki wasn’t inclined to use mouth or tongue for talking when he could keep coaxing those jerks and whispers out of her. In fact, even the hum was uttered in a way that the vibration of sound would complement, not interfere.

His hands, though, smoothed up her thighs to her hips, to agree that he rather liked her like this: breathless and shaking because of him.