Final steps

[st_ratagem]

Loki had spent the last hour or two before sunset preparing, and the first hour afterward. He’d taken ruthless advantage of the fact that the Inn staff was desperate to give people towels and had carefully interwoven the. On the floor such that there was no chance of getting at the actual carpet below without effort. He’d selected a dagger from his collection - a very old one that he hadn’t actively used since childhood, one of a pair given to him by his mother - and sharpened it to an almost perfect edge. He’d opened up the balcony door to let the early-winter night chill in. He’d even out together a little aid kit (disinfectant, pads, bandages, needle and thread) for afterward.

In many ways, the hardest part was settling on the towels with the in-etched staff resting in front of him and forcing Odin’s enchantment away, knowing that he wouldn’t be allowing himself to go back to normal possibly for hours. And that, as soon as Thor arrived with a bowl and his hands, it would all have a witness.

Comments

[st_ratagem]

Loki glanced up and raised an eyebrow, but declined to repeat his statement about not asking questions if you didn’t want answer. “Flip the staff, please. Time to go back up.” There was a line of careful Norse runes down one edge of the serpentine design, it needed the other edge.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor wordlessly complies, flipping the staff so Loki can easily access it.

[st_ratagem]

“Thank you.” Thor was offended, clearly, but there didn’t seem to be anything to be done for it aside from an apology. Which would only be a good idea if Loki had been lying.

Ah well. Finishing the inscribing as quickly as possible so Thor could go do Thor things would have to do.

[st_ormbreaker]

"I don't want you to blindly agree with me, you know," he says. "I wouldn't have asked you to be my adviser if all I wanted was someone to nod at everything I said."

[st_ratagem]

“I know. And when I’m not window dressing for whatever’s playing out in your head, it’s even true.” Loki dipped his pen in the bowl.

[st_ormbreaker]

"Okay," Thor snaps. "You want to decide what else is apparently going through my head, then?"

[st_ratagem]

“Nothing at the moment as far as I know. I can take notes next time it happens, though.” Loki rolled his shoulders, they were a little stiff from sitting as still as he mostly had been. “I gave you a general answer, you’re the one taking it personally and specifically.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"How am I supposed to take it, then?"

[st_ratagem]

“As information? Sometimes an answer to a question is just that, brother. If you don’t like the answers, don’t ask the questions.” He glanced up, red eyes meeting mismatched. “I told you you not to worry about it, if you’ll recall.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"And sometime the answer isn't the right one," Thor insists, clearly unwilling to let this go. "I feel like you don't even try to understand me sometimes."

Not that Thor himself did a good job of understanding Loki most times. There was a lot of projecting that tended to happen there.

[st_ratagem]

“You’re not all that complicated, Thor.” No doubt the man would take that as an insult. “I don’t often need to try.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"Okay, great." Thor did indeed take it as an insult.

[st_ratagem]

“Why, do you think you are? Bear in mind that if this conversation had gone down a slightly different track you’d be huffily trying to insist I’m not that hard to understand, Loki! You’re the one making things complicated!” A sneaky advantage of shapeshifting skill: it was possible to do really good impressions without shifting at all or pausing in writing runes on a stick in your own blood.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor bristles with irritation at the impersonation. He hadn't grown any fonder of them since the days of Loki's imprisonment.

"I don't think I'm complicated, but I don't think I'm simple, either."

[st_ratagem]

“There you are then. We agree you’re not complicated.” Of course, he was still insulted, but they only had to go on a little longer without Thor deciding to take off in a huff.

[st_ormbreaker]

A sigh. He'd been hoping to forgo an argument today, but they'd really done nothing but argue since Loki started.

"Fine, you win, Loki."

[st_ratagem]

Loki hadn’t wanted to fight, either, but it made a certain amount of sense that they had. Apart from the relationship neither of them was entirely willing to break, they didn’t seem to have any pleasant ground to stand on. “I suppose it makes sense that nothing positive go into this thing at all,” he said, tapping the last rune he’d written with the one before moving on. “So thank you, I suppose.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"You're welcome," Thor says, choosing to ignore Loki's quip. "Are you going to let me bandage you up now?"

He gestures to Loki's hand.

[st_ratagem]

Loki stared at the staff instead of answering for a few more seconds. It had already been a bleak, unfriendly sort of artifact, now it was more so even if he found it oddly pretty. Fitting enough, and when everything was fully set and dried he’d have to test it.

After a longer pause then he exactly intended, he closed his hand and pulled it out of the bowl, “As if it’s such a privilege. I’ll manage. You have places you’d rather be.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"It was part of my job, wasn't it?" Thor says. It's useless to try and convince Loki that he wants to be here. At the least, maybe he can convince him that he wants to at least finish what he started.

[st_ratagem]

“Not really. Just holding and turning when I couldn’t and making sure I didn’t run out of blood before finishing,” Loki shrugged. “I knew you were squeamish, so I always assumed I’d handle my own cleanup.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"With one hand?" Thor asks, incredulous. "Let me take care of it."

[st_ratagem]

“Why? You haven’t struck me as a man in the mood to do additional favors. You wanted to leave earlier, why change your mind now?”

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor looks at Loki, his jaw set, lips pulled into a line.

"I didn't say I wanted to leave earlier."

[st_ratagem]

“It’s called an inference. Multiple fake yawns and an are you done yet seems most likely to mean ‘I would like to be elsewhere.’ You didn’t disagree with that interpretation.” Loki stood up and moved to fetch the little kit he’d put together.