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 dropped Odin’s enchantment again, letting the blue-lined frost giant face take over again. As if to give Thor permission, he also folded his hands behind his back, shifting the staff behind his back as well. That way, when he started freezing the water around Thor’s legs and feet, it wouldn’t be as noticeable.

He’d told Thor he intended to practice. He was almost certain he had.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor slaps a hand onto Loki's shoulder and clenches it, determined to outlast his brother.

[st_ratagem]

Obligingly, Loki dropped his personal temperature as far down as he could. Thor wanted to see how long he could stand it, why not? On Jotunheim, they’d learned that frost giants could freeze through and shatter armor with a touch. If Thor wanted to experience that without armor, he could.

Besides, it helped Loki direct ice around his brother’s feet and ankles, freezing him to the roof.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor's grip on Loki's shoulder tightens a little as the cold begins to pierce through his skin. He's always been a bit of a furnace -- always running hot where others ran cold. That was part of why he was sure he'd be able to stand it.

Or why he didn't plan on letting go before Loki gave in and returned to his enchanted form.

Thor's hand doesn't move.

[st_ratagem]

At this point, it was Thor's decision exactly how much frostbite he wanted to inflict on himself. Loki was content to let Thor make that decision - though he would intervene, probably, if it actually looked like the man intended to sacrifice a hand - and building up the ice sticking his feet to the roof wasn't taking as much concentration as he'd thought it might.

All of that meant that Loki had spare mental space to think, which generally meant he had space to talk. This time was no exception, though he made an effort to find a topic he thought would please his brother. "Have you decided what to do about the sword thing, at your wedding? Since an ancestral blade of your fathers is likely to be... difficult... to come by."

[st_ormbreaker]

It's strange. While Thor's hand is the coldest part of him, he can feel the rest of him growing chillier by the second as well -- as if the coldness is stretching across his entire body and digging its way inside.

"I don't know," he says. "It's not as if there will be anything for me to use when I return, either."

[st_ratagem]

Loki nodded. "I can help with that, possibly." He released the staff with his uninjured hand, leaving the bandaged one to maintain contact behind his back, and called a knife from over there: the twin to the one still resting, bloody, on the towels in his room. "Mother gave me this pair when... I don't exactly remember. I think you were off training or in battle for the first time." Certainly he'd been lonely, not used to it yet, and more 'difficult' than usual. Starting to teach him knife-fighting had likely been a sort of sanity-preservation move from Frigga. "I don't know where she got them. A gift, most likely, from Odin or one of her parents."

He flipped the knife in his hand and offered it hilt-first to Thor. "I know Stark won't care, likely you won't either, and the second one stays with me, but... here. Not ancestral, but old enough no Midgardian should care."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor is so surprised by the gesture that he nearly lets go of Loki's shoulder. He reaches out for the dagger and turns the dagger around in his hand. It's solid, but light and old and beautiful.

Thor knows how close Loki was to their mother. For him to even give up one part of a gift his mother gave to him --

"Thank you," Thor says. "I'll use it."

[st_ratagem]

“What better option have you?” Loki watched the dagger for a moment, then looked away. Thor, at least, understood. That was good enough, but, “Try to make Stark understand. Or at least impress on him the need to keep the mockery out of my hearing.”

It was, after all, an ancient knife, and Stark seemed the type to be staggeringly unimpressed by anything not advanced tech. Something like Gosh, I always wanted a letter opener thirty times older than me would be the least of it.

[st_ormbreaker]

"Even if there were other options, it would still be the best." Thor gives Loki's shoulder a squeeze with his quickly freezing fingers. "Tony will understand."

[st_ratagem]

“Doubtful. But like I said, so long as it stays out of my hearing, it’s good enough.” A horrible thought occurred then, and Loki had to add, “Don’t let him melt it down, either. Even if the metal alone is more useful than the blade.” Realistically there would be no way to stop that, after the ceremony it would be Stark’s to do with as he saw fit.

Time to change the subject before more of the possible horrible fates awaiting the dagger occurred to him. “Can you even still feel your fingers?”

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor is about to open his mouth to say something in Tony's defense when Loki asks him about his fingers.

"Oh," Thor says, as if the lack of feeling in his fingers just now occurred to him. "No."

[st_ratagem]

For sure he couldn’t feel his feet, either, frozen to the rooftop as they were. “What can you still feel?”

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor lets out a hum, trying to figure out what he feels other than the sharp pain of the cold. It's not as painful physically as Nidavellir had been or the Power Stone. That might have been why he was utterly convinced he could take it. Whether or not his body would appreciate his stubbornness was still yet to be seen.

Thor gestures at himself with the dagger in typical casual Thor recklessness. "I can still feel my heart beating if that's what you're worried about," he says, as if that's some assurance to Loki.

[st_ratagem]

“It was not. Squeeze your hand again.” Apparently months of working in the clinic had rubbed off to the point where freezing an idiot to near death wasn’t going to be as fun as it sounded. Sigh.

At least the feet thing was still funny. “Because, you see, I’m perfectly comfortable. I can’t tell if your core temperature is dropping.” Which it probably was. Loki made a mental note to see if he could figure out a way around that little bump. It wouldn’t do to freeze people on accident, though freezing on purpose was fine. Fine-ish.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor manages to move a finger, though it makes an audible crunching noise, the thin ice that's built around his fingers breaking at the movement. The fingers of his other hand seem to be in a better shape; he's still able to direct a finger at Loki.

"Dropping, but fine."

[st_ratagem]

He seemed lucid enough. Not confused, which was a symptom of hypothermia... of course, it might be difficult to tell the difference between normal Thor and hypothermic loopy Thor. “Any itching?”

[st_ormbreaker]

"Should I be?" Thor asks. He wonders if those days at the infirmary have helped; neither one of them has biology that is quite like a human's.

[st_ratagem]

“It wouldn’t be great.” Chilblains itched, and while those usually required repeated exposure, the various medical books Loki had all but memorized by this point didn’t describe the results of prolonged exposure to frost giant. “Answer the question, brother.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"I'm fine," Thor says. "Power Stone. Neutron Star." He doesn't remember if he mentioned the Neutron Star to Loki. "I can take it."

[st_ratagem]

“Also not an answer. It was a yes or no question, or have your forgotten it already?”

[st_ormbreaker]

"Not much for it to be a problem." And as if to prove the point, Thor strains his fingers enough to break through the ice and give Loki the full squeeze he asked for before.

[st_ratagem]

Translation: yes, itching. Loki stepped back, away and out from under Thor’s frozen hand, then let Odin’s enchantment come back. “We’re done. You really would go until you’re permanently crippled, but I don’t need that right now. Go back to my room and warm up.”

Loki would have gone already, but he wanted to see what happened with his brother’s ice-sealed feet.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor huffs, but moves to head back inside --

-- except he can't seem to pull his feet up off the ground. Thor looks down. In his frozen state he hadn't noticed the ice growing on his feet and up his legs.

His eyes flash from his feet over to Loki. He frowns and attempts to dislodge one of his feet with more force. His leg doesn't immediately pull up, but the ice around it begins to shatter from the force.

[st_ratagem]

Loki smiled his sweetest smile, the one he always used when he was not just enjoying the commission of mischief but also taking immediate ownership of it, a thoroughly joyful and not-innocent expression. "Having a little trouble, brother?"