Fishy drama (Loki and Val)

[st_ratagem]

Goldfish, it turned out, were hypnotic. They swirled around, sometimes in a school and sometimes random, mostly empty fish minds mostly a dull, whispery hum. Despite that, it was easy to see little fish stories unfolding and little cliques forming and breaking up. There were reasons Loki had filched a roomy armchair from elsewhere in the Inn and set it up near the tank: he, Valkyrie, or both together spent enough time fish-watching that comfort was called for.

At present there seemed to be a small cadre of goldfish endlessly circling the same decorative rock, chasing off all the other fish when they approached. It could have been just a gang with territory, but Loki and Valkyrie had decided it was a fishy cult, worshipping the rock as a god. Valkyrie had suggested a small statue of him more than once, to see if the fish cult would abandon their rock. He’d laughed, but he had created their world and provided their food, so... it wasn’t that ridiculous.

Regardless, the fish continued to circle their rock. Holy wars were something to work up to.

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[st_allionofdoom]

"And now?" Valkyrie leaned back against the cushion of the loveseat. "You still feel on your own?"

[st_ratagem]

Loki shrugged. “No, here and now is different. It’s going to be miserable re-adapting when I leave here, but that’s future Loki’s problem.”

[st_allionofdoom]

Was that better or worse? Maybe both. Everything about the pair and their relationship resided in shades of gray, why not one more thing to throw onto the pile. Valkyrie sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"...I'll only say one thing for sure. Just the one."

[st_ratagem]

Likely something upset or frustrated, from that gesture of incipient headache. Well, she was entitled to it. Heavens knew he was awful to deal with at the best of times, and this had been far from that. It meant a great deal already that she hadn’t just gone and ‘let’ him settle himself back to a more usual level of terrible.

So, rather than speaking and making things worse, again, some more, Loki just nodded. Listening, not speaking.

[st_allionofdoom]

It was something Valkyrie caught herself thinking, and frequently. When she opened her mouth to say it, she felt silly for it, but she’d committed to it now.

“I like the sound of your voice.” She bit her lip gently. “It’d be nice to hear more of it under better circumstances.”

[st_ratagem]

...oh. That was... unexpected.

"I'll speak to you anytime you like." Loki, after all, enjoyed the sound of his own voice as well. He reached to cup her cheek, stroking with a thumb again. "Find a book, I'll read to you."

[st_allionofdoom]

"I bet you say that to all your special friends." She wore her affection as a wry smirk and lifted her chin to enjoy his clever touch.

[st_ratagem]

"No." Loki shook his head. "Only to you." That being the case, he leaned in, slid his hand to the back of her neck, and kissed her.

[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie's eyes floated nearly closed. She wanted to close them all the way, but she felt as if she didn't trust him not to vanish on her. She pressed her palm to his chest, feeling his weight.

[st_ratagem]

Loki deepened the kiss, pulling her forward into his lap, then murmured against her mouth, “As long as you’re here, I will be here.”

[st_allionofdoom]

She didn't fight when Loki surrounded her with his body--not a difficult feat, given their difference in size. "Silver tongue, golden fingers." Her hands warmed his arms, sliding up to his shoulders. Her gaze traveled up and down his body once, as if visually confirming his presence.

[st_ratagem]

"That's the goal." He wasn't necessarily trying to convince her of anything beyond stay here with me, about which she seemed to need very little convincing. But if she liked his voice, he was going to use it. "You have wonderful skin. So warm. Which of course may just be my cooler perception, but I love it either way."

[st_allionofdoom]

“I’ve grown fond of your hair.” To emphasize it, she ran her fingers through it all at once, letting them get lost in the black waves. “A bit wild, when you let it.”

[st_ratagem]

"Do you know why I don't?" He didn't bother to wait for an answer, continuing to speak against her skin, kissing between words. "When we were young, Thor didn't have control of his powers. He electrocuted me on a regular basis, which didn't hurt much but made my hair stand on end. I looked like a terrified kitten. So I started slicking it down, and never stopped completely." He'd been less emphatic about it, recently.

[st_allionofdoom]

Her eyes finally began to relax, unable to help it against the interplay of his voice in her ear and lips on her cheek. She groomed his hair appreciatively, twisting a loose curl around her finger.

“Shame on His Majesty for discouraging a flattering look.”

[st_ratagem]

The increasing degrees of relaxation in her were almost, almost as pleasurable as her fingers combing through his hair. Even without even a ghostly precursor to a pull, utterly unnecessary to this warm comfort. “I don’t think it was always intentional,” he said, before catching her mouth with his again.

[st_allionofdoom]

Despite the barrage of insults aimed Thor’s way, Loki had again proven he was capable of charity towards him. She slowly melted against him, lips parted and willing for his attention.

“The nosiness is.” Another wry smirk.

[st_ratagem]

“True. I had to teach him the concept of privacy at knifepoint a few months ago.” Of course, at the moment the man could have entered, summoned by his name or something, and Loki would neither have noticed nor cared. He was completely focused on Valkyrie: her mouth, her skin, her body against his.

[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie simply purred, content to do little else but indulge in the delight of the senses that having Loki close and attentive in all the right ways brought. "I'd offer a massage, but I may be too useless for it at the moment."

[st_ratagem]

“Later.” At some point they would both be in the mood for that. But she was right: not right now. Loki’s hands smoothed down her side, slipping under her hoodie and shirt briefly, to stroke skin. “Right now I want to touch you.”

[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie initiated another kiss, jutting her chin softly against his as if to say then you should do that. She re-situated in his lap, leaning sideways into his embrace, lax but attentive.

[st_ratagem]

One of the down sides of a lifetime of one-night-stands and the briefest of flings was that Loki had never been able to develop the familiarity he had now with Valkyrie. General knowledge and attention worked well enough, but he was finding that it was no substitute for knowing. Knowing where light fingertips would make her shiver, where a nip and breath would jerk her attention back from elsewhere, that a scrape of fingernails on her spine nearly always made her gasp. Nerve endings, sensitive spots, where to be gentle or rough.

And he’d been invited to use all of it, so he did. Slowly and deliberately, to thoroughly enjoy every reaction.

[st_allionofdoom]

While some part of her still ached with doubt over his presence, she reassured herself with his physicality. Valkyrie's thoughts were always drawn this way and that way when they were close, especially in the wake of their heart-to-heart. Then, Loki was kissing a familiar place right above the pulse of her neck, and she was sure he could feel it beat quicker and harder beneath his lips and she rolled her body like a wave where it rested halfway on his lap and halfway on the seat.

Valkyrie returned the gesture, rolling her forefingers just hard enough over the site of an old bruise on his throat she'd left during some romp weeks ago.

[st_ratagem]

Loki groaned; the bruise was long gone but the memory was a good one, and he retaliated by biting that pulse point as it sped up under his mouth. Perhaps he'd collect a new bruise sooner rather than later? "Hoodie off."

[st_allionofdoom]

“By your command.” She pulled it off slow, tank top adhering to it and soon both ending up the floor. “Care to do the rest?”