[Loki, Thor, Valkyrie] Asgardians play rough

[st_ratagem]

The Inn, while not technically all that small, seemed to get emptier and smaller with time. That was, in Loki’s experience, one of the features of imprisonment in general. The business of every day was simply filling the day, finding what novelty one could in order to vary the texture of time.

Today, for some reason, he’d opted to appear in the Inn’s fitness room slash sparring arena to watch Thor and the Valkyrie spar. He had no intention of challenging the winner, of course; Thor would demolish him and he generally preferred less public locations for anything involving Valkyrie and violence in his direction. But it would at least be interesting to watch the two have fun or bleed off aggression, and possibly play spoiler of sorts - a few little tricks to tip the scales one way or the other in case one of them got complacent.

Sniping from the sidelines was, after all, entirely his style.

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[st_allionofdoom]

Looking at the mirror and casting a doubtful look at the both of them, Valkyrie plucked the water bottle up. “That bad?”

[st_ratagem]

“Several broken ribs, ruptured spleen, heavy concussion, internal bleeding severe enough that I couldn’t define everything else.” Loki handed her one of the sandwiches as well. She needed it, whether she realized that or not. Healing her had drained him, which meant it had taken a fair amount out of her, as well. “It’ll take a day or three to build up my reserves again.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"So everyone needs to be careful the next few days," Thor concludes. "No sparring until we figure this all out."

Whatever this was.

[st_allionofdoom]

Her gaze lingering on Loki, her urge to argue faded. Instead, she took the sandwich and took as much as she could fit in her mouth in one bite.

“No fretting.” She proclaimed after she swallowed before shoving the other half between her teeth to finish.

[st_ratagem]

“I’ll fret if I want to.” It should have been light, just a quip to return fire. It wasn’t. Loki finished the bottle of water, then stood. It was strange, him being the only one on the ground, especially since he hadn’t just gotten broken. “We should test - carefully! - to see if anything other than your durability and reflexes are affected, though.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"Not now," Thor says, shaking his head. He doesn't feel comfortable with the idea of Valkyrie being laid out again, or his brother having his lifeforce drained.

[st_ratagem]

“One test is easy enough.” Loki gestured at Thor and flashed a small smile at Valkyrie. “Punch one of us as hard as you can, a test of strength that can’t hurt much.” Valkyrie hadn’t even wanted to stop fighting when she couldn’t move. She’d find some way to ignore her odd weakness unless the extent of it was clear... maybe she’d still ignore it even then, but theeffort would have been made.

[st_allionofdoom]

Without hesitation, Valkyrie was back on her feet again, carrying on as if her bruised ribs were as fit as they’d been just a half hour before. She glanced at Loki and visibly disregarded the thought of lashing out at him, exhausted as he was. Instead, she sent a roundhouse kick around aimed straight at Thor’s ear.

He didn’t even budge. The ache made itself known unwelcomingly but still she stubbornly ignored it.

[st_ormbreaker]

The hit came so totally unexpectedly that it should have thrown Thor to the ground, but it didn't. The impact registered, but it wasn't nearly as strong as it should have been. All he felt was a dull, quickly-dissipating ache, the way humans sometimes did a minute or two after stubbing their toe.

It's all very wrong.

Had he been less concerned with Valkyrie's welfare, he might have encouraged her to hit him again so he could be convinced this was a one-off fluke, but he was already bristling with irritation and worry that she'd even pushed herself that much after being so badly injured.

"I'm taking you both back to Loki's room," Thor announces and before either can protest, he lifts Valkyrie up off the ground with one arm. "Are you good to walk?" he asks of his brother.

[st_ratagem]

There were times when it was useless to argue with Thor, and this was clearly one of those times. The only thing protest would do was take the choice out of Loki’s hands, as he got picked up regardless of whether he wanted to be carried. And, honestly, he didn’t feel like arguing. He needed to rest, the best place to do it was his own room, “If it’s walk or be carried, I’ll walk.”

[st_allionofdoom]

“My legs work fine, Your Majesty.” Even if she could set the record straight, it was useless to fight it. Instead, she turned her attention to Loki, brows crinkling slightly in concern.

[st_ormbreaker]

"You should not be working your legs, and you probably shouldn't be working your mouth," Thor says, making his way down the path to Loki's room. "What you should be doing is resting."

[st_ratagem]

Loki fell in at his brother's side, directing an I'm fine sort of shrug at Valkyrie. She might or might not believe it, but it was true enough that he wasn't remotely as badly off as she'd been. "She is mostly healed, Thor. Not that rest isn't a good idea!" That was important to note. "But she's in no particular danger of dying unless something new happens."

[st_allionofdoom]

Eyeing both brothers, Valkyrie’s shoulders fell in a soundless sigh. They both seemed normal, aside from the mutual concern and Loki’s depleted energy. “I’ll rest. For a short period.”

After, however...

[st_ormbreaker]

"You should take it easy until we know what's going on," Thor says. "I don't want you to risk getting hurt again." Not just because he was concerned for Valkyrie's welfare (because he was!), but also because he knew his brother well enough to know that he'd deplete himself again in the name of her welfare.

He wasn't going to let harm come to them again.

"You feel any different this morning?" he asks of Valkyrie. They're going up stairs now, and Thor casts a glance behind him to make sure Loki's not struggling to keep pace.

[st_ratagem]

Loki was in fact moving more slowly than usual, though he gave no indication of struggle otherwise. The prospect of not moving for a while was an excellent motivator to keep on. Sleep, read, settle into the loveseat to watch fish. Nothing that required effort.

"Thor is right," he said, hoping that a bald admission like that would get attention. "You've lost a fair amount of physical capacity somehow, and for the next day or so at least I won't be able to heal you if you break yourself. I therefore request that 'easy' be your guiding principle until we work out how to fix whatever happened."

[st_allionofdoom]

“If this has happened to me, what’s to say something hasn’t happened to others?” Feeling somehow certain of this possibility, Valkyrie at the least remained controlled in her king’s arms.

“...I felt slow upon waking, but not so weak.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"If something has happened to the others, that's something for me to handle while you and Loki rest."

As they approach the entrance, Thor nods a head towards the door. "Loki, can you grab that?"

[st_ratagem]

Loki nodded, made his way to the door, unlocked it with the key - from his pocket - and opened it. Ordinarily he'd have opened it magically so he wouldn't have had to dodge around Thor, but... well, tapped out was unfortunately tapped out even where convenience was concerned. "If nothing else, we can be fairly sure that Thor is intact, as am I. Or at the very least, my magic was available to me when I needed it."

[st_allionofdoom]

Suddenly Valkyrie’s arm whipped out, taking Thor by his scruffy jaw before they could enter the threshold (even if she didn’t wield much power, she had more than enough to squish his cheeks and force his head to meet her eyes.)

“Promise me you’ll do so. Loki hasn’t got enoug in him to handle many more rounds of this.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"Pinky promise," Thor says, and he pulls his face out of her grasp. "I'm confining both of you Loki's quarters until further notice. No chance for either one of you to get into trouble."

He sets Valkyrie down on the bed, then glances from Valkyrie over to Loki. "Do either of you need anything before I go check on the others?"

[st_ratagem]

"Brother, if you think either of us can't get into trouble here, you don't know either of us." Loki smiled to show it was a joke. Mostly so, anyway, because he at least wouldn't consider himself particularly bound by Thor's order. He'd stay in his room because he felt like it, and leave on a similar principle. "Probably more food sooner or later, as Valkyrie needs to make up some loss. But it's not immediate. See to the rest of the Inn, brother."

[st_allionofdoom]

Squinting at Thor, Valkyrie instead turned her attention towards Loki. "Does he do the confinement thing often?"

She recalled Stark being subjected to the very same thing around New Years time.

[st_ormbreaker]

"I'm going," Thor announces before Loki can give Valkyrie his answer. "I'll be back with something for you two to eat and drink later on."

Thor looks at the both of them, gestures at his eyes with his middle and index fingers, then turns those fingers back at them.

And with that, Thor departs.

[st_ratagem]

“He does it when he’s worried but has things to do that mean he can’t just hang around and fuss.” With Thor gone, Loki joined Valkyrie on the bed, not-accidentally covering one of her hands with one of his. “Generally I comply until I decide not to. Most days that’s just ‘until he’s gone’ but I think this time I’ll release myself tomorrow or so.”