Another serious conversation

[st_ratagem]

The hunting trip had been a good idea. It had taken Loki the better part of a day just to collect enough gold, adulterated and not, and refine it into purity sufficient for real jewelry. Crafting the ring itself had taken almost eighteen uninterrupted hours, and the end result still wasn’t exactly... fancy. Mostly matted to brown, so that the gold shine was all in the decoration and inside the band. Lack of sleep was probably the reason he’d taken an extra hour or two to inscribe something partway between a poem and a spell on the inner band.

No, the ring wasn’t especially fancy, but it was actually heartfelt, which was unusual for anything touched by the god of mischief.

Once it was done, though, he could only wait for Valkyrie to come home and see what openings he could find or make to actually... ask.

She’d been gone two nights, this was the third day. During the day, Loki went through his usual clinic hours and activities, but early evening found him settled in front of the fish tank with a book that he was pretending to read. Waiting.

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[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie entered through the door with little fanfare, pack slung over her shoulder and her hair a right mess where it sat barely contained by a band. Thor had brushed and braided it at some point during the trip, though his work was undone by the libations and midnight hunts through wherever their whims carried them. She smiled at the back of Loki's head and turned for the bathroom.

"I'll make myself decent." As carefree as she was with her space, she still carried the urge to impress the other brother.

[st_ratagem]

The smile was audible in her voice, as smiles often were, and it was sweet to hear. So few people in his life smiled just because Loki was present or in sight. Added to that, while he’d been more than aware she’d been gone but had still been able to go on as normal, now that she was back it felt almost like a relief of physical pain.

“Wait.” He slipped out of the loveseat, leaving his book behind, and moved to catch her at the bedroom door. Her hair was a mess, but that hardly mattered. It certainly didn’t stop him from taking a kiss hello. “Good hunting?”

[st_allionofdoom]

"Not really. Drank too much. Talked too much." She gave one shrug to the side and bumped her forehead to Loki's shoulder in a reciprocal gesture. "Still teaching him stealth."

[st_ratagem]

“Ah. Good luck with that. Stealth is far from my brother’s style.” He didn’t want to be talking about Thor right now. That didn’t seem likely to lead to any opening he wanted. “Good hunting or no, I’m glad you’re back.”

[st_allionofdoom]

"You'll be even more glad once I'm washed." For as little thought as she used to give to it, her better nature returning combined with Loki's more fastidious habits had an impact. She turned her hips towards the bathroom for the rest of her body to follow, releasing her thick hair from the tie and shaking it out.

[st_ratagem]

“Sad but true, I believe I’ll be the same amount of glad.” Loki weighed the options of asking her when she was aimed at washing versus the risk...actually, it wasn’t a risk. The ring would prove he was serious.

He stepped back to let her go bathe. “I did miss you, and I’d like to claim some time when you’re ready to share it.”

[st_allionofdoom]

"Yeah?" Valkyrie asked casually enough as she unzipped her sweater, though her eyes lingered on Loki as she did it.

[st_ratagem]

"Is it so unusual for me to want your time?" Admittedly, he mostly just took up her time or accepted what he was offered rather than asking for it in advance. "I'm more than happy to keep bothering you now."

[st_allionofdoom]

The redirection was easily caught, but Valkyrie let it go. "Is that all?" She stepped out of the leggings clinging to her skin and tossed them at the general direction of the hamper. "Let's adjourn in the washroom with the tub. I'll give you the honor of washing my hair for me."

[st_ratagem]

"Thrilling." It might have been sarcastic, aimed at anyone else, but here and now the word was warmly amused. Somewhere, in some ways, they both kept score, and that was a decided one for her side.

To get the forfeit out of the way, Loki followed her into the bathroom, slid an arm around her waist to pull her close, then kissed the side of her neck and murmured, "Yes, I'm the same amount of glad you're home both before and after you wash."

[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie slotted her back to fit against the much taller man’s front, not questioning the affectionate outpouring but simply enjoying.

“How were the kids?” She enclosed the musculature of his arms with her hands, giving them a massage.

[st_ratagem]

“Subdued by temporary loss of their goddess. I told them you were on a grand journey to the underworld and would return when they’d proven themselves worthy.” Loki kissed her shoulder, then shifted to swing her into his arms and carry her to the tub. She wanted to wash, after all! “Clipped Fin promptly made a habit of disrupting the Cult’s meditations on their rock. She crashed into them so they scattered, and did it again as soon as they returned, over and over. Make of that what you will.”

[st_allionofdoom]

Balancing easily in Loki’s grip, she watched him as he recounted the tale, noting each little inflection and expression. There was no agenda—just the simple pleasure of being with him. There was something abuzz about him.

“And of the hermit?” She hooked her arms around his neck.

[st_ratagem]

“Nothing new. Either he was planning something or felt he has nothing to prove.” No wonder Thor wanted to carry people or be carried, it was a literally-moving embrace. The bathroom wasn’t all that big, though, so sooner rather later Loki had to set down at the edge of the tub so he could start running the water. “I suspect the former.”

[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie peeled off what little she had left and flicked them in the corner, crossing her legs as the water filled the tub. “And not a murmur yet. He’s playing the long game, that one.” After 5 months, he’d shown enough flashes of cunning and wielded a formidable ability to keep score to make her confident in her assessment of their intelligence.

[st_ratagem]

“Long games are often the best ones.” Short games were entertaining enough, and had their place, but couldn’t have the ultimate payoff of something longer. That principle was why Loki restricted himself to admiring her body with his eyes instead of his hands: the immediate gratification passed in favor of focus on the larger aim.

He settled nearby to wait for the water to fill the tub. For all he didn’t want to be talking about Thor, curiosity asserted itself. “What did you and Thor talk about, in your talking too much?” How well had Thor done, really, at secret-keeping?

[st_allionofdoom]

"I'd be lying if I said I remembered it all." She'd been in-and-out the latter two nights and remembered well enough to say that Thor hadn't been at all better. "New game to hunt. New weapons to craft. Weddings--his, namely. Then Sakaar and how many other planets there are out there that aren't trash heaps."

[st_ratagem]

“Fairly standard, then.” Perhaps Thor was owed some form of apology, for Loki’s doubts. Not that he’d necessarily actually apologize, of course.

He trailed fingertips in the rising bath water to test temperature. Warm enough, he thought. “I can safely promise not to talk about weapons or game for a while.”

[st_allionofdoom]

"He did seem more..." Excited? Awkward? "...like himself during." As Loki inspected the tub, Valkyrie inspected a rubber ducky that always re-appeared at the outer edge, giving it a sharp squeeze between her fingers.

[st_ratagem]

"Excited to be outside roaming, I imagine." He knew that wasn't why. "My brother isn't especially suited to a quiet, slow existence." Just to see what she'd do, Loki pulled his fingertips out of the bathwater and flicked droplets in Valkyrie's direction.

[st_allionofdoom]

"Are any of us?" Making a show of protecting the ducky from the onslaught, she lowered it towards the bath behind her back--and brandished its newly bloated body like a pistol and shot off a jet right at Loki's face.

[st_ratagem]

Loki immediately jerked back, not that it got his face out of the line of fire, then threw up a hand to mostly redirect the water back into the tub with a laugh. Another reason to want her: she cheerfully responded to 'attack' in kind, with escalation. "I don't know, I thought you and I were managing well enough."

[st_allionofdoom]

Satisfied, Valkyrie shot the remaining ammo up into the air like a fountain. She leaned back to test the temperature of the water--cooler than she usually liked it, but welcoming given the sweaty treks she'd been out and about on. It was nearing the line, and she slipped one leg in, and then another, fully submerging her body and wetting her hair.

"Incredibly." She sunk back against the sloped end, clearing the wet curtain of hair from her face. "Certainly not what I imagined when I first saw you sitting there by the temple."

[st_ratagem]

"Likewise." To the extent he'd thought about it, he'd marked her as something like a new Lady Sif - a comrade of Thor, someone with whom to maintain civil terms while remaining wary and untrusting. But then, of course, she was virtually nothing like Sif except in the very broadest terms. "But I have to ask if you imagined anything at all."

[st_allionofdoom]

"Imagined? I'm not sure." Valkyrie nudged the rubber duck on its own path through the water with a finger. "I knew enough about you to hope for camaraderie."