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]

“I can see his face. I saw his face when he thought I wasn’t looking.” She assumed it had everything to do with Thor’s own wedding sooner than anyone else’s. It was surreal even discussing it as they did. The rings that sat nearby, Loki’s solid form beneath her, a king that had granted his blessing to a union to her, a proper Valkyrie—

“It’s not just because of what we discussed at the beach, right?”

[st_ratagem]

"It's not." That she'd missed her chance with Ròta was sad, but the sad story had only begun his thinking. "It occurred to me, first, that I couldn't really see a difference between this," Loki slid his hands along her thighs under the water, to emphasize their current closeness, "and what marriage might look like in this place."

A shift brought one hand up to stroke her cheek. "And then I remembered that knowing how you feel means knowing when you're afraid or uncertain." Fear of loss, fear of pain, fear that she'd set herself up for a lot of both. Uncertainty about time, about him. They were both semi-frequent undercurrents "So I thought I could make myself and my position less of a question, even if there are things I can't promise."

[st_allionofdoom]

The touch brought a little shiver up her spine. Valkyrie had been thinking many of the same things from the moment he said it. Marriage effectively wouldn't and couldn't change much about their current arrangement by nature of where they were. The physical impossibilities of what he couldn't promise were well established, but it brought more questions to mind. She closed an eye as a finger brushed her lashes, angling her chin up.

"What are you promising?"

[st_ratagem]

“I’m not going to disappear, if I have any choice at all, and I will fight to get back to you on those occasions. No matter the circumstances.” And he was willing to annihilate worlds to get what he wanted. “I’m with you as you’re with me. And,” he gestured and one of the rings floated back to rest in his palm, where he displayed it so the runes inside were clear, “there’s this.”

Mun þú mik: man ek þik: Unn þú mér: ann ek þér

[st_allionofdoom]

Loki's words--both those spoken and inscribed--replayed in Valkyrie's head. Then, her grip on him loosened...not because she intended to let him go, but because she'd realized there had been a pressure on her grip that had kept it tighter than it needed to be. For all the peace that she'd made with her past, the future of uncertainty had cultivated dread.

Valkyrie took a deep breath and was struck with the changes that had been wrought since her first night at the inn and all the changes to come.

"Right." She released her breath and smiled in a way that said, 'I know you'd only be offering if you meant it.' "Binding across dimensions."

[st_ratagem]

Oddly, the relaxing of her grip and that smile put the first real crack in the base of Loki’s confidence. He’d expected a ‘not yet’ at worst, but the not-exactly-relaxation and understanding smile felt like the beginning of a refusal somehow. The start of an I understand, but....

It twinged, but he didn’t let it grow. There would be space to react later, when it was certain either way. “Yes. Here, back home, in any other universe we find.”

[st_allionofdoom]

"And all that said and I'm here unsure of what to offer in turn." She admitted with a chuckle, cracked as it was.

[st_ratagem]

"Brunnhilde." He let the ring float back to the pile of clothes, freeing his hand so he could cup her face, willing her to understand what he said next. "I don't have to evade or hide from you. I can touch you without worrying what it means, I can sleep without worrying what you'll do. I could hand you every knife I have and know you won't turn them on me except in fun. You're safe." Safe was vanishingly rare in people, and even Thor wasn't as safe as his Valkyrie. "More than that, you know what I am and you still smile when you see me. And that's all just part of what you offer me already."

[st_allionofdoom]

Loki's words and his will shone through--possibly the brightest and clearest they ever had. She sunk into his hands, cupping his long fingers in hers as she leaned in to claim his mouth. No further words would do the sentiment justice.

[st_ratagem]

Still no answer, but when he could slide their joined hands to the back of her neck to pull her closer and deepen the kiss, it didn't matter. There was no way this passion was a flat 'no', and anything else could be worked with. And when they were skin to skin like this, he could work with anything.

[st_allionofdoom]

"I'll accept that." Valkyrie parted just enough to speak, the bridge of her nose slotting against his before she drew back. She leaned her head back far as she did, releasing tension that had pooled in her shoulders and exhaled an enormous sigh.

"I'm relieved you put forth returning to me by any means necessary. I wouldn't have accepted anything less." It was an entirely selfish notion, but one she wouldn't apologize for.

[st_ratagem]

He squeezed the back of her neck, as if about to shake her slightly. "I'm willing to annihilate worlds to get what I want, and I don't give up what's mine." It wasn't romantic, exactly, but it was the truth.

[st_allionofdoom]

"We needn't do that." She said it simply, the statement putting no damper on her mood. "We'll make it official and there won't be a question of either of us giving the other up."

[st_ratagem]

That sounded like an answer. And felt like an answer. "Just to be clear... that's a yes?"

[st_allionofdoom]

"Yes." She carried on, lifting her hand to accept the ring. It would only feel right to massage the shampoo in his hair with it on.

[st_ratagem]

Technically, the ring was more properly part of the wedding, but this was Midgard and the little details of timing mattered much less than... just about any other part of this, given that the wedding was simply the dues one paid in order to be married. Loki slid the ring onto her waiting finger (as a matter of preparedness, he'd enchanted it to resize to fit her finger, and not to come off unless she removed it) then pulled her into another kiss.

[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie's lips pressed against Loki's and the rest of her body followed. Chest to chest and seated on his lap, the weight and pressure of the ring was most keenly felt. It was heavy, somehow. But it was good to feel its weight.

She parted from his lips but not the rest of him, settling her own weight atop him to simply breathe and be. She thought that he smelled far better than her loud enough for him to hear.

[st_ratagem]

"I haven't been wandering the wilderness with Thor for several days," he murmured in response to the thought, though he was very far from minding her scent. "But if it distresses you, how lucky we're in a bath. We can actually wash you instead of just sitting in the water, if we want."

[st_allionofdoom]

"If we must." Valkyrie lazily drew back brandished the minty-scented shampoo bottle like a weapon, pouring it over Loki's hair generously. "I got back in the habit after taking up with you."

[st_ratagem]

"Somehow the idea of you living in your own filth is entirely believable," Loki teased, then stole the bottle and treated her hair with it. She had told him he could wash her hair, after all, and it seemed more than a little off that he was the only one being cleaned in her bath. "I'm pleased to be your excuse, I suppose."

[st_allionofdoom]

"It's still My Highness' honor to wash my hair." She twisted his long locks into one, gathering them at the top of his head and then letting it all wash away with a spritz from the shower head. "And the rest of me, if he so desires."

[st_ratagem]

“Oh, my honor certainly.” Loki massaged the shampoo into her scalp and finger-combed it through the rest of her hair. Any excuse to touch her was a good one, though he didn’t actually need excuses. “But is it my Valkyrie’s pleasure?”

[st_allionofdoom]

"Silver tongue, golden fingers." Valkyrie repeated, tossing her head back indulgently, giving Loki's hair a little tug as she did before coating her hands in soap to run down his shoulders and arms. The muscles she felt there tightened and relaxed as he continued his meticulous work.

[st_ratagem]

Translation, probably: yes, more so if he talked. Out of some perversity of spirit, he stayed silent while he finished washing her hair, just enjoying her soap-slick hands on his skin and her hair sliding between his fingers. Beautiful and his.

Once the shampoo had been rinsed out completely and he’d opted to massage her neck and shoulders briefly before getting back to the business of alleged hygiene, then he said quietly, “I love you. For the record, in case I don’t say it aloud often in future.”

[st_allionofdoom]

Humming, Valkyrie’s shoulders rolled in rhythm with his fingers.

“And I, you.” Her voice began soft, but then rose to proclaim it to Loki and the universe they swelled within itself, “I love you. Never forget.”