My Beloved Loki

We Just Have to Tolerate Each Other

Thor walks ahead of me and holds the door open for me. The Celebration Hall is filled with people talking and laughing. The room is oval shaped and there are columns lining the outer rims of the room which lead to an open balcony. From the columns, there are about four steps which lead to a golden marble floor. There's a long wooden table in the middle of the floor with a chiffon cloth on it and food covering almost every inch, except for the plates and cups laid out on it. There are wooden chairs sitting behind the plates but no one is sitting in them. Strange. The only person in a chair is Odin. He's at the head of the table, obviously. He's the All-Father. He's king of Asgard. Why wouldn't he be at the head of the table. The room has a warm glow from the torches mounted on the columns. The walls are gold and the columns have chiffon drapery hanging from them. It's a very beautiful room. Better than my temporary suite. As people hear the door open, one by one they start to quiet down and stare at Thor and I. Well, this is awkward. I smile at everyone confidently. I steal a glance at Odin. Again, emotionless. Why must he be so, unreadable? Oh wait, he's not! She seems confident enough. But is she confident enough to watch Loki? Without killing him. She seems like she does not like him. I can understand why. Jeez, now I know why Loki went on a rampage in New York. Even his own father doesn't love him. That must be tough. Am I pitying him? I guess I have the right to, I mean, he is hot and he has a pretty tough life. I still don't know if I forgive him for New York, but at least I have to tolerate him for a while. Which, shouldn't be too hard, right? Thor violently slaps me on the back, which is mostly bare since my hair is braided to the side and this dress has only one sleeve. And it's a thick, over the shoulder sleeve. Thanks Thor, I think you just broke my nervous system.
"This is Rae. She helped capture Loki and bring him home. She will be taking care of him until we have suitable chambers for him." Thor says and people start clapping. I take a few bows at their praise before walking down the steps, emerald green cape flowing elegantly behind me. Thor follows suite and gestures me to take a seat next to Odin. I do. These chairs may be pretty, but that doesn't mean they are comfortable. Odin smiles at me. Odin smiles a real, genuine smile. At least I know he has emotions. I smile back at him and look at the plate in front of me. The plate is round and silver with little gold flecks in it. The cups are glass with ruby flecks in them and look more like wine glasses. Then I look at my utensils. They are shiny silver. And all three of them are forks. Three different sizes. What's the heck?! I don't know what in supposed to do with these! What if I use the vegetable fork for the fruit or whatever?! I don't want to look like an idiot in front of these Asgardians! Something tells me this isn't the last of Asgard that I will see. Thor plops down into the seat to my left after bidding a friendly farewell the brunette that I saw earlier that day in the courtyard.
"Thor?" I whisper so Odin doesn't hear me.
"Yes my lady?" Thor whispers back.
"Which fork do I use?" Thor points to the biggest one.
"This one is used for meat," he points to the middle one, "this one for fruits and vegetables," he points to the smallest one, " and this one, for pudding." Thor says, the pudding part a bit like a child. I'm about to say something back to Thor when Odin stands up. The room instantly turns silent, every eye on him. He pauses, probably for dramatic effect. Or he's just old.
"Tonight, we are celebrating the return of my sons Thor and Loki. We are celebrating the ruin of Loki's veined plans. And we are celebrating the bravery that helped in that cause. Now, we shall feast." Odin says and taps his staff on the floor, filling the room with a deep, satisfying clang. The people in the room begin to fill the seats and, surprisingly, there's enough for everyone. People start pulling food from their trays. I take the biggest fork hesitantly as take a chunk out of something that looks like chicken. I then take the middle fork and take some fruit that is covered in a sauce not unlike syrup. Then I take a few vegetables from a tray that are covered in a white sauce, kind of like queso, but it tastes nothing like cheese. The dinner is wonderful, the best food I've ever had by far. I only ate a small portion but am already getting full.
"You might want to save room for pudding." Thor says casually.
"Pudding? Is it in the kitchen or something?" There's none on the table as far as I can see. Although I could be wrong. Nah, I'm not wrong. Man am I arrogant.
"Yes it is." Thor says and I sit in silence for a few minutes savoring every bite of this glorious food. I wonder what Loki eats. If he doesn't get anything or much in the prisons, I could bring him some pudding as a peace offering. Maybe then he won't try to kill me, because that would not turn out well. For anyone.
"Does Loki get any food?" I ask Thor out of the blue, catching him off guard again. It's so funny when I do that to him. His face contorts in confusion. His face is priceless and I have to try extremely hard to stifle my laughter.
"Uh, no, he doesn't get much." Thor says awkwardly.
"Why kinds of pudding are there?" Again, with the priceless confused look. You're killing me Thor! I don't want to bust out laughing in front of these people!
"There's Humflin, which is like earth chocolate, Fumlrey, which is like vanilla, Yodenda, which is like strawberry, and Gumbluf, which is like no flavor on Earth." Of course I'm trying Gumbluf.
"Which one is Loki's favorite?" I ask casually like I'm stating the weather outside, which is perfect an the sky is absolutely magnificent and every time I catch a glimpse of it I stand there in awe for a moment. And then the face. This time I let out a small giggle.
"Gumbluf. Why do you want to know? You aren't planning on bringing him any are you? That I against the rules. Prisoners may not have any good food." Thor says. Loki is his brother! That's not right! Prisoners should at least get normal portions of food and something besides, uh, the prisoners get bread, besides bread. Thor is very useful with this stuff. Anyways, I'm not protecting Loki, I'm just saying it's unjust. Same for Earth, yes I know. It's a problem everywhere. I want Loki to not want to kill everything anyways so I might as well bring him some pudding.
"No. Just curious. If I knew what kind of things he likes, I might be able to take care of him better." I lie. I'm so taking Loki some pudding. Following rules isn't exactly in my nature. Thor nods and I finish my meal in silence. After everyone is done, servants dressed in leather tunics, trousers and multi colored dresses that are no where near as elegant as our clothes, but they are still cool looking. I would much rather be wearing a tunic and leather trousers right now, but as my best friends Chase and Sofie say, I should dress up more. Besides, if I screw this up I might end up in a cell with Loki. Now that would be bad. After the table is cleared of all food, four silver bowls about the diameter of a basketball and the width of my calf are carried out. Soon, metal bowls with golden flecks are placed in front of us. The only fork we have left is the pudding fork. While no one is looking, I pull a little servant girl who looks about twelve over and ask her for another bowl and pudding fork. She's really cute. She has freckles covering every inch of her skin and she has fiery red, long, curly hair. She has bright green eyes with a simple dress and shoes to match her eyes. She's going to be very pretty when she grows up. She nods at me as I smile at her. She smiles back at the unexpected gesture and runs off. She comes back a few minutes later with a bowl and pudding fork as discretely gives them to me. I cover them up with my cape. While Thor, Odin, and Frigga are all talking to someone down the table and completely ignoring me, I put forkfuls of Gumbluf into the bowl. I take that one and make it appear invisible and put it underneath my seat. I then take the bowl the little girl gave me and do the same to it. Except I eat this one. Before I take the first bite Thor looks at me, then at my bowl, then back at me. The Gumbluf is an off white color and has the consistency of pudding on Earth. I take a forkful of it and sweet flavors explode in my mouth. I grin widely at Thor and he gives me a satisfying smile back. I'm not kidding, it tastes like a marshmallow and a cookie had a baby. I can see why this is Loki's favorite. How could you not like this stuff?! I eat at least two bowls off it before the dinner is over. During all the confusion of people leaving, I take Loki's pudding and discretely carry the invisible looking bowl out of the Celebration Hall through the big crowd. I lost Thor and I turn around to see him frantically searching for me. I don't really want to know what's going through his head but at least I have a mental map of Asgard now. I follow it down a bunch of corridors and down a bunch of steps until I reach ground level again. I follow it outside and to a giant river. The prison is across the river. I fly across the river at top speed and making myself appear invisible. I don't want Goldylocks or his guards to find me. That would be bad. Especially if Goldylocks has his Mjormel. No. That would not be good. So, I appear invisible. There's a few fishermen down there. I wonder what would happen if I flew past them really fast. I start to dive slightly to get down to the little wooden boats levels. I fly by them extremely fast and it causes a few items to fly into the water while making a big wave and scaring the men half to death. I start laughing at them and when they start calming down from their near panic attack, I return to my prison mission thing. The outer prison is made of pearly white marble flecked with gold. The spires on the prison are topped with gold and here's gold embroidery all over it. There are no windows or balconies on it like the castle does. It has one door on ground level. Makes sense though. Wouldn't want prisoners jumping into the river now would we? I fly up to the door and check to see if anyone is in the room beyond with my powers. It's a good thing everyone is still at the palace. I open the big wooden door to find a room a bit like the throne room. Except instead of a throne at the end, it's a bunch of stairs. There's literally nothing in here. Just gold walls, floor, ceiling, and concrete columns around it. I walk up to the stairs but don't really feel like wasting my breath on them, so I levitate up a bunch of stairs, and past many hallways with cells down them. The cells are all white rooms with a darker golden light emitting from a seemingly open wall. I guess that's what is used to put prisoners in and keep them in. I finally get to the right hall and start walking to the fifth cell. That's what cell Goldylocks head said that Loki was in. Not to mention that every cell I walk by I either get rude comments, murderous comments, or glares. I finally get to Loki's cell. He has the other two prisoners, who look like something out of LOTR I might add, terrified in the opposite corner of him. He's sitting against the wall next to the golden light. He has his feet crossed over one another and his arms folded over his chest. He has his eyes closed, probably out of boredom. I know I would be bored out of my mind. I approach him and his green eyes suddenly pop open, startling me a little bit. His outfit is the same as before. LOKI! That's where I've seen the color of my dress before! Fantastic. It's not a bad color, I like green, it's just his color. And I don't like him. This is just a peace offering.
"What do you want girl?" Loki asks annoyed and brings a hand to his head.
"I just brought you some Gumbluf pudding. If you don't want it, I'll just eat it because this stuff is amazing!" I say excitedly as start to walk off just as Lois eyes pop back open and his eyes hold a slight hint of anger in them. He unfolds his arms and stands up just as I turn my back on him.
"Wait. I will have the pudding. What is it for?" Loki asks, curious all of a sudden. A dramatic change from 30 seconds ago. I sit down on the ledge beside the golden light and Loki. I set the pudding down next to me. Loki glances from it to me, then back to it.
"A peace offering." I say and his eyes snap to mine. His eyes are so amazing....wait, I can't like him. Just take care of him. Two totally different things. I keep my eyes on his just to show that I'm not intimidated by him at all. It's true, because if I wanted to, I could kill him with my index finger. But I much prefer fistfights when it comes to it. Yeah, I could have killed him in New York, but he had to answer for his crimes. Now I'm kind of wishing I had declined Thor's offer of coming to Asgard. Wait...Thor tricked me! He knew they were going to do this!
"A peace offering for what? Are you alright?" Loki asks, sensing my anger no doubt.
"So that when we do get back to Earth, you won't kill me or anyone else, and I won't kill you. And yes I'm fine. I just realized something that your brother did to me. I don't really like him as much as I did an hour ago." I say angrily, hands turning to fists. I need to punch something or I might hurt someone.
"Oh. That is reasonable. Now do you see why I don't like it here?" Loki asks. I nod angrily. Wait, are we bonding? I look at him quizzically and he gives me the same look.
"What?" He asks curious and a little annoyed. Probably because I'm inches from his face and staring questionably into his eyes.
"Are we bonding? Earlier today we tried to kill each other. And now we are bonding?" I ask, the last bit more to myself than him.
"I believe we are. This is strange is it not?" He asks and I nod, looking at the pudding. Right. That's why he's being so nice.
"It's the pudding, isn't it? You're being nice, because of the pudding." Loki partially smiles.
"Partly. The other half is that I really don't want you to kill me. So, bonding seemed like my best option." I for know if I can tolerate him or not. Yeah, I act the same way, but still.
"Great." I say sarcastically.
"What?" He asks as tilts his head ever so slightly.
"I thought we could actually tolerate each other." I say and look at the floor. I get up and start to leave. Babysitting Loki is not going to be fun.
"What about my food?" He asks. I can feel his curious eyes on me as I storm away.
"You're telepathic. You can teleport things. Figure it out yourself." I say angrily without stopping to turn and look at him.
"I can't." He says and I backtrack out from around a corner, a smirk spreading across my face. I turn to face him and he looks annoyed.
"Why not?" I ask even though I already know the answer. The cage blocks telepathy from the inside.
"You already know." He says annoyed.
"I might at well take it back then because I can't move things or teleport things so I might as well forget about it." I say. I pick the bowl up and start to walk out slowly for effect. I'm very persuasive. I know how to get what I want. What I want is to be able to teleport and move things without actually touching them.
"Wait." Loki says defeated. I turn around, trying exceedingly hard to hide the wide grin on my face.
"Yes?" I ask innocently.
"I will unlock your powers further if you let me have it." Loki says, head hanging low.
"You really missed this stuff, didn't you?" I ask with a little bit of pudding. It must have been hard to be separated from this great food for so long. Yes, I admit it, I'm in love with food. I eat whenever I get the chance. The Asgardian food made me feel more full than I was, but now Loki's pudding is looking pretty good.
"I thought you couldn't use telepathic abilities." The thought never even crossed my mind.
"I can. Like when I was talking to you earlier. I just cannot do bigger things like teleport or move things." Loki says. I feel a slight warm sensation, but it feels like it's outside my mind more than in. Like, someone is shouting through a wall. You know they're there, you just can't see them.
"You have to let me inside your mind." Loki says a bit annoyed with his eyes closed. I'm hesitant to let him inside my mind. But he's going to give you more powers stupid. My inner voice tells me. I finally let Loki in my mind and the warm sensation grows stronger.
"Finally." Loki whispers, more to himself than anything. His green eyes are open now. Soon they are locked into my brown ones and my stomach does a backflip. Wait, what?! It must have something to do with him unlocking my powers. Soon, a sharp pain emits from the right side of my brain and gets stronger with every second. Soon I am crumpled on the ground in agonizing pain in my head, crying. I go in and out of consciousness, the pain getting worse each time. My head is going to explode! I come out of unconsciousness for a few seconds and see Loki sitting in his cell. His posture is tense and his eyes show fear. That almost brings me to tears, well, if I wasn't already crying that is. The fact that a man who murdered hundreds of people and tried to take over the world is concerned for a girl who he has barely met. But why? That question sits in my mind until I go unconscious again for a very long time. I wake up what seems like hours later with the pain almost completely gone. I lift my head up and a tear leaves my eye, but I'm not crying. I must have been knocked out for a shorter time than I thought. I have a small headache, but other than that I'm perfectly fine. I stand up and a wave of dizziness hits me and I fall back to the ground.
"Are you alright?" Loki asks. Wow, he actually sounds sincere. I manage to get to a sitting position. I nod my head. Bad idea. Another wave hits me and I almost fall over with the force.
"Why do you care? You enjoy this kind of stuff. You're the kind of person who kills because it's fun and you care for the person who stopped you from doing that and who helped put you in this cell. Why?" I ask.
"You care for me. A little. It's not much, but you do care. I never have really felt that in my life before. My mother cares for me, but she was rarely around as a child, seeing as she is the queen. My father overlooked me. My brother got all the glory. He is not fit to be king. My whole life is a lie. My father doesn't care for me. My mother looks upon me with pity. And all my brother wants to do is stop me. But you, you cared enough to go through that to give me pudding." Loki says, not meeting my eyes. Woah, he's had a harder life than I thought. In my defense, I do care for him. Just a tiny little bit. I am still full of rage about what he did in New York, but maybe, just maybe, I can forgive him. It's a long shot in the dark. But if I got to know the Loki that Thor knew as a child, I might be able to forgive him. Maybe even have him as a friend. Let's not get too ahead of ourselves though. First I have to forgive the guy. That's going to be a feat in itself.