Summer Clouds

Clean up

'Right. Yes. Of course. Torture, and all that. Sorry,' she says, a little flustered, 'Come, we need to get you cleaned up. You smell of shit. Have you shat yourself?'

Loki sort of tenses, and his eyes widen. Savannah sighs.

'Come on then, let's go,' she says, tugging on his arm.

The Allfather, who Savannah is starting to hate by now, has insisted that Loki ride through the entirety of Asgard, on horse-back. Never mind the utter humiliation it will bring, after being viciously tortured, very little people want to sit atop an animal whose erratic movements would no doubt injure him further.

So, directly disobeying orders, she closes her eyes, and Ravennha tries her best to emulate what happened when she teleported Tony from his workshop. Once again, the effort leaves her drained, and all she wants to do is curl up on the nice marble floor, and sleep, but she is worried that Loki hasn't arrived in one piece, or that he's frightened. She knew that she would be.

So she gets on the largest horse, a massive white beast, who she's nicknamed Shadowfax. She tugs on the reins of the other horse, gently leading her along. This one she's called Fyrefly, and she's sure that it's magical, because it looks as if it's on fire. Eventually, she arrives at the palace, sore, and tired, but after thrusting the reins into the hands of a stable boy, she literally runs through the massive golden corridors, one hand shielding her eyes.

What?

It's really bright in there.

She's just burst into Loki's room, all sweaty and panty, and Loki's just standing there, a look of pure terror on his face.

'Hey, Loki,' she says, 'We're gonna get you all clean, okay?'

She's not sure why she's talking to Loki as if he's a small child, or a nervous animal, but it seems to work, and she steps forward slowly, hands held out as a gesture of goodwill. Carefully, she leads him to the adjoining bathroom, and tries not to notice as his entire body is wracked by tremours of fear. The bath is already half-filled with water, and she checks the temperature, before turning to Loki.

He hasn't said a word since she asked him if he had had an 'accident', and she winces, and wonders if Heimdall will be able to get there fast enough to stop her killing the Allfather in his sleep.

'Can you wash yourself?' she asks, dreading the answer.

But no answer comes. Instead, Loki stares off into the middle distance, shaking violently. She sighs again, and moves towards Loki. He's clearly too shellshocked to do anything himself, despite how calm he'd been earlier, and she knows he's not stable enough to be left alone just yet. Carefully, she begins taking off his tunic, and she frowns at what she sees.

His intensely blue skin is cut, bruised and blistered. She can see the outline of his ribs through his skin, and she's positive that they're not supposed to be so ... crooked. Some of them are even poking through his flesh, and she tries not to be sick, if only for Loki's sake. She'll get a healer later, but first, she needs to get Loki sanitary. She kneels down, and gently tugs down his trousers.

This is not how she'd envisioned this happening, and she's not as excited to see Loki naked as she thought she'd be. Once they're down to his ankles she tries to lift his foot up so she can get them off fully, but he whimpers, and shuffles backwards, nearly falling over. She briefly considers getting a knife to free him from the clothing, but she's not sure he'd take it well.

Remembering that she's still, technically, Ravennha, she grips the cloth of the fabric between thumb and forefinger, and concentrates. She's only done this once before, accidentally, when she'd had a nightmare, and Ravennha had been unable to release herself from the confines of her sheets, and in desperation, she'd done something weird.

Soon, she notices the fabric smoking, and smouldering, and she's able to rip it from him. She'd also imagined that happening, but not in this situation. He makes another whimper, and backs as far away from her as he can, and she suddenly remembers that they used heat to torture him.

Slowly, she stands up, and carefully embraces the half-naked god, stroking what hair he has left. He snuffles, and buries his face into her shoulder, still trembling. Reluctantly, she pulls away from him, and says-

'Don't worry, Loki. I'll protect you.'

And he seems to be reassured by that, so she pushes the soiled trousers away, steeling herself for the next part.

'Loki, will you pull down your underwear?'

He says nothing, but meekly pulls it below his knees, and Ravennha averts her eyes. She's really worried now, because the Loki she knew would never do anything meekly, let alone pass up the opportunity to make her blush by saying a lewd comment.

But, she reminds herself, this isn't the Loki she knew.

She tugs the clothing from him, and leads him into the bath-tub, slowly soaping him, and rinsing him with as much care as she can muster. Finally, she deems him clean enough, and offers him a hand to help him up. He takes it, and he's much lighter than she would have hoped. She silently passes him a towel, and he silently accepts it, wrapping it around himself as if it will protect him.

It's sad, really.

Ravennha takes him back into the bedroom, and dries him off, putting him on the bed to sleep, before creating a doppelgänger of herself to watch over him. Then she runs off to find him something to eat from one of the many feasting halls. People stare as she goes by, but she ignores them.

Haven't they ever seen a blue person before?And then she realises how stupid she's being. Of course they've seen blue people before, but the blue people are Jotnar, and enemies of Asgard. Not that she's gonna change, or anything.

Let them be racist, Ravennha is faster than Savannah, and she needs all the speed she can get.

She skids into the main 'Banqueting Hall', bows hastily (but at least gracefully) in front of Frigga, ignores Odin (the wanker), and snatches up a plate of bread, fruits and cheese, before starting a mad dash back out of there. She's halfway through the door when-

'Going already?' Odin asks.

She nods, and turns to leave again.

'Wait,' he says, and Ravennha wonders if she can throw something at his head without being executed for treason.

Probably not.