Monsters and Magic

Chapter 24

Loki dryly set his ale aside and took yours from your hands. "Not for little kittens," he commented with a small smile for you. You heard the slight hesitation, he'd wanted to say vampire, but didn't want to advertise that fact to the Asgardians who wouldn't know or understand. "We're not here to socialize. We only came to find my brother. Our Lady Mother wishes to see him," he glared over at Thor while hands pushed you both further into the room.

"Surely, Mother will understand a slight delay to make sure you socialize for once, Brother," Thor teased in reply, raising his mug of ale in a mock salute and taking a long drink of it.

Fandral smoothly got off of the couch he had been reclining on and came over to you and Loki. The other two warrior morons were standing behind you to prevent your escape. Coming to the lair of the morons had been a terrible plan indeed. You would have to get out of here soon. Preferably with the oaf in tow.

Fandral walked straight up to you and took one of your hands to bow over it and kiss your knuckles with a wink and another flirtatious smile. He expected you to fawn over him, you saw it in his eyes. He pressed a mug of ale into your hands when he stood again. "Come on, Loki, let the charming lovely lady live a little! It is not often a young Midgardian lady can come experience the wonders of Asgard and meet her best warriors!" he teased, too flirtatious for your taste.

Loki glared at Thor and Fandral as he vanished the ale from your hands. "Fandral, enough. Midgardians are not meant to have Asgardian ale. You know this. Fun as you surely think it would be to get my lady drunk, it is not wise to get little magelings intoxicated, especially little magelings to whom I wish to show the wonders of Asgard," Loki told Fandral firmly.

Fandral laughed and rolled his eyes. "Surely the little lady would enjoy our company," he teased and gave you a flirtatious wink.

You scoffed and rolled your eyes at his over the top attempt at flirting. It wasn't even very good an attempt. He laughed again and leaned in as if to give you a kiss on the cheek. Suddenly, your dagger was at his throat. "That is quite enough flirting from you, blondie," you glared at him.

Fandral looked past you to Loki. "Loki, your little mortal is defective," he whined at Loki.

Loki laughed and kissed your cheek. "What, Fan? Not used to ladies rejecting your amorous advances?" Loki teased, amused by Fandral's shock at being rejected, at the shock of the others that you'd drawn a blade on one of them.

You glared at Thor. "Go visit your mom, hammer-brain," you told him firmly. The drunk boys continued to look shocked and confused.

Loki smirked victoriously and kissed your cheek again. "Don't mess with my kitten, she has claws," he informed them, still smirking at their reactions.

"Our message is delivered, don't you think?" you asked with a warm smile for him as you resheathed your blade. "Shall we?" you asked Loki, trying to escape quickly from the lair of the morons before they made you actually stab one of them.

"We shall. I have much I wish to show you. Brother, go see Mother before my darling decides to scare you next," Loki told him with a smirk.

"She does not scare me, Brother," Thor reminded Loki jovially. "You forget that I live with the two of you and know your lady better than my friends do. I will, however, go see Mother, but first..." he smirked and with no more warning than that chucked Mjolnir straight at Loki's head.

Loki flinched ever so slightly, years of habit wouldn't be broken with just a little over a week of being worthy, but he braced himself and caught the hammer with a smirk. "You know that doesn't work anymore, right?" he teased with an even bigger smirk.

Thor sat back and boomed in laughter at the stunned looks on his friends' faces. "I do, but they did not," he replied jovially. He'd been planning on surprising his friends.

Loki smirked triumphantly at Thor's shocked friends. "Surprise!" he announced with a grin.

"HOW? WHAT? HOW? THOR, HOW???"

Loki burst into laughter at the chaos of Thor's drunk, confused idiot friends. "I leave you to quell the fire you just started, Brother!" He said jovially, still laughing as he draped his arm across your shoulders to lead you out of the lair of the confused drunk morons. "This way, darling," he bid you warmly.

"So where are we going?" you asked him, fighting back a yawn. It was late by vampire standards and you'd had a busy morning already, travelling by Bifrost, meeting Loki's mom, and dealing with the drunken morons, on top of playing with the tech in the healing wing. You also tried to hide your yawn from Loki so he wouldn't worry

He smiled at you and kissed the top of your head. "Nice try, dearheart. First, I'm taking you to my chambers. Little kittens need some sleep before I can show you anything," he told you warmly.

"I'm fine, Lokes. You already said we don't have a lot of time before your Father calls you before the throne..." you insisted stubbornly. You didn't want to waste any of the time you had in Asgard by something as silly as a nap. Despite how tired you were already. Even though the sun here didn't hurt you like the sun on Earth, it was still draining.

"Very true. But there is no way you can properly enjoy what I have to show you when you are practically dead on your feet, no pun intended. I will wake you with plenty of time to show you what I wanted to before we are forced before the Allfather," he told you warmly. You heard in his tone that he had prepared and planned you needing to rest for a couple of hours into the day on Asgard he had set up.

You sighed heavily. "You're going to be stubborn, aren't you?" you grumped at him, hiding another yawn behind your hand.

"Absolutely," his voice was full of affection and slightly exasperated love. "Little kittens need their sleep," he teased.

"Fine, stubborn god," you replied, laying your head on his arm as he led you through the halls of the palace.

You barely registered his smirk before he bent to sweep you up in his arms. "Sleep, kitten. I'll wake you so I can show you my surprise after you get some rest," he bid you warmly. He enjoyed taking care of you.

You yelped in surprise that he would do that here. It was one thing for him to act like this back at the tower. It didn't matter on Earth that he was a prince of a foreign realm. Here? Here had a reputation to maintain. "Loki..." you protested, trying to come up with the right words and failing.

"Shh. Sleep,"

"But you're a prince," you protested in a murmur, even as you wrapped your arms around his neck and laid your head on his shoulder. "You shouldn't be carrying...not here..."

He smiled warmly, touched that you cared about his reputation, cared for him. "Don't fret, sweetheart. Just get some rest. No one cares what I do and you look like you can barely keep yourself standing," he reminded you. You tended to crash fast once you actually got around to resting.

"M'm fine," you murmured, mostly asleep already.

He kissed your forehead. "I love you, kitten," he told you warmly. A few steps later and you were properly asleep in his arms.