Monsters and Magic

Chapter 83

After breakfast the next day, your phone announced: "Ta-da!" In Tom's voice. You pulled it out of your pocket to see what the actor wanted. He and Loki had become friends after the comic convention where they had met. They didn't talk too often, but they were friends.

Loki chuckled when he heard the text tone. "What does our lovely actor friend have to say, love?" He asked as he leaned over to look over your shoulder.

"He's inviting us and the oaf out with him and Chris tonight. The new Adventures of Thor and Loki on Asgard movie comes out today so they're here for the premiere. He wants us to come to dinner and go to the premiere with them," you explained as you read over the lengthy message. Loki laughed at the movie series' name, but happily agreed to meet the actors. You quickly typed out a text to Tom that you'd all be glad to meet up with them. Tom knew it was much faster and easier to contact you than either of the gods. They still didn't text well. You looked up at Loki when you had finished sending your message. "Thank you for not arguing that I'm not well enough to go out tonight," you told him softly.

"I know that even if I did, you would be too stubborn to listen," Loki replied with a teasing, knowing, smirk. "Though I will be making sure you're alright throughout the time we're out," he warned. He didn't want to risk your healing.

"True. But just because I'm healing doesn't mean I'd be ok being locked in the tower all the time either," you reminded him quite logically, though you saw the stubborn glint in his eyes. "And I'll take a nap this afternoon," you promised quickly to appease him.

"I can agree to that. I would not keep you locked up in the tower. Who would stop me from killing the annoying Midgardians?" Loki smirked as he asked and you knew he was teasing.

"Your oaf of a brother would try," you reminded him with just as big of a smirk.

"He'd just annoy me and end up getting stabbed himself," Loki replied nonchalantly. Stabbing Thor was no big deal to him.

You giggled at his nonchalance. "He is quite annoying," you agreed and laughed at Thor's annoyed expression at you and Loki calmly talking about stabbing him.

Loki looked over and saw Thor's look too. "We're just teasing, brother," he reminded him easily. He was so warm and happy and you loved the relaxed look in his eyes.

"Of course you are, Hiccup," Thor teased. The Asgardian boys had recently been introduced to How to Train Your Dragon. Thor had decided that Loki was Hiccup. Who was Loki's hero from when he was a child and read the book. Loki glared about the nickname. Thor laughed harder. "Just teasing, brother," he replied with an oafish grain.

You phone dinged again. It wasn't Tom, it was the notification of something cool going on in the tower. You read the message quickly. "C'mon!" You said brightly and grabbed Loki's hand. You dragged him to his feet and to find the excitement. Loki chuckled at being dragged around like a favorite old teddy bear who had lost most of its stuffing from being loved too much.

You ended up outside of one of the training rooms. Bucky and Nat were inside. Neither of them appeared to notice the growing crowd of observers. Nat had apparently finally convinced Bucky to practice ballet with her. It was beyond a gorgeous sight. Loki's eyes widened in surprise at how graceful the two of them were.

"Have you seen this kind of Midgardian dance before?" You asked while you watched them in awe. They really were very good. You knew that Bucky and Nat had known each other from Nat's time in the red room, you hadn't realized that ballet had been involved.

"I don't believe so..." Loki replied as he watched with interest.

"It's called ballet," you explained as you watched "The girls dance in special shoes to be able to stand on just one toe like that. They're practicing a pax de duex, a duet," you explained.

Loki noticed that you knew more about the subject than he expected. He raised an eyebrow. "Have you ever danced ballet before?" He asked, testing out the word.

You nodded absently. "I used to... though I wasn't nearly that good," you lied. It was modesty that had you telling a fib, besides you really didn't think you were very good.

Loki, of course, picked up on the omission and fib. "Can you show me sometime?" He asked gently, wanting to see for himself.

You pondered that for a moment, considering. "Are you going to yell if I show you now?" You asked, your eyes still on Nat and Bucky. You felt a longing for it, the longing for something you hadn't quite realized you'd missed.

"I wouldn't yell at you," Loki protested.

"You would scold for doing something physical," you reminded him. He'd been overprotective and stubborn and snarly lately.

"As long as you don't do too much, I'm fine. Do not wear yourself out," he warned worriedly.

You nodded. "Nat and I wear the same shoe size, so I can steal her extra pair of pointe shoes..." you mused and disappeared into the locker room for a minute. You came back with the stolen shoes and a costume change into workout clothes, a sports bra and capri yoga pants. You noted the look in Loki's eye that he approved of you showing so much skin.

You headed into one of the other training rooms with Loki. He sat on the sidelines while you prepared, then put on the stolen shoes. You stretched, getting use to the feel of the shoes again. "One dance," you told Loki and stepped out into the middle of the floor, while you requested a song from Jarvis, a solo performance. You were a little out of practice, but you were still at least as good as Nat. The dance wasn't the most impressive in you repertoire, nor the most complicated, but still looked damn pretty and very impressive to anyone but Nat.

"Darling, that was magnificent," Loki told you when you'd finished. He came over to you and pulled you into a soft, gentle kiss. He was in awe of your skills, but he was also worried that you'd exhausted your self.

You stood up, literally, on your toes to kiss him. "Thank you, though I'm out of practice and Nat is way better," you reminded him modestly. Though the fact that you were only breathing a little harder than usual was more telling than anything of how good you really were.

"I'm sure you have more talent than you wish to reveal, but I can wait until your healed to ask for you to show me," Loki said and kissed your forehead. "Let's get some rest. I need to be ready to heal you before our outing tonight and you need to be ready to go out at all," he reminded you.

"Alright," you agreed and quickly removed your shoes. "But I do have to tell Nat I borrowed these first, especially since I didn't exactly ask first..." Nat would kill you otherwise.

Loki nodded his acceptance and waited for you to talk to Nat and tell her what you did. You also had to explain to her that you knew how to dance, and swore that you weren't any good. She didn't believe you. Especially after Jarvis showed her the footage from you dancing. She rolled her eyes and clearly didn't believe you. After that, you let yourself be herded to bed for the nap you'd promised Loki that you'd take.

"Wake me in plenty of time to get dressed for dinner. Unless you're using magic for it," you told Loki as you curled up with him for your nap.

"I promise. Rest now," Loki told you fondly and kissed the top of your hair.

You fell asleep curled in each others' arms.