california 02 // loki's romanoff prelude

one // loki's prelude

He stood by the sink, staring at his reflection in the mirror.

Slowly, never once breaking eye contact with himself, he lifted a hand to his face. White fingers with black nails stared back at him.

'Loki?'

He turned. A woman stood by the door, and she was frowning. He didn't look like her, but she was his mother.

Loki turned back to his reflection. No, he definitely didn't look like her.

'What do you want, Mother?' he asked, and his voice was quiet, but she caught the menace in it. She was his mother, after all.

'I came to find you, Loki. Everyone's looking for you.'

He sneered at himself in the mirror. 'I never thought I'd see the day when they missed me.'

'Don't say that, Loki.'

'I don't even want to go,' he told her, but he didn't take his eyes off his reflection. 'Do I have to go?'

'It's a feast, Loki!'

'Thor's feast.'

His mother sighed. 'He'll want you there. You're his brother.'

He flexed his fingers in a spell she had taught him, and the black nail varnish faded. He stared down at his fingers. He'd forgotten how pale his nails were.

'I thought you liked nail varnish?' his mother asked, crestfallen. She walked up to him, she took his large hand in two of her smaller ones. 'Are you quite alright? I haven't seen these nails unpainted in years.'

'I'm fine.' He rubbed his pale thumbnail against his palm. 'I've just learned that perhaps painted nails aren't as manly as I thought.'

'Since when did that stop you?' She glanced down at his flat-bottomed boots. 'No heels?'

'No heels,' he agreed, his voice almost a growl.

'But you love your high-heeled boots.'

He pushed past her, and strode into his bedroom. He stared at himself in the floor-length mirror. Flat-heeled boots. No nail varnish. A plate of gold armour and a green cape. He looked utterly unlike himself.

'Smile,' his mother said.

He did not smile. He glowered.

'What's brought this on, Loki?'

'I'm just sick of looking stupid,' he muttered.

She walked up to him, and he was much taller than her now, but she leaned up and placed her hands on his chin. He shut his eyes. He didn't look like her, but he liked her touch. It comforted him.

'You could never look stupid, my son.'

He opened his eyes. He removed her hands from his face. 'Father doesn't agree with you, does he?'

'Loki -'

'What did he say about me again? Didn't he say I looked like a girl? Not even that. He said I looked like a witch.'

'Loki.' Her tone was sharper.

He turned. 'What?'

She took his hand. Her hand was warm.

Together, they stared into the mirror.

She was beautiful. Old now, with grey threading her hair, but most of it was still yellow. She was tall for a woman, and she had blue eyes and white teeth, and her dress was gold and long. She was beautiful.