Tag
Somehow, Ash would never know how exactly, but somehow they managed to settle into a comfortable routine. To her surprise, Loki did what she had asked of him almost in an instant. Though she had believed his promises, she had expected that it would take him some time to do what he was told, but no. He never once removed her clothes with magic, although he did threaten to once when she dared challenge him during a debate about one of the characters in a book he was reading, but he didn’t actually do it when she threatened not to feed him that night, so all was well there. If he wanted something, he asked her for it, tentatively at first, like he wasn’t sure she would give it to him, and then with a little more confidence, but always followed with a “Please?” and sometimes the occasional look she called his “puppy-dog expression” and never a demand. Nor did he attempt to hurt her physically for any reason at all, and though she suspected that he often used his magic to help her around the flat – for whenever she came back from work it was always as clean as if she had just scrubbed it from top to bottom herself – she was grateful that he was being a good flatmate now.
Loki, for his part, found himself slipping into the role as easily as slipping into his clothes. Each morning he would follow Ash after she woke early into the kitchen, they would eat, then she would ready herself and leave for work, allowing him the remainder of the day to do as he pleased in the flat, until she came back. This usually consisted of reading whatever on her bookshelf happened to attract his attention that day, and then, about ten minutes before she was due home, he would use his magic to clean the place spotless for her, leaving her then with nothing to do but cook for them both. Then, after dinner, he would watch her work, surprised by the general amount of work she usually brought home with her. She seemed to like having someone to talk to now as she finished everything off, so these points in the evening generally consisted of them exchanging stories of some form or another. He quickly came to learn about what she actually did for a living, as well as the people she worked for and with, and later some of her background, her family home back in Dorset, her likes and dislikes, her school days. In turn he told her as much about Asgard and his own...for want of a better word, family, as he was comfortable with divulging to her, and she listened with fascination to his stories of battles and conflicts within the Nine Realms.
To his surprise, the more time Loki spent with her, the more time he found himself actually liking her. Though at first he had found her somewhat irritating, the more he got to know her, the more interested he became in her. She was, he decided, surprisingly good company, even if she wasn’t around very much during the day. Sometimes at night, though, when she was fast asleep, he would watch her, listen to the rhythm of her breathing as his eyes traced every feature of her, though not in a perverse way. He just found her fascinating, more so than he had imaged, considering that she was a Midgardian.
It was just a pity they didn’t get more time together, he reflected one evening after she had quite literally tumbled into bed and fallen asleep instantly curled up in a ball, worn out by the amount of filing she had had to do after work. She could be quite fun to play with. If only she didn’t have to keep going to that job. Surely there had to be some way they could spend the whole day together.
To his surprise, however, the chance came sooner than anticipated, as the following morning he woke up to find himself alone in the bed. Frowning, he raised his head, wondering why he hadn’t been woken by that infernal alarm she insisted on setting so early in the morning, and then, glancing at the sky, realised it was probably a lot later than her usual wake up time.
“Ash?” he muttered, brushing his fringe out of his eyes and blinking, wondering whether he was dreaming. No, she wasn’t in the room. A sudden panic filled him. Had something happened to her; something he had slept right through, somehow? Had she been abducted? He felt rage surge through his veins as he scrambled out of bed. If Odin had done anything to her-
“Loki, do you-?” Ash broke off, seeing that he was up. “Oh, you’re awake.”
Not wanting her to see just how worried he had actually been, or how relieved he actually was to see her, Loki allowed himself to breathe out and tried to pull himself together. “Do I, what?” he asked, running a slightly shaking hand through his hair.
“Are you ok?” Ash stepped up to him, although she didn’t dare touch him, worried that he might snap. He certainly seemed tense.
“I’m fine,” Loki insisted. “What were you saying?”
“I was asking if you want a cup of tea.”
He frowned at her. “Shouldn’t you be in work now?”
Ash laughed. “I should hope not! It’s Saturday!” Then, seeing his confusion, she added “You know, the weekend. Hardly anyone works at the weekend.”
“Oh.” Finally calmed down, Loki realised what this meant. “So...you’re going to stay here today?”
“Well, for the morning, anyway. I’m going to need to go out later.” Ash turned and made her way back to the kitchen. “Sorry, did you say you wanted tea?”
“Yes, please.” Loki followed her into the kitchen, magicking himself back into his clothes as he went, and mentally kicking himself for panicking so much over something so trivial. It was just, well, he had been alarmed by suddenly not being so close to her without her having woken him first. He hadn’t been lying when he had told her that he enjoyed the closeness, or that sharing a bed usually warded away the nightmares.
Ash looked over at him again. “Are you sure you’re ok? You look like you just saw something that frightened you.”
In spite of himself, Loki flushed. “I just...” He gave in. The way she was looking at him, how could he not? Looking at his feet, he finished, lamely, “I didn’t know where you were.”
Ash blinked at him, not sure whether to laugh or feel sorry for him. In the end, she did both. “Hey, it’s ok,” she laughed, going up to him and daring to hug him this time. “I’d have woken you if I’d know you were going to worry so much. I just thought you needed your sleep.”
Loki managed to return her hug and then wriggled free of her grip, trying to hang onto what dignity he had left. Ash grinned at him and then went back to making tea. “I’ll go out later,” she added, pulling four slices of bread from the breadbin, “so we can have something a bit more exciting than just toast for breakfast. I know it gets boring after a while.”
Leaning thoughtfully against the counter, Loki was suddenly struck by a sudden idea. Waving a hand at her kitchen table, he quickly tapped into her mind, mentally learning what it was that she planned to buy that afternoon and caused it all to appear in a flash of plastic bags. Ash whipped her head around and stared at him. “What the-?”
“Magic, remember?” Loki waved his hand at her, emitting a nervous laugh from the girl as she went to examine what he had bought. “I trust I didn’t forget anything?”
“No.” Ash frowned at him. “It’s all here. Everything I was planning to – Loki, did you read my mind?”
He fixed her with a mischievous look. “Maybe.”
Shaking her head, Ash began to put things away. “Well, thanks, Loki. At least now I didn’t have to drag bags up those stairs.”
“So you can stay at home all day, then?” Try as he might, he couldn’t disguise the eagerness in his voice, and Ash raised an eyebrow at him.
“Loki, are you after something?”
He stepped up to her. “I want to play a game. With you. And you never have time to do so when you’re at work.”
“A game?” Ash folded her arms. “What, you mean like Tag or something?”
“Tag? Yes, I like the sound of that. How do you play it?”
Ash smiled. “Well, it’s best of you play it outside.”
“Then let’s go outside.”
“Loki, I have work to do. I’ve got all these envelopes to-”
She was cut off as Loki waved a hand at her work-pile and the envelopes immediately addressed themselves. Ash glanced at him as he grinned at her. “Now you’ve got no excuse to stay indoors.”
“Well, I’m not going out with you when you’re dressed like that,” Ash replied.
Loki looked down at himself. “What’s wrong with my clothes?”
“Well, nothing, but no one in this city dresses like that, and you’ll get some funny looks. And I’m not going to let you turn anyone who laughs into a snail or something,” she added, seeing the mischief in his eyes.
“Fine.” With a wave of his hand, Loki transformed his Asgardian garments into a pair of dark jeans, an ordinary dark green shirt and a long black coat, keeping only his boots, which could pass as Midgardian to the untrained eye. “Will this suffice?”
Ash stared at him, surprised by how good he looked. Then, remembering how to talk, she managed a smile. “You should wear normal clothes more often.”
So it was that, after a good breakfast, thoroughly enjoyed by both of them, and after Ash had pulled on a pair of jeans, an old blue T-shirt with long sleeves and her trainers, and snatched up her bag and her coat, they left the flat. To be perfectly honest, Ash was somewhat glad that Loki was finally out of the flat; surely spending so much time indoors couldn’t be good for someone, even if they were a Norse god. Though she did dread their approaching game, somewhat, since she had no idea whether the God of Mischief would be one for playing fair, alongside the fact that she hadn’t played it in years and she didn’t really want to make a fool of herself.
“Come on,” she said, as they stepped out into the street. “We’ll go to the park.”
Loki fell into step beside her, perfectly at ease and taking it all in. To anyone passing, they just looked like a local and a tourist, rather than a local and a Norse god. Ash gladly explained things when he asked about them, like Big Ben or traffic. She likened him to a child in that sense, everything was new and exciting, a curiosity, and she was reminded of her first time in the city, how fascinated she had been by it all.
“I guess Asgard’s a little different to all this, then?” she asked as they finally turned into Hyde Park.
“Somewhat,” Loki agreed, looking around the park. “We certainly don’t have spaces like this.”
Ash laughed. “Well, they’re not all as large as this one. Back in Dorset, the parks near us were pretty small compared to this, and there wasn’t really much in them, just a few flowers and maybe the occasional duck pond. There were a lot of beaches though.” She smiled, reminiscing. “You know, it’s funny, I don’t miss my home but I do kind of miss just walking along the beach in the evening in summer. It was always-”
“Are you going to stop procrastinating and teach me how to play this game?” Loki cut in, giving her a mischievous glance.
“Alright.” Ash took a deep breath and glanced around the park. It was pretty much deserted for the time being. “Well, it usually works better with more than two people, but we can still play it. So, ok, one of us has to be “It” and try and catch the other person. And when they do, they say “Tag,” and then the person who was tagged has to be “It” and catch someone else, and it keeps going until everyone’s fed up or too tired to carry on running. And there are variants on it, where sometimes a certain spot can be a safe base, so they’re safe from being tagged until they leave that spot.” She paused, feeling like she was just babbling now, and gave a shrug of embarrassment. “So...that’s basically how you play.”
Loki grinned at her. “I like the sound of that. Shall I be “It”?”
“Um, ok. But no using magic.”
“You have my word.”
“And maybe we can use the trees as safe bases?”
“If you like.”
“And I get a ten step head start.”
“Fine.”
Taking a deep breath, Ash took ten, steady steps forward and then began to run, feeling like a deer being pursued by a hungry tiger. Loki gave chase and anyone passing by would probably just see a streak of blue being followed closely by a blur of green. Ash was faster than he had anticipated. Still, he would catch her. After all, she had told him not to use magic, and he had promised not to, but she hadn’t said anything about using tricks.
Ash for her part felt like her heart might be about to burst if she didn’t reach a tree soon, and when she felt the rugged bark beneath her fingertips she managed a shaky laugh of relief. “Base!” she cried, turning to look at Loki...and frowned when she didn’t see him.
“Loki?” Ash leaned forwards, her hands still on the tree, and when he didn’t appear, she took a step away from the tree and looked all around her. The Trickster God was nowhere to be seen.
“Loki?” Ash called.
Then something slammed into her, knocking her off her feet and she hit the ground with a startled yelp. Looking up, she saw a grinning Loki pinning her down. “Now,” he smirked at her. “I believe the correct phrase was “Tag!”
“I said no magic!” Ash laughed in relief.
“I didn’t need magic. I just tricked you into leaving the base long enough to Tag you.”
“Well, now you’ve got me, you can let go of me.”
Loki rolled off her and they lay side by side, catching their breath. “I just can’t believe you fell for it!” he chuckled. “Even Thor’s too old for that one!”
“Well, Thor knows what you’re like!” Ash giggled. “I’m still getting used to you!”
Loki fell silent, and Ash glanced at him, hoping she hadn’t offended him. Before she could say anything, however, Loki said “You know, I was completely wrong about this place.” Ash rolled over to look at him, propping herself up on one elbow. Loki glanced at her and elaborated. “Whenever I read about it, it always sounded so boring and primitive.” He tucked one hand behind his head, thoughtfully, looking back at the sky. “Like a slower version of Asgard. But it isn’t at all. It’s different...but then the different things are always the most exciting.”
Ash watched him a moment before she spoke again. “You always talk about Asgard as if you’re separate from it. I mean, like...” She tried to find the right words. “Like you never really fitted in.”
“I didn’t.” Loki swivelled his eyes back to her. “I’m a Jotun by birth, abandoned for being the runt and taken by Odin to be a pawn in his plot for creating peace between the two worlds.”
“Jotun?”
“From Jotunheim. The land of the Frost Giants. I was sired by the ruler, Laufey. And abandoned by him.”
“But you’re not a giant.” Ash frowned. “Are you?”
“I just told you; I was the Frost Giant runt that no one wanted.” Bitterly, Loki curled his other hand into a fist and slammed it into the ground. “Not even Odin at the end of the day. Because I was still a Frost Giant and I would never live up to Thor, his real son.”
Ash moved before she could stop herself and covered his hand with hers. Loki looked at her in surprise, startled that she was touching him after such a confession. “I know when people say “I know how you feel,” they generally don’t, but I actually do. Sort of.” She bit her lip before continuing. “I’m adopted too.”
Loki stared at her. He could understand no one wanting him, even as a child, but how could someone not want Ash? “You?”
She shrugged. “My real parents just didn’t want to know. Don’t get me wrong, the family that adopted me were nice, but I think deep down I always knew that I wasn’t really theirs. That’s why I haven’t spoken to them in a while. It feels like I’ve been lied to my entire life.”
Loki paused, allowing this to sink in, before he asked “You’re not afraid of me?”
Ash met his look. “Well, not now. I mean, I was, before, but not when you’re like this. I mean, I don’t even know what Frost Giants are like, but I’m sure you’re a good one.”
Loki laughed. “Good? I’ve killed people! I tried to set a Destroyer on my own brother! I nearly ruined Asgard! I terrorized you when we first met!”
Ash shrugged. “Only because you were scared; and I suspect because you’ve always been neglected.”
She was about to pull her hand away when Loki turned his palm upwards and caught her fingers in his. “It’s nice to talk to someone who understands,” he said, and he brushed the back of her hand with a soft kiss. “Thank you for putting up with me, Ash.”
Ash smiled. “It’s not exactly a chore.”
Lying awake that night, watching her sleep, however, Loki found himself wondering how this could have happened. Anyone else in Asgard would have judged him at once for what he had done there, and for his birth status. But not Ash. How could he have had such good luck to meet someone like her? Someone so understanding, and wise, and kind, and fun, and stunningly beautiful-?
He felt his eyes widen at once.
Tag you’re it, indeed.