Hallowe'en
“Ready to go?” Ash asked, ducking back into the living room where the God of Mischief was reclining on the sofa with a book, waiting for her.
“I’ve been ready for ten minutes,” Loki replied with an eye roll, glancing up at her and then staring at her. Her dark hair was loose from its neat bun and she was lightly made up, dressed in a short red evening dress with a V-neck that fell just past her knees over flesh-coloured tights and red shoes with low, thick heels. What really threw him, however, was the blood-red velvet cloak with a hood that she was wearing with it; it looked like something from Asgard. The entire effect was...indescribable, but in the best of ways. He sat up as she merely laughed and pulled her evening bag off the back of the chair. “What exactly are you supposed to be?” he asked, getting to his feet.
“Oh, Red Riding Hood,” Ash answered, carelessly. “She’s a character from a fairytale. I guess you don’t have that on Asgard.” She gave a shrug. “I don’t know; I just always kind of wanted to go as her.”
“Well, you look nice,” Loki managed to say, feeling his heart stuttering in his chest. “Nice” didn’t cover it, she looked amazing.
“Thanks,” Ash grinned. “You look good too.”
They had both agreed, since Loki had been very adamant that he had no desire to dress up as something foolish or frivolous – although Ash had a feeling that give it a couple of years she might be able to persuade him to – that he should just war his ordinary Asgard clothing and they could easily pass him off as a character from a fantasy film or television show. Loki had the name “Game of Thrones” memorised just in case anyone asked.
“Obviously,” he smirked, straightening his tunic and prompting a laugh from her. “Are you going to be cold like that?” he added, seeing that Ash ignored her coat as she made for the front door.
“No, I’ll be fine, I’ve got this,” Ash insisted, tugging on the hem of her cloak.
“But you haven’t got sleeves,” Loki pointed out.
Ash sighed. “You sound just like my mother,” she said, pulling him out of the flat.
Loki laughed and decided not to ask again if she was cold.
It was a quick trip to Miranda’s place so they walked, passing by young children dressed as vampires and werewolves and witches and princesses and superheroes and Frankenstein’s monster out trick-or-treating with their parents. Ash explained in an undertone to Loki what each one was as they passed and Loki made a mental note to read Dracula and Frankenstein next after he was done with The Woman in Black. (Those two had been among the ones her friend the librarian had allowed them to take out and he had mentioned to Loki that they had, for their time, been very scary when they were written.)
“Hey, come in,” grinned Jenna, one of the girls from subbing who usually remained very close to Miranda like one of her personal flying monkeys. She was nice enough though, Ash had always found, and was dressed like a cave girl, her blonde hair mussed and fake mud plastered across her cheek.
“Are we the last ones?” Ash asked, crossing the threshold, Loki right behind her. The party looked to be in what could be described as “full swing” if the term “full swing” meant there was loud cheesy music playing, a majority of people in costumes standing around and just talking and a few couples dancing in the middle of the living room carpet.
“Nah, there’s a couple from editing that haven’t turned up yet,” Jenna replied, before realising that Ash wasn’t alone as usual, straightening her posture and tossing her hair over her shoulder as she added “Sorry, I don’t think I caught your name.”
It was an obvious attempt at flirting, but even though Loki knew he wasn’t interested, he maintained a friendly attitude anyway. The way he saw it, anyone Ash looked to be alright with couldn’t be perceived as a threat, so he held out his hand for hers. “Loki.”
“My new flatmate,” Ash added.
“Oh, I thought I hadn’t seen you around the office,” Jenna smiled, and then to Ash, “Tell you who is here, though, Alex.”
“When is he not?” Ash laughed. “Where’s Miranda?”
“Don’t know, I haven’t seen her since she let me in,” Jenna shrugged, and then to Loki, “She’s probably got her claws into some bloke, but don’t tell her husband.”
“Come on, let’s find something to drink,” Ash said, weaving through the standing people, many of whom barely acknowledged her as she passed, proving just how distant they were from her. Loki quickly followed after her. “Think you’ve got an admirer, there,” Ash grinned at him.
Loki smiled. “Not really my type, I’m afraid.”
“Oh, so you don’t go for tall, blonde and busty, then?” Ash laughed, reaching for a paper cup as they got to the punch bowl.
She’s not my type because my type is standing right in front of me, Loki wanted to say, but instead he simply shrugged and said “Not really. Besides, I don’t notice looks as much as other things.”
“Such as?”
“Intelligence. I like girls who read.”
“Oh, no wonder you get along with me, then,” Ash laughed, handing him a cup of punch.
Loki simply smiled and tried the stuff, which was very sweet tasting but not unpleasant. Ash, however, frowned as she took a sip. “Ok, someone has definitely added something to this; it’s never usually this nice. Do me a favour,” she added, laying her hand on Loki’s arm. “If I start to sway after too much of this, make sure I get home alright.”
Loki smiled. “You can trust me.”
“Can I?” Ash teased and he laughed.
“Ash!” Mark was making his way over to them, dressed surprisingly enough in a neat suit and holding a martini glass. “You made it. How the hell do we get roped into this every year?”
“I think people agree to some pretty strange things when they’re trying to hang onto the only jobs they’ve got,” Ash replied.
Mark chuckled and turned to Loki. “Hey, glad you could make it. So...what, it’s Game of Thrones or something with you?”
“You’re correct,” Loki replied, pleasantly. “And yourself?”
“James Bond!” Mark replied, holding up the glass and quoting “Shaken but not stirred!”
Ash laughed. “Well, at least that’s one costume you can wear without feeling like a fool.”
“Ah, it’s Hallowe’en,” Mark replied, slinging an arm around her shoulder and pulling her in for a hug. “We’re allowed to look daft for this one night of the year.”
“Ash!”
The three of them turned their heads and Mark groaned. “Heads up, here comes the Queen of Darkness,” he muttered to them, and Loki took it to mean that he didn’t mean that in the literal sense as a woman dressed as an Ancient Greek came drifting up to them.
“Hi, Miranda,” Ash said as she got close.
“Good, I’m glad you’re here, I wanted a word with you anyway,” Miranda replied, coolly, indicating that she wanted Ash to go with her into the kitchen.
Ash nodded. “Be right back,” she muttered to Loki, setting down her cup on the table, and then a little more loudly “I trust you boys can amuse yourselves without me for a minute?”
Loki smiled. “I think we can do that.”
Mark gave her a mock salute as she followed Miranda and then turned to Loki. “You really like her, don’t you?”
Loki turned to him, sharply. “Sorry?”
“Oh, come on, Loki.” Mark grinned at him. “I see the way you look at her. It’s the kind of look people give their friends when they secretly want to be more than just friends with them.” He sighed as he helped himself to some punch. “It’s a look I know only too well.”
Loki stared at him, surprised that this simple Midgardian had been able to see through his facade of carefully concealed feelings. Or perhaps he was letting his guard slip a bit. At any rate, he was surprised speechless for a second. “You’re right,” he finally admitted.
Mark gave him a sympathetic look. “Have you told her, yet?”
“No,” Loki admitted, feeling he could talk to Mark without fear of being judged or teased. “I mean...I live with her now. If she didn’t feel the same way, it could be really awkward.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling,” Mark nodded.
“Really?”
“Really. Been there myself many times.”
“So, what do I do?” Loki sighed, startling even himself by asking for help.
“Well, if there’s ever any indication she feels the same way, you should just tell her,” Mark advised. “Or,” he added, seeing Loki was about to point out the different ways that something like that could go wrong, “you could try and win her over in some way. You know, do something that might make her see you in a different light; so you’re not just Loki-the-flatmate, but Loki-the-potential-lover.”
Loki thought about it. “Such as?”
“Um...” Mark frowned. “Nope, that’s as far as I can go, sorry.” He thought for a second. “How much do you know about what she likes doing?”
“I know she enjoys reading,” Loki replied.
“Well, it’s a start. Ooh, wait, I do happen to know that she loves going to the theatre, especially when it’s Shakespeare being performed,” Mark added, thoughtfully. “You could let her drag you along to one of those.”
Loki laughed. “I think it might be me doing the dragging there. I enjoy his works too.”
“Even better, something you’d both enjoy,” Mark laughed. “Or, even if she’s just having a bad day or something, just be there for her; let her cry on you or make her a cup of hot chocolate or something. Trust me, I have a sister, I know how girls operate.”
Loki laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You got any siblings?” Mark asked, matter-of-factly.
Loki hesitated. “Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“I’m adopted.”
“Oh. Well, do you have any adopted siblings.”
“Just the one.” Loki wondered whether the word would feel right if he used it again, but to his surprise it felt as natural as it always had on his tongue. “My brother. Thor.”
“Blimey!” Mark nearly snorted into his punch cup as he tried not to laugh. “You must have had cruel parents; I mean, Thor and Loki, both named for Norse Gods.”
Loki smiled and said nothing. Mark gave him a serious look and set down his cup. “Look, I’ve only known Ash as long as she’s been working here, but I consider her a friend, so...be good to her. I mean, if you do ever tell her how you feel. Don’t break her heart.”
“I’ve got no intention of doing that,” Loki replied, completely truthfully. “I intend to treat her like the Queen she is.”
Mark blinked at him. “Wow.”
“What?” Loki asked, swivelling his eyes away from the two people dressed as Catwoman and a frog who were dancing together in the middle of the room.
“Just the way you said that. So straightforward. Not a hint of irony. Very romantic.” Mark grinned at him. “I’m sure she’ll love you if you say that to her.”
Loki flushed, in spite of himself. “Well, thank you.”
“Hey!” Mark grinned as Ash slipped up to them again. He held out a cup of punch to her but Ash shook her head. “I need something stronger than that,” she confessed, holding up a bottle of Newcastle Brown.
“Where’d you get that?” Mark exclaimed.
“Nicked it out of the fridge,” Ash confessed. “Hey, you’re Double O-7, do you have a gadget I can use to get the top off with?”
“Ta-dah!” Mark grinned, holding up his bottle opener key ring, and he got the top off for her, causing Ash to flash him a grateful smile before she took a swig.
More impressed than he let on, Loki asked “So, what did she want?”
“I’ll tell you what she wanted,” Ash replied, sounding indignant as she said it. “She wanted to dump a hell of a lot more work on me, that’s what she wanted.”
“She got any more of those in there?” Mark asked, and when Ash nodded, he set down his punch cup. “Right, I’m grabbing one. Want one, Loki?”
“Thanks,” Loki nodded.
“No probs,” Mark replied, and then he pushed through the standees towards the kitchen.
“You two bonding, then?” Ash smiled.
Loki returned it with genuine warmth. “I can see why you like him.”
“Yeah, he’s a nice bloke,” Ash agreed, taking a careful sip of beer this time. “And I think he was actually the first one out of this lot to learn my name.”
Loki was about to reply when a voice called "Ash!" and they both looked up in surprise to see a man in Elizabethan costume, complete with a ruff and a quill, coming up to them. “And here comes the second,” Ash muttered to him.
“Hey, Red Riding Hood,” grinned the man. “Maybe I should have come as the Big Bad Wolf.”
“I thought you were a vegetarian, Alex,” Ash replied, cheekily, and Alex laughed.
“Are you meant to be William Shakespeare, by any chance?” Loki asked, forgetting to feel hostile when this was a man who clearly had his eyes on Ash.
“Yes, indeed,” Alex grinned, straightening his ruff. “Though I don’t know how the hell he found this thing comfy, or fashionable come to that.”
“Alex, this is Loki, my flatmate,” Ash said, politely, by way of introduction. “Alex works in the editorial department.”
“Yep,” Alex supplied as the two of them shook hands. “Just under Miranda in the office feudal system.” He flexed his hand after Loki released him, clearly surprised by the strength of his grip but said nothing. Loki decided quickly that he didn’t like him. True, his demeanour was friendly but he got the feeling that here was a man who would simply impress women to gain their love and then would throw them away like old pieces of clothing when he had had his fill of them and move onto the next one like a buyer at a cattle market. Nevertheless, for Ash’s sake, he maintained a friendly demeanour of his own as Alex looked him up and down and said “No, wait, let me guess, Lord of the Rings, right?”
Ash had mentioned that people might think that.
“Close,” Loki replied. “Game of Thrones.”
“Oh. Never got ‘round to seeing that. But then, fantasy’s not really my cup of tea,” Alex replied.
“Here you go,” Mark said, appearing as if out of nowhere and pressing a bottle into Loki’s hand. “One beer, already opened.”
“Thanks,” Loki replied, grateful to have something to do with his hands other than either flex them or throw them out as if to protect Ash from someone who was looking at her the way a hungry wolf would look at a young girl in a red cloak.
“Oh, hey, Mark,” Alex said. “Been up to much lately?”
Mark quickly kept them all entertained with a tale of a friend of his who’s apartment had been overrun with flies lately due to a dead pigeon on his roof that the caretaker hadn’t found until about three weeks later. In a way, Loki was grateful for his intervention, because it kept Alex looking at him and not Ash. As the evening wore on, and they all had a few more drinks and a few more people from various workplaces, Jenna included, came up to talk with them, the atmosphere changed somewhat, becoming a little more warm and exciting, until at last Loki noticed that Ash was looking ready to fall asleep.
“Come on,” he murmured, taking the cup from her hand and putting it on the table. “I think it’s time someone was in bed.”
Ash grinned and tried to resist rubbing her eyes. “Sorry, I’m such a lightweight.”
“Are you going?” Mark asked as they stepped past him. He pulled Ash into a hug. “See you tomorrow,” he said, and then shaking Loki’s hand, “and see you...whenever.”
Loki grinned. “Hopefully.”
Thankfully, Alex didn’t see them leaving.
“I bet you anything I wake up feeling awful tomorrow,” Ash said as she climbed onto the bed and undid her cloak. “Even though I didn’t really have a lot to drink, when you think about it.”
“No, but you said you thought something might have been added to the punch,” Loki reminded her.
“Mm, I know,” Ash agreed, with a yawn. “Wonder what it was. Wish I knew.”
“So, you can find out who it was?”
“No, so I can get some more in!”
Loki began to laugh. “You know, I think I can quite honestly say I’ve never met a woman like you before, Ash!”
Ash giggled. “Could say the same of you. But not the “woman” bit,” she added, blushing deeply.
“I know what you mean,” Loki smiled, and then pointedly turned to let her undress in privacy. Once she was changed, Ash crawled into bed and turned over onto her side.
“Wake me when it’s lunchtime,” she murmured, closing her eyes.
Loki glanced at her. “Ash?”
“Mm?”
“Do you...like me?”
Ash giggled. “I put up with you, don’t I?” Loki shook his head, holding back a laugh and she opened her eyes. “Of course I like you. You’re my best friend.”
Loki smiled, doubtfully. “Thanks.”
Ash, however, misinterpreted his doubtfulness. “I might have been a bit scared of you when we first met, but that doesn’t mean you’re unlikeable. I mean, you looked after me when I was ill; you tried to cheer me up at work; you came out with me tonight. You’re a good person, Loki.”
Loki smiled, sadly, and sat down on his side of the bed. “No, I’m not. I’ve done a lot of bad things in my life; things I’m not proud of now.” Briefly his thoughts landed on Thor, remembering how he had still called him “brother” to Mark, even though they weren’t technically related by blood. “I caused Frost Giants to invade Asgard. I tried to hurt my brother. I tried to get rid of...Odin. I killed Laufey.” He shuddered. “And for what? I didn’t achieve anything in the end.” A thought suddenly struck him. “Mind you, if I hadn’t done all that, if I hadn’t ended up dangling from the Bifrost at the end of it all, I probably wouldn’t have met you.”
No response.
“Ash?” Hoping she wasn’t suddenly appalled or even repulsed by his confession, Loki turned to her, to find her once again fast asleep. “Ash?” He shook his head and flopped down beside her. “Unbelievable!” This was, after all, the second time something like this had happened between them. Loki rolled over, propping himself up on one arm and looked down at her. She looked so serene like this, like a goddess or a nymph. He had never imagined in a million years before that he would ever develop feelings for anybody like this, let alone develop them for a Midgard girl of working class who lived alone in this strange, crowded city, but who had somehow managed to touch his heart regardless.
“What are you doing to me?” Loki murmured, brushing her forehead with a kiss.