Christmas
Mark was sprawled on the living room couch with his feet up, magazine in hands, The Flower Duet playing in the background, when the knock came at his door on the sixth of December. He frowned. He wasn’t expecting anyone today. Still, it was cold outside and whoever was at the door was probably freezing their limbs off waiting for him to open it, so he clambered to his feet and went to open the door.
“Oh, hi,” he said, in surprise, and then added as he remembered his manners, “Sorry, come in before you freeze.” He took in the other man’s apparel as he closed the door and frowned. “Aren’t you cold without winter woollies on?”
“I don’t really feel the cold much,” Loki replied, truthfully, brushing snow off his shoulders.
“Ah, yes, I guess you’re probably used to much colder winters than this,” Mark replied with a smile as he leaned over to switch off the stereo. Loki raised an eyebrow at the music filtering from it before it was silenced but made no comment and instead simply sat down in the vacant seat Mark indicated for him. “Cuppa?”
“Please,” Loki answered, courteously.
Mark was back in a matter of minutes with two steaming mugs and Loki thanked him politely as he pressed one on him. “So, what’s up?” he asked, sitting back on the sofa. “I mean, I’m guessing this isn’t just a social call given that you’d have had to take a bus from your place to get here from Ash’s.”
“Actually, I walked,” Loki replied.
“Seriously?” Mark asked, his eyes widening. “All that way?”
“Well, I had nowhere else to be,” Loki replied, setting his cup on the table. He leaned forwards, elbows resting on his knees, hands twisting together in uncertainty and sighed. “I need your help.”
“What with?” Mark asked.
“I want to get Ash something for Christmas,” Loki replied. Since she had explained all about the upcoming Midgard holiday to him, and what a long conversation that had been, with so many complex threads to be tied up, and told him about the tradition of exchanging presents with friends and loved ones, it had been plaguing him night and day.
“Ah,” Mark replied, knowingly, “no idea what to get her?”
“No,” Loki replied. “I’ve had an idea.”
“Go on,” Mark prompted, putting his own mug on the table and mimicking Loki’s pose.
Loki took a deep breath. “When we were out for a walk last week, some area called Covent Garden, we went through a load of market stalls selling various items, and there was one selling some rather nice scarves. She took a fancy to one but she didn’t buy it because she said it was somewhat expensive.”
It was true. He remembered her giving a soft gasp as she picked up the beautiful dark and light blue patterned scarf decorated with gold thread in spirals and swirls. “I love this,” she had breathed, examining it and then sighing at the price tag. “Perhaps after my next pay day, though,” she had added with an optimistic smile, wrapping the thing around her neck, experimentally. “What do you think?”
Loki had smiled and replied “You look lovely.”
Ash had smiled and put the thing back and they had continued making their way through the stalls, but the way that her eyes had lit up on seeing the scarf had remained with Loki every second afterwards.
“Well, if it’s out of your price range,” Mark began.
“No, it’s not that,” Loki replied. Rather than just buy the scarf he had decided to replicate it in every detail, using magic, and that way she wasn’t likely to scold him for not paying for it. “I just want to know whether...if I got it for her, would that be...moving too fast?”
“Oh.” Now it made sense. Mark smiled, encouragingly at him. “I don’t think you have to worry. People often give people they’re just good friends with things that they know they’re going to love. Like for my last birthday, she gave me the latest Game of Thrones boxset because she knows I love it and that I’d missed the last series of it. See?”
Loki nodded. “So, that wouldn’t be too forward, then?”
“Absolutely not.” Mark frowned, however. “Wait, I thought you wanted to let her know how you feel?”
“I do, at some point,” Loki replied, running a hand through his hair. “I just don’t want to go into it too soon in case I scare her off. I mean, she’s comfortable with the way things are right now, I don’t want to ruin that for her by suddenly announcing that I want to be more than just friends.”
Mark nodded. “Fair enough, but don’t leave it too late, otherwise she might find someone else.”
To be perfectly honest, that was a thought that had never occurred to Loki before. He tried to imagine it happening. How would he cope if suddenly Ash fell in love with someone else? He shook his head. “You’re right, of course, but-”
“Maybe get Christmas and New Year out of the way first?” Mark finished with a grin. “Ooh, ooh, I know what you should do!” He sprang off the sofa with school-boyish energy, much to Loki’s alarm, and snapped his fingers, pointing at him. “You should let her know on Valentine’s Day! Or at least send her a card! Think how romantic that would be!”
Loki blinked at him. “Valentine’s Day?”
Mark’s eager smile slipped a bit. “Oh, do you not have that where you’re from? Well, anyway, it’s a day when people give gifts of love to people they have feelings for, you know, cards, flowers and the like. You should do that for her.”
“Tell me, why am I getting the feeling that you’re more excited about all this than I am?” Loki grinned.
“Ah, I’m a sucker for romance,” Mark confessed, sitting back down again. “Plus, you know, Ash is my friend and you seem like a nice guy, so, you know...” He made a “There-you-have-it” gesture with his hands and reached for his tea again.
“So, I have your permission to court her, then?” Loki joked.
“Absolutely.” Mark raised his mug as though in toast and then frowned, thoughtfully. “Hm. Court. No one really uses that word to refer to dating anymore. They should.”
Loki finished his tea and got to his feet. “Thank you,” he said, genuinely meaning it as he got to his feet. “I feel a lot better about getting her something now.”
“Anytime,” Mark replied, following him to the door. “Glad I could help.”
Loki paused as he stepped outside and then turned to him. “You know, she’s lucky to have a friend like you, Mark.” Then, without another word, he stepped out into the swirling snow, leaving Mark pleased but slightly confused by the compliment.
Loki had been telling the truth when he had told Mark that he had made the journey to his home on foot, but he decided on teleporting back home since the snow looked to be picking up, and it was easy in a city like London where no one really noticed if someone disappeared among the crowds. Nevertheless he glanced around once just to check that no one would spot him disappearing before he did so and arrived quickly back inside his room at the flat.
His room, it was strange how he was referring to her guest room as that now.
Shaking his coat free of snow, he hung it up behind the door and as he was doing so, he heard something drop and a yelp of “Ow!” come from the living room. Startled, he made his way in there in time to see a multitude of what looked like small gold and red balls tumbling as if from the sky and bouncing along the carpet in all directions.
“Oh, wonderful!” Ash sighed, rubbing her head.
“What’s going on?” Loki asked.
“Oh, hey, where’d you get too?” Ash asked, turning to him in surprise. “I woke up and you’d gone.”
“Went for a walk,” Loki replied. “Needed to clear my head.”
“In this weather?”
“Frost Giant, remember?”
“Right.” Ash grinned, sheepishly, and then dived to grab some of the balls. “Well, now you’re here, you can give me a hand with this lot.”
“What are these, anyway?” Loki asked, bending down to help her.
“Baubles, for the tree,” Ash replied, nodding to the pile of boxes marked “Decorations” that he hadn’t noticed before. “The box with all these in just split, I think it must have got damp in the cupboard or something.”
Remembering that she had mentioned the tradition of decorating a tree at Christmas, Loki nodded and helped her to gather them all up. “Where do we put them?” he asked.
“Oh, just dump them on the sofa for now,” Ash replied. “I’ll sort out a box for them later. Come on, help me put the tree up.”
Loki was surprised to find that it wasn’t a real tree but when Ash explained to him that real pine trees were not only messy in dropping their needles but also required being replaced every year for a new one, he admitted that an artificial one was much better. It was surprisingly fun, he realised, covering a tree with electric lights and shimmering tinsel and coloured baubles and other various random decorations such as plastic gingerbread men, glittery angels, tiny knitted stockings and mini crackers.
“Do you want to put this up?” Ash asked, holding out the last decoration, a larger gold star. “It goes on the top. You can probably reach it standing up better than I can.”
Her voice was casual but something told Loki that he ought to feel honoured that she had asked him to be the one to hang it, so he took it gently with a smile and a grateful nod before putting it on the topmost branch of the tree. Ash clasped her hands together in excitement as she admired their handiwork. “Aw, this always my favourite bit of Christmas, decorating the tree. Of course, it’s much more fun when you do it with someone else. Alone it’s a bit boring.”
Sensing the note of sadness in her voice, and guessing correctly that she’d been doing this alone for quite a few years now, Loki slowly moved closer to her and slipped his arm around her shoulders. To his surprise, Ash leaned against him, and they stood like that for a while, looking at the tree, until she tapped his chest and murmured “Come on, I don’t know about you but I’m starving.”
Loki grinned at her. “That makes two of us.”
The forgotten Prince of Asgard soon learned that when it came to Christmas, everyone in the world seemed to go overboard with their celebrations. Decorations were seen in every shop window, lights were set up in every street and a huge fuss was made about the food and entertainment for the holiday.
“How long does this Christmas actually go on for?” Loki asked Ash one day as he helped her set the table and a trailer for a new Christmas film played on the television as they waited for the News to come on.
She smiled at him. “Just until December 25th, and then after that, things sort of go back to normal until New Year, and then it’s Valentine’s Day and then Easter and then everything settles down...wow, we know how to clump our holidays together,” she added with a frown.
“I’ll say,” Loki grinned.
“Huh, you know I hadn’t actually realised how close they all were together until you asked me that,” Ash replied, shaking her head, and they both laughed.
Cold days followed cold days of celebrations and greetings and then suddenly, rather quickly, Christmas Day seemed to roll around. Loki had been rather getting used to all the festivities, although a particular favourite was the fact that they kept showing different films that he was unfamiliar with, so it gave them more opportunities for Film Nights together, which was always fun.
What was even more fun was sharing the sofa with her for it.
“Jeez!” Ash exclaimed, having leapt into his arms for about the third time as they watched some old-fashioned horror film together which had a lot of monsters popping up when you least expected them to. “Why are they showing this at Christmas again?”
Loki simply laughed and gave her a hug.
Christmas Eve came and he made his way silently into the living room long after Ash was asleep to lay her carefully wrapped present and card underneath the tree. It was strange, he thought, up until he had met Ash he had never felt the same thrill out of giving someone a gift, even his own mother, that giving one to her stirred up inside him. He just hoped that she wouldn’t protest that it was too much when he knew it was something she was going to love.
He was roused the next morning by a knock on his bedroom door, startled so much from his dreamless sleep that he almost jumped out of bed and landed on the floor. Blinking sleepily, he pushed himself upright in time to hear Ash call “Come on, it’s Christmas Day!”
With a fond smile, Loki rolled out of bed and padded into the kitchen where he found her, as usual, making tea. She turned and smiled at him, somehow looking more gorgeous than ever to his eyes. “Happy Christmas, Loki.”
“Happy Christmas, Ash,” Loki replied, softly, before reaching out and pulling her into a hug.
Ash smiled as she returned it. “Is this my Christmas present?” she joked.
“No,” Loki replied with a smile, leading her over to the tree and holding up the parcel. “This is.”
Ash beamed at him and handed him a heavy parcel of her own. “And this is yours.”
Loki was surprised, because the concept of her buying anything for him just hadn’t occurred to him before, even knowing how naturally kind-hearted she was. Touched, he smiled and opened the present...and stared with wide eyes.
It was, as he had expected from the weight of the thing, a book but not just any book. It was The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, a brand new volume that was as heavy as a brick and had the scent of new parchment still lingering about it.
“Ash...” Loki whispered in awe as he flicked gently through the pages.
“I thought you might like your own copy,” Ash replied, shyly.
“It’s even got the Sonnets in here,” Loki realised, and then, closing the book, he wrapped her in another hug, trying to express as much of his gratitude as possible into it. “Thank you, I love it.”
“I thought you might,” Ash replied, pulling away and sitting down to open her own parcel. Loki sat down beside her and was once again filled with warmth as her eyes lit up in awe and amazement at what she unwrapped. “Oh, you remembered!” she laughed, picking out the scarf in delight.
“How could I forget?” Loki asked, smiling.
Ash hesitated. “Hold on, did you actually buy-?”
“I made it,” Loki cut across her. “With magic, copying the original one.”
Feeling a similar feeling of warmth that he had actually made something for her, whether it was using magic or not to do so, Ash wrapped the scarf around her neck. “Thank you, Loki, I absolutely love it.”
“I know,” Loki smiled and they both exchanged a shy look of happiness.
It was Ash who finally broke the silence as she crumpled the wrapping paper still on her lap. “How well we both know each other,” she pointed out with a grin, getting to her feet.
“Indeed,” Loki agreed and the awkward moment was broken. It gave him hope, however, hope that she might be beginning to see him in a new light. He resolved to thank Mark for his advice at some point; and to definitely plan something for Valentine’s Day when it came around.