Chapter 23
Thor's wandering the small manor, no real destination in mind, when he stumbles across a half-closed door…with Teddy and Loki's voices drifting out of it. "-keep Amora distracted for the next few visits, Teddy."
"What's the big surprise, Uncle? C'mon, you know I can keep a secret!"
Loki hums, and Thor can just imagine the look on his face as he says "Indeed you can…very well."
"Yes!"
"I'm going to marry Amora again."
Thor forcefully chokes back a gasp or cough, but…his little brother is what now?!
Teddy asks "I thought you and Aunt Amora were already married? Like, way back a few centuries ago?"
WHAT NOW?!?!
Loki says "We were, and we just got married again on Asgard, but that was just putting it down on paper. There was barely a ceremony, with Mother actually marrying us and the record keeper putting it down in writing. Seeing as nobody on Asgard besides Mother would celebrate our union anyway, I wanted to give her a real one. With Mother, Hela, all our friends, the works."
"Why wouldn't they be happy you and Aunt Amora got married? You've told me some of the stories of how she's stopped problems in other Realms on her own. Her marrying you means she's got a perfectly good reason to stay on Asgard forever, right? Nobody would go near Asgard because they'd know she's there."
Thor could smack his younger self upside the head a thousand times over for his sheer stupidity - people across nearly all the Realms whisper Amora's title, the Deathless Witch, in terrified whispers. It makes Amora Asgard's biggest defense as a deterrent for even the most reckless of would-be invaders.
As a warrior, it means he won't see any battles in…ever.
As a Prince of Asgard, it means his people's safety is all but assured so long as Amora has a reason to stay on Asgard - and Amora is guaranteed to stay on Asgard at least most of the time so long as Loki stays on Asgard.
Except Loki has exactly one reason to stay on Asgard, and that's their mother - as he just said, nobody on Asgard would celebrate him and Amora getting married but their Mother.
He would to!
…now.
Except Loki is more likely to throw it in his face that he considered Amora a bad influence on him for almost as long as he can remember…which, to be fair…he did. He wanted his brother to come out and spar with him, and all he ever wanted to do was be in the dusty old library with Amora with their noses buried in books…or a book, heads pressed together as they'd point and hiss at pages together. He was jealous and stupid, and he fully admits it, but he doubts that's going to get him an invitation to his brother's…what, third wedding?
Deciding there's only one thing for it, then, Thor pushes the door open at once - Loki and Teddy both jump about a foot in the air, the looks on their faces being utter horror for a moment - like they've just been busted with both hands holding desserts and more shoved in their mouths. There's no possible way he can make Loki believe he doesn't know, so Thor quickly says "I heard everything, and I want to help, Loki."
Loki opens and closes his mouth for a moment, like he can't quite believe his ears, then eventually…hits him in the chest with a ball of white light. A roll of parchment appears in his hand, and he quickly unrolls it and scans it. After a moment, he asks "Alright, who are you and what've you done with Thor? And how much Polyjuice Potion do you have on hand?"
Thor blinks, asking "What? Loki-"
Loki cuts him off, saying "Thor's thought of Amora as nothing but a bad influence on me for around eight hundred years. And, seeing as there's no controlling spells on you, no disguise spells, and no lack of Odinforce, the only conclusion I can think of that makes even a tiny bit of sense is that you somehow or other captured the real Thor, have him alive and locked away somewhere, and are impersonating him via Polyjuice Potion." The Thor he's grown up with would never offer his help in anything that would make Amora happy, he warned Loki to stay away from her countless times before they left after the Drinking Incident. He apparently gave up on that after they returned and Loki told him in no uncertain terms that, if he wished to spend anymore time with him ever again, the blonde Prince would just have to accept that Amora would be a part of that time. They didn't spend very much time together after Loki returned to Asgard anyway, Thor too busy going on quests with Sif and the Warriors Three most of the time.
But, still, nobody changes that much on so many different topics so quickly unless it's not really them or they're being controlled.
Thor winces at Loki's blank tone of voice, and says "Loki, I swear it's really me. We played together, fought together…well, the few times we made it to an uprising happening as another was ongoing that Amora was dealing with." Before Loki can try to deny it, say he must've read 'the real Thor's' mind, he quickly says "I was young. I was young, and jealous, and very stupid. You always wanted to spend all your time with Amora, and I saw it as her stealing you away from me."
Loki deadpans "Pardon me for finding Amora's company far more preferable. She never asked me to be anything or anyone other than myself. You, on the other hand, would've had me change everything about myself, pretend to be something and someone I'm not, just to please you and continue to be 'worthy' of my place at your side." A moment later, he remembers Teddy's standing right there - he's thirteen, though, has hit puberty, and knows enough to know that things between the two brothers have not been the greatest for many years. Looks like now he's learning exactly why that is.
Thor winces, glancing away in shame, and says "As I said, young and stupid…" At Loki's deadpan stare, he hesitantly adds "Hela and Jane managed to drive some working brain cells through my thick skull?"
Loki scoffs at last, expression finally breaking into something readable, and he says "Something clearly changed up there. I truly need to meet this woman if she managed such a drastic change in you."
Thor nods at once, expression brightening, and he says "I believe you two will get along wonderfully! Mother, to!"
Truth be told, Loki and Amora like her already, simply for the fact that she's not Sif. Not a gold-digger, not spiteful or petty, and doesn't have an ego as big as a mountain. Amora looked the woman up while she was out on business earlier in the day before she got back, and found the woman's extremely successful, has worked for everything she currently has, and is getting quite a lot of attention for the book 'The Foster Theory: Space and Time Travel' she just recently published concerning everything she knows about 'Einstein Rosen-Bridges and traveling through space and time. Almost certainly based on her experiences with Thor, and what he probably told her.
She's humble, though, and extremely smart - uses her head for everything she does, rather than her fists. All total, Loki needs to thank her profusely for whatever she did that affected Thor so much.
Loki sighs after a moment, the mutters something in Parseltongue while pinching the bridge of his nose. After a minute spent glancing at Thor, Loki says "Just don't open your big mouth around her, Thor. One of the reasons we never told you we're Soulmates - you can't keep a secret to save your life."
Thor protests "I can to!"
Loki deadpans "Thor, you wouldn't have made it a week! The entire palace would've been talking about it nonstop, it would've made its way to both Odin and Sif within minutes. And I really don't think I need to tell you just why I never wanted either of them learning Amora and I are Soulmates."
Thor would like to protest, but…Sif poisoned Amora because she thought she was interfering with a plot to seize the throne, and Odin banished him because he disagreed with the man's judgement. He doesn't know what they'd have done if they learned the best way to get to one of them was to go after the other.
Teddy frowns, then asks "Why's that, Uncle Loki? I thought everyone knew Soulmates were a good thing?"
Loki nods while rubbing at his temples, saying "They are, Teddy. Finding your Soulmate is a wonderful thing…or it's supposed to be, anyway. It was for Amora and I, I can't say what it's like for everyone else. But you can't separate Soulmates for too long after they've found one another. And the longer they've been together, the shorter that timeframe is. Amora and I are lucky in that regard, we always know the other is alright until they aren't, thanks to our magic. But, if something were to happen to her, I'd know immediately. And the results wouldn't be pretty."
Teddy narrows his eyes, which suddenly bleed gold, and he asks "Why does it sound like you speak from experience?"
Loki says "Because I do. You've heard a few of the stories about how Amora's gone and put an end to various uprisings over the past millennia."
"What does this Sif woman have to do with it? You've said she's one of Uncle Thor's friends, why wouldn't he protest unless she did something?" Fur starts sprouting all over Teddy's body, and he takes off at a run just as suddenly.
After a minute, Thor asks "What in the name of the Stars just happened?!" One minute, Teddy's acting normally - the next, he's all but throwing a fit at the thought of something having happened to Amora!
"He's a born Werewolf, Thor. He's never not accepted who and what he is, something that took Remus literal decades and moving to a different country to do. While Teddy stays in full control of himself during the full moon…getting him worked up over one of his 'pack' being threatened or harmed is a sure-fire way to see him lose it, sprout claws and fur, and try to maul the offender." He quickly waves a hand as he yanks Thor closer all of a sudden, making a bubble appear around them, and quickly says "So, whatever you do, under no circumstances should you bring up Sif poisoning Amora unless you want an extremely angry Wolf on our hands to try to pacify."
Remus, thankfully, has grown used to the knowledge that Amora's a grown woman and can more than handle herself. Finding her alive at Harvard greatly helped with that, as well as finding her fully-grown and with a spell repertoire nobody but Loki could hope to compete with.
Amora stumbles as Teddy quite literally crashes into her, and asks "Hey, easy, Teddy-Bear, what's the rush?"
Instead of pulling back, though, Teddy holds onto her tighter…and takes a long drag of air in through his nose.
Oh…oh shit…
Teddy looks up at her with Werewolf-yellow eyes, and suspiciously asks "Why do you smell weird, Aunt Amora?" Why does his Aunt Amora smell like there was something on or in her that wasn't supposed to be there?
Andy glares at him, and says "Teddy! You know better than that!"
Amora shakes her head, saying "No, Andy, it's alright, really. It's a new lotion I bought on Asgard just before Thor's Coronation was announced. I put it on last night, this is the first time he's smelled it." Actually, it's most likely a trace or two of the poison Sif used on her - but she's not telling her already-borderline transformed Godson that!
Teddy glances up at her, and warily asks "You're sure? 'Cause, Uncle Thor and Uncle Loki were talking about Soulmates, and Uncle Loki said if anything ever happened to you it'd get ugly fast. And I noticed the scent when you got here, but didn't say anything."
Amora sighs in relief, seeing a way to hopefully pacify her highly-upset Godson, and says "I'm sure it would. I'd personally raze everything between me and Loki to the ground if that's what it took to find him. I'd burn the world down if that's what it took to get him back, raze everything in my way to rubble and ashes, and Loki would freeze it over. Now, c'mon, let's go do some stargazing up on the roof."
Thor slowly pokes his head around the corner of the doorway, sighing in utter relief as Amora closes the door behind them, and mutters "Is everyone with magic just utterly terrifying?"
Loki rolls his eyes at Thor, and says "When we want to be." Why did he think all the soldiers on Asgard are so utterly terrified to go on a mission where Amora might show up? Because they're worried about getting distracted by her?!
Remus sighs, and says "There's no new scented lotion, is there." He phrased it as a question, but he's real certain Amora managed to get into trouble yet again and Teddy could smell the blood or some such on her.
Loki shakes his head, and says "No, but that's the story I'll be sticking with. Amora was recently poisoned, but has since fully-recovered. My guess? What Teddy was smelling was a lingering trace of the poison in Amora's skin. Before you ask, Sif is dead by her own choice - jumped off the Bifrost before I could Apparate her back to the castle." He'd have Splinched her, to, but still.
Remus nods, eyes glowing Werewolf-golden even as he struggles to reign in his own inner wolf, and Nymphadora facepalms while muttering about 'the 90's all over again...'