Loki strode purposefully through the Statesman’s halls on his way to the medical wing.
Back when their voyage had began, he had been put in charge of keeping an eye on all the ship’s vital supplies so that he could alert Heimdall when to begin looking for a new safe place to gather supplies from. This included medical supplies.
The day before, he had stopped by the medical wing and asked Eir and the couple others who were volunteering there to count up everything and figure out what they would need to replenish and when.
Now he was on his way to go see if they had that done so he could look it over and cross reference it with the other supplies he was keeping track of.
When he walked in only Eir was there — Well, scratch that, Eir was the only adult there. Along with her were the Statesman’s nearly fifty orphans, ranging all the way from only decade or so old toddlers to the oldest ones who were only a couple decades off from a century but not quite close enough to adulthood to be on their own. There had been an orphaned infant in the beginning too, but he’d very quickly found a home with the only nursing mother on board.
Loki paused as he caught sight of the children. Every eye in the room went to him, most of them wide with curiosity. Only Eir seemed unphased.
“Ah, my prince. Have you come for those supply charts you requested?”
Loki quickly recovered himself and looked to Eir. “Yes, madam. Are they finished?” he asked, walking farther into the room.
“They are,” she replied, leaving what she was doing to reach for a couple sheets of paper lying on one of the tables. “Would you like me to go over them with you?”
Loki hesitated and flicked a glance at the group of kids. “Well, I don’t want to bother you. It seems you have your hands quite full.”
Eir chuckled. “Yes. The caretakers asked if I could watch them for a couple hours so they could have some free time. Besides, it’s a good opportunity for some of the older ones to learn a bit about the arts of healing.”
“Norns know we need that,” Loki muttered.
“Indeed. I can go over the charts with you if you’d like though. They are quite a well behaved group,” she said, smiling at the children. A couple smiled back.
“Very well. If it truly isn’t a bother.”
“And when are you going to come take some healing lessons, prince? You’re the most skilled seidr wielder we have and could make quite the healer if you put some time into it.”
Loki smiled. Eir had always been encouraging of his magic. While most mocked him for practicing such a ‘womanly’ art, she, along with his mother, had always pushed him to pursue the gift.
“Perhaps I will stop by sometime soon.”
“Good. I will be expecting you. Now, let’s go over this supply list, shall we?”
They began to go one by one down the list. About halfway through they were interrupted. A young man ran in looking quite panicked. He seemed to do a double take as he caught sight of the children and then Loki.
“My prince,” he said with a rushed bow.
“What’s the matter?” Eir immediately asked.
“I’m not entirely sure. My sister was taking a nap in our room. I noticed that she seemed to be having a nightmare so I woke her. She completely panicked and locked herself in the closet. Our roommates and I have been trying to get her to answer us for the past ten minutes but she won’t!”
Eir quickly set down the papers and began moving for the door.
“Do you need any help?” Loki asked.
“No,” she said, not turning, “but if you could watch the children while I’m gone that would be greatly appreciated.” Then she was gone.
Loki stared out the now empty door.
“What do you think happened to her?” came a small, nervous voice behind him.
He turned to regard the tense, worried group of faces. “Oh, nothing. I’m sure she just got a bit frightened. Eir will take good care of her,” he assured them. “As you were, children. All is well.” He took a seat in a chair as he continued to look over the supply list by himself, taking on a relaxed posture in hopes that his body language would help to calm them.
It seemed to be at least partially effective as the children slowly began to go back to whatever activities or games they had been doing before.
Loki saw movement in his peripheral vision and looked up to find the little girl, Vali, who he had somewhat unintentionally taken under his wing the past several weeks, standing in front of him. Her hands were holding each other nervously and there was a question in her eyes.
“Yes, Vali?”
She pressed her lips together and came even closer to the point that she was almost touching his legs.
He cocked his head, a smile ghosting his lips, before he set the papers down and hooked his hands under the little girl’s armpits, lifting her up and onto his lap. She immediately curled up against his chest, pressing her face against him, as he picked up the papers and resumed reading.
The peace only lasted about a minute before Loki began to hear whispers being passed around among the children.
“Ask him.”
“Why don’t you ask him?”
“I’m not gonna ask him.”
“Oh, for Norns sake, he’s not going to bite.”
“You don’t know that!”
“I’ll ask him. Prince Loki?”
Loki suppressed a sigh. “Yes?” he asked, not looking up.
The boy fidgeted before asking, “Is it true that you tried to take over Midgard?”
Loki’s brow scrunched up a bit. “It is,” he said in a cautious tone.
“Are we going to take over Midgard when we get there?!” a younger boy asked excitedly.
Loki’s expression turned amused. “I don’t think that’s what the king has in mind.”
“But mortals used to worship the Aesir, did they not?”
“They did, but times have changed,” he replied, still not looking up.
“Do you think I’ll meet a mortal when we get there?” a young girl asked.
One of the boys scoffed. “We’re going to an entire realm full of them. Of course you will. Besides, what exactly do you think Bruce Banner is?”
“I mean, can one truly consider Bruce Banner mortal? His genes have been mutated,” one of the girls pointed out.
“Well, the base of his genetics is still human either way,” another responded.
As they began to debate the degree of Bruce’s mortality, Loki again tuned them out.
Suddenly a little girl asked, “Prince Loki, my mother and I went to see your play back on Asgard. Is it true that you’re Jotun?”
At that, Loki finally looked up, taken aback by the sudden question. He of course knew that the people knew of his heritage. After all, he’d been the one to make it public. But this was the first time someone had openly confronted him about it.
Most of the older kids tensed a bit or at least looked uncomfortable, understanding that a line had probably been crossed. The little girl who had asked, however, simply stared up at him with open curiosity.
“It… is,” he said hesitantly, unsure how a group of Aesir children would take such news.
“Why do you not look Jotun?” One of the boys asked.
Another scoffed. “He’s a shapeshifter, genius. He can look however he wants.”
An older girl bristled as if she’d been personally offended. “No, genius. He looks Aesir because the Allfather put an enchantment on him that literally turns his DNA Aesir. With the enchantment on, he’s just as much Aesir as you are.”
All of the children looked to Loki, waiting for a confirmation of the correct answer. Loki somehow managed to find himself amused even through his natural disdain for the topic. It also probably helped that the children were talking to him as if there was nothing wrong with it, as if him being Jotun was completely natural. It almost made him forget that there was something wrong with it. Almost.
“She is correct,” he said, and the girl’s face turned triumphant.
“But you are a shapeshifter,” the boy grumbled.
“Can you shapeshift into animals?”
“Of course,” he said with a dismissive wave.
A second later, when no one else spoke, Loki looked back up from the papers to see what had caused the sudden silence. Every child in the room was looking at him wide eyed. Hopeful.
Oh…
His expression turned to guarded hesitance and he opened his mouth to decline the unspoken request when he felt Vali shift in his arms. He glanced down to see her staring at him with the same hopeful expression. He paused, reconsidering.
Norns, this child is going to be the death of me.
It’d been centuries since he’d been comfortable shapeshifting simply because he wanted to or someone requested it. As he’d grown older, people had begun to see it less and less as a cool and unique ability and more as distasteful, another thing that linked the younger prince to being untrustworthy. So finally he had stopped.
But so much has changed recently. These children have been through so much. Maybe… just this once…
Loki pulled Vali away from his chest so that she was sitting on his legs facing him. “Tell me, Vali, what’s your favorite animal?” Excited noises began to fill the group.
The little girl bit her lip, thinking. Then she leaned forward and whispered in his ear. When she pulled away, Loki smiled at her then set her down and stood.
He let out a long breath. No turning back now.
The familiar wash of green went over him. He felt his muscles and bones warp and shift. Then it all settled and he sat in front of them, a black, emerald eyed wolf. For a moment, he worried that the form would remind them too much of Fenris, but as they began to let out excited squeals, he figured they must be too distracted by the fact that their prince had just turned into a wolf right in front of them to care.
When he looked to Vali, her eyes were brighter than he’d ever seen them. She slowly reached her hands out, touching the fur on his neck lightly. He poked her with his nose and she giggled.
“Prince Loki,” one of the children asked, “may we pet you?”
Really, the idea of nearly fifty children crowding around to pet him wasn’t something that sounded particularly appealing, but he’d already gone this far. Now was hardly the time to say no. Besides, their open excitement and awe was quite refreshing compared to the reactions he’d grown accustomed to.
Instead of answering, Loki flopped down onto the ground, nudging Vali’s leg to encourage her to sit down by his head. Once she had, he looked up at the children expectantly. They were all excited sounds and large grins as they began petting him. Some of the smaller ones were hugging his neck. Some were admiring his claws. Many were petting his tail.
Eventually, one of the boys asked, “Can you show us your teeth?”
So Loki bared his teeth, and then they were crowding around to admire his canines. The same boy did a mock growl at him. In one movement, Loki was on his feet as he let out a snarl. The boy jumped back with a yelp and the other children laughed — including Vali, he noted.
Loki turned to her and laid back down before using his head to gesture at his back. Vali’s eyes widened before she walked over and cautiously climbed up onto his back. She clung tightly to him as he stood, then walked in a slow loop around the room.
The children cheered, and the younger ones yelled, “Me next! Me next!”
Loki couldn’t help the warmth that lit in his chest at their open excitement. And so, from there he began taking the small children on short rides in groups of two. He did several of the older ones too, and the group laughed and clapped as he halfheartedly attempted to throw them from his back and they gripped on for dear life.
They all got so carried away that not even Loki noticed the soft clinking of footsteps approaching, and he was halfway through the process of throwing a boy from his back when he suddenly caught sight of Thor and Eir staring with open shock in the doorway. There was a second where nobody so much as moved a muscle. Then Loki blinked and allowed his form to shift back to Aesir. The boy who had been on his back suddenly found himself dangling awkwardly in the air with his arms wrapped around Loki’s neck. He hastily let go, landing with a light thump as he stepped away, face flushing.
Loki opted for momentarily ignoring his brother’s existence. “Eir, how goes it with the girl?” he asked instead.
Eir seemed to recover much quicker from the unexpected sight than Thor. She smiled, entering the room. “She’ll be alright. It’s nothing I wouldn’t have expected given recent events. Were you children good for the prince?” she asked. They all nodded eagerly. “Well, that’s good. Thank you for watching them. I know it was unexpected.”
“Of course,” Loki said — As if it hadn’t turned out to be just as much fun for him as them. “I looked over the rest of the list. I think I’ve got it figured out, so I’ll go ahead and leave you to your work.”
Disappointed sounds filled the group of children that immediately hushed when the two adults turned to look at them.
“Now, children,” Eir reprimanded, “the prince is very busy. He cannot stay here all day. Perhaps he can come again some other time though?” The smile she sent him reminded Loki of how his mother would have looked at him if she had been the one to see this. It sent multiple emotions through him, all of which he tried to ignore.
“Perhaps,” he answered and ran a hand through little Vali’s hair, inclining his head towards the children before turning and exiting. He pushed past Thor, who blinked, finally seemed to unfreeze, and quickly followed after him.
They walked for nearly a minute, Loki ahead, trying to ignore his brother’s eyes on his back. Then Thor said, “You shapeshifted.”
Loki huffed. “Really? My, brother, how very observant of you to—”
“I haven’t seen you shapeshift like that in centuries,” Thor said, cutting him off.
“No, I don’t suppose you have,” Loki replied bitterly, still walking.
“I am glad to see it.”
At that, Loki finally stilled.
Thor stopped too, only a couple paces behind him. He continued speaking. “I’m not nearly as unobservant as you seem to think me, brother. I know why you stopped your shapeshifting, and I am regretful for it.”
“You can hardly take all the blame,” Loki said quietly, eyes trained carefully in front of him.
“No. But I hardly helped the situation either. I am happy to see you feeling comfortable enough to do it again is all.”
Loki slowly, carefully, turned to look at his brother. Thor’s face was full of sincerity. Loki nodded, face a careful mask, then slowly walked away. As he did so, he felt something that he’d thought long dead reignite in his soul.