Concussion
Her head has never hurt this badly. Ever.
“This is some hangover,” She murmurs to herself.
“Not a hangover,” A voice says. Loki. She blinks her eyes open and turns her head towards the sound of his voice. He’s blurry. She says as much. “You have a concussion.”
“A concussion.”
“Yes. You fell from the upper decks and hit your head on the railing. I’m not sure what you were doing, but they brought you here.”
“And you’re left to look after me, master healer?”
“They asked me to make sure you didn’t die in your sleep, yes.”
“You know-” She’s not sure she knows what she was about to say. Whatever it was suddenly becomes far, far less important than vomiting into the basin set next to her. She moans and spits. “Damn.”
“Yes.”
“You’re an ass.”
“I’ve never pretended to have good bedside manner, my lady Valkyrie.”
“Are you…are you reading?” He’s come a bit better into focus, and there’s a book in his lap, place held loosely with a finger between the pages.
“It’s not like you’ve been very entertaining, unconscious as you were.”
“Where’s Gudrun? She won’t at least be so-” The nausea rises again and she brings up yellow bile, back bowing with the force of the heaves. Loki gets up from his chair, setting his book on the seat. He takes a small cup and fills it with from a purple bottle.
“Gudrun and her apprentice are attending a birth. She assured me you were not likely to die, so I became stuck watching over you. Here, this should help the nausea.” She winces at the bitter taste of the liquid.
“No chance you can use your magic to get rid of this damned headache?”
“I’m afraid messing about with your brain is far beyond my skill. Eir could maybe, maybe have done it, but all the neurons, and the small veins in the brain are so sensitive that altering them with magic would be as likely to leave you a catatonic shell as cure the symptoms of your concussion. So, you’ll have to do this the old fashion way. Wait. And rest.”
The Valkyrie moans and covers her eyes with her arm. “I hate you.” She hears him moving about the makeshift infirmary, then he’s tapping at her arm. He replaces it with an icepack when she moves it. “Okay, I hate you a little less. So, how long was I out?”
“Just an hour or so. Do you remember anything?”
“I think…I was helping Korg with something? It’s still a bit…confusing.” They lapse into silence for a few minutes. “A stupid fall. I’m a damned Valkyrie, can you imagine if I had died in a foolish, accidental fall?”
“It would not be a fitting end for your order.”
“You’re right, I’m the last Valkyrie. Norns, imagine if I died in a fall. How fucking stupid.”
“It would be stupid.” Loki returns to his chair, moving his book aside. “Thor would be devastated. You know, he used to want to be a-”
“Yeah, he told me on Sakaar.”
Loki’s lip twitches. “Of course he did. Did he tell you about the capes? He made blue capes out of some old curtains and wore it around the palace for weeks even as Father kept insisting that he couldn’t be a Valkyrie because they were all women. That phase lasted a while, to my recollection.”
“Capes? You said capes plural?”
Loki colors. “I was practically still a baby.”
“That is adorable.”
“No, no, don’t think we were-”
“So cute.”
“No, we’re-”
“Adorable.”
Loki sighs. “I will leave you here to die.”
“No you won’t,” The Valkyrie says brightly. “Like you said, Thor would be sad.”
Loki sighs again. “You’re right. I won’t. We have grown a bit used to having you around, I suppose.”
“Wow, lackey, it almost sounded like you’d miss me, if I’d died. How long before I can have a drink?”
“I would. Miss you,” Loki says quietly, pointedly ignoring her question. “I don’t know, I know we fought at first, but you’re the only other one who ever…I don’t know, rolls their eyes at the formality of some of these planets, and puts us in our places when we’re acting too pretentious, and you’re not afraid to yell at us or criticize us, but I know you’ll protect us, not just because of oaths to the throne, but because you actually seem to care about us, even me for whatever reason, like the older sister we never-” He goes silent in a second, eyes widening. The only sound for second is her sharp intake of breath. “I’m sorry-”
“It’s fine.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“It’s fine.”
“We didn’t even know about Hela until-”
“Loki, it’s fine.”
“I didn’t-”
“Highness, really, stop. I know you didn’t mean it like that. Really.” It’s awkward for a minute. “Why do you care so much anyways? You’re the one who pried it from my head.” There’s still a certain note of bitterness in her voices. He winces.
“That was different. I was trying to get you to stop, and it was clear that I was hopelessly outmatched. I…utilized the skills within my disposal. Tricks.” There’s bitterness in his voice as well, perhaps a mirror of her own.
“Some might say it was a dirty move,” She says. “But I’d say it was smart. You fight as dirty as me, I’ve always liked that about you.” She sits up with a wince, holding the icepack to her forehead with a hand. “Us cheats have to stick together.” He gives her a smile so small she knows it’s real. “To protect those pure, noble fools who won’t take the dishonest way. Right?” Loki nods. “Besides it’s not like there was any room for fair play on Sakaar.”
“You should really lie back down, my lady,” He says. “It’ll be a few hours at least until you’re well enough to be moving around.”
“Ah, but being in bed is so boring.” She lies down nonetheless, because being upright had indeed made her dizzy. “Highness?” Loki raises an eyebrow at her. “I just…you didn’t deserve Hela. You haven’t been perfect, but…you didn’t deserve to have her as a sister.”
Loki’s half smile is a little shaky. “Well, lucky for me, she’s not my sister.” He doesn’t quite sound like he believes it though. “You may have to say the same to Thor eventually, I think he might wish to hear it. And if you think I didn’t deserve her as a sister…” He looks down at his hands. The Valkyrie thinks about how it must feel, to have everything you knew about your family torn asunder twice, and to be so uncertain of your own place in it. All the terrible things it turned out Hela had tried to do to them over the years.
“Neither of you deserved her. Truly.” They are quiet for a little while. “Brunnhilde,” She says suddenly.
“What?”
“That’s my name.” He looks stunned. “Okay, calm down, it’s not that big of a deal.”
“When you’re back in your right mind, you’re going to regret telling me this.”
“Not if you don’t tell anyone.”
“Brunnhilde,” He repeats. “It’s a nice name.”
“Keep calling me Val for now.”
“When have I once called you ‘Val,’ my lady?”
“Okay, keep calling me ‘my lady,’ then.” She’s fading fast, the short conversation tiring her out.
“You should sleep. You’ll feel better in a few hours.” He picks his book back up.
“I swear, if you tell-”
“Of course not, Brunnhilde.” There’s quiet for a minute or so, and the Valkyrie is almost back to sleep when he speaks again. “Did anyone ever call you Hilde?”
“As soon as I can stand up without vomiting or falling on my face I am going to stab you in the-”
“Violating your vows to protect the throne so soon?”
“It won’t be fatal. You’ll have deserved it. Thor will pardon me.” She smiles crookedly. “I’m kidding. Not going to hurt you, highness.” A cool hand wraps around hers on the bed.
“Go to sleep. You’ll regret all of this in the morning.”
She squeezes. “I won’t.”