Chapter 2
You freeze to the sound of the front door opening. They were home already? Damn. If you knew they’d be coming back today, you would have physically kicked Loki’s ass down the street and told him to stay away if he valued that pretty face. The last person you ever wanted the twins to meet was your ex-husband — well you two never officially got divorced, so the ‘ex’ part is something of an ‘in essence’ type of deal.
You should have run him off the moment he showed up at your door. Why didn’t you? Was it the bundle of fire lilies, middlemist camellias, and white as fresh snow hydrangeas that he clutched in a nervous fist? He was always awful at flower arrangments, but always knew the kinds you preferred above others. His mother might have slapped him for presenting such a bouquet to his wife. Indeed, she tried to teach him better than to just gather a handful of each and smush them together into three clusters. But where did he get middlemist camellia, it is rare in all the realms, in fact, the last time you saw a healthy plant of it was in your… mother’s garden on Vanaheim.
You saw him and knew it would be a terrible idea to let him in, Connor and Murphy could be home at any moment. Because you couldn’t resist those stunning green eyes, you have trapped yourself in the worst of all possible scenarios. Your boyfriends stand at the doorway, faces caught between excitement to see you, and confusion at the situation they have found you in.
Truthfully, your heart breaks for the man kneeling at your feet. Guilt for his pain stirring long-dormant feelings of tender affection. This is something you can under no circumstances allow the twins to see. Your heart belongs to them, you would never turn away from them. You can’t leave them.
“Well, what’s all this then?” Connor says with a forced smile, attempting to treat it as though this is a reasonable way to find you. He tosses his travel bag onto the couch. Though he is trying to hide it, the man is radiating jealousy. Murphy seems more sad, fidgeting and avoiding looking at you. Now your heart is in your stomach.
“I could say it’s nothing.” You step away from Loki, starting to move across the room, gravitating towards the Macmanus’. The mischief god refuses to release your dress, you catch a look of abandonment as you leave him. “But I know that by the way things look you would certainly be able to tell I am lying.” Loki’s fingers hold desperately to your skirt, it is stretched tight before you finally yank it free. The short span of time it takes you to reach Connor feels like a century. “But boys I can promise you.” His cheeks are warm when you take them in your hands, rough with stubble, looks like they didn’t shave while they were gone. You pull Connor’s gaze away from its intense stare over your shoulder to look at you, so that you may stare deeply into those penetrating blue eyes. “I promise, it is far more insignificant than it looks.” Pressing your lips to his brings an immediate response. He kisses you with all the passion of a week-long separation’s longing, combined with the fire of jealous possessiveness. You’re swept away as his arms wrap around you, hands exploring their territory with little care of the present witness.
Murphy clears his throat off to the side, not out of embarrassment, of course, he takes pleasure in watching far more lewd displays, he only wishes to draw attention to the fact that he’s been left out. Connor’s teeth take hold of your lower lip as he pulls away, bringing a satisfying sting before he releases and pushes you towards his equally eager brother.
“I believe ya lass, for the record anyway.” Murphy catches hold of you, lifting you up and spinning around. “Fucking missed you, felt like we were gone for ages.”
“I know, I was wondering if you were ever going to come…” You’re cut off by a tender kiss, the kind that makes every atom of your body melt into Murphy’s arms. With his hands gently caressing your back you are nearly a puddle on the floor. Breaking away for air, you soon find yourself becoming lost in those infinite sky blue irises.
It’s with a heavy heart that you pull entirely away from him, stepping away from both of your darlings, and turning to face the elephant in the room. Where Loki kneels, it is as though the sun has become eclipsed, such heavy darkness falling about the apartment. His back is perfectly straight, shaking fists lying on his knees. He stares at the wall across from him with red-rimmed eyes. There is not a single bit that doubts that he loves you as much, if not more than when the two of you were together. Still, that is a past era. A legacy you want nothing more than to forget. You’re happy here, and will not let him ruin that.
So, why then did you let him in? Was it the way his face lit up when you opened the door? Sad eyes suddenly glistening with untainted joy as he lay eyes upon you for the first time in nearly a decade. In the course of a life that spans centuries and millenniums, one would think that ten years would be a blip on the radar. But you believed him when he said that it felt like it had been eons since that fateful day in the Asgardian dungeons.
Slowly the tall, slender man stands, apparently using all of his willpower to maintain some kind of composure. Connor begins to approach him, and all you can do is pray ‘don’t make a scene, don’t make a scene, sweet baby all-father don’t make a scene.’
Connor puts a hand out. “I’m Connor Macmanus, that over there is my brother Murphy, and our girlfriend…” He laughs. “Well I guess I don’t have to tell you her name, you seem to know her very well already.”
And there is that holier-than-though attitude of Loki’s that you despise. He looks at Connor’s hand as though the man is handing him a pile of cow feces. If there is one thing that he learned too well from his adoptive father, it was to think that anybody below his station to be inferior, peasants. Being a god, that basically covered about ninety-nine percent of the population of all the nine realms. You had hoped that being humbled by the Avengers, then Hela, and Thanos (you tried to keep up to date on events, but your information had as many holes as a block of swiss cheese) that perhaps he had been cured of that. Seems you were entirely wrong.
But he does shake Connor’s hand, firmly. “I am L… Laufey.” Smart, his name is too recognizable after everything he has done here on Midgard, but to choose his real father’s name is quite impressive.
“So, what brings you to our little corner of heaven?” Murphy’s arm slips around your waist, a bright display that you are not free real estate.
Something is satisfying about Loki’s little eye twitch before he clears his throat and takes an authoritative tone. “I have come to bring my wife home.” You stiffen as he looks upon you, bright green eyes nearly glowing. He wants you with the same level of possessiveness that drives the boys to protect you.
“Oooooooooooh, so she’s your wife then is she?” Connor’s smooth Irish accent gives you a bit of a tingle while he glances back at you. “You must have the wrong address, she’s told us she had no serious relationships before us. At least none she considered… important.”
If you don’t intervene, this is going to turn into a dick measuring contest. Except the dicks will be knives. Instead of measuring they will be trying to stab each other. And as much as you trust your boys to hold their own in a fight against mortals, you highly doubt their protection gifted by the big G will keep them safe against an actual god. Or maybe it will, you’ve yet to determine anything substantial about the distinctly mystical force that makes Connor and Murphy Macmanus luckier than seven leprechauns eating four-leaf clovers and shitting gold at the end of a twinned rainbow. Still, you’d rather not chance it.
“Laufey was just leaving.” You say firmly.
“Aw but we just met, don’t you want us to make friends with your friends?” Connor teases, looking Loki over, sizing him up.
“Right mo grah? And it looks like he came a long way to see you. Where you from Laufey, cause you certainly don’t look like you’re from around here.” Murphy is relaxed, leaning into you a bit.
“Norway.” Is the terse response. He has calmed down a great deal, you can barely tell that a few minutes ago he was broken down on the floor, a broken, crying mess begging you to take him back.
“Really, Norway?” Connor whistles. “Darling you never told us you were from Norway. That really is a long way to come to visit a friend.” He is strong on that word, enforcing the idea that you are to be nothing more to him. “We can’t just send him away after he journeyed so far to see you.”
Oh fucking frost giant’s breath, of course, they have to prove themselves to him. Fucking men and their fucking need to compete with their metaphorical dicks. Why did you let Loki in? You could have dealt with this easily by sending him packing, or calling one of your few ‘friends’ from the old days. But the moment you saw him your mind went back on a fairytale field trip through your memories. Rainy nights curled up reading the book of the evening to each other. Sneaking off from balls and galas to find the perfect spot to talk and get away from the people and politics. Walks in the woods with you telling him about every plant and tiny creature. Sparring matches that ended with one of you pinned under the other. All those things you tried so hard to forget. The beautiful moments that made it all worth it, until those moments became fewer and farther between.
“He should at least stay for dinner,” Murphy suggests. “Would be rather rude to send him away this late without giving him something to eat.
There’s that sly smirk that terrifies you, Loki looking you over like the meal he desires. “I would love to stay for dinner.”