#shirtless loki

"Really?" she squeaked, eyes going big.

"Of course not," he chuckled uncorking the bottle without need of a corkscrew. "What would I want with a virgin? You mortals are much more fun to play with when you've had a bit of practice. But there was a temple to me quite close. A small town sits there now. I ventured out to get us some supplies and take the pulse of the area."

"And?" she prompted after several minutes as he returned to his meal, a satisfied smile on his face. She really was marvelously fun to tease.

"And they were distressingly short on sweets. There was once an old woman who made the most delicious confections. Apparently, she passed on and none of her children took up her craft. A travesty if ever there was one."

"Loki!" she came close to snapping.

"Yes, my dear?" he asked obnoxiously, raising his brow.

"What did you find out about the pulse of the area, as you put it? Is anyone looking for us?"

"I'm sure they are, but they have not found us yet, nor even come close. As far as I know, not even Thor knows the location of this place. Oh, he is aware I have a hideaway somewhere in this part of the world, but he can barely keep track of his own homes, much less mine. It will take quite some time for anyone to track us down. I would think we can live here quite comfortably for a decade or so."

Really, a decade living with Caroline would hardly be the worst fate he could wish for. The dinner was excellent, she was a lively conversationalist when she wasn't trying to delve into his worst memories, and he was sure that he could find many pleasurable activities for the two of them to pass the time.

"A decade? I can't stay here for a decade!" she burst into his imaginings.

"Why not? I assure you, I have more than enough funds to keep the two of us quite cozily for as long as we need. And if you get antsy, we can always use the Tesseract to pop off to Paris or perhaps Venice. As long as I altered our appearance a bit short trips after some time would be safe enough."

"Loki, I have a job! I have patients! I can't just abandon them!" she insisted.

"I hate to point this out, dear doctor," he said with a sigh that he almost meant, "but I very much doubt you have any patients left after your actions yesterday."

"They will blame me, won't they," she looked down at her plate and set her fork next to it, her face taking on an expression that went straight to a part of his chest he tried to keep locked away.  

"I fear so. You broke into Fury's office, stole the keys to my bindings and the Tesseract, and gave them to me, enabling my escape. I regret to say that very few people will be able to see any good in those actions."

"It does sound bad when you put it that way," she admitted.

"Perhaps you could convince them that I had mind controlled you, but only if they are even more stupid than I give them credit for. And that is very, very stupid."

"No, I wouldn't do that. I committed my actions of my own free will, and I would do the same if the situation presented itself again. I will not have them adding manipulating me to your list of false crimes."

He was touched but really, he didn't much care what those fools thought. They already laid so many sins at his door, what was one more? Still, he liked that Caroline was insistent that everyone know she was with him of her own free will. The idea that a woman as intelligent and well respected as she would choose to champion Loki to the point of breaking several laws for him was a balm to his bruised ego.

"Are you sure I did not manipulate you?" he asked perversely, trying to test her for reasons beyond his understanding. "Maybe I am not the innocent you think me to be."

To his surprise, Caroline looked at him and burst out laughing at his suggestion. Loki drew back, affronted that a mortal, even one as charming as she, would have the audacity to laugh at him.

"You look like a cat that sprayed with the hose," she giggled, staring at him as he continued to bristle. "Loki, I think you about as far from 'innocent' as a person could be!"

"Then why help me?" he asked sulkily.

"Because not innocent does not mean guilty," she sobered a bit. "At least, not of the crimes they wanted to accuse you of. You might be, make that are, full of mischief and a nightmare for anyone wanting to maintain order of any sort, but you are not evil. I've seen evil. It's people who want to watch the world burn and view the suffering as sport. Who find entertainment in the suffering of those who never did them any harm. Not because of past trauma, but just because they like the power it gives them to keep others down. That is not you."

"Are you so sure?" he asked quietly. "Others would disagree with you."

"They would be wrong," she said with a surety he wished he shared. "You don't hate others, Loki. You hate yourself."

"Nonsense," he said quickly, scowling. "I am divine."

"Even though you are a Frost Giant?" she asked, prodding where he was most sensitive.

"I might hate my origins, dear doctor, but I have surpassed them. They do not define who I am."

He wanted to stop this conversation. It was spoiling the evening he had been hoping for.

"I sincerely wish that so," she replied, looking him in the eye. "Someday, I will be the first in line to congratulate you for achieving that state. But if that is the case, why were you so upset when you thought I was taunting you with the snowman?"

"A reflexive reaction, nothing more," he tried to shrug off the incident.

"You don't have to hide from the truth, Loki. Not from me. You loathe the fact that you were born Jotun."

"Well, wouldn't you?" he snapped, rising and bringing his plate to the sink so that he could evade her eyes.

"I don't know," she shrugged, following with her own dish. "I have no idea what Jotuns are like. They don't exactly teach courses on them here."

"You are fortunate. They are hideous, dull beasts. Interested only in war and destruction."

"Interesting," she hummed, "that's almost how you described Thor."

"It's different!"

"How?" she pressed.

"It just is! I can't explain it. If you are so interested, I'm sure the inter-realm species encyclopedia on the bookshelf could enlighten you on their many wonderous qualities. Now, if you will excuse me, I have had a long, tiring day. I think a soak in the tub would do me a world of good. Just leave the dishes in the sink, I will magic them clean later."

With that, he swept from the room, his good mood long since abandoned. Honestly! Why couldn't the woman just let things be? Why did she have to poke and prod at the areas he least wanted to think about. There was nothing he could do about his Jotun blood. It was a truth of biology. That said, it did not mean that he had to wallow in it. Could Caroline not put aside being a therapist for one evening and let them enjoy a meal?

***

Well, that had not gone very well. Caroline had honestly not meant to harangue Loki about his origins over dinner! Especially not after his reaction to her snowman. But he was so obviously hurting that she just could not sit back and ignore his pain.

There was so much in the Alien God to admire. He was smart, charming, quick, and at least in his present form devastatingly handsome. It was tragic to her that he could see none of this himself. Or, no, that was not quite true. Loki did obviously see those traits in himself. He was even more than a touch vain about them in fact. But he clearly didn't believe them to be enough that anyone else would see him as worthy. Silently, and not for the first time, she cursed his father under her breath for his atrocious parenting.

And yet, people across the galaxy seemed to think that Odin was a model ruler. Forget the fact that he had emotionally damaged both of his sons by setting goals for them that they were destined to spend their lives failing to live up to. Loki, she was sure of it, would never do that to his child. He would be kind and gentle with a son or daughter, letting them find their own strengths, forge their own paths. Thinking of him with a serious, dark haired little girl, Caroline felt her stomach flip over in a disturbing fashion. He would make an excellent parent, she had no doubt.

And an absolutely impossible coparent, she told herself sternly. A person would have to be unendingly patient to put up with him. He would beyond a doubt drive his lover to distraction.

But wasn't sanity overrated anyhow? a traitorous voice in her head whispered.

Determined to stave off this line of thinking, she wandered into the living room and knelt down in front of the large shelves of books. She hadn't paid much attention to them earlier, but now she felt like a kid in a candy store. The titles were all new to her, and happily most of them were in English. She wondered for a moment if they really were, or if there was some Asgardian translation magic involved, but either way she would be able to keep herself occupied for some time with the selections before her.

Deciding that Loki's idea was not such a bad one, she searched through the volumes until she found a book purporting to chronicle the cultures of every species in the nine realms. Pulling out the huge book, she settled herself down on the couch and began thumbing through. The bits she saw regarding Asgard did not do much to change her opinion of the militaristic society, although they did seem to have a good science establishment. She decided to come back to it later, and instead flipped ahead until she came to the chapter on Jotuns.

"Ah, there you are."

Startling from the page, Caroline looked up, completely befuddled. She had lost track of all time, so engrossed had she become in the book. Now she realized that she had come almost to the end of the lengthy section on Frost Giants, and her mind was spinning with all of the information she had taken in.

Tearing her eyes away, she looked up to Loki looming over the sofa and her breath caught in her throat. He was inches away from her, dressed only in a pair of low-slung pants of soft green material. It was obvious from the quick glance she had as her eyes traveled up the length of him that he was not wearing anything underneath them, as she could clearly see the outline of what was a dauntingly long piece of anatomy through them. His pale chest was bare, showing clearly the well defined muscles that she had felt when he held her in his arms. Several scars were just barely visible on his skin, and knowing what she did about his healing powers, she winced thinking about what could possibly have left them. His dark hair was still damp, and fell curling around his face, softening his features somewhat. He was beyond any human words for beautiful that she could think of.

"Hi," she said, stupidly, and swore silently at herself.

"You look ridiculous in my clothing," he told her, making her feel even more like some poor rodent in comparison to his glorious appearance. "Here, I bought you some more suitable garments in town today. They should fit - I was able to remember how you felt - but if not, I can always altar them."

"You sew?" she blinked at him as her mind grimaced at how heavy he must have thought her. Not that she was huge, but she was not one of the little waifish girls that men seemed to love to toss about.

"I do not," he sounded offended.

"Then how..."

With a raised brow, Loki made a small gesture and the blanket she was curled up in became the size of a napkin and then changed back again. Of course. He had magic. She was a colossal idiot.

"Right. Well, Thank you. I will pay you back for them."

"No need. You saved my life. I think a new wardrobe is the least I can do for you in return."

He seemed to have recovered some of his good humor, she was happy to see. Even if it came at her expense, it was nice to see him smile. Standing up, she took the collection of bags that he was holding out to her. From the looks of it, he had bought out every clothing store in the town.

"Um," she hated how nervous she sounded, just from being so close to him in his partially undressed state, "I assume there is something for bed?"

He nodded, a small smile on his face. Of course there would be. Stupid question.

"Well then, I'll just go change and then I think I will turn in. Would you mind if I took the foam pillow from the bedroom? It was particularly comfy."

"What do you mean?" he asked. "Take it where?"

"Out here," she gestured to the couch. "You are obviously too big for the... couch."

Caroline felt her face grow warm as her mind drifted to what parts of him would obviously be too big for. Or maybe not quite too big, she thought, treacherously. The smug tilt of his mouth showed all too clear that he had caught her errant thought, and she squirmed even more.

"You are my guest," he insisted, hands on his hips emphasizing the triangle shape of his torso. "I cannot allow you to sleep on the sofa."

"Cannot allow?" that was better, she could channel her discomfort into affront. "I don't recall asking for you permission."

"This is my home," he countered. "My mother would disown me."

"Perhaps you should stop worrying so much about what your parents think of you," she felt a small sting of conscience for resorting to such a low blow, but it was hard to think straight when so much of him was right there.

"Unsporting, Caroline," he retorted. "I will not be moved on this. You will sleep in the bed."

"And I say that is stupid because I am a foot shorter than you at least and you will sleep in the bed."

"Then it looks as though we will be sharing," he sniped.

"Fine by me," she spit back in reply, refusing to give in.

"After you, my dear," he waved his arm towards the bedroom.

"If you wait for me to go in and then sleep out here, I will make you regret it," she warned him, eyes narrowing.

"I was merely going to allow you privacy to change. But if you prefer..." he began to walk towards the bedroom.

"No!" she squeaked out. "I trust you. But if you are not in in five minutes, I am coming out to get you."

"Oh, don't worry," his grin did unsettling things to her. "I will be there."