#smantis

Loki had learned that "home" wasn't a place you just lived, but a series of quiet adjustments. He had successfully merged his early-riser gentleman habits with Mantis softer, more fluid schedule—finding that middle ground where the world was quiet, the coffee was hot, and the bed was still warm.

Every morning followed a sacred ritual: he would slip out of the covers, prepare a healthy breakfast for a very lucky Shrimp, and then—true to his promise of being the perfect "housewife"—he would crawl back into the sheets and tuck himself along with her.

On those mornings when Mantis felt particularly heavy with laziness, Loki didn't mind. In fact, it was another excuse to stay. He would pepper her face with tiny kisses, watching for that first flicker of her antennae.