Day 9 - 12 days of Christmas challenge (2022 edition)
Title: Cultural differences
Theme: Mistletoe (Dec 21st)
Fandom/Character(s): Loki x reader
Warnings (if applicable): none <3 fluff with plot
Word Count: 1128
December writing challenge prompted and organized by @12daysofchristmas
“But won’t you look at that!”, you exclaimed as Loki passed by your side. He stopped in place and raised an eyebrow.
“What?”.
“It seems we’re both under the mistletoe”, you said.
He frowned.
“Yes, it seems so. Excuse me”, he said, and began walking away. Now you frowned. You grabbed the plant from where you had hung it and began following him to see what was up with him. He stopped once again. “Why are you following me with that thing?”.
“The mistletoe?”.
“Yes, are you trying to say something? Because I don’t appreciate you doing this to me. Especially you”.
“I— no, I just thought it would be nice to…”.
“Well, it clearly isn’t nice for me. Now, let me through, I have things to do”.
Your mouth was open but no words came out.
“Loki, I—”.
“See you later. Don’t bring that thing around”.
You sat on the kitchen island of the compound and sighed out in frustration. You knew you could be rejected by him at some point, but why did he have to be so rude about it? He usually was much nicer and kinder to you. You began drawing up some Christmas cards for the Avengers to wrap with their gifts, and left the mistletoe lying on the counter, thinking about throwing it to the fireplace once they light it up.
Later on, Cap and Thor walked in and grabbed some mead from the fridge, sitting in front of you.
“Hey pal, would you like some?”, asked Steve as he poured you a glass anyway.
“Sure”, you said, your tone slightly drowned.
Thor sat by your side and looked at the giftcards.
“Those look very nice”, he said, as he’d talk to a frustrated child. He was slightly older. Just slightly. Still, you chuckled sadly and let him go for it. “You seem sad, are you alright? Would you want to talk about it with us?”.
“Yeah, you can trust us”, said Steve, and looked at the mistletoe on the table. “Oh… you got rejected?”.
“Brutally rejected”, you nodded, and left the coloring pencils on the side to take a good spiteful look at that damned plant. Thor seemed confused.
“Can we know by who?”.
“Cap, I think you can figure it out”, you pressed your lips in a thin line. Everyone in the compound knew you liked Loki. And everyone also thought Loki liked you back, but none of you were ready to potentially ruin your precious friendship. Up until just now. “I didn’t expect him to be so mean about it. Maybe he got upset because I may have ruined our thing? He’s a big fan of unspoken things. Maybe he wanted us to be in this non-verbalized special relationship without putting more pressure into it—”.
“I’m sorry, what are you talking about? What does all of that have to do with that treacherous weed?”, interrupted Thor.
You frowned.
“You don’t know what the mistletoe means here?”.
“Yes, I certainly do. It’s a dooming sign. Why would you declare yourself with it near you? And to Loki?”.
You stood up.
“That’s not what it means at all! And I never said the words, I just thought he knew what being under the mistletoe means!”.
“What does it mean?”, he asked with a frown. You began walking around the kitchen island and fidgeting with the plant.
“When you’re both under the mistletoe you have to kiss. I just pointed out we were under the mistletoe. I didn’t even say anything about it. What did he think I was saying, then?”, you said, eyes wide and still pacing around.
Thor grabbed his face and then put his hand on your shoulder to stop you.
“In the myths, Loki starts Ragnarok by using a mistletoe to kill Balder. The literal end of our world! It’s a terrible augury, a horrible omen”.
You sat, bewildered.
“No wonder he got offended”.
Thor patted your back.
“I think you better mend it right”.
That same night, you knocked on his door and heard him pace around before opening up a small crack to see who it was. When he saw you, he sighed out.
“What do you want?”, he asked tiredly. His hair was tied up in a messy high bun, and had an unsharpened dagger through it. “I’m busy”.
“I’m sure you aren’t”, you tilted your head to see the accumulating pile of books on his bed and his unarranged bedsheets. He had been laying there reading all afternoon, you were positive. “I brought you something”.
“Did you bring a heartfelt apology with you?”, he joked. You chuckled.
“You know very well I don’t have a heart”, you said as you went through and sat on his bed. He looked down at you and smiled lightly.
“And you know better than anyone that’s not true”, he said, and then sat by your side. “So, what did you bring me?”.
You gave him a small box, and he looked at you quizzically, before opening it with curiosity. He unfolded the soft paper inside of it and found a fresh batch of his favorite type of cookies. He looked at you with glistening eyes.
“Mint and chocolate?”.
“Yup”, you smiled proudly. He jumped to hug you.
“Oh, thank you! You know I love these!”. You sank in his hug and hugged him tighter.
“I’m sorry about the mistletoe thing. I spoke to Thor about it and we both have very different concepts of it. I didn’t even know about the bad omen. I’m really sorry”.
He pulled out of the hug, but kept relaxedly holding you by the elbows.
“Oh?”.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. If I had known I wouldn't have done it. It was a very stupid thing. Your friendship means everything to me”.
“That’s totally okay, I was taken aback because it seemed so unlike you to joke about something that would make me feel bad”, he admitted. “Hold on, so… what did you mean with that?”.
“Huh?”, you raised your eyebrows and cleared your throat. “Oh, yeah, I was just joking, you know. A midgardian normal stupid joke”.
“Hey”, he grabbed your face. “What was it?”.
You blushed to an extreme degree and Loki didn’t let go of your face, as funny as you looked. He stared into you with his usual intensity. Well, what was getting rejected twice anyway?
“It means… well, whoever two that end up under the mistletoe must kiss”.
Loki raised his eyebrows.
“And we ended up under the mistletoe together”.
“Yes”, you whispered, getting even redder.
“You said ‘must’ kiss. Not ‘can’ kiss”.
“I… guess I did say that, yeah”, your voice got thinner and thinner.
“We have no choice but to kiss, then”, he smirked slightly.
“I guess not”, you said, and he caressed your cheeks with his thumbs as he hunched closer to your lips.
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