Around the realms in 80 days chapter 4
Pairing: Reader x Loki
Story summary: You have fallen through a portal during the convergence into Asgard and come face to face with Thor, and his brother Loki. With no way to return, you must travel with the two men and their hoard of asgardian soldiers to get back home. Things get from bad to worse when you have to share a tent with the god of mischief himself.
Notes: What do you think of this chapter??
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Read the fist part on Tumblr here:
You must have fallen asleep at some point; lying completely still, with your eyes tight shut, frozen in fear incase you were murdered in the night had somehow forced your brain into sleep. In your hazy state, you forgot where you were for a second. It was a Saturday right? That meant you could sleep in and get up lazily around lunchtime. You snuggled back down into the pillows. Something wasn’t quite right though, why was there so much sunlight? You always had your black-out blinds on as you hated light when sleeping.
Wait, actually come to think of it, why could you hear horses too?
You sat bolt upright.
A strange man, with long back hair was stood in the tent, buckling up his trousers.
“AH!” You shouted and scrambled to pull the blankets up as high as they could go to in order to regain some modesty.
The memories of the previous day came flooding back to you. The fact you were on a different planet, travelling with the man who had tried to conquer New York.
The man in question muttered to himself something that sounded suspiciously like “idiot mortal” before sitting on the end of the bed and starting to pull his boots on.
“Knock knock!” Someone shouted cheerfully from outside.
Without waiting for a response, Fandral entered the tent. He looked surprised to see you,
“Little Latte! What are you doing still in bed?”
“Er, what did you just call me?” You asked incredulously
Fandral laughed “A silly moniker based on the silly Midgardian drink you were having yesterday.”
“How do you know what a latte is?”
Fandral smirked at you, “Well you see, I’m an extremely experienced being, darling”
You raised the sheets higher,
“I think I preferred Latte.”
He laughed, and took another step towards the bed, placing a hand on the bed frame.
“Absolutely not. Get out.” Loki stood, enraged from the end of the bed and turned to Fandral. “You will not waltz into my tent uninvited and place your licentious hands on my bed.”
Fandral turned slowly towards him,
“You’d know all about my licentious hands wouldn’t you, Loki.”
Erm what? What was that supposed to mean?
Your eyebrows shot up and you sat up a bit straighter.
“Get out” Loki hissed.
Fandral made a point of removing his hand from the headboard, making eye contact with Loki all the while. He smiled at you,
“We’re leaving soon, you may want to get dressed.” He winked at you again and then left.
There was a stoney silence left in the tent, while Loki pulled on his cloak. You didn’t really feel like bringing up what had just happened so you asked timidly,
“I’m going to get dressed, could you stay turned around?”
“Your highness.”
“What?”
He tutted at you,
“Could you stay turned around, your highness. I am a future king or did you forget? It has not escaped my attention that since being here you have not only spoken to me out of turn, but continually inadequately addressed me.”
So much for a night spent together soothing his hatred towards me, you thought.
“As it is, I have no desire to see you change.” He snarled “Be quick or we will leave without you.”
He left swiftly.
“You could have woken me up earlier then” You muttered to yourself angrily.
Staying under the covers as best as you could incase someone walked in, you pulled off the shirt and pulled on your clothes.
I hope I can get some new clothes soon, this is kinda gross, you thought to yourself as you sniffed under your arms to make sure you didn’t smell too horrible. These people must be used to worse though right?
You stepped outside into the bright sun. It wasn’t exactly warm, but it was bright and sunny which was always a plus. You couldn’t remember the last time you had been awake and outside like this in the open air. Probably when you went camping with Guides when you were younger. Despite the whole situation, it weirdly felt pretty good to be outside early in the morning. You stretched and yawned and looked around to see the soldiers milling about, getting things packed up and saddling up the horses. No one paid much attention to you so you decided to go and find Thor.
You found him talking to Loki and some soldiers near to the fire pit, where he was currently saddling up a horse. When he saw you he smiled and you walked over.
“My lady! You’re looking ravishing this morning!”
Loki made an audible noise of irritation while you blushed. If your time on Asgard was going to be spent by strapping Asgardians flirting with you, you thought you just might be able to handle it.
Although, you doubted the truthfulness of Thor’s compliment; your hair was a mess and you were wearing yesterdays crumbled clothes.
“We will be mainly travelling today. It’s about a day and a half ride to the next village we are visiting. There are a couple more villages after that to visit before we go back to the capital” He informed you.
“How long will it take?” You ask, eager for the trip to be short so you can go home.
“Hard to tell” Thor frowned “a couple of weeks probably, Asgard are expecting us to return at the end of the month.”
A couple of a weeks? You weren’t sure you could cope sharing a tent with Loki for a couple of weeks. You sighed, at least you had a timescale. A couple of weeks out of your life wasn’t much in the long-run, you were just going to have to suck it up. The countdown begins.
“Will I be able to get some new clothes? I can’t wear the same clothes for a couple of weeks.”
“Why so upset mortal? Trying to impress my brother?” Loki replied snidely.
“I’m certainly not trying to impress you, your highness.” You retorted.
Loki looked furious, and opened his mouth to reply when Thor cut in,
“My lady, I’m sure you can purchase some new garments in the next village, or wash your clothes the next time we are near a body of water.”
How rustic.
The horse next to him whinnied.
“Can you ride a horse?” Thor asked
To be perfectly honest, you weren’t a massive fan of horses. You’d ridden one when you were younger and you didn’t really enjoy it, not to mention they were huge. Especially these ones, you thought eyeing it suspiciously. It stared back at you out of one eye and huffed.
“Er no.”
“Would you like to learn?” Loki queried.
You looked at him in surprise. His eyes were open wide in a sort of mock innocence, with a wicked gleam behind them. You were sort of stuck, you didn’t trust the reasoning behind him asking but you did need to learn how to ride if you were going to make it here.
You cleared your throat “I suppose so.”
Very quickly you had the feeling you had made a mistake, as he grinned maliciously.
“Great.”
Suddenly, to your horror, without premonition or warning, Loki bent down and hurled you up from the ground. He proceeded to drop you rather unceremoniously on top of the horse next to him.
“Oh my God!” You yelped.
He grinned again and hit the horses flank. The horse shot off, leaving you to hang on for your life on. You flailed and screamed, and grabbed the horse round the neck.
“Fuck!” You screamed “Loki!”
It probably didn’t last for long but if felt like an age, and by the time the horse galloped back to Thor you were shaking like a leaf.
“What the hell!” You panted breathlessly.
Thor, Loki and the rest of the men, who had turned to watch the screaming mortal were now laughing. In your hysteria you only just managed to note the strange sight of seeing Loki smile for the first time. It suited him, more so than the permanent scowl that was usually etched across his face and made him look, well almost human. Well maybe not human as he was a God, but certainly less murdery than usual.
“That was not funny” You were still struggling to catch your breath back.
“You’re welcome mortal” Loki controlled his face back to a smirk.
Once Thor had finished his laughing he said,
“I’m sorry little one, but jumping straight honestly in as it were, is the best way to learn.”
Yeah but it’s not the best way to not die of a heart attack.
The boy who you assumed was the servant, Halvor, came up to you and took the horse by the reins.
“You will be travelling with Halvor for the journey. Is that okay?” Thor asked.
“Er sure” You said still slightly breathless. The boy nodded at you and then hopped up gracefully behind you in the horse.
This felt like a very close and intimate position to be in with someone you had never spoken to, and you felt kind of awkward. You focused on sitting as straight as you could so your back didn’t touch the boy behind you. Soon, the rest of the party were ready to go, and you managed to catch Loki waving his hand and the tent disappearing in green smoke.
Neat trick.
The ensemble set off, with Thor, Loki, Fandral and a couple of other soldiers you were yet to learn the names of taking the front, you and Halvor made up the middle and the rest of the soldiers behind you. You guessed it was kind of a protection thing, that the servant boy and the mortal were in the middle so if anyone attacked from the front or back you would be safer. This unfortunately lead to thoughts around how likely was it that someone would attack you? Thor had mentioned the party was essentially out and about slaying…what was it? Barbarians and trolls? You hoped to god you didn’t run into trolls. That line of thought wasn’t particularly helpful so you tired your best to ignore it and focus on the ride ahead.
***
“And then I said, I’d rather walk through Hel twice over than ride below the crupper with you madame.”
You laughed heartily, beginning to enjoy the journey in spite of yourself. For the last few hours an enormous man with bright red curly hair and a long beard with little braids in, who went by the name of Volstagg, had been regaling you and the rest of the men with his tales.
“Volstagg, what are you filling the lady’s head with?” Thor asked chuckling.
All in all, it hadn’t been a bad day thus far. You had managed to avoid anymore conversations with Loki, and the men were making you laugh a lot. You weren’t particularly enjoying the horse riding honestly, when you had stopped for lunch your thighs were extremely sore. However, the view was really nice, you were a fan of the Asgardian landscape.
When the other men were back to idle chatting, you spoke up to the servant behind you.
“How long have you been a servant for Halvor?”
“Around 500 years now Miss.”
That was going to get used to. This boy who you would have put at a fair few years younger than you was actually hundreds of years older.
“Are you Thor’s servant?”
“Prince Thor, yes, Miss.”
“Do you enjoy it?”
“Yes miss, Prince Thor is a fair master.”
“Why is Loki’s servant not here?”
“Prince Loki does not have a personal servant.”
You snorted, you found that difficult to believe given the mans ego.
“Why not?”
‘Prince Loki does not like anyone in his chambers.”
Now, that you could believe, given the way he was reacting to sharing a tent with you.
“What, not even servants?”
“No Miss.” He paused for a while, “not anyone.”
You thought for a while. You wondered what he was like when he wasn’t trying to take over worlds.
“Is he always so…tyrannical?”
“How do you mean miss?”
“Like, is he always rude and…foreboding?
Halvor seemed to take his time before answering.
“I don’t know miss. Take for example, how there often are members of other royal families staying in the palace, and some are not always…agreeable towards palace attendants. I have never seen Loki treat a member of the palace staff as anything but pleasant.”
“Perhaps it’s just people from earth he hates then.” You muttered.
“I’m not sure miss.”
“About what?”
“How deep Loki Odinson’s hate goes. One can only act in a way he thinks is right, and what we think is right is seldom unassisted.”
“How do you mean?”
“We are the product of our environment after all.”
That was effectively what Thor had said the day previous. You were feeling a little sick of people sticking up for him, he had murdered hundreds of people during his last trip to Earth after all.
“Environment counts for some sure, but personal accountability should’t be forgotten about.”
“Perhaps miss.” Halvor responded.
You were quiet for a bit, thinking over what Thor and Halvor had discussed. It was interesting to hear that Loki was genial to serving staff, they do say that how men treat their inferiors is more important than how they treat their equals.
As the sun started to set, the party started to make camp again. You were helped off your horse by Halvor, nearly falling over as your poor aching thighs tried to hold your weight. A fire was set up just as the evening before, and some of the men went to catch food for the evening. On the menu that night was fish, which was pretty tasty honestly.
Riding around in the elements all day had tired you out and you were looking forward to getting into Loki’s comfortable bed and sleeping. You were not looking forward to another evening in the company of the man himself, but you were hopeful he would mostly ignore you again. You hadn’t seen him all evening, other than setting up his tent a little while away from the fire, he had then proceeded to disappear into it, not to be seen again.
Fuck it, it was getting late, you were tired and wanted to sleep. You pushed your shoulders back and entered the tent.
Loki had assumed his seemingly usual position of sitting with his back turned to you, writing something.
You stood there awkwardly for a bit, feeling kind of stupid like a child that was waiting to tell their parents she threw up.
“Can I help you?” Loki asked.
“Er, no. I was just going to get ready for bed. Your highness” You added quickly, remembering your conversation that morning, and having no desire to be chucked out into the night to sleep on the floor.
“Oh? And what gave you the impression you were welcome in here?”
The question put you off slightly,
“I stayed here last night?” You framed your statement as more of a question, much to your displeasure.
“Indeed. Yet I fail to remember you asking me about it.”
You sighed and rolled your eyes,
“Fine, can I stay here tonight?”
“No.”
“Ugh! Why not?”
He finally turned around, grinning at you again in that way that made you want to run and hide.
“Ask me nicely mortal and I might consider it.”
He was really not going to let this go you decided, so you pushed down all your dignity and asked,
“Please your highness, may I stay in your tent tonight?”
Loki leaved back in his chair, you didn’t fail to notice the way his legs were spread rather indecently. He tapped his finger on his bottom lip in thought and eyed you, cooly.
“No.”
He turned back around.
“You said if I asked you nicely - “
“I might consider it yes. I decided not to consider it.”
You were tired and grumpy, your legs ached and you were sick of being stuck with a man who clearly had no regard for you whatsoever. You just wanted to go to bed.
You counted to ten in your head and concentrated on breathing. You were not going to let him get to you.
“Is there anything I can do to change your mind on the considering it front?”
“No.”
Great.
“It’s cold outside.” You tried.
“It is.”
“And Thor said I could stay.”
“He did.”
“So I’ll be staying then.”
“No”
You were not going to let him get to you. You were not going to let him get to you. You were not going to let him get to you. You were not going to let him get to you.
You groaned loudly. You were acting like a child but you didn’t care.
“Are you so desperate to share a bed with me? One starts to wonder why that may be.” He turned and asked you salaciously.
“Ugh what is wrong with you I just want to go to sleep I’m tired, it was fine yesterday wasn’t it? I will stay right on the edge of the bed again, that wasn’t too annoying right?” You were starting to ramble now.
“Everything you do annoys me.” He said flippantly.
Embarrassingly, tears started to well up in your eyes.
Why was he so difficult?
“Don’t cry you halfwit” He looked at you with an air of disgust and rolled his eyes. “Since you are so eager I shall be a merciful God and allow you to remain in my tent this night.”
You were surprised that a few tears had moved the God of mischief so, but you were thankful all the same.
“Thank you” You breathed out and Loki watched you as you stepped towards the bed and pulled back the covers.
“Erm where’s the shirt I was wearing last night.”
He smirked, “I burnt it.”
“What? Why?”
Loki stiffened “I do not want anything in my bed which belongs to the idiots three.”
You sighed, “Who?”
“Thor and his band of nitwits.” Loki snorted “Fandral Volstagg and Hogan. Sif gets an honourable mention too.”
You recognised half of those names.
“Okay. Well, what am I going to sleep in?”
“That’s hardly my problem is it mortal.”
“I don’t want to sleep in my clothes” You whined.
“Norns mortal you are insufferable.” Loki barked, standing suddenly and taking a large pace in your direction.
“I’m sorry!” You shrieked and hid your face behind your hands, genuinely thinking he was about to smite you or something.
When nothing happened you peeked through the gaps in your fingers to see Loki shooting you an odd look and then he threw something at you.
It took a second for your brain to catch up with the idea you were still alive and you took your hands away from your face. You realised Loki had thrown a shirt at you. It was green, unsurprisingly and felt softer than the one you had worn yesterday.
“Oh, erm, thanks.”
Loki looked at you haughtily, “Thanks indeed. It is enough I have to sleep next to you I don’t want to have to smell you too.”
Oh god did he mean that you smelt bad? Considering you were in the same clothes for two days you had thought you didn’t smell that gross yet. Maybe he had super human sent or something, or maybe humans smelt horrible to Asgardians? That can’t be right, Thor had a mortal girlfriend didn’t he.
Loki was now smirking at you which was worrying you.
“I’m going to get changed now.” You stated.
His smile grew wider,
“Okay.” He stayed staring at you.
Pervert. Why wasn’t he turning around.
You felt your face growing hot,
“I thought you had no desire to watch me get changed?” you quipped, quoting his words that morning.
He chortled, “you’re right I don’t. I do however, enjoy watching you squirm.”
“Ergh.”
He chortled again but did turn around.
You got changed quickly, ensuring you were never fully naked in case he turned around which definitely seemed like something he would do.
“I’m finished now.”
“Wonderful.” His voice dripped with sarcasm.
You climbed into bed and pulled the covers back up tight.
Without care for propriety, Loki took his clothes off, barely giving you enough time to close your eyes.
“Could you not warn me first when you are going to do that.”
“Do what?” Loki asked you, in mock confusion.
“Take your clothes off!”
Loki climbed into the bed next to you, and rested on his arm peering down at you.
“Right now?” He smirked.
You recoiled, your face heating up again.
“It’s my tent little mortal. You Midgardians are so prudish.”
“I’m not prudish I just don’t sexually harass everyone I meet.” You huffed.
“Believe me, you are not the focus of my interest.”
Whatever. You sunk down into the bed, happy to finally be resting and scooted to the edge of the bed. As soon as Loki was settled he snapped his fingers and the candle blew out just as last night.
“Night then.”
Loki didn’t reply.