#tomcatchoochoo

[sheneral]

tomcatchoochoo said: 

You’re so adorable!!!

aww thanks lovely c:

[superfluousspeculations09]

Happy Birthday, MamaBear~! It's a work in progress, but these are the first three pages...

    Loki carefully slipped away from the crowd of Asgardians awaiting the coronation of their soon-to-be king. The fact that it was Thor left something of a bitter taste in his mouth, but he knew it wouldn’t last. The ceremony would be interrupted, he had seen to that. And that meant that Thor wouldn’t be King quite yet. It was an important tradition for the previous King to welcome his successor into the powerful position. So important was this short ceremony, that many would see it wrong for the successor to take the place of King when it was not completed. The ceremony showed that their King had no ill will toward his successor and only wished him luck in the coming ages. No, in no way would Thor be allowed to take The Throne, not when the coronation gets interrupted, especially by Frost Giants. And that was just the first half of his plan, meant to at least prolong Thor’s succession of The Throne. The second half would come soon after, if everything panned out as Loki expected, which they would. Thor had always been an easy one to read. 

    Loki swallowed thickly as he moved through the empty halls that he and his brother had grown up together in. 

    Part of him felt so horribly guilty. Guilty that he was ruining his brother’s, his brother’s, chance at The Throne, guilty because Thor had been looking forward to this for years, guilty because he was betraying the trust put in him by so many by letting Frost Giants into the Palace. But he was tired of being second best, constantly. It didn’t matter if he mastered his magic - which he had - or if he mastered spears when magic had failed to catch attention - which he had - or if he mastered the complex art of getting the politicians of Asgard to yield to his father’s will using only words - which he had. It was always Thor. Thor, Thor, Thor. His brother was their father’s pride and joy. Everything Thor did was so amazing that it didn’t matter what Loki did to get some small modicum of Odin’s praise. Loki would probably be thrilled to get a pat on the back, a kind word, anything. 

    But no. 

    Pushing the frighteningly bitter thoughts away, Loki finally came upon his destination. Sliding through a gap in the curtains, the trickster saw his brother. Thor looked as ha-intimidating as ever. The dark armor was strapped tightly to him and slightly bulky, but it was to be expected, seeing as his brother favored closer combat than anything else. His red cape - ugh, red, Loki preferred green, a much more subtle color - billowed slightly in his long strides. Not missing a beat, he strode to match his brother’s pace and settled at his side when he stopped, clasping his hands in front of him. 

    The silence stretched until Loki looked at Thor. It was all over him, so horribly clear in his body language. 

“Nervous, brother?” Loki finally asked.

    Thor laughed lightly. Not at all like his normal, boisterous laughter. Others would take it as mocking, but Loki knew. 

“Have you ever known me to be nervous?” the light haired man asked the darker. Thor had meant to sound sure of himself, but Loki could hear the undertone. The slight shake at the end of his sentence. But it was better to go along with the banter for now, Loki decided. It would make both he and Thor feel better. 

    Loki hummed for a second, and nearly panicked when he heard his voice crack slightly. Thor seemed to notice and his bright blue eyes sparkled with good humor. The blond man opened his mouth, no doubt the tease him, just like he had with the fact that Loki had yet to have facial hair. ‘A true mark of a man’, Thor had said previously, but Loki didn’t believe him, not one bit. It wasn’t his fault! 

    And it’s not like he wanted to have a beard anyway. Beards were repulsive, just look at Volstagg! Food was left, in his beard, for days! And then he would eat it! In front of everyone! It was disgusting! 

“Well, there was the time in Nornheim…” Loki told him, hoping to keep him on the current subject. It worked. Thor was immediately covering for himself. 

“That was not nerves, brother, that was the rage of battle!” Thor explained to him, as if it were obvious. 

“Ah, I see..” Loki said, voicing his doubt. 

    It was purposefully ignored. 

“And how else could I have fought my way through a hundred warriors and pulled us out alive?” he asked, clearly meaning to salvage his pride. 

    Loki looked at him with an eyebrow arched. 

“As I recall,” he began, feigning confusion to cover the annoyance he felt, “I was the one who veiled us in smoke to ease our escape.” 

“Yes!” Thor laughed. “Some do battle, others just do tricks.”  

    Loki felt his mouth twitch downward slightly and watched as a servant came to them, carrying a silver tray bearing a single clay cup. He knew it was just supposed to be a little barb, nothing but some teasing, but he still felt annoyed. Not everyone could swing a giant hammer around and take out more than three men in doing so. That annoyance, though, soon turned into anger as the servant chuckled at Thor’s words. Loki narrowed his eyes at the man. 

    Maybe it was just the fact that nobody but Thor could really get away with teasing him. Maybe it was because, now, Loki had concluded, the servant thought him weak, that he was better than Loki. That Thor was, once again, better than Loki. Honestly, Loki wasn’t sure what made him do it. But, he looked at that servant and just felt angry. 

    So he reached out with his magic to the contents of the cup - wine, it was - and manipulated. He visualized the liquid shifting into snakes, black snakes with blue rings and undersides, snakes known to everyone, from commoner to royalty, to be dangerously poisonous. One bite would kill three men with it’s venom. 

    The snakes began to slither from their confines, peaking their heads up and sliding over the brim of the cup. The servant looked on in horror, immediately recognizing them. For a split-second, he looked from the snakes, to Thor, and then to Loki, as if silently urging them to help. But the snakes were nearly completely out of the cup and dangerously close to his hand. The man yelped, pulling his hand away. The tray and cup clashing to the ground. The snakes slithered around on the floor, some going in circles, one advancing on the man, who looked at Loki in a cross of horror and confusion. 

    Loki couldn’t help but start laughing. 

“Loki,” Thor scolded, sounding mournful, looking to his dark haired brother.  “Now that was just a waste of good wine!” 

    Loki composed himself in a second. 

“Oh, it was just a bit of fun,” he told Thor, then looked at the servant. “Right, my friend?” 

    Loki waved his hand in a sharp cutting motion and the snakes faded away. Thor chuckled a bit, probably despite himself, and the servant nodded with a nervous exhale, hurrying to pick up the fallen objects. The two continued to chuckle. Not giggle, Loki couldn’t help but assure himself, as they’d been told by their father that men are not, under any circumstances, to giggle. They had been caught doing such, in a situation similar, but not exactly the same, to the one they were in now. Thor had been nervous, no matter what he had said, and Loki had pranked one of the meaner servants to get him to laugh. 

    Another man, a soldier this time, came to them and handed Thor his helm. As the soldier backed away, Loki turned his gaze to the last piece of his brother’s armor. It was of fine make. The metal was a dark silver but much more durable and, on both sides of the head, were carefully crafted wings that arched up and back. Seeing Thor swallow and the mirth fading, Loki figured teasing him more would help take his mind off of the coronation. 

“Ooh. Nice feathers,” he quipped, grinning. 

“You don’t really want to start this again,” Thor chuckled, glancing up at Loki’s helm, no doubt at the horns Loki had demanded be made there, and then back to him, grinning widely as he turned to his brother, “do you, cow?” 

    Loki looked at him in faux hurt. 

“I was being sincere!” 

“Oh, you are incapable of sincerity!” Thor told him, sounding sure for the first time in their conversation. 

    For a second, Loki’s expression of hurt was real. 

“Am I?” he asked, loosing a bit of his fire but trying desperately not to sound like it. 

“Yes,” Thor insisted. 

    But Thor was still smiling and Loki felt something in him squirm. Once again, he knew this was nothing but teasing but sometimes… No. Stop. Just speak. Think later. 

“I’ve looked forward to this day as long as you have; you’re my brother and my friend…” Loki faded off for a second. Those were the words that he had planned to say to Thor. But they weren’t right. They felt empty to him and guilt reared it’s mighty head once again. “Sometimes I’m envious…” Wait. He hadn’t planned to continue. “…but never doubt that I love you.” 

    Immediately, in those unplanned words, words he had sworn to himself he would never utter, Loki heard something. There was something more to those words. It was too obvious. And, for once, it was obvious enough for Thor to hear. 

    The blond man stared at Loki, blue eyes now piercing, searching. For one long moment, Loki thought he had been caught. Caught for something that he had never meant to say. Caught for a reason he really didn’t even know and not for the one that he did. But he held his ground, allowed Thor to look into his eyes. And then, all at once, Thor seemed to soften. He reached up a gripped the side of Loki’s neck. It was impossible, but Loki felt that he could almost feel the heat of his hand there, through the metal of his helm. 

“Thank you,” Thor murmured, almost knowingly. 

    But Loki couldn’t leave it at that. He had to try, at least, to salvage… to salvage whatever he had just lost in saying that. Because he felt like he had lost something, he felt vulnerable. 

“Now give us a kiss,” Loki joked. 

    Thor laughed and pointed a finger at him.

“Stop it,” he ordered, the command offset by the chuckle that followed. 

    Laughing, Loki turned from his brother to stand by his side again. The air thickened and Loki still felt like The Words, for they now deserved capitalization, were between them, creating more space than there had ever been. Thor cleared his throat. 

“Really, how do I look?” he asked lowly. 

    Loki gazed at his brother - was he really still his brother in his mind now, now that he had said The Words? - and attempted a smile, but found it small. 

“Like a king,” he told Thor softly, his words true. 

    Thor looked at Loki briefly and then back to the entrance across the hall. Loki took in a breath. Why had that look felt different from all of the others? 

“It’s time,” Loki told him, expelling that question. 

“You go ahead,” Thor murmured. 

    Loki looked at him in confusion. 

“I’ll be along, go on,” the slightly taller man urged. 

    Biting the inside of his lip but remaining silent, Loki nodded and moved to walk forward. Thor’s hand reached out and caught Loki’s forearm. Surprised, Loki found himself jerked back slightly. Turning to pose the question immediately on his mind, he found his train of thought abruptly stopped. 

     Lips, warm, soft, and a little wet, moving against his, and bristles, not short but not long, scratching against his chin. A soft clang of metal hitting metal. The presence, there again at his neck, pressing the cool metal of his helm against his quickly heating skin. The feeling of being close to someone, not just close, but close enough to feel them without touching them. And, finally, a coldness accompanied by the sound of swishing cloth. 

    Opening eyes he didn’t remember closing, Loki saw an empty hall in front of him. Turning swiftly, steel eyes bore holes into the back of a red cape and winged helm. Cursing maybe a little too loudly, Loki hurried back the way he came, past the gap in the curtains and through the narrow hallways he had gone through to get there, needed to get back to the ceremony hallway before Thor, else risk awkward questions, only able to fret over how much one kiss could change and wish that he could go back and never go to meet the Frost Giants. 

[feelschicken]

Happy new year mallory!!!!

Happy New Years Tommy!!!

[feelschicken]

Can we spoon the night away? ;)