One and the Same (Loki Fanfic)

Chapter 11: Don't Fight Me!

"Loki, I can't even read this," Taylor sighed, gingerly closing an ancient tome and pushing it away from her, "I'm completely useless here."

They'd been at it since the sunrise; it was close to midday and Loki had made minimal progress in solving their riddle. There were countless ancient artifacts and spells to sift through, and going back and forth between records was tedious. It also didn't help that Taylor wasn't able to read anything other than English and a surprising amount of Russian—not that anything in the library was actually written in Russian. She'd been muttering Russian expletives under her breath for a while.

"Not just here," Loki muttered moodily under his breath.

Her azure eyes shot to him and narrowed for a moment.

"I'm choosing to ignore that and attributing it to low blood sugar and frustration." She perked up suddenly, "You know what, why don't I make myself useful and grab us a bite to eat?"

"That's the most helpful suggestion you've had all day," he agreed with relief as his stomach growled.

"Choosing to ignore that as well," she added airily as she got to her feet and adjusted her Asgardian clothing.

Luckily, Sif seemed to have a steady supply of pants made for herself, so it was no trouble to give the "royal seamstress" person Natasha and Taylor's measurements so neither would be forced into heavy dresses and corsets. Well, they still had to wear corsets, unfortunately, but at least they were flexible. Taylor didn't feel as if her ribs were about to break just by sitting down—always a plus. Her wardrobe had come in varying shades of gray, black, gold, and brown. Taylor wasn't keen on brown, but it was all still very feminine and badass.

As she stood from her chair and stretched, she cast her big blues towards the god she'd spent a good chunk of the day with. He looked slightly irritated, but focused, determined. It was nice, to see his usual scowl replaced with something normal, like concentration. That little furrow between his brows was almost cute...

"Taylor? Food?"

She blinked, realized that, once again, she'd been caught, and nodded.

"Right. I'm hungrier than I thought, I guess," she lied. Wow, bad idea. Time to distract him. "What do you want to eat?"

Fortunately for her, Loki seemed more intent on research and the promise of food than picking apart her every word as per usual. She breathed a mental sigh of relief as he answered her offhandedly, flipping another page in a dusty book. His ability to multitask was really beginning to impress her. Taylor had known Loki was extremely intelligent, but he had an impressive amount of discipline to back it up.

"Whatever you're having is fine, I'm sure."

"Got it," she assured him confidently, glad to have some sort of mission at last, "be right back."

While she was sympathetic to both her and Loki's need for sustenance, Taylor was in no hurry to get back to library. She strolled through the open hallways, enjoying the sun hitting her skin between archways as she meandered towards a banquet hall. She had no idea how she'd carry two plates of food, plus drinks, but she figured she'd solve that problem when it came up. For a moment, she'd just take it easy.

"Lady Cadence."

Moment over.

"Taylor," she corrected automatically as she turned, "Taylor is fine."

Surprise, it was Sif. Actually, that was a surprise. She hadn't spoken a word to Taylor since the Asgardian had given serious thought to running the Avenger through to get to Loki.

"My apologies," a pause, "Taylor. I just wanted to speak with you."

Also a surprise.

"Without Loki."

Not a surprise.

"What is it?" Taylor questioned, trying to stick her hands in her pockets. Except she didn't have pockets. Stupid Asgardian wardrobe.

"I just wanted to apologize for my behavior yesterday. I understand I alarmed you," Sif explained.

Taylor was getting one of those creepy doppelganger feelings. Sif had dark hair (though not so dark it was practically blue) and blue eyes (though not quite the same shade) like Taylor. They were remarkably similar in build as well, and yet...Taylor felt as if they were complete opposites all the same.

"Nah, you didn't really alarm me. Concerned me, maybe, but no harm done. It's alright," Taylor assured her, thinking the conversation would be over so she could get some lunch.

She was beginning to realize that taking her time had been a serious mistake. Socializing was not on the Taylor's-list-of-unnecessary-to-dos list. Her current plan: food, library, food, and possibly the tour Loki promised her. Hopefully along the way she'd be able to catch a conversation or two with her friends—she wasn't used to not seeing any of them all day. There was always someone in the tower that she saw before lunchtime.

"Wait," Sif said, making the Midgardian pause, "could you perhaps...do me the honor of a fight?"

Taylor blinked. The lady had just gotten through apologizing and she wanted to start crap all over again? Not that there had been crap to begin with—just a sword pointed towards Taylor's internal organs.

"A fight?" she questioned, brow furrowing.

No offense to the warrior lady, but Taylor could control energy for Pete's sake. They weren't exactly in the same weight class in that sense.

"Ah, it must sound differently to you, but in Asgard, disputes are often settled with friendly battle."

Like Taylor and Bucky, although that's not how they settled "disputes". No, settling disputes involved rock-paper-scissors, ping-pong, and a prank war that usually ended in magnets and fire-extinguishers. Friendly battle made sense though. The Avengers had friendly fights all the time—that was, like, ninety percent of training.

"Oh, uh, sure, but let's be quick. Loki and I both need to eat and since he's still working, I volunteered to play waitress."

From the expression on Sif's face, the woman had only understood about half of what Taylor had just said, but it seemed to be enough as they began in the direction Sif had hailed her from. Gosh, Taylor really hoped that the unsettled feeling in her gut was just hunger rather than something else.