Queen of Asgard (NaNoWriMo2018, Completed!)

18: Second Dates (Part One)

Fifteen minutes later, I was showered and ready to go. I was starting to had allocated more time to get ready, given the time crunch I had only time to blow dry my hair before heading back out into the hallway where Thor was patiently waiting.

"Wow," he commented as I came out. "That really was fifteen minutes."

"I like to be on time," I said, running a hand through my now soft hair. "So, you ready?"

"Um yeah, shall we?" he gestured sort of awkwardly with his arm and I left a sense of relief that he was at least just as awkward as I was.

"Yeah," we began walking silent mostly and I wracked my brain trying to think of something to say. I'd never win this contest if Thor didn't fall for me no matter how well I did in the trials. Finally, I opened my mouth, blurting the first thing that came to mind. "Thanks, by the way for humoring me with Eir. It really freaked me out with how weak he got after all that."

Thor smiled and stuck his hands into the pockets of his khaki shorts. I had only just noticed that he had changed his clothes though his button down shirt remained. I was beginning to wonder if the man had ever hear of short sleeves. "You're welcome. I know it must be hard for you, adjusting to all the magic around here. It's not at common on Midgard."

"It doesn't exist on Midgard," I corrected. "It's a thing of make believe. Shame though, I can think of more than a few times where runes would've been useful back home."

Thor laughed. "I bet you would. You train hard, I can see that."

            I looked down at my arm, expecting to see the various bruises Sif had left on me from the previous days training, but they, just like my fresh injuries were gone. Made sense in principle but it still freaked me out just a little. "I try to." I admitted. "Sif's been kicking my ass all week. I've barely landed three strikes on her since we started training."

"She's been training her entire life and she's much older than you," Thor pointed out. "It wouldn't make sense if you could keep up with her."

"True," I allowed as we walked into the foyer. "She's a much better teacher than Loki though, don't think I'll be asking him to train with me anytime soon." I wrinkled my nose as I recalled his merciless beat down. "Gets carried away doesn't he?"

Thor's smiled vanished like snow under a heat lamp. "The Trickster is a fool."

"Trickster?" I repeated. "You guys call him that?"

Thor sighed, his eyes a dark grey. "We didn't give him that name, the Jotun did."

             "He fights against them too?"

            Thor took a moment to answer me. The atmosphere between us changed, became charged and intense. "He and I used to fight them together," he said in a low voice and he wouldn't meet my eyes either. "He was like a brother to me."

I tried to process that. Though I didn't know either of the men very well, the interactions I'd had with both told me how different they were. Thor was more refined and controlled, Loki was so casual and almost wild. The injuries I'd sustained were proof enough of that, though they had been healed.

"You said 'was, what happened between you two?" I realized that was quite a personal question, so I pushed down my curiosity and added, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Thor's eyes didn't lighten one shade. "It's alright, it's a fair question. A few centuries ago, I put Loki in charge of a mission to confront a Jotun that on gotten loose on Midgard. I thought I could trust him with the responsibility and I was wrong. I made an error in judgement and I paid for it."