Working Title : Loki & Annie

56 Loki

Loki leaned against Lady Annie, her arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders while he simply enjoyed the warmth of her skin. He had spoken. He had spoken and Annie hadn't slapped him. Or yelled at him to shut up. Instead, she had smiled at him and given him a tight hug. He thought she must like him to be so nice to him. Maybe. He thought she was mad at him when he got up to wait for her and was wrong because she must have not wanted him to get up even though she had said he could. But he must have been wrong so he ran away because he didn't like getting punishments. But Lady Annie hadn't given him punishments. She had said she was sorry even though he was the one who had been wrong and no one but Thor-His-Brother had ever apologized to him ever before and only because Mother made him. Adults only apologized to adults. But Lady Annie had apologized to him. And she cried. He had never seen an adult cry before. Sometimes he cried even though he wasn't supposed to. Only infants cried. But adults never cried. But Lady Annie had apologized and cried and she was an adult. He didn't think she was tricking him. Not like those men in the dark place. Sometimes they tricked him by making him think they were nice and that they would give him something good to eat or not take him to punishments but then they were mean to him. The big man who Wasn't-Thor-But-Said-He-Was had been nice too but sometimes he looked mean when Loki would peek up at him. Thor-Not-His-Brother was a little like the other men but not just like them just a little like them. The Thor-Not-His-Brother smelled a little like Thor-His-Brother but not all the same. Thor-His-Brother smelled like the ground after it rained and Thor-Not-His-Brother smelled like that but other things too. But then he had Mjolnir which Father had said would be Thor-His-Brothers when he got all grown up but maybe this Thor-Not-his-Brother had stolen it. Loki didn't know if Mjolnir could be stolen but Father would know. Except Father wasn't here. And Loki hadn't seen him in a long, long time. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen Father but when he cried for him the Liar-Men had laughed at him and told him Father didn't want to see him. Which was a lie. Loki knew it had to be a lie because if Father knew the bad things those Liar-Men did to him then Father would come and lock all of them into the dark places and even Thor-His-Brother would hit them with his sword even though he only had a wooden sword right now. Loki knew it would still hurt the Liar-Men because Thor-His-Brother had accidentally hit him over the head with it and it hurt. Loki had cried and Thor-His-Brother had asked him not to tell Mother so he didn't tell her and Thor had given Loki his dessert. Even Mother would lock up the Liar-Men. Because they were lying when they said Mother didn't want him anymore. That she had told them to be mean to him. Mother would never tell anyone to be mean. Loki felt the rumble in Lady Annie's Lady Pillows as she talked even though he wasn't sure what she was talking about. He just liked listening to her and the way her voice sounded in his ear that was against her Lady Pillows. She smelled good too. Different than Mother's Ladies but then Mother's Ladies wouldn't let Loki sit on their lap or rest against their Pillows. They usually ignored him though they sometimes smiled at him too when they smiled at Thor. But Lady Annie didn't talk like Mother's Ladies but then he wasn't in the Palace. He didn't know where he was exactly but he thought Thor-Not-His-Brother had told him but he didn't remember and he didn't want to ask because Father said he should pay more attention to important things and not daydream. But he didn't think he was daydreaming when Thor-Not-His-Brother had been talking to him. He just didn't remember. He had never seen the things he had seen when they went outside to walk but it wasn't scary and he liked seeing all the new things and trying to see what they did. He liked riding in the wagon and going into the building that had lots of things and got to ride in the big metal wagon even if he didn't know what all the things were and even if he did pick the wrong color and made Thor-Not-His-Brother angry. He had only been a little scared of Thor-Not-His-Brother because Lady Annie was there and he didn't think she would let Thor-Not-His-Brother give him punishments because she was nice and smelled good. And Lady Annie must like him because she was nice to him when she gave him the soft little people. She said one was Thor but it didn't look like Thor-His-Brother. It didn't even look like Thor-Not-His-Brother. He liked the green one best. But he liked both too. They were soft. He liked all the soft things Lady Annie gave him. His clothes were soft. And the shoes were soft. The bed was soft and so were the pillows. Not like Lady Annie's Pillows because her Pillows were already warm but they were both soft so he liked them both. But he liked Lady Annie's Pillows better. And the red blanket was soft even though it smelled like Thor-Not-His-Brother. In the dark place with the Liar-Men, there hadn't been anything soft. There was just the floor that was hard and the walls that were hard. Even the Liar-Men were hard. Even their voices were hard. Not like Lady Annie's voice. Her voice was soft. He liked her voice. He liked her best. Even more than the green little people. When he got back to the Palace he would ask Father if he could keep her. She could be his Lady like Mother had her Ladies. Then when Thor went to play with his friends Loki could play with his Lady and they could play Hunter. He knew when she was the Hunter she wouldn't stop looking for him and just go away and leave him hiding all day and then laugh at him. And when he was the Hunter she wouldn't hide someplace he could never find her or he wasn't allowed to go. She wouldn't laugh at him and call him an infant just because he cried when he got mad because everyone was laughing at him because he was sad that they had left him to go play without him. Lady Annie would be nice to him. Nice like Mother when she would let him come to have tea with her. He would have tea with Lady Annie every day that he didn't have tea with Mother. And Lady Annie would sleep with him so the monsters couldn't get him. Because Thor-His-Brother told him the monsters liked to eat Princes that cried. Loki always wanted to sleep with Thor-His-Brother because the monsters couldn't eat him with Thor-His-Brother to protect him. And maybe if the monsters did come to eat him they would eat Thor-His-Brother first because everyone always was saying Loki was too small and skinny so Thor-His-Brother would be more to eat. But if Lady Annie slept with him he would be safe. Loki wondered if Lady Annie could keep the Liar-Men away from him like the monsters. He wasn't sure. The Liar-Men were very mean. And loud. They yelled all the time. And they hit too. They always laughed at him but it wasn't happy laughing but mean laughing like Thor-His-Brother and his friends sometimes laughed. The Liar-Men always told him to shut up when he made any noise even though he tried his best not to make any noise but sometimes it just hurt too much and he did make noise. Mother said it was not polite but sometimes when Thor-His-Brother and his friends were laughing at him he would tell them to shut up even though Thor-His-Brother would tell Mother on him. The Liar-Men were just bad men. They weren't like Father's soldiers who wore shiny armor and guarded the doors and the halls and sometimes pretended to not see him or Thor-His-Brother when they were sneaking out of the nursery or into the gardens or the kitchens or running in the halls when Father was having guests and they hid behind one of the statues. The Liar-Men were just bad men. Maybe Lady Annie couldn't protect him from the Liar-Men. Loki pulled on his lip as he worried. Father told him not to do that but Father wasn't here and Father didn't worry so he never had to pull on his lip to think better. Maybe he wouldn't be there to keep the Liar-Men away from Loki either. He wondered why Father hadn't been there to stop them in the dark place. Father knew everything. How come he didn't know about Loki being in the dark place? Maybe the Liar-Men were true and Father really didn't want him anymore. The Liar-Men said Father was tired of his tricks. And his lies. And that he was bad. And that he needed to learn his lesson but Loki never got lessons like his tutors gave him so he didn't understand what they meant. They told him lots of things they said he had done but he knew he hadn't done any of those bad things. He was too little. He wasn't allowed to go anywhere without someone so he couldn't have gone to Midgard all by himself. And he wasn't bad. He wasn't. He didn't hurt people because that was bad. Even though sometimes he pinched Thor-His-Brother but Mother said that was being naughty and he didn't think being naughty was the same as being bad. Even though sometimes Thor-His-Brother pinched him first. But maybe pinching was bad? Even if Father got mad at him sometimes because he didn't want to learn lessons but wanted to go with Thor-His-Brother to practice with the Swordmaster. Just because he was still little he didn't think it was fair he didn't get to have a wooden sword and go practice with all the other boys because he wanted to be a brave warrior when he grew up and go on adventures with Thor-His-Brother and hunt dragons.  Father wouldn't send him to the dark place because Father always sent Loki to sit at the bottom of the stairs but Loki didn't mind because he liked watching all the people come to talk to Father and he liked to listen to Father tell the people what the laws were and when he was all grown up he would be a good king. Just like Father.

Loki heard a knocking sound. Lady Annie stood up with him still in her arms and walked to the door. She leaned her head against it for just a moment then opened the door. Standing there was Thor-Not-His-Brother.