A Really Very Good Sandwich

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"Would you care for some company?"

Loki approached a group of five girls with a drink in his hand as the Asgardians celebrated around them in their usual boisterous way. Five pairs of eyes flicked curiously to Loki when he spoke, yet he looked only at the young woman with ginger hair sitting in the corner. The other four exchanged curious, offended looks with one another. But the woman in the corner, Halfrida, only smiled sheepishly down at her glass. With a soft sigh the other four girls flickered out of existence in a glow of golden light, and she was alone.

"Hello, Frida." Loki took a seat at an angle on the curved bench so he could face his fellow Asgardian. Halfrida was a lovely full-figured woman with heavily freckled skin and auburn hair tied up in curls. It wasn't as elaborate a style as he was used to seeing the other women of Asgard wear, but it was still rather pretty. None of his people had their usual shine now.

"You're still calling me that?" She smiled coyly at him with softly flushed cheeks.


"Yes, Frida. Even though it's been years since we spoke, I still find it a fitting pet name for you."

"Has it been years?" She shifted to curl a leg under herself and sit sideways on the bench to face him. "No, I believe we spoke just last week, actually. Though you were disguised as Odin then."

Loki gave a tight-lipped sheepish smile and fidgeted with the stem of his glass. "Well, it's been a while since we've spoken face to face."

"It has." She held up her glass to him in a toast, and they both took a sip. She winced at the taste and looked down at the contents of her glass disparagingly.

"You get used to it," Loki shrugged. "Drinks from Sakaar are meant more for intoxication than enjoyment, and if there's one thing this pleasure cruiser of a ship had a lot of when I stole it, it was drink." With a swift hand gesture, he conjured a little table so he could set his drink down. Halfrida opted to hold hers and fiddle with the rim while eyeing him curiously.

"I suppose a 'thank you' is in order, for saving all of our lives." A surprised look crossed Loki's eyes as they met hers for a moment; he smiled almost shyly.

"You know, we've been on this ship for three days and you're the first person to say that to me."

"Well," she said carefully, breaking eye contact to take a drink, "thank you."

He eyed her and mirrored her posture, curling one leg under himself to sit sideways, ending up several inches closer to her in the process. "You know, just now Thor was telling me that during the fight on the bridge, he noticed I'd made illusions of everyone as they were trying to board. To make the crowd look bigger and make it harder for Hela's berserkers to hit their target. Thing is, I had done no such thing. I was too busy fighting Hela at the front."

"Did you tell Thor that? Or did you take the credit?" she laughed.

"No," he snickered. "I did tell him it wasn't me." He licked his lips absentmindedly and looked her up and down. "You've gotten rather good."

"Not good enough to trick you, apparently. What gave it away?" she asked. "Was the blinking off? I always struggle to make them blink normally." She took the last sip of her throat-burning drink and set the glass beside Loki's.

"No, actually. It was almost flawless. I only noticed it because I remembered you being rather good at illusions from our lessons. And because I saw Oolga die on the bridge." He reached out and put his hand on hers. "I'm sorry. She was your friend, yes?"

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