Loki Imagines

Artemis

a/n: in which you and loki become cat parents

...

'It wants me dead.'

'I hardly think that's likely.'

'Look at it. Tell me it's not evil.'

You and Loki have a cat. It hadn't exactly been what you might call a joint decision, but you'd seen the poor skinny thing wandering around outside of your apartment and gave it food one day.

It came back the day after. And the next. And the next.

You couldn't not feed it, it was so cute and helpless, little more than a kitten. This morning you'd taken it upon yourself to take it to the vets to see if it was chipped. It wasn't, so you bought treatment for an ear infection that it had contracted, and took home the otherwise healthy, if a bit malnourished, cat.

Then you'd made a trip to the pet store to buy basic supplies, took everything back to the apartment and began your life as a cat owner. It had all seemed dead easy until the cat had peed on the carpet, tried to climb the curtains in the lounge and all but ripped them to shreds, and then thrown up on the sofa from eating too much cat food.

Maybe this wasn't as easy as it seemed.

The cat was currently asleep under the coffee table, snoozing in ignorance as you cleaned up the mess it had made best you could, trying to stay positive about your predicament. This was fine. Really fine.

Despite your firm beliefs, you had a feeling that Loki wasn't going to necessarily agree with you. But that was fine too. You would talk him round to the idea, you always did.

A few hours later when you were in the kitchen cooking dinner, you heard the door open and shut.

'Hey,' you called. No response, but a few seconds later you heard footsteps, and then felt a familiar presence behind you.

'Hey,' you repeated, quieter this time, feeling Loki's arms around you. 'Good day?'

'Mmm,' came the muffled reply from somewhere behind your shoulder. He was tired. You smiled.

'Go get changed, this is almost ready,' you told him, nodding to the food you were preparing.

He obliged, turning to leave the room. Before he got to the door he stopped, turned, and looked back towards you. You turned around this time, so you were able to see his narrowed eyes, the smile playing around his lips. He knew.

'What have you done?'

'Nothing!' you said. Far too quickly, far too innocently. His eyebrows raised in disbelief, and he smiled in earnest.

'When will you learn that you can't lie to me?' he asked you, turning around again. You grinned; he hadn't tried to go in your mind. He made it through to your bedroom without incident, and you waited with bated breath for him to come back through.

Y/N?

Yeah?

Are you aware that there is a tiny creature in our apartment?

And that's how you'd arrived here.

'Loki, I have never seen anything less evil in my whole life.'

You'd eaten, the cat winding itself around your legs as you sat, looking up at you with mournful, gleaming green eyes. When you'd come back into the lounge after taking the dishes through to the kitchen, you'd found Loki sat on the floor, staring at it.

It was staring right back at him with astonishing daring for such a tiny animal. You sat down on the sofa behind Loki, crossing your legs and leaning forward.

'It's looking into my soul,' he informed you grimly.

'It needs a name. We can't keep calling her it,' you said, watching the cat glare at Loki with renewed affection for it. Loki finally looked away to you instead, and the cat tilted its head as though it had somehow won.

'Are we really keeping it... her?' he asked you.

'Yes. I mean, if you're okay with it,' you replied.

'I suppose, as long as you're okay with it killing me while I sleep,' Loki shrugged, looking back at the cat, which proceeded to reach its front paws out and stretch deeply.

It then yawned hugely, walked right up to Loki, climbed onto his lap, and curled into a tiny ball of fur, tucking its small nose beneath a miniscule paw. Loki let out a breath which he'd been holding in while the cat had been climbing on him.

'Yes, actually, I don't think we can keep it. It definitely wants you dead,' you said, your wide smile evident in your voice.

'She's so cute,' Loki breathed, looking down at her curled in his lap. You celebrated internally. That hadn't taken much talking round.

'Good, so what are we calling her?'

'You think of a name. I don't have any ideas.'

You thought for a moment.

'Artemis. Looks ethereal, but can and will kill you in your sleep,' you said. Loki nodded slowly.

'Artemis.'

He reached out a finger and tentatively stroked her head, and she began to purr at a volume wildly disproportionate to her tiny form.

'She likes me,' Loki said, something almost like disbelief in his voice. You thought your heart might fall out of your chest.

'You know you can't move until she wakes up now, right?'

'Why?'

'Because that's the rules?'

'I'd quite like to sit on the sofa and watch TV with my wife.'

'Can't, you're a cat dad now. Sorry,' you shrugged, leaning back against the pillows and grabbing the remote.

'I'll just move her.'

'You can't do that,' you told him, switching the TV on.

'I can.'

'Go on then.'

He didn't move, and wouldn't until Artemis decided that she was thirsty almost two hours later, at which point you'd already gone to bed.