A Gods Favor

You Didn't Know?

Loki began to feel antsy as they walked towards the great hall. He'd been avoiding all places that he could run into Thor and his soon to be council. "You know we could just go up to my rooms. I could have a servant bring up meals and we could catch up while we wait." He watched as Elora looked at him suspiciously. "Unless there's another way you'd prefer to spend the time?"

"Or," she tightened her grip on his arm. "You could stop pouting, apologize to your brother and take advantage of the fact that Yrsa is here and have a meal with both your siblings."

"He's an arrogant oaf," he bristled. "I don't see why I should apologize."

She stopped and pulled him to face her. "And you're a pompous ass who drunkenly pulled a dagger on him for the sake of your pride. He is your brother, Loki, and he loves you but you are both too stubborn for your own good and neither of you will cave first unless forced."

He took a step back and surveyed her slightly bewildered. "Did you plan this? Was this whole interaction a ploy to get me to talk to Thor?"

"Of course I didn't plan it. I didn't know I'd run into you in the library. I was just looking for a book for Gyda." She bit her lower lip. "But I may have seized an opportunity to get you to eat real food and force you into proximity to him the moment I saw the opening."

He wanted to be angry, wanted to storm off in a rage but in all honesty it felt good, to know that someone cared enough to notice that his diet as of late had consisted mostly of wine. And he was also slightly impressed with her attempt at manipulation. "I don't recall you being so devious, Elora."

"A lot can change in five centuries. You'd be surprised at the things you get skilled at trying to get grown men to do things for their own good when all they want to do is fight." He knew she meant warriors and soldiers that had been under her care but he didn't miss the double meaning of her words as she crossed her arms and eyed him.

He barked a laugh. "I think I quite like this new aspect of your personality, Lady." He offered her an arm. "To the great hall then?"

-

Yrsa sat in the great hall for supper surrounded by her eldest brother and most of her closest friends.

"Have you spoken to Loki?" She asked Thor as she scanned the hall. It had been nearly a week since their spat in the yard and Yrsa, believing them both to be in the wrong but knowing Loki to be more stubborn and able to hold a grudge, had been urging Thor to extend the olive branch.

"I've told you, I don't see why I need to be the one to apologize. You were there and you know he started it."

Yrsa smacked the back of his head. "Because, you ass, if you leave it up to him you two will never speak again. Besides I didn't say you needed to apologize, just talk to him, I'm tired of seeing him mope around the halls."

"He seems to be in good spirits right now." Sif nodded to the entrance where Loki walked in smiling with Elora.

"I heard he's barely left his room for a week, skipped council meetings and everything. How'd she manage to get him to the hall?" Volstagg whispered furiously.

No one answered and Yrsa looked to Thor who wore an enormous smile before looking back to her brother and friend. Elora's arm was linked with Loki's as they approached and her brother seemed to be genuinely laughing.

Elora caught Yrsa's eye and waved and Yrsa could see the healer's eyes go hazy and her face go blank as her hand dropped, clearly having a vision. She continued to walk however, pulled by Loki's steps until someone bumped her. The pause made Loki realize something wasn't right.

Yrsa's jaw went slack as she watched Loki shift Elora out of the way before cupping her face and running his thumbs over her cheeks as he spoke, trying to pull her back to the here and now.

"Well they look awfully familiar," Fandral grumbled.

"Oh get over it, Fan," came Sif rebuke. "We've all known she's been in love with him since we were children, this was bound to happen one day. Besides hasn't it been over two hundred years since she last let you into her bed?"

"Three hundred." Came Hogun's voice with a dark laugh as Sif's words echoed in Yrsa's brain.

Since we were children? Surely that couldn't be right. She would have noticed something, Elora would have said something, anybody would have pointed out anything! But as Elora's eyes cleared and her smile returned, Yrsa watched as she pulled Loki's hands from her face and squeezed them in her own as her cheeks reddened.