FrostIron Short Stories

97 Feet Below: I Don't Mind Staying Nor Do I Regret My Decision

The two of them woke the next morning to Loki's head on Tony's arm and his long pale hand on Tony's chest, his tall body pressed against Tony's smaller one. They tore away from each other, Sleipnir wasn't under the shelter anymore (He'd gone grazing in the grass) so both had plenty of room to separate. Loki didn't look at Tony in the face, his eyes rested on the ground in front of Tony's feet.

"Sorry!" Loki screeched, covering his beet red face after a minute, but Tony was laughing after a moment of staring at Loki. "I am so, so, so, so, so, so sorry!"

"Don't be-"

"But I have to be!"

"No," Tony chuckled, a gorgeous look on his face (despite his whole face being gorgeous to Loki), "No you don't. It was fine, I liked it."

"What!?"

"You heard me. You probably haven't been comfortable while we've been traveling, I'm pretty firm, and so I'm a decently nice pillow." Loki giggled a little at that, but he was beet red in the face still. "Besides, you seemed comfortable, first night you looked so awkward while you were sleeping even though you were cocooned," Loki cocked his head to the side with confusion, "wrapped," Loki straightened out, "in your hair, it's good that you were comfortable last night."

"OK, should we get moving or...?"

"Or what?"

"Well I was wondering if there was any water nearby where we could wash, both of us, even the horse, need baths."

"We could start looking, come on." Tony stood up and helped Loki up, his hair was an absolute mess. It stood out in three different places just at the top. "Maybe we should just lop that hair off."

"No! We're not close enough to the Kingdom to be able to dispose of it yet."

"Loke-" Tony stopped himself before he finished, "Loki, you can't travel with that. We stop every ten minutes to untangle it."

"I just don't think it would be wise to cut it yet."

"Alright." Tony wouldn't fight him about it now. They found a large stream, Tony stripped and walked right in, a small blue pendant bouncing off his chest, the blue circle held there with a black cord. Loki blushed a little when he looked at Tony. "You may not be able to wash your hair, Loki."

"Not unless I put all of it in the water, and trust me I have no plans to do so." Loki said as he began to pull off his shirt and vest. Tony, who had been scrubbing his face, looked up at Loki's bare chest and then away when he began to undo his belt and take off his pants. He hid the satchel under his pants, shirt and vest, he wore no shoes so he got straight in after those were off.

"Is it deep?"

"I'm shorter than you and this water comes to my chest and I'm sitting on a rock right now." Tony looked up for a second, his eyes scanning over Loki's thin frame while Loki wasn't paying attention, he was busy getting into the water enough that his hair wouldn't get wet. The moment that Loki's head snapped over to Tony he acted like he was washing his face again.

"Well I can't swim. Your face must be absolutely filthy."

"It is, I need my dagger so I can trim my beard a bit too." Tony had a small beard, it had been wonderfully trimmed the first time they met and now it looked only a bit unkempt, that can get unbearable.

"I can help."

"Well you have no body hair," Tony said and Loki looked confused again, "never mind. Anyway, what would you know about this?"

"I know nothing of it, what do you mean no body hair? Should I have hair along my body like you do?" Tony had a beard, chest hair, arm hair, leg hair, and hair in the 'private' area of his body. Loki was void of hair in all of those regions.