Hell or High Water (#Wattys2016)

•Don't call me, I won't call you•

🎭🎭🎭

"But it doesn't mean I've agreed to marry you - ridiculous as that is." Charlie was beginning to grow impatient. Couldn't they pretend to be married and still go about their business? Preferably with her on earth and him in Asgard? Of course, bringing up that solution may not have been in the best intentions, and was met with total...silence. "What makes me special, anyway? That I work in some pathetic café and am practically unknown to anyone worth knowing? I'm sure there are thousands of women on Asgard who are more than willing -"

"We're not on the best of terms." He shrugged, a little disappointed that because of his differences within the palace he was still greatly looked upon as an outcast. "Ridiculous as it may be, I don't make, or encourage, the rules."

"Oh? Too many magic shows?" Charlie inquired snarkly, though she regretted it as she watched his face fall sullen. With his hands folded neatly under his chin, legs crossed, and straight posture he could pass for the most nonchalant person in the world, if not someone of obvious aristocratic stature.

Charlie learned at least a few of his quirks over the week to know when he was suppressing an emotion, and she liked to think she was rather good with emotions even if she wore an unmovable mask herself.

"They aren't... You."

"What do you mean? I'm not important! However you got this 'reading Auras' business into your head, I don't care. I can barely balance a checkbook!"

"Have you run away yet? I showed you my true form, did I not? You simply could have refused to ever see me again. Well, Valhalla knows what you planned to do with a broom of all things." He finished smoothly and Charlie knew she had been backed into a corner.

Checkmate.

"All right, that was a low move, but I'll give you that one. When do we leave?"

He was smiling again. "On the morrow."

"That means tomorrow, right?"

"Yes, my magic is somewhat weakened on Midgard. I should be strong enough to teleport us."

"Why can't you just say 'tomorrow' like a normal person?" Completely ignoring the his amazing, and impressive feat of teleportation. He was almost offended. Almost.

"If it hasn't escaped your pretty little head, and before you cut your eyes at me, again, I'm far from normal!"

Charlie pursed her lips, thinking the minute she starts to feel some inch of sympathy for him, he goes and ticks her off.

"What's all the racket?" Thelia asks, not really caring about an answer while wrapping a towel around her dripping hair and making sure her robe was securely drawn. "I'm in the shower twenty minutes and you two are ready to murder each other. Soon you'll be at it like bunnies!"

Thelia laughed mockingly at the pair and was rewarded with a new tail, whiskers, and furry cat-like ears. Thelia's laugh faded when she noticed Charlie gaping and Loki beaming like someone who pulled off a formerly improbable prank.

"What? What is it?"

Charlie, still gaping at her friend's new 'attachments', pointed to her head.

Thelia reached up and felt fur, noting with mounting awe that her ears were no longer the evident human shape as before. She looked back at a swishing tail and shakily felt the tip.

"Mary. Mother. Of. God. On. A. Bicycle."

"Well. Hello, Kitty. I thought cats hated water?" Charlie chided, unable to confine a snicker.