When I could focus on the world again, I looked down to see my face looking back at me. My cheeks were flushed and my eyes were glistening in the candlelight. It was suddenly hard to imagine that Loki was in there, and I was struck by the embarrassing irony that I had just screwed myself.
"Are you quite finished?" Loki asked softly with my voice. He sounded so small, so weak, so mortal. Was that how I sounded to him?
I pulled out and backed away from him. It occurred to me to reach for the tissue box on the bedside table and clean up a little bit. I was a bit surprised to see that my hands were tinged with blue. Of course, I didn't know a thing about maintaining the illusion that he used constantly, so it made sense to me. I took a tissue and noticed that my manhood was blue too. It was a bit unnerving. He watched with interest as I wiped off the moisture and carefully squeezed out anything still left inside. There wasn't much.
"Thank you," he said, nodding up at me while he reclined on his side with his head propped on one hand, my curly hair cascading over his arm. "Few of my lovers know to do that."
I shrugged soundlessly, and I could feel my cheeks flush. It seemed like the least I could do was clean up, and that he deserved far more than that.
"I should be laughing at you, you ignorant mortal," he stated flatly. The words sounded strange in my voice. "You did exactly what you wanted, and now you are wallowing in remorse because you did? I believe we have discovered the true meaning of irony."
"I lost control," I whispered guiltily, as if that would excuse what I had done. I sat down timidly on the edge of the bed. That sounded like a frail and threadbare excuse to me, one that I would never accept if I was in my own body.
"I expected you to," he answered, almost chuckling. "You are a mortal, and a female at that."
I frowned at him, about to argue the point, but he put up one finger to silence me.
"You have never had to live inside a man's body; you cannot know the powerful drive that compels us."
"You're talking about hormones, right? Testosterone?"
"If that is how you want to explain it, be my guest. Moreover, my body has more complex issues than your average weakling Midgardian male. I am a God, you might remember, and my other half is even more powerful than that. I could see that you succumbed to its needs as well."
"I what?" I tried to filter through my recent memories and figure it all out, but he explained himself with one sentence.
"You turned blue, my dear."
Oh. So it wasn't just the illusion dropping. I became a frost giant? A Jotun?
I looked down at my hands and forearms, then ran the fingers of one hand over the tattoos on my other arm. They were raised, and cold to touch. It struck me as strange that I didn't feel cold. In fact, I felt a bit warmer than usual, almost feverish.
He smirked at my reaction, then narrowed his eyes at me and sat up. "You did something else, though... something I did not expect."
I met his gaze and raised my eyebrows in question. What else did I do?
"You altered reality to fit your desire."
I cringed involuntarily. I knew when I had done it. I could feel the lust and power coursing inside me, and I just made it happen.
"I thought I could, because I was in your body. That you would be okay with it, since you switched and all..."
He frowned up at me in disbelief. "The magic does not come with the package, my dear. It lives in here." He tapped his temple with one finger. As I sat in stunned silence, he stated, "You reached across and used my powers."
I gazed blankly at him. I did what? How was that possible? Somehow that seemed even more of a violation than ravishing his body. I covered my eyes with one hand and wished I could take it back. Heck, I didn't even know how I did it in the first place.
"While I am on that subject," he continued while I mulled this latest revelation over, "before you get too comfortable in there, I should like to return to my own form now." He touched me lightly on the hand and I suddenly found myself looking at him from the other side of the bed.
