A Whole Bunch of Loki's

The Limit

He knew that look.

As you walked in and greeted him with a warm smile and a chirpy; "Hey," he saw the look of absolutely exhaustion that you tried to hide.

It had been a long day at work, again.

He was beginning to get concerned now.

Only a few months ago things hadn't been this bad, sure there were days where everything that could go wrong did go wrong, but it had never been this consistent before.

Loki waited as you went through the usual 'home from work' routine, which consisted of a minute or two of sitting down and doing nothing on the edge of your bed, then the removal of shoes and other extra clothes before you changed onto something you found more comfortable on that day until you joined him in the living room, where you promptly flopped onto the couch beside him.

"Long day?"

"A little, I guess."

You didn't fail to notice the pointed look he gave you and let out a long sigh, dropping down so that you could lean comfortably against him.

"Fine, it was a little more than long."

"I can tell."

"It's just, customers, you know?"

"Not exactly, but I'm willing to listen."

"They just don't seem to understand how irksome they can be and it's always on days where everything goes wrong that they have to come up with the most long winded and ridiculous requests."

Loki nodded and moved his arm to put it around your shoulders, gently rubbing your hip in silence, which you took as a cue to continue.

"Not to mention that we had a delivery back up, so we have so much stock to get through and that's not even bringing in the customer orders that needed to be sorted and delivered, the phone wouldn't stop ringing and everything arrived all at the same time when I had a seemingly unending queue."

"Sounds stressful."

"That's just it, it's not," you frowned, staring towards the wall ahead of you, "it's not anything I shouldn't be used to by now, apart from being a bit more short staffed than normal, but lately I've just felt so drained."

"I have noticed that you've seemed a little more tired than usual as of late."

"And I feel it too, like on Saturday, I went to bed earlier than normal and got plenty of sleep but I still felt like I could fall asleep stood up."

"I also remember you having a long nap that evening when you got home."

"Exactly, and I barely worked five hours today and by the time I was three hours in I was exhausted."

You shifted a little and bit your lip, unsure of whether to openly speak about the next part, but of course Loki caught on and gave your thigh a reassuring squeeze.

"Is there something else you need to say?"

He looked down at you and as you looked up and met his gaze, the look in his eyes was enough to spur you on.

You took a deep breath and closed your eyes, resting your head against his bicep once again.

"I felt like I was close to my limit earlier."

"What do you mean?"

"Like, I felt as if I was going to snap, at one point I even had to stop sorting the customer orders out because I just felt like I was going to cry, for no reason what so ever."

Loki is silent for a moment, the rubbing now moving from your thigh to your hip as he let out a small hum.

"I believe the reason is obvious, don't you think?"

"I suppose."

"There's no suppose about it, it's either your hormones are spiking," he chuckled lowly, "or it's stress."

"But I have no reason to be, it's all the same."

"From what you've told me, it's not, and now it's compromising your mental health by the sounds of it."

You sat up and looked at him, shifting to sit a little more comfortably.

"What are you saying? I love my job."

"Perhaps you do, but you can't say that you haven't noticed your resistance towards it," he gave you an almost sympathetic look, "even I can tell that you aren't as enthusiastic as you used to be."

"Sometimes I do think it'd be easier just to call in sick."

"Even one day might be for the best."

"Maybe, but I can't let the others down, there's only four of us," you sighed, running a over your scalp, "I just feel so mentally exhausted."

"And now it's affecting you physically, sometimes you have to think of yourself, what's more important, your job or your health?"

"My job helps me pay the bills," you laughed faintly, not able to fully commit to the joke.

"And that should mean that you compromise yourself for it?"

You frowned, staring at him before slowly shaking your head.

"No."

"Exactly," Loki gave your knee a few pats of his hand before standing up, "you spend the next two days relaxing and destressing, I shall make us some tea."

You nodded and slowly led down, curling up into one corner of the couch.

"Can I have some cake too?"

"Of course," he smiled, shaking his head a little.

(Sorry if this seems very ranty, I've just been struggling a little lately and needed an outlet further than complaining to my co-workers.)