A Rainy Day in Asgard

Chapter 8

As we walk into the feast hall, the four warriors give a sad look, before the five of us realize that Loki is walking towards their table.

Loki sits and doesn't say a word as he loads his plate. When he starts eating, we stare at him. Eventually, he realizes that he's in the spotlight and sighs "I'm not an idiot. I understand that you four only wanted answers, and I'm sure that Thor has told you everything." he clears his throat "I'm upset, but I'm not mad."

"I'm just..." he looks down, before tearing up and looking at them "I miss him." he covers his eyes and I rest my hand on his back. He shakes his head, before sniffling "He was my cub, and my first love. And he was the bravest little boy."

"I'm sorry for your loss." Sif states and Loki shrugs.

"I'm going to tell Jormungandr about it in a little while." Loki sighs "I'm going to work out Slephnir in a minute." he gives a weak smile "I'd like it if the five of you came along. Horses are therapeutic animals. You all seem so distraught."

~

As soon as we walk into the stable Slephnir nays. When Loki tries to put his lead on, Slephnir rests his head on Loki's shoulder. When the lead is on, Loki hugs Slephnir around the neck, before grabbing his lead and pulling him into the round pin. When he's in, we watch from outside as he swings a rope and clicks his tounge, pointing Slephnir to go left.

As soon as Slephnir starts speeding around the round pin, Loki lights up "Good boy!" he clicks his tounge and the horse goes faster. When the rope slows, so does the horse, until it's going to the right, Loki points right, and the horse goes the other way.

Eventually Loki stops Slephnir and walks towards him. He grips his maine and pulls his legs over to sit atop him. When he grabs the lead, Slephnir goes rigid. Loki kicks his side and Slephnir speeds around the pin "Come on! You can go faster!" he kicks him again and Slephnir goes even faster.

When Loki pulls the rein, Slephnir slows and they change direction. Slephnir speeds around and changes direction on Loki's demand.

Loki, himself, gets a nice work out, trying to stay in the barebacked horse. Thirty minutes pass as he does so.

Finally, Loki slows the horse and they walk around the pin, both breathing heavily, Loki lays forward on Slephnir, hugging his neck. When they come to a stop, Loki climbs off of Slephnir and leads him into the stable. When we walk back in, Loki brushes Slephnir and smirks "That's a very good boy! My smart little boy!" He looks to the warriors "Would you like to brush him?"

Slowly, they step forward and talk a brush as Loki pulls a barrel up to Slephnir's stall and scrunches his neck "Now, for the messy part."

"Do you want me to fetch more hay?" I ask and he shrugs.

When the stall is clean, and Slephnir is brushed, Loki leads him into his stall and retrieves his food, before holding out a carrot, and an apple "Slephnir, darling, do you want an apple or a carrot?"

Slephnir takes the apple and places it in his molasses bucket. As Loki takes a bit of these carrot, Slephnir pulls at the leafs of these carrot, pulling the rest of the carrot from Loki. Loki chuckles "Greedy little boy, you are!" Loki climbs on top of Slephnir and wiggles his eyebrows, before braiding Slephnir's hair into several little braids "I do this from time to time. He doesn't mind."

"How often do you bathe him?" I ask and he covers Slephnir's ears, before shaking his head "He doesn't like it?"

"First time I gave him one, he kicked me." Loki smirks "He wasn't strong enough to hurt me, and that's the only time he's ever done it." he licks his lips "But he gets one once a week."

We stand there and watch as Loki braids his hair. Once the horse finishes eating, Loki climbs off and lets Slephnir into the paster "Time to go visit Jormungandr."

"We'll leave you two alone." Fandral insists but Loki shakes his head "We don't want to ruin your visit."

"No." Loki shakes his head "I want to show you that Jotun are not bad people. That they can be innocent children."

"You were an innocent." Sif states, before shrugging.

"Yeah, but I'm a monster." Loki states and we stare at him in sorrow "It's true, everyone knows it."

"Loki, baby." I whisper, wrapping my arms around him "You're not a monster. You've done bad things, but you're not a monster."

He escapes my hug and exposes his blue skin and red eyes "Oh really? What do you see? Don't tell me you find this attractive to you."

I frown and ask "Since when can you control this?" I step forward and place my hands on his cheeks, running my thumbs over the raised lines.

"Since Odin disowned me." Loki states, before sighing "He needed the power to seal someone away for good, so he took my vanity."

His normal form reappears and he clears his throat and backs away "Anyway, the only person I let see me is Jormungandr. Everyone else would call me a freak."

"Who told you that?" I ask and he looks to the ground. That's when it hits me and I sigh "Odin."

He nods shortly, before clearing his throat "Come on, let's go to Jotunheim. Jormungandr is probably up by now."

As we walk down the bifrost, I hold his hand, but he's barely there "Loki, look at me." I order and he does "You're not a freak."

"Whatever." he grumbles.