Loki and the Witchling

Chapter 43

 You knew the palace quite well after exploring it with Loki like playful children for the past three weeks. Well, playful children who liked to hide in alcoves making out, so maybe playful teenagers. You'd been discovered more than once by maids, but they just politely pretended not to notice the usually stoic prince making out with his lady, while they gave you smirks and giggles of approval when you saw them again. Loki flushed when you were caught, but that didn't stop him from initiating the hunt for the next make out alcove.

Since you knew the palace so well, you knew that the fastest way to Loki's favorite garden was through one of the hallways on one of the lower floors, so that's where you went first. It was admittedly not one of your brightest plans.

"Look, it's Loki's little pet human," a thuggish looking man who obviously had no real reason for being in the palace said as he stepped out in front of you.

"And she's alone without her powers. The prince isn't doing a very good job protecting his little mortal," came another voice from behind you.

"If we control the girl, we control the throne," the other commented. That was a stupid-ass jump of logic.

You rolled your eyes and stepped so the wall was at your back and you could see both men clearly. Obviously neither belonged here. "I'm Asgardian, dumbasses, just leave now before I have to beat the shit out of you for being where you don't belong," you told them firmly. They ignored your sage advice and lunged for you. You had your dagger unsheathed in an instant. You shrieked for help from the guards, but defended yourself well with hard earned skills of hand-to-hand and dagger combat, plus a couple of nasty tricks you had learned from Nat.

Both men were bleeding on the floor by the time the guards arrived. You had a few small wounds, a black eye, a split lip, and a nasty cut on your arm from the battle, but nothing terrible and you had taken care of yourself without your powers. The story of Loki's little healer darling taking care of two hulking men without her powers would spread throughout the palace like wildfire. You cleaned your dagger on the shirt of one of the bleeding men before you would resheath it. You briefly explained what happened to the guards. They took the men away to the dungeons, promising to question them and find out where they had come from and why they had dared to attack you. You nodded regally, and continued on your quest to find Loki.

You ducked into the hidden alcove of Loki's favorite garden to find him sitting on the bench there. "If this is another illusion, I am going to kick your ass when I find you," you told him firmly, grumpy that you had been attacked while looking for him. You just wanted to lie down and put some ice on your face.

"That is what Thor said when he came to the library," he said softly without looking up from where he was picking nervously at his palms. "And then informed me in no uncertain terms that you were wandering the palace on your own determined to find me, so I had better show up where you would find me quickly, or he would chain me to Mjolnir for you,"

You went to stand next to him and wrapped your arms around him. He was real this time, so you settled yourself on the bench next to him and undid his cloak from around your neck so you could wrap it over the two of you. "I may have get my own Mjolnir, since no one but Thor can lift his," you teased. He looked over at you, shocked that you would threaten to chain him to a Mjolnir. His face fell when he saw yours and he was suddenly angry again.

"What happened?" he demanded, turning your face toward him so he could see the damage.

"A couple of thugs snuck into the palace and attacked me on my way down here. They've been dealt with and they're in the dungeons being questioned on how they got in and why. I'm fine," you tried to reassure him, but he growled something about his own uselessness and how he should have been there. Pain and his mood scraped on your temper. "No. You should not have been there, neither of us should have been. We should have been cuddling with healing tea and books in one of our rooms. I'm sorry about whatever your father did to put you in this mood, but no, love, you should not have taken it out on me. You should have confided in me. I'm here for you no matter what mood you're in, no matter what emotions and old soul wounds are riding you," you told him firmly.