"Depends on the world, I suppose," Loki says, recovering from the shock of embarrassment. "We taught basic reading, history, and mathematics to everyone on Asgard and Vanaheim. Midgard was a little more...lax, but literacy was widespread among classes there, as well."
Anyway, she didn't ask for a lecture about the state of public education in the Nine Realms. "I'll come to you shortly."
And he does! About half an hour later he wanders into her camp in a black linen shirt and leather pants, hair bound up in a single braid. He's carrying a bottle of wine, since his first gift has proven less useful than he'd hoped, and he offers it to her with a sheepish smile.
By the time Loki arrived, Night Sky had been lounging for a while, posted up near her fire with a blanket both under and over her to stave off the chill still lingering in the air. She sat up as he approached, took the wine, and chuckled.
"Well, I felt...more foolish than guilty, I suppose, but I wanted to do something about it nevertheless," he says, and shrugs helplessly.
He settles beside her next to the fire, folding his knees and resting his chin on one of them. "Are you comfortable out here? I suppose you must be, there are any number of other places you could be. I think I would find it too quiet."
"It's not quiet at all when you're as attuned to nature as I am." She laughed. "But I enjoy it. I spent most of my life out in forests, camping out and moving around."
She rifled through something at her side, some small bag she had pulled out from her tent earlier. "If it makes you feel better, I usually sleep in the tree house my partners and I built. I'm not out here alone much." And pulled out a small wooden box she handed to him. Inside was a handful of moss agate, and a small bottle attached to a woven cord for a necklace. Inside the bottle were small jewelweed blooms.
"That's fair," he smiles at her. "It's a different kind of loud from the city, though, crickets and birds and wind and leaves rustling and deer making deranged serial killer noises because they're in rut."
"I'm just glad you have people looking after you. Loneliness is a miserable state, and even worse in the winter."
He accepts the box with an almost shy look, and exclaims with pleasure over the contents, picking up each piece of agate in turn to roll them in his palm as if feeling the weight and texture. The necklace, he holds up to the light with a grin, then immediately puts it on. "I love it when people make things for me," he admits. "Thank you. You're very sweet."
"Much prefer serial killer deer screams over the loudness of a city. Too many people." Which, in the end, was really what her aversion boiled down to. She liked people, but absolutely hated crowds.
She cocked her head toward him. "You're welcome. Do you have people looking after you...?"
"Hmm." He seems to consider her point of view for a moment. "No, that's fair. I hate a crowd I'm not in control of, one way or another. If I'm using them to hide in or commanding their attention, that's fun, but there is something about being in the midst of people all attending to their own matters and not giving a damn about yours that feels...lonely, for lack of a better term. Like you're just part of the scenery and not a person at all."
People looking after you. She turns his question right back on him, which is something he clearly didn't expect. He gives a soft, self-deprecating laugh. "I mean...I have a couple friends. I live alone, and no lovers, but if I desperately needed someone I can think of two or three people I could call on."
Finnick. Lioriley. Maedhros. Maybe there are others. Possibly she's implying she is one of those others. "I'm not very good with people on the whole, though. I mean, I'm great at charming people, catching their eye--brilliant at shallow relationships, but the deeper it gets the more I struggle."
"Yeah, exactly. And - I guess it's really an old habit for me at this point. For one, I was always in a big, wide-open forest and usually travelling alone. And for two, when I was sick I was very contagious, and the last thing I wanted was to start coughing in a crowd and get everyone else sick." Had she told him about that? She couldn't remember. Her mind was kind of hazy sometimes.
Night Sky looked... surprised. "No lovers? I mean, I could change that for you pretty easily." She laughed and leaned back on her palms. "Seriously, though, you can come to me if you need anything. Or I can make a habit of checking on you - we need to get that garden going anyway." A beat. "Are you scared of getting close to people?"
This he has not heard yet. "Oh, kjaere...I'm sorry to hear that. You're well now, though?" She damn well better be, if she's going to be camping out in the winter like this.
His expression shifts from concern to a smile, a little playful. "Oh, offer accepted, then, when the timing feels right." And, yeah, the way she goes on to express her willingness to check on him definitely contributes to his openness to affection.
He might bristle at that question, had it come from someone else, but in her case it just seems very genuine. Curious, rather than judgmental. He's quiet for a moment, brows knit, then says slowly, "Maybe? I'm not sure."
"It just feels like it always goes wrong one way or another. Either I don't give enough, or I ask for too much, or I'm too difficult in one way or another, or some sort of dire circumstance tears me away from the people I'd befriend. I've broken everything I've touched thus far in my life. I didn't mean to, but who cares about intentions after the damage is done?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm not sick anymore." She would have elaborated, too, about how she died, how she was forcefully revived and how she wasn't even technically a Sylvan elf anymore. But they had moved onto far more important things.
"That's stupid." She said, realizing after she said it that he might take it as her calling him stupid. "I mean the... you being too difficult, or not enough. We're all a little bit fucked up, you know? If you care about someone, you accept them for all the good and the bad and the ugly they have to offer."
Maybe it was easier said than done, but Night Sky didn't understand why it was so hard of a concept. "The ones that really matter care. I'm sorry people have been... disappointing, though."
Notably, he's not the least bit worried about contagion, though possibly he should be. His constitution is such that very few mortal diseases in the Nine Realms could touch him, but he's not in the Nine Realms any longer. Anyway!
"Is that how it works?" His voice is very quiet. "No one ever informed me." On some level he knows that's the ideal, and Frigga certainly did her best to live up to it, but her unconditional kindness wasn't enough to counteract Odin's perpetual aloofness and judgment. As for Thor, he learned it too late. He did try, but by the time Loki realized he was trying, he was already fated to die.
He shakes his head a little and smiles again, though it doesn't quite reach his eyes this time. "Not half as disappointing as I've been in return, I assure you. At least here I'm free of...pre-existing expectations. And no one coming to murder me, presumably, that's a nice feature of the place."
"Well if anyone does try to kill you, I'll beat their ass." She beamed. "We've only gotten to know each other, but I like you, Loki."
It was an exceptionally low bar, to be fair, but he was pretty high above it at this point. "Unless you decide to, I don't know, act like a dick to other people I care about or start kicking babies, I don't see us ever having a problem."
This is the second woman in the place to offer him some form of comfort and protection, and while it comes out as a lot more playful than Lioriley's soft words, it's just as touching. It's also terrifying; he hopes she doesn't mean that, because if by some godawful twist of fate someone in the Black Order shows up here, he doesn't want to see anyone going near them, much less someone he likes.
His smile is a little weak, but he nods, takes her hand, and kisses the back. "I won't hold you to that--in fact, I'd rather you didn't try--but I appreciate the sentiment."
"...I don't know if I can promise never to act like a dick but I have no plans to do so at this time. If I transgress, will you beat my ass? Because I might like that."
Night Sky wouldn't argue it outright, but apparently she was going to prove herself in a few weeks when some big idiot started shit, that she would in fact beat their ass for him.
She smiled at the gesture, cheeks flushed. Tenderness always threw her off a little.
"Not much of a punishment if you're into it, sweetness. But if you want me to spank you without being a dick first, all you have to do is ask."
Oh? That's interesting. She's so bold with her sexuality, it's surprising that gentle affection garners that response. He'll remember that.
"Frankly, I would love that." He grins. "I've always been attracted to women who could snap me like a twig, or at least acted like they could. There's a softness to you, warmth that's not hidden, but I think you must be very strong, as well."
Night Sky was destined to battle an evil archfey in the name of the Green Knight for all eternity. She probably could snap Loki like a twig if she was in the right mind to do so — not that he needed to know that first bit. What a bonerkiller.
She leaned closer, "I can certainly leave those cheeks red." She laughed. "I'm free now, and I can warm my hands up for you." Just throwing that out there.
Knowing she could kill him wouldn't be a bonerkiller unless he thought she was actually about to do it. Knowing she was stuck in a contract with an archfey, on the other hand...yeah, that's depressing.
He leans back to match her move toward him, letting his eyes drift half-closed. "Shouldn't I read you your poem first? After that, my body is yours to command."
His recitation may only encourage that wandering of her mind, truthfully. Loki is nothing if not aware of how to use his voice to good effect, and while he's not specifically trying to sound erotic, there is a sensual element to this work.
He keeps his gaze focused on her as he speaks, red eyes dreamy and half-lidded.
Night Sky may have been the fey creature in this scenario, but she was fully enraptured by the way he spoke; the way he looked at her; he could have said some sort of magic spell to trap her there forever and she would have let him.
"Beautiful." She murmured when he finished. "The poem, but you, too. I could listen to you talk forever..."
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Anyway, she didn't ask for a lecture about the state of public education in the Nine Realms. "I'll come to you shortly."
And he does! About half an hour later he wanders into her camp in a black linen shirt and leather pants, hair bound up in a single braid. He's carrying a bottle of wine, since his first gift has proven less useful than he'd hoped, and he offers it to her with a sheepish smile.
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"Hi. You didn't have to get me anything else."
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He settles beside her next to the fire, folding his knees and resting his chin on one of them. "Are you comfortable out here? I suppose you must be, there are any number of other places you could be. I think I would find it too quiet."
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She rifled through something at her side, some small bag she had pulled out from her tent earlier. "If it makes you feel better, I usually sleep in the tree house my partners and I built. I'm not out here alone much." And pulled out a small wooden box she handed to him. Inside was a handful of moss agate, and a small bottle attached to a woven cord for a necklace. Inside the bottle were small jewelweed blooms.
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"I'm just glad you have people looking after you. Loneliness is a miserable state, and even worse in the winter."
He accepts the box with an almost shy look, and exclaims with pleasure over the contents, picking up each piece of agate in turn to roll them in his palm as if feeling the weight and texture. The necklace, he holds up to the light with a grin, then immediately puts it on. "I love it when people make things for me," he admits. "Thank you. You're very sweet."
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She cocked her head toward him. "You're welcome. Do you have people looking after you...?"
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People looking after you. She turns his question right back on him, which is something he clearly didn't expect. He gives a soft, self-deprecating laugh. "I mean...I have a couple friends. I live alone, and no lovers, but if I desperately needed someone I can think of two or three people I could call on."
Finnick. Lioriley. Maedhros. Maybe there are others. Possibly she's implying she is one of those others. "I'm not very good with people on the whole, though. I mean, I'm great at charming people, catching their eye--brilliant at shallow relationships, but the deeper it gets the more I struggle."
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Night Sky looked... surprised. "No lovers? I mean, I could change that for you pretty easily." She laughed and leaned back on her palms. "Seriously, though, you can come to me if you need anything. Or I can make a habit of checking on you - we need to get that garden going anyway." A beat. "Are you scared of getting close to people?"
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His expression shifts from concern to a smile, a little playful. "Oh, offer accepted, then, when the timing feels right." And, yeah, the way she goes on to express her willingness to check on him definitely contributes to his openness to affection.
He might bristle at that question, had it come from someone else, but in her case it just seems very genuine. Curious, rather than judgmental. He's quiet for a moment, brows knit, then says slowly, "Maybe? I'm not sure."
"It just feels like it always goes wrong one way or another. Either I don't give enough, or I ask for too much, or I'm too difficult in one way or another, or some sort of dire circumstance tears me away from the people I'd befriend. I've broken everything I've touched thus far in my life. I didn't mean to, but who cares about intentions after the damage is done?"
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"That's stupid." She said, realizing after she said it that he might take it as her calling him stupid. "I mean the... you being too difficult, or not enough. We're all a little bit fucked up, you know? If you care about someone, you accept them for all the good and the bad and the ugly they have to offer."
Maybe it was easier said than done, but Night Sky didn't understand why it was so hard of a concept. "The ones that really matter care. I'm sorry people have been... disappointing, though."
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"Is that how it works?" His voice is very quiet. "No one ever informed me." On some level he knows that's the ideal, and Frigga certainly did her best to live up to it, but her unconditional kindness wasn't enough to counteract Odin's perpetual aloofness and judgment. As for Thor, he learned it too late. He did try, but by the time Loki realized he was trying, he was already fated to die.
He shakes his head a little and smiles again, though it doesn't quite reach his eyes this time. "Not half as disappointing as I've been in return, I assure you. At least here I'm free of...pre-existing expectations. And no one coming to murder me, presumably, that's a nice feature of the place."
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It was an exceptionally low bar, to be fair, but he was pretty high above it at this point. "Unless you decide to, I don't know, act like a dick to other people I care about or start kicking babies, I don't see us ever having a problem."
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His smile is a little weak, but he nods, takes her hand, and kisses the back. "I won't hold you to that--in fact, I'd rather you didn't try--but I appreciate the sentiment."
"...I don't know if I can promise never to act like a dick but I have no plans to do so at this time. If I transgress, will you beat my ass? Because I might like that."
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She smiled at the gesture, cheeks flushed. Tenderness always threw her off a little.
"Not much of a punishment if you're into it, sweetness. But if you want me to spank you without being a dick first, all you have to do is ask."
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"Frankly, I would love that." He grins. "I've always been attracted to women who could snap me like a twig, or at least acted like they could. There's a softness to you, warmth that's not hidden, but I think you must be very strong, as well."
He doesn't know the half of it, though!
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She leaned closer, "I can certainly leave those cheeks red." She laughed. "I'm free now, and I can warm my hands up for you." Just throwing that out there.
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He leans back to match her move toward him, letting his eyes drift half-closed. "Shouldn't I read you your poem first? After that, my body is yours to command."
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"I guess you should. I really do want to hear it." Even if her mind was wandering now.
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He keeps his gaze focused on her as he speaks, red eyes dreamy and half-lidded.
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"Beautiful." She murmured when he finished. "The poem, but you, too. I could listen to you talk forever..."