note: i'm still kind of editing this because i've been in a rut for the past week and a half. so if little things changes don't be too alarmed.
tw: for misgendering at the end of the chapter.
Thor stirs from his sleep gradually. His vision is hazy and he can't quite make out the shadowy figure slinking towards him. A small amount of light filters through the window, making the wrinkles in the sheets look like tiny mountain ranges - smoothed out by blue hands as Loki gingerly straddles Thor's stomach. Eir skin is cold, bitterly cold, and it causes goose-flesh to rise atop Thor's skin.
Eir hair is done entirely in tiny braids that cascade over the ridges of eir spine and ribs. The soft scent of oils and sweet perfumes wafts away from eir skin. Thor is still captivated by Loki's beauty; so different from the Jotnar he had always known to fear. He doesn't protest when Loki finally settles and rests eir head upon his chest.
"I'm going to stay here awhile, husband." ey murmurs absentmindedly, voice thick with the remnants of a language ey no longer tries to hide.
Thor laughs under his breath, "Why is that?" he teases, and Loki bristles.
"You are very warm, and that is what I want right now."
Loki sighs, and Thor can smell eir breakfast on eir breath - red meat and fish. Ey had probably eaten and then crawled back to bed to sleep for a few more hours until they were both fit to wake. Thor feels Loki fall asleep, eir breathing evens out alongside eir freezing temperature. He, too, begins to lose himself to sleep.
.
Loki responds aggressively to every stare and whispered comment; Thor can see the tiny shards forming on eir forearms as they walk the halls side by side. He guesses that ey is trying hard not to let solid blades of ice completely cover eir arms in defense - so Thor offers his arm for Loki to hold, and ey reluctantly takes hold of it.
"In time they will grow used to you." Thor's words fall flat, because he knows that Loki knows that it is not true.
Fandral greets them almost as soon as they step foot on the grounds outside. The sky is overcast, and the air unusually cold. Fandral congratulates them on their marriage - though he is obviously unsettled from seeing Loki up close - and then invites them to the training grounds. Thor accepts readily, but Loki quietly drops eir arm away from Thor's and excuses emself - murmuring that ey feels ill.
Ey quickly retreats, and Thor doesn't say a word in protest.
He doesn't see em until after the day has almost finished.
.
Baldr is the one to bring it up at their dinner. It is a brutish, unwise topic that Odin lets him start without any protest.
"If we were to go to war, we would want bigger horses, would we not?"
Loki has not yet touched eir food, and visibly bristles at the comment. Thor knows that the Jotnar have horses - large horses - but they are not for riding. They are for carrying excess supplies on long journeys, and only for royalty. Even those married into Jotnar royalty would not be able to use them, and if they were - it would be a special privilege.
"I suppose, my son."
Thor is across from Loki, who is sitting directly in between Frigga and Baldr. Ey seems uncomfortable with the arrangement when Baldr decides to go on. Frigga whispers something to em about him being 'but a boy'.
"Or-!" this is when Thor realizes Baldr has indulged in his wine long before dinner had started, "We could use monsters!"
Loki's chair squeals as it is shoved back and Loki roughly grabs Baldr by his neck, fingers leaving black marks of frostbite. Ey bares eir teeth and hisses loudly in a language Thor has never heard before; though it is rough and angry. Baldr stares up at em with nothing but pure terror, but Loki does not seem to be appeased by his cowardice and submission now. He tries to pry Loki's fingers from his windpipe to no avail. What makes it worse is that Odin and Frigga merely stare, as if they are in shock.
"Loki." Thor growls, and Loki glares at him as if he has done something unforgivable. Ey releases him, and stalks away from the table and out of the room. A heavy feeling settles, and it grows unbearably tense - the silence only interrupted by Baldr's panicked ramblings of 'how dare she' and 'have control over your wife, brother mine!'
Thor is not sure what he finds worse; Frigga walking Baldr to the healing rooms by herself, or Odin expressing his anger and disappointment to Thor only after they have left.
