His reception upon returning to the meeting room was considerably less favorable the second time around. Someone (bloody Heimdall) had passed word on about their new passengers and the Æsir members of the council were less than enthused. The Sakaaran representative didn't seem to understand what all the hubbub was about.

Thor just looked tired.

"I hadn't planned to let them board," Loki said, arms crossed. He stood near the head of the table, too antsy to take a seat.

Thor scrubbed his hands down his face, careful to avoid his eyepatch this time. "You may have mentioned before it became an issue."

"It wouldn't have become an issue if that brain-dead Kronan hadn't bumbled into the middle of it!"

The Kronan in question was not present, probably off having tea with the frost monsters.

"It wouldn't have been an issue if you didn't take such pride in your schemes! A word of warning, that is all I ask!"

"Bah!"

"And how do you plan to fix this, Prince Loki," Kvathi asked. He was an old grump of a man, a minor noble who'd managed to survive Hela's purge through sheer cowardice.

"Tell them an airlock's the loo and flush them out," Loki shrugged. "Or feed them to the green beast. Whatever, I don't care."

"I'm confused," the Sakaaran, Lulu, spoke up, her yellow gills flaring with her words. "Are they… spies or something? Why are they so dangerous?"

"They are Frost Giants." Kvathi gestured with conviction, frustrated with the Sakaaran's ignorance. "They are innately evil creatures. Sooner or later they will turn on us. In fact, do we even know the supplies they traded us are safe?" This last he addressed to Loki.

"Yes, they're fine," Loki rolled his eyes. (He hadn't thought of that. He'd check the supplies later.)

"They have given us no reason to harm them." Thor's words were muffled, face in his hands.

"Yet," Loki said.

"They are Jötnar," Kvathi said. "They'll give us reason. Better to act before they do."

"Hey, sad sacks!" Valkyrie announced her presence, somehow managing to open the sliding door with a bang. "What'cha all moaning about now?"

"So good of you to join us," Loki sneered, arms crossed.

"Sorry, got caught up showing your friends around," she said, throwing herself into a chair and slamming her heels on the table. "I partitioned off part of Hulk's hull. He was pissy about it but I think him and the kid'll get along. The mom, though, she's real pissed at you."

Loki choked. "That thing is a woman?"

Valkyrie stared at him for a beat, brows raised, before barking out a laugh.

"Are you for real?" she demanded. "Do I have to have the Jötunn sex talk with you?"

Loki's cheeks burned and his tongue caught in his throat. He was uncomfortably aware of the many Æsir eyes boring into his skin. A couple of the older men snickered, their looks unkind. Marta, the matron in charge of the ship's orphaned youths, shook her head, her lips pursed.

"Please don't," Thor said, finally emerging from behind his hands. "You say it is a mother and her child?"

"Yeah," Valkyrie said, tearing her eyes— and her infuriating grin— from Loki to address Thor. "Muthrun and Juri. They're looking for a new home because someone shot their old one with a space laser."

The council's muttering turned darker.

"And if someone," Loki said, pointedly looking at Thor, "hadn't destroyed the Bifrost then Jotunheim would be dust and we wouldn't be in this mess."

The mutterings turned in his favor.

Valkyrie countered, "and what 'mess' is that, exactly? The 'mess' where we got three months worth of food for free?"

"The mess where we have two Frost Giants dirtying our halls!"

"Three." Valkyrie wiggled three fingers in the air.

The mutterings grew hushed.

Loki had stopped breathing.

Thor sighed. "Brother…"

He didn't respond, he didn't say a word as he left.

Thor had decided to let them stay, announced that Asgard keeps its bargains— even to Jötnar.

Since when?

Since when had promises to Jötnar meant anything? When they'd commissioned Asgard's walls? When they'd bargained weregild with Skaði?

When Odin had called Loki his son?

Loki slammed a fist through a crate, grabbed its tin sides, tearing it in two. His burnt palms ached from the abuse, fueling his rage further.

The little storage room, his training room, was emptier now. The few things of any worth it had held bargained away for Asgard's survival. Bargained by Loki.

He a grabbed one half of the scrap metal and threw it against the far wall where it clattered into a heap, the dim overhead lights flickering from the impact.

"Wow, what crawled up your ass?"

Loki snatched up the twisted remains of the crate and slung it behind him, towards the door. Valkyrie batted it aside with her blade.

"I'm not in the mood, wench!"

"Oh, ho! Keep that up and I'll scrub your mouth out with soap!"

"I'm not a child!"

"You're acting like one."

Loki shouted and kicked another crate. It tumbled across the floor with a cacophonous clang.

Of course she'd track him down, find him and taunt him. He shouldn't have come here, their littling training room. But there were few places on the ship with anything even approaching privacy, and none of them big enough to let off steam.

"What are you so pissed about?" She didn't sheath her sword, ready for more projectiles to come her way. "You invited them."

"You're as bad as that idiot Kronan!"

"Thank you," she said, and her smile grew at Loki's growl.

"I was going to take their fare and leave them on Vertex, never to be seen again."

"That's a pretty shit thing to do."

"Their Jötnar! It doesn't count!"

"Still shitty."

"Odin would have done it," Loki hissed. "He would have laughed at their ugly faces as we left them on the docks." Bargains with Jötnar didn't count.

"Your dad was a pretty shit guy," Valkyrie said.

Loki bared his teeth. "How dare you? He was your king."

"And he was a shit king."

Loki shouted again, striding into her space, but Valkyrie didn't flinch.

"He was," she said, unimpressed as Loki snarled inches from her face. "He lied and cheated and didn't give a shit who he hurt so long as he got his way. He's the reason Hela went nuts, he's the reason Surtr bound his soul to Asgard's destruction, and he's the reason we can't get anyone to help us when we need it the most! The universe is filled with his enemies and now we're paying for it! You want to be like your dad?" She sheathed her sword and stepped back, spreading her hands. "Keep it up."

And with that, she left.

Loki drew fire to his hands and set the room ablaze.