2.

Loki was the most beautiful nightmare Thor had ever had the misfortune to work with. And he was beautiful; Thor wished it was easier to deny or ignore. With or without the make-up and the costumes – and apparently nobody ever saw him without even in rehearsals – he was the most captivating creature anyone had ever seen. Sequin and sparkle, feather and fur, he seemed always as though some gorgeous alien or animal creature had landed in their midst and could find nothing better to do with mankind than annoy it.

Loki sashayed through life as though it were all one big photo shoot. As though it were a music video. Even when he was lounging it was a pose. Every innocuous statement sounded affected and the affected statements sounded like they had been rehearsed well in advance. Nothing passed those perfectly curved and made up lips that did not sound perfect. Not a word dropped that sounded even slightly sincere. Any hint of what was genuine died within two metres of him.

And those lips, bruise-purple dusted with gold, black and sequined with stars, emerald green and lightning silver. They smirked and taunted , sneered and squirmed. Reflective eyes caught the shades that painted them, dazzling lightning bolts of make-up streaking one cheek, swirls and flourishes of black sweeping out from the eyes in points and curls, hints of gems in the corners of the eyes and on one occasion paper butterflies. Every feature of his face, it seemed, had to be a work of art.

Loki was a work of art. A walking, pretentiously talking one, and he knew it. His clothes were glorious; high heels, platforms, boots in every shade of kingfisher, marine, sunset and shadow, jeans so tight they looked as though they had been painted onto him. The first time Thor wondered how he ever undressed he found himself going furiously red, could feel the heat in his own face at just imagining it and could not imagine where that feeling had come from.

He never wore anything twice, with the exception of the emerald and swirling green pin that could always be found somewhere in his attire. Thor suspected that to a mind like that it would have been a positive sin to repeat an outfit. He was disgustingly trivial, and Thor had already told him so within the first day of attempting to share a rehearsal space. Loki had laughed affectedly as though this was a terrible compliment and replied –

"Darling, triviality is the only thing in this world worth taking seriously. We should always treat the trivial things seriously and the serious ones with sincere and studied triviality."

He had smiled at himself proudly, half consciously looking around him as though waiting for the applause, but Thor had read the occasional Wilde too and merely grunted in disgust before walking off to join his band.

Everything he said seemed to irritate Thor. Everything, it seemed, that he could manage was a rehashed witticism of somebody else's or a well-rehearsed one of his own. Even when Thor had, in frustration announced that it was impossible to have a normal conversation with him Loki had replied that the only conversations worth having were the ones it was hard to hold on to and that he should not desire anything as vulgar as normality even if one had the ill manners to offer it to him.

And then, in one unfortunate moment, Loki had overheard Thor screaming at Fandral, not for the first time –

"I just can't work with this utter cunt!"

He had turned around and Loki had just been standing there, having appeared as he often did, unexpected and silent as a shadow. He had simply slouched, ever so elegantly, back against the wall, raised a crystal glass – one Thor suspected he carried around with him as a bloody prop for such occasions- and smiled insinuatingly.

"I'm not entirely certain cunt is anything you would wish to work with anyway," he had purred archly, raised an eyebrow, tightened his smirk and stalked out slowly and with infinite superiority.

And all this was before the issues of music between the two bands even arose.

They did arise, and fast. After an altercation that had almost resulted in a punch up between drummers, it had been agreed that first morning that Terminal Deafness could take first rehearsal. In the lull after playing out two songs Thor had looked up to see the place deserted apart from his own band and Loki, damn the idiot , sat with his back to a pillar at the front of his own damn stage staring at him with a look of utter horror that made his eyes look huge and innocent and his perfect face angelically wronged.

"What?" Thor yelled, looming over him, not caring by now if it seemed threatening. Loki was not threatened; he looked up at the towering, angry, brick shit house of a rock star with a look of perfect insolence and cocked his head to one side –

"So tell me –" he said, and Thor knew already that it was going to take all of his will power not to punch the little shit in the face no matter what came out of his pretty mouth next – "Terminal Deafness – who came up with that one? And is it something from which you all suffer or just the state your audience would like to be in when you're done?"

Thor yelled incoherently and swiped to yank Loki up by his frilly shirt front. Loki dodged easily, jumping off the stage with feline grace and laughing at him from afar;

"Well play on, play on!" he mocked, executing a flourishing bow – "I'll just be in the next room – seeking solace for my ears," he added quickly and ran off.

When Illusion's Destiny reappeared half an hour later Thor stomped off the stage ungraciously to let them take their turn. He had been thrown by Loki and not had a good rehearsal and he grabbed him by the shirt this time as he headed up the stage –

"This better not suck, Laufeyson, or I'll tear you a new one," he growled.

"Ugh." Loki rolled his eyes, unfazed at being manhandled by the larger man – "You're an ill -mannered oaf. And will you please give over with the shirt front? This is a one off retro –"

"I don't give a fuck," Thor grunted, letting go of him fast rather than to have to hear any deeper details about his thrice damned designer clothing.

Just to check, he stayed to hear what they sounded like. After the first song, Loki smirked over to him in the audience and raised an eyebrow. Thor grimaced back;

"I think –" he grunted – "I'm going to be sick."

Loki smiled as though he was utterly delighted by this, made a tiny bow in Thor's direction and slipped into the next song. They were the kind of songs that slid and slipped and segued. Despite his comment Thor was not certain that he hated it, but he convinced himself he did because he hated Loki. He really hated Loki. He thought about how much as he watched him on the stage. When Loki was on the stage it was impossible to look anywhere else. He feared he himself had nothing like that charisma and hated him all the more for it. The music transported him from the alien amongst men way up into the clouds of a night sky where the audience could not help but feel they were looking up at this splendid being from above, glittering, bird like, reptilian and angelic all at once. His voice was otherworldly, ethereal, beckoning you in to swim with the music.

Loki was captivating and Thor hated it.

-x-

They played Carlisle three nights and by the second Thor was obsessing beyond what he had ever expected, over how much he hated Loki.

To his great distress the first night had gone down well.

"It was all us you fellas," Thor heard Loki laughing to his band as they sauntered into the bar afterwards – "Us heathens bringing these reprobates a little bit of class." Thor heard the band laugh at his band's expense and had grabbed Loki by the lapel this time, almost scratching his hand on the sequins. Loki was scaled that night, like a lizard, his gorgeous suit green in some lights, purple in others, all with a hint, a glimmer of gold dust that shimmered over his face and flicked out from his hair every time he moved his head.

"Ye-es?" Loki drawled politely. Thor had been certain this time he was really going to punch him and in the face of the overly cultured question did not know quite what to do. He let go of him roughly in disgust and started to turn away when Loki's ringing voice laughed out –

"Sweetie, if you'd wanted to touch me you could have just asked."

He whipped around; this time he was going to punch him. Luckily Fandral for once seized a timely moment and jumped between them pronouncing –

"Good news! When we finish our run here I've secured us five nights playing the Newcastle Arena. It's a big one guys, you're doing great!"

He looked from Thor to Loki and back again, as though having only just clocked the situation he had walked into, groaned and turned away from them.

"Fuck my life," Thor grunted and Loki smiled at him beamingly –

"Oh my," he breathed – "Won't this be fun."

_x_

By the way if I'm rude about Carlisle I'm allowed cause it's where I live :-P It's affectionate anyway, I love Carlisle. Just this one time, for a few chapters I thought it would be cute to see Thor and Loki in my home town, don't get a lot of chances for that! :-)

Sex will come, if not next chapter than the one after. :-)