bluepixystyx asked: Hello, can you please write Lokane prompts 20 (dysfunctional relationship au)and/or 28 (knocking on the wrong door au). Thank you very much!
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"So," Doctor Worton asked, setting the tip of her fountain pen on the blank page of her notepad, "why are we here today?"
Two young adults sat before her, both nearly twenty. One was tall and dark-haired, his long, lithe limbs stretched out around him in a way that made his half of the couch seem more like a throne than anything else. Hw wore a crisp white button down, slacks, and some very expensive leather shoes. The other was a coffee-haired girl with big, whisky-colored eyes and a deep scowl, her much more petite body nearly squashed into the armrest. She wore what looked like an old men's sweatshirt, jeans, and a pair of faded green Converse; nearly the polar opposite of the man on the other side of the couch. Her arms were crossed over her stomach, and she looked like all she wanted to do was throw herself out of the floor-to-ceiling windows in her office.
The two shared a look before answering, one that spoke of years of companionship between them, even if the girl looked like she wanted to rip the boy's head off, and the boy looked as though he was in the midst of a grand old game. It was he who answered, turning his head lazily back in the direction of the psychologist even as those piercing green eyes remained cool.
"We're here because my dearest mother finally decided she could no longer withstand Jane's screaming," he explained in that lilting, British accent, all charming baritone and cheeky smile full of teeth.
Jane squawked indignantly at the comment, her cheeks flushing with her fury as she watched him. "I wouldn't be screaming if you could just keep to yourself for five minutes!" Huffing angrily, she turned her gaze on the older woman who sat across from them. "We're really here because he has been driving me up the wall since the moment I got back from school. I can't find any peace and quiet, my stuff is always being stolen, he is constantly pulling pranks on me, and just- just being mean!"
Doctor Worton sat back a bit in her chair, her hand lifting to adjust her glass on the bridge of her nose as she watched the two people on the couch stare one another down. They looked like they could be brother and sister, by the way they bickered, but there was something slightly… off about the whole arrangement.
"Well, it does sound like we have a bit of a problem to get through," she replied evenly as she scribbled a note on her pad without looking. Her keen eyes shifted from one to the other, trying to figure out what was causing the obvious tension between them. "But before we get into that, I would like to hear about your family life. I understand that you were adopted, Jane."
The young woman looked away from her adversary and nodded, shrinking back into her cushion. "My parents passed away when I was eight," she explained, her tone tempered into something solemn. "Odin and Frigga were my godparents, and since my Uncle Erik couldn't take me, they did."
"She was never legally adopted, though," Loki added, resting his elbow on the armrest. His tone was dry, almost mocking, and the doctor arched an eyebrow in response to it. "That was me."
"But either way, you have been living with them since your parents passed away, correct?" she asked, neatly ignoring the goading smile the boy sent her. He obviously needed counseling all for himself, but right now she was there to get to the bottom of the animosity between them.
Jane nodded again, her fingers twining together in her lap. "Yes. They've been my family for a long time." Her big brown eyes flicked to Loki, who was staring at his cuticles in boredom rather than paying attention. Her lips pursed, and one didn't have to be a psychologist to see the pain that flickered in her eyes when he didn't even bother to look at her.
"I take it this… conflict is a new development, then."
"Yeah," Jane admits, her brows scrunching together as she leaned forward. "I mean, we've always bickered, but he's been…" She waved her hand helplessly in the direction of her foster brother, whose eyes had immediately focused on her when she was no longer looking at him. His face was placid, but Doctor Worton did not miss the way his right leg slowly leaned against hers, their knees touching. Jane didn't seem to notice, but some part of her relaxed at the contact, the tense line of her shoulders softening minutely.
Her pen flew across the page of her notebook.
"I am no different than I've always been, Jane," Loki said, clicking his tongue in a scolding way. "But either way, I will not be addressing our personal matters in front of a complete stranger, doctorate or no."
The psychologist looked over the rim of her glasses at him, weigh the cold look in his eyes with the way he seemed to be nearly squashing Jane out of sight. "I'm only here to help," she explained kindly, resting her pen on her notepad. "We're just here to talk about things, and figure out where this animosity is coming from, Loki."
"I have no animosity towards Jane," he told her briskly, those sharp green eyes of his focused solely on her. "I never have."
Getting to the meat of it now, I guess, she thought, squaring her shoulders.
"Then why have you been acting this way with her, Loki? From what your mother tells me, it would seem like you are deliberately torturing her."
Loki's lips twitched upward, but the expression was not a smile. It was mocking, and she was a bit unsettled to feel the tiny hairs on her arms prickle at the sight of all those perfect, square teeth. "I don't have to explain anything to you," he told her, leaning back into the couch. His broad shoulder pressed against Jane's delicate one, fusing them together nearly from knee to shoulder.
Doctor Worton's eyes narrowed at the sight.
"The two of you seem close," she noted evenly. Very close. Her speciality was siblings, and something was not… right, about these two. Perhaps it was the fact that Jane was technically not his sister, or maybe it was all the change with college and whatnot, but even that didn't seem right. There was something else there that she couldn't quite put her finger on.
"We've been best friends since we were little," Jane replied, leaning slightly to her left, into Loki. "We just don't see each other as much as we used to, I guess. I mean, we both go to Harvard, but he's in Business School and I'm in Astrophysics. Our schedules don't exactly overlap that much."
The psychologist nodded, sensing that perhaps they were getting to the root of the problem now. She watched as a muscle in Loki's jaw ticked when she explained about their schedules, and she smelled an opening. "Tell me," she casually began, "if you haven't been spending as much time together lately, who have you been with? College is a time for new friends and relationships, after all."
His jaw ticked again.
"Well, I've made a couple friends," Jane admitted, some enthusiasm returning to her features. "Darcy is my roommate, and we get along really well. I don't have a lot of classes with her, but we hang out a lot."
No jaw tick. Interesting.
"What about romantic relationships?" she prodded gently. "Have you been out on any dates?"
A flush rose in Jane's cheeks and a nervous laugh escaped her as she ran her fingers through her hair. Beside her, Loki had gone completely still.
"Yeah, I guess," she admitted, scratching her nose. "I met this guy in my BioChem class named Don. We were going out until just this summer. We're… on break now." Doctor Worton watched as Jane fidgeted and the tick in Loki's jaw return with a vengeance.
She opened her mouth to ask another question, but Loki beat her to it. "It must have been hard to see him," he quipped with mock sympathy, "what with your busy schedule and all that."
Jane went silent for a moment, her expression souring. Obviously, this was an old argument, and one that had never been resolved. The psychologist glanced between the two, a niggling suspicion beginning to form in the back of her mind.
"Loki," she said, "I'm getting the feeling that perhaps you're feeling a bit neglected by Jane now that she's dating. Is that perhaps the source of tension you feel with your sister or-"
"She is not my sister!" Jane jumped in surprise, but she was too experienced to outwardly react to the snarl. On the inside, she was truly startled by the sudden show of emotion. Loki's fingers curled into a fist as he fumed, his expression cooling into something like quiet rage as he watched her.
"Doctor Worton," he began, voice low and dangerous, "I thought you were paying attention earlier. Jane is not my sister. She was never adopted. She never took my last name. She is in no way related to me."
Not to "us". "Me." That, more than anything else, told her what she had begun to suspect was probably true.
"Furthermore," he continued, this time looking at Jane instead. His voice was less harsh this time. More scolding. "I do not appreciate the suggestion that Jane and I cannot manage this by ourselves. It's always been the two of us. We don't need anyone else to fix us."
Jane was looking up at Loki with wide eyes, her lips slightly parted as she absorbed whatever subtext Loki had layered into his little speech. "You should not have abandoned me for Don, Jane," he told her, scowling deeply. "He wasn't worth your time, and I'm offended that you don't wish to spend time with me anymore. If the only way to get your attention is to have you screaming at me, then so be it."
Two things became abundantly clear to Doctor Worton then: one, that it was not familial strain that caused the tension between them, and two, that Frigga had a much bigger situation on her hands than two squabbling young adults.
Loki was right. They weren't siblings.
"You started it," Jane accused indignantly, "with Veronica. The first month of school, when I didn't know anyone, you go out with the first floozy you find and throw her in my face every five minutes. How do you think that made me feel?"
They weren't even like cousins.
"So you hook up with Donald?" Loki asked, cool as a cucumber. "How soon did you let him in your dorm room, I wonder. Soon enough to forget all about me, about your best friend."
They were lovers.
Stunned by the realization, Doctor Worton could only sit back and watch as the two began to bicker in earnest, throwing jabs and accusations back and forth like a seasoned married couple. The whole time, their thighs never strayed from where they were pressed against each other, and once Loki even hooked his finger under her chin and turned her face back to his, as if he had done it a thousand times before.
By the looks of it, they didn't really know what they were doing. She doubted they had even acknowledged whatever feelings they had for one another, but they were there. In force.
I'm not a couple's counselor, she thought, dazed. Frigga would need a whole team of psychologists to sort that mess out.
But she doubted even the most skilled team would be able to stop what was happening from reaching its inevitable conclusion. They were in too deep, and the more she watched them, she more she could almost feel the sexual tension and jealousy pouring from them.
She felt like she was witnessing a dam breaking, and neither hell nor high water could save them.
At least they aren't related?