Lilies Say Sorry

Loki knew when he uncorked the bottle of Asgardian wine and poured himself a glass that it was inevitable the ever curious Amelia would enquire about it; in fact, it was rather comical, like the ears of a hunted deer perking up at the sound of a snapping twig in an otherwise ominous silence - except it was Amelia's ears, and the sound of sloshing liquid as opposed to a twig.

The soft melody of Amelia's humming paused as she looked up across the couch, her eyes landing quizzically upon the deep crimson liquid as it streamed from the unmarked bottle into the receptacle; her gaze flicking between Loki and the 'mysterious' beverage.

"What's that?" Amelia asked, finally, and Loki smirked, placing the bottle down to pick up his drink; he brought it first to his nose to breathe in the spicy-fruity scent of the solution, and then to his lips where he took a small, savouring sip.

The rush of nostalgia was instantaneous and far more powerful in triggering spontaneous memories than the human equivalent was; he swallowed the wine, the tangy undertones piquant as it trailed down his throat and left a satisfying warmth in its wake. Loki recalled the delight of one of the more favoured tricks he'd played on his brother many years ago. It had been early afternoon when he, his brother, Sif and the Warriors Three had returned from an easy mission; Thor had been retelling of the moment he'd crushed the skulls of three separate enemies in the span of just a few seconds with his raw strength - as if they hadn't all been there to see it happen - and he'd been midway through downing a large goblet of ale when Loki had used his magic to cunningly transmute the remaining liquid in Thor's chalice into goat's milk.

It had been entirely unanticipated on Thor's part, and the sudden juxtaposition of flavours mingling together had caused him to gag and regurgitate, coughing foamy cream all over himself, leaving him with a very soppy, white beard. Sif had been quick to recoil from her place opposite the golden-haired prince, avoiding the repulsive shower of spittle, and Thor had proceeded to retch for several minutes, cursing Loki's name with the promise of revenge, all the while the God of Mischief had struggled not to snort wine out of his nose amongst his vicious laughter.

"This is mine." Loki answered, licking his lips to make sure he didn't miss a single drop.

Amelia's eyes narrowed, her gaze settling on the amused smirk playing across Loki's mouth, and gave the man a pointed look, "Well, can I have some?"

"Absolutely not."

Amelia's inquisitive smile melted into a formidable pout, a scandalised expression taking over her face that Loki surmised was far from serious.

"What, why not?" Amelia whined, cocking her head as she stared him down; and Loki chuckled to himself over her childish response.

"This is far too strong for you", he told her, and it wasn't a lie. The whole bottle of Asgardian wine could bring Loki, a god, to the level of moderate tipsiness; he knew not what kind of effects the alcohol would have on a mortal, but if he had to approximate, he supposed one small glass would be enough to knock the woman out for a good few hours.

"Are you kidding?" Amelia protested, watching on as Loki took another small mouthful, "Too strong for me? Do you know who you're talking to?"

Loki quirked an eyebrow at the brawn of her response, her words draped with such a powerful sass that it almost reminded him of himself; he smiled knowingly.

"Your alcohol tolerance may be high, but trust me, you will not like this."

This time, Amelia crossed her arms, puffing out her chest with indignation, as if it could make her look even the tiniest bit intimidating. "Can I maybe figure that out myself?"

A soft chuckle rumbled in Loki's throat and he shook his head, "You will not like it", he repeated matter-of-factly and Amelia gave and overdramatic roll of her eyes.

"Come on, James! After all the alcohol I've shared with you, you won't even let me try your…" she paused as she once again regarded the bizarre, labelless bottle, "...extremely strong homebrew?" She wiggled her fingers comically as she spoke, a facetious edge to her voice.

Again, Loki shook his head. He wouldn't allow himself to be swayed by Amelia's attempt to guilt-trip him, even as she puckered her lips in a saddened expression, tilted her head and widened her eyes till they were glossy behind her glasses. She even tried to bat her eyelids for the finishing touch to her adorable venture in manipulation.

"No." Loki told her, even as his stern resolve splintered ever-so-slightly.

"Please, James! Can't I just have a taste?" the dulcet tone of Amelia's voice was far too saccharine for Loki's ears and he released an audible sigh, having to push down the unusual sensation in his chest that arose just from her imploring words.

Amelia's eyes shined with victory, much to his dismay, as though she knew already that she'd succeeded in changing his mind.

"Fine. One sip. Nothing more."

As if her triumphant expression wasn't enough, Amelia clenched her hand in a not-so-subtle fist pump and Loki rolled his eyes in response, "You're not going to like it", he told her a third time, and the woman actually stuck her tongue out at him.

"Tch. How bad can it be?" Amelia asked rhetorically, holding out a hand expectantly.

Loki eyed her a moment longer, before offering his glass to her, trusting she wouldn't down the whole thing in one gulp in an effort to appear smug and self-congratulatory. Amelia took it, scanning the contents with an observant eye, as if trying to deduce from sight alone what kind of ingredients had formed the liquid.

She brought it to her lips and Loki waited in anticipation as she sipped the Asgardian wine; the seconds ticked by slowly in which Amelia assimilated the taste in her mouth, before she abruptly thrust the glass back into Loki's grasp and covered her lips with her hands.

"What the fuck?" she groaned after she'd reluctantly swallowed the mouthful, her face scrunched up in disgust, "What is in that?"

"I told you, you wouldn't like it." Loki spoke, an amused chuckle breezing past his lips as he watched the woman fan her mouth and make choked noises of displeasure.

"Oh God, it's worse than straight vodka!" Amelia cried, her voice a tad frantic, "In fact, I might have to wash that down with straight vodka, just to take the edge off!" She joked rather forcefully through the abhorrent taste in her mouth, which caused Loki to laugh aloud, throwing his head back in hilarity.

"I tried to warn you", Loki tittered, "But you just didn't listen."

"How can you stomach that?" Amelia whined, swallowing repeatedly to try and banish the burning taste from her mouth; her face had grown red and she looked as though she was suffering. Loki almost felt bad for laughing at her. Almost.

The wine may have had an overwhelming, nauseating taste for a human, but for Loki it tasted only of home.

Loki was three and a half glasses of wine deep when Amelia moved suddenly, hopping up from the couch to place her drink down on the coffee table; for the first time in a long while Loki felt pleasantly buzzed, the strong alcohol having done its job in mellowing him out a little, and for around an hour now, he had sat patiently, waiting for the consoling warmth to spread throughout his body and ease the tension from his muscles.

Amelia stretched, a pleasured moan falling from her lips as her back clicked when she raised her arms, and Loki's eyes darted down of their own accord to the small of her back where her sweater had ridden up, revealing soft and pale skin.

"How s'about some music?" Amelia suggested, crossing the room to reach the small set of speakers resting on the dresser, and it was clear from the vague slurring of her words that even the one sip of Asgardian wine had been enough to affect her - still, at least she was able to walk.

"Do you dance, James?" She cast him a toothy grin over her shoulder as she pulled her phone from her pocket and set it in the dock.

With a soft exhale through his nose, Loki chuckled, "Absolutely not." He wasn't drunk enough for that.

"What a shame." Amelia smiled, tapping the screen of her phone as she cycled through several songs, each of them apparently not appropriate enough for her current mood. Loki listened, hanging on to the first few notes of every song she skipped through - Midgardian music was far, far, different than the songs he'd grown up with on Asgard. He was used to choirs of men and women singing of battles from wars of the past, the strong baritone of men's voices and the high melodies of the women's conjoining to form some of his favourite tales. The music of Asgard relied more heavily on singing and less on instruments whereas humans seemed to be liberal when it came to throwing in a vast array of different musical implements.

Though, the first few notes of some of the songs Amelia passed did sound pleasing to his ears. There were soft and melodic keys of a piano that were accompanied by a soprano women's voice, followed by loud and harsh guitar chords, followed by a man and a woman launching into a romantic duet, and then something with flutes and light percussion. Amelia's music collection seemed to hold a vast range of different sounds, but Loki was growing somewhat irritated with the fact she was just flicking through them.

"Ah", Amelia breathed, finally deciding on a song, and the sound of drums, piano keys and guitar strings emanated from the speakers rhythmically. The woman smiled as she spun round and started bouncing to the music, meeting Loki's cynical look with a challenging glance.

"Don't give me that look! Just cause I can dance and you can't!" She giggled, swaying with what Loki assumed was drunkenness - though it could've just been her mediocre dance skills.

"I never said I couldn't dance. I just said I don't dance." Loki stated, raising his voice slightly to beat the volume of the music, "Besides, that isn't dancing."

He gestured to Amelia as she began to spin and take overly complicated steps with her feet, seemingly improvising as she went along, before holding a dramatic stance, joining the vocals as they started up.

"They came at night, leaving fear behind. Shadows were on the ground. Nobody knew where to find him, no evidence was found-" Amelia's voice was surprisingly strong, and in-tune, as she sang along with the performer in the recording, jumping about in her supposed attempt to sway with the music, "'I'm never coming back', they heard him cry, and I believed him. Well, he never meant to do anything wrong, it's gonna get worse if he waits too long!"

Her exaggerated arm movements and unnecessary pointing made her look ridiculous, and she appeared as though she was reenacting a theatrical stage performance as opposed to singing and dancing to a song; Loki felt embarrassed just watching her, but at the same time it was undeniably entertaining, and a smile graced his lips.

"Billy, Billy don't you lose my number, cause you're not anywhere that I can find you! Oh, now, Billy, Billy don't you lose my number- ow, fuck!" She had gotten a little too caught up in her dance and rendition that she had misjudged the distance between her foot and the coffee table when she'd kicked her leg out.

While she hopped in place and hissed through the pain of her stubbed toe, Loki grabbed ahold of his bottle of wine which had almost been knocked off balance. "Careful!" he snickered, steadying it as he placed it down again, "You're out of control."

"I totally am not out of control!" Amelia protested, returning to her unbridled dance moves with a slight limp to her foot; she continued to sing as the second verse began, "Searching through the day and into the night, they wouldn't stop till they found him. They didn't know him and they didn't understand. They never asked him why!"

Loki kept his eyes on Amelia as she twirled round the back of the couch, shaking his head at her drunken wildness.

"'Get out of my way', they heard him shout, then a blinding light. Oh, all I could see was him running down the street, out of the shadows and into the night!" She sang, coming around to Loki's other side; this time she didn't spring into the chorus as it began, but instead she bobbed in place before him, giving him a teasing smile.

"Dance with me", she spoke, beckoning him to stand with a wiggle of her finger.

"No", Loki objected, shaking his head in dissent. Amelia bit her lip, pushing her lips out in another calculating and crafty little pout.

"But you said you can dance!" She whined, "Come on, don't be boring!"

When Loki's eyes narrowed, unaffected by her goading, Amelia's face grew a tad roguish and she leaned down over him, resting one hand against the back of the couch to steady herself while the digits of her free hand clasped his tie. She tugged it gently, effectively pulling him just a little bit closer, and Loki's eyes widened minutely as his gaze darted questioningly across her face.

"If you're so sure you can dance, then why don't you show me how it's done?"

Loki swallowed, his movements slow and precise as he extracted his tie from Amelia's hand, holding hard eye contact as he knocked back the remainder of the wine in his glass. He stood, placing the empty receptacle on the table as he rose, and Amelia took a step back as he towered intimidatingly above her.

Without a word, he turned and strode towards the speakers, his unreadable expression inciting a protest from Amelia as though she believed he was going to halt the music. Instead, he tapped the 'next' button, skipping several loud or fast-paced songs until he found one that was suitable.

Harmonious guitar strings sounded, a sweet and fitting tempo, and Loki turned back to Amelia, holding out his hand. The God of Mischief found uninhibited delight in the way Amelia's eyebrows shot up in surprise; clearly, she had not expected this, but moved towards him without objection.

She took his hand - with the wrong hand; clearly she had never Waltzed before - and Loki restrained a roll of his eyes, positioning her left hand on his right shoulder before taking her right hand in his left. Amelia swallowed nervously, her eyes darting briefly to their feet and back up to Loki's face; watching a smug smirk come over his features.

His right hand took its place, trailing with a feather-light touch up her side to rest high on her back, and he felt Amelia give an involuntary tremble at the contact.

"I can not dance like this", Amelia breathed, an anxious giggle escaping her mouth.

"Darling, you cannot dance at all", Loki taunted teasingly, his smile growing at the playful indignation in Amelia's eyes, "Relax, we'll go slow."

'Give me love like her, cause lately I've been waking up alone.'

The vocals of the song joined the mellifluous instrumentals and Loki swayed purposefully, taking unhurried steps with the expectation that Amelia would copy him - and she did, haphazardly; the movements were slower than when he had learnt to dance in his youth, but the leisurely tempo of the music was apposite enough.

'Paint splattered teardrops on my shirt, told you I'd let them go.'

"Eyes up", Loki told her, and Amelia's gaze lifted from the floor, a hint of incredulity in her eyes as she struggled to predict the motions of the dance.

"I'm going to trip over", she squeaked, "I don't know the steps."

"You won't fall", Loki assured her, "I don't expect you to be brilliant at this."

"Because I'm drunk?"

"Because you have no rhythm." He corrected, a touch of mirth in his impish tone.

"You're so mean", Amelia murmured, though it was a half-hearted scolding; she was far too busy trying to concentrate on not stumbling over her own feet.

'Give a little time to me, or burn this out. We'll play hide and seek to turn this around.'

Despite his jest over Amelia's discoordination, he had to give her credit; the woman was quick to learn the correct manoeuvres, and rightly anticipated when Loki was about to rotate so that she could act accordingly.

'All I want is the taste that your lips allow. My my, my my, give me love.'

Amelia's smile grew bright, and she gave a soft yelp when Loki spun her around, hurriedly returning her arm to rest above his, with her hand on his shoulder to continue the congruous dance.

"Amelia", Loki spoke softly, "Eyes up."

Her gaze had once again fallen to ensure she did not step on his toes and she looked apologetic when she peered back up at him, "Sorry! I feel like I'm gonna bring us both tumbling to the floor", she laughed, biting her lower lip sheepishly.

There was zero chance of that happening. She couldn't topple him over with just a misstep; Loki's strength and elegance made sure of that, but Amelia clearly needed something to bolster her confidence.

"Have a little faith in yourself", he encouraged, "You're actually… alright at this."

Amelia's cheeks reddened at the compliment, her face beaming with swelling pride, before she let out a breathy laugh, "You were literally just saying I had no rhythm, James!"

Loki laughed, the brief moment of merriment causing him to step forward a little more forcefully than intended, resulting in their chests bumping together, which threw Amelia off balance. She staggered with a yelp, but Loki caught her and reflexively pulled her closer till they were pressed together.

"That was your fault!" Amelia giggled almost deliriously, apparently finding great entertainment from Loki's lapse in grace.

"I can only apologise", Loki spoke, fighting down a smile in response to the woman's infectious laughter.

'You know I'll fight my corner, and that tonight I'll call ya after my blood is drowning in alcohol. No, I just wanna hold ya.' The music continued to play as their unprofessional waltzing ceased; the two of them continued to swing gently to the song as Amelia's arms latched together around Loki's shoulders while his hands rested upon her waist.

She was warm against him, her head resting on his shoulder, and he could feel the tickle of her breath dancing across the side of his neck. The magnificent smell of vanilla rose from her hair and perforated his senses, and he dipped his head gingerly, his nose brushing against her head to seek more of the dazzling scent.

Amelia pulled back slightly at the contact, looking up with chaste curiosity to meet his ardent gaze, and Loki took in the minute widening of her brown eyes - her eyes that, in the right light, resembled the hue of sunlight shining through a bottle of whiskey - speckled with gold and stimulating silent wonderment.

They were close. Intimately so.

It took Loki a moment to realise that the steady beating he heard was not the change of song in the background but in fact the sound of blood rushing past his ears, his heart thumping heavily in his chest.

There was an impulse behind it. An almost painful, sharp feeling encroaching through his ribcage, urging him to close the gap between them, to dip his head and kiss her.

Amelia's eyes flickered fleetingly down to his mouth, her own mouth parting scrupulously as an unspoken question sparked in her gaze, and Loki's tongue darted out instinctively to wet his suddenly very dry lips.

Her fingers stroked the back of his neck, sliding up to entwine in his hair, tender and affectionate; Loki's breath stalled in his chest the moment he realised they were merely inches apart.

He pushed her away gently, his eyes wide as though he had been spooked.

"I have to go." He turned away, Amelia's soft noise of disappointed confusion audible to him even above the music, and grabbed the still-unfinished bottle of Asgardian wine as an afterthought before making his way steadfastly to the exit of the apartment. He ignored Amelia's quiet protest, too agitated by his own actions to entirely comprehend the hurt expression on her face as he shut the door behind him, taking off down the hallway.

In the elevator, he pressed his heated forehead against the cool metal wall, shutting his eyes tightly as he tried to make sense of what had just happened.

Notes: Songs referenced are 'Don't Lose My Number - Phil Collins' and 'Give Me Love - Ed Sheeran'. I know I'm a huge tease. Sorry, not sorry. Payoff is sooner than expected though ;) Especially if I get more lovely reviews to help motivate me! WINK WONK!