Chapter 17
Heimdall pushed centaurs aside and shoved the Morrigan (and immediately regretted it for she was a goddess of death and glared at him icily) and elbowed his way through the crowd of gods and demi gods until he could see the fight more carefully.
And then he (or rather the author) remembered that if there was thing he was good at it was seeing things from quite far away, and so it was rather pointless of him to force his way to the front of crowd, but never mind, he was there now and among the other main characters.
'How's he doing?'
Hulk shook his head. 'Bad.'
They watched as Hercules held Thor in a head lock. Thor struggled and struggled, but could not break Hercules' grip.
'Thor, might be powerful, but Hercules is famed for his strength,' said Val. 'Now if Thor could hit him with a bolt of lightening...'
Heimdall hated to watch. It was a disaster.
He lent close to Loki and said loudly in her ear, 'I have to speak to you about Arthur.'
'I'm not responsible for him,' she shrugged, but then added, 'Is he safe?'
'Yes, but -'
'Oh, look there he is!'
Heimdall watched as the boy, no more than a dot compared to Thor and Hercules, dashed over the grass, head down and arms pumping back and forth in grim determination.
Arthur crashed into Hercules' side with all the force of a canon ball fired at close range. As Hercules flew backwards across the field, arms and legs pinwheeling, his face was a picture of utter surprise and shock. His heels clipped the noses of the raptured satyr who had craned its head back to watch as the god soared over the heads of the crowd.
The god hit the ground with an almighty crash, ripped up grass and soil rising up around him like a wave. He skidded on his back several feet before finally coming to a stop.
Hercules was still. The crowd was still. Thor was frozen in place and Loki had a grin stuck on her face.
Only Arthur moved, jumping up and down with hands above his head, chanting, 'Yay, yay, yay!'
Then the crowd began cheering. Loudly.
For a moment Thor could only stare at the child who had stolen his victory, the little slip of a boy who was stronger than he was, and felt a flash of resentment and then shame. But then he chose to be better than that and lifted Arthur onto his shoulders.
'Arthur!' he bellowed over the roar of the crowd so that they would know the boy's name and never forget it. 'The strongest of all of us!'
It was a little too much for Arthur – all the excitement, discovering his new found strength, and far too much ice-cream – and vomited over Thor's front.
Loki almost passed out from laughing so hard, laughed so hard that Hermes's winged sandals finally made their escape from the front of her dress. They fluttered away above the heads of the crowd.
'LOKI!'
The shrill, piercing cry caught everyone's attention. Hermes leapt onto Loki's back, pulling at her hair.
'I knew you stole my sandals, you thief!'
'You're a thief too!' Loki snarled, as she attempted to throw Hermes off.
'Exactly! I don't like being a victim of theft – OW!'
Sigyn had punched Hermes squarely in the face.
'Stay back, Sigyn, it's not – ' Loki warned, reaching for her dagger. 'Oh, you've already pinned him down.'
Sigyn pushed her knee into the small of Hermes back as she pushed his head down into the grass.
'You forget, Loki, I made it into the Nova Corps.'
Loki's expression melted into one of pure love and admiration. She spun round to shout at Thor, pointing at Sigyn.
'Thor, look! Look at what my girlfriend did! Can I marry her yet?'
'No!' Thor yelled back. 'And look out! Apollo is aiming – never mind...'
Apollo had seen his brother in distress and had swapped his guitar for his bow and arrow. He fired at Loki, but the arrow only skimmed past her face, leaving a trail of red across her cheek, and stuck itself into Hulk's shoulder.
All hell was let loose.
The next morning, the Aesir sat around the dining room on board the Statesman, battered and bruised and hung over. All except for Heimdall who stood before them with his arms tightly folded and a wearing a grim expression.
'Would any of you care to remind me why we attended the party in the first place?' he asked. 'Loki?'
Loki groaned loudly and rubbed his pounding forehead with trembling fingers.
'Shaddup...' he mumbled.
He wore a pair of thick, square shaped sunglasses. If anyone could see past the dark lenses they would see that his eyes were heavily bloodshot and the black eye from where Anasi had pounded his face with one of his many legs.
'Sigyn?'
The sunglasses remained silent.
'Leave her alone,' Loki slurred into his hand. 'Now that D-D...now that Thingy's confidence charm wore off she's on a...She's more shy than ever...'
'Very well. Your Majesty? Did you learn anything?'
Thor allowed his hands to drop away from his face. They landed on the table with a thud, making everyone present wince. His face and neck was covered with angry red marks.
'I learnt that Aengus Óg's swan wife knows how to hold her own. I almost got my face pecked off. And I learnt that Arthur has super strength, but doesn't know when to hold back. Apart from that, Heimdall, I've learnt nothing.'
Heimdall shook his head, appalled.
A smirk had appeared from under Loki's hand; he enjoyed watching Thor being scolded. Thor saw it and rapped the table with his knuckles. 'It's my turn...gimme...'
Loki looked pained to do so, but carefully removed the sunglasses from his face and passed them to his brother. Thor put them on gingerly. Loki stared at him bleerily.
'They suit you better than me,' he conceded sleepily. He placed his head onto the table. 'You look like a dude. Be careful with her.'
'This has been a political disaster!' Heimdall was wringing his hands together. 'You were supposed to be building bridges, making new allies for your people, but instead you all got drunk, stole things, acted childishly and got into a brawl! Don't you think we've enough enemies without having to add the Olympians to the list?'
No one answered him, until Bruce finally muttered, 'It was a good party, though. Hulk had a lot of fun.'
A collective groggy murmur of agreement from the others burnt up the last of Heimdall's patience. He stormed out of the room, slamming the door as loudly as possible. The whole room groaned.
Loki pushed himself upright with great effort and began rummaging around in his coat pocket.
'At least some good came out of it,' he said, releasing Hermes's sandals into the air. The wings were bent and missing a feather or two but were still able to flutter about. 'I managed to grab them during all the chaos.'
Val stared, wide-eyed. 'You stole them again?'
'What do you mean again? Sigyn stole them the first time, didn't you, Siggy? Well, I wasn't going to let my engagement gift go, was I?'
The sunglasses said nothing, but Bruce did notice that they seemed to change from black to a light pink shade.
'You know they'll be after us, don't you?' said Val.
Loki chuckled wickedly. 'I know! Truly, I love this. For the first time in my life it's not just the universe against me, it's the universe against us. Fun, isn't it?'
Thor sighed heavily and buried his head in his hands again.
'We're not going back,' he said.
AN: Hello, everyone. Thanks for reading. I'm sorry that this story went on for so long. I find writing difficult and juggling that and everything else makes it harder to produce something good. As you can see I find it difficult to keep the story tight. However, I have more time on my hands now, and feel a bit more relaxed about writing again.
Because of what is happening in the world I'm going to make some changes to my stories I had planned so that they're a bit lighter and more upbeat. For example, I wasn't going to give Loki and Sigyn time to get married before Thanos attacks, but I think I will now.
I also want to introduce Loki's Frost Giant Grandpa. Let's call him Frostpa :)
I hope you are all well. Take care. God Bless xxx
