Author's Note: Four different languages are spoken in this chapter! To keep it all straight, I typed each one in a different style.

"This is Japanese."
"This is English."
"This is Norwegian."
"This is Old Norse."

Chapter 34: Honeymoon in Norway... Day 1

They had been on the plane for several hours, and both Loki and Mayura had gotten some sleep on the last flight before landing in Oslo Norway. The trip hadn't been bad, except for the extremely long transfer wait in Russia... something about a stress fracture in the left wing detected during pre-flight inspection. That didn't really boost Mayura's confidence in foreign airlines, and consequently, had been jumpy as soon as the plane took off until exhausted, she fell asleep.

"We will be landing in Oslo Norway shortly. Would you kindly..."

"Mayu-chan... Mayu-chan..." whispered Loki as he shook her. Mayura opened her eyes sleepily and tried to focus on Loki. "Time to wake up sleepy head. We're about to land" he informed her as he kissed her temple.

Mayura quickly brighten up, although still very sleepy. "We're going to be in Norway?"

"Yup and when we get off and collect our luggage we can pick up our room keys and take a well deserved rest. What do you think?"

"Sounds good to me Loki," replied Mayura as she pulled her seat back to the full upright position yawning.

The plane landed uneventfully. "Attention, attention please, the time in Oslo Norway is now one forty-five pm. I repeat. The time in Oslo Norway is now one forty-five pm. Thank you for using..."

"Loki, what did the lady on the intercom say? She was speaking too fast."

"It's one forty-five."

"Oh"

"All passengers please exit the plane in a safe and orderly fashion. Have a nice day."

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Taking the electronic card key the front desk had given him; Loki opened their hotel room door. Inside was an average hotel room. There was one king sized bed, a desk, two end tables with lamps, a reclining arm chair, television, alarm clock, and a phone by the bed. Mayura went over and inspected the end table with the alarm clock first.

"Mayu-chan, what are you doing?"

"I want to see if it's true," replied Mayura opening up the end table's the top draw.

"To see if what was true?" asked Loki confused.

"If there really is one in every hotel room," she answered Loki, as if that should have solved all his questions. "It is!" Mayura exclaimed pulling out a Christian Bible.

Loki sweat-dropped. "But Mayu-chan, you don't even believe in that religion. Why would you care?"

"Because it's a fushigi mystery of course! Everyone says it's true, but you have to check to see if it's true Loki! It's like a law or something." Mayura paused. "Umm, Loki..."

"Yes"

"I never asked you before, because... you never seemed to bother with it, and you didn't say a word when I asked for a Shinto wedding. What religion do you believe in? Or are you atheist?"

Loki was taken off guard by this question. Atheist? Me, atheist... umm, I don't think so Mayu-chan. It's kind of hard to not believe in your own existence.

"I'm sorry Loki. I shouldn't have asked that. I..."

"No, it's okay Mayu-chan. We're married after all right? Don't you think I should at least tell my wife what I believe in? I thought you already knew so that's why I didn't tell you before. I believe in the Norse gods. I'm definitely not atheist Mayu-chan. Remember me, connected to the Norse GOD Loki?"

"Oh yeah, oops... It's just that it's hard to think about Norse Mythology of a real religion, because everyone calls it mythology! I guess I should be a little more careful about that huh? Especially since the first god I began to believe in again was Loki-sama," giggled Mayura.

"That would probably be a good idea Mayu-chan. Now hurry up so we can get some sleep ok?" So naïve and unobservant at times... and yet at other times she can see the center of a complex tangled problem. You're definitely your own mystery Mayu-chan.

"Cute pajamas Loki. What's the occasion?"

"I don't trust the maid service to not come tomorrow morning," answered Loki already in bed.

"How do I look?" asked Mayura twirling around.

"Beautiful as always, but very sleepy, come on into bed." Loki yawned.

Climbing in, Mayura laid down next to Loki. She sighed, "I'm sorry. We've already been married two days almost and I promised you but we still haven't..."

Loki placed his finger over her mouth, stopping Mayura from finishing her sentence. "It's not that important Mayu-chan. We're both tired and neither of us would enjoy it. Besides we have the whole vacation... I'm sure we can make up for it, hmm?"

Mayura giggled and kissed him gently on the lips. "Good night." Loki wrapped his arms around Mayura and held her tight to himself as they both fell into a deep sleep.

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Loki was the first to wake up the next morning to the sounds of quiet cleaning. Opening his eyes reluctantly, Loki saw the maid cart full of dirty towels. Getting up out of bed, Loki walked over to the room's bathroom where the maid was currently cleaning. "Excuse me..."

"Yes sir?" asked the maid turning around.

"We had put the do not disturb sign on our door early last afternoon after we got in from Japan..."

"Oh! I'm so sorry sir. Someone must have taken the sign. Here's a new one. I keep plenty in stock," replied the elderly maid pointing to the basket full of 'Do not disturb' signs. "You said you're from Japan? Why have you come to Norway?"

"I'm originally from this area and my wife and I are on our honeymoon."

"That's wonderful to hear. I'll just put you on my special no not disturb list," she stated writing down the room number on a clip board. "I'm the only maid for this floor, so don't worry about losing that silly little sign again. How many days will you be here?"

"Five days."

"Well I'll leave you and your wife alone now. Sorry for the rude morning awakening. You must still be tired after traveling from Japan. I hope you have a nice stay in Norway young man." Winking, the maid left the room. Down the hall Loki could hear the maid talk to herself, "They just seem to get younger and younger. Oh silly girl, you've just gotten older. There was a day when I was as spry as the wind in March and the young men were dying to get my name..."

Loki shut the door and locked it before returning to Mayura who was still sleeping soundly on the bed. Not feeling tired; Loki laid back down and began to softly stroke Mayura's hair. A mere twenty minutes later, the sun had risen enough to shine through the gap in the curtains and fall into her eyes. Trying to hide from the sun, Mayura curled up and buried her head into Loki's chest. But his low chuckle woke her up anyway.

"Good morning fuzzy head. You slept right through the morning maid service."

"Loki's warm," stated Mayura, hugging him tight as she tried to go back to sleep.

"Not quite up yet? Don't worry I can fix that," commented Loki playfully. Rolling over, Loki positioned himself above Mayura and gently kissed her on the lips before repeatedly kissing her neck teasingly. Mayura sighed and he stopped.

"Loki, why did you stop?" asked a now annoyed and fully awake Mayura.

"You're awake now aren't you?" he replied with a mischievous smile. Kissing her one more time Loki straightened up to sit on the bed.

"Loki!" whined Mayura as she sat up as well. Picking up a pillow she began to hit him repeatedly with it. "Don't tease me like that." Loki meanwhile, was doing his best to block her attacks. Taking a huge swing, Mayura raised the pillow over her head. Seeing an opportunity, he lunged in and kissed Mayura squarely on the lips with enough force to push here back onto the bed. His hands began to roam. Forgetting what she had been doing, Mayura let go of the pillow to wrap her arms around Loki's neck.

He eventually stopped the kiss to breath. Smiling possessively, Loki poked Mayura's nose and commented huskily, "I'm you're husband. I'm allowed to tease you as much as I want to. And it's so much fun to tease you Mayu-chan," he finished whispering in her ear, before he began to kiss down her jaw. "But... now that you're awake," he added between kisses, "I think I'm in the mood for a little bit more. And you still owe me that promise..."

"Please Loki..."

Loki kissed Mayura again as he slid the spaghetti straps of her nightgown around her shoulders and down her arms. "You're wish is my command beloved."

Later in the day, Loki and Mayura were walking hand in hand around downtown Oslo. Loki hadn't planned for them to do anything more that day than just walk around and take in the city. Mayura was quite content to do just that, since everything seemed new and exciting to her. This also gave Loki a chance to catch up on the local dialect—as he hadn't been in any of the Scandinavian countries in several decades. He even found the general cityscape sightseeing they were doing enjoyable. It had been over a century since he had been in Oslo itself, and he was fairly impressed. At the current moment, they were window shopping in a strip that had a little bit of everything.

"Even though this is a city... it's seems so small and personal Loki. Nothing like Tokyo," commented Mayura in wonder.

"That's not really surprising Mayu-chan. Oslo only has a population of 500,000 or so. The whole country only has an estimated 4,500,000 people. The population of at least two Norways could be stuffed into Tokyo!"

(A/n: Tokyo has a population estimated between 8 and 12 million people. It depends on what population map I use and if you include the suburbs or just the city proper.)

"Wow, I knew Tokyo was big, but I didn't know it was that big!" Mayura giggled. "The costumes on these dolls look so funny."

Loki chuckled as well. "I have to agree with you Mayura."

"If they were really people, how would they stand up? I'd fall over backwards. If you sat down, you'd never by able to get back up! Fushigi mystery!"

"I don't think anyone really wore those types of clothes Mayu-chan. They're made to look pretty on the doll. But it is funny to think about." Together Mayura and Loki laughed, pointing at one thing or another in the various windows.

"Oh! Let's go into this store," stated Mayura pointing. "It'll be neat to see how they dressed!"

"How do you know what's in this store?" asked Loki confused, "You can't read the name." He nevertheless allowed Mayura to drag him towards it.

"The picture of course, everyone one knows that picture right?" Looking in the direction Mayura was pointing too, Loki finally understood. On the window was a large poster of Hagar the Horrible with the word 'clothes' written in English underneath.

Loki wanted to smack his forehead. Hagar the Horrible... I should have known. Either this is going to be very painful or extremely hilarious. "Lead the way Mayu-chan."

Mayura opened the door, causing a bell to ring. "Hello, is anyone here?"

A large crash was heard before a young man, no older than twenty-five, ran to the front desk. "Sorry I wasn't here when you came in. Today's the first day of business and well... everything's not quite as ready as hoped for," rambled on the man trying to catch his breath. "Oh, I'm sorry. Where are my manners? Welcome to 'The Clothes of the Vikings'. You two are my first costumers," continued the man amiably.

"Loki, what did he say?"

"He welcomed us to the store, and told us that we're the store's first costumers."

"You can understand me sir? I can try to speak English, but it's not that good unfortunately. I've never been serious in my studies. Always something more interesting to work on," he began to ramble again.

"I can speak Norwegian. My wife can't however," replied Loki. "She does know some English though."

"Ah... and who was interest in try something on?"

"That would be me," responded Mayura shyly.

"I think something we have that will look quite nice on you. How about it? Free of charge."

Mayura looked back at Loki. "If you want to, go ahead Mayu-chan. We don't have to be anywhere today." Looking back at the man from the store, she nodded her head in agreement.

"Helga... Helga! We have a costumer that needs your help." Walking in much more sedately was a woman about the same age as Mayura, and although much taller, she was of a similar build.

"Hello, my name is Helga. You want to try on one of our costumes?" asked the woman in much more fluent English. Mayura once again nodded her head. "I think I know which one would suit you best. Please follow me to the changing rooms Miss...?"

"Mrs. Farbautisen," corrected Mayura as she followed Helga into the next room.

"How long have you to been married if I may ask?"

"Two days. We're on our honeymoon."

"Congratulations Mr. Farbautisen. I got married only last year... beautiful ceremony... By the way, what language were you and the young Mrs. speaking?"

"Japanese"

"Ah, I study the dead languages. My wife thinks I'm nut, and insists all the time to learn a useful language... like English, but I never listen."

"Oh? What languages do you study?"

"Ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew..." he answered counting on his fingers. "I know, I know, Hebrew is still spoken, but how many people are you going to find speaking it around here? But my favorite has to be Old Norse, considering my name and all. Oh I'm so sorry. I haven't told you my name yet. I had what I was going to say all prepared and practiced, but I'm just so excited today it's fled from my mind. And here I am still rambling to you. I'm Thor Olsen, a pleasure to meet you."

Loki laughed, "I don't mind. You remind me a lot of my wife actually." A certain other Thor too. "And I'm Loki, Loki Farbautisen."

"Nice to meet you Loki, I've met plenty of Odins, several other Thors, a handful of Freyrs—including my older brother, and a Freya or two, but I have to admit... it's the first time I've met a Loki. Although with your last name, my mother wouldn't have been able to resist either," laughed Thor good naturedly. He turned, hearing his wife just about finished. "I'll be back in a second. I have to at least get your wife's entrance right huh?" Thor ran out of the room and left Loki alone. Coming back in a minute later he announced, "I would like to introduce Mayura Misaodatter, wife of Loki Farbautisen."

Loki was speechless. Opposite of his first impression upon the store—due to the Hagar the Horrible poster—the garment's work was emaculate and completely accurate. He stared at Mayura in awe. She was wearing an ankle length dress of linen with a bright red apron attached to it by two broaches. At the top of the apron to the left side was a broach with a knife, a pair of scissors, and a set of old fashion keys hanging from it. Behind her back was a shawl made from the same material as the apron. It too was fastened by a broach centered at the base of her neck. Finishing the garment, Mayura was wearing a tight scarf that was knotted at the base of each ear, symbolizing that she was married. Not knowing what else to do, Loki stepped forward to stroke Mayura's face gently. "I never thought I would see you in something like this Mayura. You look so beautiful. The feelings I had when I heard your name pronounced as my wife in my native language... they were surreal. If only I could here those words pronounced by Odin himself... somehow allowing us to live together for more than your mortal years. I love you Mayura, stronger and deeper than I ever thought was possible."

"Loki, are you okay?" asked Mayura.

Her Japanese words brought Loki out of the almost trance like state he had fallen into. "I'm alright. I was just singing your praises Mayu-chan."

"You think it looks good on me?" asked Mayura lifting up her arms and looking down at herself.

"Exquisite," he replied before kissing her gently on the lips.

"Can I assume that you like it?" inquired Helga.

"It is beautiful..." began Mayura.

"We'll buy it," informed Loki.

"Oh no, it on me. Think of it a present between Thor and his best friend," he insisted. "Would you please sign our guestbook before you leave?"

As requested Loki went over and began to sign the shop's guestbook. He paused and thought for several minutes before writing anything. Just as he had put the pen down, Mayura came out of the back room holding a paper bag. "Ready to go?"

"Yup, everything is fine." Mayura turned towards Thor and Helga. "Thank you so much, you've really made today wonderful. I'll never forget you, I promise! Can I take your picture?" Thor and Helga stood together in front of the Hagar the Horrible poster for Mayura. #Click#

"We'll never forget you either, Mr. and Mrs. Farbautisen," replied Thor and Helga together as Loki and Mayura walked down the street.

Back inside the store Helga asked her husband, "What was that young man saying? It was in Old Norse wasn't it?"

"He was talking really fast, like he was fluent or something. I don't think I heard it right, or at least I misunderstood bits and pieces of it. I wonder what he wrote." Thor walked over to the guestbook and stood speechless for several seconds. Looking over to the names column he read, "Loki and Mayura Farbautisen." Still not believing his eyes, Thor picked up the pure gold ring left on top of the comments section. Underneath the ring was a paragraph written in Norse Runes. Speaking slowly, Thor deciphered what was written, "The ring is courtesy of Odin, but don't worry, he gets six-hundred new ones a day. He doesn't notice one, two, three... a couple of thousand missing. Trust me; he has entire rooms filled with them. Best friends forever Thor, Loki Farbautisen Laufeyiarson."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that we were graced with the presence of a god... Loki Laufeyiarson was our first costumer, and in his own way has given us his thanks."

"The Loki Laufeyiarson?"

"The one and only..."

"His thanks for what?"

"I didn't misunderstand what he said in Old Norse then... It all makes sense now..."

"What does?!" asked his wife impatiently. "I think I need to sit down..."

"Really a nice guy, not what you would expect from the god responsible for Ragnarok."

Author's Note: I loved writing this chapter.And I hadn't even intended to write it! I was sitting at the computer typing and all of a sudden this extra chapter happened. I originally intended this chapter to be a paragraph in the next chapter. Oh well.

To Bibliomaniac: Fluffy fluffy stuff of course, with a little foreshadowing.

To LittleGreenWolf: Not quite evil foreboding stuff, but there is something that has yet to be revealed.

To Ytak: I understand what you're saying. But there will be more mention of Loki's 'scruffy' past later.

To Lare: For now at least my chapters are going to be about this length. And as for the difficulty in writing the chapter, it really wasn't bad. I knew what had to be done and then just wrote dialogue in-between. But trying to make it sound real and not like a school report was a challenge—especially since I've never seen a Shinto wedding!

To I really luv Thor: I know. I do quite a bit of Loki smashing. Especially considering I like him the best. Loki, Loki, Loki...

To Kuroi Kitty: malika-azrael's "Dearest" is story #36 in the MaLoki section when I'm writing this 08/11/04.

To Melrose Stormhaven: You don't have to wait too much longer.