"Cute," Leah says as Loki excitedly shows her a song she found. They are both ignoring Rin, who's quietly working in the corner and ignoring them right back. "I'm not a huge fan of country, but I can't deny the fact that the lyrics are very amusing."

"You liked Young Gods better, then?" Loki says, perching on Leah's desk and swinging her legs back and forth. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I love me some Halsey, but I've got a little too much Oklahoma left in me, I think."

"That's your excuse for liking country?"

"Don't need an excuse to enjoy it, darling," Loki says with a wink. "Just think of how much more fun it is if you just let yourself enjoy things."

"I already know that, Loki." Leah rolls her eyes. "I just prefer the irony for the other one better."

"I'd say it's about us, but the song is pretty sexual, so… ick." Loki makes a face. "I mean, you're gorgeous, but seeing as we were both created by my predecessor—"

"We're the closest thing either of us will ever have to siblings?" Leah finishes.

"Not counting our other iterations, yes." Loki makes a humming noise, looking to the ceiling. "I think there's a version of you running around on Battleworld right now. I get the feeling she might survive when the world manages to right itself. I could introduce you once that happens."

"…I think I'd like that," Leah decides. "I expect we would get along, at least somewhat. We would have our differences, of course, but that's not a surprise."

"Mm. Your creation did follow a very different path from hers. You have a little more Loki in you."

"Oh?" Leah raises an eyebrow. "I've thought so as well, but how would you say that?"

"You're less straightforward," Loki says, fingers tapping against the desk as she thinks. "You were built from Loki's subconscious, rather than written into existence and given free rein. You were… you had more self-awareness and freedom than a puppet, of course, but you were… hm. Programmed, I suppose. The Agent Loki, our Ikol, he gave you a goal and a pattern of thinking to get there that were modeled more after his own mannerisms than the Leah he knew. You were still ruthless and mean in the manner that the Leah he'd known was, but the Leah he knew was more likely to break someone's fingers if she didn't like them, rather than go through the machinations that you chose to use."

"I suppose it would be a little rude to my original to say that I like myself this way," Leah muses. She… wants some tea.

"Well, the Leah that you were based on, the Leah of story, did most likely grow up to become Hela, who is somewhat fond of machinations of her own. Not as fond as Loki, of course, but there was a balance there between maneuvering around Mephisto's plans and simply ripping off the faces of the people who'd displeased her."

"I don't think Hela ever used ripping off faces as standard fare when it came to punishments or such," Leah comments.

"It's the poetry of the thing, dear." Loki bounces her eyebrows up and down a little. She laughs as Leah rolls her eyes. "Oh, by the way, you said you were doing some kind of design thing?"

Leah thinks for a moment before the memory comes to her. "Ah, the uniforms."

"Oooh, let me see." Loki leans forward as Leah digs through her desk. "You said you were having trouble because it wasn't really something any of the groups either of us have worked with did much, right?"

"Mm." Leah finds the folders. "Most of story Leah's interactions were with other afterlife realms that rarely chose to use uniforms, and the closest to uniformed groups that the real world ever chose to send her way was… the X-Men, I believe."

"And that was mostly just color schemes and an X somewhere, save for a few iterations of the team." Loki flips through the folders that Leah gives her. "You drew these?"

"No, I'm not that skilled. Kushina and Yahiko did most of the drawing, while Hizashi and Rin made a number of suggestions."

"Hizashi's the pretty one, yes? Well, they're all pretty, which is rather strange to consider, statistically, but the one with the pale eyes?"

"Mm."

"Alright, then." Loki flips through a few more. "So… you're going for a look that mixes the local culture with something a little more familiar, then?"

"Yes. The entire continent seems to have been heavily influenced by Japanese culture, even in places that have other influences as well, as I'm sure you've noticed."

"It must have been some impressive colonization to get an entire planet like that," Loki muses. "Can you imagine how much culture must have been crushed under iron heels?"

"I can." Leah reaches over and taps the papers. "The designs, Loki."

Loki snorts and looks down. "Well, you've got a color scheme, at least. I'm going to go ahead and say you're probably best off having a few different versions anyway, depending on the formality of the setting and what the actual job is. Your paperwork ghosts are going to have a very different uniform from the demon wranglers, yeah?"

"Of course, though the majority are former shinobi, and will insist on something they can fight in no matter what."

"Hm." Loki sifts through. "I think I like this one as a sort of… business casual, I guess?"

Leah takes the one he's looking at and considers it. "I think Rin designed this one based off of what she remembered of a girl a few years older than her."

"Yeah?"

"Mm. The girl left Konoha a few years before Rin died with… one of their legendary shinobi. One of the Sannin?"

"Katou Shizune, and she left with Senju Tsunade of the Densetsu no Sannin," Rin says aloud from her desk. Neither Loki nor Leah start at the sudden interjection, but they're fully aware that they both managed to forget that she was in the room with them.

"Well, I do like it," Loki says. "Kind of looks like you mixed the various kimono top styles with a business jacket. A little too long for the jacket, but nowhere near long enough for any of that traditional stuff, right?"

"Mm," Rin says. "I did also shorten the sleeves by quite a bit. Not the length down the arm, but the free-hanging part. It's… honestly, I just took Shizune's style, shortened the hem to make it more of a jacket than a dress, and changed the coloring to Leah's designs. Then it's just pants and, for some reason, closed-toe boots."

"The very existence of those open-toed monstrosities offends me." Leah sniffs. "Either go for boots or go for sandals, but commit. Honestly, they're awful."

"And the colors are… very similar to mine." Loki smiles at Leah. "I'm surprised at the gold. I didn't think you liked it very much."

"It's a little more subdued than yours, but I do enjoy my precious metals. Just… not so much on the glitter." Leah shrugs and fingers the gold edging on her sleeves, which is actually brighter than the burnished color she prefers, but it suits the dress more this way. "The other Leahs did as well."

"Yeah, I can tell. That's… hm. Yeah, a lot of the designs are just basic black with dark green edging or just mostly dark green… did you try to isolate the gold to the sigil on purpose?"

"But of course."

"Fair enough." Loki bites her tongue a little as she stares down at the designs. "You'd probably be best off going for something very local for the fieldwork teams."

"I figured. I think Hizashi and Yahiko were arguing over those, but Kushina suggested some designs of her own." Leah passes a hand over the files, and a few separate themselves out and float up to eye level. "Thoughts?"

"I like these. Very intimidating." Loki takes one of the sheets. "Keeping the masks bone-white?"

"Mm, I think that would be best." Leah muses. "That's the Konoha ANBU-based design. Yahiko will be disappointed."

"He's…"

"The only one of my higher-ups that isn't from Konoha."

"Ah." Loki leans back, eyes glazing over. "Oh my. Well, if you're hiring by concentration of fate lines, then I can see why. The world's stories are very concentrated there."

"I noticed." Loki looks back down at the designs. "I'd exchange some of the armor for something more reminiscent of the Valkyries. If the humans start being able to see your reapers, then you need something to set them apart, yes?"

"My original did quite like the Disir," Leah says, considering. "Perhaps winged helmets? Their armor is designed for ease of movement, so I'd rather not exchange it for metal, and disguising it as gold or silver would just look tacky."

"Too much gold always looks tacky, if you aren't careful." Loki laughs. "I can pull it off, and Iron Man did very well in that regard, but there are many who do not."

"Of course," Leah says, rolling her eyes again. "Loki never looked tacky, after all."

"That's sarcasm. I'm offended." Loki hops off the desk and spins, gesturing at Leah with a spear that she'd most certainly not been holding a few moments earlier. "Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?"

"I'm not a Shakespeare fan, Loki."

"Blasphemy!" Loki gasps, hand to chest in mock offense.

"I'm a god, dear. I very much doubt that blaspheming is even logically possible for us."

"You're awful," Loki insists.

"No, I'm fairly certain that you are the awful one in this scenario."

"You're both terrible, if you want my opinion," Rin chimes in from her desk, not even looking up at them. "Complete travesties."

"That's a lot of backtalk for one subordinate," Loki comments. "Leah?"

"She amuses me."

"Alright, then!" Loki claps her hands and spun back to the desk. "I'm bored of talking designs. Let's go party!"

"I have work, Loki." Leah reminds her. "And while I know you insist on your freedom of choice and such, my work requires rather a lot more hands-on administrative duties."

"Yeah," Loki sighs, leaning on the spear. "You've always been tied to your duty, even as just a memory of another girl."

Leah shrugs. "I am as I was created to be. I just have a little more free will now."

Loki blinks at her with eyes that are suddenly far sadder than they have any right to be. "Um… do you think… do you think your other self will like you?"

Leah tilts her head. "Are you worried that she won't like you?"

Loki's arms come up to hug her elbows, and she shrugs, visibly uncomfortable. "I don't think anyone really likes me. Verity, maybe. You, sometimes? I just… I mean, I don't have a lot of… of existence to work with, y'know? But the other Loki's memories, they… they didn't exactly have friends, you know. They died believing that Thor hated them, and he did, because they killed the child Loki, and the Young Avengers were nice, but they were more invested in changing the Agent Loki than in liking them, and everyone else only ever really wanted to use Loki, so…"

"Didn't Odin say something about loving Loki no matter what? The whole 'and my child who is both' thing?" Leah asks.

Loki shrugs. "It's Odin. I don't really trust anything that comes out of his mouth on that front."

"Fair enough," Leah shrugs. "I can't really speak for my other self, Loki. You'll have to figure that out on your own."

Loki frowns. "I know. That's what bothers me."

o.o.o.o.o

Next Time: Leah takes Kakashi to the big city. In the ~real world~.