When Bjorn returned to Loki and Maisy's room half an hour later, knocked on the door and entered to find a peculiar sight.
Maisy was wrapped in every available blanket and looked rather like a slug sitting on the bed - complete with mysterious slime oozing off of her. Loki was stoking the fire in the fireplace and the whole room was uncomfortably toasty. Bjorn shook his head and proceeded to bring what he was carrying into the room.
"My Kleenex!" Maisy said, her voice having a stuffed up sound to it. She started to unwrap herself from the blankets, gave up, and just popped her hands out. Bjorn put a box of the paper tissues in her palms and she eagerly tore it open. When she'd freed a tissue she took a deep breath and blew her nose into the paper. The sound made Loki and Bjorn flinch in disgust, but when she was done Maisy let out a contented sigh and cuddled the box of tissues happily.
"You are a true hero," she mumbled sleepily. No one was sure if she was talking to the tissues or to Bjorn so the guard awkwardly backed out of the room.
"Do you know the recipe to your father's soup?" Loki asked his wife as she snuggled deeper into her cocoon, "I could see if the kitchen could make it for you."
"Wouldn't be the same," she replied.
"Why not?"
"It wouldn't be made with love."
Loki stared at her in confusion.
"Is 'love' the name of some ingredient that is exclusive to Midgard?"
"I hope not," Maisy grinned, "I just meant that my dad's chicken noodle soup tastes better because I know that he makes it for me because he loves me."
"That's ridiculous," Loki scoffed, "You wouldn't be able to tell if someone made you food with love or without. If they used the same ingredients then it would taste the same."
"I could tell," Maisy replied confidently and with a sniff.
"No," Loki laughed, "Especially as you are currently. With your nose so full of mucus you must not be able to taste any flavor - let alone love."
"You like science?" Maisy asked suddenly.
"To an extent," Loki replied, "Why?"
"Let's do an experiment," she had a crafty look in her eye - or maybe she was about to sneeze, it was hard to tell, "I'll give you the recipe - I think I have it saved on my phone somewhere - and then you take it to the kitchen. Have one of the cooks make a bowl of the soup and then you make a bowl too and we'll see if I can tell the difference."
"It won't work," Loki declared.
"What, don't you love me?" Maisy pouted.
"Do not try to guilt me into making you soup," he crossed his arms, "You know very well that I adore you, but the soup I make won't taste any different than what Hildegard from the kitchen makes."
"There's only one way to find out, isn't there?" Maisy challenged.
"Very well," Loki rolled his eyes so hard that it hurt Maisy's eyes to watch, "Give me the recipe."
A note from the author: Sorry it's been a while and this is short. Job, class, family, you know how it is! But I have no work tomorrow (unless my second job tells me to come in, which is sort of short notice, so hopefully they won't do that) so I'm going to write a bunch and possibly post twice. We'll see how well that goes, lol.
Thank you so much to everyone for reading!
And special thanks to my reviewers:
XinterestingX: he was so impressed XD
ferbette: Loki as an expectant father... oh man you just sparked about a million ideas. Should that time come Maisy is going to be smothered. Loki will be bad and then she'll try to go to Midgard for relief from his worry and Josh will be even worse. He and Loki will bond over it.
Ninja Squirrel: The angst is fast approaching... you've been warned. ;)
nina del carmen: I can't say... ;)
Thank you all so much! Hopefully I'll see you soon!
Until then!