Chapter 15, yay!
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Now, let's get on with it, shall we?
Disclaimer: not mine, promise!
-o-
Chapter 15 - Fragile Beings
Loki was walking around with Amber, lost in thought. Had he done the right thing - telling his mother everything? Had he made a mistake in doing so?
"What's on your mind, love?"
He gazed at the woman next to him. "I am thinking about my mother. Giving her those pictures...Odin has surely seen them now."
Amber nodded. "And what do you think about that?"
"That is what I am trying to figure out."
"I am willing to bet my right arm that he cried."
"Pardon?"
"You heard me. He is not exactly father of the year material, but I am willing to bet my right arm that he cried."
"You are a very strange woman."
She chuckled, and then got promptly sidetracked by a pet store, because apparently 'oh my god, that's an adorable bird!'
She was a very strange woman, indeed.
-o-
Frigga actually showed up, and Amber was happy for it. She didn't even mind that Loki got a phone call, asking him to help out in the soup kitchen for an hour or so.
"I will be back in a while," Loki said quietly as he put her arms around her. "Will you be all right here?"
Amber nodded as she tucked a lock of hair behind his ear. "Your mother is lovely. We will be fine. Go go, feed the hungry. Try to not give away your coat this time. Bring a spare coat, if so."
He chuckled. "I will attempt to restrain myself."
"Also, do not allow anyone to convince you that you need Jesus in your life."
He actually laughed outright this time. "I will do my very best."
"I will see you in a while, love."
"Mmmh," he said, kissed her, and left the flat.
Amber walked back into the living room, and smiled at Frigga. "He will be back in a little while. Would you like some tea?"
Frigga nodded.
-o-
"I think he misses his brother," Amber said a while later. "He speaks of Odin without a clenched jaw at this point, but he barely mentions Thor."
"And that makes you think he misses him?"
Amber nodded. "I might be wrong. But there is no reason - not as such - for him to avoid talking about Thor. If Odin is a somewhat safe subject, Thor should be as well."
"You might be right," Frigga said, and paused for a moment. "I showed Odin the pictures."
Amber gazed at the woman for a bit. "Did he cry?"
Frigga looked utterly perplexed, telling Amber she was correct.
"I had a feeling he might."
Frigga gazed at her for a bit, as if she was trying to find some answers in Amber's face. "You are wise beyond your years, Amber."
Amber actually blushed. "Thank you."
-o-
A while later, they had somehow landed on the subject of immortality, and Amber was rather lost in thought when she spoke. "It must be wonderful, being able to live forever. But it must be tiresome as well."
"Why would you say that?"
"It must be wonderful having unlimited time. All the knowledge one can acquire, all the things one can learn. One can say 'I want to master every instrument in the world' and actually have time to do that. There are so many things I would love to learn, but I literally do not have time to do so, even if I will live for another seventy years. If I am lucky. I have to focus on the things most important to me, the things that make me happy. Human lives are fleeting – a mere blink in the bigger picture. I would love to live forever. But then there is the other side of living forever. Since one has unlimited time, perhaps it is that much easier to think 'that thing, I shall do that thing at a later date. I have time'. Perhaps it is easier to end up stagnant than in a short lifespan. Not to mention the losses one feels during such a long lifespan."
"How so?"
She shrugged. "Imagine if Loki and I stay together – eventually, I will die. He will not. I will be old and grey, and he will be young and immortal. Wow, that is a disturbing mental image. Point is – he will lose me. I would not like to trade places with him there."
"Do you believe you will stay together?"
Amber thought about this for a moment. "I choose to be realistic about these things. The whole 'happily forever after' thing is not very realistic. That does not make it impossible, however. My first encounter with Loki was…dark. He positively radiated insanity – and yet, when he asked me what I thought – if he was evil – I honestly told him I did not know. It then took me less than a minute to realise that something was not right – that sceptre… something was just not right. I do not know what prompted it, but he stared at me after I told him I did not know, and then something flickered in his blue eyes. Suddenly, they turned green, and before I knew it, I was thrown through the air – away from him. Basically, he saved me from himself. I came across him two more times – he saved me from himself every time."
"I did not know this."
"The second time I came across him, he had his sceptre aimed at me, but then he recognised me. His whole body shook with the effort, but his eyes turned green, and he told me through clenched teeth to run. Third time, he looked at me with green eyes and told me 'you have three minutes to get as far away from me as possible.' I proceeded to pat his hand and tell him it was going to be all right. I still have no idea what made me do that."
She shook her head before continuing. "I left my wallet behind. That was how he was able to find me after it was all over."
"He deliberately sought you out?"
She nodded. "It is all rather strange, is it not? I found him outside my door, and the first thing I did was to manhandle him inside when I heard a neighbour down the hall. I think I spent first twenty four hours wondering why I did not call the government. And I think he spent said twenty four hours wondering why he believed me when I said I would not call the government."
Frigga gazed at her for a long moment. "It is rather strange, indeed."
"As to answer your question; something clicked in place with Loki – for me, at least. On a whole new and strange level. And I will fight to keep it that way. I will fight for him. Does that answer your question? More or less?"
Frigga nodded. "It does."
Amber smiled. "All right. Now, do you mind if I begin decorating the tree while we talk? It takes some time."
"Not at all," Frigga said, and Amber got up to find the pretty, shiny things.
-o-
Loki returned a while later, just as Amber was standing on a chair to reach the branches higher up.
Loki greeted his mother, but then he noticed her, and promptly gave her a jaded look. "I'm away for less than two hours, and of course you have to climb every rickety chair there is."
Amber glanced at him, one eyebrow raised. "Hello to you as well. The chair is not rickety. And I survived nine months in Afghanistan - there's a raging war going on there - so I think I can handle standing on a chair. Also, I would survive falling off said chair."
She glanced at him again - expecting him to look annoyed. He did not. He looked slightly worried, and that was when she realised he was somewhat serious.
She sighed, climbed down from the chair, and walked over to him. She gave him a quick kiss, straightened his shirt, and ventured into the kitchen to make some more tea.
-o-
He knew he was being ridiculous. She would survive falling off that chair. The problem was - he'd had a realisation lately, of how frail the mortals really were. He had watched the people in the soup kitchen. The people who came there because they had no food, no home, and no...nothing. They had nothing.
Today, there had been a woman around Amber's age, and she had been missing three fingers, the tip of her nose, and her skin looked like it was about to just peel off at any second.
The reason? She had no home, and the weather was cold. That was how frail humans were. Fingers and skin and whatnot fell off on their own accord, just because the weather was cold.
And so, when he came home to see Amber balancing on that chair...well, there had been a whole lot of scenarios going through his head - none of them good.
And he knew it was ridiculous. He worried anyway.
He heard Amber humming from the kitchen, and the sound made something in him relax.
"She is right, you know."
He rolled his eyes. "Yes, mother, I know. But did you know that human fingers merely falls off on their own accord if the weather is too cold too long? The fingers literally freeze - the flesh dies, then they turn black, and then they fall off. It is aptly named frostbite."
Frigga looked slightly unsettled. "No, I did not know. That is...unsettling."
"Indeed. Fragile beings."
Frigga looked rather lost in thought after that.
-o-
Eventually, the tree was decorated, Loki himself had actually helped somewhat, merely because the infernal woman insisted on balancing chairs left and right.
When they went to bed that night, Loki curled himself around the woman - inwardly sighing because he was acting like a fool.
-o-
Author's note: I don't like to make Loki so - hm, what to call it - needy? Maybe that's not the correct word, but nevertheless, I don't really like writing him that way. But he's on quite the emotional journey at the moment, so that had to happen at some point. He won't stay like that for long, though!
Also, I wasn't too pleased with this chapter. But some things are more fun to write than others, so yeah.
Next chapter will be posted soon! Thanks for reading, and sticking with me!