It had been a week.
Alessa was still very much enjoying her new wallpaper.
Through some experimentation, she had discovered that Loki's magic (or her own madness) didn't extend to any of her friends. All anyone else saw on her phone was a picture of Loki. This meant Alessa could pass time chatting, albeit one sidedly, with the Norse God in her phone without any questions about how he'd gotten in there.
There would be questions about her sanity, though. Alessa figured that, since she had never worried too much about those before, why start now?
"How's my favorite incarcerated Norse god?" she asked, checking for new texts after class.
Loki sent her a flat look over the top of the book he had been peacefully reading before the interruption. When he went back to reading, Alessa nodding knowingly.
"No luck on finding a spell to undo this connection? That's a bummer. I know you've been working overtime trying to find one, even with only your tiny, twelve book library that you've read through four and a half times. Find anything interesting?"
Loki studiously avoided looking at her as he turned the page and muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "several appropriately creative punishment jinxes".
"Glad to know you're thinking of me, Loki boy." Alessa said, popping a piece of gum into her mouth, "Wish I could be there, but college, you know? I'm sure your brother would love to act as proxy for any gifts you've been wanting to give me."
She mouthed along with his automatic protest of "not my brother" as she exited the life sciences building. It was nearing October, and the chill was starting to grow noticeable enough that sweaters were a necessity.
"Brrr… It's getting cold out. Want some hot chocolate?" she asked idly, "I think I'll stop for some. What do you think, triple chocolate or that new salted caramel flavor? I'm currently leaning towards caramel, but Annie told me she was in love with the triple chocolate."
Alessa had gotten into the habit of talking with Loki during her free time. Thinking out loud like this helped her think through things better as well as having the added benefit of annoying Loki. She was certain that if they ever actually met he would curse her to Niflheim and back, but with the protection of her phone screen between them it was well worth it.
"Of course, the question arises: is the triple chocolate hot chocolate simply made with three times more chocolate? Or do they use three different types of chocolate? If that's the case, which three chocolates do they use? Three different foreign chocolates? Milk, dark, and white?"
Loki seemed to be working at ignoring her, so she continued her musings.
"I wonder if the two possible types of triple chocolate are congruent. Could I ask for double white chocolate with dark chocolate? Would that still count as triple chocolate? Or would it be something else at that point? A...reverse oreo, perhaps? Two whites to a single dark-?"
"If I deign to speak with you," Loki asked, eyes closed as if in pain, "will you stop your incessant prattling?"
Alessa stopped. As in, froze where she was, mouth open mid-sentence, stopped.
Seven days of Alessa rambling, and Loki had never done more than ignore her and occasionally demand she stop rambling. Was he-? Was Loki offering to converse with her?
Very kind of the high and mighty prince, the sarcastic part of her brain noted.
She shushed that part of her brain, despite agreeing with it, and tried to decide how to play this. Get revenge on Loki by continuing to "prattle"? Ignore him to see how he liked it? Create some sort of contract requiring a certain number of minutes used in conversing in order to buy her silence for the day?
After a moment, Alessa decided on something a little more subtle.
"Sure," she chirped happily.
There was long moment of silence, then…
"What?"
"What?" she asked, feigning confusion.
"You have been chattering constantly, blathering, seemingly incapable of so much as a minute of silence, and you choose to stop now?"
Alessa shrugged innocently. "You did ask me to," she said sweetly.
His eyebrow twitched.
"I have not had more than six hours at a time of respite - presumably while you slept - from your headache-inducing voice since we met. I have ordered you to stop on multiple occasions."
"Yup."
"And yet, now, when I ask for silence, you comply?"
Keeping a straight face was a true struggle. Honestly, it was.
"Yeah, I mean, talking with someone is much better than just talking while they listen." Alessa admitted sincerely.
"I suppose you would think as much," he muttered. Taking a breath and seeming to brace himself, Loki asked, "And what would you like to talk about?"
The look on his face really was priceless. He seemed to think that engaging her in conversation was an advanced form of torture.
She shrugged, "Just wanted your opinion, I guess. Salted caramel or triple chocolate?"
He closed his eyes for a moment and when he spoke his jaw seemed tense. "Clearly you should get the triple chocolate. Despite the initial interest you showed in the 'caramel', you barely mentioned it in your rambling."
Alessa made a questioning face and he waved a disinterested hand, elaborating. "It's obvious that you are infatuated with the idea of 'triple chocolate'. Once you've tasted it and had some mundane conversation with the serving staff about the meaning of the phrase 'triple chocolate' it will be put out of your mind entirely. Otherwise you will be twittering about it for days."
"Huh," was all Alessa could say in response.
Just- wow, he'd put some thought into that, hadn't he?
"You really think so?" she asked, still not quite convinced.
"For the love of Valhalla, woman!" Loki shouted. "Order the triple chocolate." he hissed.
A frown tugged at her lips. "But you're really sure?" Alessa checked again, feeling rather unsure about the whole thing. "I do love caramel."
"I have made my thoughts on the matter more than evident. What you do now is of no importance to me." He said. And with that, Loki snatched up his book and went back to ignoring her.
"Huh," she said again.
Her phone was halfway back to her purse when she flipped it back out. "...Wait," she squealed, "You were listening!"
"-what can I get for you today?" the counter attendant asked cheerfully.
"I'd like to try the triple chocolate hot chocolate." Alessa told him. "Which is decidedly different than a triple hot chocolate."
The counter attendant gave a tired smile. He probably got a lot of comments like that working here. "Yes, and it's also different than a chocolate chocolate hot triple."
"Of course," Alessa agreed, smiling.
AN: And that's a wrap, folks! Thank you all for your support, I find it a bit incredible that anyone's reading this mess. Apologies for the wait on the update, but a new chapter's in the works and it will hopefully see the light of day soon. :)
