- Disclaimer: Matantei Loki Ragnarok belongs to Kinoshita Sakura.
Ah, My Loki-sama!
written by Kurosu
- Chapter Nineteen.
"Okay, so let me get this straight," Daidouji had begun talking to the group that had convene that morning in the common room, with a few new faces and some missing ones, "Yamino-kun left again to see his grandparents? And Freya-san had gone to work?"
As confusing as the situation was, Yamino had went to visit his grandparents without his older brother, Ichirou, who was yawning loudly, still doused with sleep, and then there was Freya, who had crashed at the house, had a job? A job but no place to live? A strange set up there, but he shook those questions away, focusing on the new faces.
The blonde and brunette, who appeared to be unwell, half awake and propped up by his annoyed sibling, had claimed to be Freya's brothers, and he could see the faint, very faint, resemblances, especially in the blonde one but still, this was all a bit much to take in after missing a whole night of memories. He somehow woke up in bed, after recalling being in the main shrine with Narugami when they both heard something crash outside.
His student was still sprawled out in the room, snoring away, and he could see Kazumi's twitchy hand, suspecting the boy trying not to strangle the noisy entity in the background. Ichirou yawned again, with Mayura joining him this time, both with moist eyes, trying to stay awake on a Saturday morning, while Loki's attention was on the morning newspaper because he was bored with what he already knew. The situation was just a formality for Daidouji to meet their new tenants, and he already felt sorry for the mortal to have to, unknowingly, deal with all these gods within his home.
"Right," he coughed, "So you are Freyr, and... Rei?"
"Kaitou Freyr, sir!" the brunette snapped his head straight up, smiling goofily, his expression reeked of intoxication, and clumsily shook the man's hand, while Rei sat quietly and appeared to be sulking.
All eyes fell on an incoherent, babbling Freyr, wondering where in the world he had grabbed such a strange name, but it was Loki who, unfortunately, understood the idiot's way of thinking as a dramatic and romantic fool. Being a mysterious and elusive 'phantom thief' fell into that category the idiot so adored, and Loki just wanted to smack his forehead but resumed reading the news, with Yamino, in his father's front coat pocket, sweatdropping.
The phone suddenly rang through the house, and Mayura excused her to answer it, and when she was leaving, Loki's eyes followed her figure, which Daidouji immediately took notice of. His left eye twitched, recalling what Narugami had said the day before, and he opened his mouth to get the truth out of the boy, but Freyr was still speaking nonsense to him, something about an honor living under the same roof as Yamato Nadeshiko and maybe asked for her hand in marriage and the father's blessing.
"What?" Daidouji, confused, had faced Freyr again because he had heard about a blessing of a marriage, but his attention was drawn away again when Mayura had poked her head back in to the room, calling for him, and he missed Loki's rolled up newspaper flying in to Freyr's face.
"Papa, it's Kanda-san from Kushida Shrine," she informed him.
"Ah, please make yourselves at home," he quickly addressed the Kaitou siblings, and stood up to get the call from his daughter, who returned to the others.
Mayura smiled to Freyr and a still gloomy Freya, "Don't worry, guys! You only have about twelve hours left!"
Freya just glared at her and made a 'hrmmf' sound, but it was Fenrir who spoke up, "Witch Girl, I'm hungry!"
"Oh right!" she looked at poor Yamino, "I forgot about breakfast."
She was about to get up again and make something for the whole family to eat, but her father had quickly returned to them and informed them he had to leave for Fukuoka right away. Apparently, Kanda, an old friend of his who was also a Shinto priest, had fallen ill and needed assistance at the shrine for a few days, and with the past days being so slow around their own shrine, he had promised to make the trip.
So without further ado, Daidouji went to pack while Mayura prepared a quick breakfast for all before he left, which meant she would be stuck alone with a group of gods for at least four days, and this information brought a mischievous smile to a certain trickster god, who was going to have a lot of fun in his real form for a few days.
"Aaahh, Loki-sama!" Mayura managed to say in between her breaths, finally able to stop running for a break, "Where are we going?!"
After Daidouji had left in a taxi to the train station, Loki had dragged the girl out in to the streets of the city, purposely leaving behind the unwanted and rather useless gods at this point. He had stopped to look around before letting go of her hand. He motioned for her to follow him, without answering her, and she did, like a curious kitten, and the pair ended up in front of the Mysterious Water World aquatic center.
There was a sign outside that the place was closed for construction, due to the jaki incident that destroyed the main exhibit about two days ago, not that the authorities ever figured out what had happened. The place was locked down tight, as Mayura try to peer through the windows, but they had been covered to avoid prying eyes.
There was nothing special about this place, and no more strange energy lurked about it either, so Loki wondered if all of the jaki business had been a fluke on Midgard.
"Ne Loki-sama," Mayura walked back to him, "do you think we will find anything here?"
He shook his head, "There's nothing left here."
"What about the others?"
"Probably the same."
She frowned, "Mou, this is difficult to solve!"
He looked at her and grinned, "We could call Urd again."
"Hmm, that is true." She gazed up to the clear, blue skies, "But it's so nice today!"
"Yes, it is." He started walking down the street again, with her at his side, "What shall we do today?"
She clasped her hands together, excitedly, "Oh, there's this really nice cafe... with lots of delicious pastries! You'll love their tea too! Or... the amusement park! The rides are so fun! Or..."
"Ah Mayura!"
The pair turned around to see a smiling Koutaro jogging over to them, and now Loki scooted closer to the girl and grabbed her hand possessively. The teenager stared down to the boy, expression tried to remain pleasant, but he just had a bad feeling whenever he was near the kid, "And Chibi-Loki..."
With a curl of his lips in to a crafty grin, Loki eyed the competition, "Ah, kaa-san's friend."
Twitch, from both teenagers.
"Hi, Koutaro-kun," Mayura sweatdropped, and having sense Loki's uneasiness and the tightened of his hand, she went straight to the point with her classmate, "What can we do for you?"
"Um, I was about to stop by your house," he rubbed the back of his head, recalling the incident where they were chased by some thing, "Ever since Friday night, I tried to call you... to see if you were all right."
"Oh! Yes, we're fine!" she laughed, hoping that he didn't pick up on anything strange, and Loki glanced at her, sighing at how terrible she was at hiding secrets or lying. "You know how Tokyo is! Crazy people everywhere! Hehe."
"Aha, you're right!" he laughed too, "For a moment, I really thought it was a monster!"
"NOPE! HA, JUST SOME WEIRDO IN A COSTUME! HAHA."
"RIGHT! HAHA."
A deadpanned Loki stared at the laughing teenagers, because there were just some people who actually fell for this type of girl and her sweet innocence. He sighed and tugged her hand, "Kaa-san, let's get going. You promised to take me to the amusement park." She blinked and let herself be dragged along, as he waved Koutaro away, "See ya, kaa-san's friend."
Loki, proud of himself for smoothly ditching the teenage lover boy, grinned, but he did not realize what kind of trouble he had gotten himself in to by inviting himself on a trip to the amusement park. From just the first ride, the kiddy one with the teacups that didn't even go that fast, the smile was wiped off his face, and he knew that this was a punishment from Odin. When the ride stopped, Loki hopped out of seat and ran to the nearest trashcan.
Mayura walked up behind him, worried, and placed a comforting hand on his back, "I'm sorry, Loki-sama. I didn't know you didn't like rides."
"I didn't know either," he grumbled.
After a few more moments of getting to know the trashcan, she handed him a handkerchief, and he accepted it and cleaned himself up.
"I'll be right back!" she told him and ran off.
He went to sit down on a nearby bench, lost in his thoughts, because he just couldn't believe a mortal children's ride had thrown a god of his status into such a pathetic state as puking into a trashcan. Who knew he was so weak against such contraptions, and the humiliation of it all, in front of Mayura no less. He cursed Odin, having a feeling that the jerk god was probably watching this mishap and even recording it for future blackmail.
Leaning back against the bench, he closed his eyes and dropped the back of his hand over them. He was beginning to feel a bit better now, but he just wanted to return to his bed after such a terrible experience.
"Loki-sama? Are you all right now?"
He opened one eye to see the worried girl kneeling by the bench, next to him, "Ah."
She gave him a bottle of water, "Drink this. You need to get re-hydrated."
He sat up and took the bottle from her, "Thank you." He opened it and downed the refreshing, cool liquid, feeling re-energized again.
Seeing that his complexion had returned to normal, Mayura let out a sigh of relief and dropped her head on to his lap, mumbling her apology over and over. He gazed down at her head, eyes softened at her sincerity, and of course, he knew she didn't do it on purpose - even he didn't know about this weakness of motion sickness. He put the bottle to the side and laid a hand on her head, fingers brushing through her silky, pink hair.
Despite the bumpy start of their trip, he didn't regret initiating it and did enjoy these rare moments with her. His mind wandered back to the beginning, when they first met after the one phone call, and he was just doing a job, never thinking that he would get involved with a mortal. As strange as it was, their relationship between a god and a mortal, neither had ever labeled each other, finding each other's presence was enough to forget the world was still moving around them.
The mere three weeks had felt like many years of friendship, and he wondered if she thought the same.
He had been so quiet that she dared to shift her head, raising her eyes, filled with guilt, up to see his face, but she was only met with a gentle smile, gazing down at her. "Loki-sama?" she blushed, trying to look elsewhere.
"Hm?" he found her expression so adorable and smiled.
"A-Are you mad at me?" came her soft voice.
He scoffed and turned his nose upwards, "Of course!" Her head jerked up from his lap with very apologetic eyes, her mouth opened to speak, but he continued, "I don't want to be the only one enjoying this trip."
She blinked, confused by his words.
He rolled his eyes and took her hands within his, hopping off the bench, both now standing, "Well?"
"What?"
"We should make the most of today, right?"
"Well yes, but-"
"Aren't you going to show me other things besides the rides?"
"Ah..." She slowly let his words soak into her brain and then brightened up, "There's tons of games! And you get all sorts of prizes! OH! There's a really big maze! And it leads to a haunted house! Really scary! Then there's..." She was back to her normal self, rattling on about the various, interesting spots that didn't involve any rides, as they walked to their next destination, hand in hand.
By the time, Mayura and Loki returned home that night after spending a whole day at the amusement park, having found so many things to do together, especially getting lost in that maze and haunted house - the highlight of their trip - and somehow managed to get through it all without a single problem. Things appeared to have returned to normal too because as soon as Loki stepped through the threshold, an energetic Freya had glomped his child form.
"Loki! I missed you!" she tried to kiss him, but he pressed his hand against her cheek to prevent it, "Where were you?!"
"Just went for a walk..."
"What?! Without me?! How could you, Loki!"
Loki sighed and looked over to Mayura, who appeared to be ignoring the affectionate display in her house, slipping off her shoes. "Mayura," he stiffened from Freya's tight hold, "A little help here?"
She turned to him with annoyance written all over her face, and he flinched at being on the receiving end of it, and it didn't get better from her words either, "I'm sure Freya-sama would be happy to help."
"GYAAH! Loki! Unhand my sister, you fiend!" came Freyr's voice, followed by the god pulling his sister off Loki.
"Nii-sama! Let go! I want to be alone with my Loki!"
Freya had her foot in her brother's face, trying to dislodge him from her person, while holding on to her dear Loki, who seemed to be suffering the most from all this. The noise in the hallway brought Yamino, Fenrir, Gullinbursti, Narugami and Kazumi - the first three from the kitchen, and then the common room and upstairs respectively between the last two - and they all stared at the scene.
"This is ridiculous," Mayura mumbled under her breath. With a firm decision, she stepped over to a grateful Loki and pried Freya's hands off the boy, much to the goddess' dismay and her brother's surprise and admiration of the pink-haired girl.
"What do you think-"
Freya was cut off by Mayura's sudden, uncharacteristic glare, and it took a few seconds for the blonde to gather herself together, back to the prideful goddess that she was, as she stood against the mortal girl. Loki and the other gods found themselves in a very bad situation, though they were all frozen in their spots at the confrontation, and no one wanted to make any sudden move for fear of the blonde goddess' anger.
They also worried for the safety of their mortal hostess, but Loki was astonished at Mayura's sudden boldness and bravery and wondered if the girl had lost her mind to go against Freya, even though he did ask her to help.
The goddess flipped her hair and raised her nose into the air, "What do you want?"
Mayura, still glaring, replied, "Leave Loki-sama alone."
She gasped, "That's none of your business!"
"It is my business if you live here," she stated, and one could almost here the 'ooooh' from the crowd. "I'm sorry, Freya-sama, but you have to behave yourself while you're in this world. It's all I can offer you until you can return to your home."
Freya was quiet, reprimanding herself mentally for the bad impression of a goddess of Asgard, but she felt a teeny bit of shame for having treated the hostess with rudeness. All the girl ever did was welcome her into her home with kindness - really the only kind, honest refuge on Midgard she had, that didn't question her identity, nor her past.
She turned away, waving her hand casually, "Fine. I need a nice, hot bath anyway."
Mayura smiled, a warm, sweet smile that was very grateful for the goddess' understanding, "Thank you, Freya-sama!"
Freya caught a glimpse of the sincere girl's beautiful smile and blushed. "Ugh, don't give me that look!" she ordered and stomped to the stairs and up to the second floor, fuming that she couldn't believe she was losing to that mortal girl but refused to give up. She would outdo her fair and square and become the better woman for Loki!
Loki, having reverted back to his original form, and everyone else was impressed at what had transpired before their eyes, and he could see from the corner of his eye a worshipping Freyr was about to latch onto Mayura, so he quickly dashed for the girl, taking her into his arms, and stepped aside to let the idiot slam face first in to the wall. A panicky Gullinbursti scurried over to his dazed master, while everyone gradually returned to their original activity, now that the house was really back to normal.
The blonde god chuckled to himself at having foiled Freyr's plans of snatching the girl now in his arms. He looked down at her, her back pressed against his chest, and smiled, giving her a squeeze and dropping his chin on top of her head. He still couldn't get the beautiful image of her standing up against Freya out of his mind, not that he wanted to. She was magnificent, glowing beautifully even in the presence of a goddess.
He closed his eyes and inhaled her scent, strangely intoxicated by every inch of her. He felt her body tensing within his embrace and grinned, knowing that he was having such an effect on her.
"Loki-sama..."
"Hm?"
He opened an eye to see the turn of her head and the adorable pout she was wearing, as she sighed, "That means you need to behave too!"
"What if I don't?" he raised a brow, curious of her response.
She furrowed her brows and puffed her cheeks at him but didn't get any further because the phone rang again. It was picked up on the third ring by Yamino, after entering the hallway and blushing at the intimate position his father and Mayura were in, and he answered it. The color seemed to have drained from his face when it slowly turned towards the pair, and he pulled the receiver from his ear, "Ah Loki-sama, it's for you."
Loki and Mayura exchanged curious glances, and the girl sighed, "Another long distance call?"
"It's Odin-sama."
Notes: Okay, so this was sort of a filler? Lol, I wanted to add some more MayuLoki-ness! It's a bit longer than most chapters, but I enjoyed writing it. I like having Mayura stand up to Freya, and I know I made Mayura a bit weak and not crazy jealous with Freya around... and I think it's because she hasn't define her relationship with Loki, and neither has Loki. They're definitely friends, close friends - a gradual development to something more that each is slow to realize and try to understand. Loki would realize it sooner because of his "experiences" over the centuries, but Mayura is just a mortal teenager, with practically zero friends and one admirer, lol.
Ah, I know I mentioned one more subplot before I end the series... What I meant is the end of the first arc of the series, lol. *grins*
I also realized that this story had hit a 4-year anniversary, lol, even though there was like a 3-year gap! I guess all this updating makes up for it? Lol, thanks! -kuro.