Lori woke up in bed, with a throbbing hand and a fuzzy head. She checked her immobilized fingers, and looked up at the hole in the wall, and realized it hadn't been a bad dream.
"Fuck."
She didn't remember what had happened after she had passed out on the floor…
"Eh, Puny, you there?"
"I dragged your sorry ass to a doctor, I'd think I deserve a little more respect, Mortal."
"You broke my hand in the first place."
"It's my hand too."
"No, it's not. It is most definitely my hand and you're just using it from time to time, which makes the damage you did all the worse!"
"How so?"
"When you borrow something you bring it back undamaged, that's common courtesy. Don't they have that on wherever you came from?"
"It's Asgard, and yes we do. I just didn't realize we had such an agreement."
"We do. Don't ever do that again."
"I wasn't planning on it."
There was a bit of silence hanging between them. Finally, Loki asked.
"How is your hand?"
"It hurts like hell."
Lori answered gruffly, and Loki guessed he wasn't too high on Lori's Liked People List for the moment. As if he ever was on anyone's Liked People List… He suddenly felt a wave of frustration come over him, powerless frustration because he was stuck in the body of an ugly mortal, and because he had to endure all the humiliation this mortal was subjected to without being able to do anything about it. Lori clearly felt it too, because she remarked.
"You know… I read you're all about ruling stuffs and being king and so on, but seriously… you're already the king of ridiculous drama just like this."
"I do not take kindly to being mocked, Mortal!"
"What're you going do, Puny? Break my other hand too? Might not be the smartest idea, given that it's the only hand you can use for the moment."
"I really hate you."
"The feeling's mutual."
Again there was a bit of silence… Loki could feel that his head-companion was trying to sleep, but the pain in her hand was keeping her awake. Maybe he should have asked the doctor for a sedative after all… He startled at the thought. Since when did the pain of this pathetic mortal bother him? He tried to repress the feeling, as he had been repressing all these bizarre feelings he was troubled by lately, but after sustaining some more rounds of Lori tossing and turning and moaning whenever she moved her hand, he gave up.
"Hold still, will you?"
"It's my body, I do what I want!"
"Shush and hold still mortal, your tossing and turning infuriates me!"
"God you have a real bad case of potty mouth don't you? Ever heard of being polite to your hostess? I'm trying to sleep here!"
"And you're doing an excellent job with that, aren't you? Hold still."
Lori held still for a moment, and then she felt it. Loki's mind, that was already uncomfortable entangled with hers, tried to sneak a way around her to the controls of her body. It was an unpleasant, slightly frightening feeling.
"Stop that!"
"Shush. Hold still."
Lori tried to move, but she then felt she couldn't, Loki had taken over too much of her control already. Asshole. Of course, paralyzing her was the best way to stop her from tossing and turning… Oh, she would make sure that creep didn't get a single minute of sleep if…
All of a sudden an unusual feeling of calm washed over her, making her eyelids grow heavy and her mind really hazy. Lori tried to fight it, but it was too strong, and her consciousness slipped away. Right before her mind went blank she heard Loki's voice, sounding uncharacteristically soothing.
"Sssh… Now sleep, little mortal."
A moment later she had sunken into a deep sleep. Loki was still awake, and he overthought what had happened. He regained part of his magic and part of his strength when he was in control, which was how he had managed to put Lori to sleep. It was a nice discovery, and it certainly opened some possibilities… but as the broken hand had proven, Lori's body wasn't made to serve as a vessel for such powers, it was too easily damaged to even think of revenge or anything like it. The oddest thing was that revenge wasn't the first thing on his mind anymore. Loki was aware that there was a type of entertainment on Midgard known as "reality TV", and since he lived in Lori's head he understood why it was popular. All that ridiculous drama simply made you forget all more important matters. Lori's life was like a very elaborate Reality TV Show to Loki, absorbing his attention and keeping him from sulking and pitying himself, most of the time. Many of his thoughts were about Lori, and Lori's father, and Lori's friends –the lack of them, mostly… and the thought that Odin had cast him here so he would be distracted from his Glorious Purpose by teenage drama was angering him so much he almost woke Lori again. That he immediately calmed her as soon as she stirred inside their shared head proved him unfortunately that whatever his not-father had planned… it was working.
(Pagebreak)
The next days, Loki made the resolution to distance himself from Lori. He told her he didn't want to talk to her anymore, and that if she wanted to prevent getting hurt again she better not addressed him. Lori took it without much comment, and for some reason that depressed Loki. So it was true, and she really did hate him… No idea why that bothered him. He observed Lori throughout the days, as she wormed herself into her too-tight jeans, went to school, tried to skip PE, got humiliated from time to time and generally scored well on tests…
He also noticed her breakfast consisted of an apple, her lunch consisted of three cookies, and her dinner was more often than not simply absent. Now Loki could go without food for pretty long, but that didn't mean he never got hungry, and around food times he had to restrain himself from yelling that she had to eat more. Mr Lauritsen was completely oblivious of his daughter's eating habits, which also infuriated Loki because how could anyone be so freaking blind?
For two weeks, Loki was a silent observer. A silent observer that was slowly reaching the apex of frustration… At long last, when Lori sparsely nibbled on her lunch cookies, he blurted out.
"By the Nine, will you eat already!?"
Lori startled so bad that she dropped her cookie. As soon as she realized what it was, she rolled her eyes.
"Damn, you again. I thought you had finally found a better head to inhabit."
"Unfortunately I did not, no."
"Poor you. Expect me to feel sorry?"
Loki noticed Lori's voice was rather flat. He knew she looked pale, with sunken cheeks and bags under her eyes, while she further had lost little weight over the course of two weeks.
"No. I expect you to eat a decent meal before you kill yourself."
"As if you care."
"You know well enough why I care."
"Oh yes, you need my body to function so that you can use it for your evil plans."
"I have no evil plans!"
"Yeah, yeah, and the Pope's an atheist."
"From what I've heard about your religions, that may very well be the case."
"Shut up and leave me alone."
Lori was still talking back, but she seemed to have lost a bit of her fire. If anything, the reason was probably lack of sustenance. Loki didn't know much about mortal physiology, but he knew well enough that a mortal body couldn't work without food. If he wanted this mortal to survive he needed a plan to get her to eat.
"I have a proposition for you."
"Ooh, the offer I can't refuse?"
Lori mocked him… Angered, Loki said.
"This is serious!"
"Fine, what's on offer?"
"I can help you take revenge on the mortals that have wronged you."
He felt Lori raised her eyebrows. She shook her head.
"I need to see you to discuss this."
She made her way to a service toilet on the fourth floor, where a dirty mirror hung above a broken washing basin. In it she looked at Loki's mirror image. The god frowned at her, wrinkling his nose at the unpleasant smell that hung in the room.
"What is this place?"
"The old teacher's toilet, it's never used. I can't be seen talking to myself in the girl's room, they'd think I'm crazy. Now… what would this revenge entail?"
"I am not called the god of mischief for nothing, you know. If I can prank the gods, I sure can inflict humiliation on a few pathetic mortals."
He could see Lori's mouth folded into a smirk.
"Humiliation… sounds good…"
"But in return I have a few demands as well."
"I'm not going to help you conquer the universe."
Loki rolled his eyes.
"As if you would be of any use in that."
That caused an indignant reaction from Lori.
"What? I could…"
"I want you to eat three meals a day, and only healthy things. That means no donuts, no microwave macaroni, and no pizzas… But definitely not restricting to just apples and cookies."
Lori looked surprised at Loki in the mirror.
"Wait a minute there… Are you just trying to fuck with my diet?"
Loki wanted to pull his helmet over his eyes, that annoyed he felt.
"This is not a diet, it's starvation! I don't care if you starve yourself, but not as long as I live here too! As long as I'm stuck in your head you're going to eat."
Lori thought about it. She had been feeling pretty miserable the last few days, and the only reason she hadn't given up on dieting already was because she wanted to show both Loki and her dad that she could show restraint by herself, that she didn't need that stupid weight loss doctor. If she agreed with Loki perhaps her little dietary effort would pay off after all…
"If I would agree, what would that entail?"
"As I said, three meals a day. And for the revenge part, you will be obliged to de exactly as I say."
"You won't make me do anything gross will you?"
The temptation was there, but Loki shook his head.
"I won't. I might let other people do gross things though."
"I'm okay with that."
"So you agree?"
"I agree."
Loki clapped his hands.
"Now then, get out of this dirthole and find me some food!"
(Pagebreak)
"I don't see how this is related to taking revenge in any way."
Lori remarked, while browsing through a clothes store. Loki could tell she was annoyed. He chuckled at her discomfort, and was met with an internalized glare.
"You're just doing this to humiliate me again, no? Why can't I order clothes online, like I always do?"
"Because they don't fit."
"I hate fitting rooms."
Loki sighed and checked what Lori had taken from the rack.
"Long sleeves, grey, dark blue, jeans… do you ever wear anything else?"
"I like those things."
"No way you're going to buy that, you have piles of that stuff already. Put them back, I will pick suitable clothes for you."
Lori grumbled, but obliged. Loki scanned the store, until something caught his eye.
"Go there, left wall."
"That's party clothing, Loki. I need stuff for school."
"There you make a mistake, little mortal."
The term escaped his mental mouth before he knew it, and Lori facepalmed.
"Applause for Loki Laufeyson, who has just discovered a way to make an already demeaning term even more demeaning!"
Loki hadn't meant to be demeaning, for once… If anything, it could be seen as a term of endearment. If you spun it around a bit and squinted, that is. Lori didn't share his opinion.
"Why on earth am I taking fashion advice for a guy who insults me all the time?"
"Because you agreed to obey me in everything concerning the revenge plans."
"As I already said, I don't see how clothes shopping relates to revenge."
"And as I said, you are wrong."
"Enlighten me, Puny."
Loki ignored the name and continued to check the clothes. There was a vast array of different types of garbs available… the Midgardians sure were vain creatures. He made use of Lori's boredom to worm himself a way to the control of her body. Lori suddenly felt she had lost control, and she cursed, trying to fight back. When conscious she still had the upper hand in her body, so she was quickly winning from Loki. The god gritted his teeth.
"Would you rather have that I order you around like a dog, or will you allow me to pick the clothes myself?"
"Say please."
"I am not below you, Mortal!"
Lori's mouth fell open.
"Have you never heard of being polite? It doesn't mean you're below someone, it means you respect that person!"
Loki continued to push, and Lori rolled her eyes.
"But of course, you don't respect me, now do you?"
Loki couldn't honestly say yes. He was struggling for control, and the ease by which Lori managed to hold him back was angering him. Anything he would say now would be considered highly offensive.
"Look, Mr Puny-God-Of-Asgard. This is my body. I agreed to your help but I never submitted to you in any way. Apologize and be polite."
"Never!"
Lori really found it borderline hilarious, the way they were having a mental battle in the middle of the mall. Loki was strong enough to overpower her when she was weakened by circumstances, but now was not one of those moments. She enjoyed the feeling of power it gave her to have Loki's mind struggling inside her.
"Seriously, you have to show some common courtesy. If I'm to give you control I want you to behave like a decent human being, I kinda like my reputation as a pleasant person to be around."
Loki huffed, and stopped struggling, knowing he couldn't win anyway. With dread in his voice he asked.
"Fine. Please Miss Lauritsen, may I have control of your body?"
"Only for the shopping."
(Author's Notes)
Yay! Loki is finally starting to warm up a bit to Lori, if only to preserve himself... Trouble is on the way! And Loki and Lori having a mental battle in a clothes store...
REVIEW PLEASE! -Pleading Kitty Is Pleading-
