Written to Germany to Germany - Ratatat, crosspost from AO3.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone :)

Gymnophoria: The distinct feeling that someone, somewhere, is mentally undressing you.

Loki waltzes slowly round the floor, bend over so that the little Asgardian boy could lead with clumsy, tottering steps that have him crashing into the backs of other dancer's legs and stepping more often than not on Loki's toes. Loki smiles gently at the little boy, and that only encourages him to tighten his grip on Loki's index and middle fingers on both hands.

As the orchestra calls for a break, the little boy smiles sweetly up at Loki, does a clumsy bow that almost has him falling flat on the floor before running off to his mother, who is smiling and holding out her arms to him from the side.

Loki stands up, stretching to get rid of the knots in his back that came from bending nearly double. As he surveys the emptying dance floor, he finds that Thor is nowhere to be seen. Frigga and Farbauti are over with the children, playing monsters and maidens, Modi ensconced carefully in the curve of Farbauti's arm and watching the other children play with bright blue eyes. Odin had fallen asleep a few dances ago, his beard dipping into his cup of wine, and Laufey had followed suit, except that he had fallen asleep in the half-eaten sheet cake he had been in the process of demolishing, and his brow currently rested in a pile of white buttercream frosting.

Helblindi and Darcy had disappeared, and Loki wondered with a smirk which of the bedrooms they had decided to pursue shenanigans in (before the ceremony, as a way of dispelling pre-wedding jitters, he'd gone through all of the bedrooms in the castle and had rigged them in various ways - some with snakes and copious amounts of silly string, others with models of ghosts and other supernatural monsters). Byleistr was over in the dark shadows behind a pillar, making out (but, in all fairness, it was more like gnawing) with the Thor clone that he had marked as his 'guest.'

Loki searches around the vast room, wondering where Thor was.

He finally catches sight of his husband, standing by the remnants of the wedding cake, looking at him with heavy lidded eyes over a goblet of wine. He watches Thor's gaze as it rakes over him, clearly heated even from that distance, stripping away layers of silk and satin and lace until Loki feels cool and exposed underneath his stare.

Thor's eyes slowly drag themselves up the curves of Loki's waist, skimming over the silver cloak that drapes like water across his slim shoulders, to meet Loki's gaze. Thor tilts his head subtly to the side, and Loki grins as he hurries over to comply.

"Only for a little bit," he gasps as Thor presses his mouth hot and insistent to Loki's. "We cannot just simply leave our guests like this."

Thor grins, his beard tickling at the sensitive point behind Loki's ear. "An unfortunate custom that we must observe," he whispers, tugging Loki to a bedroom door.

"Like that asinine Midgardian thing you insisted we do?" Loki breathes as Thor half-drags, half-carries him across the dark corridor. "Not seeing each other for weeks before this? I was half-mad looking for you."

"You are half-mad all the time, sweet brother," Thor murmurs with a laugh. "I love you all the more for it."

Loki smiles, and Thor reaches out for the doorknob, flinging open the bedroom door, ready to lay Loki out on the bed inside and have his way with him. Much to Thor's surprise, the door opens onto another door; when he flings this one open too, there is yet another door behind it.

"What manner of sorcery is this?" Thor mutters under his breath, astounded as the doors keep opening onto more doors in front of him, getting smaller and smaller and smaller until they are not even doors at all, but mere coverings for mouseholes.

Behind him, Loki stifles a giggle into the sleeve of his cloak before taking Thor's hand and dragging him off to another room.