When she finally got back to her room, Kari lay in the dark thinking about her life through a lens. Odin had accused of using a primal magic to 'persuade' those around her and the thought alone made her feel sick to her stomach. Whenever she'd gone out looking to pull a guy, she'd never come home alone that was for sure but was that really tricking them? Had she somehow forced men into her bed? What about boyfriends? All the relationships she had pursued had ended when she dumped them, never the other way around. Was that it again? What about Griffin?
"Do you stay because you want to, Griffin?" She rolled onto her side, tabby-cat purring on the pillow beside her head as she lingered inches from touching him – to afraid to follow through incase it were true.
What about Egill? Had that entire mess been her fault? Did she somehow make him believe she was interested with voodoo? She suddenly remembered Prue, the heroine that came to save her and the realization of having strongly wished to be rescued at that time directed at the woman. Oh god, what was real?
She hardly slept that night, stuck on loop crying and thinking until exhaustion had claimed her unwillingly. Morning had come much to quickly, her alarm going off to wake her for work but her mind still moping and tired from only a couple of hours sleep filled with terrifying nightmares. She lay there, staring up at the ceiling and ignoring the buzz of her phone even as it stopped and began its chimes every five minutes on the automatic snooze function. She didn't want to get up, fearful, tired and horribly aware of being an unknowingly horrible person.
It wasn't until the warmth behind her grunted and rolled onto her that she'd even come to notice something was very wrong indeed. Her eyes went wide, alarm ringing for the eighth time and a man's arm draped across her breasts. She followed the patches of hair on his arm along, slowly, until a mess of dirty blond hair was visibly snoring against the mattress. Oh and he was naked.
She screamed, he woke with a start, she rolled out from under him and threw herself at the wall covered in Heimdall as the man leapt into the opposite corner. She was staring at him, she couldn't stop staring at him, wide mouthed, slack jawed, disbelieving. Oh my, did he have nice abs – no, she couldn't think about that now. He in turn was looking around the room wildly, as if only seeing it for the first time and attempting to taste the air with his tongue. What was he doing? Why was he in her bed? Who was he?
As his gaze finally made its way to her, her breathing hitched, unable to continue its usual journey in and out of her eager lungs. His eyes, she knew those eyes, as human as they looked now the tawny feline nature of those eyes were still unmistakable.
"G-Griffin?" She blurted out.
"Meow?" He said, the question mark obvious in the tone of his voice.
"Oh god, I've not done this to you have I?" She was shocked, unable to think clearly as she scrambled forward to meet the cat-man in the centre of the room as he approached making a choking sound as if trying to purr. "I am so sorry. I… I don't know how I… I'm so sorry!" She held him, he in turn trying to climb onto her lap but far too big.
There was a knock at the door, startling Kari into a surprised yelp. She began looking around the small room for something to help her. A hiding spot! She needed to hide him, who knew what Odin would do to them both if he found out.
"Come on Griffin." She began making kissy noises and coaxing him onto the bed. "That's it, you stay there ok."
"Meow." He continued trying to purr as she covered him with a bed sheet with the hopes of pretending he was just a normal guy in her bed – people could think she was a whore all they wanted.
Holding her hand up to get him to stay she slowly made her way to the door, golden eyes training her every movement. As the third knock resounding against the door she finally opened it a fraction and peered around at the unwanted visitor. It was Prue, concerned and suspicious at her behaviour.
"We heard screaming from the kitchens." The redhead frowned, having been worried but now just annoyed she had come all the way down the corridor to check.
"Sorry, yeah I uh… fell out of bed. Weird dream." Kari laughed unconvincingly.
"Is that so." Prue rolled her eyes. "Well hurry up and get dressed, morning meal is starting."
"Oh uh… yeah could you cover for me? For just a bit? I kind of need to… do something important."
"Can it wait till after?"
"No. Not… really. I have to deal with this now." Her face was pleading, Prue attempting to read more into her expression before suddenly coming to an opinion.
"I understand. The spider terrified us all and you forced to be with it for so long on your own." Her tone was sincere in its sympathy. "Just change your sheets, go take a bath and forget about it. Could happen to anyone."
"What? I… uh… yeah. Thanks, Prue." Kari nodded a confused gratitude as the redhead gave her a quick smile and finally left.
As she closed the door, still thinking on what had just been said, Kari suddenly grasped the other woman's words with a face palming action. She thought she wet the bed. She actually thought a grown woman had wet the bed because of a fifteen-foot spider that spat poison. Ok, that didn't sound quite as implausible now she put it in that context but still. She was never going to be able to look Prue in the eyes again after this. First things first, she needed to deal with Griffin but how?
Maybe someone would help her? Her grandfather? No, she had the perfect idea. Loki – he understood magic, he probably knew of a way to reverse this and she had perfect blackmail to hold over him via the spider that disrupted easter. How was she going to do this though? She couldn't just leave Griffin in a man's body alone in her room whilst she went to get Loki - most likely in his library. Maybe she could take Griffin with her? Drape him in a sheet, take him down to the library with her – it was still early so most would be waking up, in the dining hall or still asleep. The servers would start taking the platters in soon as well; they had to go now.
"Griffin? Hello my big soppy tomcat." She cooed to the flirtatious man currently stretching himself in odd contortions all over her bed and flashing her everything he had to display.
Getting a man-cat down three corridors, unseen and keeping his sheet on was possibly worse than getting him into a pet carrier. He had been acting as if he were going to the vets the entire way; she'd even attempted to 'persuade' him a few times but had no idea how that really worked. In the end she had, had to somehow get the sheet over his head so he was blind and confused and push him the entire way as he made hissing noises.
Getting into the library was a relief, a ridiculously weight lifting release of purest pleasure. Loki was not there however, the best explanation for that being he was probably at breakfast where her growling stomach wished she could go to as well. She let Griffin out of his bed sheet trap, the naked man-cat instantly running off down a row of book shelves and disappearing into what seemed to be a section on cookery. Nobody came here accept Loki that she had ever noticed; so letting him loose didn't seem too big a deal – until he pee'd on something. Nothing she could do about it now, the book of dumplings would just have to dry out and never be spoken of again.
Kari moved to the centre of the library, taking a seat behind Loki's desk and began the arduous task of waiting to blackmail a god of mischief into aiding her cat-issues. It wasn't until she began plucking idly at bits of loose thread on her clothing that she even noticed what she had hastily thrown on – inside out grey leggings, flip-flops with socks and that purple eighties big shirt thing without a bra. She had to laugh; she looked ridiculous but quickly tried to amend the issue by putting the leggings on the right way and removing the socks. As she was trying to figure out what to do with the worrying amount of boob on display from higher angles there was an aggravated clearing of someone's throat somewhere behind her.
It was Loki, staring at her with a blank expression only a few feet away. When had he got here? She hadn't heard his footsteps, the loud 'tap, tap, tap' ones he usually strolled around the library with. She jumped up out of his seat, the bouncing motion of which he did not visually miss though at least when he continued to look down at her from his higher vantage he at least had the courtesy to only look her in the eyes.
"My, my are you a glutton for punishment." He began, his tone amused, icy and sickened. "Perhaps it is time to put a lock on the door, or maybe a curse of some kind to keep unwanted vermin in their place."
"Bitch, bitch, bitch." She rolled her eyes at him, she didn't have time to listen to his insults and cower in fear this morning. "Look, yes, I know, we both know, library for me is bad. I'm a bad girl. But whatever, I need something from you."
"Another slap?" He looked eager to supply that demand.
"No." She inhaled heavily through her nostrils attempting to steady her patience. "I think I accidentally turned my cat into a man last night."
He was silent; stone faced the moment her words reached his ears. It was like a transformation was taking place right in front of her, starting from his eyes and working its way down into his body like a flowing wave of mirth. He was laughing; more importantly he was laughing at her.
"You really believe yourself capable of such magic?" His toothy grin was horrendously big, like a hungry wolf ready to eat her alive.
"Whatever! Just help me turn him back."
"What reasons have I to help a trespassing, spying, offensive mortal such as yourself?"
"Because I'll tell your dad the spider was your fault." She was feeling pretty damn smug at that point, but the feeling was short lived.
"And you believe the king of Asgard, my father, will trust the word of some less than half-breed, common serving wench, over his own son?" He was laughing again, coming closer to her position until she could feel the edge of his breath hitting her temple. "Your feeble minded delusions are of no importance to anyone in this realm, Karian Motter."
"You have a pretty bad reputation you know."
"Oh I know. I've spent a life time crafting that reputation." He said as if dealing with a small child that didn't know any better. "Do you have proof to substantiate your would be claims to my father?"
"I heard you talking about it." She steadied herself, willing more conviction than she truly felt into her posture and tone.
"So you will admit, to your king, that first you trespassed into a forbidden area and then you began to eavesdrop and spy, like a roach in the wall, on his son just so happening to over hear a private conversation, between myself and my daughter, about sneaking a highly venomous arachnid into the palace." His eyebrows were raised, wolfish grin returned to its place of pride across the horizon of his face. "Do you not see how absurd your accusations truly are? What would be your plan after attempting to blackmail the son of Odin? Seduce me? Dress in this revealing manner and hope I might take pity enough to repay a favor for a favor?"
Her hand shot up at his suggestion, swiping in an arc to slap him as hard as she could but he was a lot speedier than she would have expected. Her wrist was restrained in his iron tight grip, squeezing on her hard enough to let her know just how powerless she was – he could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, if he so wanted. She wanted to scream, she should have been screaming but she was terrified into a stunned silence even as he pinned her against the desk.
"Harlot. Moving your affections from man to man, desperate to be loved just like your grandfather. But unlike Fandral, it is the only skill you truly possess and from what I hear you are not even that good at it."
"Get off of me." She was staring him right in the eyes, if she really could persuade, damn did she need to trick him off her. "Please."
Loki blinked, suddenly looking bored of this game and released her from under him. Kari shakily righted herself, readjusting her attire as he stood with his back to her apparently thinking about something. Her wrist hurt, another hand shaped bruise reddening into life – gifts from Loki were never pleasant.
"I will help you." He finally spoke again, turning on his heel just in time to witness her hiding tears. "No need to weep with joy, my reputation as a giving god is legendary."
"Liar." She spat back at him only making him chuckle.
"Or perhaps that is the virtue I am best known for." He shrugged as if genuinely not sure. "Your animal," he started doing some sort of motion with his hands towards the far side of the library, "is as he once was."
"And that's it?" She was trying to be angry but the cold sensation of fear still had its grips on her spine making her just sound chilled to the bone.
"Not quite." She didn't like the sounds of that. "I may require something of you in the future." He quickly noted the look of horror on her face as she tried to cover herself up some more. "Not that." He rolled his eyes, a sigh leaving his lips at the absurdity of her assumption.
"While we're on the subject of 'that'," she was still holding herself covered, a liars lies were often believable, "who has been talking about me behind my back saying I'm a 'harlot'?"
"That would be me." Loki laughed, thoroughly enjoying her appalled expression.