As bizarre, as liquidated as her brain felt, a sense of normality did finally return in time – the greatest of all healers. Fandral even started bringing women home with him again, not that she cared but it did give her ample opportunity to pilfer a little wine left lying around. You could stick the woman in a girl but not remove it after all.
Currently, Kari was laying face first in an empty plate in the dining hall. She had an epic hangover of the horrendous kind, lights were too bright, her nose too itchy and Loki's face across the table was really pissing her off.
"Smirking bastard…" She mumbled as Fandral turned his attention to her with a prod of his finger.
"Is my little finger smith feeling the ramification of bad judgment?"
"Urgh…" Kari rolled her head away from her grandfather's prying only to realize Thor was getting ready to bug her on the other side. "I'm a grown woman… I'll do what I want."
"Yes, you appear fully grown in my eyes, Fandralkin." Thor laughed, lifting her head from her plate in order to pile food onto it. "You shall eat a full meal fit for a grown woman."
Kari groaned at the mix match of touching food groups slopped in front of her. It was almost as big as she was by the time Thor was done and got back to his own plate with a meaty grin. Everything smelt vulgar, her stomach swirling angrily as she slumped her head onto a palm and rested her elbow beside the plate. She started picking at the items, hardly eating a thing but making a good show of it for the ravenous smiling devouring bimbo sat besides her. Where did he put it all? Why was he not as fat as Volstagg? She needed to discover his secrets, write a diet book and make millions on earth. What would she do with earth money anyway? They did not accept that sort of currency anywhere in asgard.
Tearing some bread from the large slice on her plate, she dipped it idly in some sort of savory sauce she only knew by its description – reddish green sauce with bits in it. Loki was still smirking, having a lovely conversation with some woman with much too pretty blonde hair. She was not jealous, she just hated seeing him happy and also his lady friend's much too pretty face was bothering her too. They were laughing now, his mouth wide to accommodate the humor he found in whatever the hugely cleavaged woman had said that was so funny.
With a snigger of her own, Kari flicked the sticky sauce covered lump of bread with her middle finger and watched it fly narrowly missing the tricksters wide open gob but still making a lovely squelching sound as it struck his cheek. The god of mischief froze, projectile sliding downwards until it dripped off his chin with a muffled patter on his plate below. Thor had immediately erupted into a great burst of mirth, pointing his brother out with a chicken thigh as pretty-young-lady friend grimaced at both the princes in turn.
"I no not if you are aware, brother, but there is something on your face." The god of thunder continued to chuckle through a large mouthful, spewing a flicker of mixed provisions on people around him.
"Thank you, brother." Loki responded rather calmly, lifting a napkin to his face and casually wiping the trail of sauce away.
Kari had already slipped under the table, trying to avoid suspicion as well as Thor's messes. It was peaceful and dark under here, the perfect place to hide with a hangover and dually get up to mischief. There was Loki's boots and next to them was his companion's slippered feet. A devious plan spun forward in her mind, Kari crawling closer to the pretty woman's feet and carefully pulling the bows adorning the tips of her shoes free before tying the left to the right. So caught up in mischief she failed to notice Loki's head appearing under the table to watch her.
"Undo your mischief immediately." He angrily whispered.
"Do it yourself." She stuck her tongue out at him, crawling out of his reach before he could grab a hold of her and clambered back onto the bench.
"Ah, there you are, my dear." Fandral helped her back into place. "I had thought you lost."
"Dropped an earring." Kari shrugged and giggled at the confused look on her grandfather's face.
"And did you find it, my dear?"
"Oh I think I-"
There was a disturbance ahead of them, a blonde haired, pretty faced, large cleavage attempted to stand before tripping and landing into the god of mischief's waiting arms. Loki cut her a quick glance across the table, he was very pleased with himself as he plastered his lady friend with platitudes and felt it was best he carry her out of the room to safety. Kari glared after them; he had ruined her plans and taken them for his own – the bastard.
"Granddad…"
"Yes my dear?"
"Wasn't that one of your women?"
"Ahhhahaha." Fandral spluttered into an uncomfortable laugh. "I know not what you refer to."
"No… now that I've seen her in a horizontal position she looks really familiar." Kari creased her brow in recollection. "Like that snoring blonde woman you were with the other night."
"No… No I think not."
"I'm pretty sure, the cleavage is really quite unmistaka-mmfmffffmmmhhh." Fandral held his hand tightly over her mouth so as to muffle the rest of her recounting.
"What is this talk?" Thor was on the scene, ears becoming alert at the word 'cleavage'.
"Nothing, friend, nothing." Fandral shook his head, pulling his granddaughter further into his clutches so she could not escape.
"Your kin seems to have something to say on the matter." The prince was dreadfully curious now, secrets and intrigue galore.
"Kari is feeling dreadfully unwell after drinking the wine she came upon last night, is that not so my dear?" He forced her head to nod, continuing to keep her mouth covered as she glared at him. "And now she is going to go away somewhere and do something that does not involve idle gossip."
She was lifted off the bench, deposited like a parcel on the floor and then shooed on by a bad Robin Hood impersonator. Oh she was so going to 'accidentally' walk in on him in the throws of passion tonight and if possible convincingly vomit on his bed sheets like a poor little granddaughter with a sick tummy. Treat her like a child and shoo her out to play, be careful what you wish for granddad.
Skipping off down the steps of the palace, she headed out through the city to the fields. It hardly took any time at all to come across a selection of children running through the tall grass collecting coloured cloth tied around one another's waist. It was a game of capture the flag, girls were even involved for this one though the boys seemed confused as to how much grabbing they were allowed to do. It was an awkward age for most of them. Before she could make it to the main group, Kari was set upon by a decidedly thinner Dagur catapulting her to the ground. She kicked him off, annoyed at his messing of her hair and sat on him to force the laughter from his chest to deflate.
"Get off!" Dagur moaned, thrashing left and right like an upturned turtle.
"Say you're sorry." Kari folded her arms, keeping her weight firmly on him.
"Stupid girl!"
"Smelly boy!"
"Oh that is it!" He threw her from him, clambering onto his feet to chase her squealing into the grass. "Get back here!"
"No!" She laughed, disappearing into the huddle of children celebrating over their victory of collecting blue cloth.
Out on the field was always fun, the best of times with the best of people who did not talk down to her like she was somehow beneath them. Though, if she were being honest, she was sort of beneath everyone at the palace with how tall they were and short she was. Getting to show off was pretty good too; none of the other children were much good or proficient in anything yet so anything she showed them was looked upon as new and interesting. There had been a lot of 'ooh'ing and awed sounds when she had made several duplicates of herself to run in opposite directions as Dagur chased her. Poor boy had not known which way to run; even if the illusion only lasted a few seconds it was plenty of time to hide herself elsewhere. Lessons with temperamental, old man Loki were not entirely wasted things – even if he did torment her a little on the side. Lessons with Fandral were really boring now though, he would not let her near anything sharp and pointy at all anymore so it was all little wood sticks and mocking tones of 'that is very good, my dear' as he feigned deflecting her weak attacks; sometimes with a theatrical grunt added to make it more realistic – not that he ever seemed to realize just how insulting his drama was.
As the crowd of children thinned out, heading off for lunchtime meals, Kari spotted two familiar looking adults towards the back of the field. Prue and Egill enjoying a picnic under an old apple tree. She snuck over to them, careful not to be seen and climbed the tree to watch them from the branches above. Could that have been her? If she had married Egill of course, it had very almost happened if not for Prue saving her. Maybe she would still be an adult, happy, in love, with a baby on the way. Right, scratch that last bit Karian Motter was not anywhere near ready for annoying sprogglets puking and stinking up the place.
She cringed at the thought but soon recovered into a longing sigh as Egill reached over to feed his wife pie. They shared a laugh, kissed tenderly then went back to their idle, happy, conversation about nothing and everything. Oh, to be in love.
"What are you doing?" Garthar poked his head around her shoulder to look at what she was so interested in.
"Shhh." Kari hushed him, the boy frowning at the secrecy but doing as he was told and lowering his voice, as he got more comfortable on the branch beside her.
"Who are they?"
"That's Prue and that's Egill." She pointed them out at the mention of their names. "I almost had to marry him."
"What? But he is old."
"Yeah, but I was old then too."
"You are weird, Kari."
"I know." She chuckled, Garthar shaking his head but joining in the quiet laughter.
"Yuck, why are old people always doing that?" He shuddered in disgust as Prue and Egill went back to sloppy kisses.
"Because, it's fun." Kari shrugged.
"How do you know?" He gave her a disbelieving look.
"I used to do it a lot. There is all kinds of it: french kissing, german kissing, porn star kissing, good girl kissing, bad girl kissing, rainbow kissing… but you never ever, ever want to get involved in a rainbow kiss. That shit is nasty."
"What are you even talking about?" Garthar was thoroughly confused and mildly disturbed at once.
"I don't even want to describe it's… it's so disgusting."
"Oh…" He looked down at the canoodling couple below them only vaguely aware of what they were discussing. "Well, could you just show me then?"
"A rainbow kiss?" Kari leaned away from him, horrified that anyone would ask for a demonstration of that most heinous of kisses.
"No…?" Garthar frowned, pausing to catch his breath and thoughts before continuing. "Just a normal one I guess."
"Oh…" She stared wide-eyed ahead of her in stunned surprise now they were both on the same page again. " Uh… um… I… uhahaha… that'd be kind of weird…"
"Why? We are friends are we not?" He kicked his feet, casually, back and forth as if what he were asking a completely innocent request.
"Sure, yeah but… you're only supposed to kiss people that are your really, really, really good friends."
"I thought you said before that we are best friends."
"Yeah but… not like Prue and Egill and your mother and father are really good friends."
"Ugh, this is all complicated." He slumped forward, bracing his chin on both palms.
"Tell me about it." She agreed, joining him in an aggravated slouch as they watched the couple below them backing up there picnic basket before leaving. "I'm gonna head back home, I'm hungry."
"All right."
With an awkward shuffle, she made her way past her friend and slid down the tree trunk back to the ground below. Prue and Egill were a little further a head on the path as she patted dirt and debris from her clothes and made to chase after them. Might even have some pie left over for her to fill up on if she asked them.
"Kari?" She paused, hearing Garthar calling after her.
"Yeah?"
"I would not mind… you know… being really good friends with you." He came hesitantly forward, clearing his throat as he offered her a sorry looking flower he had obviously picked from the side of the path a moment before. "If you wanted to."
"That's uh… really sweet of you, Garthar." She giggled; taking the flower from him and twirling it round between her fingers.
The boy was flustered, hopping from one foot to the other as words tried to form on his tongue. He scratched his head, looking at her as she chuckled at his awkwardness again but before she could register the peculiarness of the look in his eyes, he had cleared the space between them tumbling into a clumsy kiss. That had shut her up, blinking several times at the unsure pressure on her lips. They were both blushing when he finally pulled away, taking several steps backwards until feeling safe by the distance between them.
"I will see you tomorrow then." He stated casually as if nothing had just happened.
"Huh?" Was all she could muster, not that the scarpering boy took any time to wait for a reply.
Was that what she thought it was? A little boy just kissed her. On what scale could she judge how wrong that just was? Garthar was about twelve and she a twenty-eight year old going on eleven. It was wrong, very wrong but at the same time she felt stupidly giddy about it. A boy never kissed her when she was eleven first time around. She had to wait for seventeen and a horrible experience with a nineteen-year-old, oh so mature idiot, with a car and ID to buy alcohol for that.
She ran back to the palace, bypassing smoochy old Egill and Prue on the way and scattered up the steps humming to herself. Not even Loki could upset her happiness right now, even if he was at the dining hall with that not as pretty as she first thought woman again.
"You look in love, my dear." Fandral helped her up onto the bench to sit at the table.
"Oh it is a curse, granddad." She chuckled, throwing her arms around his neck and planting a kiss on his cheek.