Going into the city had been fun, getting new clothes and having her grandfather following around behind her carrying things. Shopping trips was definitely one of the things she missed about earth but at least Asgard had some pretty weird stuff to look at too. It was kind of hard finding non-frilly long skirted garments for women but she had managed to successfully discover a few oddities to work with and at least one knee length tunic dress she did not mind as bad as the others – with how flattering it looked on in a pale blue.
Fandral mostly napped on the expedition, waking only to move on or chat up blushing maidens also looking for clothing. He was surprisingly good at picking out outfits for women though ignored his granddaughter's choices as much as possible. They hardly agreed on anything, his opinion being that everything she tried on being too tight and revealing on her but just fine on any other lady that entered the premises. She really needed Prue or Sif or just someone who was not related to her whilst doing this sort of thing.
By the time they got back to the palace it was gone lunchtime, Fandral rather grumpy at having missed a meal and left his granddaughter alone in her room to sort out her belongings whilst he went to the kitchens to sweet talk pie and ale for himself. She was late for a lesson with Loki, by several hours, but it hardly bothered her, as she was sure it would not affect him either. It was not as if he stuck around much during designated teaching times anyway, he mostly wondered in, put a book down and told her to read it before disappearing to wherever for a few hours sometimes coming back to have tea and point out how badly she was doing. It was like taking classes from the Grinch; which she highly suspected was a real story about Loki visiting earth one Christmas – she should probably ask him about it at some point.
Heading out of Fandral's rooms she pondered about what arrangements would probably change now that she had returned to a somewhat adult form. Would she be going back to her old room in the servants' quarters? Back to work as an asgardian waitress? There would not be much time in the day for her, as there had been for some time now, and it would be difficult to get used to once more. At least she should be allowed to drink alcohol openly again, that would always be a greatly appreciated bonus, especially with the amount of bullshit she had to put up with in a world full of medieval sexism and blatant favouritism.
For now all she had to worry about was finding Loki in a good mood - minus his lovely companion if at all possible. Upon arriving at the library, however, he was nowhere to be seen even when she called out to him receiving a repeating echo of her own voice in response. Perhaps he had gone out, up to some mischief or something. Oh well, she had other things to do anyway; like find Frigga. It had been a long overdue talk they needed to have, or at least Kari should probably apologise for being rude some time ago though she could not recall why she had been upset.
The queen was in her garden; at least someone was where they were supposed to be, tending to a selection of exotic looking lilies whilst a tabby cat preened his paws and whiskers at her side. Griffin was the first to spot the teenager 'umming' and 'ahhing' her way across the garden pathways towards them. His expression was neutral; tail swishing back and forth at the tip before a bright chirrup issued from his throat followed by the pitter-patter of paws padding towards the girl he used to know. Kari grinned, holding her hand out to her feline husband for a scratch behind an ear before straightening up to face the now watchful queen of Asgard.
"Hey… Frigga." Kari began awkwardly, playing with her fingers absentmindedly as her feline friend nuzzled against her ankles.
"I hardly recognized you, dear." Frigga responded casually with neither love nor hate.
"Yeah… kind of just happened last night out of the blue. Gave granddad a bit of a fright." She chuckled but trailed off when nobody else was even smiling with her – Griffin not being at fault as he was physically unable. "So I um…" She cleared her throat trying to form a somewhat coherent sentence. "I don't remember why I was rude to you, it's all sort of a jumble, I think I was angry about something but who knows what and I just, you know… wanted to say… I'm sorry for being a stupid bitch and stuff and I'm pretty sure I didn't mean it because uh… you're like one of the nicest people I know and… yeah."
"That was quite a garbled speech." Frigga shook her head with a snort of amusement. "Do not fret, children are seldom sane in their dealings with others. I must have disciplined Thor more times than I can count when he was young for worser offences."
"And Loki?"
"Loki was usually a good child."
"Are you sure?"
"One can never be entirely sure with Loki, but his heart has always been rooted firmly in the right place."
"Hmmm." Kari frowned, this seemed to be the same conversation they always had about the trickster; but who was right?
"Forgive my brashness but I must leave you, dear." Frigga smiled, gently squeezing Kari's shoulder as she passed her on the path. "I have duties I must attend to but it pleases me to see you again."
"Uh yeah, you too." She nodded, biting her lip anxiously as she watched the queen disappear from the garden with a trailing tomcat at her heels.
The cat had forgiven her it seemed, but his attentions were now fixed to an asgardian queen instead of a human waitress. Going up in the world, Griffin. She probably should have felt worse about it but who could begrudge a royal pussycat. Nobody could treat him better and at least Odin would not try to eat him or something to upset her.
She shook her head, chuckling at the thought of Odin and Griffin going at it in a ring. The king only had the one good eye left, if the feline got a good swipe in he could be left with none and the battle would be pretty lost for the greybearded old windbag. Then again he did have that big staff of his, could knock Griffin back from a distance but cat reflexes could maybe defeat that. This was a really close call, she could not decide who would truly prevail in an honest fight between the two.
Leaving the gardens her thoughts soon became distracted away from fight club related lunacy, however, as a tall strapping man came towards her passing by. Oh her hormones were sure running at full speed again, maybe even faster than her twenty-something bodies typical output what with added teenage bursts.
"Hey Balder." She flashed the confused looking warrior a toothy grin and hardly even noticed just how flirtacious she was being. "How's it going?"
"The day goes well." He slowed to a stop just ahead of her; still looking perplexed and a little lost. "And your day, lady….?"
"Lady?" She giggled, subconsciously touching her neck and drawing his attention to the bareskin there. "You think I'm a lady?"
"You are not a lady of the court?"
"No." She shook her head, biting down on her lower lip with a smile. "It's Kari… Fandral's granddaughter. You remember me right?"
"Truly?" He blinked, taken aback by the very sudden change from child to womanhood.
"Truly." She nodded with a further chuckle then spun to show off her new blue dress. "Is it the dress? Does it make me look like a lady?"
"I assumed because you were so, that is to say, yes, the dress." He agreed looking in both directions of the corridor in search for someone to latch upon to escape whatever mess he had gotten himself into. "I have somewhere to be. Another time, perhaps?"
"Sure." She rocked back and forth on her heels, arms behind her back as she gave a mock despondant sigh as the warrior cleared his throat giving a curt bow and hurried away from the giggling teenager. "Oh gosh, when did you get so handsome?" She sighed making sure to get a good eyeful of his retreating form until completely out of sight. "I need to get laid."
With a great big, very real this time, sigh Kari visibly deflated before perking up again and continuning her walk away from Balder's destination. It really had been a long time since she had seen any action, though a year of that was spent as a little girl who could hardly care less about sexy time or the attractiveness of men. Actually she had not even contemplated twice about Balder or Thor or anyone adult now she considered it; they had just been old men to her. Of course, now, they were hot men that needed to strip down in the rain and dance whilst she watched. Oh and Heimdall, how she missed his eyes and deep voice of seduction.
Sighing like a woman in lust, she stared at the ceiling in a bit of a daydream until a movement caught her attention. Across the next corridor, walking towards his rooms along a parallel adjoining route was Loki and his trailing 'I'm going out' diva cape. He had been out somewhere today, possibly with that giant breasted woman and probably had clean forgotten about her lesson – like she had.
Chuckling quietly she tiptoed after the trickster, the heavy thud of his boots never faltering once as he continued through the palace and around a corner. It was the perfect opportunity; she could not help the desire to prank him yet again before confusing him with her altered appearance. Peeking out from behind the corner he had just turned she concentrated a well of magic between her forefinger and thumb uttering words of power under her breath before tossing the spell outward. A sheet of ice crackled into life across the floor and right under his feet causing the prince to lose his balance and slip unexpectedly backwards.
There was a loud 'thump' as he landed hard on his back, the ice around his body shattering into diamond like shards as Kari laughed aloud at his embarrassment. She was folded over, hands braced to her knees as she continued to chortle but her amusement soon lulled into silence at the lack of movement from the body ahead of her. Loki was stock still, frozen in the same position he had landed in and seemingly unconscious. She frowned at the scene; unable to trust the god of mischief's ruse but came closer for an inspection just in case.
"Loki?" She quiered the body, tapping his side lightly with her shoe without response. "Stop messing around." She kicked him harder this time but he still stayed firmly in place. "I know you're fine, I saw you take Thor to the face once in the training yard so quit it." Her nerves were starting to fray at the aggravation of Loki faking his own death so poorly; she stepped on him putting half her weight onto his stomach to make him graon or something. "Loki?" All right, she was getting worried now, anybody sane would have gotten really pissed at being stepped on, was he even breathing? "Loki!" She tried shouting, kneeling down to lightly slap his cheeks as his head lulled from one side to the other. "Loki, wake up!"
Nothing still, he was pale – though he was always pale – and kind of cold – again always kind of cold – but it was really starting to scare her now. Had she just accidentally killed prince Loki of Asgard? Could he really be taken out by such clumsy means? Oh god, she was so in trouble.
Shaking him did no good, she laid her head on his chest checking to hear a heartbeat and thankfully finding one though it was rather sluggish and weak sounding. His chest was not rising; on further inspection she could not feel any breath leaving his lips either. Not dead yet, but certainly heading that way if she did not act quickly. How did that CPR stuff go again?
Kari swallowed, taking a steadying breath and straightened his neck lifting the chin upwards in order to tilt his head back slightly. It had been a long time since first aid classes at the restaurant and never in her life had she had to use any of this stuff on a living or dead human being but it was certainly coming back to her fast now. Grabbing his nose, she sucked in a deep breath and spread her lips over his open mouth forcing air into his lungs. However, the air came back in an unexpected burst that knocked her backwards choking at the forced expansion of her lungs.
Still reeling, trying to find her balance, arms grabbed onto her rolling her around as a large weight pinned her down. She spluttered several times more before her eyes readjusted to all the movement and coersion now realizing she was on her back with a very alive and conscious Loki on top of her.
His knee was braced between her thighs rather stimulatingly; she was sure she was getting a bit moist at the contact and hoped he was not aware. Oh and now she was blushing at the thought, way to go keeping all that automatic response to stimulai under wraps, this was old man Loki for goodness sakes. Horrifyingly he seemed to notice something was up, hopefully just the redness of her cheeks but he was inching closer. She gave a slight 'eek', eyes widening at the imminent whatever was impending involving his face and her face. He paused however, drifting a couple of inches from her lips and looked away from her eyes to admire the curve of her nose before grabbing it as she did to him.
"What is it you thought to accomplish by doing this?" He held on tight as she tried to pry his fingers from her nose to no avail.
"I thought you were dying or something and needed CPR." She sounded commically nasally, frowning up at him as he continued to squeeze her nose tightly shut. "You scared the beegee's out of me holding your breath like that."
"Primitive human medicine?" It was phrased as a question but not one for her to answer as he looked away thoughtfully.
"Could you get off me?" She tried asking in what she hoped was a nice, if a little odd sounding, tone of voice. "Or at least move your knee."
He raised an eyebrow looking along her body, as if only just noticing it was beneath him, to the point where his knee was holding the length of her skirt up into her crotch area and exposing her legs. Moving his leg further back, he lifted himself up into a kneeling position pulling his captive along with him by her nose and turned his head to the side as if appraising her worth.
"You see yourself as this now, Karian Motter." Loki was evidentally not very impressed. "How vain you have become."
"Uh?" She was startlingly bewildered and her nose was really starting to ache. "What are you going on about now, you annoying prick? I was just remembering when I was seventeen yesterday and woke up how I remembered looking back then. If I was being vain I would have remembered myself as having bigger tits than this and maybe somewhat taller with straighter hair. This is all your fault anyway! You and that stupid blue stuff and can you get the fuck off my nose already you're really starting to hurt me!"
"Even now still a failure." He tutted, letting go of her nose causing her to drop half way back to the ground as he ascended. "Not an ounce of hope."
She glared at his back, all his melodrama and snide comments she was sure were directed at her and not his experiment attempt – though technically she had also been the experiment attempt as well – were really grating on her last nerve. Stupid Loki and his stupid nose pinching. Damn swaggering bastard did not even bother to help her up before continuing on his merry way. Kari grimaced as she realized her mouth was now covered in his saliva from the mouth to mouth she had given him and rapidly began wiping her lips clean with the back of her hand. No teenage hormones could help his sorry case.