ax_main | Loki and Cal

Loki gets back from Asgard and checks in on Cal. Puppy time ensues.

Loki went away for one month and the student body faced mortal peril yet again. Loki was selfishly glad that Duo wasn’t here for the latest X-Force mission, but there a handful of other people to worry about. Predictably, Abs and Cal were on the lawn, sprawled out in the sunlight. The pup stirred as Loki’s winged shadow swooped over them. Having learned his lesson about puppies and feathered chew toys, Loki shifted to human form as he hit the ground. He turned to Cal, sliding his hands into the pockets of his coat. It was fashionable, but unreasonably long for this weather.

“Hey,” Loki greeted. He knelt down and extended one hand to Abs. “Hey,” he repeated, gentler.

Cal had retreated to that spot at the far side of the lake where he'd never seen anybody else (save Clint, when he was looking for Cal, but that was fine). When the bird flew down, something caught in his throat, and he'd sat up. It wasn't exactly a surprise when the bird shifted into Loki, and a distant part of Cal appreciated the smoothness of the landing.

Still, he couldn't help the tension lodged in his spine, and he fucking hated it.

He watched Abs come forward to sniff at Loki's hand, then push her head against his fingers in an affectionate greeting.

"Hey," he replied, a little belatedly, leaning on one hand. It's Loki. It's fine. Chill the fuck down. "How was Asgard?"

"Very busy, but Duo still likes me despite spending the month in my company so I'll consider it a win." He rubbed the puppy's head and fished into his pocket with the other hand. "I have a gift from home for Abs." He pulled out a carefully wrapped bag of treats and offered it up to Cal. "Not to show favoritism to your companion. I mean, people could eat them too, but I'm not sure they'd taste as good to us. I didn't try any."

Cal reached out to take the gift, a little belatedly. "And I don't plan to," he added, as if there hadn't been too long a pause. "Yo, Abs," he called out, and held a treat out to her, snatching it away when she would have just taken it. "You know what to do. Sit." Tail still wagging in excitement, she did as she was told, and only then did Cal feed her the treat. "Good girl," he told her, and scratched her behind the ear. "Say thanks to Loki, huh? He's spoiling you." But the way he said it, it didn't sound like a bad thing.

Loki smiled. "Hard not to spoil a face that sweet." He sat down properly and crossed his legs. "How are you holding up?"

Cal shifted, apparently to be facing Loki more, but it was also about sitting in a way that would allow him to move more quickly, if he needed to. How was he holding up? Fuck if he knew, other than how little sleep he'd been getting. He figured he would've looked it more, if it wasn't for Clint's healing. "I'm still here." He closed the bag and set it on the ground beside him, pointing a finger at Abs when she stood to come and investigate it (read: try and steal some treats). "No." She gave him a sad look, and a small whine, but made no further move to come near the treats.

"I'm vaguely surprised," Loki admitted. "Hopefully strength in numbers holds its appeal. You all worked very quickly. By the time we heard what was going on, it was over."

"As quickly as we could," Cal corrected him, although, really, he wasn't sure about that 'we'. It felt weird. But it definitely hadn't been quickly enough, since they'd had time to work their captives over. Since Caleb had come out of it like he had. Since Cal had let them get him in the first place, but that was only on him. He cleared his throat, and added, "But yeah. It was - we got them out." That was what mattered, in the end.

Loki wanted to know how people had gotten kidnapped in the first place, but knew that Cal wasn't the one to press. Maybe Kaplan, since he'd been rather friendly and open. Or maybe Duo would get more details since he was part of X-Force. The important thing right now was no one was dead, and whatever had happened Cal was here right now.

"If you ever want to talk... I'm happy to listen without commentary," Loki said quietly. "Or if you never want to talk about everything that's been going on, I have another offer for you."

That sounded... Well, Cal wasn't sure what it sounded like, so he only said, "I'm listening."

“Would you like to shapeshift?” Loki offered. He gestured to Abs. “Shed your skin and run. Or turn into a cat and come explore the attic?”

"You want me to mimic you." Cal had to lay it out, because... Well, he didn't go around mimicking anyone unless they offered, not anymore, save for the two people he had gone and asked. (Clarice, with a lot of trepidation; Billy, but he had let it go after they got Caleb back, as agreed.) Also, it gave him some time to figure out how he felt about the out-of-the-blue offer.

“If you want, yes,” Loki replied. He’d debated long and hard on the subject. As much as the idea of Cal knowing the full extent of his powers made him squirm, who was to say that Cal wouldn’t figure them out if he was mimicking Xavier? And honestly, the concept of giving permission was nice, but at the end of the day Cal could take any powers he wanted. He wasn’t an old fashioned vampire, bound by rules of permission. It seemed unlikely Cal would go for it without an offer, but damned if he didn’t need the freedom of shifting shapes.

“As mentioned, there’s more to it than shape shifting, but that’s the best part.”

Cal nodded; he remembered. "I'll keep my shields up tight." He wasn't sure about the reality warping, but he would figure it out once he'd mimicked Loki, he figured. He petted Abs by his side, who was still eyeing the bag of treats, and reached for that buzz of Loki's mutation. Good thing he had the room for it without dropping anything. Then he purposefully started thinking about the reality wrapping, if only so he didn't end up doing any of that that accidentally, and... "Whoa." He didn't sound taken aback; his mind sounded blown.

Loki rubbed the back of his neck. He could only imagine what the whoa encompassed. “If you can turn the empathic stuff off, highly recommend it. You do telepathy so I’m sure you’re well versed in knowing way too much about other people’s feelings, but that awkward tidbit is how I ended up here.”

"My shields are up," Cal confirmed. It wasn't really turning it off, more like walling himself off. He had no interest in other people's thoughts and feelings; his were already difficult enough to sort through. So he wasn't going to think very hard about the empathy, because it was of no interest to him. But he paused, and did ask, "How did it land you here?"

Since they were getting intimate already...

“I couldn’t always control what I was projecting. You know how when you’re pissed off you say shit that you don’t mean literally? Like, go fuck yourself or go jump off a bridge? Well... it wasn’t go fuck yourself. And it didn’t come out as optional.” Loki looked down at the grass. “He’s fine now, but that was the end of it.”

Cal knew he should be expressing some form of sympathy right now. Just a couple of weeks ago, he would have been. But now the words he would have shaped felt flat and empty, and Loki deserved better than empty words. So instead, Cal thought about it for a few seconds, letting the silence stretch between them, and then shifted into a gray wolfdog with surprising blue eyes. Abs yelped in surprised and dismay, and Cal took the time to let her smell him, and nuzzled gently at her, before he stepped over to Loki, every step a discovery in this form. He nuzzled at Loki's shoulder, because that didn't feel empty.

He knew that he could talk, in this form, like Loki did. But he didn't want to.

That gesture meant the world. Loki assumed as long as one of them had thumbs that Cal would avoid physical contact. Even if Cal one day decided to use Loki’s powers for questionable pursuits and tried to subjugate the world, this was entirely worth it.

Loki tentatively reached to rub behind Cal’s ears. “Oh, you’re beautiful,” he murmured softly.

Cal flattened his ears some, bending his head and sitting down. His eyes closed as he focused on the touch. Its novelty - he wasn't exactly used to having fur - and its rarity. Precious, precious rarity. He heaved a quiet little sigh, letting the sensations wash through him. When was the last time he had been able to enjoy touch? He couldn't say, and he didn't want to think too hard about it.

So he pushed up into Loki's hand, then stood on all fours again, and scratched his paw twice over the other boy's thigh. Invitation, and he turned around to face Abs, who had been, very unsurprisingly, trying to get into the abandoned bag of treats. He ran at her, and so the chase began.

Loki laughed. “Opportunist,” he accused at Abs before he took Cal’s cue and shifted into his own wolf-pup form. He took off after the two of them.

* * *

A little while later, all three of them had collapsed into a proverbial puppy pile, a safe distance away from the treats. Cal sighed happily, and finally resorted to speaking, for all that he was still in dog form. A simple, "Thank you," and a friendly lick over Loki's head.

Loki snuggled against him, sighing a tired whine. “One day we should be dragons. Or otters. This is perfect.” If only exercise was this enjoyable in person form.

Cal leaned his head on Loki's back, with Abs curled up against his shoulder. "Not sure Abs will like us as dragons as much." But that wasn't a no. It wasn't a yes, either. It was a little difficult to project himself into the future, still. Or really, again. He'd gotten better at it, but right now... not so much. The one thing he knew to ask, about the future, he decided not to just yet.

“She might like small dragons. Probably not massive dragons.” Loki’s tail thumped against the grass lightly. “Her opinion on cats has also been highly entertaining.”

"She's used to Frumpkin," Cal pointed out. Of course she liked cats. ...and liked chasing them.

“Cats next then?” Loki suggested.

Cal was quiet for a beat, and then offered, "Big cats?" He didn't like the idea of being in a small, vulnerable form, even if he could shift back in an instant.

“Would you say you’re more of a lion or a tiger?” Loki asked curiously.

"I was thinking panther," Cal admitted. "But tiger works too." Male lions were lazy assholes.

“We can be subtle together,” Loki said warmly. He nuzzled against Cal. “I’ve done leopard. I enjoy the aesthetic.”

It was only when Loki nuzzled him that Cal realized he'd tensed up again, but surprisingly, and thankfully, the touch actually encouraged him to relax, by making him focus on the physicality of the moment, and the literal puppy pile. "They are pretty," he agreed, but wasn't fully invested in the conversation anymore, and sounded distracted.

Being distracted by relaxing, and cuddling, was pretty okay, he figured. It was all a little overwhelming, really, for someone as touch-starved and touch-averse as he was.

Loki snuggled closer and wisely let the conversation fade. With another sharp yawn, he focused his attention on more important things. Cuddles.

It wasn't until they all woke up from their nap (or, in Cal's case, their half-awake doze) that Cal resigned himself to ask, right after he took a few steps and shook his fur out, "Do you want me to drop it? When we're not hanging out." It was a testament to how relaxed the puppy pile had gotten him that he didn't sound horribly tense as he asked. Just... regular tense.

Loki stretched. “Fuck it. Enjoy paws whenever you want to. As for the rest of it, if you figure out something really useful let me know. You should be as badass as you want to be at all times. I would never hold that against you.”

Cal looked at Loki for a moment, his dog-wolf shape locked in place as emotion swelled within him. It was only thanks to his habit of having shields up that it stayed confined. Thank you, Cal wanted to say, to an extent he didn't know how to express. Instead, he just walked over to Loki and crossed his head over his, rubbing his jaws against the back of Loki's neck in a quiet but genuine display of feelings.

Loki kept his own joy in check. Psionically. The tail swishing was a giveaway.