ax_main | Loki and Nora

A tale of two Asgardians.

What even was the point of waking up early to be first to the cafeteria if they didn't have anything good for breakfast today? No oatmeal with sprinkles, only the bland kind. All out of Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes cereal. Worst of all, no pancakes. Nora had been tempted to head straight back to her room, but she'd had that dream again. The one where she and Piotr had valiantly slain a huge pack of wargs and then made a fortune selling the pelts. She was itching to tell Piotr or Jester all the exciting details, so she sat at her table, still dressed in her black t-shirt and pink pajama shorts, doing her best to pretend she wasn't eating the most boring breakfast ever.

"Oh, please spare our village, mighty troll!" she said in a tiny, high pitched voice. She'd arranged blueberries and orange slices in a bowl of cottage cheese and placed it in the center of a plate of hash browns.

Voice going deep, she quietly bellowed an evil laugh. "Foolish mortals! Your feeble pleas only whet my boundless appetite!" With that, she speared one of the orange slices with her fork and popped it into her mouth.

Considering the hour at which Loki got off the internet and slept last night, he was hardly awake. The cup of steaming tea in his hand was the precursor to food shaped objects. Despite his barely caffeinated state his eye caught on the new person battling breakfast. Process of elimination had him curious.

Wandering over, Loki asked, “You wouldn’t happen to be Nora, would you?”

The helpless fruit villagers had been rescued. For the moment, at least. Nora lifted her attention away from the rampant destruction to smile up at the noble stranger who'd come in their hour of most desperate need to say hello. "That's me!" she said, sounding as if she were the one making a grand entrance. A bouncy hello died on her lips, replaced by an deep, open-mouthed gasp as she realized she already recognized her surprise visitor. "Omigosh!" she said, going from sitting to standing in an invisible whoosh of motion. "It's you! I almost didn't recognize you from the pictures on Google. Not that you don't look pretty like this, too, you are very pretty, just like everyone says. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh! Yes, I'm Nora." The rapid stream of words ended with a giggle. She smiled bright and boldly offered her hand to shake. "Nora Valkyrie. It's so nice to meet you! Do you wanna join me for breakfast?"

Loki smiled at the enthusiastic response and shook the proffered hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Nora. Sure, sounds great. Did anything look good today? I didn’t make it further than caffeine yet.”

Nora made a face and shrugged. "It's a 'healthy choice' menu today, so pickings are slim." She braced one arm against the table and shielded her mouth with the other hand as she leaned forward. "I don't know what 'Quinn-oh-a' is, but it looks like fish eggs," she said in a conspiratorial whisper.

“Ahhh. Toast it is then. Want me to see if I can conjure some bacon?” He asked.

If Nora ever said 'no' to a question like that, someone needed to check her for a pulse. She gasped, both hands flying up to cup her cheeks. "Are you kidding?" she asked. "I would love that!"

“I’ll work some magic and be right back.” Loki winked and headed back to where meals were prepared. It was early enough that he could sweet talk someone. Given how ravenous most of the students were some form of meat was likely coming.

A short while later Loki returned with a couple of pieces of toast and an entire plate full of bacon. “Breakfast part two.” He set it down between them and sat across from Nora.

"My hero!" Nora said, clasping her hands together and striking a pose that would have done any silent film damsel in distress proud. In a flash she was back in her seat, savoring the sight and aroma of the miracle piled before them.

"While you were gone, I was wondering..." she said, wasting no more time in helping herself to a slice. "...as long as it's just the two of us, do you think we could, you know, speak Asgardian?" For the briefest of moments she clasped her bottom lip between her teeth. "It's been so long since I've heard anyone speak it. I've taught Piotr a little, and he tries, he's even pretty good sometimes, but it's just..."

Loki immediately switched languages. “I’m happy to.”

Nora's face lit up with unrestrained delight, eyes brimming with gratitude. "Oh, wow. Jester was so right about you!"

Loki smiled. Always nice being the favored prince before Thor showed up and ruined the effect. “Jester is smart. Also delightful.”

"She's the best!" Nora agreed, nodding her head vigorously. "And so much fun! We hang out all the time and she comes up with the coolest ideas." Sure, some of them were of the sneaky variety, but they hadn't gotten yelled at too much for that so far. "She's going back to New Zealand to visit her mother soon. I'm going to be sad when she leaves, but also happy for her. She misses home so much."

“I understand the sentiment,” Loki said softly. “I’ll be back in Asgard soon for summer holidays. Is there anything in particular from that you miss?“

So he was leaving for the summer, too. And she'd only just met him. Nora decided she'd just have to make the most of the time until then to get to know him as well as possible. "I don't remember a whole lot," she confessed. "Just my family and our house, and even that's kinda hazy sometimes. I thought looking at pictures on the internet would help, but nothing's really sparked any memories. Weird, right? There's some games and toys and songs I remember pretty well." A wistful expression fell over her face and she smiled as more memories floated to the surface. "Oh! And the food! There were so many foods I miss from when I was a kid."

Loki smiled fondly. “Before I go let’s make a list. I’ll see what I can bring back for you. If it involves cooking.... well. We can experiment. But I’m sure I can sneak an Asgardian gourd through customs if you promise not to tell and we don’t plant any invasive species here.“

Nora didn't think her eyes could get any bigger. Was she dreaming all this? One hand moved to her arm. It was trembling when she gave herself a pinch, but to her great surprise she did not suddenly wake up in her room. This. Was. Happening! "Heck, yeah I promise!" she said. "I'm all for breaking the rules when it's for a good cause." That part was easy. It was the generosity that was throwing her for a loop. She wondered if he had any idea how much it meant to reconnect with a part of herself she'd thought she'd lost forever. "I want to do something for you, too," she said with a decisive nod. "I mean, sure, you probably hear that from girls all the time, but how many of them can carry a full grown tiger without breaking a sweat?"

“Let’s get to know each other better first,“ Loki jested lightly. “You’re Asgardian. I remember asking my father once what it meant that our oldest siblings travel and live outside the kingdom. He told me Asgard is people, not a place. I miss the shining city often, but I think we carry it with us as long as we remember what we came from. I’m happy to bring home to you.“

Was Loki compensating for his own longing for home? Maybe. But there was nothing harmful in it. And Nora’s happiness was radiant.

That was a lovely way to look at it. There was something familiar about it, too. Like something her mom would have said. "Thank you so much!" she said, punctuating it with a giggle. "What about you, though?" He'd said he felt the same way about home that Jester did, hadn't he? "What do you miss about Asgard?"

Loki smiled wistfully. “That’s a tough call." The true answer was probably his mother, but it felt insensitive to say. “There's more space to explore, although more people trying to keep track of where I get away to, so that’s a trade."

"Ooooh." Nora leaned in, eyes lit up with curiosity. She'd been exploring as much of the school as she could in her free time, and it still felt like she'd barely scratched the surface. Exploring a whole country like Asgard, especially when there was a whole castle right there, sounded amazing. "Do you find secrets? I love secrets!"

Loki's smile twisted mischievously. "If they're secrets, I can hardly tell you, can I?"

That was exactly the sort of thing you were supposed to say where there were secrets, of course, but Nora just grinned. It wasn't really in her nature to argue such things, so she said, "You could not. And I wouldn't let you. I was just checking to see if you knew that." Another slice of bacon vanished into her mouth with a crunch. "You passed," she said, still smiling. There were other ways to find out secrets, after all, and that was way more fun than someone just telling you.

Loki laughed brightly. "What is your mutant thing? I promise this question spurs from the topic at hand."

Letting out a peep of laughter, Nora bounced her shoulders. Ever since Jester had sidestepped the question of Loki's powers, she'd been dying to find out, so she was glad he decided to broach the subject. "I absorb electricity," she said, beaming with pride. "Even whole lightning bolts, and it makes me stronger and tougher and faster than I already am. Which is a lot! Most people here think I'm a speedster when they first meet me." She shrugged to show it didn't bother her and waited to see what he had to say about her answer.

He looked thoughtful at that. "That is very Asgard. Thor also handles lightning. Strength is more his forte than speed. I was wondering if you could do anything that handles stealthy or flight well. You'd be surprised how many teenagers lurk on the roof here, for interesting places to sneak off to."

Ooooooh, that was interesting! Nora leaned in, brows lifting with piqued curiosity. "All the time, or mostly at night?" she asked, lowering her voice to just above a conspiratorial whisper. "I mean, sure, I can fly with my hammer. Sort of. But it's really, really noisy. I got real good at moving quietly before I got my powers, though." Not as good as Ororo, but she'd had training, whereas Nora had been a self-taught street urchin.

Nora's powers were intriguing indeed. "If you can fly, stealth is less of an issue. Plenty of the flying types hang out up there in broad daylight. The night crew is the quieter bunch."

Nodding seriously, Nora made note of the tip. She was going to have to check that out. Both ways. "You're one of the ones who goes at night, aren't you?" she said. With a mischievous grin she added, "Jester wouldn't say what you can do, but she did point out you're named after the god of mischief, so, kind of a clue, there."

Loki touched a hand to his chest. "Why would I restrict myself to one time of day?" He reached out to pluck up some bacon and crunched it around an amused smile.

Nora let out a giggle of delight. "Well if that's the case, I think we might start seeing a lot more of each other."

"I look forward to it."