Trickster's Game - Chapter 8 (LokixOC)

    “I… don’t think I can do this.”, Abby whined and smoothed out the non-existent wrinkles in her costume – for at least the hundredth time.

    “Of course you can.”, Loki objected, not able to keep a note of impatience out of his voice, “Just like I told you six hours ago for the first tour.”

    Her eyes looked at him in a silent plea, but Loki shook his head and replied sternly: “No, Abby. I let you get away the last two tours when you said you wanted to see my version of the Museum Loki again to get ideas for your own, but now it is definitely time. Go for it.”

    She frowned again and Loki saw her insecurity rise again. What would it take to make that woman see what she was capable of? What indeed?

    Checking the watch on the wall behind Abby in her office, Loki smirked: “Quite literally, it is time. The tour is just about to begin.”

    “Oh no…!”, Abby muttered, but Loki grabbed a hold of her shoulders and made her look at him before he firmly ordered: “You will hide behind the doorway to the everyday-life objects, just like I always do. There you will wait for your cue, the comment about horns on Viking helmets. Now go while I greet our guests.”

    She scampered off, her lower lip trembling in nervousness Loki knew was uncalled-for. She would do great, he had seen her potential for mischief, she just had not unlocked it due to her own anxiety. Why he wanted to make her see it, he did not know, but why did fun always have to have some other proper reason apart from being fun? It did not, he decided and left the office.

    They had done a good job of reversing their roles for the last tour of the day, Loki thought as he watched Abby round a bend before she was out of sight. She was dressed in elegant black with a deep green overcoat and golden jewellery they had found in her mother’s treasure trove. Abby looked astonishingly like a princess, but she had been more beautiful at the ball. Loki himself, on the other hand, was dressed in the plainest clothes he had ever possessed, black jeans and a light green shirt Abby thought suited him well. They had even found an unused nametag somewhere and, without further ado, had made him the tour guide Lucas for the occasion. Having two Lokis would be a bit too much for their visitors, they had agreed.

    Chuckling quietly to himself, Loki made his way over to where the visitors where waiting and greeted them with a smile: “Hello and thank you for coming to our exhibition about the fascinating culture of the Vikings. I am Lucas, your guide for today’s tour. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.”

    A quick glance around the group of people told him that in all 19 people were there, amongst them five children, most of them looking a bit bored. Well, that was about to change as soon as they would catch a glance of Abby and hear her as Loki.

    “Please, follow me so we can begin our tour.”, Loki invited them and led them over to a show case, the very same showcase he always interrupted Abby’s tour at.

    “Here you can see helmets usually worn into battle by Viking foot soldiers.”, Loki explained and saw a lad of about eight years scrunch up his face at that, so he chuckled, “I can see you are not alright with that statement. Do you think Vikings should have horned helmets? Well, they would have looked impressive, no doubt…”

    “Impressive?”, came a derisive snort behind him and all heads turned to Abby in her green and black attire, “You mean ridiculous. Plus, a horned helmet is not very helpful in a fight.”

    “Oh.”, Loki made, “Miss, might I ask who you are? Some expert on Viking battle lore?”

    “Do I look like a plump warrior to you?”, Abby asked and threw their audience a look, clearly saying “Can you believe him?” without saying a word to them before she turned to him again and added, “I am Loki of Asgard.”

    “You can’t be.”, a girl in the audience chimed in, a small thing of six years at most.

    “Why not?”, Abby asked and Loki saw her slip out of character for a second as she was clearly surprised, but when the girl spoke up again, Abby began to smile, “Loki is a man. Isn’t he?”

    “I am.”, Abby stated, “But I am also a God capable of shape-shifting. I have transformed into a mare and an eagle, it was no challenge to assume the form of a woman.”

    Now the children stared at her in awe and Loki had to bite the inside of his cheek so as not to laugh. It was glorious to behold.

    “Yes, well, be that as it may…”, Loki began addressing Abby, “I have to ask you to leave, this is a guided tour…”

    “By all means, proceed.”, Abby told him, “I will just accompany you and point out all the mistakes you make along the way. So, no pressure, you know?”

    She gave him a teasing grin, the brightest he had seen on her lips so far and a happy giggling went through their audience.

    “Well, uhm…if you insist.”, Loki acted all baffled and Abby smirked, “Oh, I do insist. Go on, mortal.”

    As he did not react immediately, she shooed him on. Squinting at her in slight annoyance, Loki vowed that she would pay for that, her acting to blame for it or no, he would pull another prank on her just for that insult.

    They proceeded into the next room of the exhibition and Loki took his position next to the showcase in which typical jewellery was at display. He explained the pieces without difficulty as he had known their purpose and origin even before he had heard Abby explain them.

    “This necklace most probably belonged to the wife of a Jarl, a leader of the Viking people.”, he explained and pointed to glass beads on a leather string, even though the string was almost weathered, “It may have belonged to the Jarl himself. But, all in all, glass was purchased regularly by Vikings and they used it to create such glass beads as the ones you see here. They were very skilled at that.”

    Turning to Abby he added: “Don’t you agree that it is beautiful? It might even suit a god such as yourself.”

    Abby raised an eyebrow under the gaze of their visitors and the little girl from before chimed in: “I think it is pretty.”

    Abby smiled at her, but declared: “It is. They weren’t half bad at creating beads, but I am a God. I will settle for nothing less than the dwarven made necklace Brisingamen I stole from Freyja.”

    “You can’t steal.”, the girl from before said shocked and Abby smirked, but then explained, “It wasn’t hers to begin with.”

    “Still, you should have given it back. The girl is right.”, Loki cut in and Abby shot him an annoyed glance so convincing that he had almost believed her acting, then she sighed, “Well, do you see it on me? Odin made me get rid of it. Caused only trouble anyways.”

    “Ah.”, he made indecisively and gestured at their guests to continue their tour. It was great fun and with every remark Abby threw in, Loki could see her loosen up and enjoy herself more and more. Moreover, the children loved her. She also earned a chuckle from their adult guests when Loki explained the cutlery and the production of mead and Abby added: “The best mead I ever drank was, of course, from Asgard. But the mortals did pretty well with it too. At least you could get heavily drunk with their stuff, so take care if you ever find yourself drinking with a Viking.”

    What he did not like was the way some men looked at Abby, but he shrugged the thought off and instead proceeded to the next bit of the exhibition. They were about halfway through when the little girl stumbled and asked her mother: “Mommy, can you carry me? I’m tired.”

    “Honey, you’re too heavy for me. Come on, just a little longer.”

    The girl looked unhappy and definitely tired. Why he said it, Loki was not sure, but he offered: “May I? I guess I can carry your daughter.”

    “Uhm…you really don’t have to…”, her mother stuttered, but he replied, “I know. I’d just like to help.”

    Why had he said that? But when the mother slowly nodded and the little girl smiled up at him, the reason did not really matter anymore. Loki hoisted her up and found it no difficulty to carry her with just one arm.

    “Hi, I’m Lucas.”, he introduced himself again and she whispered shyly, yet beaming with joy, “Emmy.”

    “Good to have you with us, Emmy, let’s go.”, Loki cheered and they went on. Abby looked at him and the smile she gave him… it sent a shiver down his spine, even though he did not know why. So he shrugged it off and continued their tour.

    The girl on his arm enjoyed being so close to the exhibits and suddenly she seemed not so tired anymore, but he simply smiled to himself and silently complimented her on her wily way of getting what she wanted. And at that age already.

    When they got to the last room of the tour, Loki proceeded to the cabinets showing runestones and explained: “Unfortunately, we do not have that many documents in written form of the Vikings. What we have are gravestones, mostly, even though they are not always placed at the grave, but at some place the deceased was remembered. Runestones such as these gravestones were very helpful in deciphering the runes. But, we also have such whimsical exhibits as this one.”

    As he said that, he pointed to a stick about the length of his hand and added: “This stick is the Viking form of a telegram, if you will. Messages were carved into the wood and then some errand-boy or girl, mostly sons or daughters, were sent off to bring those messages back and forth. This one in particular has two messages, the second one being a reply, most probably, yet unfortunately we could not decipher the second one as it is too wiggly, but the first message says: “Husband, come home you lazy fool.” I guess it was not pleasant for him.”

    Their visitors laughed a bit, yet it was Abby who drew their attention as she squinted at the rune stick and then explained: “He was obviously in an ale-house when he got his wife’s message, for his reply, clearly written when already heavily drunk, simply reads: “Leave me alone, woman, the mead is prettier than you”.”

    Loki waited for the laughter to subside. Of course, they both had known what was on the stick, but they had decided that “discovering” it right there would be more fun and Abby had agreed to it, even though it meant a slight inaccuracy.

    “So you see, even though runes are accredited with mystical powers, it is not so. They are merely an alphabet just like the one we use today, just with different characters.”

    “I have to disagree.”, Abby cut in and it surprised Loki, for that had not been planned, “I do agree so far, runes are like letters. But they can be magical. It is not the letters, it is the words that make magic.”

    They looked at each other and both smiled. She was right, he had to admit it. But he would be damned if he told her that, so he kept silent.

    Leading the group out of this last room, Loki told their audience: “With this, we come to an end. Thank you very much for your interest and I hope you enjoyed the tour.”

    “Of course they did.”, Abby chimed in, “After all, it was blessed by me, a God. You did well, mortal.”

    “Thank you.”, Loki said and threw her a slightly annoyed glance, but then looked back to the little girl Emmy in his arms.

    “Thanks for carrying me, I feel more awake now.”, she said and he smiled before gently setting her down on the floor, “That is good to hear, I hope you enjoyed the tour as well.”

    “I did.”, she told him happily and did not let him go before she had hugged him. Loki was startled. Emmy’s mother apologised for her and took her hand, but he merely shook his head: “No need…”

    In fact, he had not expected the girl to be so content when he had carried her. He had not even thought it possible.

    Together, Loki and Abby watched the last group of the day leave and as soon as they were out of sight, Loki turned around to her, smiling and he tried to tell her how well she had done, but he was cut off when Abby threw her arms around his neck.

    She caught him off guard and he needed a moment to catch her as she had simply jumped at him and now relied on him to hold her in the air.

    “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.”, Abby mumbled hastily and so quickly Loki was astonished she had not had to stop for breath yet.

    “What for?”, he laughed as he tenderly pushed her back a bit, just far enough to be able to look at her. Abby’s face was flushed with excitement and she beamed up at him as she breathlessly explained: “For making me do that, for making me Lady Loki. I haven’t had so much fun in years!”

    “Gladly.”, was all Loki found in his head to say when he looked into Abby’s eyes. She returned his gaze and the moment they were looking at each other stretched, kept growing longer and longer until Loki was painfully aware that even though Abby’s feet were on the ground again, her arms were still around his neck, as were his around her waist, their bodies closer than they had ever been before.

    “Abby…”, he began, unsure what to say and instead he simply lowered his head, still not knowing what exactly he was doing, but not willing to think about it either.

    “Congratulations, Miss Goddard!”, the cheerful voice of Doctor Seward startled them both and made them jump away from each other like teenagers caught in a kiss. Ridiculous…

    “You… were not supposed to see this, Sir.”, Abby murmured and Loki was, one, surprised, and two, sure she had not meant Doctor Seward to hear that either, but the old man had quite the good ears for his age and, unsurprisingly for Loki, Doctor Seward asked, “But why not? I am astonished and can do nothing but marvel at all the sides to you no one has ever seen. Keep it up.”

    With that, he smiled brightly at the two of them, leaving Abby in some sort of shock as she stared at him even after her boss had long since gone. Chuckling to himself, Loki nudged Abby and made her wince in surprise, so he told her: “Come on, get changed so we can go home.”

    She merely nodded and he was thankful for it, because in her stupor of astonishment she had not seen the expression of shock on his face. He had called her house “home”… and he had meant it.

    This was not good.

    Something was affecting him and Loki was not ready to admit to himself just what it was, even though he had a pretty good idea about it, he just refused to acknowledge it. But it was there and he would have to deal with it, eventually.

    He had to acquire the Gem and not waste any more time with useless fun like this. He had enjoyed it, but it could not last any longer. Yet… he knew he was not ready to give it up… to give Abby up.