Chapter Text
Ow. That hurt. And I had believed I was done with pain.
***
I scramble back to my feet, catching my breath and blinking the little dots of light away from my eyes. It’s as if a knife burrows in my lungs every time I breathe out, and I hope that last shock hasn’t broken a bone or something. Brilliant. The pain makes me slow and I can’t dodge the blows coming from everywhere. When I stumble and find myself on the floor again, I curse under my breath and decide to stay there. I’m getting my ass kicked, and I asked for it. I roll into a ball, covering my face, and wait. Nothing comes.
“Is that meant to stand for fighting, Eileen?” Loki’s voice reaches my ears.
I take a peek from behind my arm to see him towering over me, an irritated frown on his face. I uncurl slowly and get up; the pain in my side is not that bad, after all. I stretch, look at the bruises on my arms, and grin tentatively. “A strategy. Make my attacker think I’m hurt, or even dead, and then wait for him to look closer and hit him back.” That’s probably the worst lie I’ve ever told him. My shoulders shrug on their own at the very weakness of my explanation.
Loki shakes his head. “That will not be of any use here, and even less on a battlefield. If you’re a warrior, you can’t pretend to be weak.”
I laugh a little. “Why not?” He frowns harder at me, and that’s it, I’ve had enough of his serious tone. “Oh please, Loki, give me a break. Laughing about it is the best I can do, look at the state I’m in!” I open my arms, vaguely waving them around, exposing the cuts and blue patches on my skin.
Malice flickers in his pupils but he masters it immediately. “That is your own doing. You’re always trying to hide behind your arms instead of fighting back. But if you’re too tired to continue training today, I will allow you to rest.” He whirls around.
I clench my teeth at the involuntary and pretentious ripple of cloak before concentrating to gauge the strength I still have left inside me. Sense would have me shrug his taunt away, call it a day and go get rest before tonight’s feast. I am too tired to continue. And yet, can I let him believe I’m still too weak to fight him back properly?
So I pick up the heavy spear he’s discarded and steal towards him. I know he’s heard me, I’m not silent enough yet to go undetected, but I’m quite sure he has no idea I plan on attacking him. “Hey, Loki!” I call out just before sending the metal bar right into his back. He doubles over with a grunt then falls on his knees. I anchor my feet in the ground just behind him and place the spear under his chin, forcing his head backwards so he has to look at me. “Never turn your back to the enemy,” I whisper.
He grins. “I’m pleased to see you remember the first thing I taught you.” Then he gives a quick shove to the spear, throwing me off balance. By the time I’m steady again he’s back on his feet, stable as ever, and he’s discarding the weapon. I get even angrier as I understand he thinks he won’t need it. I get ready to spring but he’s too close already. I dodge one, two blows, block another one. My metal vambraces scrape against his with a shrieking sound that makes my teeth hurt. “I didn’t dream you listened so carefully to what I have to say,” he adds.
I laugh insanely and glimpse three figures walking out of the room. The others who were training until then have decided to flee the place. They’re aware that once we get going neither of us knows when to stop. I try to stay focused. The last time I went at him like that, he confused me with a decoy and struck me behind the knees, making me fall. But today I know what to expect and I pretend to be lured by the fake Loki in front of me just long enough for him to believe it worked, then I spin swiftly and he misses me. He seems surprised for a split second. And then he picks two spears up and tosses one at me. “Fight me!” he yells. “Don’t curb your strength!” He seems expectant of what I can do.
Well… “I’m not,” I shout back. This isn’t true, but he’ll see for himself. The metal bars crash on one another for several minutes, until I have enough and send my spear to the floor. Loki freezes in surprise. “You try not holding back!” I say, jerking my chin up. He shakes his head and attacks again, and with my bare arms I manage to stop it despite the violence of the blows. I strike harder and harder, and soon I think I see him actually having to take a few steps backwards. I laugh like a madwoman again, a strange euphoria invading my bones. I’m trying to beat the hell out of my lover. Great. He’s still resisting, though, and starts sending small blades, forcing me to concentrate on dodging them. I somehow manage to do that while not getting hit by the spear, accelerating every move.
It’s starting to get on his nerves, I can tell it. And all of a sudden he decides enough is enough, his face hardens and that’s when he really stops holding back. He’s quicker, more accurate, every blow deadly. I like it. Not the pain when the blows brush my limbs, I’m not that crazy yet, but I like that he’s irritated enough to overlook his own rule of never letting your adversary gain control over the pace and intensity of the fight.
Ok, so he’s winning now, I’m not good enough yet, even when I let everything out. I can’t just let him defeat me like that, I have to do something. So I pull the cheekiest, most undignified move ever; I open my eyes wide, suddenly motionless. I even part my lips in surprise.
It all happens under a second. I think he’s too caught in the fight to realize in time I’m not going to dodge. I glimpse the ‘What?’ in his pupils but he can’t hold back the movement he’s started, only managing to skew it a little so it doesn’t crack my head open, and instead of smashing my temple the spear hits just under my chin.
The mere force of the blow sends me straight to the floor. I fall heavily on my right shoulder and slide like a ragdoll tossed away by an angry child. “Eileen!” I hear him shout far, far away. My head is throbbing. Ow. Ow, ow, ow. What was I thinking? I stay absolutely still for a few seconds, circling the pain inside tight control. Loki’s hurried footsteps reverberate throughout my entire body as he draws nearer and I gather enough strength to hoist myself on an elbow and hold out a hand towards him. “Pause,” I groan.
“No, that fight is over!” I let relief pour inside me and allow myself to slump back to the cold flooring with an extremely loud and unladylike grunt. I’m not sure whether I should be contended or vexed that he stopped the round. The last time I fell like that without the fight being called off I… I can’t remember exactly what happened, because I was fighting Thor and he hadn’t quite noticed I was actually slumped on the floor because of an injury.
I know that Loki is standing next to me and I roll on my back to look at him. But my head is spinning and I don’t dare open my eyes immediately. I have blood inside my mouth and more of it is leaving a sticky trail down my chin. I grope for Loki’s leg and pull myself up, keeping my eyes tightly shut. I touch my chin; sharp pain, then subdued pain, then a shard of white inside my skull. Wonderful, truly wonderful. Still clinging to the fabric I open my eyelids, taking slow, deep breaths to calm the pain induced nausea, and I find I’m not that dizzy. I keep my head lowered, though, staring hard at some spot on the floor. I know very well that if I move too quickly I might faint and I don’t want to risk that. I feel weak and helpless when I come back to consciousness; it’s a terrible sensation, worse than a hangover. Plus every time I do faint, Loki seems to need to move me around and I wake up in the healing room, welcomed by worried faces even if I’m perfectly fine.
So, no fainting today, thank you very much.
There’s more blood on my chin and I press both hands to my face; I think the blow has probably broken my lip and I’ll have a nice purple bruise for three, four days. Maybe less, but it will certainly not be gone by this evening. I sigh. Frigga had told us not to train this afternoon. Loki puts the spear down with a clink and gets down on one knee to lift my chin up and peer at the injury. I start when I see the deep gash over his right eyebrow, bleeding down on his temple and his cheek. I reach out a hand. “Did I do that to you?”
“One of your… claws did,” he answers, caressing the short, sharp spikes protruding out of my vambraces with the tip of his finger. “A shrewd idea indeed,” he adds with a satisfied smile.
I smile back. “Well, spiders do have claws at the end of their legs, so I figured it made sense.” I laugh a little and it hurts my head so I wince. “We’re going to be quite a sight, this evening, aren’t we?”
“Assorted clothes and bruises,” he whispers.
I wince again when I laugh. “We’ll get told off.”
“They wouldn’t dare. And you know what to do if it happens.”
I smile at the memory of some citizen who literally ran away after both Loki and I turned our heads to glare at him, and not even on purpose. “It’s all right for you, being a warrior and everything. But how am I supposed to look stately among the others with the left half of my face swollen and purple? I’m not Sif!”
“It will mark you out from the others and everyone will know who you are.” He kisses me and my broken lip smears blood on his own. He licks it absent-mindedly and goes to put the spears away as I crawl to rest my back on the cold wall. Then he sits next to me with a deep sigh, stretching lazily. “I had not sensed the shift in your strength.”
“It’s all right, really it is.” I’m not telling him I did it on purpose; I didn’t plan on getting hurt but I relish believing that he might feel a little guilty. Bad Eileen.
“I was quite astonished by how efficient you’ve become. Your grip over your new abilities is indeed surer, and you were answering blow for blow until I decided to…”
I frown at him. “Up the stakes?” I offer.
He nods. “Soon you will be too much for me,” he concludes, unable to hide the sassy smile flickering on his lips.
“Loki, shut your lying mouth at once,” I say, shaking my head. “I still have so much to learn.”
“Were you expecting to master this in a few weeks? How long do you think it took me to learn everything I know? Learning takes time.”
“I don’t like things that take time.”
His suddenly attentive stare means ‘yes, you do,’ but I don’t react. “It will prove difficult to determine when you will be able to train again. You have to understand that it might take even longer if you exhaust yourself.”
“I’m not exhausted,” I protest.
Loki arches an eyebrow at me. “I doubt you could even stand up and walk away.”
“You just hit my face with a spear, what did you expect?” I pretend to hit him but he catches my hand and I give up, leaning my head on his shoulder. I’ll stick to verbal assault, that’s easier in my state. I load my voice with bitterness. “If I was Thor’s girlfriend he wouldn’t talk to me like that.”
His grip over my hand tightens. “Of course he wouldn’t. Because you would be on Earth, safely concealed from everyone’s sight, patiently waiting for him to come and claim you.”
I chuckle. “He’s still not over it, is he?”
“Over what? The Allfather deciding to make you an Aesyn, and not his mortal? No, he isn’t over it.” I look up at him and catch that glimmer in his eyes, the one he usually hides even from me, the one that shows how deeply pleased he is to have something his brother has been denied. Sometimes I even suspect that it thrills him more than my actual presence. When he senses my gaze on him he looks down and his face hardens. “This undoubtedly explains why he pretended not to understand you were hurt last time.”
“And it undoubtedly explains why I haven’t seen him in this room with me since it happened.” Loki nods curtly. He’s still furious at Thor for that. “He didn’t do it on purpose. He didn’t see I was hurt and I forgot all about calling the fight off. It was my fault entirely.”
“Eileen, it happened when I was absent and there were five other people in with you. None of them reacted quickly enough.”
“We both know that’s a lie, they took me to the healing room immediately after.” He doesn’t answer. “Really, Loki, Thor wouldn’t hurt me intentionally. And it wasn’t that serious, I survived.”
“That’s beside the point.” He squirms in irritation. The conversation is getting on his nerves, he doesn’t like that I defend his brother. Or anyone else, actually. “They shouldn’t even dare get near you for fear of my reaction. They’ve always been careless with my personal belongings, even when we were children.”
“I’m no personal belonging,” I tease.
“Oh, please.” He’s getting angry. “You know what I meant.”
“I know.” I huddle closer and kiss his neck.
“They should be terrified.”
“I’m just the entertaining nuisance,” I whisper. “You’re the dangerous one. And they think you won’t dare threaten them, what with you being responsible for quite a lot of mess already.” I kiss him again. “They will fear me, some day. Start with explaining where that beautiful scar comes from, it might help.” That makes him relax a little. “I’m actually very proud that I managed to hit you for real, and never mind how wrong that sounds.”
“I let you,” he scoffs.
“You didn’t.”
“Of course I did.”
“Oh, please shut up,” I snap back.
“Such a creative retort, Weaver. And I’ve heard people say that you’re a match for me when it comes to words. What if they knew?”
“Again, you just hit me with a spear, what were you expecting?”
He looks at me. “Better; always better. And you know it, that’s why you’re here.” He kisses the right corner of my mouth, far from the bruise, biting my lips a little. Then he slides his thumb over the swelling. “You will heal soon.”
“I already am.” I lean heavily on his shoulder to get up and then I discard the spiky armbands as I walk to the door. I turn around when I notice Loki isn’t following me. He’s still sitting, staring at nothing, apparently deep in his thoughts. “It’s time we got out of here and engage in more civilized activities, don’t you think?”
“Such as?”
“You can’t have forgotten the celebration before tomorrow’s attack. We’re expected at your brother’s side.” He darts his eyes at me. “I think I’m going to lie down for a while or I’ll never be able to face the evening. And I’ll need something for that headache.” I don’t wait for his answer and walk out, caressing the bruise to see if it hurts. Obviously it does. Actual sleep would do me good, and I really hope said headache will have receded in a few hours.