(no subject)

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Time: September 13, 2000
Place: The Bar
Status: Public (Loki, Shadow) (Complete)
Summary: Okay, the first meeting didn't go too well, but Loki has a question for Shadow.



Shadow was working, Loki noticed as he walked past the bar. He looked to be in a good mood, there were a few customers around and Uriel was within shouting distance. There probably wouldn't be a better chance to talk to the blockhead.

Loki took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and strolled casually into the bar.

"Hi," he greeted Shadow testing the water and slid onto a barstool.

Comments

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

Shadow had had over a month to come to terms with the fact that Loki was alive again, and to put both his own loss of temper and the gods harsh words into perspective. He had reminded himself, nights when he couldn't sleep or when brooding over too-polished tables during slow hours in the bar, that Loki was no more responsible for his nature than Hinzelmann had been for his.

Shadow's head could accept that, but it didn't stop his heart from hurting. Nor did it make him at all inclined to try to look pleasant when Loki came into the bar.

"What do you want?" he asked, meaning either a drink or something else. He'd serve Loki if that's what he wanted, but he rather wished the god would go sit at a table instead of the bar. Shadow didn't really want to talk to him.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Loki regarded Shadow thoughtfully. Did he dare ask him for a drink? He didn't look like he was about to attack again, but though frowned upon poisoning your enemies wasn't completely unheard of in the Norse pantheon and Shadow was a child of this modern age with its very different morals.

"I need to talk to Odin," he stated almost honestly.

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

Shadow paused with a glass in his hand, half turned away from Loki. He'd suspected that Wednesday was alive, due to Loki's dodging of the subject before, but this was the first time his suspicions had been actually verified. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about it.

"Well, he's not here" he pointed out, indicating the room with his empty hand.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"I noticed that!" Loki snapped then took a deep breath. He did not want to antagonise Shadow. That would be counterproductive.

Damn! When had dealing with Shadow become so difficult? He used to enjoy talking to the guy.

"Look, what I have to see him about is rather urgent and I swear it has nothing to do with you," he lied. "It's ... Well, don't tell anybody, but I'm actually trying to find him for Uriel and that's a lot more than I should be telling you. Nothing to do with you or me, though, so please, if you know where he went, just give me a hint, okay?"

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

Shadow paused, distracted from his belligerence by surprise and curiosity. "You lose him?" He frowned at the bald god on the stool before him.

"How would I know where he is?" he asked. "You don't think he cares about me, do you?" There was bitterness in his tone as he gave Loki's own words back to him, but not really any attack. He shrugged. "I wasn't even sure he was alive until just now."

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"Not so much lose as," As what? He had lost him, hadn't he? "He just went traveling and didn't tell me where he was going or when he'd be back. It's nothing unusual. We're a pantheon of travelers, can't sit still for too long. We're partners, yes, but that doesn't mean we always travel together. It's more like ... We drop in on each other from time to time, stay in the same are a lot and sometimes we just go our separate ways. Usually I'll just wait around till he comes back, or leave a note where he can find me. Uriel needs his help now, though and I thought you must have seen him what with working here. I'm sure he was still here when you arrived."

He kicked his foot against the bar. It didn't make a good drum, but the rhythmic sound somehow eased his frustration. He'd been so sure Shadow would know.

Okay, yes, so he'd talked himself into something. There was no real reason Odin would have told Shadow, if he hadn't even mentioned anything to Uriel. Ah well.

"What's the strongest drink you've got?"

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

Shadow frowned. “Don’t kick the bar,” he said absentmindedly.

He wasn’t sure why Loki would have thought that Shadow would be in on Wednesday’s plans even if he had seen him, or why Loki felt the need to explain what was going on. In his experience, neither of them were exactly in the habit of explaining anything.

“Well, I’ve got absinthe,” he said. “A pretty heady brandy, and a really dry gin that’s good on the rocks.” He tried to remember what else he’d seen in the back. “There’s a pretty strong Vodka too.” He turned his eyes to Loki. “I assume by Uriel you mean the Uriel, one of the Archangels?”

He wondered why an Archangel would have need of an old con-artist like Wednesday.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Loki blinked at Shadow in surprise, shrugged and hooked his leg behind the bar-stool to stop himself from kicking. He couldn't sit entirely still, though, so he soon found his other leg knocking lightly against the next stool over. Tock, tock, tock ... each kick a little harder than the last.

"Any of those will do," he told Shadow. He usually just drank beer, Jim Beam when he wanted to get drunk, but it was Odin's drink really and the whole point of getting drunk right now was not to think of Odin. "Whatever's closest to hand."

"Yep, that Uriel," Loki confirmed. "You've met her. Goes by Brenda for the humans."

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

Shadow shrugged and reached for the gin, which happened to be closest at hand, put he'd paused in surprise with his hand halfway to the bottle.

"Brenda he asked incredulously. "She's Uriel?" Could angels even get pregnant? Hadn't that happened once in the Bible, and hadn't it been really bad? Shadow wished once again that he'd devoted more time of his study of mythology to the Judeo-Christan stuff.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"Yep," Loki said watching the bar-stool swing from his kicks. "They can change gender, or even have none, if they so please."

He caught the stool just before it fell over, pulled it back into place and kicked it again. He probably should have brought a pack of cards to play with, even though he didn't trust his hands enough to take bets anymore.

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

Shadow set a glass on the bar and dropped a few ice cubes into it, moving methodically and a bit distractedly. It was a surprising amount of information to assimilate. He poured the gin and slid it across the bar to the fidgety Loki.

"So what are you doing here, anyway?" he asked, deciding he needed one two and grabbing another glass.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Loki played with the glass for a moment, before deciding that ir was safe to drink. He'd have seen, if Shadow had put anything in there.

He drained half of it in one gulp - not the wisest way to drink gin, especially, if you haven't had any alcohol for months, but then the plan was to get drunk as fast as possible - before answering Shadow.

"Well, I was bored, knew Odin was here," he shrugged and picked up the glass again. "Thought we could have some fun."

Whoah, this had a bigger kick than he remembered. Or was it ...

"'m not used to this anymore," he decided indicating his now empty glass.

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

Shadow sipped his own drink. “What, gin?” he asked.

There was something different about Loki, something in the way he carried himself ... his words were different, too; subtly, but Shadow had been in the prison with him, after all, and even though a good portion of what Loki had told him then had been either an outright lie or a more subtle deception, he still had learned enough about the god to notice something off now. But he had no idea what it was.

Maybe dying changed a person. Shadow was pretty sure it had changed him, although he couldn’t remember it well enough to say how.

“Look,” he said finally, glancing up at Loki before returning to his gaze to the liquid in his glass. “About last time…”

What about last time? he asked himself. He wasn’t about to apologize to Loki (he was rather surprised he was managing to be civil now) and he certainly didn’t expect any sort of apology or concession from the god.

Shadow shrugged and took another sip of his gin.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"Alcohol." Loki explained. "It doesn't go well with pills. Not well at all."

He shook his head for emphasis and turned the glass upside down. H knew from long experience that it would not make a good drum, but tapped it with his fingers anyway.

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

"Pills?" Shadow asked, before he could stop himself. Loki's drumming was off-beat... or at least it seemed to Shadow that it was. He wasn't exactly terribly musically adept himself, so he could have been wrong.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Loki slurred. Damn, he was really drunk already. "Shtupid pills. Make you all ... all sick and dizzy."

Loki had many talents, or at least he liked to think so, but even he would have agreed that music wasn't one of them. And that was when he was sober. He'd have been very surprised, if his drumming had any discernible beat at al.

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

Shadow frowned.

"What kind of pills?" he asked, rather wanting to reach out and still those fidgeting hands. "You mean medicine?"

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Sthupid pills tha' don' even help," Loki complained. "Not takin' em anymore."

"'m drunk," he added after a moment wondering how that could have happened so fast. How many drinks had he had again?

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

"Yeah you are," Shadow replied. "You know, they usually say you shouldn't drink when you're taking medication like that... even if you're not taking them anymore there could be some still in your system.."

Speaking of which.

"What were you taking medication for, anyway?" he asked, taking Loki's glass. "I didn't know gods could get sick like that." Of course, he hadn't known that angels could get pregnant, either.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"R ... really?" That was worrying news. He remembered the results of the Frigga Blot incident only too well (though he could barely remember the celebration itself). "Damn pillsh. We don't. 'S all Shernobog'sh fault."

The glass was gone, so he tried drumming his fingers on the bar instead. Coordinating them was a bit difficult, though.

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

Shadow paused in washing the glass to give Loki a surprised look.

"Why, what'd he do?" he asked. Or, perhaps more accurately, "What did you do?"

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"Noshing mush," Loki slurred. "Shusht a li...little prank. Wash goin' t'give it back."

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

Shadow poured a glass of water and set it in front of Loki.

“Give what back?” he prodded, wondering if Loki was being purposefully obtuse. It wouldn’t be surprising, and he knew from experience that Loki was pretty sharp.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Loki regarded the water a little doubtfully, but decided to give it a try and took a cautious sip. It tasted like normal water.

"Wash? Oh. Hammer." It was currently rather difficult to keep track of the conversation.

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

“It’s water,” Shadow said as he watched Loki examine the glass. Then he stepped closer, putting his hands down on the bar and leaning closer to the trickster.

“You took Czernobog’s hammer?” he asked. “Are you nuts? What did he do to you, Loki?”

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"He'sh not sho bad." The water did indeed seem to help. He could think a little more clearly now. "Wash sorry, too."

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

Shadow leaned forward a little more and took the sleeve of Loki's shirt gently but firmly in his hand.

"Loki," he said slowly. "I would like you to tell me what Czenobog did to you that made it necessary for you to take pills."

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"Why?" Loki grinned at Shadow. "You worried?"

Shadow didn't seem to want to kill him anymore, so Loki didn't feel the need to pull away. They had spent too much time together in too small a space to be uncomfortable about it.

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

"Not really, no," Shadow answered, figuring he'd been played and letting go of the god's shirt. He went back to putting away glasses. "You want anything else?" He asked, in a tone that he'd really prefer it if Loki left.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, Odin," Loki answered quite honestly. "But since you haven't seen him, ... Just tell me, if you hear from him, okay?"

He probably wouldn't just out of spite, Loki thought, but somehow that was part of why he liked Shadow. The Asgardians always had been a little difficult. Loki smiled at Shadow, slipped off the bar stool - ups, a little wobbly - and tried to walk away in as straight a line as he could manage.

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

"Don't hold your breath," Shadow muttered. "But yeah," he added a bit louder. "I'll let you know. See you 'round."

Hopefully not too much.

((Done?))