neutral_omens | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Time: August 8, 2000
Place: Bar
Status: Public (Complete)
Summary: Loki runs into Shadow.

It was almost time for another visit to the hospital and even though Loki still had enough money left from Uriel, he thought it might be a good idea to save some just in case the not-god refused to forge any more for him. She’d been friendly enough lately, but in his experience friendship was often a very temporary thing.

He wasn’t getting any stronger and if he didn’t put his sleight of hand to good use now, it might soon be impossible. It was already too unreliable for comfort.

The pub was too far for a casual trip by now, but with both wolves by his side a visit to the bar didn’t seem too risky. There had been a lot of new arrivals lately who weren’t wise to his tricks, yet. Maybe one of them would stop by. If not, he could always just enjoy some juice, listen and talk to the people around. You never knew what you might learn.

So one early evening on one of his better days Loki strolled casually into the bar followed by his old friends Freki and Geri.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Behind the bar, Shadow dried glasses and whistled a bit to himself in a bartender-ish sort of way. It was a good day; he really did enjoy the job, even when it was slow, as it currently was. He spent the slowest hours wiping down tables, washing and drying glasses, and, in one instance, repairing a chair leg that had somehow gotten broken. He spent the busy hours meeting interesting people and being the friendly bartender who had a eager and sympathetic ear for stories and some good jokes to offer in return.

And mixing drinks, of course.

Over the days that he had been working he had made it his quest to find a way to make the perfect martini. He’d already begun testing varying ratios of gin and vermouth, (and different ratios of French and Italian vermouth) and he’d tried garnishes of olives (with and without pimento) and garlic cloves, having discarded lemon as unworthy of a true martini. He’d even tried substituting olive juice for Vermouth, looking for a drier martini, which had gone over with some and not with others. He asked each guest what they thought, and had been taking notes.

It was something to occupy his mind.

He was debating in his head the merits of a stirred martini versus a shaken one and putting away the last of a batch of clean glasses when he happened to glance up and see the figure strolling so very casually into the bar.

Loki. Slightly thinner and paler than when Shadow had known him, and the close-cropped hair had been shaved off, but still unmistakably Loki, looking very much not as dead as he should have.

It would be impossible for Shadow to remember later everything that passed through his mind in that moment. His eyes saw Loki and two wolves but his mind could only see Laura’s face as it had looked when Shadow put his hand to Sweeny’s gold coin and pulled it from her neck. He realized dimly that the wolves were no threat to him, and would wonder later how he had known that, only to remember where he had seen them before and understand. He didn’t think about who could see them here, in this public place; there was no doubt or caution raised by a memory of what had happened the last time he had lost his temper like this and neither conscience nor fear of consequences had a moment to peek through the fury that suddenly blinded him. In a moment he had vaulted over the bar and thrown himself at Loki, knocking him back against the wall with all the strength in his arms.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he hissed, one arm across the god’s throat.

Bast had just nicked a skirt - one with elastic rather than buttons, thank goodness - and had decided to try and show Shadow.

She wandered into the bar in time to see him jump at Loki, clearly angry in a way that was very un-Shadow-ish.

She looked at Shadow. Then she looked at Loki. Then she looked at Shadow again.

//So...you two know each other, huh?// she said, trying for bright and failing miserably. She also noticed the wolves and wondered if this was a good time for a rematch.

'Oh wonderful. More bruises.' was Loki's first thought upon hitting the wall.

The second was: 'I can't breathe.'

Only then did he recognise his attacker. What the fuck was Shadow doing here? And why was he attacking him? Why weren't the wolves doing anything about it? They were supposed to be his friends and protectors.

He tied to speak, but managed only a gurgle, so he fell back upon the good old knee in the groin.

Freki and Geri for their part were confused. Why was their pack leader's pup attacking their pack-mate? Weren't they all supposed to be one happy family?

Freki, always the more belligerent of the two growled at Shadow and showed his teeth, but of course he couldn't attack the pup. This was merely a warning.

Geri just stood there with his tail between his legs fighting the impulse to whine like a puppy. He loved his sometimes two-legged pack-mate, had always considered him one of the pack leader's pups, but the other was the real pup. You didn't attack your leader's pup.

Okay, so maybe it would be hard for Loki to speak with an arm pressed quite that tightly against his windpipe, Shadow admitted to himself at hearing the attempted gurgle. He was just about to lessen the pressure when Loki’s knee attempted a sneaky move.

Figured. Fortunately for Shadow he had been in enough fights over the years (and had worked long enough as a bouncer) to expect that sort of thing, and had positioned himself so that his thigh was between Loki’s knee and Shadow’s more tender bits. Thus, Loki missed.

Shadow moved his arm and fisted his hand in the god’s shirt, growling out;

“I asked you a question. Why aren’t you dead?”

He could hear one of the wolves growling at him, and he hadn’t missed Bast’s entrance into the room, but his attention didn’t want to be diverted from the face of the man who had killed his wife.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Loki demanded as soon as he could breathe again.

Damn treacherous wolves! What was wrong with them? And what was wrong with Shadow? They were supposed to be friends! What could have caused Shadow to attack him?

His confusion only lasted for a fraction of a second before he realised what was going on. Of course! Shadow was Odin's son and had replaced Loki once before. Now he was after a permanent position as Odin's partner!

Well, over Loki's dead body!

“Kicking the shit out of you,” Shadow answered, but although the vehemence was still just as present in his tone, inwardly his anger was already waning. It wasn’t in Shadow’s nature to hold onto these rare bouts of rage; if Loki had tried harder to fight it might have fueled the rage long enough for Shadow to have done some serious damage to the god, but a single failed attempt at a knee to the crotch and a refusal to answer a simple question, while infuriating, weren’t enough to justify the kind of damage a man as big as Shadow could inflict.

He wanted to beat him senseless, but he couldn’t. In the end… it wouldn’t be worth the price.

Both fists gripping Loki’s shirt, Shadow pulled him away from wall and threw him to the floor, hard enough to jar the god’s body.

“I’m still waiting for an answer,” he said. “I saw you die.”

And then, suddenly, he remembered Wednesday’s words at Loki’s death; The battle will bring him back. As the battle will bring me back for good.

“That’s it, isn’t it?” Shadow asked softly, somehow horrified. “I stopped the battle… but there were still so many dead. It brought you back. But… Wednesday?” Odin. My father. “Is he… is he alive too?”

"What do you care?" Loki snapped. "You don't think he cares about you, do you? You were only a means to an end. Had he truly wanted you, he'd have found you much sooner. A loving father would have been there for you as a child. Would have taken care of you after your mother died. Face it. Odin doesn't give a damn about you."

He'd been able to influence Shadow quite easily when they'd been in prison together, but now that Shadow knew he was a liar it might prove more difficult. How much was this honest fool truly Odin's son?

Shadow gave Loki a startled and bemused look. The god’s vehemence surprised him; he expected something that insidious to come from the trickster god but he wouldn't have expected anything quite so… blunt. Loki was probably trying to goad him into doing something stupid.

Shadow didn’t think Wednesday cared about him, at least not very much. It was fairly clear in the god’s nature and in his actions; he had used Shadow first as a distraction then as a sacrifice, both entirely for his own gain.

Shadow had made peace with all that. After finding sympathy, and even a kind of understanding, for Hinzelman, it hadn’t been so very difficult to forgive Wednesday for being what he was. Shadow had liked him, despite everything, before he knew that Wednesday was his father. Somehow it had been easy to forgive.

At least it had been when he thought Wednesday was dead. If he was still alive it changed things, and all at once Shadow had to deal again with everything he had put behind him.

Shadow had to take a moment before he could put the iron back into his voice.

“I care for the same reason I care that you’re still alive,” he managed. “Do you think I could just forget what you did to me? What you did to Laura?”

He almost choked. He’d made peace with that too, damn it! He’d forgiven her and he’d let go of his own grief, choosing to dwell in the good memories of before the robbery rather than on whatever had happened while he’d been in prison. And here was Loki, and maybe Wednesday, coming back to drag it all up from where he had buried it.

"Laura?" At first Loki didn't even recognise the name and thought she was another daughter or wife he'd played with. "Oh her! What about her? I killed her, she killed me. We're even."

In his mind it was as simple as that.

The day had been relatively peaceful for a day at the Manor. If one didn't count a swarm of multicoloured butterflies flying by, it could almost be called normal.

Still, Uriel had a bad feeling about the day. A very bad feeling, to be honest.

Normally she might not have even noticed the voices. Due to her bad feeling, though, she was being more watchful than usual. Thus, she actually noticed the raised voices from the bar.

For a moment she didn't think it was anything too important. After some time, however, she realized something.

One of the voices she was hearing was Loki's.

Hurriedly she stood up and rushed towards the bar as fast as she could (which was nowhere as fast as she could have been had she not been pregnant). Once she opened the door there, she froze for a moment.

It was Shadow. Shadow, the huge and strong human, who had seemed so calm and kind. And he was holding her seriously ill brother against the wall with obviously violent intentions.

"What on Earth do you think you are doing?" she yelled, her eyes blazing. Her hands made their way behind her back. Once she had made a habit of wearing maternity t-shirts, she had also had to find a new place for her daggers, which no more could fit inside her sleeves. She'd noticed that the best option was tucking them under the waistband of her skirt behind her back, where they were quite well concealed by her t-shirt. They were, however, fairly easily accessible, as she proved now.

Rushing to the two men's side, she pointed one of her daggers at Shadow, glaring at the gigantic man. A foot or two of height difference wouldn't stop her from defending her brother.

"Release Loki right now!" she shouted, feeling angrier than she could remember being in ages. "If you don't, I'll make sure you regret it!" Of course, she wasn't going to do anything expect as a last resort. She didn't want to get kicked out. However, if it came to that, she would indeed hurt the man in defence of her brother.

He would have hit Loki in that moment. The impulse was in his blood and in his muscles; his fist was so tight he’d probably have hurt himself with the punch.

Even! As if the two could ever be even. Laura, killed in a car accident, brought to animation by Mad Sweeny’s coin only to suffer more as a corpse- a mortal life cut short, tormented, and then ended again. How could that even begin to compare to Loki who lay there even now under Shadow’s hand and taunted him with the truth of Shadow’s sad parentage?

He would have hit him, but suddenly Brenda was at Shadow’s side, demanding Loki’s release. She had a knife too. Shadow wondered blearily who she really was, what goddess of what pantheon, to carry such knives and to value Loki’s life so.

He backed off of Loki slowly, realizing after a moment that he still held the god’s shirt in his hand and letting go, causing Loki to fall back to the floor with a thump.

“You killed her,” he said slowly, thickly, to Loki, his voice sticking in a tightening throat, “so that you and Wednesday could use me at your whim for your own selfish gains. Even if you had stayed dead you would never be even.”

He turned abruptly, a muttering a soft “sorry, Brenda” as he left, brushing past Bast who still stood in the room. He noted her skirt, tried to give her a smile, and failed.

In the hallway he broke into a jog and didn’t stop until he was far out on the manor grounds.

A bit surprised that Shadow had indeed left so easily, Uriel glared after him. No matter how nice the man had seemed before, nobody who attacked Loki -- poor, weak, mostly defenceless Loki -- could stay in her good books. Unless, of course, she discovered there had been a good reason for that, which she doubted in this case. There was no reason that could justify that giant of a man attacking her slowly dying brother.

Tucking her knives back under her waistband, she then kneeled beside Loki, who had been dropped on the floor. "Are you okay?" she asked worriedly. Then, with a slightly firmer tone, she asked, "And what, exactly, was that all about? How do you know Shadow, and whom have you killed to get him attack you? I'd like to be prepared, you know, just in case he decides to try again."

"Shadow? Oh, he's Odin's son. We spent some time in prison together. Got along just fine back then. I have no idea what's gotten into him now, but I suppose he must be here to take Odin from us. He grew up without a father so he wants him now." Loki rubbed his throat still sitting on the floor and wondering whether bruises could get bruises. He'd probably find out in a few hours.

"As for killing, it was only his wife and she was no good for him anyway. Lying little bitch that got him in prison in the first place. Of course he was too stupid to see. Anyway I killed her, she killed me. Everything ought to be just fine. This is about Odin, trust me. Nothing to do with Laura."

Odin's son? Suddenly, Uriel felt very cold. She could almost hear Odin's voice when he had told that Uriel was like a brother or a son to him. Now, however, Odin's true son was there. There was no reason for Odin to keep her around anymore, especially since she wasn't much of a brother now. She was weak, annoying, female, and pregnant -- what use was she to Odin?

"That's no excuse for attacking you," she said, referring to the Laura incident. "If it was her time to die, so? Beating you won't bring her back. And if she already killed you, you're even about pain and whatnot. It can't be abot her, then." She bit her lip. "What if he not only wants Odin but also takes Odin away? We'll be left all alone here..."

Noticing that Loki was still sitting, she then asked, "Can you stand? Do you need me to help? Or get somebody who can heal?" Whatever little healing she could do wouldn't help much.

Loki nodded. "My point exactly. He's attacking me, because he knows I'm his rival. He doesn't know about you yet, but I'm sure once he finds out that Odin adopted you, he'll treat you just as he does me. We'll have to be very careful and prepare our defence well."

Uriel paled at that. She had enough potential threats as it was; she didn't need a gigantic half-god added to them. "What can we do, though?" she asked quietly. "You know you can't fight, and I'm far from my usual fighting condition as well. If he decides to attack us, there's not much we can do other than hope for help. I really don't know what made im leave now, but I doubt he'll be as easy to get rid of the next time."

"Two things," Loki stated calmly. "We can trick him and we can work on the situation from the other end. If we manage to turn Odin against him, there's very little he can do."

He got up, because that seemed to calm Uriel and it was more comfortable to talk to someone on about the same height level. In her condition it didn't seem a good idea to ask her to sit down beside him.

Uriel was relieved to see Loki standing again. However, worry was still gnawing at her mind. "But how are we going to turn Odin against him, exactly?" she asked, not even once stopping to consider that agreeing to such a plan might not be suitable for an angel. "I mean, if Shadow is truly his son, what are we going to do? We're both just adopted and, let's face it, rather useless to Odin as we are now. Shadow, on the other hand, is young and strong. We don't have anything to use against Shadow, while he has several qualities we are lacking. Like actual relation to Odin."

"That's why we can't waste any time. Odin hasn't been around much lately which makes it more difficult, but we'll have to act the next time we see him."

Loki looked Uriel up and down, nodded to himself and grinned. "You might suck at lying, but you can always tell Odin about this completely unprovoked attack on me. As far as I'm concerned, I'll play it by ear. Can't just run to him and complain about getting picked on by his son or he'll know I'm up to something, but a cleverly tweaked conversation just might work in my favour."

Oh, how he loved such subtle games. If only the risk weren't so high this time!

Uriel nodded. "I can definitely tell the truth," she said. "And Odin won't expect me to have any hidden motives. Besides, I do know it was unprovoked even if I wasn't here from the start -- I'm not stupid enough to think that you would go about picking fights with men the size of Shadow in your current condition." She smiled faintly. "So, Odin will get the whole and only slightly partial truth as soon as I see him."

"All I did was walk in here," Loki said a little poutily. "I didn't even know Shadow was here at all."

"I never said you did," Uriel said calmly. "Now, we'd probably better get away from here," she then added softly. "I don't think either of us wants to be here if Shadow decides to return."

"Yes, I should probably check in on Sleipnir anyway," Loki agreed. He no longer felt like a drink or card games. Watching the wolves and horses play would be fun, though, even if he was too weak to join in. "See you later, little sister."

He smirked at her surprised face and slipped away into the kitchen for some horse and wolf snacks.

For a moment, Uriel just stared after Loki. Then, however, she shook her head and chuckled. "You truly are hopeless," she muttered, "my dear brother."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

(no subject)

whups... editied slightly

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject