by Raythe Reign
“Now, Cam, I want you to get off of me and the bed, okay? Can you do that?” Liam asked.
Cameron nodded and slowly dismounted from him like one would a motorcycle. He gracefully then got off the bed and scampered about ten feet away. He was so beautiful even with the frozen cum on his chest and the sprinkles of it like ice drops in his pubic hair. He clutched his blue hands together as if in prayer.
“Now you, Liam! You can stand, right? You’re not hurt?” Cameron pleaded.
Liam sat up in one motion. The layer of frost and ice broke that coated his chest. It was already melting. He shook his hair and more ice crystals flew off. He then swung his legs off of the bed and stood up. He held his arms out.
“I’m fine, Cam. Come here.” Liam gestured for Cameron to approach him.
Cameron shook his head furiously. “N-n-no. I don’t want to risk hurting you again. You – you should go take a hot shower. Really hot. Go.” His little brother pointed to the bathroom.
Acutely aware that Loki was there and his cheeks burning with some embarrassment, Liam suggested, “Why don’t we take one together? Get warm and cleaned up?”
He saw a flash of desire in Cameron’s eyes. He clearly wanted to be in the shower with Liam, but then he was shaking his head again. “No, Liam. You go. I’ll be fine out here.”
Liam had wanted to protest, but he saw the determination in Cameron’s expression. His little brother had his metaphorical ears back and was not going to budge. So he had showered quickly. Considering what had happened to the tea and later coffee, Cameron had been right not to go in with him. He could have frozen the pipes. When he’d come out of the sower, Cameron was clothed and on the sofa. Loki was against the wall. Basically, in the same postures that they were now.
“I want to understand what’s happening to me,” Cameron said.
“You’re something old and something new,” Loki answered, which wasn’t much of an answer.
Cameron must have thought the same thing because his pretty face was scowling at Loki immediately. Liam was amused that the god shifted uncomfortably under Cameron’s icy blue stare. Maybe if Cameron could believe he could turn Loki into a block of ice he actually could do it.
“What something?” Cameron demanded to know.
“You have Frost Giant blood in your family tree,” Loki explained. “My mother Laufey has that blood. I didn’t think it would be so strong in you, but I was wrong.”
Loki extended both of his bare arms – he was wearing a black t-shirt – and suddenly one of them went the same blue as Cameron’s and frost painted the air above his fingertips. Cameron’s eyes widened and he looked down at his own arms to confirm that they were the same as Loki’s. Frost danced above his fingers for a minute, too, but then died.
“I’ve always enjoyed fire, too,” Loki said and his other arm was suddenly wreathed in flames.
Cameron jerked back against the sofa and Liam immediately was wrapping an arm around him.
“It’s okay, Cam,” he was saying and held Cameron to him. He stroked his little brother’s back and pressed his lips to Cameron’s temple over and over again.
Cameron was so shocked by what Loki had done that he forgot that he was supposed to be afraid of harming Liam and he clung to him instead. There was no cold rush through him. Liam didn’t turn to ice. His shirt didn’t even frost over. When Cameron realized that he was touching Liam he tried to push away, but Liam held him close.
“Liam! No! I –”
“You are not going to hurt me. You are in control of this,” Liam said into his hair.
Cameron was rigid for a moment, but then he sagged against Liam. He buried his head against Liam’s chest. “Oh, God, this is so crazy. Please tell me I’m not crazy. I feel like I’m brittle as an eggshell.”
“You are not crazy. You are strong,” Liam told him. He put all the certainty he felt in his voice.
He kissed the top of Cameron’s head, holding his lips there as he rocked Cameron. He felt Cameron’s breathing become less ragged and his heart rate slowed. Liam kept rocking him, kept stroking him, and he realized that Cameron’s eyes had shut.
Is he asleep? How did that happen so quickly?
“He’s collapsed, poor thing. All tired out,” Loki tutted.
“He’s had a long day.” Liam gently adjusted his brother in his arms so that he was cradling him against his chest. Cameron’s eyes were indeed closed and his breathing was now slow and even. “You had something to do with this. You put him to sleep somehow.”
“He needs sleep to recover,” Loki admitted. “I just pushed him where he wanted and needed to go. He feels so safe with you that even with everything happening he wasn’t that hard to convince.”
“I won’t let anything happen to him,” Liam said.
“Interesting,” Loki murmured.
Pitching his voice low so as not to wake Cameron, Liam asked, “What is interesting?”
“You are not afraid of his powers.” Loki rested one foot against the brick wall as he regarded them.
“I could never be afraid of Cam no matter what he was capable of,” Liam said. Such a consideration had never even entered his mind.
“I highly doubt that cold is his only gift. I’m fascinated by the thought of what else he’ll be able to do. Knowing that this is but the tip of a metaphorical iceberg are you still so inclined to believe yourself safe with him?” Loki’s golden eyes were narrowed and his voice was sharp.
“I’m not Thor,” Liam said firmly.
“What does that have to do –”
“Maybe he rejected you for your magic though that sounds odd considering he’s a god, too, but I love Cam. There are no ifs, ands or buts or any qualifications to that,” Liam explained, meeting the god’s golden stare. “I accept him as he is. Magic and all.”
There was a few long ticking moments of silence. Maybe Liam should have been afraid of pissing off the trickster god, but he had a feeling that Loki wouldn’t lash out at him for speaking of his love for Cameron.
“I’m not like the other gods,” Loki responded softly. His eyes were no longer narrowed, but sad. “In a pantheon of outsized personalities like they are you would think it would be difficult to be an outsider simply for what you can do. But I was. I am. I always will be.”
For one moment, Liam had the vision of all the gods in the feasting hall, talking and laughing and toasting each other’s bravery, and there would be Loki in the corner, sipping his wine, watching them all, alone and not included. A wave of sadness went through him at this.
“I’m sorry,” Liam said sincerely.
He got a surprisingly warm smile. “I know. You never let Cameron feel so alone. You’ve always protected him. But what he’s going through now is … different. This is going to unmoor him completely from humanity. He might even use his magic in bad ways.” The last was said with an almost desperation on Loki’s part even as his body language remained loose and unconcerned. “Will you still feel the same way about him if he does that?”
“Yes.” One word. Full stop.
Loki stared at him, unblinking, but then he nodded and smiled. “Yes, you will. Just as I always hoped … well, as you said you are not Thor.”
“I only know the Marvel version of you guys where you’re foster brothers, but that’s not the actual truth, is it?” Liam asked.
Loki nodded, his gaze distant. “No, we’re not brothers. We were raised together. But I’ve always been on the outside. Never with everyone as they portrayed me in that first movie, which I rather liked.”
“You went to go see those?” Liam couldn’t help but grin.
“Of course! I thought it would only be right since they are worshipping me,” he said.
“They aren’t worshipping you.”
“Oh, really? Because I could have sworn that everyone loved Loki the most in those movies. The actor plays me so charmingly,” he said.
“They don’t capture you though. Not really,” Liam said. How could a h
uman ever hope to capture Loki’s sheer otherness? It couldn’t be done.
“It is of no matter. It is a worthy try.” Loki crossed his feet at the ankles. “They rather got Thor correct. In a way they made him more thoughtful. The real Thor would never want to be on the outside. He’s the center of everything in Asgard. People clamor to hear his stories, beg to share a drink with him, and plead to hear his laugh.”
“He could bring you inside, Loki,” Liam suggested. “I doubt that anyone would give you any trouble if you were together though …” He stopped. Did Loki know that Thor was now married to Syf? The longing in Thor’s eyes when he spoke of Loki told Liam that he still felt something for the trickster god.
“What are you not saying?” Loki’s gaze was locked on his.
Liam felt the will behind that gaze. It whittled around his own will not to speak. It made him want to confess everything. He snapped his gaze away.
“Loki, stop it,” Liam gritted out.
The feeling of his mind being plucked at stopped and the god let out a soft sigh. “You’re almost as stubborn as Thor and you’ve got my strength of mind, too.”
Liam shook his head to clear it and then looked up at Loki again. “I didn’t want to tell you this because it might … hurt you.”
“What?”
“Thor is … is married,” Liam said. “To Syf.”
“Well … yes, he’s been married to her for ages and – oh! You thought that mattered! Oh, you sweet boy!” Loki started to laugh loud, but then Cameron made an unhappy sound and he bit the laughter back. “Yes, he was married to her when we were together. But just like here you can get a divorce in Asgard. It’s much easier actually. You just have to leave your partner and say you do not want to be married any longer.”
“So you had an affair?”
“Don’t look so disapproving! They’ve never been happy.” Loki pushed off the wall and began to pace. “Thor would have disavowed her for me, but I – I pretended I wanted things to be casual and – and …”
“He believed you and that hurt you?” Liam’s eyebrows rose. “I’ve known Thor for only a short time, but I think he tends to believe what he’s told.”
“Yes, he is very literal. I just thought …” Loki shrugged.
Liam’s eyes narrowed. “You just hoped he might throw her over anyway without you having to ask?”
Loki nodded with a large grin that faded quickly. “It didn’t quite work out now did it?”
“No, because you’re here and he’s there,” Liam replied softly. “Unless you unlock the Bifrost.”
Loki wagged a finger at him. “Oh, don’t you start that again. You delivered your message and there’s no need for you to do more. I’ve given you my answer.”
“You can’t want the Gash here, hurting people.” Liam frowned.
“Lots of things on this world hurt people, Liam. It is the way of things.”
“But the Gash doesn’t belong to this world. It belongs somewhere else,” Liam pointed out. Cameron let out a sleepy sigh and he stroked his brother’s face. A small smile graced his little brother’s lips.
“You make him so calm. I remember when I developed all sorts of powers and felt a bit fragile,” Loki mused. “There was no one really there that could comfort me. If I showed weakness it would have been used against me.”
“What about your parents? Are they — they dead?”
“No, but we never got on. I was different from them, too. They’re in Asgard though far away from the rest of the Aesir. I made them pariahs, too,” Loki explained.
“You said that everyone would have used your weakness against you. Even Thor?” Liam frowned. He didn’t believe that of the thunder god.
“No, but unlike you he thinks he has to fix things. You know just how to be quiet, an anchor in a storm.” Loki shook his head.
“Cam feels things deeply. Always has. That’s why he’s such a fantastic artist. But things affect him to such a degree that he gets overwhelmed,” Liam explained. Loki nodded along, agreeing with him. He sensed that Loki knew Cameron pretty well, too.
“He really does take after me, I’m afraid. For good and ill, he has a lot more of my traits than Thor’s or Odin’s,” Loki remarked as he drifted into the kitchen.
“Back to the Gash –”
“You are just like Thor! So intent on one thing … except that could be said of me as well.” Loki went over to the refrigerator and looked inside. Seeing all the food, he said, “You really are the domestic type, aren’t you? How adorable. Though I do wonder what your mother will think when she finds the two of you living in sin and other things that sounds rather wonderful but most people think are awful.”
“My mother thinks I’m dead. When she looks at me she sees someone else,” Liam reminded him.
“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Loki said to the lettuce he’d pulled out of the refrigerator.
“What do you mean?” A spike of ice went through Liam and it wasn’t from his little brother. In fact, Cameron’s hands were no longer blue, but normal colored again.
“She’s your mother. She’s one half of why you have the gifts you have.” Loki regarded the milk as if considering taking a swig of it. “She’s been in deep denial about her own gifts because of her mother.”
“Our grandmother was crazy,” Liam agreed.
“Your grandmother was evil actually. She was fascinating, too, in a cobra-ish sort of way.” Loki had pulled out the butter.
“Maybe,” Liam said faintly. “Why did you leave Mom with her then? Why didn’t you save her? She’s your family, too.”
Loki turned from the refrigerator and asked, “Who says I didn’t?”
“I guess I am. She lived with her mother until she met my dad. If you had saved her … oh, I get it. You saved her in some other way than physically removing her from her mother’s care,” Liam said as he read that information in Loki’s eyes.
“Your mother is very strong. So strong that she has blinded herself to the truth of the world for years, but that is going to change, Liam. Very, very soon,” Loki said and another spike of ice went through Liam. “Will you be strong enough to resist her?”
Loki gestured towards the sleeping Cameron in his arms. Liam tightened his hold on his little brother as if their mother were literally trying to physically wrench Cameron away right that second.
“If it were just me … if Cam didn’t feel the way he does … then I could deny myself this happiness, but …” Liam wetted his lips. How to explain this even to someone who knew Cameron, but didn’t know him quite as well as Liam did? “Cam will be hurt if I leave him now.”
“More than hurt. Shattered, I think is a better description and someone with his powers being shattered is never a good thing,” Loki said. Clearly, he did know Cameron.
At that moment, there was a clatter of footsteps on the stairs. Loki turned back unconcernedly to scope out what food was in the refrigerator. Liam craned his neck around to see who was coming, but he felt he already knew. He sensed the other Valkyries before he saw Elda’s golden haired head emerge from the stairwell. Nafari and Lihua followed close behind her. All of them looked grim.
“What’s wrong? What’s happened?” Liam asked. He put a soothing hand on Cameron’s chest.
“We nearly had the Gash,” Lihua said with a purse of her lips. “It had possessed the parents of the murdered child. We tracked it down, but it got away.”
Nafari rounded the couch and saw Cameron sleeping in Liam’s arms. His eyebrows rose in silent question, but Liam merely shook his head slightly. He would explain all of this to Nafari later when they were alone. He didn’t have any idea what his best friend would think about him and Cameron. But he would need to force himself not to care if Nafari disapproved or even ended their friendship over it. Perhaps he would even be kicked out of the Valkyrie. He wasn’t sure if such a thing was possible or what that would mean for him. Would he still be able to be here on this plane like he was or would his so
ul be lost somehow? Liam shook himself. He couldn’t think of that now.
“Was anyone hurt other than the child?” Liam asked. A look was passed between the three of them. “What? What are you holding back?”
He suddenly wished he had the ability to compel them like Loki had nearly done to him.
Maybe he did have a touch of it, because Elda answered, “Your mother was injured. Her partner might be dead.”
“Oh, my God,” Liam breathed. His mother. Injured by the Gash. How many times had he waited up for her when she went out on patrol? How many nights had he feared she might not come back like their father? And now the danger was ever greater and he hadn’t been there to help her. He was a Valkyrie. His job was to protect humanity from the Gash and he’d been making love with Cameron instead. He didn’t regret the lovemaking, but the timing of it.
I need to deal with the Gash first.
“Mom’s been hurt?” It was Cameron’s voice. His little brother had woken up and had clearly heard what was said. He struggled to sit up. Liam helped him.
“Take it easy, Cam. Take it slow,” he cautioned.
“Mom’s hurt,” Cameron repeated to him as if that should explain why he was struggling.
“How hurt is she?” Liam asked Elda.
“She’ll survive,” Elda said.
Nafari quickly said, “We went back to check on her and the ambulance was there. She was walking on her own power. Her partner though … I do not know.”
Liam knew that they had only gone back likely because Nafari had insisted. Elda thought of things like the good of the many were more important than the good of the one. He knew that. But it was his mother they had left hurt while they had gone off after the Gash unsuccessfully.
And we can’t defeat it. Not without the Aesir’s help. And that means Loki’s help.
His gaze went to the refrigerator, expecting to find Loki guzzling from the milk jug, but the god was nowhere in sight. He had left.