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Sunlight spilt over the waves, turning the little caps and crests into a cache of jewels. The day was fading into twilight with earnest speed. The tide had come in well over an hour ago, catching up all the little stranded fish and lonely octopus from their pools and returning them to the ocean proper, but a few creatures remained. Thor poked disinterestedly at a many-armed sea star, body hunched at an awkward angle to try and avoid casting his shadow over the animal in front of him.
The creature couldn’t hold his attention long, and after a couple minutes he stood up with a little grunt. Wiping his hands on already salt-stiff trousers, he began to shift his weight restlessly from foot to foot, his hands clenching and unclenching at his side.
It had been a long day. A long day in a long line of days which didn’t look to be ending any time soon. It was a wonder he’d managed to sneak from the palace and make his way to the cove tonight. It had been a near thing- several times over he had needed to double back and choose a new route when he and a patrolling guard had come close to crossing paths. He couldn’t help but feel it was ridiculous that a crown prince should creep about like a common thief in order to simply spend time with a friend!
Then again, Loki wasn’t a usual sort of friend. Thor knew their relationship... was worrying. To some.
Not that it was anyone’s business, really. He was very nearly of age, now, a man in his own right. He could choose his friends as he pleased.
Now apparently his chosen friend had become a rather tardy friend. It was well past the hour they had weekly set aside to try and meet. A line of worry lay carved between Thor’s brows as he studied the horizon. While it was not out of character Loki to play games or to punish Thor in petty ways if he felt the prince had slighted him, Thor truly could not think of any reason for Loki to be irritated with him at the moment.
This made his lateness troubling.
He tried to listen for a sign, the telltale slosh of something large approaching over the rocks, but the shush and sputter of the surf against the shore was too much white noise for him to filter out. There was always the chance that Loki could not make it, some violence or intrigue in his kingdom keeping him away, but usually if one of them was to be held up it was Thor.
Minutes passed. The sun settled low, and Thor began to wonder if he should just return to the palace, unsatisfied.
Then, a stone’s throw from Thor’s perch, a dark haired and blue skinned head emerged from the water. It slid slowly out of the waves until its eyes were just above the surface. Narrow, red eyes they were, and even from that distance Thor knew they promised dark things in his future. The smile which had suddenly flooded Thor’s face faded just as abruptly in the presence of that look.
Usually he would adopt a sheepish, apologetic expression and attempted to explain away whatever slight he knew he’d visited upon his friend- but truly, truly, for once he could claim complete ignorance of any recent foolishness he might be held accountable for.
“Loki?” He called tentatively.
For a long moment his friend did nothing, then with a roll of his eyes his head dipped silently back under the surface. Thor couldn’t help the little stir of awe inside of him which came from watching the swirling red mass of Loki’s tentacles surge beneath the surface, the strength of them distorted and swelling before they stretched out in the easy push which propelled Loki towards the shore.
In the space of a moment he was gathered in the shallow water at Thor’s feet, glaring up at him with the thinnest sliver of ocean still glossed over his eyes.
“Loki?” Thor tried again, cautiously sinking to his knees. Seeing no easy answers coming, he began to wrack his brain for possible offenses. “Are you angry because... Because I have been absent these three weeks?”
Taking the other’s silent reproach as confirmation Thor scoffed. “I am sorry Loki, but as my eighteenth birthday approaches, father has increased my training and mother is insistent I be fitted for three separate outfits - three! - and I barely have a second to myself between the tutors and the council meetings, let alone the specific hours you and I have set aside to meet and I’m lucky I was even able to evade the jeweler tonight as he is insisting on measuring my head for the thousandth time to make certain that the crown will fit properly and-”
He was cut off abruptly as a stream of water hit him square in the center of his forehead. Sputtering he threw a hand up to block it but Loki had already ceased, his work finished, the heir to the throne of Asgard properly chastised with his hair sticking to his dripping cheeks and chin.
“That is not funny!” He shouted, swiping at his face, blinking saltwater from his eyes.
Loki returned his scowl with another eye roll, letting water dribble tauntingly from his lips as he bared his black teeth in a sneer.
“It is not! I have not been intentionally avoiding you. You should know that. Besides, we have gone a month or more without meeting you before and you were not nearly so cross then.”
Shaking his head, Loki fixed Thor with a pointed glare. The brilliant orange of the setting sun positively set Loki’s eyes on fire, and they burned into Thor with a mild fury.
The prince’s irritation was quickly boiled off into nothing.
Thor shivered, trying not to think about how beautiful his friend was and focus instead on feeling appropriately guilty for having forgone their weekly rendezvous for so long.
Loki’s long tentacles shifted in the water, clutching for a moment at the edges of stones to hold him steady then releasing their grip to dart aimlessly over the sand until a wave once again rocked him and he was forced to find a new tether. The red appendages seemed to do it without any input from Loki himself, like eight pet snakes working in tandem to support their master, bright and slick and clever. Their color met with the skin tone of Loki’s more human half somewhere around mid hip, the point indistinct as red bled to blue and blue to red. Loki’s palms and part of his chest were also touched with this red, a mottling of ruby and sapphire. Blood and water. Fire and ice.
A flush touched Thor’s features. A sense of shame spiking through him for his distraction. It was hardly the first time- he often found himself unable to look away from the extraordinary shapes and planes and hues of Loki’s body.
Just as he was about to force his gaze away, he had to pause a moment. Fighting back the usual low level embarrassment he felt whenever he knew his study of Loki’s body grew too obvious, his fondness far too apparent, he found himself frowning.
There… seemed to be something off.
The sparkle of light over the ever shifting surface made it difficult for him to judge what was beneath, but something about the way Loki’s weight was settled amongst the rocks, something about the way he carried himself... it felt strange.
Not missing Thor’s scrutiny Loki hissed unhappily, gills flaring, unable to speak easily in the air but able to proclaim his displeasure easily enough.
Thor yanked his gaze back up to Loki’s face guiltily, not wanting to further offend his friend.
Yet when he met Loki’s eyes the anger he expected to find there was well faded. Instead he seemed nothing more than weary.
Without further preamble, Loki reached up to grab onto rock, his clawed finger tips curling against the black stone right next to Thor’s feet. The muscles and tendons all tensed for a moment, then Loki surged upwards and hoisted his head and torso fully out from the water.
His wiry arms, usually so slender and lithe compared to Thor’s bulk, looked terribly strong as he strained to balance his weight on them. The curves of his muscles and the thickness of his veins were like finely carved stone, each dip and surge of his anatomy cut clear by the effort of holding half his body up in the air.
Water sluiced down his lean, powerful shoulders, sticking long dark strands of hair to his chest, narrow and somewhat softer than Thor’s own. The transparent rivulets drew glittering lines over the planes of his body and Thor was helpless to anything over than follow them hungrily, curiously with his eyes, down, down to-
“Loki...” Thor trailed off, his throat closing as he watched water drip and run around the swell of Loki’s gently rounded belly.
His friend… his friend looked like he was with child.
“Oh, Loki, is it- I mean, how have you-”
The mercreature shook his head and dropped back into the water with a splash. When he was mostly submerged once more, he stretched up with one arm, moving to cover Thor’s mouth with his hand and forestall any asinine questions, but Thor however was having none of that.
The tightness of Loki’s features frankly frightened him..
“Was this of your choice?” He cried, wrenching his back and away from the other’s touch. “Or has someone done this to you, against your will?”
The mere notion that Loki could have been… could have been planning this seemed preposterous to Thor. He could hardly entertain the thought- these past few weeks he may have been made to involuntarily eschew their meetings, but the pause was nothing more than an irritation of his station. He and Loki were… they were confidants, dearest of friends, bosom brothers. For years now they had talked of everything and of nothing in these hours they spent by the sea, and if Loki had meant for this, had planned this…
Thor would have known. If his methodical, brilliant, calculating friend had been trying for a child of all things - if he had a, a husband somewhere beneath the seas, Thor would have known.
“I swear to you Loki, if anyone has forced you into this I will strike them down.” The prince snarled, a thirst for vengeance igniting his blood. “I shall find a way to visit the very bottom of the ocean and I will destroy whatever crawling, pathetic, pig of a creature has-”
Shaking his head harder at each word Loki finally sighed and reached for Thor’s jaw, grasping it in a pinching-ly tight grip and giving him only the vaguest look of warning before yanking him down. With a yelp and quick intake of breath, Thor followed his friend’s command. His elbows buckled until he was laying with his chest touching the rough black rock, cold water soaking into his fine linen tunic, startled but complacent as the other dragged his face beneath the waves where sound is muffled and cool.
“You will do no such thing.” Loki hissed, his teeth against Thor’s ear, his face only visible to Thor if he strained to look out of the farthest corner of his eye. The boy’s blue skin looked like midnight, the red of his eyes practically glowing where it appeared between strands of his floating hair. “It is your fault I have been put into this state, I will not have you worsen things with ill-suited attempts to avenge an honor I have never possessed!”
Having been unable to take a decent breath before being submerged, and likewise having much to say on this matter, Thor pulled hard against Loki’s hold and dragged himself back to the surface. Loki released him at once and followed him back above the water line, looking cross about it.
“You have honor!” Thor gasped, spitting a bit to rid his mouth of the burning salt. “I have seen it! I saw it when you saved me from a watery grave! Likewise when you told me of the enemy fleet which slunk along our coasts. That information saved several villages from pillaging and if such noble deeds do not grant you honor than I do not know what does.”
With barely a chance to shut his mouth Loki once again seized Thor’s face- this time with both hands grabbing about the ears- and dragged him back under.
“Do not be naive.” He growled, the jet of water he exhaled with his words tickling hte conch of Thor’s ear. “My honor, or lack there of, is of no consequence. Forget the subject evermore.
“I need you to promise me to remain on land, safe in your gilded palace, and far, far away from the deeps.
“If by some ridiculous chance you were ever able to make contact with my people, you would only be capable of causing me more harm. My only desire now is to live through this birth and to be left alone, my one duty to my people having been for all intents and purposes satisfied.”
“What duty?” Thor shouted underwater then wished he hadn’t, his breath leaving him in a rush of bubbles and brine filling his mouth. Not wanting to stop the conversation he whipped his head about so the right side of his face was submerged but the left faced the sky, spitting out the sea water and inhaling awkwardly through half parted lips. On the plus side the new position put him fully facing Loki. A Loki whose expression looked pinched and angry and tired. A Loki who looked at him as if he were the biggest fool he had ever known.
“My duty as a child bearer, Thor. I am far too small to be of any use to them as a hunter and warrior. Most adults of my kind are easily thrice my length and double my girth. I should count myself lucky that I am even considered fit enough to be impregnated - not all runts are so fortunate. By all means I should have been abandoned as an infant, left alone in some cave to be eaten by the first shark to come across me.”
Thor shook his head in an emphatic denial of Loki’s claims.
“It is true, you great, golden, idiot. These are facts. We can't all be born perfect and strong and ready for battle. And not all civilizations are so fortunate in their access to resources as your privileged people. Some of us end up being asked to earn our keep through other, less celebrated skills.”
Thor twisted his whole upper body so his mouth was free from the water, his nostrils burning as water invaded them, then asked in a rush “Magic is one of your talents, is it not? Why did you not use it to drive him off?”
Loki snorted, and tugged Thor’s face back around so they could look at each other clearly, albeit sideways. “I would have easily been able to keep one man at bay, but not a whole mob of them. Had I fought they would have killed me, easily. My only real option was to submit. It’s not like I did not know this was coming, my father always made it clear what he expected of his youngest son.”
As the look of horror grew on Thor’s face Loki only laughed, albeit darkly. “Do not look so aghast. Our cultures are vastly different Thor. This is not unheard of among my people and not nearly as barbaric as you are imagining it to be. Just because I was unwilling does not mean it was sudden, or even particularly violent. I expected it. I always knew such a thing was to be in my future, something to make me useful.
“If you must have something to compare it to, think: do not many young girls in Asgard go to their marital beds reluctant, complete strangers to their mates? The only differences between my situation and theirs is that I endured the attentions of multiple partners and I have emerged from my ordeal without a husband. This latter point I must say I am immensely grateful for.”
For all the reason in Loki’s tone, Thor was having none of it. His knuckles were white and his palms aching from how hard he gripped the edge of the stone he was knelt upon. “I am sorry my friend, but I cannot see this as anything less than a great injury to you!” He sputtered, still half drowned by the surf.
For a long minute Loki was silent.
Then, quietly “Does it offend you so deeply that I am pregnant?”
Thor’s eyes opened wide, tear ducts already stung red by the salt absolutely burning. “No! That is not it at all! You are my friend. That you are with child does not change that. But to force this upon you...” He closed his mouth with a loud clack of his teeth, needing to concentrate hard to keep from shouting, every inch of him wanting to promise a revenge that Loki had already forbid he exact.
“And you said it was my fault?” He asked after a moment, barely calmed. “How is this my fault? I feel this blow to your honor as surely as I would feel a blow to mine, but I do not see-”
Loki sneered, black teeth bared and red eyes narrowed. “My father followed me the last time we met and saw you kiss me, you oaf. He grew concerned that if he did not hasten certain events that I would become pregnant by way of a human and such dilution of blood would cast much shame on my kin and kingdom. I have, of course, been expressly forbidden from returning to visit you ever again.”
The way he said these things so matter-of-factly made Thor’s head feel like it was spinning. “Because of a kiss?” He asked, unable to believe it. “He ordered such horrific violence against you because he witnessed a kiss?”
When Loki only nodded Thor sputtered, shaking his head violently as he yanked it completely from the water, salty droplets flung from his hair and beard flying back and forth, raining down on Loki even as he ducked to escape the onslaught. “It was not even a good kiss! You pulled away from me so quickly!”
For a moment Loki seemed stunned, then he barked a humourless laugh. He reached out to seize Thor’s shoulders and pulled him down until they were nose to nose, just barely touching at the point where water became air and air became water. Thor had to listen very hard to hear him like this, his friend’s voice merging with the general loll of the waves.
“It hardly matters what sort of kiss it was Thor, an act of passion or a childish token. It happened. It was witnessed and the worst was assumed. Now it’s what’s done is done.”
When Thor looked as if he were to further protest Loki shushed him with a determined shake of his head, his hair floating ethereally around his face as he moved. “Would you stop working yourself into such a frenzy? It is of no use now. One day I will deal with those responsible, I assure you, but for now there is nothing to be done.”
“But they could hurt you again!”
Loki laughed. “They would have to find me first.”
Another protest ripe on Thor’s tongue died at Loki’s icy words. He swallowed hard to buy himself a moment, mulling over the implications.
“Tell me where you will you go.” He demanded quietly.
“I do not know.” Loki shrugged. “Our pregnancies are far shorter than those of humans, so someplace small and safe until I deliver in the month after next. Then I suppose I shall go wherever I please.”
“Will your people not be angry that you have taken the babe with you?”
Loki’s laugh aimed to mock. “As if they ever truly wanted any offspring of mine, Thor. They would beat it and mock it and shut it up in the dark. If it was very lucky they might let it live long enough to breed it when it came of age and perhaps then they would treat it and its offspring with a little less cruelty, but I would not bank on luck.
“My father has used this thin veil of duty and honor simply as a convenient way to force upon me a punishment he knew I would find particularly loathsome; this is a… tidy way to mortify me and teach me my place.”
A part of Thor bristled at Loki’s tone, wanting to snarl and rant and demand that Loki not speak so lightly of these hurts, but with uncharacteristic maturity he shoved that part of him aside. Though he and Loki had often had extraordinary rows in the span of their friendship, now was not the time for anger anda raised voice.
“But what of the child?” He prompted quietly.
Loki’s eyes turned sharp and glittering. “I do not know!” He snapped. He started to pull himself deeper underwater and Thor reached out in a panic, forgetting that the mercreature could only sink down a few more inches in the shallow pool. He wrapped his hands around Loki’s slim shoulders and held firm, afraid that if he loosened his grip the slippery skin would slide right from his grasp and his friend would go off and do something drastic, never to be seen again.
Eyes wild, he gasped without thinking “Stay with me.”
It was a wild, crazy suggestion that could only be born of panic, but as the unplanned offer hung heavy in the air between Thor knew with immediate and absolute certainty that he did not want to take it back.
“You cannot be serious.” Thor read Loki’s lips more than heard his quiet words. Those red eyes were narrowed in suspicion and barely contained anger.
Thor shook his head and ploughing forward with his offer, calling on all the sincerity he could muster. “No. I mean yes. I am serious. Stay, Loki. Stay, with me. I can take you to the palace salt baths first, they are fed straight from the ocean. Then I will call mother and when I explain what your people have done to you I’m certain she’ll agree to let you stay. Our kingdoms may not have much cause to be friendly, but it has been generations since we have had any great enmity.
“And- and as a gift, for my coming of age, I will ask father to have the baths expanded, and I will then gift them to you! No one at the palace really uses them anyway, and we could have the architects alter them to suit whatever your needs. You would be safe, sheltered, and I would spend time with you every day, I would support you, and the babe.”
Thor held his breath as Loki stared up at him silence.
“I will not be locked up like an animal.”
Thor exhaled.
“You would be free to go about as you pleased! The keys to the grates which lead from the baths to the ocean would be yours. And should you ever wish to move on land, that would be fine too. The palace would be alerted to your presence, they’d know you were my guest.”
Loki was shaking his head but his eyes had lost the sharp edge of suspicion. “Your family will never agree to this.”
“But they will!” Thor insisted. “I am certain they will. And as I said: if they are reluctant, I can ask for it as a gift! I am turning eighteen, after all, and large gifts are expected.”
“I will not be your gift!” Loki snarled. Thor winced.
“No, you won’t! Your safety will be my gift!” He rushed to placate, knowing how tender his friend could be on matters of pride. “A chance to shelter a friend will be my gift. And a fine gift it will be indeed. Please Loki! If not for me, then for the child.”
Loki rolled his eyes and sneered at the prince. He raised one hand to grip at his own belly, sharp claws just digging into the surface of his skin grown taut as it expands to accommodate the babe. “What should I care for this thing? Its origins are hateful to me.”
With his heart in his throat Thor squeezed Loki’s shoulders before loosening his grip to just a touch. “But we can give it a better future. I would like to care for it, at least. Anything that is part of you I would like to care for.”
With those words carried away on the evening winds, a strange quiet settled between them. For a long while, neither said anything more.
It was with a sigh that gusted out as a jet of water that Loki bowed to the thunderous might of Thor’s will. The mer adopted a put upon expression, and as the prince watched he saw each little piece of the mental armor Loki guarded himself with being tugged resolvedly back into place. “There is no way that this is your child Thor, you know that right? You did not get me pregnant through your meager excuse for a kiss.”
Thor looked nonplussed. “Of course it is not mine.” Did Loki really think him so foolish? He grit his teeth and continued on. “But it is yours, Loki. Hateful origins or not, it is still your child. I should like to help you care for it.”
“You are being naive again.” Loki sank a centimeter deeper, his eyes unblinking as they regarded him from below.
“I am being hopeful Loki, there is a difference.”
“No.” He sighed. Then, even as he reached up to grip the rock and begin the laborious process of hauling himself from the water, he hissed “there isn’t.”
his bright red tentacles crawled up and over the dry stones, carrying him out of the ocean and onto land, gravity piling on him heavily as he transitioned.
Thor shuffled back on his heels quickly. He did not often have cause to watch Loki travel over land, but the slow creeping glide always awed him. “Please don’t speak, I know it hurts. But, please, tell me simply, is this a yes?”
With a final roll of his eyes Loki nodded.
At Thor’s victorious whoop he shook his head and reached out to grip his friend’s hand tugging him close until he could wrap an arm around his shoulders. Then he glared at him until Thor understood and reached one arm around his back and the other under all his tentacles to lift him up. There was no way he was crawling over these sharp stones all the way back to the palace.
One day he would refine his transformation spell he has been working on and he will learn to walk on land, but for now he would remain as he was.
“It will work, Loki.” Thor murmured, and when Loki looked up he caught the fire of determination shining in Thor’s eyes, his whole body gold and glittering in the last rays of the fading sun.
‘Unlikely.‘ Loki thought, one hand tapping at his stomach distractedly. ‘But it will be interesting to try.’