#since i have elaina as a muse too i will write something up about her and being a mother | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

my-heart-in-his-teeth · 5 years

Text

The Devil You Know (Part 4 of 4)

Story Summary: A follow up to Mischief and the Maiden , Loki interferes with Elaina in the best ways. Contains both silliness and smut, consider yourself warned on both counts.

Author’s Note: Due to the huge drop in activity/interest in this blog, If I write any more of these, I’m just putting them up on A03, though I will probably throw the links up here repeatedly. Hope you guys enjoy and thank you so much for reading!

Should Tumblr Implode: I’m over here on A03

***

The English countryside was unseasonably warm for this time of year, which meant that while it was still freezing, it was at least not snowing yet. The ground had been crisp with frost when she’d woken up this morning. Fortunately for as old as her rented cottage looked, it was well insulated and the fire had kept her so cozy that she stole an extra couple of hours of sleep.

However, she was now wide awake at midnight. Not that she had any place to be in the morning- that was the point of a vacation. Though she wasn’t certain she could call what she was doing a vacation anymore. She hadn’t been home in more than three months and she could only hope that James wouldn’t tire of house sitting.

Byron was stretched long on the floor in front of the fire, where he’d spent most of his time since arriving two days ago, a black puddle of fur and contentment. At least cats don’t have jet lag- or maybe they always had jet-lag, which would explain a lot. Getting him over to the UK was a bit of a pain but worth it. She wasn’t sure when she would be going back to the States and she didn’t want to leave her oldest friend behind.

She wandered over to the tall row of crosshatched windows overlooking the garden with a glass of wine in hand. The red reflection of her flannel pajamas moved along the diamond pattern as she walked by. The garden must be beautiful in the summer, but currently it was carpeted with dead leaves and the large stone urns that dotted along the evergreen hedge stood empty.

The moon was impressively bright tonight and she thought how peaceful it would be to sit under it while she drank her Bordeaux and enjoyed the quiet solitude before she attempted to get some sleep. Remembering how bitter cold the wrought iron patio furniture was, she slipped on her thick robe and slid her feet into the boots she’d discarded by the door after hiking earlier before popping out the back door.

A thousand stars greeted her, twinkling in the cloudless sky with varying brightness. She loved the country at night. A white light blazed across the sky and she tried to call up a wish but she was interrupted when something moved across her legs. Byron. She must’ve forgotten to close the door tightly.

She called to him with the clicking sound he usually responded to, but he ran to the other end of the garden wall, and hopped onto the stone fence. He looked back at her, twitching his tale defiantly. “Byron,” she scolded. “Don’t you dare.”

He responded by immediately hopping down to the other side. She cursed and hastily set her glass on the bench, running towards the gate and swinging it open. He was there on the path that led to the lake, just far enough away that she couldn’t reach him, watching her with golden eyes. She called him again and he turned and trotted further away. “You’re going to get yourself eaten by something.” She told him.

The moon must be making him crazy, she thought. He wasn’t exactly the most adventurous beast these days now here he was diving into fox country without a care and he annoyingly maintained his distance, just out of her reach, until they’d reached old wooden pier that stretched onto lake. He chose then to run.

She started to run after him, relieved that he had cornered himself, but then she stopped. There was no cat ahead of her, but a man. Or rather, a deity. She recognized him instantly though he faced away from her. It might have been the cape.

The water was still as a mirror. He did not give any indication that he noticed her as she approached, his eyes remained set on the moon’s massive reflection on the lake’s surface. He was dressed in what she would guess was more formally than she had ever seen. More metal then usual adorned his shoulders and chest. And then there was the cape; dark and heavy, flowing to his feet.

“Well, one of us is having a very vivid dream.” She announced as she stood at his side.

“Are they?” Loki was stroking Byron, who was draped across the length of his forearm, like a villain in a Bond movie. “This seems real enough.”

“True. And I don’t remember falling asleep. But no one is trying to kill me tonight, so to what would I owe the pleasure of your actual company? Just in the neighborhood?”

“My kingdom is a bit too busy for my liking at the moment, preparing for a coronation.” The way he pinched that last word told her that the coronation wasn’t his. “I’m laying other plans for my own amusement as a distraction.” He looked down at her and smiled. “But since I was visiting other realms, I thought I’d steal a moment to visit yours.”

“Ah, so in other words, ‘yes’.” Maybe it was the wine that she had most definitely really drank at some point this evening, but she had the urge to ask him about what plans he spoke of, or any of the details about his life really, but she swallowed it down. She didn’t want to pry, which was ridiculous considering that he not only knew her whole life, but he had walked through her subconscious several times now.

The thought of having reached the point where the Norse god of Mischief was just casually swinging by from a whole other world was a little impressive. “That’s my cat, by the way.”

He drew a slender finger under Byron’s chin and rubbed it there, Byron lifted his head and purred appreciatively. “Oh, this feline and I have an agreement and he does a bit of my bidding now and then. Off you go.” He told him, and the cat leapt down and obediently headed back up the path.

“Well at least he listens to someone. Surely you don’t need him to spy on me.” Though remembering what he hinted at their last encounter, maybe he did. It seemed from his words that things were changing for the Prince of Asgard.

“Tsk, of course not.” His alabaster skin looked bluish in the moonlight and the shadows carved the hollows of his cheeks deeper, giving an almost supernatural look to his devilishly handsome face. “Why would I deny myself that enjoyment?”

“Why did you have my apparently treacherous cat lead me to the lake instead of popping inside?” She asked.

“Too confining. And it is quite beautiful here is it not?”

It was. Snow was falling now, glinting like a million specks of falling stars around them. What a perfect painting this would make, she thought; the two of them with the moon on the black water and in sky, and the silver bits drifting down around them. And her flannel pajamas she just remembered she wearing.

“But if you prefer ...”

With a flash she found herself to be in large room with smooth stone walls, a crackling fire and a large, and if she remembered correctly, very comfortable, bed. Her eyes lingered on that bed. Loki’s hidden sanctuary in the forests of Asgard hadn’t changed at all. “So I am dreaming after all.”

“Hmm.” He chuckled. “In a way. Your body rests on Midgard, safely guarded, but your mind is here with me. It’s easier to keep to familiar settings when meeting like this. And this place reminds me of you when I think of it. You are the only person I’ve ever brought here, you know.”

“No, I didn’t.” This was as close to sentimental as she had ever thought him to be and she didn’t know how to take it. “But thank you for trusting me to not run and tell all my friends.”

There was just a hint of a smile on his lips as he brushed her hair back from her shoulders and eyed her up and down. “Let’s remedy this as well.”

She felt something soft envelope her and looked down to see that she was wearing a long crème colored nightdress. The semi- sheer material felt smoother than silk against her skin.

“Now, that’s better.”

She loved the way his eyes lit up with a playful spark when he was up to something and the way they creased at the corners when his smile was genuine. He took her hand and led her to one of the soft, throne- like chairs near the fire. She sat and took in how much had changed since the first time she’d sat here and was introduced to the God of Mischief.

He sat across from her and stretched his legs out on a footstool, two fingers of one hand on his temple and the thumb on his chin as he regarded her thoughtfully. “I’ve wondered,” he said. “what you must want out of life, Elaina. I know better than to ask because something I’ve learned about Midgardians is that they so often do not realize what they want, what they truly want. You even have a saying about being careful what you wish for, do you not?”

“Yes?” Elaina answered hesitantly, curious but cautious about where this was going.

“You enjoy a certain freedom, that I’ve seen. You enjoy knowledge, which is admirable. But you have a love of stories that I think is what has shaped who you are and are what you love most of all.”

“Well...yes. I suppose you’re right. Stories last longer than most things and they’ll never stop being created and there’s a certain comfort in that.”

He smiled then and a book appeared in front of her, large and leather wrapped with a golden latch, it was suspended in the air at eye level until she reached out and took it. A current of energy moved through her as she pulled it to her and her eyes raised to Loki.

“A gift.” He said. He had never directly given her anything before. “A book of endless stories.”

“Oh, like a Kindle.” She mused.

He cocked his head. “You think I jest?”

“No. I think you are giving me a Kindle. The Asgardian version. And I love it.” She beamed as she stroked her fingers over the plain brown binding and slid open the latch. It was actually very sweet for him to give her such a thing. To get to read the lore of other realms that no other human has ever seen was an appeal to her book nerd heart. She opened it and it flipped through the thick white pages. It was completely blank.

Loki stretched cat-like off his chair and sat on the footstool at her knees. “I think you should create some of your own stories.”

“Oh.” She never thought of herself as a writer, though she supposed she did have enough to write about at this point in her increasingly strange life. She thought it better, if she had to choose, to live a life worth writing about than to be able to write about lives far more interesting than her own.

“Try it.” Loki handed her a pen. An ordinary black bic. She flicked clicked the top a couple of times as he watched, his broad hand rubbing just above her knee. “Start small. Write of something you would like to happen right now.”

No pressure or anything, she thought, then smiled as an idea popped into her head. She began to put it down, her handwriting dancing neatly across the perfect page until the thought was ended with a period.

Loki was grinning at her wolfishly when she clicked the pen closed and it didn’t take long to see why; he wore nothing but the firelight that danced on his smooth skin, just like she had playfully written moments before. On the page and the words were glowing gold and green as they sank into the page and disappeared.

“The fuck?” She asked poetically as realization rolled into her head too slowly.

“Whatever you write in this book, will shape what happens.” Loki closed it and knelt before her. “But the word’s reach is not infinite and works best when applied to yourself or those closest to you. For example, if you are sick, you can write yourself well; that is a self- contained desire. But if you were to write that you become queen of the world, a crown would not appear on your head, but after a fashion, a king might find his way to your door. Or not.”

“I said I didn’t want powers.” Though she had to admit that she’d enjoyed the feel of the book in her hands and the flare of...well, of mischief she’d felt watching those words eaten by the page.

“Ah, but this is not power that changes you. It is not tied to you. It’s completely bound within this book which you could pack it away or leave it to gather dust as another keepsake on your shelves if you wish but, “he looked down at his fingers that were absent-mindedly making circle patterns on the bare skin of her leg. “If there something were to happen...”

“In case of emergency: Open Book.” It wasn’t a bad idea really. And she doubted she would ever use it to change her fortune more than he already had, but if James got hit by a car tomorrow and she could use the book to heal him, surely that would be a worth having it for.

She brushed the top of his hand with her fingers and met his eyes as he lifted them to her. “Thank you.” She told him and rested her hand on his with a gentle squeeze.

Without another word, he tossed the book to the footstool and his hands moved up under her dress to her hips as he kissed his way up her thighs., stopping just before reaching her center, which was just starting to stir.

He raised up on his forearms and kissed her mouth, sweeping his tongue inside as he took her face in his hands, lightly nibbling her lower lip as he pulled away. She looked down at the ridges of his muscled torso and wrapped her arms around his neck as he pulled her weight to him, sliding his arm behind her knees and scooping her up.

He carried her to the bed and then, kneeling between her legs, he looked at her with a wicked smirk. “Now, I need your help with something, Elaina.” her name sounded like silk falling from his mouth. “I would be remiss if I didn’t make sure you were fully capable of using a gift of magic. I think that you should have a touch more practice using it tonight. Just to ease my mind, of course”

Before she could question what he meant, there was a soft flash of light and the book and pen were by her hand. She looked to it and then to Loki, naked and waiting.

His tongue wet his lips, one brow raised and a knavish twinkle in his eyes as his rasped out a single word.

“Write.”

#tom hiddleston #loki #fan fic #loki fanfic #loki fan fiction #writing #thor #marvel fan fic #The Devil You Know

1 note · View note