WHO: Ben Reilly and Loki WHEN: April 30, daytime at some point WHERE: living room of Casa de Reilly WHAT: Ben’s had some things on his mind since February and asks Loki some questions WARNINGS: none?
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The easiest way to turn any of the Parker brothers into a millionaire would be to give them a penny for their thoughts. They’d collect plenty with just the multitude of thoughts that’d flit through their minds at any given moment, but the real money maker would be those ideas that plunked into the subconscious bank and collected interest until they’d grown to an amount that became hard to ignore. Usually somewhere on the spectrum of a loud jangling can of coins and a heavy sack of quarters hitting them upside the head.
Ben’s current thought bordered on the rattling change jar sort. Not of the bad kind though. No, just a good old round of introspection brought on by recent circumstances and comfort. He could give a good long list of what spawned it. They’d gone to a new universe and Loki had made the trip back this time to what was becoming home sweet home. Even with navigating the new pets and strange new changes to the town, they’d settled back into a daily routine in the apartment that Ben saw more as as theirs than the one from his world. Today had the added relief of a full moon gone smoothly. Even if they’d tested the pills before the cruise, it was good to know they still worked. Plus they added a sense of stability. Calm. More opportunities. Sure, he couldn’t let his whole guard down, but the stress of that monthly event didn’t seem as daunting.
So, his mind wandered instead of focusing on whatever show was on TV. Over dimensional tracking devices and the fact that Loki was still here. Everything they’d been through. The fact that he’d just turned into a (granted less crazed) wolf the night before, but here he was resting on the sofa and he couldn’t remember when he’d last felt so at home over the past few years. Which that plus the documentation problems when they arrived just got him thinking about his own tumultuous history back home and… well, they’d talked about a lot and shared a lot of stories over their time together, but…
“Have you ever been married?” tumbled out of his mouth, tone purely curious considering aside from his slowly growing knowledge of Norse mythology, he didn’t actually know the answer to that question.
Loki’s hand smoothed over the rust-colored puddle of a dog in her lap, since Forest had decided that his usual bed next to the sofa wasn’t appealing today. Or, rather, Thori II the Dedenne had taken up residence in it, which obviously meant a much larger dog couldn’t argue with a small mouse Pokemon over who won. And if Ben wasn’t focused on the TV, then Forest wasn’t doing much better. Eyes closed, the canine was just about off to sleep.
Loki, on the other hand, was bright and alert and acutely aware of how nothing on cable at the moment was worth watching. Which mean that when Ben struck up a conversation, albeit with a seemingly random question, she looked over with nearly gratefulness to have something to focus on.
Although, Loki’s brows knitted slightly. “Me? Or --” There was a hand gesture, as if to frame a larger concept in the open air before her. “Loki?”
Ben pressed his lips together as he actually thought over the question. He was pretty sure he knew the answer to the first one considering the short timespan of this version of Loki’s life was. Although the god was always full of surprises… “Both,” he answered. “You and-” He waved a hand in the air in his own all encompassing gesture. “-all Lokis who have been.” Because even if those Lokis hadn’t exactly been this one, they still were in a way and the memories were there. He got that part well enough considering he had that own marker in his own history and whether he referred to them as his memories or Peter’s shifted daily based on mood.
“So, did you ever tie the knot?” He rolled his eyes. “In the marriage way. I feel like literally would lead to a lot longer conversation.”
“Hm,” Loki offered as at least an indication that it was being mulled over. It wasn’t always an easy task, wading back through memories that were more or less copied files from another hard drive. Things sometimes were incomplete, corrupted… absent altogether. But this question proved to dredge up an answer without too much trouble. And that answer pulled a mild grimace onto Loki’s face.
“Ah, yes. Well, officially yes. Was it a matter of love? Barely. There was deception and a myriad of things that would likely make for wonderful daytime talk programming.” Loki looked over to Ben, eyes slightly narrowing. “But not for a wonderful betrothal. Sigyn hardly deserved it, but…” Loki shrugged. “She was released from it. Before that Loki perished for good. As for myself? No, I was somewhat busy being a child and teenager again. Certain boundaries remain intact.”
Ben wrinkled his nose at the answer. Not because it was a kinda sorta yes, but because, well… he wasn’t all that surprised at the details. Just going by the fact that if half the stuff of the mythologies had a grain of truth, there’d be enough to keep a bunch of tv shows and channels in business for the rest of eternity. But, well, old Loki was old Loki. A marriage based on trickery for not so wholesome reasons wouldn’t make anyone blink an eye.
“Considering how our worlds work, I’m wary to ask if she’s doing ok now, but, yeah, she doing alright now that she’s out of that?” He puffed out a sigh as he shifted to get more comfortable on the sofa. “If you know that is. Also, hey, good to know younger you was too busy to join the ‘I was a teenage bride as well as the teenage groom’ talk show circuit. Gold star there.”
To the posed question, Loki could only offer a shrug. Whatever Sigyn became -- or possibly whatever became of her, it was beyond Loki’s knowledge. A steady stream of evading death and entrapment meant there wasn’t time to check in with former flames. Whatever the case, Sigyn was too kind and too faithful despite it all, that it was likely best she was removed from the general drama of Asgard. Safer. Unless, that is, drama found her elsewhere and made swift work of her. It was always a toss-up.
But the topic ignited a peculiar interest in Loki, who then swiveled slightly (Forest slumping with the movement) to face Ben more head-on. There wasn’t a question asked. Not vocally. But she tilted her head and gave him a careful look, brows lifted.
Getting comfortable proved to be more of a task than Ben had planned thanks to sore spots that even the pills couldn’t make disappear, but hey, he wasn’t going to complain, even if his body still had its gripe with the transformation. He didn’t look up until he realized the silence had stretched on for more than a just ‘mulling it over’ span should be. He jumped slightly in surprise to be met with a more direct and intense look than he’d left. A look that some people might worry about on that face, but he knew the god better than that. Plus, well, his spider-sense wasn’t going off. Handy how that still worked even when it involved godly mischief. Well… malicious godly mischief…
His own brows raised. “What?” He reached a hand up to rub over his cheeks. “Did I still miss a patch of dirt? Or is this about the gold star because I don’t have any on me and I’m not sure I can explain it well enough to Kaine for him to go get one.”
Loki held the expression for the span of another few seconds, then carefully leaned in to ask in a whisper, “Have you ever been married?” Forest’s left ear perked up to listen, like some juicy gossip was about to drop.
His cheeks flushed just a bit as Ben went to shake his head, but then frowned and it turned more into a non-committal wobble. “No, but kinda yes, but not really.” He shrugged as a hand slipped down to ruffle Forest’s fur as the dog wiggled more into their shared space than just on Loki’s lap. “More that whole you’re on the run for months with someone and you start just saying you’re married because people renting out apartments completely change their tunes when it’s newlyweds looking for their first place than just some guy and girl looking for a place to shack up. Just, y’know, don’t look too closely into the lack of rings. Or marriage certificate. Or any sort of paperwork really.” He wrinkled his nose. “Man, having the system we have here would’ve made somethings so much easier back then…”
He waved off the tangent with a puff of a sigh. “So, no. No memories either. That all happened post evil genetics professor experiments.”
Loki had the grace to move back a little, to properly frame Ben in her view as he attempted to explain. The blush was an easy catch, but this was just their mutual magnetism to atypical lives, wasn’t it? A clone. A reborn memory fragment. When you tried to patch together a new life -- your own life -- the errant pieces had to be worked into the new fabric somehow. Or just accepted for what they were.
“So, regardless of all else, we both have vaguely-marriage-shaped references in our footnotes, but nothing legally-binding,” Loki observed. “That’s more than some can say.” There was a grin, then, and Loki wriggled back into the sofa cushion. There was a dangling thread, and she couldn’t help herself.
“I work in Town Hall. Marriage certificates are easy, by the way.”
“As if legality doesn’t get wibbly wobbly when portals are involved,” Ben pointed out. An absent thought that just tumbled out of his mouth considering his brain was busy with that ‘offhand comment’. His eyebrows arched back up towards his hairline. Not in surprise, that was too strong a word, considering the topic of conversation. More… well, there was his answer to testing the waters, wasn’t it? No more hemming or hawing, just straight forward fact that had his head spinning a bit and his heart doing a little stutter stop. An offering. Simple and there.
Obviously he’d considered this before. His question based on general curiosity hadn’t come from nowhere. But the idea had never been an option for him before. Just one of those future maybes back in his world. Nebulous. Maybe he’d meet someone and it’d work out. Maybe when Janine got out of jail, they’d fall back in stride and someday they’d reach that point. Maybe someone could be found to make the paperwork go smoothly. The maybe was there, but the actual thing was just never part of the plans. But here…
Impulse begged to just jump up and go now. Loki had thrown the door open, might as well jump through it. A month ago, he would have done just that. Except now, he wanted to believe they had the time. To enjoy these never before available moments. To go all out with them. He shifted and wiggled to slide closer to Loki on the sofa and wrap an arm around her shoulders. “Good to know,” he murmured fondly. “So, hypothetical and all, but if I was to go shopping, gold with some green is a safe assumption, yeah?”
Forest, for all his great talents at becoming liquid, melted between his two owners. Clearly nothing about the situation merited his guard dog abilities, and so he dozed off again. And he was right about that much; while Loki couldn’t confess dwelling on the specifics of marriage in any way within the past year, it was to be presented with a concept and realizing it wasn’t all that wild. Share a home? Share responsibilities? Share company? All of it, and every day, nearly, at that. It was already a gear in motion, whether or not it carried an official name.
There was acceptance readily given by Ben. Never pressure to change, just acceptance. It was a versatility that maybe Ben didn’t even realize he had until things had unfolded. No one ever thought about things like entering relationships with genderfluid gods and what that would look like after months and months, did they? Truthfully, that this hadn’t fallen apart to date was a singularly amazing thing when Loki stopped to think on it.
And, clearly, Ben had thought on this long enough to arrive at a place of asking. If it meant something to him…
Then it meant something to Loki as well. Pure and simple.
“A safe assumption, yes,” Loki returned, feeling the comfort of Ben’s against her side and letting her hand drape off his nearest knee. “If you mean to go about it that way, of course. You know my thoughts: there is always more than one way to go about anything. Whatever feels right for you.”
Ben murmured contently as he rested his head against Loki’s. “Y’know, I didn’t say what I’d be getting that’s gold with green,” he hummed. “Maybe I’m thinking about balloons. Or cupcakes.” Which was mostly joking mainly because he didn’t know specifics yet. The idea had been nothing more than a small flash before, but now it was starting to gain speed and grow now that he gave it permission to. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that, yes, he wanted to do this and, even if their lives were both crazy and hardly ever normal, he wanted to do this with all the pomp and circumstance. Well, as long as it worked with the goddess beside him.
“This feels right,” he said softly as he brushed his lips along a cheekbone. “No matter what form it’s in.” He smiled softly against Loki’s cheek. “I can write a good start to a new chapter of your story or I can just keep going with this one. As long as you feel okay with it, yeah?” Considering that would be why he wanted to test the waters in the first place. He’d never thought this option would ever be open to him, but also he wasn’t sure if it was something Loki would want. Even if it wouldn’t change anything, it was still something that was more binding. More official and ‘rules’. He didn’t want the god to feel like he was tied down at all, even if it’d been such a long time that it was hard to imagine not having Loki around as his significant other.
“Please,” Loki replied, tone lightly scolding. “You should know by now that I enjoy a new adventure. Make it good. Surprise me, if you can…” She lifted one hand to stroke against Ben’s other cheek, turning her fingers over to skim his warm skin.