Trying to help Brunnhilde find some rest, Loki was relaying a long but amusing tale about some of his youthful exploits.
"....and every time that the goat pulled away, I yelped. Every time that I pulled, the goat would bleat. Needless to say, I won," he said, grinning with pride at the memory of a drunken (but ultimately successful) contest.
The Valkyrie was snoring softly, having passed out before the end of a tale not suitable for minors.
"She laughed until she cried. And if you ever relay this tale, I know you where you......sleep," Loki finished, after finally looking over at his snoozing wife-to-be. He recovered quickly enough, looking relieved and not slighted in the least.
"Oh thank the Norns, she missed most of it. I need never tell that story again," he whispered, rolling onto his back and taking a book out of his pocket dimension. He opened it to remove a silk bookmarker and began reading.
Sleeping soundly, Brunnhilde wasn’t quite sure what was happening, but the village she’d just partially glimpsed in her dreams over the past week was in full view and...
She was so confused, her fingers were digging into Loki’s skin just to anchor herself.
Having been reading for a while, Loki glanced down at the arm she grabbed onto with a slight wince. Her grip was strong, indeed. He then looked over at her face with concern, wondering what was going on.
To Val, Thor looked the same as he had the previous times she dreamed, larger, meatier, with more hair, and it made her heart ache to see him that way, itching to hug him to reassure him or anything. But he was already there, with her, she was...there?
Val was sure she was hearing wrong when he named her...
She bolted upright so she was sitting in bed, wide awake.
She still had quite the grip on his arm, and Loki laid there with eyes wide, eyebrows arched upward. She did have quite the grip on his arm.
"Hi," he said, trying to politely ease their way into what was going on. "Is aught amiss?"
She was breathing a bit hard.
"I had a...vision? It had to be, it was..." Val stopped and held her head. "What the Hel."
"What sort of vision," he asked, looking worried as he sat up more and closed the book, setting it down on the table next to the bed. He hoped it wasn't the dreams, and yet he knew from how unsettled they'd been lately, it was likely she had seen what he did not. "What did you see? Is it the Asgardians? Please tell me that Thanos did not finish them off...."
"Thor was..." she began. "No."
Loki blinked and stared. "Thor?"
"Thor was fat And...very hairy. And smelled a little like canned cheese."
Loki was paling like he thought Thor was DEAD, but this...this was....
"Fat and hairy and smelled of canned cheese?" Loki stared straight forward, like his mind was having trouble absorbing the mental picture, much less letting that sink in for an extent stay.
"He made me king," she said, softly.
Loki's eyes boggled at this.
"But you're a woman," he said, looking at her chest and wondering why she wasn't made a Queen instead. Which was perfectly fine with him, actually. Leave it to Thor to muck up the proper titles, though.
Val pressed her lips together. "There’s more."
"Oh?"
Val paused before saying, "Stark dies when we defeat Thanos."
Loki blinked even more profusely at that. Again, he stared straight forward, still trying to fathom overweight hairy Thor, and why Thor made her King instead of Queen. Only now, he was also trying to absorb how that seemed the only viable way to ever shut Stark up.
Val winced and held her head a little.
Loki, being Loki, tried a half-hearted and vaguely sarcastic joke to lighten the mood, "I could have managed that years ago. If only his suit had malfunctioned."
She swatted his arm. "Lokiii."
He smirked sheepishly in response.
"So all of you defeated Thanos. And Stark died in the attempt," he summarized to get back on track, looking at her closely. "Not surprising. He flew an explosive device into a wormhole the Chitauri were traveling through."
Loki reached over, resting a hand on her shoulder to help steady her. "Your head is obviously hurting. Eir left you some herbal tincture for such pains, if you want more of it."
He reached over her for the small bottle, recalling a recent conversation about the voices of those passing or passed reading backwards, and how it was nigh impossible to focus on any one voice when they were like that. Regardless of his concern, his curiosity won out when he asked, "Do you remember anything else?"
She blinked and looked alarmed. "Bruce and Hulk fused into an intelligent person-looking Hulk."
Loki pulled a face. "How horrible for them both."
She blinked even more and shook her head. "Oh god I hate it, it’s awful."
"I'm ever so sorry. That does sound awful." He was already measuring out some of the herbal medicine, holding the dropper out toward without letting any fall. "Open and say ahhh."
"Ahhh," she said, mouth open but looking like she was thinking.
Two drops fell on her tongue before he closed the bottle, setting it aside.
"Now then, spill whatever else is plaguing you. You look like there is more on your mind." He rested a hand on her shoulder again, remembering too well what it was like to have dreams invade one's thoughts so vividly. Once was enough, thank you. Especially when his last one ended with a sickening crunching noise.
Val fell back against him, dizzy.
"I just... King..." she said while huffing a lot as she breathed, and her eyes already drooping with weariness.
"Perhaps you need more sleep," he suggested, noting the obvious clues and coaxing her to lay down with him. "Although I do worry if the dreams are done with you or not. Did it feel like there was...a finality?"
"There was...no more..." she was whispering, as she almost snored.
"Good. I think you've had quite enough." He slipped an arm around her to hold her closer against him and pulled the covers up over her shoulder.
A long moment passed.
"If you were a Queen, would that make me your prince consort?" he whispered very softly, unsure if she was fully asleep but smirking like it was a hilarious conspiracy. When she didn't respond with anything more than snoring, he sighed softly and whispered in a even more quiet voice, "If I could drink wine and write plays all day, I'm perfectly fine with that."