InsaneJournal

Who: Valkyrie and Loki
What: Loki is in a mood and Valkyrie calls him out on his b.s.
When: during Darcy's post, and after Friday's worst date ever.
Where: Angstgardian Warehouse.
Rating/Warnings: Greenish.

Here they finally were, in their new, huge, lovingly decorated warehouse - emphasis on the house, and Val sat on the couch with her laptop on one leg, Dido’s chin on the other, and her phone nearby. She was looking for cheap ways to decorate her bedroom in a way that suited her but with a lot more luxury than previous iterations of private quarters had allowed. Maybe she could have a personal bar; not needing to get out of bed in order to drink was both self-destructive but also something to aspire to.

And she needed Dido to have her own little corner of it, with every amenity she deserved. Smiling, Valkyrie looked over to her dog and scratched between her ears before she felt, even without seeing, the enormous negative presence of one certain trickster prince. No doubt whatever this huge dark cloud above his head was, had something to do with the network post in which Darcy had announced she needed a new place to live. Without raising her eyes from the computer, but keeping Loki in her peripheral vision, Val sighed.

Did she care enough to ask? Did she not? She couldn’t decide.

It was safe to say that Loki was in a mood. A mood that really did exude from him like a big dark storm cloud of negativity, threatening to rain over everything. All he wanted was a moment to take up space and indulge in some toaster pastries and coffee in peace, while in the comforting mental embrace of Netflix.

Thinking he could ignore Valkyrie and her dog, he sat down and arranged his meal on the table, eyeing the dog as though he was silently warning it not to eat his treats. He then reached for the remote on the table, turning the television on, and began scrolling through for something to watch. Surely this would get his mind off how bad he was at Midgardian dating, and how bad he fouled things up with Darcy. Both were topics that he wasn't exactly volunteering to talk about.

Still scrolling through one DIY blog or another, Val eyed Loki as he went about his business. She set a hand on Dido’s back when Loki set food upon the table. An abandoned dog used to being underfed would hop at any chance to get some food - same with people - but Loki at the best of times was unlikely to be so generous and given his look towards the dog now, he was definitely not in the mood.

Without speaking to him, but watching from behind her laptop, Val sighed again. Darcy still hadn’t replied to her very eloquent private message but something told her the reason why one wanted to move out and the other stared daggers at the world was one and the same. His mood radiated from him, however, and it was disturbing her peace. Valkyrie sighed once more, staring at Loki.

The God of Mischief was still making his way through Mindhunter, which could be a joke in and of itself. Every time Val sighed, he let out a deep exhale, which he would not call a sigh if he was asked. Which he hasn't been. Because he's covering everything up by picking off pieces of a Pop Tart and staring at the television.

Once and only once did he eye the dog while he continued ignoring everything else. He picked off one corner, which was all bread, and flicked it toward the dog's face. The act was a ploy, of course, to placate the beast and perhaps quiet the beast's master so he wasn't sighed at anymore.

The show Loki had picked sounded dull and terrible and it only made Val roll her eyes and sigh more. But at least it wasn’t some tearjerker that was wholly overdone, so she supposed it could have been worse. When Loki decided to poke his head out of his bad mood bubble to treat Val’s dog, Dido caught the bread expertly, which Val appreciated but also didn’t. She had been reading a lot about dog education and getting them used to dog food and treats exclusively was hard yet important to do. Valkyrie cleared her throat.

“Thank you for your generosity but can you please not incite bad habits onto my dog just because you’re eating your way through whatever it is you’re eating your way through?”

He was only watching for the novelty of them trying to figure out why a Midgardian mass murderer was so intent on killing. Which seemed futile, because if they were so set on doing so, then it was likely for the sheer enjoyment. He was considering it a form of lighthearted comedy, instead of whatever form of social commentary it was meant to be. This might say a lot about his mood.

Loki rolled his eyes so hard, that it looked as though they would roll right out of his eye sockets. Even when he sought to do something right, it ended up wrong.

Sullenly, he grabbed hold of the box and held it out at arm's length so she could see that it said POP TARTS on it in big white letters. Blueberry. Unfrosted. Once a full ten seconds went by, he threw the box back down on the table and went back to tearing apart his poptart and leaving crumbs everywhere. Crumbs that the dog could lick up. One might get the hint he was being messy simply out of spite, or that it didn't matter how much of it that he was wearing. As it was, he had on the Asgardian version of pj's and by the haphazard frizzy state of his hair, he seemed past caring.

The deliberate, passive-aggressive eyeroll earned a sneer out of Valkyrie, who was less and less amused by this display of attitude she had nothing to do with, for once. “I meant eating your way through something figuratively.” She explained, sounding a lot more tired than she actually was.

What she didn’t appreciate, however, was him doing things on purpose to spread crumbs everywhere, which Dido immediately took upon herself to vacuum up with her tongue. Val snapped her laptop shut and tossed it aside. “Dammit Loki I’m trying to raise her not to get a taste for people food. Whatever the hell you and Darcy have going on, can you for once not take your shite out on other people?!”

She stood up and went to get the actual vacuum cleaner, which not only aspired the crumbs but also scared Dido away. “What in blazes is going on with you two anyway?”

Loki sat perfectly still as he was vacuumed around, and then vacuumed on. He stared up at Val the entire time, pressing his lips together into a thin straight line. It was an expression of sheer obstinance. One that he kept up until it seemed like she might be done cleaning.

"We were ill suited," he lied with enough conviction that he actually believed it himself, although he was not so sure that Valkyrie could hear him over the din of that infernal machine.

Momentarily forgetting that she mildly cared about what Loki had to say, Valkyrie continued vacuuming and pointing the tube at Dido, who snarled, barked and generally acted crazy at it. Val laughed to the point of snorting, then did it again. It was only a full minute later that she realized Loki’s mouth had moved but she hadn’t actually heard him.

Turning the vacuum off, she tossed the ‘sucking part’ onto the floor with a clang and hopped onto the table, sitting next to Loki’s meal but turned to him, legs crossed. Without asking she pulled the poptart box to herself and took one, ignoring that Dido was now begging her for some food. Maybe they worked like babies and if you ignored them they’d stop crying. Or was that anybody?

It didn’t matter. She turned to Loki with her mouth full of something she wasn’t sure she was enjoying or not. “What was that?”

By that point, Loki had forgotten all about mind hunters or crumbs or infernal dins. He was left staring back at Valkyrie with heavy-lidded eyes, his head slightly drooping off to one side. It made him look like a deranged puppet, and that the puppeteer let that string go slack to convey both annoyance and resignation.

"I hardly think you are concerned with matters such as this," Loki replied, each word so slowly spoken than even a small child could understand them. "She is gone. She wished to go. I did not stop her."

All three of those things were true. So they were also said with conviction.

It was pitiful to see him like this, though Val knew better than to tell him she felt sorry for him. Still, her expression turned sad and she crossed her arms, rolling her eyes when Loki declared he didn’t think she cared. “Bullshit, we’re friends and you are once again acting like the condescending little shit you are when there’s no reason for you to be better. Something’s wrong, of course I care.”

Then there was another matter. “Yeah. They don’t usually do that unless they have an extremely strong reason to.”

She wasn’t going to ask; if Loki wanted to explain he would, and if not she would just eat some more poptarts and go back to her computer. But knowing Loki, it couldn’t be as simple as things ‘fizzing out’. Once again Val wasn’t sure she really cared, except whatever offense had made Darcy want to leave might be serious enough to concern more people than just the two of them, and that was worth sussing out.

At least his head wasn't drooped off to one side anymore. It was lifted up into a more upright position, instead of an awkward angle. Loki's eyes narrowed into a squint at the word 'friends' and even further at the name calling. Not only was it a mistake to come out of his room, but it was clearly time to proceed with caution. He took a long drink of coffee while considering what to say and how to escape to his room without making it seem like he was fleeing. He did not flee. He strolled. Leisurely. Unless Asgard was about to explode by means of a fire giant. And then he fled with the greatest haste. It was selective fleeing.

"I'm terribly sorry. I would think when two persons are not compatible," Loki was saying in a calm and even tone, "that they no longer want to see one another every day. Or are you in the habit of continually pestering those who no longer wish to be in your presence?"

It was a legitimate question, and a hint. That much could be clearly ascertained, by that tight smile that departed just as soon as it arrived.

Right. Sadly but also unsurprisingly, it seemed that Loki’s goodwill towards her had ended some time after the heart-to-heart which had involved hair combing. She looked at him just like she had before they had had that conversation, like he was nothing but trouble she should never, ever bother with. And she shouldn't have because Valkyrie didn’t really do the push-and-pull of someone whom you couldn’t count on to feel and act the same way towards you every time. Or someone who used other people as punching bags when things went wrong. She refused to deal with that kind of people.

And she refused to deal with Loki now. Hopping off the table, Valkyrie tossed the half empty poptart box onto the table without looking where it landed. She went back to where she had been sitting, and Dido followed.

“You can leave whenever you want to, surely as its decorator you’ve realized that the place is big enough that you don’t need to be in my presence if you don’t want to so bye-bye.” With that said, she pulled the laptop back onto her thighs and proceeded to ignore him.

Loki had unflinchingly met her gaze, not at all pleased that his words met their mark. He didn't expect things to get any easier, and if he was forced to keep others at arm's distance to keep things secret for as long as possible, then he must do so. It did not mean he found enjoyment in it, whereas years ago, he would have been filled with unmitigated delight over his schemes playing out. Until they blew up in his face...which he really hoped would not happen this time.

After setting his empty cup down, Loki swung his legs up onto the couch and rested both hands over his stomach, readying for a long stay. It wasn't even a silent challenge to see who would leave first, nor was he about to pay heed to being dismissed. For a while, he appeared to be watching the show...which he realized really was quite dull. Why not let these killers go in the prisons and study them as they slayed their way through the rest of the thieves and murderers? That seemed far more productive than sit down chats. And he knew as much, having gone through that scenario, himself.

After a long moment where it seemed he had fallen asleep - in which he was having an internal battle over how best to proceed - he finally spoke. His words were a drowsy murmur, and would have been hard to hear if they didn't fall upon Asgardian ears.

"That was untoward. I shouldn't lash out at you over my foul mood."

Valkyrie had understood the subject as closed immediately after she had shut up, so she hadn’t seen what Loki had done on the couch from the beanbag she’d sunk into. As bothered as she was, only because she’d allowed herself to care about these fools when she shouldn’t have. Val knew that, and told herself that every day. And yet here she was scratching a dog’s chin while knowing damn well Dido’s lifespan compared to hers was equal to a drop on an ocean. People were garbage and dogs didn’t live long enough, was the thesis for the day.

If not for unfinished business and her increasing exhaustion at everything to do with Sakaar, she almost thought she should never have thrown in with this bunch. And true, Loki was no example of the rest of them for many reasons, but the point still stood.

Neon. Maybe she should get some neon mood lighting for her room. She liked to see enough to move around but not enough to see anyone else’s faces if they happened to be in there with her. Strategically placed neon and black lighting worked. It was a matter to find the cheapest way to get it done.

Dido perceived Loki’s voice before Val did, and looked his way, which was what made her do it. She didn’t move her head, though, merely her eyes. It almost sounded like he was apologizing but Val wasn’t that keen on caring about it, so she hummed her acknowledgment.

Truth be told, he didn't know why he bothered anymore either. He was considering that it was better not to bother at all, and go back to the thrill of getting away with as much as possible, without a care. If only things hadn't changed with Odin's last words to them, and with the larger threat of their sister, and then their home....

Thor was all that was left. They could run to any other realm, but that would be it. It would be running. And it seemed strangely appropriate to back on the same realm that the Allfather so recently left.

At the sound of her humming at him, Loki drew in a breath and abruptly let it out in an impatient exhale.

"Will you say something?" he said, glancing in Val's direction. "Or are we both content to withdraw into our own selves once more?"

Because if he was guilty of doing so, then she was equally guilty of it too. Him with his moods and her with her drinking. A fact he was well aware of.

Valkyrie wasn’t expecting Loki to address her again, so when he did she looked over at him with overt surprise. She couldn’t help a snicker, humorless though it was, when he asked whether she was going to say something. She sighed, and spoke about as slowly as he had before.

“Need I say anything else, Loki? You made it clear you wanted to be free of my company. Which I am not abiding because whatever authority you have over me as my prince you do not have it until Asgard becomes a place again. With a written down code of law. If you want to be free of me, like I said, you can go elsewhere.” She tugged at the cords of her hood. “And I don’t abide by those who treat me well when they’re well and like garbage when things aren’t as brilliant. I don’t do hot-and-cold, less so than I do friends.”

It was true that they both withdrew, but she couldn’t be blamed and perhaps neither could he. Val looked back to her computer. “I don’t believe you because I know a brush off when I hear one. But you don’t want to say anything more about it, else would you have. So neither will I ask.”

He listened and listened, so that it seemed all he was doing was listening to the sounds of far off traffic, or their breathing, or the snuffling of Dido the dog. The only sound had been the soft scoffing noise he made when she said 'my prince' and that was one of amusement.

It seemed as though he wasn't going to say anything at all. Until he finally did.

"A day that shall never come. I will hold no authority there," was Loki's bitter reply, as he stared up at the ceiling. "I doubt I shall be accepted in such a place, unless it is to haunt another cell in the dungeons. Yet even I know that my moods can be fickle and foul, and my words thus turn into venom. I should not have directed them toward you."

He turned his head enough to look at Val, before looking away again. He didn't know if admitting that was enough. He was never good with apologies. That much was abundantly clear after recent events.

Valkyrie scoffed once more. “Of course you will, until Thor has heirs you’re next in line.” It was obvious and it sounded like he was only trying to push his own self-pity further by not acknowledging his position. She didn’t comment on what he said next but Val liked to think a man did his time and that was that. And it wasn’t like Thor had many options. The royal family was himself and his brother, adopted or not, it didn’t matter. She decided to focus on what sounded like an apology instead. “No, you should not. I thought we were past that, but clearly that was one of my rare moments of oversight.”

Her phone vibrated with a message from Darcy, who sounded like she’d hit her head. Eyeing Loki, Valkyrie’s sigh turned into a bit of an exasperated exhale through the nose as she tapped the phone screen waiting for a reply. Right. No two ways about it, he had cast some sort of spell on Darcy, forbidding her from telling anyone what had really transpired between the two. Biting her lip, Valkyrie was quick to suggest her go-to solution - drinking - to the beautiful Midgardian before she turned to Loki again.

“Don’t you think it a bit much to bespell your former lover so that she can’t even vent about what happened to anybody else? I know you’d not wish to further your ill reputation here on Midgard but seriously.”

Loki remained silent. There was a long moment while his lips pressed together into a thin pale line, where he stared pensively up at the ceiling. This is why he shunned sentiment and he knew it would have been wise to continue shunning it. Yet after Thor left him behind on Sakaar, he still found that he wanted his brother's acknowledgement enough to offer aid in Asgard's final hour. Or perhaps it was Odin's doing with his parting words to them both, of being thought of as a son again, despite all of his many trespasses. And Darcy? Breaking Darcy's heart and betraying her trust was a grievous wound, indeed.

Even so, he sincerely doubted that any Asgardian would follow his word as law ever again. He usurped a throne and cast out his father, banished two of Asgard's most loyal subjects, tried to destroy a realm, take over another, and inadvertently gave directions to the beast that killed his mother. His own heart was heavily burdened with the weight of all his many wrongs, even as he strove to make it seem light as a feather.

Perhaps it was better if there were no oversights, where he was concerned. He barely trusted himself. And it was still hard for him to fully trust anyone else.

With languid movements, he rose from the couch and moved so that he could kneel down into one side of Val's squishy bean bag chair. He peeked over at her phone. Well, one must keep up appearances, for the better interest of all.

"What a brave and kind heart our Valkyrie has. Yet, were there a list of my own faults...." He leaned in further to whisper, "...I am fairly certain that petty is writ upon it."

He pecked a kiss on her cheek and gracefully stood back up. It didn't seem like he was at all pleased nor were there any traces of venomous intent. There wasn't even a vindictive gleam in his eye. Instead, Loki seemed utterly resigned to his fate before he turned to walk into the kitchen.

And there better be ice cream in that freezer, or the knives are going to come out.

Valkyrie wasn’t sure if Loki was mocking her or not, and she didn’t know what was worse: whether it was to be mocked or to be called things like brave and kind. Either way it seemed condescending and Val wouldn’t stoop to responding. She shook her head, unable or unwilling to joke about his own self-pitying self-deprecation. There was no point in feeling sorry for Loki when he had done something reprehensible, for whatever reason.

Still the kiss on her cheek reminded her of the bond they had seemed to share after Tony Stark’s rescue, and it was sad. Val hated to feel sad. She put the laptop aside again, and stood up, barrelling through to the kitchen not to follow Loki, but to grab two bottles of vodka that she had decided to doublefist. She pushed Loki aside while he rummaged through the freezer to pull the bottles, then rushed back to her beanbag.

There was no pretense that she was googling anything anymore, however. Val was truly drinking, just drinking while she stared out into nothingness and waited for Darcy to reply.

No, that time, it wasn't meant to be condescending. Fine, maybe a little bit, but it was also very truthful. That much was obvious as he was pushed out of the way so Val could fetch her backup bottles of liquid fortitude. This left Loki staring into a freezer with a frown. That frown turned into his chewing his lower lip while scowling. And then chewing his lower lip while actually fretting.

Loki hated fretting. It wasn't amusing, it didn't serve very much purpose, and it tended to get in the way of things. Like it was, right at that very moment.

He snatched the pint of ice cream out of the fridge, and stopped short of going to get a spoon when the weight of that pint seemed like it was empty. He slammed the freezer door closed and flipped off the lid, peering into the container. One bite left. One bite, if he scraped it together out of there.

Whosoever ate nearly the entire pint of birthday cake ice cream (irony not lost on him) was going to pay a dear price someday. If he found out who it was.

"Must I put my name on everything?" Loki yelled from the kitchen, clearly in a mood now. He fouled up things with Darcy. He fouled up things with Valkyrie. And now there was no iced cream made to taste like cake. The sound of a spoon being thrown into the sink with great force was the trickster god version of the straw that broke the camel's back.

Loki came stalking out of the kitchen, directly for Val, and he grabbed onto whatever bottle she wasn't yet drinking out of, or drained yet. She only had ONE MOUTH so it was a foregone conclusion that she could only drink one at a time.

"Enough," he hissed, clearly incensed. "I will not be the cause of you trying to numb yourself all over again. At least do it over that which is more worthwhile."

Good, now he was screaming. Valkyrie had nothing to do with whatever was going on in the freezer, that she knew for a fact, so she uncapped the bottle and gobbled down the transparent liquid while Loki went through his personal drama in the kitchen.

The suddenness of having Loki grab her second bottle and take it away made Valkyrie sputter, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand as she turned her scowl onto him.

“No! You enough. I tried to be there you pushed me away. Then you mock me for worrying about her on top of you too. When I try to mind my own business you come and medle into mine?! I don’t need your control over my drinking I was drinking long before you, your brother and your beastly friend recruited me into your lost cause so leave me alone! Take a good look at yourself and what it is you do that seems to be worse than drinking because at least-” She swallowed, “-no one hates me. I’m neutral, you’re on everybody’s shite list. Maybe you have enough problems without meddling into those you imagined for me.”

She finished the bottle in record time and tossed it against the wall, shattering. “What would be more worthwhile a reason for my drinking, Loki? Being stupid enough to care again like my heart hadn’t been ripped out of my chest still beating once before? Being stuck on a stupid planet where I am useless and riding on the coattails of so-called superheroes? Feeling like the only friend I now have will die before I can properly get used to loving her? Do elucidate me!”

At first, Loki listened while his mouth was a thin line of unhappiness. As her words set in, his lips were quirked off to one side, and then into a frown. He flinched only slightly when the bottle shattered, and stared at her with an expression that was equal parts hurt and angry, afterward.

Hurt won out by the end of her rant against him, and he sat down on the floor with a thud, quietly stewing in it.

"Everything I've ever touched is befouled," he said in such a way, that it was an irrefutable statement. "Or dead. Perhaps then you can see why I might wish to push you away. As for Darcy and I....well, it is for the best."

Not a lie. It was for the best, even if he hated that it happened, how it happened, and even if some squashed part of him that still housed his mother's teachings was nagging at him to set things right. Regardless, Darcy's life was short, and she didn't need to be soiled by him or his plans to try to eek out as much borrowed time as he possibly could for everyone.

"If there was mockery there," he continued, "then it was slight. For as much as it is said that I lie, you truly are both brave and kind. Far more than I could ever be. Even if you wish to drown it all with this."

He motioned toward the broken glass, to indicate her drinking habits. Not that it mattered. Drink would never kill them. She could drink an ocean of it if she wanted to. Loki envied that she had some means of escaping her pain. His only escape was trickery to elude actual capture and then stew about it, because...as she said...he was on everyone's shite list. There was no comfort to be found in trying to talk about anything, when it seemed everyone would think he was lying anyway.

Well now he was having a breakdown brought on by her own sudden bout of feelings and Valkyrie was against pretty much all of it. She snorted, however, because what he said mirrored exactly what had happened to her.

“At least your entire team didn’t die while you were leading it.” She murmured, and turned onto her belly to stretch herself enough to grab at the bottle Loki had taken away. Val tugged, and pulled, and finally grabbed it, then turned around to open it. “Yeah I see it ‘cause look at me. Why d’you think I was hiding out across the universe being a slaver and waiting to die?”

She scratched at the base of her ponytail, biting her lip as she considered the breakup being for the best. Truth be told, without some extensive magic, Darcy and Loki had very different lifespans and, according to things she saw since landing here, aging was different too: quick; blink and you miss it. Which left their appropriate dating pool considerably more puddle-like. Valkyrie decided not to comment.

Still, when Loki continued to tell her that she was brave and kind and all the good things that he wasn’t, Val rolled her eyes and downed half her bottle. “I think you’re fixated on that mindset too much and that’s why you think you can’t be kind or brave. You’ve been both at least once since I’ve met you. But it makes it easier to be a shit if you think you can’t be anything else. I know how it is.”

Val sank on her beanbag, legs spread out inelegantly. She didn’t care.

Not a breakdown as much as it was morose contemplation. His breakdowns tended toward multiple things being broken and occasional yelling.

As far as Darcy was concerned, he was all too aware of the difference in lifespans and was nonetheless attracted to her beauty, her random weirdness, and sarcastic foul-mouthed wit. Even so, he was all too aware that he wasn't exactly the most faithful of creatures in the entire galaxy. It wasn't as though he wanted to be, or that he chose it. It was merely that it happened, and must have been the same way that it happened with Thor and Jane Foster. A large part of him didn't care and dictated that anything he might have was always going to be fleeting. That he had enough lore and magic to make something more permanent, even if it would come at a steep cost indeed. Then there was the smaller more bitter part of him saying it was all for naught, to quit while he was ahead, and go do something fantastically reckless. That it was better to smash everything to pieces or let it all burn, simply because he could.

Loki tried very hard not to listen to that smaller more bitter part of himself. It was like rot festering away at everything else. As he wearily looked over at her, he was certain that Valkyrie had the same rot, despite the fact that he did think she held all of those good things as well.

"Congratulations," he finally replied, and it would have normally been tinged with sarcasm. That was missing right now. "We've established we are our own worst enemies."

He reached out both hands and started to roll her inelegant self further into the weird squishy little chair that Val preferred so much. Until, finally, he had enough room to squish down into it too. He managed to make it look elegant. Feel free to hate him for it. Even while he rolled to face her, flicking his hair back out of his face.

"I am petty and it is easier to be a little shit. It is why you would regret befriending me, now or later," he said slowly and cautiously, while watching her. "You speak so little of these things, as though you are ashamed. I do not demean your means of coping with such loss, and you have conducted yourself as a true valkyrie would in Asgard's hour of need. If I have even a shred of princely power left to me, I absolve you from abandoning your post under ill given orders. For your brave conduct...whatever your name might actually be. For I doubt that the valkyrie called one another Valkyrie. That would be confusing."

He reached out one hand, extended his index finger, and very lightly smushed the tip of it into her cheek. Over and over again. Boop, boop, boop. He even started to smile a little bit while doing so.

Meanwhile, Valkyrie was already thinking she had revealed too much of her own feelings and she should make a hasty, tactical retreat before things got worse. So, she asked Darcy if she wanted to have a drink which would be mutually beneficial and about the only aid she could be of right now.

“No, my enemy was Hela and she’s defeated but that got me fuck all.” Val corrected bitterly, refusing to look Loki’s way while the bottle swung between her fingers. She thought of it in silence. “Well now I guess yeah, it’s me.”

When he started pushing her Valkyrie retaliated by hitting him, no humor found on her face. “Hey stop that! Do I look to be in a touchy mood?”

He still managed to force himself onto her beanbag, so now she was in the middle between Dido and Loki, sighing and wondered how things had gotten to this. When he rolled towards her Valkyrie simply moved her face a tad, eyes moving the rest of the way so she could see him while he spoke. She snorted but refrained from saying she already regretted everything.

Once he started talking about her, Valkyrie’s eyes narrowed and she hoped he remembered that time she told him to choose his words carefully. She was dubious on what path the speech would take until he made her smirk for noting that no one had actually asked her name. No one except Captain America, curiously. She eyed Loki again, catching his hand in hers when he insisted on smushing it against her cheek. She held his hand in a deathgrip between them. “Valkyrie’s not my name, you two started calling me that.”

Good thing that he chose his words carefully all of the time. His words were like chess pieces, and he would move them accordingly. That was why Loki didn't pull his hand away or protest in any way, shape, or form. He simply let his hand be held in that vice like grip, and even let his fingers curl down around her hand like he was holding it.

"Then why will you not speak it?" he asked, with what looked to be an apologetic smile. He did want to know the answer to this mystery in particular, which was the reason he wasn't retreating, and because he felt a kinship of sorts with her now that she spoke of her pain. Odin had hurt them both, after all. What a waste it was, to send so many of the valkyries off to their death, knowing full well what foe they would face. "You give us no other name to call you by."

Blinking, Valkyrie looked away, loosening the death grip on Loki’s hand though she didn’t let it go lest he started poking her face again. His question left her wondering for a while until Val decided that not only was she no longer the woman who went by that name, but having her former position as a name honored her sisters and all she had failed to do for them. It was an honor and a punishment.

“You don’t need it. Nobody has before.” One day she would probably be gone from them, or them from her, why would they need a name she hadn’t used in so long she hardly could bend her tongue to say it out loud? The last one to use it had been her moments before jumping in front of Hela’s knife. Sometimes Val could hear it clearly in her mind, a warning and a plea. A goodbye.

Snapping out of it, Valkyrie downed the rest of her bottle and checked her phone. “Seems Darcy needs a bit of company. I’m going to lend it. Norns willing I’ll actually get drunk given the advance I’ve got.”

She looked at Loki, long and hard, and squeezed his hand. “Make it right while you can, Loki. Being a little shit out of spite only hurts you in the end.”

"Well then, if you must. What I said still stands," he whispered, looking into her eyes with an unwavering gaze. After a few seconds of indecision, Loki gave her hand a reassuring squeeze in return, before leaning in and pressing a much more tender kiss to where he had poked into her cheek.

"I will make every attempt to set things right," he said, with the same sort of seriousness that it was like making a vow. In a way he was, but not only where Darcy was concerned. "What a terrible fate it would be, to become redundant."

He let go of her hand and reached around her to give Dido a pat on the head, before he stood up and offered Val his hand. It was the least he could do, after causing his usual amount of suffering and strife.

"Know that I did not mean to hurt Darcy," added Loki, while he waited for Val to either hit away his offered hand or to take it. "It is an intensely private matter, for I still have boundless affection for her. Yet I have taken your words to heart. It will not last forever and I will try to set things right."

He meant every word. This was a good thing. It was also a bad thing. Behind that well-placed smile on his face, he knew a lot more than he was saying.