The glare of Idun could make a rabbit's legs run fast enough to power a car, and its heart run faster. It could crack an ice sculpture. It could make the mightiest of men quiver. Fortunately, Bragi was not a particularly mighty man. Still, he felt his bones shrink a little until his smile got to her. In circumstances like these, it was best to deflect it somehow before it gradually doubled in power.
Unless she challenged him.
Idun was not glaring anymore, but a thin stream of glare smoke still trailed off of her eyeballs. Bragi met them head on anyway. He was not going to try to grow the beard back. It was not current, and he didn't have any of the reasons he'd had to keep it anymore. But a gauntlet had been thrown, and there were principles at stake. He had to at least pretend he'd consider picking it up. Even if he'd throw it in a supply closet with the winter hats and coats later. He raised his eyebrows in a similar fashion, and ran his teeth over his lower lip. “The beard is retired at the moment...” Bragi said. Then his lips turned into a wicked smile. “but it's good to know that it has your welcome already if it makes a comeback.”
After a few too many sea voyages gone horribly awry, Bragi couldn't say that he shared Idun's fearlessness completely. She was the more courageous one. Nothing would ever convince Bragi otherwise. But he didn't mind sharks in an aquarium. They were well fed, and separated from people by very thick glass. Then he could appreciate them. They were allowed to be cool looking. Bragi would follow Idun straight into infested waters, because he'd decided a very long time ago that where she went, he would follow, but in that instance, even with Idun there, their cool looking privileges would be revoked. “It's a date” Bragi said.
Bragi shrugged. “I do make a mean pancake” he said, “in an astounding variety of different animal shapes.” He laughed. “I'll stand by my statement, but claim to settle for a tie.” They would both claim the other person, while the tie would stay closer to the truth in their eyes. They were a set, the two of them. Like a vintage pair of salt and pepper shakers. Bragi lost sight of it a little more often now that he was with her less, but deep down, he always knew this as one of the truest truths. They were a set. There was no better or best piece to it, and they were incomplete when sold separately. “Vidar does like the beach...” He smirked.
“I'll try to remember next time,” Bragi said. It was the polite thing to say with some teasing involved, but not too much. Then he just took in the moment with her there, laughing. The ice cream melting all around them. He captured it all to take with him later. It was the souvenir she gave him, before Bragi had to again. The best kind of gift to take away. Bragi gave her flowers, shells, glow in the dark nail polish, all kinds of small trinkets. Idun gave him memories. “Next time I'll give you a twenty second head start” Bragi promised. He looked at the whipped cream at the end of the finger of the crafty minx before him, and leaned down. Bragi didn't know whether he would succumb to the temptation, or let his face take back what she'd stolen from him. He'd decide in a split second when he got there. What he did know was much simpler. The ice cream really was doomed.