Bad Janet got into Ikol's head, and now his dog's run off, and he's poking the bear with whatever is happening with
him and Kate.
⚠
None that I can think of.
His tea wasn’t even hot anymore. Annoying. One more annoying thing in a string of annoying things. And annoying thoughts, like the one about how Thori had bolted off the moment he realized that he was in the presence of something equally as crude as he was. It was days now since he’d come back.
And, really, that wasn’t shocking. When Thori had been rescued from the proverbial final curtain by a young Loki -- whose body was still present, even if his being had ceased to be -- he stayed vaguely loyal for a stretch. Then he found himself in the presence of something with real ties to hell, and it was done and over.
Ikol sipped his cold tea. Thori would have been bribed-able to reheat it. There were distinct odds that he would be less so now that Janet had dazzled the hel-hound enough to make him forget who had cared for him all these weeks. But wasn’t that the expected outcome? It happened once before. Why not again?
Because it was supposed to be different, a voice inside told Ikol.
“Shut up,” Ikol replied to the quiet.
Sniff. Sniff, sniff, sniff.
The smells were simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar. There were people he recognized, and the places — well, they were similar enough that he could tell what it should have been before the week reset. Lucky didn't understand the resets. He was a dog, and while he was a smart dog, he didn't really have concepts like spacetime or pocket dimensions or resets in his dog brain.
He had drives, which involved sniffing around to get more familiar with the place and — oh! Missed a sniffing spot, so he went back and sniffed some more, drawing deep, loud breaths as his nose twitched. Kate wasn't too far behind him. He could hear her walking, her scent wasn't fair away so he knew he was okay to continue his journey.
Then he caught another scent. Thori might have growled MISCHIEF AND LIES before bounding off, but Lucky just thought FRIEND before bounding off. He heard Kate calling him when he took off, but he knew that she'd find him. She was smarter than he was. His good eye spotted friend as his tongue hung out of the side of his mouth.
He ran right up to Ikol, knocking the cup out of his hands, and planting plenty of wet dog kisses on the man's face. He couldn't help it! He was so excited! This was how he showed his affection. Wet dog kisses and wet nose against Ikol's cheek.
The cup became a casualty. It fell free from Ikol’s hand and pinged off the step just below the one he was sitting on -- nearly safe -- then hit the next at just the right angle. The handle shattered into bits of ceramic and then it bifurcated for good measure. The cold tea slopped onto the pavement in front of the Waldron Clinic. And all of that would have been visible if not for the fact that a dog snout was wedged into Ikol’s eye socket as dog tongue dragged across his mouth.
At close range it was hard to establish which large golden dog this was given that there were 2 options, but this one smelled a bit of pizza. Lucky.
“Yes, yes --” Ikol lifted a hand and placed it atop the snout of the dog to coax it away from his face. “Hello to you.” A bit of the dour mood lifted. Thori might be off tormenting creatures and humans alike with horrors from his lower half, but Lucky seemed to have sensed that his services were appreciated.
The dog wriggled closed again, snapping his face out from under the hand and leaning in. There wasn’t much give for a Frost Giant whose center of gravity was firmly planted in a seat, but it did prompt Ikol to loop an arm around the canine as he slapped his tail into Ikol’s side.
“You wouldn’t run off, would you? No, you’re a good dog.”
Lucky knew when people needed him. He was a good dog. He didn't understand anything else Ikol had said, except run, but he didn't want to run. Not when Ikol had his arm around him and was happy to see him. He bet that if he had a tail, it'd be wagging as hard as Lucky's was.
When Kate stepped up, she looked perplexed. She took in the shattered teacup, that Ikol was sitting on the stoop sans Thori. Nothing about his demeanor suggested that he was remotely right. It surprised her that she could read that much about him without talking to him, though she'd caught that bit about running off herself. Unlike Lucky, she understood what he meant.
She shoved her hands in her jean pockets. Acid washed. Legit from the 1980s, not some crappy recreation. Kate pretended not to notice Ikol's mood, and joked, "I should have known I'd find you with him. What a Tramp!" She grinned, trying to lighten the mood. "Get it? Lady and the Tramp."
“So very kind of you, Kate. I always thought myself a Lady, too,” Ikol replied around a mouthful of fur. Lucky reciprocated the one-armed hug by taking a seat on the trickster’s lap, whether or not he truly fit in the space. It was something Thori never did, but Thori was, by nature, an angry Muppet made of brillo pads and brimstone. Cuddles were not a thing. At best, he would lay across Ikol’s head at night -- it was possibly affection, likely more a spite thing.
“Hang on. I will give your dog back in a moment, and then you can be on your way. Either that, or…” Ikol’s free hand gestured at the stoop. “You can join in. Great times to be had here. Prime view of the giant pink phallus stone.” The hand swung around towards the direction of the pink monolith.
Kate thought about it. Lucky would come back on his own. He was, by nature, a street dog in some respects, but he always came home. She wasn't eager to leave him out here by himself, not with the new guests who had arrived. There was something off about them, and Kate couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"Ah yes, the giant, ever watchful stone where we met when I got here." She walked to the other side and folded herself into a seated position. She gave Lucky's nose a boop before reaching down to collect the pieces of the tea cup. Kate made a nice little pile with them, with the intention of leaving with the pieces to toss. Unless this was a personal cup he wanted to try and fix. "Seems like a great place to sit on a stoop and mope."
She gave him a look out of the corner of her eye. "Was I interrupting your sulk? I can leave if you wanna be alone."
He didn’t actually expect Kate to take the seat, but there was a small amount of Ikol that was glad for it. They were capable of getting along. And in those moments when that happened, the company was good. Of course, someone would always upend that good company -- intentionally or not. It was as if neither of them knew how to just bury the hatchet and act like adults when it counted.
Anyway.
Ikol shook his head. “I wouldn’t call it a sulk. I would call this reflecting on how sometimes you hope things turn out different, and then they appear to not. I suppose I’ll find out after the reset where Thori chose to be, but…” There was a half shrug, given around Lucky, before Ikol let the dog go and leaned back a little. “The truth is that his nature lines up with someone else better than with me. I knew that. He ran off back home, as well. All in all, I suppose the best I can hope is that he found the place where he’ll be embraced. Isn’t that what everyone hopes?”
This was a side of Ikol that Kate had never experienced. The sulk, as it were, was legit in her eyes. He was mourning the potential loss of his dog, but wanted better for him. Of course, Kate had no idea what he was talking about, this was the first time she was hearing about Thori running off. Her brow furrowed as she looked at Lucky. She'd be heartbroken if Lucky ran off with someone else.
"I didn't know — that he ran off." If he was talking about the reset then it must be with one of the newcomers. She knew there was something fishy about them, stealing people's dogs. She glanced up at the hideous monolith, trying to shake that feeling of being watched. "I'm sorry. What happened?"
Lucky remained planted where he was, occupying a decent amount of space in Ikol’s lap. He was looking at Kate and probably beaming the way that dogs did: a tongue hanging out, brows raised, and somehow a little hint of a smile in the curl of the corner of their mouth.
“That was long before you and I met. Another life. Another Loki, really, even if I have his memories.” He stretched back, arms behind him on the top landing of the stairs. There was Lucky fur all down his front, which was a simple navy-colored hoodie tucked beneath his usual longcoat. The fur stood out, but he didn’t fuss with it. Not right now. Every dog owner knew that there was more of that to come.
“Daimon Hellstrom. More Hel-adjacent than yours truly. He went with his people, basically. The original plan with Thori was to adopt him out. He was just too willful to be adopted out. A lot of fire. A lot of biting. Most don’t care for that.”
"Patsy Walker's ex?" Everyone knew Patsy from her comics, but Kate used to be in She-Hulk's circle when she lived in New York City and occasionally got invited to girls' nights with Jennifer's crew. She supposed it made sense. Thori was a Hel-hound, and Ikol wasn't exactly brimstone and Helfire, was he? "Most people look for companionship and obedience, it's true. But he had personality and spunk. I can understand being upset about it."
Under ordinary circumstances, Kate might have put her arm around a friend and given them a hug. There was something that always kept her from doing that with Ikol. Their history and current making-out sessions made that line weird sometimes.
"Maybe he'll decide you're the one for him this time." She paused. "And if he doesn't, you can borrow Lucky whenever you want."
“I have no idea who Patsy Walker is,” Ikol replied. It wasn’t derision, just a pure lack of knowing every Midgardian’s name. “But Helstrom does nothing for me. Very grumpy. The lack of shirt also seems showy. Not in it for abs, if the attitude doesn’t work.” As if there was any reason to say as much. Deflection often sounded like deflection, and Kate would surely notice it with those cracking detective skills.
“I digress. Thori hasn’t been back for days. If he chooses to leave, then he chooses.” There was a pause and Ikol looked at Kate. “But the offer is appreciated. You don’t owe it to me, you know.”
"She's — Hellcat — Oh, never mind."
It didn't really matter who Patsy was, or her relationship to Hellstrom. It was just how Kate had pinned down who he was. If she hadn't known Patsy, she would have gotten the point with Hellstom's last name. Had a certain fiery name in it.
But Kate picked up on the deflection (and the rejection). It stung him. Genuinely. So she gave him a quick, uninspired shoulder rub to let him know she was there if he needed to talk more. She'd be happy to listen to him vent about some jerk's abs and shirtlessness.
"I know," she answered, perhaps a little prickly as if waiting for him to poke her in the wrong spot — metaphorically — and ruin whatever nice moment this was. "Offer's still open." She nodded her head toward Lucky. "Besides, he likes you. That dog is a really good judge of character."
A snort of laughter, quiet and more like a huff of air than anything crude-sounding, escaped Ikol at the quick shoulder pat. He could source why it was fleeting. Their meetings since Kate’s arrival swung between abrasive and needy and kind and back around to the top of the order. Mixed signals. The whole lot of it.
“He’s also just friendly. Maybe to a fault.” Still Ikol reached a hand up and smoothed it along the dog’s back.
“Still, if there was any truth to what Janet said, I doubt it he’s the one who hates himself for warming up to me.” Probably should leave that alone, but the thought itched. The obvious person Janet meant was here. Once again, maybe this was where the abrasion started. Nothing could just be nice. Not for long.
"No. Lucky stopped a guy from hurting Clint. From hurting me. He knows good guys from bad guys." There were a hundred things that Lucky could be counted on: wanting pizza, going for a run, lounging around while they played video games.
But that wasn't what this was about, was it? Hates himself for warming up to me. That seemed to be a pointed response, and Kate's stomach did a flip. More than a flip, there was also a little bit of a twist in there. Felt a little like a knife. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "What's that supposed to mean?"
“Odds are that she meant it to be an incendiary little brainworm. Is this me taking the bait? Of course. But, maybe I am just insecure enough to go sniffing after certain things.” He sighed and focused on some distant something. Maybe it was a shrub. This far away, it was just a green blob.
His brow knit. Lokis weren’t generally much for outright truth. It wasn’t malleable. It didn’t fit into nice boxes. “Does sitting here with me make you hate yourself? You don’t have to shield me. I know what I did. I know that I am likely not the person you wish you had here.”
"Brainworms tend to do that. They burrow in until you can't ignore them, and without Thori to —"
Kate was stalling. Not because she wanted to run from Ikol or shield him. She knew he could withstand a lot more than anything she could throw at him. Lucky seemed to understand the moment and started sniffing the grass beside the stairs. Explaining this meant that what was happening between them was real and tangible. It wasn't just something she could wave away as not happening.
"The last person I saw before I got here? Was my boyfriend Johnny. At first, I thought it was a fluke — you and me in the kitchen. But then it kept happening, and now it's just — I'm cheating on him. He's not here, I know, but what if he shows up?"
When Noh-Varr showed up, Johnny expressed that he'd thought Noh was cute. That the possibility of a threesome was on the table. Maybe that's how Johnny would feel, but Kate hadn't actually made out with Noh-Varr then. How would he handle this when he wasn't involved?
Knit brows eroded and Ikol looked over at Kate, pulling his attention from the distance to her. He let her words sink in. And he knew the right reply didn’t start with ‘It doesn’t count if he’s only been a boyfriend for a week’ because despite what he knew of Kate, he hadn’t known her long enough to more than scowl at her choices in partners. He also knew that that sounded like he was trying to dismiss the concern because…
Because what? This was fun? The intimacy when no one was looking? It wasn’t as if he’d invested his emotions into it beyond what sounded a little bit like jealousy and defensiveness when someone began to toy with the edges of whatever was going with Kate.
“So it stops.” Ikol shrugged. “That’s the solution.” What more did he have to give, anyway? This was going to be one of those weeks where it was quiet, but that quiet meant dealing with all the stuff that was drowned out by Delerth’s usual chaos.
He was right, that was the solution. Just stopping. It was the logical thing to do, but what if they were stuck here forever? And Johnny never showed up? Was she supposed to never let herself do anything because of the possibility that he might show up? There was only one other person from their world here; everyone else seemed to come from the other one like theirs. Would Derleth ever pull in Johnny Watts from California? It seemed unlikely.
"I guess."
It was her turn to stare straight ahead, looking at the same green blob he'd been looking at. She kind of hoped it would turn into a supervillain so they could team up, fight it, and pretend this conversation never happened.
Instead, she let the silence sit there for a little longer than she was comfortable with before asking, "Is that what you want?"
‘Want’ felt like a difficult creature to pin. On a base level he wanted a warm body, physical contact, a thrill. To put those together, there wasn’t a need for any feelings or murky emotional entrapments. Did he want to let that go? No.
But, he could live without. Or find another place to get it.
“Not particularly, but I speak on the physical things.” He glanced at Lucky, who was merrily partaking in dog things. Sniff this, sneeze on that, try to eat a weed, etc. What an unhindered joy it must be to be a dog with a dog brain.
“It wouldn’t bring me any joy to know you feel guilty. I would prefer to learn how to be a better friend instead. I think I’m getting the hang of that.”
>
Ugh, this wasn't the conversation she wanted to have right now. She felt a little bit like going and kicking rocks for a bit with her hands in her pockets, muttering under her breath. Again, the logical side of her brain was whispering that it was the right thing to do. Be his friend, help him grow. Wasn't that really what people were supposed to do with their time? Help each other?
"Then I'll help you learn how to be a better friend," she answered. She could admit to herself that she was somewhat disappointed by his response, but there was nothing really to be done about her guilt except for her to come to a decision one way or the other. She wasn't against strictly physical things, but that pesky cheating thing… That was something she was going to have to deal with on her own.
"You want a slice of pizza?"
“Thank you, Kate,” Ikol replied, and for once the sincerity in his tone wasn’t steeped in some small amount of sarcasm or sardonic wit. He took a cursory glance around, but it was equally an excuse to drop his focus on her for a moment.
He would miss the flings. He would. Derleth didn’t have much to offer to those who were convinced they still had plenty to return home to, but an untethered bit of fun seemed the least he could’ve held onto.
And, yet.
Morality.
Boundaries.
Pizza? Pizza.
“I do. I want a slice of pizza. Is that on offer?”
"Not really a great way to start off helping you learn to be a better friend if I wasn't offering?"
Kate tilted her head at him, wondering exactly where his brain had gone to for a moment. Maybe this place was getting to him finally. That didn't bode well for her little human mind, did it? Maybe he was just tired and feeling rejected by his dog. Maybe Janet had dug a hole in him that actually stung. She knew he had it in him to be better. That wasn't always what a person wanted, but maybe that was what was needed.
She picked up the tiny bits of the cup in her hand and tipped it into one of the giant pockets of her acid washed jeans. She'd toss it once they got to the cafeteria. After she brushed her hands off on her pants, she reached out for his hand and grinned. "Come on. Let's go before I change my mind and leave you to your — what's your favorite food?"
His eyes fell on her outstretched hand first, then they followed up along her wrist, to elbow, to shoulder, then her face. The whole journey upwards afforded him some brief seconds to realize that despite his angling for an argument, they’d both settled for something kinder. It was allowed. He had asked for this.
“Chocolate shake.” He clapped his hand into hers but was careful to not leverage his weight against her as he shoved himself off the steps. “I know. Very Midgardian of me. It hit a spot I never knew existed.”