fossilised | Jotunheimr

“The moment he chooses his consort, he will break it off and I will accept it. It will give Jotunheim a bit more face to think that their future King did the rejection. He has little interest in me, Sif, and I have utterly no interest in searching for an All-Mother when my father is strong and I am so young. It will be many, many years before I even wish to beget children, let alone find a queen.”

Thor used his elbow to cease the waterfall, shaking the hair from his eyes the best he could. It was not easy in these tight quarters.

“This conversation has grown too serious. I will distance myself from no one and you must let this matter drop. This is an adventure, Sif, and romance has no place here!” Oh, simple Thor. Perhaps she really should not worry if Thor still was young enough not to even realise that romances and adventures often went hand in hand. He obviously skipped all of those parts of the poems in favour of the battles and heroic clashes.

There was a sudden knock at the door, a thump, really, and their new Guide’s voice reached them. “Please do not make me have to burn this whole ship. Pants must be worn at all times,” Tony complained, and that only made Thor laugh.

“Midgardians have odd rules, friend Stark, but I shall abide!”

Damn.

There would be no point pursuing this further, Thor had got it firmly into his head what would be happening and she knew from experience that he was too stubborn to change his mind. He'd insist that he had no interest, and that Loki was not for him, right up until the moment that he realised that he was madly in love and nobody else would do.

Well, she'd just have to make sure to keep them separate to keep that from happening, then, that would become her mission.

She stalked out of the shower, dripping everywhere, and glared at the small Midgardian. "Why do you have such odd rules? I am wet, I wish to change, and yet your rule that I must remain clothed at all times keeps me from doing so."

No way in hell could Tony take this long term. He stared at Sif as if she had two heads and then shook his head as he left the hallway. Thor tromped after him, puddling water, but it was more important for Stark to have his authority known than to have his carpets clean. What was another few hundred dollars after today?

Thor did not make the beeline for Loki as Sif might have feared. The prince was poking respectfully around the main cabin and Thor decided to sit beside Hogun while Volstagg ate from a bag of chips Tony had given to him to see if that might shut him up.

It didn’t. It just got potato in his beard and gave a new dimension to his spittle.

Tony decided to be proactive in this situation though.

He went back to his office to give Coulson a call. Not Pepper, though he ought to have, he knew that.

“So do you want to meet some aliens? Shut up. No. Did I really use that line a few weeks ago? Well whatever. I want you to be at Stark Tower in about three hours. Alone.”

Coulson liked his job, he liked knowing he was doing something to save the world and keep it safe for future generations. But sometimes, just sometimes, he wondered if it was worth it when he had to deal with Tony Stark. He hadn't signed up to be a billionaire's babysitter, and it was just bad luck that the man had managed to make himself into a superhero with his knowledge of technology.

He sounded even more annoyed when he answered the phone this time, because Stark was pulling him away from their newest discovery. Steve Rogers!!!! Actual unfrozen Steve Rogers, and he'd been watching the man train in the gym trying to get up the courage to introduce himself and ask for his signature.

"If this is another excuse to have me bring over pizza, then I'm going to introduce you to my newest gun."

He'd be there, though, three hours.

Tony might have his finger on the pulse of SHIELD’s basic ins and outs but no one had bothered to inform him yet of the person his father had been so obsessed with his entire life that he had patented him was walking around New York as if he owned the place. Or. You know. Like he had just discovered that the world had shifted drastically since he’d put his plane down in the water to keep HYDRA from recovering the tesseract. He had no idea of what exactly SHIELD did on the daily and he was sure it had to do with mostly keeping him in check anyway so he ignored it.

And that was why, after he’d gotten his rag tag group of alien visitors corralled first in the plane and then in another car (also destroyed upon arrival) and then passed a very badge happy Happy his penthouse, he almost regretted calling Coulson in.

It would just make things messier for him and his life had suddenly become very, very messy. He almost told Happy to show Agent Coulson right to the super special back door (AKA, the service alley entry) but then he would have to be involved in potentially helping out an invading body and he couldn’t have that on his record again.

“I need you to keep an open mind,” Tony told Coulson as he met him at the elevator and led him towards the sound of ruckus and commotion.

There was no way that Tony actually had aliens in his tower. Oh, they existed, SHIELD had records of unexplained visitors for some time, but it very rarely investigated as long as they showed no signs of hostility. They had no clue that there were such powerful races out there.

"Uh huh."

He was met by a black haired woman when the doors opened, willowy and green eyed in a tailored suit that seemed to have a more masculine cut. She smiled welcomingly and offered her hand for the shake that she had seen Stark do.

"You must be the keeper of the relic we have come to see. I am Loki-Fyri of Jotunheim. Please, do not be frightened, I assure you that the Jotnar are not here as conquerors or savages."

Behind Coulson, Tony gave Loki a big double thumbs up for taking his advice about presenting himself as that pretty woman version. He understood the concept of Loki being single gendered but he couldn’t help but really enjoy this person. He had a type. She wasn’t entirely his type but just having boobs pushed her up a notch.

Coulson, for his part, glanced briefly over his shoulder at Tony, had enough personal discipline not to roll his eyes, and took the woman’s hand.

What she said, however, about Jotunheim? That bothered him. Had Stark hacked them? Again?

“Well that’s good to know, Ms. Fyri....”

Tony didn’t have any qualms about eye rolling though.

“Just do the thing— you shouldn’t touch her while she does it though, Coulson.”

"Fyri is my title, son of Coul."

Why had he not given a name beyond his family one? It was unusual, but she could be formal using just the name of his father. She glared over at Stark briefly, and folded her arms under her breasts in mild irritation.

"I am no performing feastday entertainer to change my form at will, but I suppose if it will make this go more swiftly then I can appease you this once."

There was a ripple in the air as Loki changed back to her natural form, which brought with it a return to the more masculine body as all Jotnar looked male on the surface. He was immediately too warm, but he also felt more comfortable, more at home. This body was his natural shape.

"Now, we must discuss the object that you currently hold."

“It’s Phil, actually. Phil Coulson,” the polite Agent said, mostly because he enjoyed the look on Stark’s face out of the corner of his eye. He’d heard this one before. No, his first name is Agent. Sometimes Tony recycled his material, not because he wanted to continuously get praise for amusing lines, but because it seemed that he honestly didn’t remember using them.

The guy couldn’t remember his social security number, after all. Somethings had to get moved aside for all of that genius. Right?

He watched Loki ‘transform’ with a very schooled face. “Another version of your life model decoy, Stark?” He asked, not really giving Loki a once over. “I’m impressed. And a little scared. Does Pepper know you’re spending your time doing this?”

Tony crossed his arms over his chest. “So that is a real person. Loki. Son of Laufey, King of Jotunheim. Just like Norse Mythology. Got Thor in there too. And a bunch of other people who probably don’t matter as much. Someone call the ancient aliens guy for an interview.”

Mortals had such odd names. At least most of the other Nine Realms understood what proper naming conventions were, even if they changed the honorific after the name of the dam or the sire. But these names seemed to hold no rhyme or reason, and he had no idea what the name Phil might even mean.

Crimson eyes watched Coulson carefully, but Loki made no move to reach out to the man lest he burn him severely just by proximity. Instead, he did as all Jotnar could innately do, and summoned ice to wrap around his arms and spread across the floor to create a chill that even the mortals should be able to feel.

"Do not dismiss me as false, Phil Coulson. I will forgive much to keep the peace, but my patience is far from limitless. Nor are my companions false; they are Thor Odinson, Volstagg, Sif, and Fandral of Asgard, and Hogun of Vanaheim."

The older man rubbed a hand at the back of his neck, smile on his face even as he tried to figure out the right course of action. He’d thought he’d come here for something very different, despite what Tony had claimed, and he was still not very apt to believe a word out of Stark’s mouth. Then again, they’d been recording strange occurrences for a long time now, they’d been recovering evidence that might reach science fiction like proportions. So was it so odd that he was standing here with someone that was a mix between Avatar and Elsa?

“This might be a little above my pay grade, but... if you haven’t already decided to destroy the world after meeting Tony Stark, we might be able to salvage this. I don’t know what he’s told you, but I’d really like to have a formal meeting here between our people and yours.”

“Boring,” Tony said. “Loki says you have something that probably doesn’t belong here and is pretty dangerous. What have you fished up lately, Coulson?”

Apparently it was that all mortals were bad at listening or remembering and not just Stark, for he had already said at least once that they were here about a source of seidr that they had felt and needed to retrieve. He schooled his patience as Stark explained it to Phil Coulson, which oddly made the man look a little nervous.

His initial thought was for Steve Rogers, of course. That was the last thing they fished up, but-- but he was meant to be here, and he wasn't magical at all. Maybe the serum? No, that didn't make sense.

"Could you be more specific?" He asked, keeping himself as calm as possible on the outside.

"No, only that I felt the seidr pulse and connect from a great distance."

Wait-- pulse. Could this have anything to do with the day the Tesseract suddenly surged with energy and then went dormant again? This could be bad.

"Is that so?"

"--yes, that is so. Our guide informs us that your artefacts are kept in a building that we require permission to enter. Therefore we seek your permission to retrieve what we have come to seek."

“Could you tell me a little more about this seidr? What does it do, or what is it supposed to do?” Coulson asked better questions than Stark, but only because Stark was pretty sure what the answers were and never fully investigated matters. It was almost as if his ego wouldn’t allow it.

And he was somewhat worried now about the meaning behind the tesseract. He knew the legend attached. He knew its history. He knew how dangerous it could be.

And he really didn’t want to hand it over.

“He means magic. Energy,” Stark cut in. “Something that can be used to harness a lot of power. But I’ve run some scans and can’t find anything.”

"Then your scans are incomplete or ineffective, for I know where the seidr is located. I feel its pulse call to me, I could walk to it without fail with my eyes shut tight, you cannot hide it from me."

Loki did not like this new man, this Coulson, he seemed much more reserved and less helpful than Stark. He leaned forwards, blood-red eyes fixed on the mortals with firm purpose, though he was careful to keep any hint of a threat out of his voice.

"The All-Father has tasked us with retrieving this object, and we shall do so. We wish to do it peacefully, for we bear no ill-will to Midgard, but make no mistake that we shall leave with it."

Tony didn’t like being told he was wrong and neither he nor Coulson appreciated Loki’s tone. The Jotun night not have meant to sound that way, but his words? “It sounds like there’s no room for negotiation here,” Coulson said. He wasn’t all fire, he wasn’t about to cut the talk off immediately. Stirring the pot of a potential enemy he didn’t know and couldn’t predict was not a smart move. “That sounds a lot like you’re telling us what you plan to do. And that’s a threat.”

It sounded to Thor like a threat too and though he liked and trusted Loki, though he knew that the monstrous rumours of Loki’s people were false, he had trouble dismissing the way hearing those words felt.

“The All-Father tasked us with discovery,” Thor said as he strode into the room. His sudden presence had Coulson on his feet, though it looked more respectful than a testament to the edge he was on. “We are not here to steal but to determine if there is danger here for Midgard, son of Coul.”

Thor might often come off as an idiot, but he genuinely was not.

Loki pursed his lips but he did not argue with Thor, the Odinson was in charge of this mission, but it would be foolish to assume that such a powerful object would not cause danger for Midgard. Theirs was a people that could not control such dangerous seidr, even if they had gathered their own sorcerers now, and he honestly had not intended for that to be a threat.

He hesitated, but he switched to the tongue of the Aesir to speak to Thor's ears alone even while they were in other company.

"Thor, I feel it. It tugs at me in a way I cannot explain, it has power that I fear even Asgard being capable of containing. If I spoke rashly, it is because I truly believe it cannot remain on Midgard with any degree of safety."

Thor wished to say words of comfort to Loki. He wanted to take his hand and have a discussion with him, close and affectionate. He was fairly sure that was only because Sif had confronted him about Loki and now he could not place it from his mind. It was truly annoying to have the idea scratch at the back of his skull when it had never been there before. He would need to discuss that very thing with Loki later. In private. Thor required the same reassurances he gave to Sif.

For the time being, he arched an eyebrow in Loki’s direction. The Midgardians probably did not like the idea that they were speaking in a way that they could not understand so he would make this brief.

“My true fear is doing to them what my father did to your people. This source of magic may be what keeps their Realm running. Perhaps they do not understand its use? I am no expert on these devices, Loki, but this is a fact finding journey. We will bring our knowledge to the All-Father and he will decide what to do.”

It was likely as commendable a speech as it was infuriating.

As Tony muttered about rudeness, Thor reverted back to All-Speak. “Apologises are requested. We wish to learn more of the artefact you have. It is likely dangerous for many reasons. We will not seek to steal from you but wish only to learn of this object. My friend here would care to examine it.”

Even as Loki felt a flash of annoyance that his words weren't being immediately heeded, he also felt a rising pride in Thor. He needed to learn to be proud when Thor took his instruction to heart, even if it meant him being reasonable and king-like when Loki would prefer that he acted differently, because wasn't that his goal? He wanted to create an All-Father that would be heralded through the ages, that would mean sometimes setting aside his selfish pride.

It was difficult, but he swallowed such things down and nodded, allowing his expression to become something more contrite and peaceful.

"I spoke out of turn, you have my apologies. Thor is correct, I wish only to examine this source of seidr and be sure it will cause no danger to any."

Coulson wasn’t sure he had the authority to even agree to another possible meeting but he had to make a judgement call here. “I might be able to arrange that, but I need to discuss this first. Stark—“

“I’ve done okay for the last few hours, Agent Coulson, I think I can be trusted babysitting,” Tony snapped back, eye roll and all, and though Coulson hadn’t been planning on questioning that, he let whatever else he’d meant to say go. It was just easier.

He stood from the table, smoothing a hand down his shirt and tie, but let it go at that, without bothering to offer his hand to shake. “Answer your phone when I call,” he told Tony as he left, the elevator swallowing him up as Tony repeatedly hit the lower floor.

Back in the meeting room, Thor sat gingerly on a chair that could barely support him and leaned in towards Loki.

“I am hoping that we will have an excuse to come here many times. Even if we do not need to take whatever is causing the pulse of seidr, we ought to monitor it.”

"It feels like the Casket."

Loki hoped that those simple words, which should be unintelligible to the mortals, but which the others would all understand, would convey the gravity of the situation. This was no mere trinket that they had come to observe, this was something ancient and powerful that sang from across oceans to the seidr inside Loki.

It wanted to be found, it wanted to be used and understood.

"I spoke out of turn and I will not do so again, you were wise to seek a softer touch here to mitigate Asgard's reputation, but do not be so soft a touch that you cannot do what might be necessary."

The Casket? Thor was even more uncertain now about allowing Loki near the artefact. It wasn’t Loki’s to have and while Thor was working on the return of the Casket to Jotunheim, this could not be a replacement.

They were alone for the moment, his friends making banter a room behind them, the mortals struggling with their box-stair and bantering and so this was more private. Thor leaned in to shield his words from any and all that might hurry back to them, face close to Loki’s.

“If it is like the Casket, it may be the only thing keeping this Realm from ruin. But if the mortals do not understand how to use it— Loki, this could be the push that the All-Father needs to return your power source. You must show restraint, perhaps teach the mortals to use their own Casket. But if it proves too dangerous... if it would be better in the vault of the All-Father... I will not hesitate. Midgard, as is Jotunheim, is under my protection. I will not allow it to fall to ruin when I want nothing more than to see all Realms grow to glory.”

Loki very nearly bared his teeth and snarled at Thor that Jotunheim did not need to be under Asgard's protection, that it was a mighty realm of its own with a people proud and strong. It was instinct, he had been raised on the same tales of Asgardian conquerors as everyone else and it was a struggle sometimes to push that down and see Thor for an individual.

Part of him was too in line with Helblindi and his desire for violence, even if he hid it much better.

"I will not betray you." Loki was more astute than to not have seen the flash of worry in Thor's eyes. "I do not lust after power, any power, I am no monster. I wish the return of the Casket, not the heart of another realm, I only wished to illustrate how powerful this thing is."

As far as Thor was concerned, every Realm was under his protection. If he was to be All-Father, a job he did not relish, then all would need to feel important and safe. He wanted to be the strong arm to keep all strife at bay. It was naive of him to think that way and even more naive not to see what his words did to Loki. He assumed that the moment of anger, or annoyance, he saw on his friend’s face had more to do with his words assuming there might be a betrayal than anything else.

“I do not believe you will betray me,” Thor said, fist on the table for emphasis before it flattened back out. “Nor do I believe you will betray these people. I think m there should just be a dialogue between us... openly. I have great confidence in your advice, Loki.”

Thor was a fool with his heart on his sleeve.

Reading between the lines, Loki might understand that Thor was finding a means to drag their conversations and their meetings out. He might not be aware of it himself, it was subtle, but his actions did not favour a quick and speedy end to their journey, but a more leisurely stroll.

Loki was torn between his duties. He wanted to get this done as quickly as possible because he felt the tug of this artefact and he hated feeling as though he were an Aesir lapdog. But he also wanted to string this out and tie Thor closer to him for his longer term goals. Was he strong enough to set aside his own impetuous fire for the sake of the future?

He wasn't sure.

But for now, he set his hand onto Thor's arm, carefully bleeding his skin back to paleness rather than the blue that would cause injury. "Thank you, it is good to hear such things, for I fear your friends do not think so highly of me."

That was not fair, Volstagg had been nothing but friendly, while Fandral and Hogun had been distantly polite, but Sif was obvious in her dislike.

“They’ve yet a chance to get to know you,” Thor said, in all seriousness. “And I think Fandral would not deny you into his furs, for what that may be worth,” he continued, grin to his face. He probably shouldn’t give anyone ideas. He didn’t want Fandral to bed Loki. And he certainly didn’t want Loki to be interested in Fandral of all people!

The man was his friend, and they had shared a partner or two in the past but that partner was not Jotun royalty with whom Thor was somewhat smitten with.

“Give them time, Loki. You seem fast friends with the Midgardian at least. He seems to like me not at all.”

Thor didn’t care about that, though. Stark was not exactly someone he cared much for either.

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