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Kai comes home from wherever he's been off to, and when he comes in the door, he calls, "Loki? Loooooki." He kicks off his shoes, shrugs out of his coat. He hangs it up, trudges toward the bedroom. Already his shirt comes off. He's going to change into something comfortable. Pants have no place in this sacred place.
Loki is lounging on the bed, reading a book that is, at present, clasped in one hand. It seems to be from his shop…but its quite an old one. He calls out, "In here!" and peeks an eye at the door, waiting for Kai to appear.
Kai slips in, and he tosses his shirt into the hamper… almost. It bounces off and lands on the floor. Ah, well. He smiles as he sees his dear, and he comes over to plant a kiss on his forehead. "I love you," he murmurs. The he pauses, sighs, and sits on the edge of the bed. "I have things to tell you that I've been putting off."
"Hmmmm….nothing good starts that way." Loki observes with a press of his thin lips. His brows arch and he looks up at Kai with a curious cock of his head. "I love you too, secrets and all." He scoots over and sets aside the book.
Kai smiles fleetingly and says, "No secrets, not now." He scoots further onto the bed and curls up against Loki, head, settling upon his shoulder. "I don't know where to start so I'll just say it: I've come back from Dr. Strange's. He's taken a look at me, and I've got, uh, shadow powers. From what happened to me. The mark they put on me. I put out the lights yesterday. I made it pitch black. Scared Bucky a bit, but no harm done." Except to the light bulbs that were burnt out that he didn't change.
|ROLL| Loki +rolls 1d20 for: 12
Loki listens. He does seem to be decent at doing that, without just snapping to a judgement. He reaches up and curls a finger around one golden lock as if seeing if any part of Kai's physical being is getting darker. "Shadow powers. From the mark. Do your light powers still work, or, did they destroy that in you?" His hand slides to catch Kai's wrist, and he holds it, to feel the thump of his pulse.
"Oh no, I still glow like a fire bug," Kai says with a small smile, leaning into the touch at his curls. His pulse beats strong. He's very much alive, warm and breathing. While his pulse is taken, he takes the opportunity to give Loki a kiss on the cheek. "He says it's just new powers, but that I'll carry the mark of prey on me, but so what? Like I haven't been pursued by creeps before."
Suspicious. Wary. Intrigued. Loki leans in and kisses Kai back, but on the lips, "Show me the glow, first, then the darkness. Without breaking anything. I just want to know that its you, my Kai…and what you can do." His fingers squeeze. Ohhhh how it rankles him, those marks from someone else on the man's body…and now they give him power? Loki exudes a jealous aura.
Kai curls up close to Loki, taking shelter in the god's presence from the very jealousy he's exuding. Moonlight flickers on his skin and rises to a silver-blue aura. It's his familiar light, soft on the eyes and eerie in its beauty. "See?" he says holding up glowing fingers which he traces on Loki's skin. Then it fades. Then, blossoming within him is an inky darkness that unfurls in tendrils that spread into darkness. Not just darkness, but a complete and utter lack of any light whatsoever. At least this version doesn't destroy the light bulb. It just blots out its light. Kai cuddles closer, uneasy at his own darkness. He dispels it quickly, and it recedes back into him. "I don't like it," he says.
"We need to seek out more information. Sometimes…powers that come from external sources have a cost. More than anything else in the universe, I cannot lose you, not to death, nor to dark magic. Yet, at the same time, if it is part of you, then I love it." Loki whispers as he runs his hand gently up and down the man's back as he's cuddled close. "Strange can help discover what we need to know."
Kai smiles softly at Loki and says, "I'm fine, baby. It's all groovy." He kisses Loki, but then settles into his arms again fretfully. "Bucky says I should also tell you I still have dreams about being hunted. I don't know why to bother you with them, they're just dreams. It's just that I was having a nightmare when the powers manifested. I don't have them all the time, just sometimes. Dr. Strange says that's normal, and they'll fade but they won't fully go away."
Loki lets out a soft exhale. "/Kai/. You…are not a bother. You do not trouble me. Your intricacies are what fascinate me, and your problems, your worries and your fears…also interest me. If it seems like I do not pry for information all at once, it is only because I enjoy the discover and know that we have centuries to learn everything, but things like this…dreams you suffer from /now/? Now is the time to tell me."
Kai smiles despite himself. Loki knows just what to say, and the tactile elf gives him a cuddle for his troubles. It's such a simple, comfort-seeking thing. "I dream they're chasing me," he says. "The wolves, the svartalfar, running me to ground. I try to hide, but I know they're coming, and I know they'll catch me. Sometimes I wake up with my leg aching from when they broke it." He sighs quietly. "Sometimes I'm back in Svartalfheim, and I'm bound up in a net with silver hooks in my skin. I hear their laughter. Sometimes I dream about Niflheim, and how bleak and lonely it is." Those are the nights Loki finds Kai particularly glommy.
"It makes perfect sense. The things that happen to you that are terrible…your mind must find a way to deal with it. For some, it is to forget, to deny. For you, it is to replay until…you have experienced it so much that it is nothing, it is casual, it cannot scare you any longer. I have no idea how long that would take. But, I think you are braver than I am. I have inklings of terrible memories, but they are…locked away." Loki gives Kai a squeeze. "You will be better, for your nightmares."I'm still so afraid,"
Kai says quietly, and he hangs his head. "I want to be past it. I want to have the life I had before, but every creep and bigot on the street puts me right back in that frame of mind. I don't like being controlled by something terrible." He forces himself to relax, taking a deep breath and letting it out. He melts against Loki, draped neatly. "You're so good to me, baby," he murmurs, "and wise. Bucky was right. I should tell you these things."
"The creeps and bigots on the street are merely humans. It is in their nature to be petty, and short-sighted. Keep your eyes open for the real threat…those who are powerful enough to actually defeat you." Loki reaches his other arm over and surrounds Kai with his Asgardian strength. "It has not been long. You will find your strength again, and I know that. And if not? Then, we will move to that small town in Alfheim where nothing happens other than tapestry-making, and die of peacefulness." He kisses Kai's forehead.
"I get tired of beating people up," Kai admits. "You know how soft-hearted I am, and when they don't take no for an answer or think it's time to smear the queer, I have to defend myself." Those are short fights. He closes his eyes at the kiss, then lifts his gaze to Loki's. "And forsake Asgard? I would see your birthright restored, if that's what you want. If that's where you want us to be. I'd go to Nilfheim all over again so long as you were with me."