ohstarryeyed | [fic] monsters

Once he had told her that what he was what Asgardian mothers told their children about. The villain, the evil creature of their bedtime stories. If they didn’t behave or failed to take part in their schooling or any other such trouble children fell into – the frost giants would come for them. He was the bogeyman of Asgard’s youth; the shadow under the bed. He was a monster.

And a monster he was. A monster that didn’t deserve the affections of someone like her. A monster that shouldn’t taint someone like her. A monster that still hoped there was something in him to be cared about or loved by someone like her.

Cassie had listened and when he was done, she folded her hands into her lap and asked him for a favour. She asked him to show her his other skin again. He looked at her curiously for a moment but obliged, shedding the magic that kept his Jotun skin covered. She stood, then, walking the few steps between him and peering into his face thoughtfully. He stared back at her, silent and still.

“Ah, no.” She said after a long silence. “No, I don’t…”

She trailed off. He frowned, tilting his head to the side questioningly.

“What?”

A small smile spread across her lips, something coy in it. “I don’t really see anything monstrous here.” She said finally.

Loki opened his mouth to argue but Cassie leant in to kiss him. It was a strange feeling, her kissing him when he was like this. He wasn’t sure what to make of it at first – but slowly, a desperate need began to boil in the pit of his stomach. A monster that still hoped there was something in him to be cared about or loved by someone like her.

“The only monsters—” She told him when she broke the kiss, her hands still cradling his face. He looked at her carefully. Her lips were pale from the coldness of his skin. Almost as if he had chased the warmth out of her. “—are the monsters we make of ourselves.”

If only she knew.