MaLoki 20 themes: perspectives

1. Before

The sun is strong in Asgard, the sky the unconcerned blue of Loki's eyes. He shakes off narrowly-escaped trouble and Freya's falcon cloak with one careless shrug of his shoulders, and Thor has to forgive him for the day's misadventures. You'd get away with murder, he says. Loki's laugh echoes his own.

Later that will be something to remember, against the slowness of life on Midgard and the reality of a human body. Sometimes Narugami finds himself looking for the past in Loki’s gaze; but green is a shifting, slippery colour, and the sunlight here is not quite the same.




7. Fushigi mystery

It's not that Mayura doesn't consider Loki as a fushigi mystery; just that, in the face of murder cases and supernatural phenomena, one doesn’t quite notice the simple strangeness of a small boy living in a mansion with only a butler for company.

Now that the cases are drying up, it’s either that Loki’s expressions are growing more inscrutable, or that Mayura is finally starting to see. There are questions she could try to ask, she knows. It’s still easier to pretend nothing’s changed, and seek out fushigi mysteries so she doesn’t have to think about the most important one.




16. Promises

Meetings by moonlight, gentleness in a touch more usually careless, the practised sincerity of his smile -- none of these are promises, least of all the last. You would know this even if he had not let you know; reputations always have reasons.

Still, at least he is kind enough never to pretend that he is promising you anything. That is reason enough not to think his absence a betrayal, and makes the decision to search for him that much easier. When you finally set out to seek him, you do so free from any hope that he will be found.




Bonus theme 2. Complex

Yamino would not presume to believe that he understands all of Loki’s actions or motivations, and he is quite willing to admit that no one can claim to actually know Loki. So yes, sometimes he does wonder at the long hours Loki spends alone in the study, or at the way they never speak of Hel; but he would not trade this relationship for a simpler one, even if the light in those green eyes is seldom easy to read. There is reassurance enough in Loki’s smile; in the way Loki’s occasional casual touch lingers, however briefly, on his skin.