The Ragnarok

Bragi the Charming God

Lottie made sure to get up with a plan in place to ensure she was out of the house well before anyone else. It was her day off so spending most of the morning at the park was the preferred option. At least it would give her housemates plenty of time to leave. The events of the previous night were still fresh on her mind and her cheek. 

Fen was completely out of line. Who just kisses someone as a thank you? A simple “Thanks” would have been plenty. Now he went and turned the awkwardness in the air to the maximum level. 

There was little noise being made this morning, all the better as Lottie hopped to the front door. She passed by the living room where her stirring caused the inhabitant of the couch to perk up giving Lottie a startle. 

“Going somewhere this early?” It was Jordan, one person she didn’t object to at this hour. 

Lottie jumped back from the door trying to find something to do with her hands, “Oh well, yes, I was thinking of going out to the park for a walk.”

“Sounds like fun.” He jumped up, “Don’t be too long.”

“I’ll try not to. You guys don’t have to stick around waiting for me. I have a key so you can feel free to go anywhere today.” She figured planting the idea into his head was better than hoping they’d just leave. At least now he was aware and could pass it along to his siblings.

“Oh, well thanks for the offer.” Jordan smiled back, “I think Helen and I are going to go to the grocery store later. Something about needing food.” shrugging he added, “Want us to pick you up anything?”

“Oh no that’s okay.” turning to the door she couldn’t help but notice Fen wasn’t mentioned in the grocery store escapade, but of course asking might raise suspicions. Who knows if Jordan was aware of the kiss, if he did maybe he would have said something? She decided it was better to just ignore the situation. Fen obviously wasn’t going to just sit at home all day, it was setting up to be a wonderful day, who would want to stay inside? 

Jordan entered Fen’s room kicking his brother’s foot as he did, “So, what’s going on with Lottie?”

“The Helheim if I know.” he growled turning over, “You and Helen need to get some decent alcohol while you’re out.” drawing the covers farther over his head he blocked out the sun, “One thing I really missed over the years, but this damn after effect is killing my head.”

Laughter burst from Jordan as he threw Fen’s legs over to the opposite side of the bed so he could sit down, “Helen’s doing as well.”

Fen raised himself spinning around to Jordan, “What?”

“Oh yeah,” Jordan laughed shortly, “She locked away your god form. Your stamina and senses will start to taper down to a mortal’s.”

“f*****g Hel.” he grumbled throwing himself back down.

“Who knows, maybe your appetite will calm down too.” 

“Doubtful.” with a growl that came from deep in his stomach Fen couldn’t continue his slumber, “You know Tyr would bring me my food.'' He figured tossing the hint out to his brother might yield results, but looking at him it was clearly not well received. “I guess thank Hel, I’m not.”

“Get your mortal ass downstairs before I tell Hel you made the girl uncomfortable.”

Flinging the covers off in a fashion that was far more dramatic than it needed to be, Fen crawled over to the wardrobe taking the first shirt and pair of pants he could touch. “I didn’t do anything to the girl,” he added as they both went downstairs.

“Oh good.” Helen clapped her fingertips together rushing over to Jordan, “We should get going. Fen, we will be back later.” Jordan barely was able to get off the bottom step before Helen showed just how strong she could be for a girl of her size. Jordan was whipped around to the front door waving bye to Fen. 

Finally able to get a word in after they exited the house firmly shutting the door and locking it behind them, Jordan tapped his little sister on the shoulder. “Care to tell me why you’re rushing us?”

Shrugging Helen took the lead making sure to keep a firm grip on Jordan’s hand, “Fen and I got into a fight last night. I told him why he was tied up-”

“Oh Hel.” Jordan sighed, “Why would you go and do that?”

She looked up to him, eyes narrowed, “He’s got a complex. One that desperately needs to be squashed if we’re going to get through this.”

Jordan raised his hand squeezing his eyes shut as he rubbed his face profusely, “Just play nice for a while-” pausing Jordan took a moment to look around the streets. Something was making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. His eye finally met a golden-haired woman in a pure white dress walking toward the house. “We have a problem,” he whispered, leaning down to Helen’s ear.

“What?” subtlety wasn’t her strong suit when she was searching the streets. Though when she also was finally guided to the girl her mouth fell open. “She can’t know it’s us. Our mortal forms aren’t known to the Asgardian population.”

“They’ll know if we keep talking about it.” Jordan hissed. “We need to get out of here.”

Helen nodded and rushed into the first shop they came to. 

Thinking enough time had passed to allow them to leave, Lottie finished her walk deciding to head home. When she got closer to the house she got a strange feeling that she should keep walking. It was that feeling a young girl usually had late at night walking alone, certainly not a feeling that was easily experienced in the bright daylight hours.

She felt the need to turn around, but at the same time was irrationally worried about doing so. Finally, after she stopped at the end of the sidewalk she turned back. She was surprised to find a young man smiling after her waving like he had known her but they haven’t seen each other in many years.

Before she made a fool out of herself she turned to make sure there wasn’t someone else this wave directed to. When she found that she was the only person around she waved back but far less excitedly, “Hi?” 

“My goodness.” The man gasped, the words from his mouth sang like a cold breeze in her ear, “You are quite exquisite.”

“Excuse me?” She looked again more sure than ever that he was talking to someone else at this point, even if they were invisible. 

“Your hair shines like the many breaths of sunshine. Sol herself would be jealous of your radiance.” Those words continued to ring, enchanting her to warm up to him and ease her fears. Irrational fear was sorely found when looking at this young man. 

“Do I know you?” She finally spoke after getting lost in the bright blue eyes of her charmer.

“Does a cloud know the people whose shadow it casts its relieving cooling shade on?” When Lottie failed to answer his semi rhetorical question he answered for her, “Brice.” He smiled, “My name is Brice. I am a student at the college.”

Lottie nodded still with so many questions, but at least she had his name now.

“I’m a student of the written word.”

“Acting?” 

“Poetry.” His smile faded slightly but was bursting with new life as Lottie turned away. His hold was starting to slip, he needed to get what information he could and fast, “If you could. Indulge me a moment.”

“Seems like you’ve had a few moments already.” Lottie huffed, but couldn’t help but be drawn back in, “But sure, what can I help you with?”

“I seemed to have lost my dog. He’s a wolf-like breed, black but quite big for his breed. Can you tell me if you’ve seen him?”

One thing was for certain, he was not a college student. Lottie knew they weren’t allowed to have pets, let alone large wolf-like dogs. He was also not from around here so he wasn’t a resident. Something just struck her as very odd and it gave her great pleasure to disappoint him, “Unfortunately I haven’t seen him. I’d check the pound, they are usually pretty good at picking up the runaways.”

Defeated but not completely ready to concede, Brice flicked a piece of paper at her, “If you would please give me a call if you do see him. Or if you would like to go out for a drink sometime.”

Out of respect Lottie took the paper and put it in her pocket. She continued to walk hoping it would trick the guy into thinking she lived somewhere else. It was definitely in her best interest if he didn’t know her real place of residence. She didn’t want her roommates to think she was the kind of person to get callers at all hours of the night, but then again maybe Jordan or Fen could scare him off. 

Lowering her head she let out a quiet laugh imagining those two not taking his pretentious poetry. It was an odd feeling gaining her mind back from Brice, he was such a charmer at first, but once that faded Lottie felt like he had a far more sinister side to him. 

Finishing her lap around the house she was happy her admirer had left. Fen met her immediately with his arms crossed glaring at her with narrowed eyes and clenched teeth.

“Why were you talking with that guy?” his voice was low like he was holding back from bursting out in a rage.

“Guy?” Lottie feigned innocence, but then clicked her fingers together, “Oh you mean that weird college student?”

“He wasn’t a student.” Fen corrected.

Noticing Fen’s reaction, it made Lottie start to believe he knew the guy, “He was just looking for his lost dog.”

“What’d the dog look like?”

“Big, wolf-like, black.” Lottie couldn’t think of any more details. The guy was kind of distracting through much of the beginning, “Why do you care?”

“Don’t talk to him again.” the growl deep in Fen’s throat stretched as he turned around heading back upstairs.

“Don’t talk to him?” Lottie mimicked with huff, “Who are you to tell me who I can talk to? The guy only asked if I saw his dog or not.”

Spinning around on his heels Fen lowered himself so their eyes met, “What’d he give you?”

“Excuse you.” Lottie shoved him out of the way, “That is none of your business.” At this point, she had a few different ways to play this. She chose the one that might give the worst reaction, “If you must know, he asked me out on a date.” That was sure to give her more answers to how Fen knew the guy. 

Fen’s laughter cut Lottie a little too deep for her comfort and she stormed past him heading straight to her room without another word. It was laughter that didn’t believe that kind of guy would ever ask her out. She apparently wasn’t good enough for this guy? Whether she wanted to go with him or even if she liked him or not didn’t matter anymore. She wanted Fen to see that he in fact did ask her out. She might have been a loner, but the guy clearly didn’t have normal social skills, something many people in her life nowadays seemed to have in common. What was the harm in proving Fen wrong?