it's not always swell

[Fandral]

"You had no foreknowledge that we were coming."

[Loki Odinsson]

"Obviously."

He reached up out of habit and found that this time, his hair had moved out of place. He brushed it down with his fingertips, with his other hand pressed firmly flat to his own thigh.

"You know," he said, "I think I liked you better without the beard."

The smile hovering around his mouth had become both teasing and considerably more genuine.

[Fandral]

Fandral made an offended noise.

[Loki Odinsson]

"It didn't precisely enhance the experience a moment ago."

[Fandral]

"I should focus on the suggestion you ever liked me at all, but I find I am less low of standards than you thought."

[Loki Odinsson]

"Oh?"

He leaned back, eyebrows lifted.

[Fandral]

"Your dislike is your misfortune," said Fandral, stroking the beard in question.

[Loki Odinsson]

"Ah," Loki said flatly. "However will I cope."

[Fandral]

"A startlingly good question."

[Loki Odinsson]

He glanced at him again as best as he could- he was sitting with his hair facing Fandral now, and was hesitant to move much and let him see the bare side again, even if the cat was already out of the bag where that was concerned. He hadn't compartmentalized it as a kind of baldness for months now, but compared to Fandral it was difficult not to.

"You haven't changed a bit in centuries."

He didn't allow it to sound like a compliment.

[Fandral]

"Well, before now, no one's ever objected," he said dryly.

[Loki Odinsson]

"They really will let you get away with anything if you look like- like you do, won't they."

[Fandral]

Fandral leaned back. "And how is that, exactly?"

[Loki Odinsson]

"Like some kind of puffed-up, prancing..."

He couldn't come up with an appropriate noun, to his deep humiliation, so he clenched his fists and sat there.

[Fandral]

Fandral laughed loudly.

"Perhaps they will. Do you feel you didn't get away with much, Loki? I seem to recall it differently."