[EP] Community service for some reason

[st_ratagem]

That morning, Loki had finally gotten around to the piece of paper he'd been handed along with his room key, and... well, it was definitely interesting. Apparently not checking in for two weeks in favor of scouting the Inn as a kitten meant that he'd been involuntarily assigned to 'community service' in the infirmary.

It was ridiculous. He wasn't a healer. Oh, his mother Frigga his mother had tried to teach him healing magic, and the theory had been easy enough, but barring one or two minor successes healing his brother of minor injuries, the practical had always escaped him. Eventually his mother had removed healing from his lessons, and not long after that Loki himself had stopped trying.

It was ridiculous.

It didn't matter, though, where he did his reading and thinking, and at least waving vaguely in the direction of being productive would probably very slightly soothe the fears of anyone who thought he, for example, made a habit out of flinging people out of windows. (He'd only done that once. It wasn't a habit.)

Therefore he swung by the library, relieved it of all the medical texts a quick rummage presented, hauled the books to the clininc, and staked out a desk area more or less out of the way. As nearly as he could tell, anyway; regardless, a small wall made of books hopefully separated him nicely from anyone looking for help.

Comments

[st_ratagem]

"They're your knees." How far had she fallen, jumping between balconies, to only get skinned knees? It reminded him a little of Thor, when they'd been children: he'd constantly climbed on things and flung himself off them.

But humans were generally much less hardy than that. "If you break something, you don't keep it secret. But I don't care about skinned knees. Sit there." He gestured at a chair and didn't wait to see if she obeyed him before going to poke through the supplies.

You didn't have to be a healer to be capable of dealing with skinned knees. Wash out the grime, cover it up. Easy.

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie listened and sat. She felt better he said he wasn't going to tell anyone. They'd probably be angry at me and tell me to stop Annie knew she would heal quicker than some, but it didn't stop from it hurting right now. The fall had been somewhat scary too.

"Grown ups usually scold me for things like this," She observed out loud.

[st_ratagem]

"I guarantee they've all done worse to themselves," Loki replied as he returned with the supplies. Various liquids had made no sense, so he'd foregone trying to decide on the best one and just supplied himself with pad things, self-sticking bandages, and a cup of warm water with soap. "This is nothing. My brother once decided the fastest way off a tower was jumping. And it was faster, but when I took the stairs it hurt much less."

He pulled another chair to sit across from her, wet a pad thing with the soapy water, and started washing the grime out of the little wound. "He kept doing things like that, though. I assume he got something out of it."

[st_ayedhidden]

"Your brother jumped off a tower?' She asked excitedly. "He must be really brave!"

Annie did not know who Loki was as she sat there inspecting his tools for making her scrapes better.

"Did he get better at them?" She asked. "How did he survive?"

[st_ratagem]

"So people say. Mostly he's an idiot who doesn't think before he does things." Cleaning the scrapes probably stung a little, but talking was an excellent distraction in more than one situation. "He's almost impossible to really hurt. And eventually he learned how to fly."

[st_ayedhidden]

"Fly!" She said in surprise. "Can you fly too, if your his brother?"

She winced as the air mingled with the soap and the water on her knee, but Annie was determined to be brave.

"My dad can sort of fly. He swings everywhere." She declared. "One day I want to sort of fly like him."

[st_ratagem]

"No, I can't." Which was to say he could, but only shapeshifted. It wasn't something he was inclined to admit to a child. Children were rarely good at keeping things to themselves, and while it was no secret that he was a shapeshifter, Loki didn't care to draw attention to it. "Was that how you came to fall off a balcony?"

[st_ayedhidden]

"No. I'm not allowed to use the web-shooters until I'm trained, he says." She said ruefully. "I'm just practicing getting better at climbing! I want to get really good in case a bad guy shows up. Then I'll show them."

Annie put her hands on her hips and she made her meaniest face which wasn't mean at all.

[st_ratagem]

"I see." Laughing at small children wasn't the best idea, but in Loki's defense small children were kind of hilarious. And he was bandaging her knees, which might balance out the mean a little. "In that case, I recommend working on balance lower to the ground. It will help." Climbing was at least partly about balance, at least part of the time.

[st_ayedhidden]

She watched him work on her knees. Annie took his recommendation to heart.

"Are you good at climbing?" She asked. "Would you teach me?"

[st_ratagem]

"Likely less than I used to be." Being able to travel by magic made climbing less necessary, but mobility and agility had never stopped being important.

And if she had a 'teacher' she might avoid injuring herself worse the last time she fell off something. And it was something to do that would utterly confuse anyone who knew him. "But why not? Tell me how you've been practicing so far."

[st_ayedhidden]

The prospect of another teacher delight Annie and it showed in her toothy grin.

"I just climb things, like walls and the ceiling and jump from there to another place." She said. "Is that not what I'm supposed to do?"

[st_ratagem]

"It's a good start." Loki finished sticking the bandage to the injuries. There, cleaned and covered. Good enough, and the girl didn't seem concerned. "You should also work on balance. And aim, it sounds like, if you missed a balcony when you threw yourself at it." Frigga had handled a fair amount of his agility training, since most Asgardians leaned more to strength, what had she done?

Nothing easily translatable to this place. If he'd seriously decided to train the girl - and it seemed he had, for the moment - he'd have to get creative.

[st_ayedhidden]

"What should I do first?" She asked him. "If you want to be my teacher, I'll practice whatever you want."

Annie tested out the bandages on her knees by straightening them and bending them. They felt good.

[st_ratagem]

"Balance, then. There are tennis courts here," sickeningly pink ones, "try using the nets as tightropes." They were thin, it would be difficult. But almost anything she'd actually have to move on would be wider and thus comparatively easy.

Also, close to the ground. If she fell off, it would be nothing.

[st_ayedhidden]

Her eyes sparkled with delight from the challenge given to her. She soaked in his directions and nodded.

"Okay! I can definitely do that." She said. "And when I can do it really good it's going to look so cool."