cuttingremark | Salon buddies for @favoriteanalyst

Salon buddies for @favoriteanalyst

It started about a few months ago. Loki needed to relax after making the mistake of spending his winter holidays with his 'family' (which ended in another spectacular fight with Odin that resulted in one broken window and a lost snow globe Loki has thrown through said broken window), but his normal esthetician was booked solid for the next year and couldn't fit him in outside of his own pre-scheduled appointments no matter how much money he offered to throw at her. Wanda was the best in the city, probably the whole country, so it made sense, but there's still the issue of Loki needing something to relieve his tension so he didn't strangle his paralegals. The thought crossed his mind of setting up a tindr profile for a quick fuck, but he isn't in law school anymore and that was just a disaster waiting to happen.

Wanda saves him from making a bad decision by texting him the information for another technician she helped train. She claims he's new, but very talented, which he figures will do in a pinch. The link she sent him takes him to a rather outdated looking webpage for the "TVA Salon and Spa", an older establishment that apparently started in the 50's as a barber shop, but recent made the jump to full salon under new management. Despite the clunky UI, he's able to schedule an appointment for a basic manicure the very next day with the young man Wanda had told him about.

Casey is a nice young man. Not anywhere as skilled as Wanda, but his nails come out looking acceptable with their basic black polish and the hand massage he gets to begin with is utterly divine. He doesn't go into detail about his family problems, but the other gets the gist that the holidays were strained and is more than willing to play the oh-so-important role of listening ear even if his platitudes do ring a little hollow.

When the appointment is over, Casey hands him a card for a free deep conditioning treatment or 30 minute shoulder massage.

"These are really just for family and friends," he explains, "but you really seem like you need something to help you relax." He thinks about declining, but decides it isn't polite and takes the card anyway before handing the young man a $400 tip.

The stern looking woman at the front desk gives him a serious look as Casey nearly passes out in the background. "I'm going to be checking those to make sure they're real."

"But of course, I would expect nothing less." His usual winning smile does nothing to lighten her glare as she rings him out. She asks if he wants to use the card to schedule something today. Why not? It's a charming establishment and he has some free time coming up.

The masseuse the card is good for, Bee, is apparently booked solid for the next month, but the stylist, Mobius, just had a cancellation in the following week that fit perfectly in his schedule.

That appointment was the beginning of the end for Loki.

So in he walks six months later, having ditched his normal high-end stylist for a middle-aged man who looks like he works in a cubicle rather than a up-and-coming salon. It isn't his normally scheduled appointment, but his cases have been crazy and Thor just left for his "journey of self-discovery" aka backpacking across Europe, so all of Odin's attention is now on his youngest.

Joy.

If Loki were the sentimental type, he'd think it a shame that the lobby area of a salon is more comfortable for him than his childhood home.

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"I hope you wouldn't be upset after that blow job." Loki bends around to grab the remote as well as the edge of the blanket to pull over the two of them.

"How about a little late-night Asgardian television, hm? I can translate for you, or we can just make up what they're saying."

"You have finely honed a skill, and my dick is incredibly grateful for it. I feel like I need to recover from that." He settles in against the pillows, idly stroking Loki's hair. "I'm good for whatever to wind down."

"Your dick sucking's pretty good as well." Loki smirks and tilts his face up to place a light kiss on Mobius' nose before flipping on the television.

They are greeted with a still image of Mobius pointing angrily at a soggy Odin. The news anchor speaks in Asgardian about Borson's guest who threw wine in the politician's face after an argument seemingly revolving around his younger son.

Loki lets out a bark of a laugh. "Look, dear! They got your good side!"

Mobius pales at the reminder of what led them here. "This is not how I wanted to become famous. Oh god, are there going to be reporters? I don't even speak the language." He scrubs his face with his free hand. "I'm shocked I didn't crush the glass in my hand or chuck it at someone."

"I'm very glad you didn't. You probably would have hurt yourself and trying to go down on you in the hospital would have been tricky." Not physically, but the nurses do get upset when they walk in on you with a dick in your mouth.

"They're saying that they don't know who you are other than you were my guest at the event. No one heard what the argument was until the wine was thrown and that no parties involved parties have been available to comment so far. Oh! Someone might have gotten- yes!"

The new played a shaky clip clearly caught on someone's cellphone that just catches Mobius tossing the wine in Odin's face. The angle doesn't show Mobius' expression, but Odin's own shock and anger are on full display.

"Oh my, I haven't seen him make that expression in a long time," Loki says with obvious delight.

Maybe the best part of being so infuriated he barely remembers any of it happening is that this matches how he felt, like watching from the outside. He groans. "I'm a dead man, I'm just going to die and be dead. How do you feel about necrophilia, because your boyfriend's going to die."

"Well, it's illegal in most places, but I'm sure I can figure something out." Loki lightly tickles Mobius' ribs. "Calm down. I'll call Mother in the morning and get a read on things. At worst we have to cut our trip a little short. Oh! If we do maybe we can spend a day in Paris." At least one of them isn't worried.

The light whap on Loki's hand only serves to indicate that he may, in fact, be ticklish. "Sounds like maybe you want to cut this short and go to Paris anyway. Is this--do you think this is important enough to be international? Trying to decide if I should show my face at the salon ever again."

"Probably depends on how slow the news is back home." And if the incident ended up trending on any social media. While Asgard is a small nation largely unimportant on a global political scale, weirder videos have gone viral.

But don't think he didn't notice that smack! Loki's fingers dance up his ribs again, moving out of the way if Mobius tries to stop him. "You're ticklish!"

"I am not," he lies, trying to hold in a fit of giggles and missing Loki's sneaky fingers every time. "You're just a brat is all."

"I am that, but you," he punctuates the word with another assaults on Mobius' sensitive sides, "are also ticklish!" He is determined to get a giggle! He will! Hear! That! Giggle!

He holds out fairly well, even if his face starts to go red, but then it snaps all at once, an arm around his middle, pulling up his legs, an attempt to curl into a ball that doesn't go quite to plan what with Loki there, and giggling turning to laughter and back to giggling again.

"You jerk." Hard to mean it with a grin that big.

Loki breaks into a grin as Mobius starts laughing. He continues the tickle attack for another minute before backing off to lean down and give him a kiss.

"But I am the jerk you decided earlier tonight was your boyfriend." Yeah, they haven't actually talked about that yet, have they?

They definitely haven't talked about it. Mobius settles down once Loki backs off, though it takes a moment, even chuckling into the kiss. "And the jerk who introduced me to his parents as his boyfriend. That okay?"

"Yes!" It feels like what he's wanted for a long time, even before he realized it himself. "It's just..."

I'm a mess.

There's a reason I don't date.

Odin was right.

I'll just hurt you

"...I haven't had a 'relationship' in a very long time. I can be a bit much at time." Loki says it with a laugh, but it's clear he's trying to make light of something he's insecure about.

Mobius is pretty good at reading between the lines. He reaches for the remote to mute the tv. ...Well, first, he's going to flip it to a channel that isn't likely to report on Odin's soiree, and then mute it. He runs a hand up and down along Loki's back.

"Most of my relationships have been more physical, and if there was a spark, it fizzled out by the third or fourth date, somewhere around there. Relationships are...hard to define, I think. But I think we're both willing to give this a try, right? No matter what we think of ourselves. You can be a bit much. I can be a bit lacking. We'll figure it out."

Loki gives Mobius a small, almost somber smile.

"We'll figure it out. And even if we don't...thank you for being willing to try." That fact alone means more to Loki than Mobius could ever know.

"I'm pretty terrified," he admits with a smile in return. "But the nice things I feel when you're around outweigh the terror. It wasn't...too forward of me to call us boyfriends, was it? Sounded to me like you wanted something serious out of this."

"No, you were right. There's just something about you," Loki reaches forward and takes Mobius' chin gently, running a thumb over his cheek. "I thought about propositioning you, you know. Planned it all out. Third appointment, I'd flirt, slip you my card. You'd call me, we'd fuck, and that'd be that. Maybe I'd have to find a new hair dresser, maybe you'd be okay with it, but then I came in and saw you and I just...couldn't take that gamble. The thought of cutting ties with you, of just one night was unbearable."

That...he has to take a moment to drink that in and process it. How would he have reacted? Would he have been flattered? Would he have tried it? "I'm glad you thought you saw something a little more worthwhile than a one night stand. Is that usually what you do? Slip someone a card and wait for them to call you up?"

"No, normally I'm at a club or something so it's less 'here's my number' and more 'lets go find a hotel room.' Or they give me their card." Speaking of, he'd probably need to text Abigail and cancel their next appointment. It could wait till the morning though.

"So you aren't selling yourself." Hmmm. "Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but you certainly don't need the money. Do you think I'm gonna need to share you?"

"Despite my father's insinuations otherwise, no, I'm not." He doesn't sound upset that Mobius asked, though. It's a fair assumption.

"Not if you don't want to. I don't require monogamy, but I'm not so insatiable as to be incapable of it."

"Would've hated to have gotten into it with him if it turned out he was right." Not that his comments and tone were called for in any case. "Do we need to talk about it? About us? About the...possibility of us moving forward?"

"Like what our relationship is? I think 'boyfriend' covers it pretty well. I'm fine being monogamous, if that's what you want." It's not a huge ask. Honestly going out to find partners was growing tiring anyways.

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