She shrugged, avoiding looking at him. “People, people around me. To feel so strongly … it’s not ordinary. It frightens people. There are drugs — I felt like I was walking in a world of cotton. Muffled.” With a shudder, she tossed the rest of the wine back and held the glass out to him. “You think you’re finding my weaknesses, don’t you?”
Loki chuckled a bit. ”My dear, I am the God of Mischief. I picked apart your weaknesses before we even sat down. It’s simply what I do.”
He flashed his most charming smile.
It wasn’t entirely true; people were constantly surprising him. But he quickly dismissed any such thoughts. They were not beneficial to his pride. He finished took another drink and poured one for her. ”But enough about you. What can I tell you of my own secrets?” He smirked at her expectantly.
“Shall you whisper them in my ear, lest anyone else know them? Or maybe you’ll try to kill me, after I’ve drunk enough of this wine to satisfy you. Just to protect yourself.” Her mouth curled in a one-sided smile. “What do you want to tell, darlin’? What’s so hard to carry you resort to drinkin’ and a smart-mouthed firechild?”
She set the glass aside and rose to stand immediately before him, looking up the foot of difference. Very close. “What are you running from? Tell Summer.”
Something in her countenance made Loki shiver slightly. That would not do.
“I hope you are aware, darling, I would not need you intoxicated first to kill you.” He smiled then, throwing the force of his contrasting dispositions upon her. Know thyself. That ought to do it.
He silently considered her offer; he could pour out his troubles, watch them suffocate and burn her, and be rid of them. Or perhaps he would never truly be free, no matter how many he hurt with his own pain. ”I could not trouble you with such things,” he murmured, “But if I did, you would be in danger from more than just the pain of your…abilities.”
Amazingly, she laughed. It was a small, bitter kind of laugh, but it was a laugh. “You would not be the first to say so, and likely not the last, either. You offered your secrets. I’ll dance with danger if that’s what it takes to numb your pain.” Turning around to sit back down (he could see the full knee-length fall of her hair, and nothing else), she added, “Or any other kind of dance you like. If that’s what it takes.”