Contest of Champions

2

I take off running as soon as I'm far enough away down the bridge, hearing the water flowing past beneath my boots. Asgard is stirring, but barely anyone's out yet. I speed up as I run through the city, heading across the bridge toward the mountains and my favorite spot there.

I hit the slope with enough speed to get me about halfway up before I have to stop to catch my breath. I lean against a rock and inhale deeply, enjoying the scent of the fresh air and the sound of being alone.

"Hey, Loki."

Turning my body to face the newcomer, I'm just in time to avoid the sword blade streaking at me. I smoothly duck as the blade slashes where my head had been and unsheathe my daggers, getting into a defensive stance in time to face her next attack.

I deflect her follow-up swing and slip inside her reach, pressing my dagger against her throat. She slams her knee up, catching me off guard, and springs away, landing lightly, her boots shoulder width apart. I growl and without thinking hurl one of my knives at her in frustration. She knocks it out of the air with her sword and sprints toward me. I bring up my remaining knife, really regretting my decision to throw my other one.

I manage to catch her blade on mine, but her momentum causes her to crash into me and it sends the two of us rolling down the slope of the mountain. I don't know how we don't end up dead from the sharp blades of my knife and her sword, but we don't. My eyesight blurs as a mix of black and green swirls before me. She's blocking my vision.

Our tumble stops at the bottom of the slope, her knee in my chest, her blade at my throat. Her hand clamps down on my wrist, preventing me from raising my dagger in an attempt to unseat her.

A raspy laugh escapes from my throat, my voice holding a note of aggravation. "Very well, you win this fight."

Gamora slides off of me and examines her blade casually, her eyes every so often flicking to me. "You're usually not this easy to surprise, Loki."

I clamber to my feet, offering her a shrug as I sheathe my dagger. "My head's not in the game today."

She's quiet and doesn't meet my eyes. There are leaves in her hair, and a smudge of dirt on her face from the roll down the mountain. I self-consciously run my hand through my own tangled hair and remove a twig from it. I'd do the same for her, but she'd lay me out on the ground if I so much as tried to touch her. I've seen her leave Fandral moaning on the ground when he tried to tuck a strand of her dark hair behind her ear.

So I don't. I don't even mention it.

"It should be," she says finally. Gamora looks up at me, shaking her head slightly to clear her wavy, red-tinted black hair from her face. "It's Reaping Day."

I shrug again, holding my face impassive. "So?"

She sighs and rolls her eyes, looking away from me. She starts to walk away, staring at the city of Asgard in the distance. Without looking back, she tosses my other dagger to me. I catch it easily.

"How...?" I start to ask, and then decide to forget about it. Gamora has been training since she was a young child. And being the daughter of Thanos and one of the Black Order assigned to Asgard, she's allowed, encouraged, to train vigorously. I might say it's even demanded of her.

Hurrying to her side, I deposit my other dagger in my belt as I settle into step beside her. The mountainside is peaceful, the lake spreading out before us. It separates us from the rest of Asgard, one of the reasons the two of us meet here to duel. There is no one else around, no one to judge me, no one to judge her, no one to judge us.

It's only us.

"I know what you've been thinking," Gamora states, refusing to look at me. She's still talking about the Reaping. I try to catch her eye but she turns her head. "You think that you should take your chances in the arena. Don't. It's not a game, Loki. Stay far away from it."