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"What the hell did you do?"
"You really don't know the first thing about Jotun, do you?" Gamora looks unimpressed.
Loki mewls from where Gamora has him pinned to the floor. His eyes are unfocused, pupils blown wide; blue-black blood is oozing from a cut on his cheek and his shirt is torn, leaving one shoulder exposed. Gamora has his braid partially wrapped around one hand and his head tugged back.
"I'm sorry, let me check to make sure I didn't walk in on you beating the daylights out of him."
Gamora frowns, then looks down at Loki. Loki just mewls again.
"Oh my god, just get off him already," Peter says, pulling Gamora away. Gamora lets go easily enough, but she's still giving him an odd look. Loki just sort of... whines as Peter helps him sit up, head lolling and looking pathetic in a way Peter's never seen.
Peter's... He's furious, actually, shaking furious, and he doesn't know what the hell Gamora was doing or thinking, or why the hell he thought he could just let them figure this out on their own. They'd been kind of weird off and on around each other but actually friendly, maybe even flirty. Loki had a bruise or two every now and then, but Peter figured Loki was just running into shit because he'd forgotten how small the Milano was. Peter was all for letting them work out whatever the hell they needed because he was mostly happy to have two people he cares about so much getting along.
"Peter," Gamora says.
"What?" Peter tilts Loki's head, checking for any other bruising or cuts. Loki's eyes are still unfocused, but they're vaguely following his movements.
"I understand you are angry right now." Gamora ignores the look he shoots her, just meets his eyes levelly. Calm. It's... It's stupid that it has any sort of calming effect on him, but it does. It's Gamora--she's always level with him. "I promise you that there was nothing done here without consent. Take space and time; when you are calm I will explain to you what was happening." She makes a face of distaste. "Likely without Loki present. You two dislike talking to each other more than any two beings as close as you are should."
Peter presses his lips together, searching for what to say. Gamora waits; she keeps her stance open, hands where he can see them, doesn't make any moves towards him--or Loki. She's just watching.
"I don't like seeing him hurt," Peter finally says. He has no way to vocalize the years of protective drive that is so much a part of how he deals with Loki, so much of what he has to navigate around without treating Loki as not capable of caring for himself.
Gamora nods.
"I will leave. Let me know when you desire an explanation."
She does go. Loki makes a mournful noise with an uncoordinated lurch after her; Peter grabs him, holding him steady, and strokes his hair. Loki sighs, leaning his head against Peter's collarbone, and Peter tries to remember how to breathe again.
***
Peter wakes up when Loki does, mostly because Loki's just punched him in the arm.
"Ow, what was that for, that hurt."
Loki's already bolted out of bed, and he's deep deep blue--blushing. Peter blinks, staring, and it takes him a couple extra seconds to realize Loki's about to walk out the door.
"Woah woah, Loki--" Peter jumps out of the bed, grabbing Loki by the arm. Loki goes still, refusing to look at Peter and still so obviously embarrassed and ashamed Peter's first instinct is to try and get him to relax. "Hey, come on. It's okay. Don't worry about it. Come on, look at me."
"You are an idiot," Loki snarls, spinning and shoving Peter; it takes Peter completely off-guard, so much so he ends up nearly falling over. He manages to right himself, but Loki's nearly shaking with fury, frost covering his clenched hands.
"Okay, I'm an idiot. Why am I an idiot?"
"You just--you just are."
"Is this because I saw you and Gamora? Because you have nothing to be ashamed about, she used to be an assassin for Tha--"
"It isn't that! It is, but it isn't, she wasn't--" Loki's math snaps shut, grinding his teeth as he looks at Peter. Peter keeps his distance, swallowing. So Loki had consented? But-- "I knew you wouldn't--you would never understand. That it's foreign to you, but this--you have no say in this."
"Loki, I walked in to her beating you. The last time I saw that--"
"I remember." Loki stops, takes a breath, staring at Peter, fury and hurt in his eyes. "I remember. And I am grateful to you for then, but this was not that."
"You wanted this."
Loki's jaw twitches, then he gives a single, short nod.
Peter stares at him. He's not sure what to say. He's seen Loki beaten before--that had been one of the shittiest days of either of their lives, if he's honest, and Peter had come out with his fair share of injuries just getting to Loki and hauling him out. He's never wanted to see it again. It's always been about looking out for Loki, and it just got worse after that day.
The idea that Loki could want--
"You would not understand," Loki says. His voice is calmer; he's looking down at the floor. He shakes his head. "I know. You are... you my ammul, but you are an Earther. I do not know how to explain this to you."
"Gamora knows how." Peter meets Loki's eyes as he looks back up. "She told me she'd explain when I had calmed down. You should come. You know. To spite her--she said you wouldn't."
"I see what you're doing," Loki says, but the tension in his body has relaxed and there's relief around his eyes.
***
Gamora lifts an eyebrow to see Loki, but she lets them both in anyway.
"Are you alright?" she asks Loki first, and okay, Peter probably overreacted. A bit.
Loki nods, but there's a faint undertone to his skin again and he's refusing to look at either of them. He doesn't want to be here for this, and Peter finds himself reaching for Loki's wrist and rubbing his thumb along Loki's kyne lines on instinct. Peter offers him a smile when Loki looks up in surprise, and it doesn't quite ease the discomfort, but it's better than it was.
"So you said you could explain," Peter says, once they've all had a chance to get settled on Gamora's bed. It's bigger than Peter's. Peter has no idea how she managed to pull that off, but the room is also mostly bed so he guesses that's a fair trade off. But still.
Gamora gives a sidelong glance at Loki, who pretends not to notice as he studies his nails with rapt fascination.
"Yes." She shakes her head, smiling a little and looking at Peter. "You remember what I said before about Jotun rituals?"
"Yeah. What, is this one of them?"
"Mmm. Not... quite. Loki?" When Loki shakes his head, still stubbornly silent, Gamora sighs. "Fine. But I will tell it the way I want." She looks at Peter again. "Loki liked the way I beat his face in and suggested it as a starting point for us."
Peter glances at Loki, but he's pretty sure that nothing could get Loki to look up from his nails right now.
"It has been a good place to start." She nudges Loki with her knee. Loki goes from vaguely flushed to full on blackberry across his cheekbones. "While not common because of the level of trust involved, Jotun occasionally form bonds based off this dynamic. It's not so unlike domination and submissive culture on Earth, from my research."
"Oh," Peter says. "That... why did you just say that before? Wait, it's like that? What's different."
"Jotun." Loki clears his throat, then continues, voice still quiet but not half so raspy. "There's more... depth. Dynamics. There are politics to it that do not translate." He drops off.
Gamora nods, reaching a hand over to rest on Loki's knee.
"Like?" Peter prompts, realizing that Gamora's trying to coach Loki into telling him; more, Peter wants Loki to tell him. Loki has never really told Peter these things about being Jotun unless it happens to come up, and Peter's never really realized how much he's been missing until Gamora got introduced to the mix and Loki being Jotun suddenly mattered in ways it hadn't before.
Loki glances up, scowling slightly as he realizes what they're doing. Peter just grins at him.
"You are my ammul. I can be with you." Loki swallows, glancing at Gamora. "She is important to you--kallis--but she is not, was not, to me. She is stronger than me, but she does not wish to claim you for herself exclusively though it is within her rights." Loki pauses, fiddling with the end of his braid. "It is... complex."
"Jotun need to know how they relate to those they choose to be close with," Gamora clarifies. "Because you chose both of us instead of one or the other, Loki needed a way to relate to me. Loki is deferring to me. Doing so helps him relax and allows me to reaffirm and strengthen his trust in me as the stronger of the two of us--that as I take care of you, I will also take care of him."
"I also just like being hit," Loki adds brightly; it's entirely geared at trying to get a laugh, and it works far better than it should, but Peter doesn't miss that Loki's shoulders are still tense and he's still looking a bit flush.
Gamora notices too.
"I don't get it," Peter says after a few moments. "I mean, I'll try, but I'm gonna need to think about it more. And I... I don't like seeing you hurt."
Loki nods.
"It isn't the same as being hurt," Gamora says intently. She's watching both of them. "I know how to hurt people, how to make them suffer--this is not that. There is more to it. If Loki would be willing, and you wish to see, I can show you if it would give you peace of mind."
Peter and Loki exchange a glance.
"Only if you want to show me," Peter says.
Loki bites his lip, glancing at between the both of them, before giving a slight nod.
***
Peter was pretty sure the whole thing was just going to get him angry again.
He didn't expect to be... whatever the hell this is. Amazed, maybe, or awed.
"He enjoys being hurt," Gamora says, "but that is very different from pain." She smiles at where Loki is sprawled across her lap.
"I uh. I see that."
It was a little awkward, at first, Loki unsure and embarrassed, but that really hadn't phased Gamora, at least not that Peter could see. She'd just... taken absolute control, almost weaponized in her efficiency until Loki wasentirely ignoring Peter in favour of her. And now here he was, an uncoordinated, blissed out mess.
Gamora bends down, kissing Loki gently on his throat. He breathes out, almost a sigh, nuzzling closer to her.
"I've never really seen him like this."
"Would you like to hold him?"
"What, are you sure that's a g--" Peter stops, trying to deal with being handed a fistful of hair, Loki grumbly as Gamora pulls him away. "Do I just--" Loki looks up at Peter, blinks once, and then he smiles. It's beautiful and wide-open and blinding and soft and all the things that Peter's used to only seeing when Loki's drunk and cuddly.
Gamora chuckles as Peter tries to sort out what to do with the simple joy on Loki's face.
"Come on," Gamora says.
"I just slept. This is going to look bad."
Gamora shrugs.
It takes very little to end up with Gamora under one arm and Loki sprawled over both their laps, purring idly as they both stroke his hair.
"I don't touch his hair except when he's like this, or when we do this," Gamora tells him. Peter glances at her, about to just say okay and brush off, and then realizes, actually, he's kind of glad of that.
"Is that a Jotun thing, too?"
"Perhaps," Gamora says.
Neither of them say anything for a while.
"Thanks," Peter says.
"You're welcome."