"Oh, they went ahead and renamed a day of the week after me and didn't tell me! Sounds gorgeous, I'd love to have a look."

"It used to be Valanya. But you know what the Valar haven't done? Fucking anything. Guess they put the lights up."

A tiny sun and moon orbit Loki's head briefly.

She grins. "See you Lokiya, then, Loki."

"See you!"

Her apartment does have an indoor waterfall, a gentle one with a granite backing. "The prince Morifinwë came over personally in a very bad mood trying to figure out why this complex specifically was using so much water, and I showed him and he agreed it was very pretty and clever and I was on plumbing duty until I learned enough to figure out how to make it recirculating, which didn't actually take too long."

"Oh, it's an originally unauthorized waterfall."

"It didn't really occur to me to get authorization for a waterfall. In Valinor you wouldn't have needed it."

"And there goes its subversive charm, but it's still lovely."

"Thank you!" Hair petting?

Sure! Hair petting. Loki is on board with this local custom.

"I'm not at the point of applying for a sanity exception to these hours, but it's nice to have a break."

"I couldn't keep hours like you folks do at all, I need too much sleep and food and variety. Species foible."

"We can't keep this up either. I'm guessing the King means to end the war in fifty years, or the things they're asking of us don't make sense."

"There's some reason for optimism."

"It'd be really funny if we pulled it off, because fifty years is only five by the Valinor count and to our friends back home it'd be like we just left when they heard news that we'd - grown into the sort of people who can war with a Vala."

"How do Valinor years work, anyway?"

"1728 days, by the old kind of days with the Trees. They go - it's not that they go by fast, it's that they go by unnoticeably. We thought we had forever, there was never any need to make use of them. When the Valar exiled the King was the first time that time was really relevant to my life."

"It's not as if we didn't accomplish things. You should have seen it; it was beautiful, and every person knew four or five different crafts to the level of mastery, if they had any desire to learn. The only difference was pacing."

"I'm an impatient person. I wouldn't like my impatience environmentally suppressed."

"Well, here we're sixteen hours on, eight hours off, a day off once every twelve weeks, and my life is my King's but he sure is asking for all I have of it."

"Well," says Loki, "I am very flattered to have warranted a spot in your rare time off."

They kiss.

Kissing is great. Lots of things are great.