Unconsciously, the prince let out a very audible sigh, his warm eyelids getting heavy with sleep.

"Would you care to recap the day for me, I seem to have let it slip in memory."

"Sure," Sigyn said, but before continuing, she drained the cloth in the water bowl and replaced it on his body, surprising him as the heavy cloth pressed over his eyes and the entire zone, temple to temple.

"Well, first you walk into town all broken and suspicious looking, and then you gallantly walk into the mead hall, where the Baldrson brothers roughened you up even more." She laughed a teasing laugh before she continued. "You are clearly outsized by these resident Norwegian men...AND women."

Loki's arms tensed but eased as Sigyn placed a hot water bottle under his sheets. He cursed himself for her making him remember that he was weak, incapable.

Of course they outsized him. These were descendants of ancient Vikings, who themselves were related to the Aesir in some way. Loki had managed to-survive the stronger Aesir, but he despised himself for losing to the humans. But then he remembered that nobody here realized who he was, and he himself had failed to realize that his powers would be out for a while. Loki couldn't hear Sigyn continue her tale, but he no longer required her assistance, that is, in memory.

                                                                          _____________________

After regaining his memory, Loki had fallen asleep, again. He had been dozing off a lot since his fall. He hated being weak, vulnerable, dependent, and on Midgard. The humans did not nearly have the advanced technology found on Asgard; back at home he would've been better within a day, two tops.

At the current moment, Loki was lying in a bath, a "towel" under his neck and steam rising around him.

"Oh, umm" Sigyn stuttered as she walked in.

"I didn't realize you were awake."

Loki, who now fully sensed himself naked in her presence, looked from himself and back up to her.

"My nakedness isn't a realization for you?"

"Well, I," ehem, "I'm your caretaker. I would have taken you to a hospital, but far away here, we don't have one. But the local physician visits, coincidently when you're not conscious. And my job, thus far, is to keep you warm." She continued as she stepped closer. "Which i-includes giving you a bath," Sigyn finished, motioning to his position with her hands.

Great, now he felt even more awkward with himself.

"Don't worry. I've bathed people before. In medical circumstances obviously."

*Sigh* "More of these, towels?" Loki asked, trying to make himself sound stronger.

"It's a sponge bath," Sigyn replied pulling out a plastic case filled with multicolored and multi-shaped things.

"That is a sponge," Loki said nodding to them with his head.

"Aren't you getting smart," the girl said crouching closer to the tub, not moving her gaze below his abdomen.

She tested the water and remarked of its dropping temperature, then turned the tap on again. Soaking a sponge under water, she started a conversation again.

"So seriously, where are you from that you've never heard of simple things?"

"My homeland is of a very formal language. And the simple things are for the servants to concern themselves with."

"Servants? And in what land are you a person of high status?" Sigyn asked as she refreshed the coincidently green sponge.

"I would tell you. But, given my current condition, you would take me for a loon who injured his head." Loki found it surprising that he was enjoying the relaxation and release of pain he felt in the bath, regardless of the uncomfortable situation. The mortal girl was still cleaning his upper torso, and he was full aware that below it was the line neither she would cross nor that one he would allow.

                                                                             ____________________

Sigyn felt her heart rising in her chest from the awkward situation. Here she was not only with a stranger in her house, but she was giving him a bath.

As the bruises went away, she began to notice how attractive he-Loki was. But then again, she hadn't had a proper interaction of ANY level with a man in a while.

She had lied to him. There was no doctor. She had brought this broken stranger into her home all by her own gut and instinct. He was freezing cold, so the remedy for it would be heat, right? Which meant blankets and hot water bottles and wet towels. And that also included hot baths, which she was giving to him right now as her hand-sponge- was going over his lean yet muscled build.

They used to give her baths when she was sick. Even when she wasn't, they would be preparing it for her with oils and scents etc. But they didn't know who she was. Did SHE know who she was? God! Things had been so much better when...

"I imagined this would be uncomfortable for you," a soft voice broke into her thoughts.

Sigyn snapped out of her stupor, her hand still under the running water. She turned off the tap and shucked her fingers dry.

"No it wasn't you. This...Bath giving reminded me of my old life. It just caught me off guard, thinking of stuff I haven't thought about in a while. It WAS perfect, but I don't know how much of it was the truth..." she stopped, realizing she was rambling on as her patient stranger had a cocked eye expression of surprise.

"I'm sorry I rambled on. You can lie here in for a while longer, I'll just go put your clothes out and then I'll come and get you." Sigyn pushed herself off the ledge of the tub and put back the supplies in the cabinet before leaving; turning off the lights as Loki still lay in the warm water, bathed in the gentle flickers of the candle flames.