To Teach a Trickster

When morning arrived, Jane watched as Loki shuffled into the kitchen and stopped next to the table. He was still in his pajamas, which was unusual. Normally he made an effort to get dressed before coming to the table each morning. He still looked like he had been through a wringer: his hair stuck up in every direction, his clothes wrinkled, and his eyes and face were still puffy and red from the events of the night before. She noticed also that his left hand was subtly rubbing at his rear. For a few minutes, he studied the chair in front of him before slowly looking over at Jane, a soured expression on his face.

Hiding a smile, Jane cleared her throat and walked to the living room. When she returned she placed a pillow on the seat of Loki’s chair. The trickster stared dangerously at her and then eased down on the seat, wincing as he did so.

“Ready for breakfast?”

Loki didn’t say anything. Instead, he just sat and stared at his hands splayed out on the table. “Okay, we’re not talking today.” Jane set a plate of bacon, eggs, and toast in front of him. She put a plate of the same in front of her chair and sat down. Loki poked at a piece of bacon with his finger. “You can sulk all you want, but your little trick isn’t going to work on me.”

Loki balled his fist and slammed it down on the table hard enough to rattle the dishes. He glared at her, his nostrils flaring.

Jane held up a warning finger. “Ah-ah, we’re not going to have any of that today. You’re already sore enough as it is, I don’t think you want to try for more. But I’m not opposed to giving you more if that’s what you want.”

Loki nervously shifted in his chair and winced, angrily grabbing a fork and stabbing at the eggs on his plate. He hated not being in control. Anger bubbled inside of him and he wanted to lash out. He wanted to tell this mortal what he truly felt, but he kept himself in check, if not for anything else but to ensure that she wouldn’t spank him again.

“Loki, I’m gonna have to go to the store this afternoon,” said Jane, scooping eggs onto her fork. “Darcy is going to come by and keep an eye on you while I’m gone.”

Loki glanced over at her.

“No, she isn’t going to take you out of the apartment. You’ve lost my trust after what you pulled yesterday. You aren’t getting out of here for a long time. Unless you can prove to me that you’re going to behave.”

Loki huffed, stabbing more of his food with his fork, making more of a mess than actually eating it.

“And don’t you dare try to trick Darcy again.” she shook a finger at him. “If you do, I’m going to take that ruler to your butt again when I get home, and you won’t be sitting down for the rest of this week.”

Loki continued to stare at her.

“You would enjoy that, wouldn’t you?” he finally said in a bitter, disdainful tone, barely above a whisper.

“No, I wouldn’t. I’m not a cruel person, Loki. I don’t get any sort of pleasure out of spanking you, and I don’t enjoy causing you pain. You’re the one who brings pain on yourself. You need to learn to think about the consequences of your actions before you do them. I spanked you last night because you did bad things and have gotten too out of control. As long as you’re staying here in this apartment, you’re going to learn how to be respectful of others, behave, and act like somebody. You’re mortal now, so you’re going to have to be careful what you do. Do you want to go off on your own and end up getting killed?” Loki remained quiet. “I don’t want that happening. I also don’t want to have to bail you out of jail, or whatever other trouble you get into. You’re my responsibility now since Thor put me in charge of you. We’re gonna have to learn to live and work together if we’re ever going to make this whole thing work. So if I have to heat your bottom with my ruler in order to get through to you, then I’m going to do it. You’re going to learn that bad boys get spanked.”

Loki pouted at her words.

She smiled and squeezed his arm. “I’m sorry it has to be like this. Believe me, it’s a… bit embarrassing.”

“You’re embarrassed? What about me? Being spanked like a…” Loki lowered his gaze. “Like a child.”

“You act like one.” she skritched at his arm. “Whether you like it or not, the punishment fits.”

He scowled.

“Are you going to eat that or are you going to keep on mangling it?” she said with a smile, pointing at Loki’s plate.

After breakfast was out of the way, Loki shaved, took a shower, and got dressed for the day, eventually settling himself on the couch in the living room to watch TV until Darcy came and it was time for Jane to leave for the store. The trickster didn’t stir a muscle when the knock sounded on the door. He just kept his eyes glued on the screen in a silent, gloomy pout.

“I hope I’ll be able to do this today. I stayed up all night studying,” Darcy was saying as she walked into the living room, right before a big yawn. Jane put a finger to her mouth and made a shush gesture, and then pointed in Loki’s direction.

“He’s touchy and upset about last night, just to warn,” she whispered. Darcy held back a smile, nodding that she understood. “I’m hoping he won’t be much trouble this time. He shouldn’t be, after our talk. But if he does give you any, just send him to his room and I’ll deal with him when I get back.”

“But what if he doesn’t obey?”

Jane’s eyes glanced over to the couch then back at Darcy. “Threaten him with the ruler. It’s lying on the coffee table. He’s terrified of that thing now, so it should work.”

Darcy nodded.

“I won’t be long,” said Jane, louder, shutting the door.

“Sooooo,” Darcy threw her purse on the floor and sat down in one of the chairs, looking over at the TV screen. “Whatcha watching?”

There was no answer. She glanced over at Loki and saw he was fast asleep, hugging one of the throw pillows. She smiled and then yawned. She felt like doing the same thing herself since she didn’t get much sleep the night before. Since the trickster looked like he wasn’t going to move for awhile, she got comfortable in her chair, sleep overcoming her a few minutes after.

Loki cracked an eye open and looked over at Darcy, smiling when he saw her mouth standing wide open, faintly snoring. He quietly sat up and got to his feet, all the time keeping his eyes on the girl. Slowly and carefully he made his way over to the door. Stealing another glance over his shoulder to make sure Darcy was still asleep, he eased the locks open and then finally the door itself and slipped through and out into the hallway.


When Jane came home a couple of hours later, she was met with a crowd of people crammed into the second-floor hall. Everyone was agitated. Some were angry. Some shouted at each other. She wasn’t sure what it was all about, but she didn’t really care. Maybe someone’s laundry got mixed up, who knows? All she knew was that she was tired and wanted to get home. She pushed her way through the crowd until she arrived at the last apartment at the end of the hall, unlocked the door, and stepped in, juggling grocery sacks as she went.

“Jane!” Darcy greeted her. “I am so glad you’re home.”

The words weren’t comforting. Jane immediately rolled her eyes, dreading what was going to come next.

“What’s he done now?” Jane asked.

“He snuck out of the apartment when I dozed off and switched all of the numbers on this floor,” said Darcy hastily. “It’s a good thing I woke up when I did and was able to catch him, otherwise the whole building would be in a state of confusion right now.”

“Is that…” Jane pointed at the door.

Darcy slowly nodded. “They’re still trying to get the mess straightened out. It was crazy earlier. People were going in the wrong apartments. People were screaming. Doors slamming. I think some guy down the hall got punched in the face by an elderly woman. The landlord’s been up here about twenty times in the last hour alone, trying to figure out everything and calm tempers.”

“Where is he?”

“The man that woman hit or the landlord?” Darcy gave her a weird look.

“No, the one responsible for this. His Majesty, the God of Mischief.”

“In his room,” Darcy pointed toward the hall. “I’ve been standing guard until you got home to make sure he doesn’t sneak out again.”

Jane shoved the grocery sacks in Darcy’s arms and stormed off to Loki’s room. She banged on the door and jiggled the knob, but it was locked. She banged on it again.

“Loki, open this door right now! You’re in enough trouble as it is. Don’t make it worse.”

Silence met her for a few seconds. Then she heard the knob slowly unlock and turn from the other side. She shoved it open and barged in before Loki could finish opening it. The trickster quickly ran to the other side of the room and pushed himself against the closet door as if he could succeed in melting into the woodwork.

“Come here,” Jane commanded. She pointed at the floor in front of her. “Here, NOW!”

Loki swallowed and slowly walked forward, stopping where she pointed. She reached out and snatched his arm and dragged him with her.

“No, no! What are you going to do?” he nervously asked as he was dragged through the living room. He used his free hand to shield his backside. Darcy still stood in the middle of the room with her hands full of grocery sacks, watching the whole scene in amusement.

“You’re going to go out there and help them put the numbers back on the right apartments,” Jane answered, opening the door and shoving Loki out into the crowd. She turned to address all of her neighbors. “Here’s the man responsible for switching our numbers. He’s really sorry for the mix-up and kindly volunteers to help you put the right numbers back on the right doors.”

Loki’s cheeks blushed when everyone turned to look at him. Some glared angrily as if they could rip him apart with their stare alone.

“Go on,” Jane whispered, secretly giving Loki’s backside a firm swat to spur him forward. He was still sore from the night before, so he winced and placed his hands behind him to shield his sensitive area from any more smacks she might have in mind to give him. He turned an annoyed look to her, his cheeks blushing a deeper red. He mouthed something like, “Not here.” She nodded for him to go help the people.

Sighing, Loki gave in and helped. Jane made sure to stand in the doorway of her apartment and watch, keeping an eye on Loki to make sure he didn’t try to sneak away. When the task was completed and everyone went back to their own apartments, Loki shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and slowly walked over to her.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” she said, her arms crossed over her chest.

Loki gave a quick shrug, not bothering to look up from the floor. “Ar-are you going to spank me?”

Jane slowly nodded.

Loki nudged the floor with his shoe.

“Go to your room.” she quietly said.

He sniffed back a tear and walked past her.

Jane closed the door and turned an exasperated look to Darcy.

“You’re really gonna spank him again?” she asked.

“Yes, I am,” Jane answered, walking over and picking up the ruler from the coffee table. She looked it over, thinking. “He needs to learn that he’s going to get one whenever he does bad things. Hopefully, in time, he’ll start acting his age.”

“That’ll be the day,” Darcy said with a snort and a laugh.

“I can at least attempt to make some sort of headway with him,” Jane replied. “At least he knows who’s in charge around here now.”

Jane threw the ruler down on the table and walked toward Loki’s room. She entered and closed the door behind her. Seeing Jane enter, Loki got up from the bed and backed up into the corner. Jane walked toward him. Neither said a word for the longest time, but just stood and stared, both expecting the other to make the first move.

“Why did you do it?” Jane asked, breaking the silence.

Loki shrugged. “I was bored. I thought it’d be fun.”

Jane bent over and picked up a book from the floor and tossed it on the bed. Loki’s eyes followed it.

“That’s a book, Loki. I gave it to you so you wouldn’t be bored. And I also have a TV in the living room. That also helps to relieve boredom. I have tons of DVDs and Netflix. You can use them anytime you wish. But what do you do? You go out and you take off all the numbers on every apartment on this floor and you switch them.”

Loki kept silent, looking down at the floor.

“What’s more is that you disobeyed me, again, by going out of the apartment.”

Loki swallowed. “I wasn’t going to leave the building. I just took the numbers off. I would have returned to the apartment.”

“That doesn’t make it acceptable, Loki, and you know that. You still disobeyed me by setting foot out of the apartment without my consent. Disobeying is disobeying. For that, you get punished. I’m shocked that I have to do this again this soon. Didn’t you listen to anything I said to you at breakfast?”

Loki sniffed, his eyes beginning to water.

“Unzip your pants,” said Jane when Loki refused to reply. “Let’s get this over with so we can move on.”

Loki hesitated then did as she said. She firmly took him by the arm and seated herself on the bed and threw him over her left knee as she had done before. Loki was already whimpering. Jane grabbed hold of his jeans and pulled them down to his thighs, leaving his boxers in place.

“Nooo, please don’t,” said Loki, kicking and throwing his hands back to cover his rear. “I’m still sore from last night.”

“You should have thought of that before you went off on your little mischievous adventure,” she replied, removing his hands and pinning them under him. “Did you honestly think you would get away with it? Were you trying to test me?”

“N-no!”

“I think you were.” She pulled his boxers tight so that the curve of his rear was visible through them. “Well, mister, you’re going to learn right now that you’re going to get spanked every time you do something like this; I don’t care how sore you are prior. Like I said this morning, your bad actions are going to reap unpleasant consequences.”

Loki squinted his eyes closed, expecting to feel the bite of the ruler, but what came instead was Jane’s hand coming down with a crisp pop right across both of his cheeks. She quickly fell into a steady stream of hard smacks administered one after the other over every inch of his rear, not missing his under curve. She laid down close to twenty or thirty slaps before she stopped.

“Owwwww…” Loki sniveled. It wasn’t as painful as the ruler, he admitted, but it still hurt, especially compiled with the soreness that had been there before it. The short spanking was just enough to reignite the old sting, even through his underwear.

“Are you sorry for what you did?” Jane asked. When Loki refused to answer she delivered another hard smack to his sensitive underside.

“Ouch! Yes!” he wailed out. “Yes, I’m sorry! I won’t ever do it again, I swear!”

Jane doubted that he was telling the truth, but she would accept it anyway. She nodded and pulled his pants back up and patted his back.

“You can get up now.” she said.

Loki scrambled to his feet and fumbled to zip up his jeans. He looked at her, curious as to why she had been so lenient on him.

“Th-that was it?” he asked, rubbing his bottom tenderly.

Jane smiled at his expression. “Part of your punishment was correcting what you did, in this case helping to replace the numbers on the correct doors. I thought I would go easy on you when it comes to the spanking part.” She held up a finger. “But don’t you think for a minute that you’ll get off this easy every time.”

Loki nodded, sniffling.

“If you ever pull something like this again, I’ll use my ruler instead of my palm. And you won’t be able to sit down for a very long time, understand?”

Loki nodded.

Jane got up and squeezed his arm lovingly. “I want you to stay here in your room until lunch is ready. While you’re here, I want you to think about everything that’s happened since last night. And I mean really think about it.”

With that, Jane disappeared out the door and closed it behind her. Loki sniffled, giving his bottom another good rub. He turned to look out the window and thought over things. How is it that he ended up in this situation again?—two spankings in not even a day’s time. He admitted to himself that he had made a very stupid mistake that afternoon, one of which he wouldn’t be making again. He had been so angry that he hadn’t thought things through, and it had cost him. He rubbed the underside of his bottom while he thought of that cost. All of this threw a wrench into his plans. How was he ever going to get out of the apartment now? Since Jane now held the threat of spanking over his head, it was going to be awfully hard.

He sniffed a few tears back and looked toward the door. He hated admitting it, but he deserved both of those spankings. Jane was trying to be nice to him, even giving him a room to stay in, and he had manipulated her, disobeyed her, and lied to her all within several days. He was a bit ashamed at the way he had acted. What’s more, he was ashamed that she had to stoop to spanking him for those actions.

Sighing, he leaned against the wall. He was going to have to be more careful from now on.

Notes