Loki watched Soma, picking up those small hints of illness. While he had a new game to play, a new board to set up, he had ever intention of setting it to keep her safe. Perhaps it was foolish that he'd allowed himself to become even slightly attached to a mortal, but it also felt very good to have someone who wanted to tell him that things were all right even when they obviously weren't.

He slowly sat back down. "No," he agreed quietly. "I don't think there is anything I could have done. But I'm still very... angry about it." For all that his voice was quiet, for a moment the intensity of his hatred shone through.

He was about to say something out, to ask her how she was when the stretched-out buffoon of the night before arrived. That the young man seemed to feel at liberty to just come tramping up and sitting next to her made him feel oddly jealous. The look the Once-ler gave him was expected, and Loki stared back at him unblinkingly. Slowly, he picked his fork back up.

"I am terribly sorry about that," he said after a moment. "I don't normally cut people to ribbons like that."