Night had already settled over much of Asgard by the time Strax and Scathach finally returned to the mansion. The outing that had begun as a painfully obvious attempt to please her before asking for help had lasted much longer than he expected, and neither of them seemed particularly bothered by that. Scathach still carried the enormous, deformed white tiger plush under one arm, while the small silver hair clip remained slightly crooked in her hair. Strax knew perfectly well he could fix it in a few seconds, but decided to leave it exactly as it was. She clearly cared more about the fact that he had put it there than about how it actually looked.
They did not immediately go to their rooms. Instead, they ended up in one of the mansion's smaller sitting rooms, where a few armchairs stood near an open window overlooking the gardens. Scathach dropped the tiger onto one chair, sat in another, and crossed her legs while Strax remained near the window, watching the city lights.
