I've been imagining this story for a while, so I thought "Why not let others read it?" So here it is.

Summary: Loki dreams about a Midgardian woman. But what he doesn't know is that she dreams about him, too. And she will be the one who teaches him what it means to belong, to live, and to love.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Thor or Avengers worlds or any of the characters, except my OCs.

333333333333333

Chapter 1: First Meeting

Loki stared up at the ceiling of his cell, thinking back on the events of that day. Thor had brought him back to Asgard after the war on Earth. The reunion was hardly pleasant. Frigga had run up to him, hugging him tightly as tears fell from her eyes like small waterfalls. Sif and the Warriors Three had simply glared at him with pure hatred, not having forgotten the battle in New Mexico against the Destroyer where he had almost killed them.

And then there was Odin. The man he had known for so long as his father. The man who had lied to him about what he really was. The man he had tried so hard to please, but only disappointed even more. Loki couldn't speak due to the metal gag on his face. So he only gave Odin a look. It was a mix of past love and current hate, of longing to please and squashed hope, of triumph and surrender. Odin had just stared back stoically. Loki couldn't tell what he was thinking, and he didn't want to.

That had been in the morning. Now it was the evening. The rest of the day had consisted of Thor's account of the battle in New York, seeing to the protection of the Tesseract, and Loki being escorted to his prison. Here he was to wait until Odin decided on his punishment. He knew that banishment wasn't an option. No one would want him running around freely on another realm causing mischief. He probably wouldn't even be allowed to go anywhere or do anything here on Asgard. He would most likely be stripped of his magic and locked up for the rest of his miserable existence.

I wish Odin had left me to die that day, he found himself thinking. He quickly shook that thought from his head. Even the life he had as a pretend son of Odin was better than whatever fate awaited a deformed son of the Frost Giants' king.

Loki didn't mean to fall asleep. He actually had planned to stay awake the entire night so that he could sleep tomorrow away and not have to worry about confronting anyone, especially Thor or Odin. But as the time passed, his eyelids grew heavy and began to fall. He was out within minutes. He had never really dreamed before, so he certainly wasn't expecting what happened next.

There was fog all around at first. He kept walking, hoping to find a way out of it. And he did. He soon found himself in a large meadow. A river ran by on his left. Pine trees grew around the field of green grass. A slight wind blew, ruffling his hair. He just stood and looked around. He had no idea why he was dreaming about this place, and he hoped he woke up soon. He turned so that he faced the way he had come. That was when he saw hercoming out of the trees.

She was young, probably in her early twenties by Midgardian years. Her light brown hair was pulled back into a clumsy braid and fell one-third of the way down her back. Her dress was plain white, obviously not made of fancy cloth, short sleeved and not quite reaching her ankles. She had nothing on her feet. What skin he could see was the pale color of a sickly person, who had not seen a lot of sun either, marked with bruises and cuts that looked slightly infected. He caught glimpses of what looked like syringe marks, however he couldn't tell for sure what they were. But what caught his attention the most was her eyes.

They weren't really blue, but neither were they green. More like an odd mixture of the two colors. They held a look that said she had seen more that most people twice her age would ever dream of witnessing, terrible things. And yet she still retained a spark of something that defied everything negative. They were full of wisdom and knowledge beyond her years. And they were full of bright life. They were the most beautiful he had ever seen. Those eyes locked with his, and the woman froze.

Loki could feel something different in the air around him. It was as if he could sense her emotions, what she was thinking. She was afraid. She wasn't sure if she should approach him or run away. She wondered if he would hurt her or help her. Loki took a step toward her, and she took a step back.

"I mean you no harm," Loki said. She stopped.

"Not yet anyway."

Her voice was like the song of a bird that had known freedom all its life and suddenly found itself in a small cage, locked away in a dark room. Her words took him by surprise.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

The air changed once again. She was still frightened, but was also trying very hard to be brave. "You are curious about me. You don't know what to think of this strange creature before you. And a part of you doesn't really care. You are surrounded by darkness and it is slowly eating away at your heart, at everything good that you once knew. You are bitter from imagined wrongs committed against you and misinterpreted words and actions. And now you are angry because you know I speak the truth."

Loki was indeed angry. Who was this woman to speak as if she knew him? Who was she to say that he had imagined all of those crimes against him, the rightful ruler of Asgard?

"What makes you think you know anything about me?" He spat out the words as if they were poisonous.

"I can sense it," she replied, "just as you can sense my fear."

That caught him off-guard. So he hadn't imagined that at least.

"Who are you?" he asked. "What is your name?"

She was hesitant. She wasn't sure if she could trust this mystery man. So many people, strangers, had hurt her recently that she didn't know if she could trust anyone.

"Emma."

She had decided to trust him.

"And you are?"

Loki wasn't sure why he chose to do what he did next. But if she could trust him, the God of Lies and Mischief, knowing what she knew and seeing what she had seen, then he could trust her.

"Loki."

The fog rolled in and Loki lost sight of Emma. The last thing he saw was her beautiful eyes.

Loki opened his own eyes and found himself staring up at the ceiling of his cell. He sat up and rubbed his forehead.

Just a dream.

At the same time, in a secret laboratory on Earth, a human woman woke up. Emma stared through the bars of her small cage and thought back to the man she had seen. Loki, as he had identified himself. The man with a dark, broken heart but eyes that shined like emeralds.

Just a dream.

33333333333333333

So what do you think so far? Please review and let me know.