Disclaimer: I Own Nothing.
Warnings: Blatant Misuse of Mythology, First Time Writing DW/Avengers
Notes: Set post season two Doctor Who episodes "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel". It is pre-Thor movie canon. There is also elements of a Doctor Who audio play 'The Master' for background in the Doctor's life concerning the Master.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to Angela for being an awesome beta. Thanks to Ash for being a sounding board and making the awesome banner (which is hosted on my LJ). Callace for providing me with the translation for the title and some dialogue. (To any Norwegian speakers who might end up reading this fic, I do know that Dårlig is not correctly translated for the use of 'bad wolf' in which I have it. I choose to use it for the DW connection when in the episode 'Doomsday' Rose and The Doctor meet up in a place called 'Bad Wolf Bay' in Norway, which when Rose spoke the first word The Doctor mistook for Dalek.)
Chapter One:
Rose was so bored. It had been fun watching the Doctor run around all panicked and muttering for the first hour, but after hour five or six of the Doctor running around and muttering, tinkering with the TARDIS controls and messing up his hair so that it resembled more of a hedgehog than usual, well, Rose was bored.
"Doctor...maybe she just needs a rest you know? Getting on in years. Maybe you should just let her sleep, I'm sure there's lots of lovely planets around here." She knew she sounded like she was whining but really? She wanted out of here. The earth with the zeppelins had been an odd experience, seeing herself as a dog and yeah, so she'd thought she and the Doctor had been on their way back home. Apparently, the TARDIS wasn't quite as fixed as he'd hoped, because the dimension they'd landed in wasn't quite the right one.
Sure, apparently there was an Earth. In every dimension, there was an earth with lots of little humans he'd told her through sputtering's of odd alien curses and mutterings. Maybe this one even had its' own Rose, one that wasn't some prized poodle. And different planets, that apparently, The Doctor didn't want to visit. Strange.
"No, I'm sure I can fix it! She just needs a bit more love and she'll be right as rain in no time," he said, pulling at a wire. The room went dark. "No time at all."
Rose sighed and put her head in her hands.
They went to Asgard. The Doctor could have chosen from many places on the realm of the Gods to go to, but he and Odin were old friends, in every sense of the word. Different face and hundreds of years since he'd seen the Aesir King last but the man greeted him like an old friend...well, once he'd recognized him. Only took the sonic screwdriver to convince him to let off the Aesir guards that had quickly surrounded them when the TARDIS made her last sputtering stop into the golden realm.
Landed on the Bifrost Bridge, to his great surprise. Not many could accomplish that. Rose had stared in awe at the miles long bridge of pure rainbow colors looking out at the vast expanse of space. The beautiful towering golden city of the Aesir on the distant horizon. It had not taken Heimdall long to inform his King that they had visitors.
Odin had immediately called together all the Lords and Ladies of the Aesir to a great feast. Many of the warriors from the war that had started on Midgard with the Jotuns recalled the man with the amazing machine he called the TARDIS. The humans had worshipped them all as Gods for saving them from the giants and they themselves had been awed by the Gallifreyan. The Doctor, then four hundred years younger and many faces past, had offered to take the Allfather on the one time trip of a lifetime, to which he had graciously declined.
The Doctor had been in between companions when he'd stumbled through the cracks in the void to this dimension. It hadn't been the first time he'd been to alternate dimensions, and not the first time he'd been to this particular one; sometimes it was just fun to explore the depths in the universe that his own realm didn't fulfil. The Jotuns had just begun their invasion on Earth when the Doctor had arrived, saving Odin's life when the TARDIS had, quite accidentally through no fault of his won, landed where a Jotun about to slay the Aesir had been standing. Life depths made for fast friendships, as well as the appearance of a machine unlike anything the Aesir possessed.
The Jotuns had been threatening the Earth. It might not have been The Doctor's primary Earth but it was still Earth, with all those lovely little human brains. For months he'd helped Odin and his army to push back the Jotun invasion, staying until the very end.
Odin's father Bor had died in the beginnings of the Jotun war and he had been a young King, for all his six hundred years of life at the time. Brash and foolish, he had sought advice from the Doctor on what to do about a young child he'd found in the Jotun temple. He was newly married, with a young wife and a son of his own.
("I am weary of the fighting. And this child," he said, looking at the child which had turned from blue to the pale flesh of the Aesir, hair as dark as The Doctor's who was holding him. A natural shapeshifter, an ability which would make him easy to hide.
The TARDIS was one of the few places that Heimdall's reach could not see. The two men stood outside in a clearing, protected from the gatekeeper's view within a limited range of his ship, with fires from the village nearby lighting up the sky.
"I recognize the marks of Laufey, their king. This is his child. He had been abandoned there. For what purpose I do not know. It could have been that Laufey meant to protect the babe from the fighting going on outside his palace. He might have been left to die. He is small, for a giant. What should I do Doctor?"
Do not interfere. The laws of the Gallifreyans were clear. What is and what shall be must come to pass. The babe's innocent eyes looked at him and changed colors from blue to green. Some things are fixed in time.
"He is a prince. You are a King. Raise him as your own," he suggested. He could see the wheels turning in Odin's mind and choked down his regret.)
Rose looked all out of place and completely and utterly human next to the golden ladies of Asgard. Put her in a gown though and she'd fit right in, he thought. All pink and yellow. Her overalls were attracting attention from some of the maidens. Especially the Queen.
The Doctor had never met Frigga. He briefly recalled seeing young Thor with his nanny as he'd said goodbye to Odin for the last time, who'd been fascinated with the new baby brother his father had shown him, but the Queen had been absent from that farewell parting. She was tall and regal, with a cold countenance that spoke of buried affection. The perfect political woman. She greeted them warmly enough and had even deigned to smile at Rose. Who wouldn't though? Rose could get anyone to smile at her, lovely girl that she is. Even if she was dressed a bit funny for Aesir tastes. Stuffed up lords and ladies really, reminded him of Gallifrey. All a bit pomp and circumstance.
"Doctor, old friend, may I introduce my sons?" Two young men bowed briefly to them and stood up tall next to their father. "My eldest, Prince Thor Odinson, wielder of Mjlonir, forged by the dwarves and held only by those worthy of it." The broader male, with long golden locks and the beginnings of a scruffy beard greeted them warmly, bending down to kiss Rose's hand though she hadn't held it outstretched as per custom. She blushed furiously. He had a cheerful face and reminded The Doctor of the young Odin he had met, right down to the booming voice.
He needed no introduction to the second young man, younger by fifty years, roughly the equivalent of a two-year human span, Thor had been just a toddler in mind and body when Loki had been brought to Asgard. Surrounded by the golden haired Aesir, the dark haired, lanky young man, who looked all of sixteen human years old (and really he needed to stop hanging around humans so much. Brilliant creatures but he was beginning to think everyone looked human. Everyone should look Time Lord), stood out like a beacon and the air crackled around him with an energy only found in few realms. Magic.
"And this is my youngest. Prince Loki Odinson." The dark haired youth smirked at them; eyes alight with a certain curiosity. He did not kiss Rose's hand like Thor, but offered her a rose. An illusion of course. There was no matter to it. He did not yet have that kind of skill.
"Your namesake my lady." Rose giggled. The Doctor frowned. Really now...he was too young for her! Human years and all that, these two were practically babies compared to, well compared to all her twenty years.
"Hah! You seek to charm her with tricks brother," Thor's voiced asked in a jesting tone as Rose's hand went right through the flower. Loki's eyes were drawn to glare at his brother, missing Rose's frown.
Frigga interrupted them with a gentle hand on Rose's arm, "Lady Rose, I would offer you some clothes before we dine. I am afraid your traveling clothes a bit unsuited to the occasion."
Rose looked down at her overalls and pink t-shirt, then around at the ladies in their leathers and furs, braided hair and skirts. "Right...yeah I guess this is a bit...chav. Here. If it's not too much trouble?"
Frigga nodded her head to a handmaiden that had been standing behind her, off to the side. "No trouble. Sigrund will show you to a changing chamber. She will provide you with any help you require."
Rose turned to look at him; eyebrows almost all the way up on her forehead, "How did he do that?" She mouthed the words and signaled with her eyes towards the dark haired prince so that the Doctor was the only one who saw.
"Magical," he said, answering both her question and turning to address Odin and his sons, "So...what are we having? Do your people still do that roast boar with the cinnamon apples? Loved that...well, hated it really, but I can try it again. New tastes buds and all."
"Why, he is so small brother! I would think him related to you. Father has mentioned so many stories about his great warrior friend the Doctor; I had pictured him quite different. I can see not how he would have bested any frost giant, let alone an Aesir warrior in a fight," Thor said as they walked away to leave their father and his Gallifreyan friend to their conversation.
Loki rolled his eyes at the ceiling, his brother did not see the action, still muttering about slender warriors. He was not entirely wrong. Loki had also pictured his father's friend quite differently from the tales they had heard for so long. He felt odd, displaced; the magic in the air seemed to repel itself away from him as if it could not stand to touch the man. The Gallifreyans were a highly intelligent and skilled race of beings who possessed technology beyond what the Aesir could grasp. As a young child the Doctor stories had fascinated him to the point where he would dream that he lived in such a land.
He had imagined someone more somber, like a dusty old Olympian locked away in their great library of Alexandria on Olympus, but the man himself looked ordinary. Completely ordinary. Except for his eyes. They were old, older then even father's eyes. Loki wanted to know everything he'd seen. Everything he could do.
If father let him. He often showed his disapproval of his son's love of the magical arts over the more revered physical prowess of the famed Aesir warriors. Loki taught himself through books that he'd acquired through persuasion and flattery, a few words of admiration to a couple of Olympian maidens, coy glances to Atlantean sorcerers and he'd gotten many books that even Frigga did not have in her library. They were fascinating, holding more power the any creature could ever hope to achieve.
Rose...there was something odd about her. At first glance, she was a pretty, if somewhat ordinary Midgardian. He assumed Midgardian. He'd never before met one but she was no Aesir, for all her coloring, and she did not repel magic in the same way that his father's friend had. Picked up odd companions along the way, Odin had remarked at times when he told the tales. Her clothes were odd, her speech was short and clipped and she'd looked completely awed by the walls of the palace. No other being who lived in the Halls of the Gods would have ever gazed upon Asgard with such excitement and wonder.
Therefore, Midgardian was his closest guess. Warriors from the Great War said they lived in rags and huts with holes in their roofs to let out flames. The oddly rough material of her clothes seemed very close to rags in Loki's opinion.
Nevertheless, the humming. A song. It had come from around her, the back of her mind. What was it?
"Fandral," his brother's shout tore him from his musings. One of the Imbecile's Three was standing in the hall, waiting to greet his brother. Blonde and flirty, Loki could almost find his company tolerable at the best of times, about as much as his brother's friends found Loki to be, when his brother was not around to make them accept his being there.
Lady Sif was wearing a veil to cover her dark hair. She scowled at Loki for as long as her eyes could bear to look at him and then disregarded him from her attention. Volstagg was as ever, seated already in the hall, eagerly awaiting the meal. Hogun, the last of his brother's warrior friends had been sent off on a diplomatic mission to his own people. Pity, as he was the most likable of the three. He hardly spoke.
"Your highness," Fandral made a mocking bow to Loki, grinning all the while at Thor, "Heard some tale of some great honored guest? Who is it? An Elven princess? Talk of a betrothal a while back wasn't there?"
There had been. Until Loki had put a stop to that nonsense. Alfheim was a great forest of a planet and far too dirty. Magic was in great supply but the hidden passages he had begun to study in secret were far from plentiful on their realm. The elves had seen to closing them all years ago. Secretive creatures. Besides, she had been far too taken in by Thor.
"There was. But alas, it is not the Princess Freyja that is the guest. No! It is an honored friend of my father's. The Doctor!" Even Sif looked shocked and in awe at the name of the guest.
Loki smirked. There had been one thing he had forgotten, in his musings about the possible Midgardian woman and The Doctor. And that was his mysterious machine. A way to go between the passages in all realms and dimensions. And if father had not embellished, even time itself.
They had arrived by way of the Bifrost. Perhaps it was still there.
He wondered what it looked like.
"Magic? That boy did magic? Like real magic? Magic is real?" Rose was grinning from ear to ear. This place was gorgeous. The Doctor had taken her too many planets, planets made of sheer glass, planets with purple seas, but this? It was like something out of a dream of heaven. Perhaps it was. Realm of the Gods was what the Doctor had called it. He'd told her that his people had referred to this dimension as the 'Land of the Nine Realms', that he'd come here once or twice as a boy with other Time Lords who'd been fascinated by the differences in the rules of space in this dimension. Science versus magic. All very Harry Potter.
"Well...sort of. They name it magic. It's more like...highly advanced science based on genetics and universal trigger words and energy. Only a certain few can use it. And not many to that level. It's hard stuff. Gallifreyans...we can't use it. Our bodies repel it like a bad case of the flu. Had a friend who tried once. Nearly blew up his own TARDIS attempting it! Science and magic just do not mix well, not for the lack of trying. Only a few known devices in any universe have created any sort of stability between the two. Odin's got a few of them locked in his weapon's vault I believe. Brilliant stuff. " Odin had promised to have escorts waiting to come take them to the dining hall once Rose was finished dressing.
Sigrund plucked a flower from a vase on the vanity table, placing the pink colored rose into the braid she had made of Rose's blonde hair. The golden gown that she was wearing had been quickly fitted to Rose's body, one of the Queen's own. Pink and yellow. If he hadn't known, he'd never have picked her apart from any other Aesir.
"Certain few? Like Gods? Are they really Gods?" The Doctor chuckled. Gods...oh the arrogance of the creatures on this realm. Planet. All of them, from the Aesir down to the Atlantean people. Save some humans from some invaders, do a bunch of fancy tricks, have advantages of use of the Bifrost Bridge and able to convince simple minded humans that you're Gods. Never let it be said the people of this planet didn't have ego trips.
"No Rose. They're not. Your ancestors referred to them as Gods because they seemed like saviors, and the people here, well...quite a bit of plucked up stuffed shirts. And they live very long lives. Like Gallifreyans, without the advantage of the multiple get out of death free cards. But they can age, and they do die. And just like humans they have their own tales. Valhalla, the Valkyries, all that, their versions of heaven and angels. It's where the start of your Norse myths came from."
"You seem to like the King well enough," Rose pointed out, "And he seems to like you. Helped him in a war? What war?"
There was so much she didn't know about him, so much he'd done. She had always thought that the Time War had been a one-time event, the only time that he'd had to fight a full-scale invasion of any magnitude. The Cybermen had begun to open her eyes to just how much his life had been lived without her; how long and complicated it had been.
"Just a war. Long time ago. Over now. And I do. He's a good man, Odin. Makes some mistakes of course, all Kings do. But he's well enough for an Aesir. More tolerable then Zeus, now there's an arrogant, entitled little sot," The Doctor said, recalling the Olympian King. Good enough that they'd landed on the Bifrost, directly onto Aesir territory. He'd had way too many problems and debts with Zeus. And he wouldn't trust Rose within two million miles of that philanderer.
"Zeus," Rose laughed. Zeus, Greek God. One of the few mythological figures she actually knew of. Of course he was real. Who and what else was real?
Sigrund patted her on the shoulder to signal that she was all finished, stepping away to curtsy then leave. The escorts would be here soon to escort them to the dining hall. Dining with royal aliens. Her life had become so fascinating.
The food was horrid. Seriously? Didn't they have any fish and chips? The meat had been slathered in some sort of rich, thick honey and apples that had stuck to the roof of her mouth. She had seen the Doctor grimace as he picked at it, but they'd both done their best to be polite enough. Not the most discreet person, trying to push the small bits of meat into her napkin without notice. Prince...Loki? Was that his name? The magic one had seen her, but he'd said nothing. He seemed to only be picking at his own food himself. No wonder he was so skinny.
He stuck out worse than she did, she thought. Everyone in this hall was buff and blonde, a few smatterings of red hair and freckles, but mostly, blonde and tanned. He and the Doctor looked more related with their dark hair then he and his brother. Did they have hair dye in this city? Some teenage rebellion? Expression of individuality?
They were sitting with the royal family. Well sort of. There didn't seem to be individual tables with place settings like all the fancy parties, well the one fancy party she'd been to and the others she'd seen on the telly. The table was rounded and the benches went all around the hall, like a great big table of Camelot. Only the first ten seats were actual chairs, made of solid gold. For the royal family and its guests. She and The Doctor had been given two of the chairs and three of the last four had been reserved for 'the greatest young warriors of the realm'. Thor had introduced them with the moniker; Loki had given their actual names.
Fandral looked like he was about fourteen, wisps of blonde scruff coming in and curly hair, all he was missing to complete the image were spots. Maybe the Aesir didn't have to deal with pimples. He had flirted with her in a truly disastrous manner, using what must have been the Asgardian pick up line that mirrored, 'did it hurt when you fell from heaven?' It was a wonder the TARDIS could translate for her even this far away from where they had parked on.
Volstagg was fat. Truly fat. Fat layered over what had to be pure muscle. He seemed like a red haired Sumo wrestler, but he was a cheerful enough guy. Acted like any old bloke down at the pub during a game night, the Asgardian food substituting for the fish and chips. He seemed a bit older then Thor and Loki, around her own age. And Sif, the only girl that had been introduced to her at the table was dressed in a tight fitting, leather-outfitted dress. She was tall, muscled and looked at Rose with something vaguely like scorn. Her hair was covered with some type of gold veil, maybe that was a warrior female practice here? There didn't seem to be many of them around.
"It is truly a great honor to meet you Doctor," one of the warriors sitting on the benches said to her grinning mate, "We have heard many tales of your bravery and valor from the Allfather."
"Valor? Well, yes, actually that is the right word for it," The Doctor replied, that smug tone of his creeping into his voice. Rose rolled her eyes out of fondness for her alien, "What have you heard?"
"Why we have heard that you stood in a circle of Jotuns to protect one lone Midgardian. That you drove them away with some sort of small weapon," Thor's friend Sif told him. Her voice was smooth, with a hint of disbelief.
"Do you still have it my friend? Loki would be fascinated by it, wouldn't you son?" It was the King who interrupted them this time, looking up from his plate of roasted boar. For the first time since they had entered the dining hall the younger prince actually looked interested in the proceedings around him, not lost in his own head. Thor raised an eyebrow at his father, chewing his food loudly.
"A weapon father? What possible interest would I have in a weapon? That's Thor's area of expertise," there was a slight hint of sarcasm in his tone, but Thor was nodding his head in agreement with his brother.
"Oh it's not much of a weapon. Not violent at all." The Doctor reached into his trench coat, and really, why did she have to change, but he was allowed to always be in the same ratty trainers and flasher brown coat? He pulled out the very familiar sonic screwdriver, throwing it to Loki.
"Go on; see if you can work it." Loki smirked at the challenge in his voice, looking to study the small screwdriver. Rose had never seen anyone other than the Doctor be able to turn it on. Jack had tried many times. It would seem like all you'd need to do was push a button, but no. Bit more complicated than that.
Or not. The sound of a shrill noise filled the hall, one she was used to but still sent a shiver down her spine like nails on a chalkboard. The entire hall had covered their ears.
"Clever. The red button on the side is flesh locked right?" His right hand was a few shades darker than the rest of him. Like the color of the Doctor's skin.
"DNA still on there was it?" The color faded from his hand and the screwdriver turned itself off. The people in the hall slowly moved their hands from their ears.
"Only a little," he said, handing it back to the Doctor, leaning back into his chair. His green eyes glittered with amusement. He looked like the Doctor every time he came across some weird new alien. Little boy in a candy shop.
"Brilliant you are." There were frowns on many of the faces in the hall and Sif was openly glaring at the young prince. "See, not much of a weapon. Just a shrill noise. They couldn't stand it! After an hour or two of hearing it and me blabbering they just walked away."
"So, you are more of a wordsmith then a warrior then? The Allfather portrayed you in a different light," the first warrior from before spoke up. Rose frowned. Was that supposed to make the deed less awesome? He'd saved a life after all.
The banter in the hall slowly erupted back to its former merriment but Rose looked around her at the lords and ladies. Their previous awe of her Doctor was now lessened; the air of welcome towards him had changed. Only one was still looking at him with any sort of curiosity at all. She met his green eyes with her own.
Valhalla was for once smiling on him. It was not anywhere near where Heimdall could actually converse with him, far enough parked on the Bifrost Bridge that he could study it in peace. The vessel was not much to look at. Like the shrieking weapon the Doctor had tossed him earlier that night, it was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Blue and wooden, he studied the inner workings of the lock on the door carefully. A lot smaller then he expected. He had thought it would be a huge ship, but this tiny vessel seemed barely enough to carry one, let alone the Doctor and his Midgardian companion.
But he could feel it. It was old and powerful. Much more powerful than the weapon the Doctor carried around with him. Loki traced the wood with his hands. Yes, powerful, and alive. He could hear her in his head, speaking to him. The Alltonuge, the Aesir's ability to understand many languages, failed to translate her song, but no matter. He preferred the challenge of figuring out how she worked by his own wits. He knew the inner workings of the shadow paths, but how did she find the paths of time?
"You know, if you wanted to see it, could have just asked. He'd be glad to show it off. Loves it in fact," a female voice was behind him. How had she gotten there? How had she snuck up on him?
She had redressed herself in the rags that she had been wearing when she arrived and her blonde hair was coming loose from the carefully done braid his mother's handmaiden had tied it in. She was smiling at him. Curious girl.
"Perhaps I wanted to steal it," he quipped, turning around to face her. She laughed, as though she knew it had been meant only as a jest. Most would have taken it for truth.
"Steal it? Please, you wouldn't steal it. You want to know how it works too much," she said, walking over. She leaned against the wood, her arms crossed across her chest. Far to close to him. He stepped back, away from her and the machine.
"You figure that how?" It was true of course, but it was simply amazing that this Midgardian girl could have deduced that from the small time she had spent in his company.
"Cause you're a genius. And so is he. All of you geniuses have the same quirky, "I need to know' attitude. You've been dying to see it ever since we got here right?"
He could not suppress the smirk from appearing on his lips. Smart girl. The Doctor did not choose his companions as lightly as his father had assumed.
"It is fascinating. Father told me it travels through time. Not even the darkest of magical tomes can accomplish that miracle."
"Freaky is what it is. But worth it," she said, "Do you want to see inside it?"
She was offering to let him inside the Doctor's vessel. How much trust did he place in her? Was she truly as smart as he had first thought of her, to be so flippant with the offer? He frowned.
"He told me you could see it. Figured out that you'd be here. Said, 'Long as he doesn't try any of his magic tricks in there he can look at whatever he wants." She took out a key from her pocket.
He did want to see inside it, but what could there be? It was so small. So fragile looking. She opened the door, gesturing for him to follow her. A prince, following a mortal. How they would scoff at him. He did so regardless. The inside stunned him, he felt his breath catch in his throat at the sheer size of it. His face must have reflected the mortal's own awe at the sight of Asgard.
Illusion. The outside was an illusion. Illusions he knew well.
Somehow, it was alot more fun watching the young prince tinker around the TARDIS then it had been the Doctor. The awe and curiosity on his face was fascinating to watch as he wandered around from room to room and studied the walls and console, the unbridled joy of exploring something completely new and exciting. Like how she felt everytime she went off to a new planet of time with the Doctor. Awed. Sometimes Loki close his eyes as if he was listening to something. Huh. Maybe she was talking to him?
Rose could remember sometimes, vaguely, at night while she slept, the voice of the TARDIS calling to her, 'Bad wolf. Bad wolf.' What was he hearing?
"Having fun?" It had been a few hours. He'd entirely forgotten she was here, or so it seemed. Lost in his own world. She wondered if maybe there was a bit of Time Lord in this one. Head in the clouds, just like her Doctor.
"Fun?" It was asked like he was chocking down some bad tasting medicine. Or the food from dinner.
"Yes fun. Bouncing all around, studying all this stuff. Your eyes are all happy looking. Like a little boy. It's cute. You look like the Doctor. Gets all smug when he's figuring out things the rest of us little humans with our little human brains can't," she joked, sitting on one of the bars around the main entrance. He was standing near the heart of the TARDIS.
"I am studying my lady," he told her, reproachful. She giggled. The look on his face reminded her of a puppy. Trying so hard to be serious when it was clear he was having the time of his life.
"Studying," she said, plastering on her own serious face, "and having fun. Admit it."
"I admit that I am fascinated. Fun is for other pursuits. This is knowledge. It is more than fun," he told her.
He and the Doctor talking at the same time would probably drive her nuts. She could just picture it, a little protégé for her alien. She loved being with him on her own, but at times she knew she didn't understand him. It made her miss Jack. Jack had been as human as she had but so much more advanced. Just as alien.
"How old are you? The Doctor said you guys live a long time. And seems he and your father fought in a war...what? Hundreds of years ago? Are you like sixteen?" Did their race just stop aging at a certain point? She hadn't seen any old men or women in the dining hall.
"Do I look like a toddling babe to you? I am over four hundred years old," he snapped, offended.
She studied him. He looked younger than her and she knew she didn't look her own twenty years on good days, "Guess you aliens age slower then."
He nodded, "Yes. We do. I had forgotten. You mortals live such short lives. Fifty years to us can be the same as one in your lifespan."
They did. Ninety years use to seem like an eternity to her. Now it seemed like nothing. Not enough time.
"So...did you and that...Sif lady have a bad break up or something? I don't think I've ever seen someone look daggers like that at anyone that wasn't a bad breakup," she asked, trying to defuse the ice. He seemed...lonely. No one at the dinner table besides his family and The Doctor had spoken to him. Thor's friends seemed content to ignore him and the warrior girl, whose gaze had been filled with anger when it had fallen on Loki.
"Never mind. None of my business," she said quickly at the sight of him frowning at her and who knew what kind of magic he could do if he got angry enough. Maybe he could make her mute or something?
"I cut her hair." He went back to studying the heart of the TARDIS. What? Cut her hair? So, she was bald or something? Explained the veil then.
"It will grow back. It's hair. Bit silly to be so angry about. Why'd you do it?"
He looked up at her again and his eyes had lost their intensity. They stared at her in surprise. "Beg pardon?"
"Why did you do it? You did have a reason didn't you?" His expression had softened. He really didn't look four hundred years old with that look.
"No one has ever asked if I had a reason."