Don't ever give me a history au prompt. I will be immediately distracted from everything else.

For this prompt: Okay, you know that scene in the movie where Loki argues with Thor about Jane not living that long and basically saying something to the effect of "It's never long enough!" It sounded to me like he was speaking from experience.

So, I want a fill where when he was younger, Loki had a relationship with a mortal. Like, he was head over heels, went down to Earth to live with them, stayed with them as they grew old kind of relationship (kids optional, but awesome).

Bonuses:
+ Loki shape-shifted into a woman while on Earth
+ his spouse dies from old age and Loki stays with them to the end
+ Odin, Thor and Frigga all come down at one point trying to tell Loki to come home, but Loki refuses
+ when he *does* come home, heartbroken, no one is Asgard is really aware how much he's hurting
+ Loki starts with the 'puny mortals' attitude after as a way to cope

/

She is awake, despite what the brothers believe; Jane just isn't able to move right now. She can feel the Aether running through her veins. Her body has gone into overdrive trying to keep it from taking over completely, but it is taking all of Jane's energy. Right now, Jane would be happy if she could sleep for a year straight. Thor places his cloak over her shoulders, its warmth embracing her, and Jane almost does drift off then.

Loki's voice, however, snaps her back to awareness, her whole body on alert for danger. "What I could do with the power that flows through those veins." Yeah right, bub. Loki isn't going to get his hands on anything this powerful if Jane can stop him.

"It would consume you," Thor retaliates. Jane mentally smiles.

"She's holding up alright, for now."

"She's strong in ways you'd never even know." Jane really wishes she could hug Thor right now.

"Say goodbye."

"Not this day."

"This day, the next, a hundred years is nothing. It's a heartbeat. You'll never be ready. The only woman whose love you prized will be snatched from you."

And now she wishes she could cover her ears. She's thought about it before, of course she has. During those two years Thor had been gone Jane had thought perhaps he hadn't come back because he couldn't face that they wouldn't have much time together. It hurt, it still hurts, and Jane really isn't sure if that pain will be worse than leaving him now, before she has to watch herself age while Thor remains the same. But right now they have to deal with Malekith, and she really doesn't need Loki bringing up this issue.

"And will that satisfy you?" Thor snaps at his brother.

"Satisfaction is not in my nature," Loki hisses back.

"Surrender not in mine."

"Do you think I speak of something I know nothing of?" Jane repeats the question in her head, but it still doesn't make sense.

"Loki," Thor breathes out, the anger draining from his voice.

"You have spent all of three days with her!" Loki's voice is a hostile whisper again, but there is something different about it, something almost genuine about the way it is breaking. "I spent a lifetime with Richard! I gave him children; our mingled blood still exists in the lines of royals to this day! You all tried to bring me home, told me what a foolish child I was. What makes you think your love for this mortal is purer than the love I had for mine?" By the time he finishes, Loki sounds like he may be crying. It is hard for Jane to imagine the man that tried to enslave humanity as capable of tears, yet that waver in his voice is hard to mistake.

"You were a child, Loki," Thor retorts. "What were we supposed to think?"

"I loved him!" Loki shouts back again. "I loved him, but when he was taken from me none of you cared! I ensured our children had a dynasty, and still you questioned my commitment to him."

"When you came back-"

"I was distraught! But you had already proven you thought so little of my choice, why would I confide in you?"

"Why must you twist everything?" Thor shouts back, more to be heard than out of anger. "I did not disapprove. I did not want you to be hurt." Something happens in the silence that hangs between them, something Jane isn't sure she'd understand even if she could open her eyes to see it. Thor whispers his brother's name as if he finally understands something that had long eluded him.

"Get off me, you oaf," Loki says after a long moment, but there is no bite in his voice.

They lapse into silence again after that. Jane knows there is a lot about the Æsir she does not know, but she is beginning to understand just how much that ignorance amounts to.

/

"Now we're trapped here."

Jane watches as Thor's shoulders slump. He had been so strong. After he had laid Loki's body out, Thor had taken a deep breath and forced himself to regain his composure. Jane could literally see him reminding himself that there was still a battle to be fought. But now there's nothing they can do, no way to get back to Earth, and the grief of losing both his mother and brother is weighing heavy on him.

She sits down on an outcropping of rock, mentally sighing in relief when Thor follows suit. "Hey, Thor, I know it's not really any of my business…" Jane starts hesitantly, then rethinks asking at all.

"What is it, Jane?" Despite everything, Thor is still patient.

"I heard what you are Loki were talking about on the boat."

"Jane." Thor's hand comes up to her cheek, his eyes worried. "You need not worry about that. I will find a way-"

Jane offers him a smile as she cuts him off. "That's not what I wanted to ask about." Although it makes her heart swell to know Thor is already thinking of ways to keep her with him. "Loki said he had a mortal lover? That his descendents were still royalty?"

There is a long pause. Thor's hand drops back by his side as he gathers his thoughts. Jane hopes that she is right, that by giving Thor a chance to talk about Loki he'll be able to channel some of his grief. They still need a way off this planet, but, well, Thor needs this as well.

But Thor doesn't answer. Jane shifts nervously beside him, calling herself an idiot. "It's okay. You don't have to talk about it."

"No." Thor shakes his head. "Loki…Loki was not always so spiteful. There was a time when he loved to visit the rest of the nine realms, including Midgard. During one of those trips he fell in love with a mortal while wearing the disguise of Jacquetta of Luxembourg. We thought it just a passing fascination, but it was not until much later we realized it was more than that."

/

You guys have no idea how excited I am to be doing another history au. I'll talk more about my process in the next chapter notes if anyone is interested.