For I'm from Germany and was unfortunately unable to find a beta, please excuse possible mistakes :) (and point them out to me, so I can correct them^^)

And, by the way, I let Loki win the battle at New York :)

An Example of Mankind

When my mind kicked back in I knelt on a hotel room floor sucking a god's cock.

I hadn't blacked out or something, I knew exactly where I was and how I'd come here, but for the first time in the last days I wondered, if it was right what I did.

But from the start.

Only a couple of days ago I'd been just a normal girl, a twenty-year-old New Yorker exchange student in Germany. I study Arts and was in Stuttgart for half a year.

xXx

It was my last evening in Stuttgart, my plane would leave the next day at eleven o'clock. I went trough the streets visiting all my favourite places one last time. I was supposed to meet the few friends I'd made later in the little bar we always went to.

I stopped at the entrance to the museum. I could see a lot of people in suits and ball gowns in there, obviously some sort of higher-class-event.
I loved this museum and I had spent a lot of time in there wandering around and thinking about my life or something like that or I had just stand somewhere staring at one particular picture until I had the feeling that I understood its whole meaning.

As I stood there staring at all the beautifully dressed people I suddenly noticed something inside there must've went wrong.

The doors flew open and a panicking crowd ran out. I tried to stay where I was but the mass of scared human beings took me with them.

I didn't know where I ran to, but I ran. The people's panic captured me although I had no clue what had happened.

And suddenly there was this man wearing gold and green armour. In the next moment there were more of him, they appeared everywhere around the people, looking exactly similar to the first one. The crowd came to a halt.

"Kneel before me." One of the men, the one I was facing, demanded. No one followed this order but I suddenly felt the strange urge to do so. His voice was soft and dark.

"I said... KNEEL!" He screamed.

This time, the crowd obeyed. We all sank down on our knees in front of him. Nobody dared to disobey, we were still surrounded by those other men.

I looked up to him and suddenly realized who he was. Who he had to be as impossible as it was.

And while on part of my mind still struggled to process the fact that I was kneeling before a Norse god who wasn't supposed to exist outside of myths, another part recited everything I had read about him after I talked with my friends about Norse mythology in the little bar some time ago.

Loki was the Asgardian god of mischief and lies, a trickster, and a trouble-maker, called 'Silver tongue'. If the internet was right, he was partly god and partly giant, sometimes fighting with the gods, sometimes against them. The man I was facing didn't look at all like the pictures I'd seen, but somehow I knew that it had to be him. He looked... incredible.

A grin spread across his face when he started talking. "Is not this simpler?"

He walked into the crowd coming nearer to the place I knelt next to a redheaded woman. I wondered where this speech would go, what he intended to say.

"Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation." Ah, that way.

He tried to tell us that we liked to kneel. My knees told me something different. Did he plan to take over the German government?

"The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power - for identity."

He had walked past me by now, his cloak almost touching me, but I turned my head and my eyes kept following him. The woman next to me cried silently. I didn't fully understand why. I mean, okay, this was a bit scary but Loki didn't seem as if he would hurt any of us - as long as we obeyed and kept quiet.

"You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

I had lived in Germany long enough to understand what thought would come to the minds of most of the people around me. The last man the Germans had knelt before - though, if I remembered correctly, not literally - had been Hitler. Not the best of all German memories.

An old man stood up in the middle of the crowd.

"Not to man like you." He stated coolly. I supposed that he had been a young boy during the time I had thought about seconds ago. Maybe he was even Jewish and had survived the Holocaust.

"There are no men like me." Loki answered, the smile on his face widened. Something deep inside of me wanted to agree. I'd never seen someone like him, even if one forget that he was a god. He seemed so powerful and yet gentle. He sounded almost... caringly.

"There are always men like you." The German said, reminding me of what Loki apparently wanted. He was just like every other tyrant.

"Look at your elder, people. Let him be an example." The trickster raised his sceptre and pointed directly at the old man. I knew what was going to happen and looked away. I didn't want to see the brave man die.

The next thing I noticed was Loki crashing into the crowd right next to me. Where seconds ago had been a mass of kneeling people suddenly was an empty place, leading from the tripped trickster to the old man. In front of him stood... Captain America. I'd always thought of him as just a fantastic comic hero but obviously I had been wrong. I guess I shouldn't be surprised - I still knelt because a Norse god had told me to. Concerning that: I thought I'd heard something about a connection to Asgard some time ago, but I had dismissed that as a hoax.

Captain America said something about he'd last been here during the Nazi regime but I didn't listen properly. I was to occupied with staring at the two men wondering what would happen next.

The people started standing up. I remained kneeling, listening to Loki's pleasing voice.

When some kind of plane appeared in the sky and the god shot a flash of blue light at it, the crowd started running again, running away from what seemed to end as a fight.

I didn't wait to see it, I forced myself back into a standing position and followed the other people.

After a minute or something I was finally able to direct my steps towards the bar my friends where waiting in.

I could still see the god in my mind as I walked through the streets. I admit that I have always been pretty girlish - not girlish like in giggling or stupid, but I loved to watch good-looking boys. So I couldn't stop myself from admiring the gods beauty. I had seldom seen a man who was this handsome.

I remembered this gold and green armour, leather and metal, and that strange helmet. His long, black hair had been only slightly visible underneath it. His face, his smile, was beautiful.

Grinning to myself I shook my head. He had just talked about subduing the entire human race and I thought about his looks. Typical girl, clearly.

oOo

I opened the door to the little bar. My friends sat on a table at the other end of the room.

"Hey, there!" I greeted and sat down next to Lea, my best friend in Stuttgart. Facing us where Anke and Florian. And yes, that where all close friends I had made in half a year. I wasn't someone who made fast friends. Back in New York I had after all just one really good friend.

"Hey, Caroline!" The three smiled.

"You'll never believe what just happened." I couldn't wait to tell them this strange encounter in front of the museum.

"I'm pretty sure, but shouldn't you order something to drink before you tell us?" Florian asked, grinning. The irony was practically dripping from his voice. I shot him a look he pretended not to notice.

A waitress came and I followed Florian's suggestion.
"A beer and four vodka-cola." I ordered, my friends already had their beer. I had never really liked this mix of coke and vodka or something similar before I came to Germany, but after about three months I'd found out that it could taste quite nice. And in this bar it was always delicious.

"What was it, you wanted to tell?" Lea asked, pushing back her brown hair.

"I wanted to visit the museum one last time before I go back, and some mad guy demanded everybody should kneel before him. He said the humans where made to be ruled. His own words." Now that I was speaking about it, it seemed almost surreal. I must have been mistaken, it could have never been Loki, Norse gods normally don't wander on earth, right?

"And, what did you do?" Anke wanted to know

I shrugged my shoulders. "Kneel."

My friends looked at me in disbelief. I was usually the one, who kept standing in this situations - or better to say in similar situations, no one had ever commanded me to kneel so far. I was the one disobeying when our professors made ridiculous demands, the one who told people that they were talking trash no matter the consequences.

"I'm sorry to have your world view destroyed." I joked causing laughers. I leant over the table, so the others came nearer to me and I could speak more quietly.
"You remember that we spoke about Norse mythology and those gods and this stuff?" My friends nodded. "I think, this guy must have been Loki."

Florian laughed again. "Sure, and I'm Zeus!" I hadn't expected anything else from Flo. He never believed anything he couldn't proof scientifically, but his answers were always funny.

Anke seemed a little lost in thought. "How did he look like? What did he say?"

The girl with the short, blue dyed hair was very interested in myths and legends, she seemed to know everything about the Norse, Greek and Egyptian mythology.

"He wore green and gold armour, and a helmet with horns, was tall, and black haired." And utterly beautiful. I managed to keep this thought to myself. I didn't even dare to imagine Florian's reaction if I had said that.

"Hm. Doesn't fit too well. Except for the helmet. That sounds familiar. What did he say?" Anke was now eager to get more information.

"He said something about kneeling being the natural state of humans and that... how did he say it? Ah, yes. That the 'freedom diminishes our life's joy'. I think, he just wanted us to think being not free would make us happier." I could repeat almost every single word he'd said, but for reasons I didn't understand I didn't want my friends to know that. "Oh, and he had some kind of blue glowing sceptre."

"What a madman." Lea stated.

The waitress came again. She put our drinks down and I took a mouthful of beer. When she

was out of earshot, Anke spoke again.

"That seems like something, the Loki from the myths could possibly say..." Her words drifted away.

"How about we forget Caroline's god and celebrate our last evening together?" Florian chipped in. We didn't disagree and the rest of the time the conversation went other paths. But still I couldn't get this image of Loki out of my mind.

oOo

The next day my flight left in time. I stared out of the window watching Stuttgart becoming smaller with every second. When it was out of sight, I directed my thoughts back to yesterday's evening. Well, let's say, I didn't direct them. They just went straight back.

Suddenly I found myself back on my knees watching Loki - no matter, what my friends said, I still believed it had been him - walking trough the crowd of kneeling humans like Moses through the Red Sea. My mind could rearrange every detail. I wasn't surprised about that, my memory was quite good.

Once more I heard the soft voice. "Is this not your natural state?" He whispered.

I know, he didn't whisper at Stuttgart, but somehow my mind replayed it this way. It sounded way more dangerous. And still - I couldn't bring myself to being scared. Like it had been in reality I imagined myself staring at him without a glance away. But this time I took my time to look at him more closely. In front of the museum I had only noticed the armour, the helmet and his smile, this self-confident grin across his thin lips.

This had to be the most beautiful man I'd ever seen. Too bad I would probably never see him anew.

I rebuked myself. For all I had heard I should wish not to meet him ever again. He hadn't sounded too friendly. His voice, yes, his voice had been friendly, but not his words. They had been kind of evil. And wasn't he mostly a diabolic god in the Norse mythology?

I smiled at the reflection of Lea's surprised and even shocked expression as I'd said that I knelt before him. They all thought that I was so brave and so self-confident and so emancipated.

The truth? I wasn't. I was loudmouthed and boldfaced, sometimes, yes. But never brave. I wasn't too fearful either, I just had no confidence in myself. Occasionally I didn't even make it to the bakery because I didn't trust myself enough to talk to other people, even if it was just a "This loaf of bread, please. Thank you." I was hardly able to manage my life.

Florian would have laughed at me, if he knew that I had even called a former boyfriend 'master' sometimes, because he had liked that very much. And I just hadn't minded. It had been kind of alleviating to pass all control over to him.

"The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy..." A voice in my head whispered, a voice I recognized as Loki's.

This... couldn't be real. Was I actually agreeing to his words? It was kind of a mock. My mother had named me Caroline. Caroline meant 'The free one' and I agreed to someone who told me that freedom was something that narrowed my life's happiness...

"You were made to be ruled." My mind replayed. These words combined with Loki's voice send shivers down my spine.

Maybe he was right. At least in parts. It was so much easier to follow orders and just to obey than to think yourself.
I knew I shouldn't be thinking something like this. I was supposed to be a strong, brave young woman, who hated every form control and authority and wanted to live her life self-determined.

But the longer I thought about it, the more appealing sounded Loki's words.

Giving every control to somebody else? Being told what you had to do? Not being spoilt for choice? No endless consideration what to do or not to do? No need to make decisions? Maybe giving up your freedom wasn't so much in exchange for that.

Maybe it was just the image of Loki still hovering behind my closed eyelids that made me believe him. Most people would agree to the devil if he looked like an angel.

But - the trickster didn't look like the stereotypical angel. No bright blue eyes, no golden hair, no wings. His beauty was a dark, twisted one. More like the evil twin of an angel - equally beautiful but in an incredibly more dangerous way.

But maybe there was really some truth in his words. Maybe the human race was really 'made to be ruled'. Hadn't they always obeyed when there was someone who took control? Wasn't it always only a few people who protested against tyrants? Wouldn't most keep quiet and kneel if Loki tried to take over any government? Just like we all had done in Stuttgart? How many people had stood up against him? Yes, right. One man. Okay, it was possible that others had wanted to but hadn't because they feared what could happen, but in this case they wouldn't stand up later either. Fear, generated from the love to a family or the life itself, was way stronger than a love of justice.

I rested my back against the seat and opened my eyes again to stare out of the window. Directing my mind other paths I smiled. Not long until I would see my best friend again, finally, after six months we'd only been able to communicate through texts and the internet. I wondered how Lucy looked like - she'd always liked to change her appearance in quite extreme ways.

It didn't take long until I fell asleep - we had been at the bar until three in the morning.

oOo

When the plane landed in New York the sun shone down on the town. Lucy was waiting for me at the airport. She was the only one, my parents had died about three years ago and I had no siblings.

"Hey, Miss Germany!" She shouted, making me laugh.

"Hey, Miss Colourful!" I responded. Her hair was dyed in green, violet and orange, she wore a blue jacket, green trousers and red shoes.

"Fallen into a paint pot?" I joked, after we hugged each other for what felt like hours.
She poked her tongue out at me. "I love you too."

We still grinned as we walked out of the airport, going over to her little car. She drove us over to her tiny flat that I was going to share with her until I found something else.

One or two days passed in peace. I struggled to find my way back into New York, I needed some time to arrive at home completely.

I sat in a little cafe having a coffee in front of me and watching the people passing by. I had nothing to do, so I had decided to enjoy this day.

Too bad it didn't let me enjoy it.

Something crashed into the building the cafe was in. I couldn't see it and wasn't entirely sure if I wanted to. According to the noise and the mass of falling bricks and glass, it had to be something really big. I stood up to look up of the window - and wished instantly I hadn't done it. I could see something like... yes, like what? I had never seen anything like this before. Never. Was it... an alien? I could see the people panicking out on the street. Obviously I wasn't going mad and it was no hallucination. I wished it were. Because whatever was flying out there it didn't look friendly.

A police officer came running in. "Out! Everybody out and down in the subway!" He shouted.

Nobody hesitated. For the second time in a few days I ran with the crowd. At least this time I knew what was causing the panic and I knew where to ran to.

I followed the others out of the cafe, down the road, and into the subway.

We had to stay there for a quite nice time. No one knew what was going on outside and I was pretty sure that I really didn't wanted to know.

When we were finally allowed to get back out, it was still day though I felt as if we'd been in there for way more time than we'd actually been there.

New York looked like a battlefield. Every building around us was at least damaged if not destroyed.

The crowd dissolved. I started searching for my way back to Lucy's flat. I had absolutely no clue where I was. I could only hope to find something familiar.

I attempted to cross one of the bigger streets when I was stopped cold. Only a few meters from me was Loki. Clad in his leather armour the walked down the street towards me. He didn't seem to notice me, let alone recognise me.

It took me around a second to reassess the idea that crossed my mind. Then I gathered all my courage and went over to the middle of the street, directly in Loki's way.

The trickster was about two meters away when I sank down on my knees in front of him.

"Master. At Stuttgart, you've been wrong."

I looked up into his piercing eyes which stared at me pleased, surprised, and slightly confused. I understood his confusion. I mean, what would one think, if someone knelt down before him, telling him he'd been wrong saying humans would always kneel in the end.

The god of mischief raised an eyebrow.

"Not all humans crave subjugation. But some do." I lowered my head. "I do."

I didn't know where those words came from. Seriously. My plans hadn't gone further than 'you've been wrong'. But the moment I said them, I knew those words where true, entirely true.

A moment passed in silence. I didn't dare looking up to him.

"Follow me." He said with this wonderful voice of his.

"Yes, master." I murmured and stood up again.

Without another glance at me he walked on. I didn't hesitate to follow him. I wasn't sure why but somehow it felt so right, almost natural, to walk down the street behind him without a word.

I followed him a nice while through the destroyed city. He paid no attention to me, but I didn't mind. I had decided to kneel before him, to give up my freedom, to give myself into his control, so I had no right to complain. I had been fully aware of the importance of my actions.

oOo

It was just before dark when he entered a hotel in the better parts of the city, where everything was still mostly intact. He hadn't said anything else, so I kept following him up a flight of stairs and into a room.

"Kneel." The god commanded as he walked over to another door. I didn't pause to think, I just let myself drop to my knees on the fluffy black carpet. Wasn't it this, what I had searched for, when I had knelt before him for the second time? This loss of control, this end of decisions? Yes. And it felt good, so good.

I hadn't knelt long when Loki came back.

"Who are you?" I asked, eager to find my considerations confirmed.

"You know." He stated, smiling his beautiful smile while he sat down on a armchair near a cold fireplace.

"Are you really... Loki?" I spoke quietly, still unsure.

"Yes. I'm Loki of Asgard, future king of Midgard." His smile turned into a triumphant grin.

I bowed my head again.

"My king." I whispered, just loud enough for him to hear it. When I looked back up he seemed pleased.

He remained silent, so I took my time regarding him. His armour had vanished, but he still wore that long, black, and green leather coat. The rest of his clothes had the same colours and to this a little bit of gold. One of his long, elegant hands played absently with his sceptre. The back-combed raven hair fell onto his shoulders like silk and I found myself wondering whether it felt as incredible as it looked.

I saw his eyes wandering over me, it felt a bit as if he was trying to x-ray me, and I was suddenly overly aware of the slightly too big shirt and the shabby jeans I was wearing.

"Come over here." He commanded and I followed his order instantly. Though he hadn't demanded it I sank to my knees again just in front of him. The scent of leather, metal and sandalwood hit my nose.

He reached out and started playing with my light blonde hair. I shivered when his cold fingers brushed my neck accidently. He smiled and repeated the action. A little moan escaped me. I hoped he didn't notice, but the widening grin on his lips told me something different.

He did it again and against my will he received the same reaction. Embarrassed I looked away from him, down to the carpet. And jumped nearly when his cool fingers left my hair, my neck, and caressed my cheek instead.

I tried to stop myself from leaning into his touch, but it was hopeless. Loki's skin was soft and smooth. My eyelids fluttered shut and my lips parted slightly.

The pale fingers traced their way down to my chin. Suddenly his grip hardened. I opened my eyes in surprise when he forced my face upwards until I had no choice but to look in his beautiful face.

"Are you willing to obey, to follow my orders?" He asked, his voice a little husky.

"Yes, master." I whispered almost without a sound.

"Again?"

"Yes, master." I repeated louder. The smile reappeared on his lips.

He stood up, only centimetres away from me. I couldn't come around noticing the bulge in his trousers and wondered what was coming next.

"Prove it." He commanded.

It took me less than a second to realise what he implied. My hands lifted themselves with a mind of their own and started caressing him through the leather before freeing his erection. I licked the tip of his cock and took him into my mouth. While I let my tongue swirl around him I decided that it was right what I did, what I had done. Giving up my personal freedom wasn't much compared to what I got. I could enjoy the company of the god of mischief, I had no decisions to make, I could simply take his orders. And I would do, happily, even - or especially - when they went into the same direction like the one I was obeying to at the moment.

And I would follow him, follow him on his way to the reign over Midgard.

I was the first who had accepted him as her king out of her own free will. I would always have a place near him.

That was worth it.