Thanks for reading to Chapter 2. Much appreciated :)
Oh, and sorry it took so long to update. Two week sleep-away camp...
"So why did you do it?" Loki asked when they were coasting through the clouds. "Risk your career to get me out?" She kept her eyes on the sky, as though too afraid to look at him. So she did fear him...
"I think you have the right idea," She said thoughtfully. Of course he did. It seemed strange, different, to finally find someone who wasn't his enemy. This entire realm seemed to be against him. Until now. Finally, a loyal subject. "Earth really does need a world leader. A powerful, knowledgeable ruler. It would eliminate war between countries, if everyone's under the same rule. You're a god with an interest in the throne. I doubt anyone would make a better king," There was a slight of blush on her cheeks as she spoke.
"That," Loki smiled, laying a hand on her shoulder, feeling her heart beat a slight faster with surprise. "That is the kind of logic I'm looking for." She smiled.
"Three years ago, my brother was in Stuttengard, and he sent me a video of you, your speech, you in your armor and power. I was," She paused, dark eyes sparkling, her long brown hair attempting to hide the pink gathering on her cheeks. "inspired? Moved? I was already into the world ruler idea, but now I knew who it had to be," She sighed happily, then looked, almost nervously, at Loki. "I'm not overdoing this, am I?" Not at all. This was words Loki had been secretly searching for. Words of praise and respect to him. Finally, someone who was on his side, his view of Earth. Excellent.
Loki chuckled. "No worries. Good to have someone on my sight of things. What about that sketchbook of yours?" She didn't protest when he slid it from her lap and flipped through the pages. The first drawings looked like experiments. Toys, like stuffed animals and lifelike figures, in different positions. X's and checks were in the corner of them. She had been testing it, figuring out how the book worked, how she could control the world around her.
"I was testing its power," She explained, as if echoing Loki's thoughts. "It's a regular sketchbook, regular pencil, regular paper. The power is mine. To draw or paint and have creations actually work in the real world. It's incredible. It's not easy though," She added, voice lowering. Loki saw her dark eyes glance at him firmly, as if warning him. "Modifying something in the real world. The drawing has to be realistic enough for my mind's eye to understand and apply to real objects. If it lacks to much detail, I get confused and won't be able to recognize the subject." Which is why she took so long to complete his picture for the cameras to see. All the detail, the accuracy. "In simplest terms, what I create on the paper is created in front of me," Loki nodded. It was magic, very powerful magic. Magic connecting her to her artwork. Some may have called it impossible, but hadn't Loki seen greater?
"So where are we going?" Loki inquired, looking across the cloudless skies. The girl bit her lip, and her eyes lowered. Something was wrong. She was failing him, but she knew it. She knew that to displease him was unacceptable. But that was good.
"I can't take you where you need to go," She said. "A hangar near my apartment. Chances are, Fury's tracking this jet. I go anywhere else but the place I was supposed to go and they'll get suspicious. I'm sorry,"
"Understandable," Loki said, a little frusterated but not much. All he really needed was to get to his scepter in LA. This was just a slight delay. "Do you mind if I stay at your apartment tonight?"
"N-not at all," She stammered. "I'd be honored," Honored is right. Loki smiled, pulling off his SHIELD helmet and reclining a little in his chair. Perfect. This was what he needed. Her loyalty could not be questioned. Still, he needed to know more about her. Why was she working with SHIELD? And couldn't there still be a chance this was all a trap?
"Why is Fury keeping such an attentive eye on you?" He kept his tone casual, but his eyes traveled to her. She sighed, then opened her mouth to speak. All of this girl's past, her memories and lifetime, knowledge a felt so open to him. Just the right question at the right timing and she would spill her secrets to Loki, her god, her leader. So easily.
That is how things should be, Loki thought. I should have access to the mind of every one of my subjects.
He was digging into this girl's head. And he loved what he found there.
"There are people out there," She said. "Who believe a world leader would be beneficial, like me. People who want to be ruled. Whoever they are, they made somethnig like a website for it." People who want to be ruled... Perfect. "And I contributed to conversations on it, with you in mind. With the idea that you could be our king. However," Her gripped tightened on the handle. "Fury, or someone in SHIELD, found out about the site. And I was suspected of being part of it. They had no real proof, but now I've been watched for even an inkling of suspicious activity concerning you ever since then." She paused, then looked to him with an edge of a smile. "I hardly suppose this counts," She added sarcastically, and Loki smirked a bit as well.
The flight continued in silence after that, though Loki could not stop noticing those darkened eyes flicking to him frequently. He met them calmly each time, only to watch her gaze dart away again in something almost describable as fright.
"Do I scare you?" His tone came out almost amused.
"You..." She searched for the words. "intimidate me, I guess." Good, intimidating was good. "You're a god, powerful and mighty... and actually pretty handsome..." Loki watched her stumble over words.
"You flatter me," He smirked. "And not just out of fear..?"
"You don't think I mean what I say?" She raised her eyebrows. "Yes, I fear you, but give me credit for joining you instead of fighting you, like the rest of the world. Don't tell me you couldn't use an ally," Her gaze had hardened, like she was accusing him. Loki could not guess where her nervousness had disappeared to. "And I mean a real ally. No mind control. No tricks."
"You are willing to prove your loyalty to me?" Loki asked. He had, in the back of his mind, been planning on using his scepter just to seal the deal, but maybe he wouldn't need it after all, depending on this young woman's determination...
"Yes, I am."
"Very well."
Loki's eyes retreated from hers to linger along the world around. The sky turned fiery in the sunset; reds and oranges and golds lighting up the horizon. By the time the sun retreated with an indigo hue in its wake, the girl had landed the quinjet.
No events took place upon exit; a couple nods were exchanged between her and some other pilots. Loki had his helmet and visor back down. Some looked at him questioningly, but no one stopped the two from leaving the hangar. Uneventful. How boring.
Loki followed his ally to a car, where she took the wheel and drove them in silence to a city. Loki was not a fan of mortal architecture. Some statues and buildings he could smile upon for their creativity, but elsewhere, all structure seemed to be limited only to simple, childish, blocklike shapes. And rather unkempt. The streets were dark and dusty, but pretty empty. It was almost unsettling.
The car parked, the woman and Loki exited into the nearly empty lot. She took the sketchbook, which never seemed to leave her side, and placed a hand over the SHIELD drawings. Two blue glows later, Loki's clothing was transformed into some sort of mortal clothing, and hers to a loose fitting black jacket and jeans.
"My apartment's just a block down," She said, tucking her sketchbook under her arm. Loki followed her silently. This part of the city seemed quiet, rather lifeless. Street lights were dim, and only a couple cars drove lazily by. No one here to get suspicious.
She pulled Loki into one of the taller, more impressive looking buildings. It was lit up inside, looking very clean and well kept. The woman at the desk nodded happily to the girl and Loki, though not saying anything. Nice as it was, it did not appear as though many other mortals took residence here, which was probably the best for the current situation.
They stepped inside an elevator, where she pressed the button marked 6. The ride up was silent. With a small ding! the elevator doors opened to a bright, cheerful looking hallway. She walked Loki down the gold carpeted floor, unlocking a door and holding it open for him.
Her apartment was bigger than what Loki had been expecting, but small for his liking. Palaces in Asgard made most of mortal living conditions look much too poor. Still, a queen sized bed against one wall, with a dark, velvet-like maroon rug beneath it. A light brown sofa sat in front of a large flatscreen tv at the other end of the room. In each far corner was a door, one to the bathroom, and the other to the kitchen, Loki assumed. Between them, on the far wall, were two large windows and a door to the balcony. The light pollution in the city prevented the sight of stars, however. Still, nice place. It would suffice.
"You can have the bed," She motioned to the dark red sheets. Loki nodded and walked over to sit down, pulling off the jacket draped carelessly over his shoulders. Lacking his usual armor, wearing only a simple green shirt and black pants, Loki felt quite a bit exposed. How mortals lived in such naked conditions, he could not guess.
"Do you need anything?" The young woman's quivering voice tapped gently through his thoughts. Did he need anything? He hadn't eaten, but being a god, food was not one of his necessities.
"Just some water," Loki shrugged. Something to drink was looking tempting. She nodded and walked lightly to the kitchen. A second later, she reappeared with a glass of ice water. As she walked over to Loki, he was struck by a thought.
"I never got your name," He said, taking the cold glass in his hands.
"Asha," She murmured softly. Loki nodded and took a sip of water. He rarely bothered with names, but here, considering she was providing service to him, it seemed only right to know. "I'm just gonna..." Asha's voice trailed off. "Get ready for bed. Yeah," she disappeared to the bathroom, and the sound of a shower being turned on came from behind the door.
Loki ran a hand through his hair, thinking. This was good. This was good. Ugh, no it wasn't. Asha saved him, and gave him an apartment to stay in for the night. Whether he liked it or not, Loki was in her debt. He hated being in others' debt. It wouldn't matter if she pleaded it didn't matter to her. It mattered to him. Oh well. Maybe he'd just spare her. Or recognize her as a loyal subjects when his ruling days came. That should be enough. Still, it nagged at him, the fact that he owed a mortal, a mortal, of all beings. She willingly helped him. Scepter nowhere in sight, she still helped him. Wouldn't that be considered an act of insanity, knowing how much this world seemed to despise him?
Though, Loki wondered, his mind suddenly focused, was she really mortal? She possessed magic abilities. Not science-made, artificial powers those Avengers possessed, but real magic. Certainly not a god, but something greater, much greater than what she had let on. From another realm, perhaps? He'd have to ask her.
The shower was still running so Loki decided to just wait, surveying his surroundings with a little more interest. Around the room were several oil paintings. A snowy forest. An autumn lake. The city skyline at dusk. Loki didn't have to see the signatures to believe they were Asha's. They were so well made. Did she ever use them to modify the real world? Probably not. She seemed reluctant to harness the whole of her power. She wouldn't use it against others, she seemed much to shy of it. Not that that mattered. Loki would make her, and she wouldn't resist.
Now seemed like a good time to go to Asha, ask her about her power, her past. The sounds of her shower had disappeared, and now only the buzz of an electric toothbrush came from the bathroom.
Loki stood, walking to the door in a silence only he could muster. The door was ajar, letting a long tendril of light permeate into the room. Asha was in, dressed in a simple, spaghetti-strapped black tank top and gray sweatpants. She made no move to indicate she had seen Loki, only continuing to clean her teeth.
Mouth rinsed, Loki watched Asha stare, unmoving, into the mirror. Her expression was blank, empty. The god could not guess at what was happening within her head. She lifted her lower arm, and to Loki's surprise, clamped her teeth onto the smooth curve of flesh. He knit his brow, thoroughly puzzled. Mortals were so... strange. She wasn't drawing blood or anything, but didn't that kind of thing hurt?
Loki saw Asha's teeth clamp down harder, and a second later, she let go, losing the will to bear the pain any longer. On her arm were the crescent indentations of her teeth, which turned pinkish red on her skin. Asha bit herself again, dragging her teeth up her lower arm, from elbow to wrist, leaving long streaks of that same red.
It was watching her, Loki realized, well, he cared. So as her jaw went to flesh for a third time, he stepped into the bathroom, saying, "Asha,"
Asha started, jumping back. With eyes like dinner plates, mouth a tiny o of surprise, her face was the absolute epitome of shock.
"Asha," He repeated breathily. Loki took a step forward, interlacing his left hand with hers, and with the other, he ran a finger across her lower lip, and she looked to the ground. Asha was motionless, her breath slow, but Loki could feel her heart rate pulsing rapidly under her fingers. Nervous, surprised, scared. So scared.
"Do not," Loki said gently. "make me have to worry about you by doing that."
"I..." She looked away. "It's fine,"
"That did not look fine," Loki's gaze flicked to the pinkish marks on her arm. His hand drifted delicately down to the flesh, fingers lightly brushing the identations. "Tell me,"
"I'm just..." Asha sighed, slowly pulling her arm away. "emotionally numb, I guess?" Loki raised an eyebrow. That wasn't how he would describe Asha. Though she certainly was a lot quieter, much more restrained, than any mortals he had met on Midguard.
"It's..." Asha bit her lip. "Pain makes me feel something. It brings me back to the real world,"
"You often find yourself," Loki said, mildly intrigued. "away from the real world?"
"Life is not the fantasy I think it is," Asha countered firmly, almost harshly. "I need to remind myself of that."
"But not all life is pain," Loki reasoned. "Life can be just one long length of work and hardship, but it isn't all bad. Pain is frequent, but it does not remove the brighter points in life," Not like he knew was he was speaking of. All his happy, bright points in life, playing with Thor as a child, they were not real. Thor's friendship at the time was just another lie. Asha could be right. Life could often be confused for fantasy. He gave her hand a small squeeze. Loki never considered himself one for comfort, but she seemed to need it. "Asha, don't tell me you've lost those brighter points," She said nothing, her eyes cast away darkly to the floor. Loki lifted her chin up slightly with the side of his finger, so she looked at him. "May I help bring them back?"
Asha looked at him, and Loki saw that ghost of a smile, hope, flash across her face. An invitation for comfort.
Without hesitation, he leaned in a press his lips to hers. He let them rest there a second, then pulled back. He felt Asha's heart as a thrum of drumbeats, so fast with the shock, the nerves, the giddiness.
Loki paused for a second, then saw the look in her eyes. So he kissed her again, his lips locking for forcefully to hers and their teeth clashing together. Asha kissed him back with only a beat of hesitation.
She tasted, to Loki, of winter. Her lips felt coated with the frost of the sharpest mint. He was reminded of one of Asha's paintings back in the other room, the snowy forest. "Beautiful," Loki murmured softly. He felt Asha's lips smile in their kiss. His hand had traveled up her arm to her neck, where he methodically rubbed circles on the pale skin with his thumb. She never pulled away.
Finally, it was Loki who pulled away. Asha stared at him, as though she couldn't believe what had just happened. "Now," He said with a smile. "Do you really still feel emotionally numb?" She smiled back.
"No," Asha sighed happily. "Thank you, Loki,"
Loki took her hand and led her out of the bathroom, up to her bed. Asha clicked out the lights, and Loki sat down on the bed. He held out his arm, offering that she slept with him.
"Oh," He couldn't see her face, but from her tone of voice, Asha was a little taken aback. Too taken aback. Why did- Oh. She probably thought he was offering that she sleep with him in that way. Silly girl. "I was just going to use the couch..." Loki shook his head.
"Come along, Asha," He smiled. "I will not deny you the comforts of a bed just because you do not usually have guests," She paused, then walked over and lay down next to him on the bed. For a moment or two, there was silence.
"I was... Surprised," Asha said. "I mean, me, of all people. Do you usually mix with mortals?" Loki smirked, thinking of the kiss. It really was worth more to her than to him.
"I guess it depends." He said, a little vaguely. "After all, I owed you the favor. You've done me good service, so I needed some way to repay the kindness. However, you don't completely strike me as mortal..." which returned him to his previous question.
She turned to look at Loki. "I don't think I'm a god, if that's what you mean."
Loki shook his head. "But you are of magic ability. That's not exactly common."
Asha shrugged. She actually shrugged. It seemed more than extreme modesty; she seemed not to believe it herself. "I have no idea. I must have always had this ability, but I really discovered when I was sixteen or something. That's when I got into drawing realistic. I'd have someone model for me, or possibly use a landscape, and weird things would happen. Small things, going mostly unnoticed. I noticed, though. So I experimented. After a couple pages, I got a grip on what was happening. And now, I'm just trying to find the full extent of what I can do with a picture." Loki listened carefully, nodding every now and then. So she still was sure of her power's "full extent". Acceptable.
"Have you ever tried to use this against others?" He asked. Asha could become very important to him, a weapon, if she was willing to help. Though she did seem a little shy to turn her power into a something dangerous.
"I..." She paused. "I'm remembering mainly one time, but I've probably tried it against people quite a few times, I guess. Actions, though. You can't really control minds. Just physical stuff. I... I can't kill, by the way. I can injure, but not kill. Just, for some reason, it won't allow me to alter someone's physical state by that much," Loki nodded. Understandable. Another question floated around in his head. He was only mildly interested in her answer, but more of her history could be easily revealed.
"Have you had a relationship with anyone else?" Her back was to him, so Loki couldn't see Asha's face, but he could tell she had gone red; heat was pulsing from the back of her neck. The tips of were ears also flushed a bit. Embarrassed girl. So much like a child, on the inside.
"Yeah. Specifically the most recent one," She said, her voice quiet, then added, "Though it wasn't a very good relationship," The last sentence had a growled edge.
"Did you not love him?" Loki placed his cold hand over her heated neck, listening to her past with attentive interest.
"I loved him plenty," Asha said, a little defensively. "Heartless bastard used that to his advantage,"
"I see,"
"Effing hate him." So it was anger. Anger and hate and some pain; that was what gave her confidence, strength.
"Did he love you?"
"He might have cared, but honestly, I'd hate him more if he did," Asha let out an angry breath. "I bet I was just something like a toy to him." Loki said nothing. He was listening, but his vivid eyes gazed into the blue-black sky. So very few stars. Just a black, block-like horizon. Asha's angry breathing was slowing to a relaxed, even pace. Nearly asleep. Loki stroked the back of a finger soothingly against her neck. He cared, yes. He cared for Asha. But love? Probably not. Even care seemed like a bit of a stretch. Loki was just repaying the debt. Helping her out a bit, emotionally. That was all. Her worship was much appreciated, though. He would not forget that.
Asha slept quietly next to him while Loki made no effort to do the same. He was just thinking, living within his head. "You know," A familiar voice knocked Loki back to reality. He knew that voice, arrogant and downright annoying. "I believe the last time we met, you were the one in armor, not me," Oh no... Not him...
Well, we can already tell Asha's not right in the head, considering she works for SHIELD but is freaking making out with Loki. Hey, makes for an interesting character.
She is so going to lose her job...
