Chapter 2
"That went better than I thought it would." Julia admitted later to Loki as they sat on her couch in the living room. She was curled up, her sketchbook in her lap, a picture of Loki open on her phone as reference sitting next to her leg. She had stopped sketching a moment ago and her face was relaxed as she clasped her hands around the mug of hot chocolate. "I'm glad that they're both OK. My mom fainted, apparently." She sighed contentedly. "Will you be ok for the rest of the week?"
Loki nodded.
"What's fanfiction?" Julia's eyes widened at the unexpected query, and she began to blush.
"Why do you ask?" She replied cagily, attempting to appear nonchalant.
"I found this thing called Doctor Who fanfiction." He replied, amused. "I would assume it's fan stories based on the stories or shows?" Julia nodded, relieved.
"Don't read smut or lemon." She warned. "I learned that the hard way. I've never closed a tab so quickly in my life." Based on her reaction, Loki could guess what those two were. The phone rang, interrupting their thoughts. "Ugh, I'll deal with it later," Julia said, tossing the phone back on the couch.
"Who was it?" Loki asked.
"Someone from a long time ago, probably just trying to get some fame off of me or something now that I've gone missing and return." Julia snorted. "We've never gotten along well."
"Ah." Loki murmured. Julia yawned.
"I'm going to head to bed. There's a second bedroom, or the couch opens up to make a sofa. Take your pick." Julia stood up and stretched. "Don't freak out if you need me and my door is locked. It's a habit I've never seen the need to break." Loki nodded, and Julia waved sleepily as she closed the door. "Night!"
"Night!" Loki called back. A little while later Loki went to bed himself.
Back in New York the next morning, the Asgardians had been given a place to stay for the time being and had quickly settled in. Thor was in the office with Stark getting legal stuff done when his phone rang, displaying Julia's name.
"Hey!" Julia greeted, her voice cheerful for it being the morning. "How's everything going?"
"It's going well," Thor replied. "Tony Stark is helping us out."
"That's good."
"How are you faring?" Thor asked.
"Well, we've gotten caught up with my parents up until the whole Bifrost thing. For some reason, they've never heard of the movie Thor: Ragnarok, which I thought I'd mentioned, but I'm not seeing any mentions online either, aside from Norse Mythology. Weird…. I'll figure it out later." Julia sighed. "They've been caught up to when I got swept up to the Bifrost, and they've been told about the whole Russia thing. The meeting between Loki and them was interesting."
"Nothing bad, I hope?" Thor replied apprehensively.
"Nope, Loki just got a lot of hugs. He was quite unsure how to handle that many." Julia chuckled. "We're staying at my house and I'm getting college stuff sorted. Keep us posted on Asgard, yeah?"
"I will," Thor promised. "Bye." Thor hung up the phone, and Stark turned towards him, arching an eyebrow.
"Who was that?" He asked.
"Julia, my sister," Thor explained. Stark nodded.
"It's weird coming to terms you have another sibling, let alone a sister."
"Yeah, it is." Thor agreed. "But it's also nice." He smiled.
A yelp came from the kitchen and Julia ran in to find Loki standing with his daggers pointed at the toaster. She relaxed, understanding that the toast popping up had startled Loki.
"The toast pops up when it's done." She explained, hopping on the counter and snatching one of the pieces of toast. She bit into it and her eyes widened. "This is good!" Loki relaxed, and the daggers disappeared. "Try one." She handed Loki the second piece, and he agreed it was after chewing. "You're a cook, that's good." She joked.
"What are your plans for today?" Loki asked her after they had sat down at the table and were eating. Julia swallowed the hot chocolate she'd been drinking and answered a second later.
"I'm going to call the college and officially drop out." She explained. "I'm too far behind to catch up, anyway. The good thing is that it's all paid for, courtesy of my grandparents. They're why I'm not in debt right now, like a lot of people my age. It's also why I was able to afford this place, I didn't have to worry about college and so all my money could go to a good place like this. The bonus is that this house has a well, which means no water bill." She stabbed her pancakes cheerfully. "Have you had pancakes before?"
"No, they're good though," Loki answered after swallowing. "What else can you cook?"
"Breakfast wise, most of the basics. French toast, eggs, pancakes, waffles." The girl listed. "I don't like scrambled eggs though, the texture is bad." She shuddered. "Especially plain." The man raised an eyebrow but didn't comment.
"Is there more of this?" He asked after a moment.
"I can make some french toast." Julia offered. "I'd forgotten that you guys ate a lot."
"That would be good." Loki agreed.
Julia was relieved to get the college issues out of the way. After she had finished with that, Julia decided she'd take Loki someplace new for a day of fun, since her parents were unfortunately busy, though they'd be eating with them that night. She pondered places to visit as she straightened up the kitchen and finally decided upon where to go.
"Hey, Loki!" She asked as they drove back from the grocery store. "Would you want to go ice skating?"
"Ice skating?" Loki replied. "What's that?"
"It's basically when you strap knives on your feet and use them to travel across the ice." She half-joked. Loki looked at her like she was crazy. "That's actually a joke about some people describe it. There's special shoes for it… I'll show you a video, it's kind of hard to describe." Julia decided.
Loki ended up being impressed with the sport. Julia asked him if he wanted to try it since there was a rink about 10 minutes away.
"Sure." He agreed.
"Alright, let me get my skates!" She ran up the stairs, "Wear something warm but that you can move in!" Loki changed his attire to something of that description and was just finishing up with it as Julia's feet pounded back down the stairs. "Alright, I'm ready!" She said breathlessly. "Good choice in outfit."
The two of them quickly arrived at the skating rink, and Julia taught Loki how to lace up his skates. Loki was gaining quite a few looks as they sat and finished their preparations, and Julia groaned as she realized the reason why. "Either they think you're Tom Hiddleston or they think that you're hot." She explained. Loki smirked and a girl slipped and fell on the ice. Julia sighed.
It turned out that Loki was a natural at ice skating, even when dealing with the dull blades on the rentals.
"I always thought that the Russian in me was the explanation to my abilities on the ice, but now I wonder…" Julia told Loki after a while. "Well, if one good thing comes out of that, it's that we're both really good at figure skating." Loki laughed. "Want me to teach you how to spin?"
The rest of the week went by pleasantly, and soon it was time to depart for New York. The farewells with her parents were tearful, and Loki found himself in many more hugs, which was a bit overwhelming for him. Julia shot him understanding looks. The two of them boarded the plane and fell asleep about 10 minutes in.
"To home." Julia murmured right before she fell asleep.
"Loki and Julia" read the cardboard sign that hovered above the crowd. Julia exchanged a confused glanced with Loki but shrugged and headed that way. They found the owner of the sign to be Thor.
"I heard it's an Earth tradition when someone returns." He explained, looking at Julia for confirmation. She shrugged, not really knowing the answer.
"I mean, I guess? I don't really know myself." The three of them left the airport quickly since they had little baggage with them, Julia's bookbag being the only thing that they had. They found a quiet nook and transformed their attire back to their Asgardian garments. They gained some strange looks on the way there, and Julia heard someone mutter, "I thought that ComicCon wasn't for a few months?" Julia snorted. Coming upon four horses, Julia looked up to find the Valkyrie girl sitting atop one.
"Come on, then! Can't hang about all day!" The girl teased.
"Alright, alright, we're coming!" The trio climbed onto their steeds and urged their horses into a gallop, Julia waving and laughing at the people they passed. She heard sirens behind them and twisted around, seeing several cop cars behind them. "We have company guys!" She called to her companions, and they quickly entered the adjacent forest. They slowed to a stop shortly after, allowing their horses to recover. "Well, that was interesting," Julia said cheerfully. "They probably were after us because we didn't have a permit of some sort." Her companions chucked at this.
"Let's get going," Thor suggested after a second. "If we leave now, we can arrive well before nightfall." Everyone urged their horses into a canter, and soon the campsite that housed Asgard was in sight. A large bonfire had been started, and celebrations were well underway.
"Julia," Loki began, seeming years younger. "Let us introduce you to the Asgardian version of partying." Julia grinned, excited. Loki pulled her along into the crowd, and soon stories were flying around, children were laughing, and hearts were warm. Loki looked less stressed than he had in years, Thor admitted later. Julia had never felt so at home in her life.
Of course, for the three siblings, the peace couldn't laugh forever.
AN - Spoilers for the Infinity War trailer at the bottom of this note, it's just a quote, but still, figured I'ld warn you.
I won't promise updates weekly, because my ADHD butt would say, "Hold my caffeine" (I'm an addict to caffeine, but it helps), and would make it impossible to get that done.
I'm also experiencing the thing known as writer's block for future chapters, and I don't know why. It's really annoying, and I'm doing my best to get through it. It'll get finished though.
Please review - it puts a smile on my face!
