Chapter Two: Seen and Unseen
Loki watched as the woman retreated into the crowd before looking down at the bag in his hand. In four months, no one had paid him much attention or even seemed to give him a second thought. He was unaccustomed to such kindness from the people of Midgard or anywhere else for that matter. Hadn't he always been the outsider, after all? Hadn't he been the one that was passed over for everything; the black sheep, the forgotten son? He had been stewing in bitterness since the day the All Father had cast him out. He was now three times rejected and all the more angry for it. But he had nothing to do with all his aggression. With neither the powers of the Asgardians nor the Jotun, there was little more he could do in this realm than to look upon its people with distain. And so he had for four months. And for four months, they had looked back at him with his hatred reflected in their eyes.
They crawled across this Earth of theirs like rodents. Powerless, yet ever striving toward meaningless, simple things. They were wretched and he loathed them for it. Then came this woman, out of the milling throng, who saw him, it seemed, through the chaos. Perhaps saw in him a kindred or a soul in need. It mattered not. He sneered at the notion that she might consider him like herself, or worse, in need of her charity. That she would think of him so lowly when it should be him that was above them all. And yet, there was a small voice at the back of his mind which reveled in the light her kindness shed; that someone would see him when he had been invisible for so long. She had smiled at him, not in pity or condescension, but a true smile that had reached her tired eyes. It caused, in him, the most peculiar stirring of sentiment which he tried to quell without success and so he took a moment to consider her as he opened the bag.
The food was a strange assortment of meat, cheese, and egg upon bread. He had seen these kinds of things since his arrival in Midgard but had never had one. Such things would not be put together this way in Asgard. Even the food in this realm was of such low quality. His stomach rumbled and he sighed. This mortal form was difficult to maintain. It wanted for things constantly and was never satisfied. He was weaker than he could ever remember being and it galled him that he could not maintain himself the way that he preferred. It did not help matters that there was no work here that he could do. He had done some small amount of research on the subject and found it very difficult to find work here when one did not have papers affirming one's belonging to a nation and confirming one's identity. Most of him considered the idea of working for any of these mewling idiots beneath him, but there were times that he had considered it in desperation. However, he refused to lower himself to do any of the work he had seen set aside for so called "illegals". Instead, Loki had taken to stealing what he could. It wasn't much, and he had to be careful. With no powers he could not risk drawing the attention of the human authorities. But it had been enough to keep this mortal vessel alive, for better or worse.
Loki took a careful bite of the food and found it acceptable. If he were being honest with himself, it was much better than most of what he had found recently. Again, his thoughts turned to the woman. Most people here seemed fresh and rested in the mornings, or at the very least were rushing off to be somewhere in a hurry. She had been rumpled and weary looking and her steps were slow, the way most people looked when they were coming home. He wondered where she might have been and what her life was like. This confused and irritated him. He should not care about her plight. Yet she had cared about his and it was difficult to keep reminding himself that it shouldn't matter to him.
He perched himself on the low wall behind him as he ate and watched the people passing by him. He spent most days wandering the city and watching the humans as they went about their lives. Though it frustrated him to no end, he did not doubt that the All Father would expect him to learn a lesson here and would keep his word that Loki could not come home until he did. So each day he sought understanding but found nothing to love or respect in this world. He had begun to fear that he would never make it home.
Now, though, a small hope blossomed in his heart. This human was not like others he had encountered. Perhaps if he could find out more about her, he would learn what his father expected him to know. Perhaps this mortal would be his ticket home. A slow, cunning smile formed on his face. Perhaps she would come by here again tomorrow.
A/N: Chapters so far have been a bit shorter than what's normal for me so I apologize. I'm trying to keep updating regularly and depending on my schedule that might mean shorter updates sometimes but there will be much longer ones as well as we get further into the story. Please review! This is my first time writing Loki so I'd love to know what you think.