title: Look After You
notes: Wherein Jane is brought to Asgard as a little girl.
disclaimer: I own nothing.
Odin thunders into his Queen's sitting room, where he finds his two sons whispering heatedly to each other. Despite his dramatic entrance, it seems the boys have yet to notice him.
"Where is your mother?" he asks, startling the princes. They share a look and Thor's eyes seem to say, You're the Silvertongue, you go deal with this.
Loki steps forward. "Well Father, all of Asgard knows Mother has a big heart, and you know how fond she is of – ah – unique and pretty things," he stammers. "Midgard has a lot of new things to offer and well, Mother was just captivated. Do you know how much they've improved since the last time we've visited about three hundred years ago?"
"You're babbling," Odin spits. Gosh, his glaring eye just makes him look scarier, old man that he is. "She has brought something home, hasn't she?"
"We advised her against it, and we had nothing to do with it," Loki defends.
"Yes, and we know that mortal lives are inconsequential but she insisted –," Thor stops when he sees the All-Father's murderous face.
"SHE BROUGHT HOME A MORTAL?"
"Poor, poor girl," Frigga mutters, stroking the hair of her little mortal ward. The golden light of the healing rooms does little to improve the paleness of her features, and the large bed emphasizes the girl's small frame. The healers have done their best in repairing the damage done to the mortal's body. But the Queen knows that the mental and emotional anguish will surpass the physical pain dealt to the girl.
"Your Majesty, the All-Father has heard of your conquest, and is on his way here."
Frigga glances at the nervous nursemaid. She must be new, unused to Odin's temper that she is, the Queen muses. No doubt her husband has already let his rage be felt among the palace's staff. She closes the curtain around her little mortal's bed and motions the young healer to take her place.
Exiting the healing rooms, she casts a silencing spell to allow the girl to sleep despite the argument she is sure to come her way. She can't fathom why Odin can't let her have her way with mortals every once in a while. They're such fascinating creatures, so different yet similar to them is some respects.
"Ah, Odin, that shade of red looks particularly lovely on your face," Frigga smiles as her husband royally stomps toward her. Her sons follow behind him guiltily. She has no doubt that they already told Odin the story – at least, their side of it.
"My Queen, much as I love you, YOU CAN'T JUST BRING IN EVERY DYING MORTAL TO ASGARD TO HEAL!"
The Queen sniffs. "She's such a tiny little thing and we couldn't just leave her there bleeding to death. Those new moving metal contraptions the mortals have come up with are quite deadly –"
"You are aware that she has family back home?" Odin barks.
"All three of us have reason to believe that her only family perished during the same accident she was in. And yes, before you berate me, I have thought of healing her and leaving her there to be found by her fellow mortals, but based on Thor's survey of the area, it seems isolated. She would not have been discovered for a long while. We hadn't dare stay long, either." Frigga cups Odin's face. "Have some compassion darling. When she is awake and fully healed, I'll give her the chance to decide whether she wants to stay here or return to Midgard."
Odin sighs. "She stays here as a guest. Nothing more, nothing less." He steps back and pauses, "I know that you've always wanted a daughter, but a mortal will never be taken into the Odinson family."
"As you wish, my King," Frigga bows. She watches him walk away and turns to her sons. "A Queen always gets what she wants, just you boys see," she winks. "Loki, I think the healers will need a little help with their magic…"
She is around seven or eight in mortal years, they think. So fragile and so young compared to them. She has awoken a week after her arrival in Asgard but she has yet to speak. Frigga dotes on her constantly but the girl has remained mute despite the constant care given to her. Frigga dismisses this as just shock from the new environment. The girl is mostly healed and soon she won't have to be covered in bandages in awkward places.
Loki and Thor sometimes have "domestic nursemaid duties," as they scornfully call it. Frigga is adamant that only a handful of people cater to the girl, and her sons, being a familiar sight as the little girl's "heroes" are two of the people allowed to see her. Loki more so than Thor, as he was the one to pull her out of the metal contraption and it is likely that she got a good look at his face before she passed out. "A familiar face always helps," Frigga tuts.
"With the head trauma she received, I doubt that she'll remember the accident," Loki quips but his mother ignores him.
So it is in the girl's room that Loki finds himself spending this certain evening. The girl quietly sips at her soup, still mute. Loki props himself on one of the small couches to the side of her bed and makes a book pop out with his magic. Better chase the boredom away with some knowledge.
As he looks up from his book an hour later, he sees that the girl has already finished her meal and is staring at the large window to the east of the bedroom. And he thinks his imagination is at work when he hears her whisper, "The stars are different here." But the girl looks at him with wide eyes, waiting for him to acknowledge her words.
Loki knows that he looks comically shocked that she has chosen to speak to him, of all people. He clears his throat and closes his book, standing up to head to the window. "Yes, I suppose the constellations here are different from Midgard – Earth, if you will," he responds, parting the curtains a wider to grant her eyes more access to the Asgardian sky.
"The sky here is very pretty." She looks around her new quarters. "I'm the only one here, aren't I?"
Loki doesn't understand until she adds, "I remember burning and crying and shouting...and I remember being pulled out of…" Her face crumples and the younger Price of Asgard thinks his heart breaks a little at the look on her face. "They're gone, now, aren't they?"
She is smart and perceptive for a very young girl, on a level of maturity beyond her age. "I'm sorry," is the only thing Loki can say.
There are tears in her eyes but she doesn't let them fall. "Thank you for saving me," she whispers. Loki walks up to her bedside and awkwardly pats her hand.
"My name," she says, "is Jane Foster."
"And I am Loki of Asgard."
"Hey! You're being unfair you know," Jane pouts as a laughing Loki disappears. "You have powers and I don't!" She shouts to empty air.
For the first time, Jane is allowed out of her quarters and she decides to spend it in the palace gardens playing hide-and-seek with her new friend. "Illusions are cheating! You're completely missing the spirit of the game," she declares.
"Jane, dear," Frigga calls. "It's time for more fittings." Frigga, doting guardian that she is, has seen fit to ensure that Jane has everything she needs, starting from a closet full of royal Asgardian clothes. "Come on, child."
The young girl rushes out from behind a rosebush as Loki jumps down from a particularly tall tree. "Never too young for games, are we?" Frigga smiles. Jane reaches up to hold the Queen's hand as they reenter the palace.
It's the middle of the night and Thor still isn't done with his little temper tantrum. The sky has been bleak the whole day, and now a thunderstorm is raging over the Realm Eternal. As Loki walks from the throne room to his chambers (he rolls his eyes because Thor is still arguing with Frigga and Odin), he sees a small figure huddling behind a stone pillar.
"Little Jane, what are you doing down there?" The girl looks up and he sees that her eyes are red and her face is splotchy. She's been crying.
"The storm woke me up and I've been having bad dreams," she hiccups. "I went to see Frigga but she wasn't there, and I walked around, but I think I walked around the wrong way – and I got lost – and – and –"
Loki kneels, and pats her head. "Hush little one. I'll bring you back to your room. Come on," he takes her hand and coaxes her to stand up. She's so tiny. They walk back to her chambers together, her sniffles muffled by the wind's howling and thunder's booms. "The storm's just Thor making his presence known, you shouldn't be too scared."
Her face crumples. "It was raining when, you know, it happened," she replies. It takes Loki awhile to register what it means. Oh, the accident.
He tucks her in bed and makes to leave but a small hand grabs his sleeve. "Can you please stay until I fall asleep?" little Jane pleads, her eyes wide. How can he ignore a face like that?
"Of course," he says, pulling up a chair. "In fact, I can stay here the whole night."
"Promise?"
"Promise. Pinky swear," he adds, using the mortal phrase Jane imposes on everyone.
He sees the corners of her mouth tilt up a little. Loki keeps his promise and stays by her side until the sun rises.
And so Jane adapts to her new life in Asgard.
notes 2: So we have a brotherly Loki and baby Jane. This is my take on something that's been done before (the Jane-is-taken-to-Asgard-as-a-little-girl plot). Boooo, I have little plot creativity, sadly.