-Shelter me, from the cold starless night,

Shelter me from the ghosts in my mind...

'But I want in!'

Maddy was shouting unsuccesfully at everyone for the last hour or so, trying to convince them to listen to her, or see to reason.

'This is so UNFAIR!'

The gods had their backs on her, drowning her cries in their conversation, doing their best to ignore her. Thor was tempted more than once to use a silencing cantrip on his daughter but even he knew better than that. A frantic woman's fury is a thousand times worse than a hundred hordes of demons, he always said.

'LOKI!' she screamed. The room came to a halting silence as the Trickster locked eyes with the irate daughter of the Firefok. Another moment of silence passed before he dragged his gaze from the goddess and answered firmly, 'No.'

Maddy tried her best not to squeal. 'I don't understand! I'm not even that young, and I've had tons of experiece! This is so stupid, it's not like anyone so far has even encountered any dangers! Why can't I patrol with you?'

Patrolling, was something of a necessity now in the face of a possible new danger. Every now and then, the gods would group and go patrolling outside Asgard, in villages and towns and cities, not quite searching for something so much as wishing it weren't really there.

'You've all done it except for me and Idun! Is that what you think of me? That I'm naive and useless?' Maddy didn't really mean that; she only meant to get their attention but the look on Idun's face was terrible enough for her to swallow her tongue for a few terrible moments.

'Oh no Idun I didn't mean it like that, I'm so sorry!' She crept closer to her, but the tearful godess moved away from her touch as if it were venom.

Maddy was really sorry now, she just wished she had never opened her goddamned mouth. She watched in regret as Idun made her way out of the Parsonage, the place where the Gods met and conferred. Earlier that day she was at Odin's house, pampering her grandfather so that he would let her go with them. He hadn't.

'Great, now my only supporter's crying her eyes out because of me.' she said more to herself than the circle of Gods watching her closely.

'I'll go talk to her Maddy, I know you didn't mean what you said.' offered Bragi.

'Yeah, thank you.' she said in a small voice as he made his way out of the room.

She sank down in a large brown armchair as she watched the gods slowly but steadily engrossing in deep conversation again, talking about locations, maps, weapons and tactics, all the while thinking that perhaps she wasn't worth getting to patrol after all.

After quite a while she felt the armchairs arm sink in and a hand caressesing her forehead down to her cheek. She looked up and saw him, bathed in light, his gaze troubled and deep.

'Why do you never do as you're told?' Loki asked softly.

'I don't know. I just don't.' she said stubbornly. She took his hand in hers and kept looking at it as if it held all the secrets in the world.

Loki knew what she was doing. She was avoiding his gaze, afraid he would judge her. Of course she never did as she was told. That's part of why he was with her in the first place. He sank deeper next to her in the armchair draping his arms around her, bringing her face closer to his.

She looked up in a sea of jade green and she thought she was going to die. I could drown in these eyes, she thought. I could actually drown in him and not give a care.

He tilded his head forward so their foreheads touched, eyes closed, her hands resting on his chest.

'Alright.' he said resigned. He pulled his head back so that he was looking her straight in the eye. 'You win.'

'What?' she said. He didn't answer. He didn't have to.

She kissed him full on the mouth, her lips crushing into his with such force it crushed the air out of his lungs. He was an excellent kisser, so much that his kisses always left her dizzy or breathless and this one was no different. Sometimes she thought that maybe the chaos in his blood was why he was so good at it, but when they were kissing, no, she knew that the charm and skill he had was all because of his natural talent in love-making.

He was actually taking her side on this. He'd try to convince the gods to let her go with them. And he'd manage it too, she was sure of it.

His kiss was sweeter now, less fierce but still focused, his hands interlaced in her hair and Maddy was suddenly aware that everyone in the room must have stopped what they were doing and were looking at them. The sets of gasps followed by an absolute silence confirmed as much.

She'd never kissed him in front of anyone but Sugar, and they'd never told anoyne about them being together, though they both knew that everyone was aware of that already. They would act really comfortable around each other and even couply at times, so she guessed it wasn't so much of a shock to them right now.

She was wrong.