A/N So, Hi! I started this a couple days ago and I don't know if I'll keep going past the few pages I already have written but let me know what you think and if you think it's worth me continuing.
Cheers.
Thea can't help being slightly more excited to get to work for the next couple weeks and she tries not to over-analyse herself as she spends a little extra time on her hair and makeup for work. She curls her long, dark-blonde hair and choses a darker red lipstick to go with her smokier eye makeup.
She knows she's being ridiculous and the few extra bucks in tips doesn't make up for the extra unwanted attention she receives from the creepier male patrons, but it does give her a bit of a confidence boost, so she keeps doing it.
It's almost exactly two weeks since her impromptu conversation with the darker Odinson when she sees him again. 'The Nordic' is packed with Frosh week kids and Thea is almost at her limit of douche-y college guys grabbing her or crowding her space with drunken come-ons as she tries to do her job.
One such jacked-up, drunken creep is actually following her around the bar as she delivers drinks and when she leans over to place a drink on a table, he grabs her hips from behind and makes a crude comment that she only hears a part of, in her shock.
Thea snaps around, ready to punch the fucker in the face and call over the bouncer, when she finds the man already on his knees in front of her with a very painful look on his face. Thea looks up at the man holding the sleazebag on his knees with seemingly zero effort and finds Loki looking at her with a question on her face.
Thea smiles at Loki and waves over the closest bouncer.
"He needs to leave." She says as she pops a hip to plant her fist on and glares down at the beefy idiot. "And never come back."
Loki stands the man back up and murmurs something in his ear that Thea can't hear, but the drunk man's eyes glaze over weirdly before Loki passes him easily over to the bouncer. There's a nod of thanks from the bouncer for Loki, and a loud cheer from all the surrounding tables when the guy is escorted out. Thea smiles at the uncomfortable look crossing Loki's face and she leans forward to speak in his ear.
"My break is in ten minutes. If you grab a seat back in the closed party room, I'll meet you there?" She asks and Loki inclines his head before leaving her to finish delivering her drinks and get another waitress to cover her tables while she takes her break.
Loki is leaning on the small, private bar of the party room when Thea finally manages to disentangle herself enough to take her break and snags an extra order of onion rings from the kitchen.
"Hey." She says with a friendly smile as she plunks herself onto a barstool beside Loki, places her onion rings on the bar between them and reaches into her bag and stills her hand.
"It's been two weeks since you did your addiction-breaking mojo and I still reach for my smokes at every break out of habit. Thea swivels on her stool to fully face Loki and smiles up at him.
"Thanks again for that by the way. And for your help with the creep in there."
Thea rolls her eyes in disgust at the memory and then focuses back on Loki.
"So. What did you say to him anyway?"
Loki smirks to himself.
"Well, the next time he thinks about being so disrespectful to a woman, his brain will illicit the same pain response that I inflicted on him earlier."
As he speaks, Thea's smile grows until she is beaming at him.
"That is amazing. I wish I knew how to do magic." She says idly as she munches on another onion ring.
"Humans are not built to handle magic well, with the exception of a select few. It does come in handy every so often though." He says with a wicked smile as he waves a hand and the noise from the front bar goes silent.
Thea laughs with delight.
"I'm glad you came back, Loki." She says in a sultry voice and then grins at him.
"You're not going to yell at me this time though, are you?"
Loki grins and drops his eyes.
"I do apologize about that. The attack on New York is still a bit of a sore point for me." He says and Thea swears he looks almost bashful.
"I made some foolish choices that lead to my being mind controlled by an intergalactic madman. He used me in an attempt to seize Earth for his own purposes."
She smiles sweetly at Loki's sad, thoughtful face and holds out the basket of onion rings to him.
"Forget it. I probably shouldn't have said anything."
Loki takes an onion ring from the offered basket and studies it dubiously before popping it into his mouth and making a pleased little grunt. He shifts and leans one elbow on the bar to turn fully towards Thea and he pins her with the same scrutiny before speaking.
"So, you've gotten a good deal of my history at this point and turnabout is fair play." He says leadingly as he raises an eyebrow inquisitively.
Thea cringes comically but shrugs after a second.
"Alright, what would you like to know?"
Loki seems to drag out his pondering of her question to make her squirm, but he finally chuckles.
"You don't seem to lack intelligence or knowledge and yet you work in this den of libations and poor manners. Why?"
Thea's smile slips as she glances away from his piercing gaze.
"Ohh you know, it's the typical poor orphan story. Blah blah. I'm a girl so I got all the wrong kind of attention. Blah blah. Bottom line is I work here because I need the money and I don't have to take my clothes off to earn it."
Thea can feel Loki's eyes on her face as she stares at her onion rings for a moment before inhaling deeply through her nose, pasting on a fake smile and meeting his gaze, daring him to pity her.
Loki studies her face with this new insight.
"Do you have aspirations other than serving mead and fried foods?"
"Of course. Nobody wants to be a waitress for the rest of their lives."
Loki steals another onion ring and waits for her to go on.
"I like history. I really like the idea of knowing something that the rest of the world has forgotten."
Thea looks up from her reverie to see Loki staring at her thoughtfully.
"What?" She asks with a slight blush and Loki leans in, touching the bottom of her chin with a cold finger as he ghosts a kiss across her lips. Thea's eyes are barely closed before it's over and Loki is stepping back again.
"You're the first human I've met, that I actually enjoy talking to." He says and then seems to shake himself and changes the subject.
"I found and read that book you mentioned at our last meeting. The Hobbit."
Thea swallows thickly and rolls with the change of topic, smiling at Loki as she grabs another onion ring and tries to settle her body back down from the surge of lust that just shot through her.
"What did you think?" She asks and they start a detailed conversation on the different aspects of the book.
After a few minutes, Thea sighs, stands from her stool and gathers up the empty onion rings basket.
"I have to get back out there but this has been really nice, Loki."
He looks as though he is mentally wrestling with something, before he speaks again.
"Perhaps we could have a longer conversation some time when you aren't working." He suggests and Thea smirks at him before leaning up on her toes to press her lips to his cheek. She backs away again towards the noisy bar.
"I think I'd like that. I'm covering the lunch shift tomorrow for a friend, but why don't you drop by here after two and we can go somewhere."
Loki inclines his head in agreement.
"Until tomorrow, Thea."
