Author's Note: The feedback that I've gotten has been fantastic! I hope you guys are enjoying the story, and I'm really excited for the plot to kick up. Poor little Loki, though.

And a huge thanks to the readers that followed me through Dark Humor (which failed) and have been compassionate enough to follow me through this one as well. Thank you to all those who followed, reviewed, and favorited. It means the world. Not just the world, it also means all the other planets to me.

Read on! Read on, my compadres! And it still isn't Tuesday.

So you can click that review button without it biting. And if it is Tuesday, give it a compliment and it'll let you click it anyway.

Eat breakfast and stay awesome!

NORMAL POV

Loki couldn't get the mocking laughter from ringing around his head. The slamming of his chamber door didn't block it out, soaking his wounds in hot water didn't help. He could feel the remnants of the duel deep to his core. Who was he to try and challenge Thor? Of course he was going to make a fool of himself! Up to this point, his knowledge of magic had been rudimentary at best; but Thor's frame always had a large build. What an idiot Loki was to think he would stand even a small chance!

And now what was he facing for it? Nursing his bruises and sliced skin, alternating between cold and hot waters- trying to ease the pain and heal the wounds at the same time. He was too drained of his magic to use it to repair his tendons. In the morning, maybe he would be back to normal, but for now he would have to grin and bear it.

The failure he could have handled. He was used to failure by now. But the laughter of the spectators only rubbed salt into every one of his injuries, and it seemed to echo around his massive chamber room. At that moment, with the mockery filling his chambers and smothering him in embarrassment, his room had never felt so completely empty. So he left it. He walked out onto the palatial stone balcony and rested on one of the towering pillars with his right hand. If anything, the night welcomed him in with open arms.

xXxXx

"Oh, whoa whoa whoa..." Krishna shrunk back behind one of the massive pillars in the darkness, dodging around a place where a pair of guards walked by. They were adorned in thick golden plates, and chatting together casually in the dead of night. Krishna slowly rotated around the pillar as the guards moved to the other side. She whispered gently to herself. "Okay... And we're off again..." She skipped around the corner and looked up the side of the huge palace. What seemed like hundreds of balconies were above her, most of them dark and empty as the owners had long retired.

But there weren't any windows or drapes. Just an open connection to the Asgardian world around them. Krishna never had a window like that, and she wanted one all of a sudden.

Krishna licked her thumb and used it to measure the distance of each balcony. "Eh. That one, that one seems the least... Exertionating." Krishna padded on efficiently through the darkness, still mumbling to herself. "Exertionating isn't even a word. Screw that. I just made it a word." She avoided a slab of stone. "No dictionary is going to tell me what to do..."

xXxXx

Loki leaned on his arms, resting leniently on the thick stone railing. His hair was usually mercilessly slicked back without a hair out of place, but now he had several strands in front of his face, gently drifting on the breeze.

He felt at peace, relaxed for the first time that night. Surely all others in the kingdom were feeling like that, deep at night. Relaxed. At peace.

xXxXx

"Oh, sweet mercy above." Krishna clenched her jaw and began hoisting herself up the first balcony. It was a lot damn higher than she thought it was. Slowly, silently, she pulled herself over the rail. "Oh, geez." Krish leaned back and caught her breath, scoping out the height of her next balcony encounter. "I am not in shape."

But she adjusted her long scarf and went to clamber up the slick stone.

"I deserve a medal of honor for this..."

xXxXx

The breeze picked up for only a second or two, but it was enough for Loki to catch something out of the corner of his eye. Something dark skimmed across the surface of the balcony's stone. Loki rubbed the side of his ear, humoring this whatever-it-was by going to pick it up.

It was a small black feather. Not unusual to find at all. Loki bent down and took the feather between his index and middle fingers, pulling it up to his eye level. He examined the many different shoots that went from the center, noticing how thin and wispy they were around the edges, and how the ends seemed to float by themselves in the dull Asgardian air. He turned it around and looked at the back.

xXxXx

"I'm okay." Krishna took a deep breath, avoiding the cough that she wanted to give into. "Maybe not. I think one of my lungs is gone." She took the moment to feel her ribs. "No, no I still have two lungs."

She squinted up at the next balcony, and nearly gasped when she saw the slender figure standing in the light of the room behind him. He was holding something up to the light, examining its details.

Oh, crap. Krishna thought, lurking behind another pillar. He didn't hear me, did he? I guess I could kill him. That wouldn't be too bad. She then took the next few moments calculating how she could use everything around her as a weapon in case the guy went psychopath on her. With a little bit of self-encouragement, she was climbing the final balcony up toward her goal.

She stopped, hanging from the stone, when her stomach growled. Closing her eyes, Krishna waited for Loki to look over the side and catch her, but no such event happened.

Was he freaking deaf?

And then she continued on, pushing the thoughts of frozen pizza out of her mind. She wondered how much of a scare she could get out of him…

xXxXx

Loki released the black feather and let it skip away on the breeze. Tucking a stray piece of hair behind his ear, Loki sighed gently through his nose and allowed the anger he was feeling to ebb away. The embarrassment still stuck to his ribs, but at least he could release the anger. Eventually, he decided, he was going to be strong enough to take on Thor and win. And he would look forward eagerly to that day.

Loki turned to look at the opposite side of the balcony, to see the massive kingdom that stretched out in front of him.

It wasn't the kingdom that was there to greet him.

Rather a pair of nearly neon steely gray eyes.

Loki froze, keeping his gaze locked on the one looking back at him. He tipped his head to one side.

The eyes tipped as well.

He turned his head to the other side.

The eyes turned with him.

When Loki's eyes narrowed, the eyes staring at him slendered due to a smile. And then deftly, ever so deftly, KrishnaLan whispered a gentle-

"Boo."

Loki didn't move at all. He stayed calm and collect, eyes narrowed, watching Krishna intensely. And for a long moment, she was completely afraid that his glare was going to push her off the balcony.

"Who are you, female?" Loki's question didn't really catch Krishna's attention, and she was staring very longingly at a bundle of fruits sitting in a golden bowl on a table inside Loki's room. He followed her eyeline, seeing that she was focused on the food.

"Batman." Krishna replied monotonously. She finally released her gaze on the fruits to look back at Loki. He was slender, tall. He had a thin, hungry look about him that only reflected more in his hollow cheeks and glimmering green eyes. Krishna was jealous of those eyes. She wished she had eyes like that.

"A man of bats?" Loki asked. It was refreshing to see so much confusion in those eyes.

"No, just…" Krishna stayed perfectly perched on the balcony. "Nevermind. Don't make yourself sick over it." She shifted her feet out from under her so she was sitting properly on the railing. "My name is Krish. At least, whatever, you can call me Krish."

The confusion didn't leave Loki's pale face.

"Y'know?" Krish tried to prod him along, but he was still immensely disoriented. "The Hindu Gods? You don't know about them?" Loki shook his head slowly. "Don't worry about it, I'll find you a book or something. I know about your little duel today. I watched it."

Loki suddenly didn't like this topic.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. And you know why you didn't win?" Krish pointed up at him, one eye closing and the other focusing intently on him. Loki grumbled.

The last thing he needed was to be given dueling tips by a stranger girl sitting on his balcony. What lower form of insult is there? And why hadn't Loki just shoved her off by now? Shoving her off seemed like the better option, and he found himself debating on when he was going to do it. He braced himself for whatever thin advice was going to be given him. She was probably going to critique his form or his use of magic. And he was thinking of a viable comeback for when she did.

"It was because you didn't have a token from me." She said. Loki's eyebrows knitted together. Krishna remained completely deadpan for as long as she could before busting up into laughter. "I wish I was kidding, though. Thor had a token from Sif, but you didn't have one from anyone at all. You think you can go about things by yourself, but you're wrong."

And then her eyes snapped back to the fruit.

"Do you want one of those?" Loki asked softly. Maybe giving her the food would give her a reason to leave. So he crossed his room toward the shiny golden bowl and picked up one of the gleaming fruits, keeping his other hand regally behind his back and never slackening his posture.

Krishna took it gingerly from his hands.

"Do I have to give you my soul or something in return?" She asked. "Is that how this works?" Loki only blinked slowly and stared at her. She took a bite of the fruit, feeling the juices snake down her chin. "You shouldn't give food to stray animals, Loki. They have a way of coming back for more."

"Well," Loki turned around to motion at the abundance of fruit. "There's more to come back to." But when he looked back over, she was gone. And only the glintings of the Asgardian kingdom were there to keep him company.