Loki ch. 3
Nina sighed, swinging back and forth on her childhood swing in her backyard. She supposed that the night could have been worse, actually for the most part it had been quite fun, but that didn't make her feel much better right now.
She had hoped that prom would give her a fairy tale moment, that everything would fall into place in the perfection of the night. Now she saw how naïve that was, as she sat swinging still in her prom dress, her makeup running, and her shoes off. She let her feet play in the dirt and grass, enjoying one of the first warm nights of the year. It made her glad that prom happened late in her school's school year.
The night had started out fine. Her hair had stayed in its original beautiful soft curls style that her mother had made, its gold catching the light. She had kept stains from appearing on her dress, which had been a feat, considering it was a floor length white dress with flecks of gold. Her date, James, had arrived on time and her father had not embarrassed her, at least not too badly. The limo had picked them up on time, their friends already all being in it.
The prom itself had been fun as well, at least in the beginning. She and her nine other friends had had a fantastic time dancing and laughing. It was when she and James had gone back to their groups table that there had been a problem.
"You look great tonight." James had said smiling at Nina. Nina smiled back sitting down, giving her heeled feet a break.
"Thanks, you don't look too bad yourself." Nina said.
"Tonight has been great. Refill?" James asked holding out a pitcher of water. He was still standing taking great gulps of water. Nina nodded. Then, as usual, her mouth said what she thought without her complete consent.
"You know…we could have more nights like this." Nina said, instantly wanting to give herself a face palm.
"More nights like what?" James asked.
"Y'know, you and me, having fun together, going out." Nina said, nervously biting her lip. James got a strange look on his face then sat down in front of Nina.
"Nina, you're a really cool girl, and I like you, but are you sure you're ready for a relationship?" James asked.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Are you still seeing a therapist?" Nina wanted to roll her eyes.
"James, plenty of people see therapists. And you know me, you know I'm not crazy." James paused before speaking again.
"You still believe in him don't you Nina?" James asked. Nina blinked several times, looking at the floor before looking up at him again.
"James, people have supernatural experiences all the time."
"I know that Nina. Heck maybe this guy Loki even exists! Whether or not that is the case, how can compete with a prince that came out of the sky? How can I possibly hope to be as good as him?" James said looking Nina in the eye.
And Nina realized that he was right, as much as it stung to admit. James couldn't live up to her expectations now that she had met Loki. She never expected anything to happen between her and Loki, he was a prince from another world after all, but anyone who wasn't as good as him…wasn't good enough.
The rest of the evening had been fun, but not nearly as fun as the beginning. James had still stayed the perfect gentleman, and had assured her that he had wanted to stay friends, but it still stung. She felt like she was back in grade school when everyone tossed her out because they thought she was crazy. She thought that that had all been in the past but apparently some things still stuck to her.
So, now Nina sat gloomily on her swingset kicking the dirt. Her parents had known to leave her alone after she came back from the prom early and they had headed to bed after she assured them that she was fine. Nina had proven to them over the years that she preferred to work through her issues alone.
"My my how lovely you look tonight." Nina heard a voice say behind her. Immediately she was on her feet whipping around.
Loki, back again. As much as she wanted to be mad at him, he was the bastard who had warped her expectations of men after all, no anger bubbled up. There was nothing but the sadness that she felt from Prom. So she made no protests when he sat down in the swing next to hers.
"Why is it that whenever I see you you are either in trouble, crying, or both?" Loki asked. Nina smirked.
"We really must stop meeting like this." Nina said. It was then Loki's turn to smirk.
"Tell me, what's troubling you?" Loki asked.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Be my guest." Loki said, opening his arms in an honest gesture.
"Why do you care?"
"Well I must keep the alliance between our two great kingdoms strong." Loki said and Nina laughed.
"It's been a long time since I've been a queen of any kingdom."
"Tell me now, what's troubling you."
"Just…boys. Prom ton-"
"Wait, Prom?" Loki interrupted.
"Oh, it's an Earth tradition, it's kind of what you would call a ball. In the last two years of mandatory schooling students go to a…ball I guess you could call it. It's to sort-of celebrate our accomplishments."
"Ah, and you usually take a suitor with you I am guessing?" Loki asked.
"Yeah, and my date…well I admitted that I liked him and…it didn't go well."
"Well, should you not like him? He is the young man you chose to go along with you is he not?"
"It's never that simple unfortunately."
"So, you admitted your affections, and then…? Loki said, putting his elbows on his knees and looking over at her.
"He said…I have too high of expectations." Nina said. It was true after all. "But what are you doing here?" Nina asked. But Loki seemed interested in something else, hiding against her treehouse attached to the swingset. Before Nina had the chance to stop him, Loki was up and had grabbed the bottle of wine Nina had hidden, along with the corkscrew.
Nina parents were pretty liberal about drinking, as long as she didn't share with her friends or get drunk they really didn't mind. But she doubted they would be okay with her drinking a whole bottle by herself in the backyard. She wasn't even sure if she was really going to drink it.
"It appears that you were prepared for guests tonight." Loki said, holding up the bottle of chardonnay to read the label.
"Hey, give that back." Nina said, reaching for it. But Loki only stepped back further into her backyard.
"You are in need of this tonight," Loki said, holding up the wine, "and companionship. Come."
Loki was wearing his Earth outfit today, black slacks, black long jacket with a blazer underneath, and a dark green shirt. He laid out the trenchcoat he had been wearing on the grass. He then magicked two wine glasses and poured wine into each of them, setting them on each side of the glasses. He sat down, stretching his legs out before him.
"Come, I want to show you something." Loki said, bringing the wine glass to his lips. He saw the apprehensive look on her face.
"Come now, you're not afraid of me now are you? After all these years and just now you've lost your courage?" Loki teased. Nina jutted out her jaw, hitched up the skirt of her dress and walked over to him. She tried to keep as much of the dress as she could off the ground as she sat down. She took a sip of wine and looked up at the stars.
And then, Nina did perhaps the strangest thing she could have done at that moment. She laughed. It started as a giggle, and then it turned into a full outright peal of laughter, as loud and as boisterous as usual.
"You cannot be intoxicated already." Loki said, taking another sniff of his wine. Nina tried to contain her giggles.
"No, it's not that, I'm more laughing at the craziness of the situation."
"Explain."
"I'm sitting outside in my prom dress drinking wine with a demi-god. You can't tell me that's not a little strange. At least for my planet."
"I suppose that might be true. I however could tell you many stories much more foolish to your ears. Here, join me." Loki said and he laid down on the ground, staring up at the stars. Nina did the same and Loki started pointing at the stars.
"You see that star there? That is where my brother Thor and I-"
"Wait, you have a brother?" Nina interrupted.
"Yes, and you'll get a taste for what he is like from this story. That realm is where Thor and I would track and hunt bilgesnipe that had started taking children from their homes to eat."
"That's horrible!"
"Indeed. One night, when we had a particularly good day of hunting the bilgesnipe we had a great feast in the Great Hall of Asgard. My brother became particularly intoxicated and rode into the great hall on his horse."
"Well, people have done worse things drunk…"
"He was undraped." Loki said, and at that both Nina and Loki erupted into hysterical laughter, taking sips of their wine to calm their giggles.
And then, Loki went into more stories, telling about Lady Sif and the Warriors Three, Thor, and his mother and father.
"I wish that I had a sibling, it would have been nice to have someone to play with." Nina said, looking at the stars, "what is your brother like?"
"He's brave, but reckless, handsome but vain, loyal but unreliable, confident but arrogant."
"Wow, that's…honest."
"Should I not be honest about my own brother?"
"No no no, it's not that, it's just that older people usually sing praises about their siblings. What does your brother do anyway?"
"He commands lightning, and uses that power as an advantage for being a warrior."
"Tell me about feasts at the great hall. I love to watch people dance…" Nina said, trailing off into a daydream.
"I can do one better, I am guessing you did not have a good dance with your suitor so," Loki said, standing up and holding out his hand to her, "I shall give you one." Immediately Nina had a million excuses run through her mind. She put down the wine glass she had put to her lips and made a crossing gesture with her arms.
"Ah, no no no no no…I have two left feet. You would not want to dance with me. It was bad enough earlier tonight." Nina said. But Loki wasn't having any of it, he grabbed one of her hands by the wrist and, gently as he could, pulled her to her feet. Nina was surprised by how strong he was.
"It's all in the lead," Loki said, putting one hand on her waist and holding the other in a waltz style, "Now just relax, and do not panic."
"Why would I panic, we're ju-" Nina said before her jaw dropped. In a glimmering golden sheen of light a great hall appeared before her, and she was dancing with Loki in the middle of it. Golden pillars rose up to the amazingly high ceiling, and Asgardians danced around her.
"Now, see that young man over there? The one with the blonde hair and red cape?" Loki asked, Nina nodded, looking in the direction that Loki was gesturing with his head towards. She did see who she assumed was Thor with a large crowd of people around him. He chugged an enormous tankard of ale before throwing it on the ground yelling "another!" to the cheers of his audience.
"Your brother Thor?"
"Yes."
"Well, at least he's wearing clothes." Nina said, Loki laughed.
"Now see that older couple over by the throne?" Loki asked and once again Nina nodded. She saw an older gentleman with an eyepatch, white beard, and white hair, and a woman next to him with curly golden hair and kind eyes. The woman waved at Loki and Loki nodded back.
"That is my Mother Frigga Queen of Asgard, and my Father Odin, King of Asgard."
"Can they see us?"
"No, we are only in a memory, an illusion of mine. These are things that have already happened. I believe that this was the feast that we had to celebrate the defeat of the fire demons on Muspelheim."
"This is incredible." Nina said honestly. Loki chuckled.
"I am glad that you enjoyed it." Loki said, and the scene dimmed back to her backyard. Nina frowned.
"You have to go don't you?" Nina sighed. Loki gave her a small smile.
"Indeed I do."
"Will you be back?"
"I have every intention to come back." Loki said, and, kneeling took her hand and gave her knuckles a kiss. Nina smiled.
"Goodbye my dear." Loki said disappearing.