"When do they come back again? Saturday?"

Loki nodded, smiling stiffly. Grace could see he was on edge for some reason. A breeze rustled the plants on her balcony and she wrapped her arms around her belly, looking over at Loki. He did not seem affected but then, he was wearing a suit.

"So do you work around here?" She was awful, awful at small talk but felt obliged to have some sort of conversation with this man. Silence at that point wouldn't exactly feel companionable. Actually, it probably would have felt more awkward than her "we just met" conversational skills.

"Something like that," he said smoothly. "I'm doing a bit of research in the area. Tom and Alice needed someone to look after their home, and here I am." He smiled to himself as he shrugged lightly, a sort of self-satisfied "I-love-it-when-a-plan-comes-together" kind of smile. Grace was inclined to grin at him, amused.

"I'm glad that worked out for you," she smiled.

That weird silence fell as he caught her eye, turned his lips up and then immediately dropped her gaze. She was somewhat skilled at catching male attention but had a tendency to not know when to shut up, even when her attempts at conversation to fill awkward voids were failing epically. And Loki was definitely an attractive - actually, more like beautiful - male and his eyes were 100% intriguing. Even if they were looking at the balcony floor beneath him.

"And you, Grace? What is your profession?" He asked, eyes boring into hers once more.

"I'm a doula - a - a sort of birth worker..." Guys in general tended to struggle with this answer and typically dropped the topic quickly, but Loki did not scrunch his nose or release her gaze.

"Is that so?" He actually had the decency to look intrigued. "And what's your role in...birth?"

"Well, a doula is a birth attendant, really." He continued to watch her, not stopping her. She was happy to continue. "My job is to provide the mother with information before and during labor, support her through labor and birth, advocate for her, support her emotionally and help those around her support her as well." She eyed him warily. He still wasn't sneering in disgust, attempting to change the topic or looking uncomfortable in the slightest. Her brow knotted. "Even referencing birth seems to freak a lot of people my age out...do you have kids?"

Loki huffed in response, his gaze fixing on the stars above them as he leaned back. A couple of baffling moments later he spoke again. "Your work...is it rewarding?"

She was very, very aware that he had totally evaded her on that one, but seeing that she was a total stranger, she let it go for the time being. "Yes, it's unbelievable. Of course it's messy, usually grueling and exhausting work but to see life, to see a woman's transformation to mother, to see the look on her face as she holds her baby for the first time outside her body...there is no drug that could compare."

The silence between them those next few moments was much less awkward. She realized her gaze had also turned toward the night sky, but she was more inclined to view Loki's profile in her peripheral vision. She could see his eyes so clearly even in the night. They seemed to alternate between staring intensely at her, straight through her brain, and then completely avoiding looking at her at all. She couldn't figure out if she was making him feel really uncomfortable or what his deal was.

"I'm sorry," she blurted out suddenly. His face snapped to look at hers, genuinely surprised. "I've been talking your ear off and you probably sat out here to get some peace. I-"

"Please do not apologize, Grace." His surprise had turned into slight confusion. "I have enjoyed our conversation, though brief. But you do look rather tired and I should be getting back as well."

She felt slightly taken aback at his suggestion, as if he was trying to get rid of her - though his earlier words hadn't indicated it. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment. "Yes, you're right. I really do need to grab a shower and get some sleep." Brashly, and probably way more dramatically than she intended, she practically jumped out of her chair and stepped toward her sliding door.

"Grace, I very much appreciate your company tonight. Perhaps we'll see each other out here again." This made her stop in her tracks and turn back to him. His voice sounded sincere and he was looking at her again through those gorgeous lashes. She smiled politely, still a little embarrassed. He dipped his chin in a nod at her and though his lips did not shift, the corners of his eyes wrinkled just slightly as he regarded her warmly.

"Yes, I'm sure we will," said Grace, and slipped into her apartment.


Loki sighed. He had felt too close to his feelings and felt the need to withdraw. He did attempt to do so gracefully, but he hadn't missed the blush on her pale skin when he'd made the suggestion to her. He knew that speaking to her - as if seeking her out had not done so already - had brought on a battle of his defensive instincts and his inner desires, and it was not a pretty one. And her feelings had already been a casualty of that battle. He exhaled, eyes downcast. Part of him was elated, on a high from interacting with her and studying her while the other part criticized everything he was doing. How far he had fallen, he thought, to have gone from driving an army, orchestrating intricate schemes to vying for the attentions of a mere human woman. He snarled in disgust.

Not a moment later, though, he felt guilty for being so harsh in his thoughts. It was not Grace's fault he felt so conflicted, nor should her name pay the price for his struggles. He sat, milling back and forth between his desires and a familiar steely numbness that didn't seem as comfortable anymore. When her lights were all out, he didn't even think before porting straight into her apartment, his back against that sliding door. He did not intend to appear to the naked eye, however, so he cast an invisibility spell on himself which would allow him to pursue his insatiable curiosity about Grace at his own leisure.

He heard her sigh and a rustling of linens in a room above him, and then her home fell silent. It was very clean, he noted as he slowly walked through the lower level, eyes sliding over every inch of her home, taking in his surroundings. A few books on her table, a satchel slumped in a tall chair in the kitchen, images on her wall near the door - all puzzle pieces that would fit together to illustrate just who Grace was. Without touching it, he studied that satchel. A simple woven bag which said "Birth Rocks!" He realized it must be something she took to and from her work, and wondered if she had recently come back from attending a woman in birth. He was not of utmost familiarity with human procreation, and hadn't particularly cared before but the light in Grace's eyes told him he may like to ask her sometime...but he would need to do a little research of his own, first.

As he silently strode up her stairs, he could hear her even breathing louder and louder with each step. The first room he entered on this level was not hers, but seemed a mix of a work area and an empty bedroom. The light on the computer softly pulsed and waned, and he resisted the temptation to take a peek - for now. He was somewhat familiar with Midgard's technology, but he was already taking more from her than he'd been given simply by being where he was.

Hm, he thought. Normally that didn't bother him.

He stalked without a sound into Grace's sleeping chambers - or bed room, as humans called it - and found himself rather intrigued. It was fairly simply decorated, and the majority of the space of an entire wall was filled with shelves of books. He turned first to gaze at Grace's sleeping form. Her body was curled onto one side and her long, deep brown hair was unbraided now and splayed out on her pillow, the excess draping over her shoulder. One naked, athletic leg poked out of her white cover. Yes, for a human, she was rather breathtaking. For more moments than he cared to count, he watched her so carefully that each peaceful breath she took seemed to wash a foreign feeling of peace over him as well.

Unnerved, he forced himself to again turn to her books and began studying the titles, curious as to what literature she kept near to her and whether he would recognize any of it. One particular title caught his eye: From Conception to Birth: A Life Unfolds. He slowly pulled it off of the shelf.

Surely, she wouldn't notice if he borrowed it for a night or two.