Chapter 6 – But very wise, was he.

-Midgard-

John had just filled his travel mug with coffee, watching as Ellen headed down the hallway to wake up Raine. The familiar thump and giggle brought a smile to his face as his wife jump out of Raine's room followed by a pillow, that hit the hallway wall and dropped harmlessly to the floor.
"You never get tired of that do you?" Ellen shook her head and kissed his cheek before escorting him to the front door. "Work hard, Honey and drive safe."
"Always." He mumbled as he pressed his lips to hers and headed to work. "Bye Raine!"
"How come school days drag on like forever but the weekend goes by so fast?" She grumbled stepping into the kitchen a few minutes later.
"Don't worry, the weekend will be back before you know it. Now go eat and get ready for the bus." Like a zombie, Raine shuffled slowly to go eat breakfast and slowly shuffled back to her room to get dressed. She came out shortly all dressed and plopped down on the couch, half lidded eyes struggling to break from sleeps hold.
"I'll be a little late coming home today sweetie, there's an art show I'm going to and hopefully I might sell a few pieces."
Ellen reached into her purse pulling out a couple of bills and handed them to Raine. "And here's your lunch money. I want you to come straight home after school, okay?" Her daughter opened her mouth yawning and squeaked out a "Yes mom".
The school bus pulled up and honked. Jumping up from the couch Raine slipped on her flats and kissed her mother goodbye.

During her ride the bus passed the park and Raine couldn't help but eagerly glance out the window in hopes of seeing the black haired Shakespearean, but when she didn't spot him she could only sigh softly.
It was only until she was in the classroom and distracted by her teacher did she finally stop thinking of him.
Of all her classes, she easily admitted that Art, English and Astronomy were her favorite, specially Astronomy, her teacher that never failed to get the class engaged, while Math and History were the ones she dreaded most.
P.E. Class would've been a favorite, but it was usually ruined by bully Brandon and his friends.
During art she sat down next to Kaylee, they went to the same dance class outside of school three days a week and lived only a couple streets from each other.

Kaylee lived for ballet and ballet only, her dream was to get into a fancy dance school like Opéra National de Paris. Raine knew every day her path was becoming more and more aligned with going to Paris with Kaylee, but then, she would have to learn a foreign language. Which made going to somewhere like New York feel like more of a plus cause no matter how hard she tried learning a second language it kept going over her head and her tongue refused to untie itself.
The teacher called out for free time, letting the students select whatever media they wanted to work with, Raine picked pastels and absentmindedly went to work. Small and careful strokes creating tall trees, leaving a blank spot in front of one tree blank. It wasn't long until she noticed she was recreating the scene at the park yesterday.
"Hey you, what's up?" Whispered Kaylee when the teacher was distracted with another student. Raine looked away from her sketch board and shook her head. "Nothing's up, why?"
"You're all quiet, usually you're all happy and all... You know." Kaylee bounced in her seat as if to demonstrate her words, But Raine was having a difficult time dragging herself away from distracting thoughts.
"I'm just sleepy" was all she said before she resumed her art. It must have been good excuse because Kaylee only glanced at her with a quizzical look before going back to her own canvas.

Soon the class was dismissed and as everyone gathered their things Raine sat back and appraised her drawing. She hadn't been trying for perfect, only quick, still she liked it. She had stuck to using mostly black but decided to shade everything with dark green.
She had him leaning against the tree with his hands clasped, resting on his stomach, just as he'd been when she had first laid eyes on him.
"Ohhh, who's that?" Asked her friend as she leaned on Raine's shoulder. Raine just shrugged her off gently. She sprayed the canvas with a fixative so it wouldn't smear and packed up her supplies while it dried, Kaylee still ogled the drawing.
"It's a boy…" Stated her friend and Raine held back from rolling her eyes. "So…?"
"So, you never draw people. You draw animals or scenery." When Raine didn't respond Kaylee quizzed her further, "What's his name?"
For some reason Raine couldn't help but feel protective of her mysterious boy, figment of her imagination or whatever he was
"Just someone I made up... Hey, are you doing anything this Saturday?"
Kaylee took one last glance as the drawing before it was sadly packed away. After a moment she shook her head. "Nothing, I'll be as free as a bird. Did you wanna hang out?"
"Yeah, I was thinking maybe you could come over to my place, you know, to remind my mom that I do have some friends and maybe then she'd stop bugging me." Chuckling, the girls left the classroom and lingered in the hallway.
"I know, how 'bout I come stay the night Friday after dance class?" Offered Kaylee.
"That way we can sleep in, or catch all the good cartoons in the morning, whichever."
Raine nodded and the two hugged tightly before splitting up to go to their separate classes.

When the final bell rang out she couldn't help but feel anxious about stopping by the park, it was on the way home so she wouldn't be breaking her mom's order. She barely remembered to say goodbye to Kaylee and the group of girls she was with, and she didn't even bat an eye when Brandon tried to get her attention with some teasing comment that didn't even register in her brain.
At the park, standing in the middle of the playground she turned in a circle several times searching for him. After a while she was starting to feel a little silly for expecting him to just be there, what were the chances?
But then a dark clothed figure moved in the corner of her vision, in the same spot as before, and she twirled around… to see… nothing… "Oh..."
Looking down and feeling a little disappointed at most likely having made the whole thing up, she almost missed seeing that same area as it wavered and melted like the first time.
There he stood, the same cautious look on his face as before. She couldn't help but gawk in surprise at seeing how he appeared from thin air. To her chagrin, at seeing her expression, he quickly hid in the trees. He looked, angry?
''Why is he hiding from me?' She felt her face for crumbs or food, then over her hair wondering if maybe something about her appearance was displeasing. Nothing felt out of place.
The temptation to just go over and approach him was strong but she feared he might run again like last time.
How many times would a boy run from a girl before he would be too embarrassed to show up again?

She wanted to stay around until he made up his mind, but she could feel the time slipping by. Turning ever so slightly so that his location remained in the corner of her vision she thought, 'Really hoping he'll show up tomorrow after this.'
Acting as if he wasn't there she glanced up at the sky then down at the earth, with a blush on her cheeks she said aloud to herself. "Shoot, wish I could hang out at the park today but guess I'll have to come back tomorrow." Instantly she wished she could take that back, who even did that and who would fall for it. Well she did when she was little, if she was being honest with herself, her mom was that master at that little trick, until she started to understand her ability and then it became harder for anyone to trick her.
Still Raine felt so silly that she wondered if she herself should even bothering coming back here again.
Not sticking around or looking to see if he heard her she quickly headed home, the entire time she was tempted to look behind her and see if he was following.
"Why would he even follow a crazy girl that talks to herself... And is still talking to herself?" She grumbled.

-Earlier that day on Asgard-

Loki cursed softly under his breath when he realized he slept in too late and quickly dressed as he gathered his belongings along with a handful of fruit to munch on, there was no time to deal with his family right now. He wanted to be gone before his Father would show up and make him do more training, Thor would have to settle with his own friends for training today.
Loki's fingers brushed his tender side and let out a conflicted sigh, so much was going on, so many emotions to deal with and understand. Not today though.

This time his arrival on Midgard went more smoothly than last, landing in the same alley he left from instead of in the middle of the dangerous black road. With quick and eager steps, he turned down the street leading back towards the grassy park.
It was quiet, no children nor adults so he explored the play area until he grew bored of climbing and hanging off bars, why was this visit so void of people?
Afterwards he sat down on the swing, her swing.
Loki was about to kick his legs outwards but stopped. How much unwanted attention would he earn from a swing moving on its on? He debated with himself whether to drop his enchantment or not. He knew it wouldn't take Heimdall long to spot him and tell his Father, potentially ruining his chance to figure out the mysterious human girl and learn how she could see him and once he had that knowledge he would head home and most likely never return.
Pulling out some fruit from his satchel he settled on eating and waiting to see if she would show up instead. As if he was really missing out by experiencing what she did the other day, he tried telling himself.

The serenity was ruined by the loud ringing coming from a building down the street. The shrill sound caused Loki to bolt up from the swing and summoned daggers to his hands, his magic still cloaked his body, the ever present familiar prickle that danced across his skin set to reassure him he would not be spotted. Flocks of young adolescents approached shortly afterwards, some getting into metal contraptions and driving off, some crossing the field and never noticing the armed prince hidden among them. Not one human gave him a glance as he cautiously made his way over to the small bunch of trees, weaving effortlessly between groups of humans talking about their lessons and plans for the rest of the day.
'They must be coming from some sort of academy.' Loki figured after listening to some of the conversations, some pointless and some piquing his interest.
How similar would his studies be compared to a human's studies?
Loki caught in his own thoughts almost failed to notice his human crossing the street, heading towards his location. 'My human? No, that wasn't right, my research subject maybe...'
Loki maneuvered himself around the tree to better conceal himself and peaked his head out to watch her. She was among the last of the Midgardian's it seemed as the crowd had quickly quieted and thinned out. He expected her to continue onto the play area but instead stopped several feet from him.

She was so close he could finally get a better look at her, in the shade of the trees her hair was a darker shade of red. She was perhaps a bit more tanned than he was and looked to be a shorter by a few inches. From the distance he could not see her eyes but found himself more than a little curious as to their color.
He watched as she spun in a circle seemingly looking for something.
Was she looking for him? Could she somehow sense he was here?
Just as she was about to face his direction he pulled his head back behind the tree.
Anxiety swam through his body making his pulse race, that fear he experienced before, the doubt in his magic returned and caught him off guard.
"Too close…" He whispered to himself and sucked in a deep breath.
He focused all his thoughts on his magic, a quiet spell muttered under his breath, hands making soft subtle gestures to try and strengthen it.
This was as strong as he could currently make it, he could stand beside his father as is and not even have his presence be noticed. Loki was sure of it.
Slowly took a step out from behind the tree, confident that she wouldn't see him, no matter how supposedly experienced in sorcery she might be.

The human continued to look on and he was about to grin in victory that apparently the whole idea she could see him was a fluke… but then she did a double take in his direction.
Her eyes widen causing his cheeks to flush in a mix of embarrassment and anger. She could see him still! It felt as if someone was squeezing his lungs, the magic surrounding him almost wavered.
'Hide you buffoon, she is still looking!' He chastised himself and ducked behind the tree.
He glared at clenched fist, his magic failed him! Why?
Growing rage made him want to lash out and attack, he had never experienced this before and instead of flight he felt like fighting.
Silently he waited for the human to seek him out. But she never did. What was she planning? Why did she not approach him?
"Shoot, wish I could hang out at the park today but guess I'll have to come back tomorrow." Her voice called out to no one in particular. He was momentarily distracted by her voice. The soothing tone he could only describe as the kind that could make any book interesting, pitched high but not to the point of it grating his ears. Still he braced himself in case she approached him but instead he could hear her walking away, quickly. He counted a few seconds before peeking out to watch her head across the play area and towards a street lined with houses.

He shouldn't follow her. He had no way to stealth himself as she could see him apparently, but she made no motion to look back. Loki was far to curious and invested now to not follow after her, so he did.
Along the way he mentally checked the signs with names on each street, it didn't take long before he understood their significance.
How much farther was she going to go? They had already passed four signs.
Finally, she was stopping now, glancing side to side before crossing the street. Loki crouched down behind some bushes as she approached a small house encircled by a worn white fence.

So, this was her home? It was certainly different from the small homes in his realm. Its walls painted a pale blue that was peeling here and there. The lawn was well kept and shaded nicely by a large tree with a rope hanging from a thick branch.
It wasn't completely unpleasing to the eyes but he was used to… much more. Bigger, grander.
Before she opened the white door she took a quick look behind her, shoulders slumping before headed inside
When it was obvious she would not be coming out again he slowly walked away, lost in his thoughts.
He knew that he would have to return, push through everything holding him back speak with the human. He'd find her again, figure out her magic tricks and then… He would deal with the 'then' later. For now, he needed to think of a story to tell his Father concerning his absence today… and what to say to the red-haired girl when they would finally meet face to face.