"But surely you don't want to be Dira Starkovsky forever?" asked Ruby playfully.

Loki noticed Dira shiver as the sentence was said. No one else would have noticed, but Loki's watchfulness over Dira and his keen immortal eyes saw all that happened to her, when others were blind.

Dira's family had come to visit her in the city for a day. After taking a walk on the beach they'd come back to the closed diner where the three other members of staff besides Dira had been waiting the family to return.

Now Jessie, Brad and Loki all stood smiling and laughing about a rounded booth. In the booth sat Dira next to her mother, an older woman with caramel coloured skin the same as Dira, beside her was Dira's father, a fair and tall man with a wise yet charming face. At the center of the booth was a man close to the same age as Dira, her brother Leon, he looked almost an exact younger copy of his father, except for the caramel coloured skin that he shared with his mother and two sisters. The last of the Starkovsky family sat at a distance from her twin brother. Ruby, looked nearly as young as Dira, and yet looked little like her, excluding the skin colour much like Dira was with her mother, in fact Dira looked very little like the rest of her family. Ruby sat close with another man and held his hand; this was Darius Sia, Ruby's newlywed husband, a rich man who inherited his father's ownership of hotels in Dubai and had taken up the business. The couple were all smiles for each other.

Ruby was just questioning Dira's unattached lifestyle and was trying to have her sister admit she wanted a man in her life.

Dira put down her drink. "No, of course I don't, but I'm just happy living life in other ways."

"You know what your problem is, you like other people too much. Ever since I can remember you've been friendly with everyone. Now I'm willing to bet that you don't know which guy to choose."

Dira laughed. "Ruby you'd lose that bet because I don't actually, I leave that task to Jessie."

Everyone laughed and glanced up to Jessie who was laughing with them.

"I was going to deny that to try make myself sound more respectable, but the problem is its true." Jessie put in after a short pause.

"But come on Dira" Leon put in. "Is there no special man catching your attention?"

"Even if there is a special man trying to catch my attention I wouldn't be noticing him, I'm far too busy."

"Well, let's agree that for now Dira's happy with her life, man or not." Dira's mother said, in a kind but tone stern that quickly put all her children in place.

Everyone instantly stopped questioning Dira and the staff members tried to restrain themselves from giggling at the presence Dira's mother had on her children. Only Loki was distracted, his mind still lingering on the way Dira has shivered. He didn't like it, it was so unnatural for her and he couldn't help but wonder what the cause was.


Dira's family left late and Brad and Jessie left soon after, leaving Loki and Dira alone together.

As Loki wiped down any unclean surfaces as part of his cleaning duties Dira was back in the storeroom behind one of the doors behind the counter. Occasionally she'd come out with packaged goods and place them on the shelves underneath the counter for the next day's work, but Loki acted as if he was barely acknowledging her each time she came out. This couldn't be further from the truth, in fact Loki had grown protective over Dira, in his mind only, yet he still watched her whenever he could to see that she was safe and now he was darkly consumed with his own thoughts for her that taunted and troubled him deeply.

After he'd been going about half an hour in the empty diner Loki glanced up to realise Dira was standing close beside him.

"Are you almost done?" She asked in her softly clear and educated voice that never shifted to something otherwise from her perfect lips.

"Almost" Loki replied curtly, only sparing her a glance. He had her on his mind too much right now to want to encourage his feelings for her.

"Look, thank you ever so much for helping out today." She said as he continued to clean a tabletop. "I know you shouldn't have been required to work seeing as the Laufeyson's Diner wasn't officially open but you've been a great help all the same."

Loki stopped his work and forced himself to look at her. "The pleasure was all mine."

Dira beamed at him, but it didn't bring Loki comfort anymore. Dira was a wonderful person, always smiling, and taking joy out of everything life had to offer. But Loki now felt like a tiny little speck in Dira's perfect life, noticed and appreciated perhaps but of no importance above any other of the things that made Dira happy in life. All his life he'd been a shadow, and now once again he was a shadow to just another person.