A/N: I promised I would update soon and I did! and it's 11:38, so I also did the update in the same day!
Thank you for reading! This Friday is the final for a class I am taking, and then I'll have about 2 weeks before the consultation for my surgery. After surgery they can't make me work, so I'll be writing this. My plan is 1-3 updates a week until the end of this fic, and then I have plans for a new Lokane fic and few others for other fandoms. Thanks again for sticking with me!
Jane literally could not comprehend how it was this cold.
Her boots crunched as she made her way towards the ice palace. The pilot and her body guard stayed with the plane, so she had taken her suitcase, mostly empty, and filled it with nutrigrain bars, water bottles, and an extra coat before heading out into the ice.
It was something out of a fairytale, shaped like a glittering crown with single spire rising up from the center. From far off it was charming, but the closer she came it was intimidating. It was enormous. To think he had made it all himself, Jane thought as she approached. Now that she saw it closer, she could tell it was not entirely made of ice; some walls were opaque, entire sections of the crown made of stone and steel. The doors themselves were made of steel and she lifted the huge knocker once, twice, thrice, letting out a loud banging she was sure the ice king himself heard from wherever he was. She waited there, patting her arms and jumping up and down to keep from freezing with the wicked winds ripping at her cheeks. It was about 10 minutes before the doors finally opened.
Loki stood there, staring down at her with confusion. "Jane?"
"Oh, thank god," she rushed into the castle without his consent, extremely disappointed that it was almost as cold as it looked. It was still a good 20 degrees warmer though, and she gleefully soaked in all the warmth she could siphon from the air.
"Jane?" Loki said staring at her in confusion. Jane's eyes snapped open. "Right, sorry. We need you to come back.
Loki just stared at her. "Hello? Anyone in there?" Jane asked. Loki walked past her up to a stair case. Jane ran after. "Wait! Where are you going?!"
"My observatory!"
As it turned out, his observatory was that ridiculously tall spire. And it didn't come with an elevator. Loki sprinted up the stairs effortlessly as Jane had to stop, huffing and hauling her bag. "Slow…down…long legs!" she yelled. Once she finally reached the top, she collapsed on the floor. "You need…to come back." She gasped out. This observatory was much like his in Paris- telescope with an enormous pool of water for viewing the stars at the center of the room- but it was much bigger and higher up. The sun was setting already and the pool glowed with the stars it reflected.
"I'm not going back. Not yet."
"Not yet as in a few hours or…"
"A year or two. I have work to do."
It was Jane's shock and exasperation that pulled her up onto her feet. "I'm sorry, I thought you said a year."
"Or two."
"You have a planet to run, Loki!" Jane said with so much annoyance in her tone it was amazing the words formed at all.
Loki turned to look at her. "They don't need me at the moment. This planet did function without me once."
"Yeah, once. And then you took over. Look, Anne's about to kill herself, she's so overwhelmed. I don't think she's slept in a week. The world parliament election has taken a bad turn, and people are protesting, and there's a lot of other running-the-world stuff that she can't do alone."
"Why don't you help her?"
"I'm not the self appointed king, ok buddy? So let's go; less sass, more hauling—"
"Well then, she will have to make do. For one moment, just a moment, I would like to work without the trivial needs of every human being on this earth falling to me. I told Anne to send all the other women home. If you don't want to stay in Paris, you are free to go as well. So no, I will not go back with you now. I will go back when I feel the need," he turned back to his telescope. "Go home, Jane."
Jane stood there, her mouth hanging open like a fish, before she spoke. "No."
Loki turned back to her. "No?"
"No!" Jane walked right up to him, dwarfed by his height. "You made this mess! You came here with an army, blew things up, killed world leaders, and then made yourself king. You did that. You took responsibility for the human race. So come take care of your responsibilities."
"And if I don't?"
Jane sat on the ground, crossing her legs and her arms. "Then I will sit here, silently shaming you until you do!"
"Your bum will go numb," Loki said, slightly amused.
"Then you better hurry up," Jane beamed at him smugly.
In the end, Jane did not stay in that spot. She ended up moving to the edge of the pool, staring at the stars. She sat on a seal rug Loki had brought her so that her bum wouldn't go numb, and nibbled on the nutrigrain bars Anne had packed for her.
"Those cannot be nutritious," Loki said, looking at the box of strawberry filled bars with mild disgust.
"I once survived two weeks on energy drinks and trail mix," Jane said dismissively. "I'm sure I'll be fine."
He didn't respond to the comment, but continued to take notes on the stars. Jane poked the water. Loki sighed in annoyance, but in surprise she plunged her entire hand in.
"Please, do not."
"It's warm!" she exclaimed.
"Of course it is. How else would it stay in this form in a place so cold," Loki rolled his eyes.
"How?" Jane asked staring into the ice basin. She couldn't see a heater or any sort of device.
"Magic," Loki said smugly.
"I hate you."
"I know."
Jane stood, wrapped the seal skin around herself and walked over to Loki. He stood completely still, like a person approached by a wild animal. Jane studied his calculations and drawings with a furrowed brow before announcing, "You're measuring the distance between the stars."
Loki snapped out of it and closed the journal, putting it on its shelf.
"Why?" Jane asked.
"You're a curious thing, aren't you?' he muttered, adjusting the scope.
"So, you left your duties as king to…calculate the distance between the stars, and us…" Jane was thinking, circling the pool as she did. Loki watched her in silence.
"You don't have a ship, so…" she muttered, her hand trailing in the water every so often, "any it can't be just curiosity, it's precisely the measurements from this spot to…"
"I'm building a bifrost," Loki confessed. "Satisfied?"
Jane looked at him, and then the pool, and then back at him. "This is the sky over Asgard."
Loki swiftly repositioned his scope. "You're building a bifrost so that you can go home. You want to go home!"
"I can't go home!" Loki shouted. He wasn't looking at her, so she could not figure out if he was angry with her or the fact he just acknowledged. "I can't go back, not after what I've done. I don't belong there."
Jane sat on the edge of the pool in expectant silence. Loki stared unseeing over the frozen landscape until he realized how long she had said nothing, and then turned to see her waiting for him to finish.
He had never told anyone his story.
No one had ever wanted to hear it.
And despite his desire to tell it, he did not want pity.
Least of all Jane's pity.
Jane must have seen the indecision on his face, because she asked a different question.
"Why did you send all the other women home?"
"I'm not interested in them."
"A lot of them were interested in you."
"Not the one who mattered."
Jane frowned at that and stared at the unknown stars in the pool for a long, silent moment. "I'm not your dead wife, Loki."
"I know that," he took a hesitant step towards her. "I am not asking you to be. I am simply asking that you open your mind to the possibility that—"
A loud banging Jane knew to be the knocker at the front doors rang throughout the palace. Loki swiftly left, and Jane stood there by the pool, doing an emotional inventory. For a scientist, Jane was remarkably introspective and aware of her flaws and mental state. That didn't mean she could stop herself when in a foul mood or rage, but she was keenly aware of it. Observing the crystal clear galaxies reflected in the pools surface, Jane realized a few things.
One, she no longer hated Loki.
Two, that didn't mean she forgive him for all he had done.
Three, she felt like she knew him a little more than she knew Thor right now.
Loki came back up the stairs looking extremely peeved. Locke followed him.
"Foster," Locke said, taking in the room. "You planning on coming back any time soon?"
"How did you get up those stairs so quickly?" Jane said, mildly miffed.
"Foster," he sighed. "Let's go."
"Actually, you go ahead with the pilot. Refuel, sleep in a bed, all that jazz. Come back tomorrow."
Locke looked back and forth between her and Loki.
"The king is being a little stubborn," Jane said. Loki shot her an annoyed glance but didn't reprimand her.
"You are going to stay here? With the king?"
"Yes, with the king." Jane sat at the edge of the pool, snugly wrapped in the seal fur. "see you tomorrow, Locke."
Locke was confused, but decided not to push it. "Don't die of frostbite, Foster."
"Haha."
"I'm serious. You'll ruin my reputation if you die."
"I'm touched. Go."
Locke left and Loki sighed, leaning against his telescope. "Do you really plan to sit there all night?"
"Unless you have a guestroom..." Jane shrugged. Loki took back out the book and adjusted his scope. " I do. but the bed is really just a pile of pelts at the moment."
"Better than a floor of ice," Jane said, poking the pool.
"Stop that," Loki said, walking over and taking her hand to hold it back. "I will take you to your room in a few minutes, alright. Just be patient."
Loki let go of her hand and Jane resisted the urge to dip it back into the warm water. "Ok. Tell me a story."
"A story?"
"Why can't you go home?"
A/N: Will Jane survive her night with the king? Is her frozen heart melting? Does Loki want to go home? Will Locke ever pick up on the tension I am trying to write? Tune in next time for more exciting adventures. If you want more updates quicker, give me a review!
...also, I had to fix, like, a million errors in my last chapter. Let me know if I missed something in this one, ok?