"Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did he never see it?" -Henry David Thoreau

Loki had done only one thing since the early morning stress. He walked out into one of the secluded courtyards (with Thor following behind him), picked a perfect place on the ground —

And faceplanted. Right there. On the cobblestone. He laid there, facedown on the stones, all morning. And Thor just sat on the side, eating a fruit he'd been tossing in the air, wondering how he was supposed to confront his brother in a way that wouldn't get him punched in the nose. (That, or have Loki burst into violent bouts of sobbing). So he decided to focus on the happy of the situation, if there was any happy to focus on.

"KrishnaLan," Thor started, setting the core of the fruit next to him. Loki tensed up at her name. "Loki, she makes you happy, does she not? Do you love her?"

It took the raven-haired prince a long moment to reply. Like he was sifting through his scrambled thoughts, picking out the bits that were decent enough to say aloud.

"Sometimes," He muttered quietly, his voice muffled with his facedown position, "I think that 'happiness' and 'love' are no different from each other. One poisonous creature under two titles." Loki paused to breathe slowly. "I do not require the sentiment and following of love." His voice betrayed him. "But I do want to be happy. And, yes, Thor." His voice dipped into nearly silent tones. "Krish makes me very content."

Loki wasn't tearing up (Loki never cried. Ever.), but Thor was. So when Thor changed the subject, it was for his own good. Not Loki's.

"Where IS that girl, anyway?"

Loki snorted, and for the first time all morning Thor got to see his brother's face. Loki picked himself up and sat to look at Thor. "How am I supposed to know where that demon is?"

"Demon?"

"Well, this is all her fault after all." Loki looked up. "If she had not come here... Then..."

"You would not have been content." Thor said scoldingly. "Do not curse her coming here, Loki. Whether she is cast out or not, you and her were happy together. So not another word from you about that."

"She said something about the stables this morning." Loki shook his head. "Right after she asked me if I knew about her horns."

"HORNS?! She has HORNS?!"

"Well, that's what she said!" Loki exclaimed. "But she screamed 'stables' and ran away before she could explain!" Thor looked like he was going to beat the snot out of Loki for answers, so he quickly ramble-added, "THOR DON'T BLAME ME I TOLD YOU ALL I KNOW AND ALL I KNOW IS ALL KRISHNA TOLD ME SO STOP!"

Enter Krish at that wonderfully timely moment. She jumped dramatically into the courtyard, dressed in a light purple Salwar Kameez, with a rope tossed over her shoulder. She placed her hands on her hips dramatically and exclaimed, "I'm here! Did anyone miss me? Loki? No?" Then quieter, "Why are you on the ground, weirdo?"

Loki shrugged.

Then Thor roared, "KRISHNA, YOU MUST EXPLAIN YOUR HORNS TO US RIGHT NOW!"

"Oh, these things?" Krish dropped the rope on the ground, and then lifted her hair away from her neck. Jutting out from directly behind her ears, then reaching to hardly frame her face, were two dusty black ram's horns. They weren't particularly large, nor were they very small, and Loki wondered how he had never noticed them before. "I asked the Gods to let me keep them. Along with my tail. Just something to remind me of my real form." Krish shrugged. "Nothing more."

Thor looked utterly horrified, with his mouth gaping open and his eyes twitching occasionally.

Then Loki's quiet voice, "Krish, can I touch them?" Krishna dropped her hair and picked the rope up again.

"Maybe later." She said, brushing off her shirt. "I kept them well-hidden, didn't I?" The tiny golden beads reflected little pinpricks of light to shimmer on the stones. Purple. She couldn't believe she was wearing it. But it was her last day in Asgard, so why the hell not? She might as well wear a color.

Thor, with the image of horns fading from his mind, was finally able to form some sort of compliment for Krish. "KrishnaLan, the color of the material you wear makes your hair look wonderful."

"Ah. How sweet." Krish said. Loki couldn't decide if she was being sarcastic or not. They both shared the opinion that Thor was a stupid, blundering oaf, and at every chance she was given, Krish made fun of him. Loki tried not to, Thor was his brother after all, but it wasn't his fault if he agreed with Krishna's horrible insults.

"Thor's right," Loki added. "And your henna looks nice, too." Krishna didn't say anything, but her eyes softened.

"No more compliments. Seriously. It makes me feel all weird." Krish kept her eyes from locking with theirs. But Loki and Thor's green and blue eyes shared a knowing glance. They each took a synchronized breath, and then —

"Krish, I love your pale skin."

"Your eyes are stunning."

"By the Gods, you're beautiful."

"When you talk, I love listening to your voice."

"The way you move is enchanting."

"The aroma of your skin is intoxicating."

"You're absolutely hilarious, darling."

And then, Thor and Loki together, "We love you, Krish." The royal brothers paused, and then burst into laughter. But Krish, little Krishna, felt her face warm. It was as if someone had taken a completely alien substance and poured it all over her body. She was never allowed to love or be loved, compliments were completely out of the question.

She shoved the tears away from her eyes and forced herself to laugh along with them. The laughter didn't last long — nowadays it never did. In a few short moments, silence fell again, and the mood dipped back into saddened tones. It was only when Krish picked the rope back up and began scaling one of the trees that Thor broke the silence —

"What are you doing up there?" He asked. Loki turned around to face her as she ascended the trunk and disappeared to become one with the seemingly hundreds of leaves. They shook at the presence of an unwanted guest, and a few of them dropped to the ground. Krishna was mumbling something to herself. Something about loving the trees in Asgard, loving their shape, how she was going to miss them.

"I'm having fun," she suddenly said. "I am allowed to have fun, aren't I? With everything going on, I might as well while I can..."

"But Krish —"

"Loki," Krish poked her head out from among the branches upside down to stare at him. There were the horns again. "Do me a favor and shut up." Her face went dramatically happy. "Mmmkay?" And then she was back in the tree, rustling along in the branches. After a moment (a moment of silence, because Loki was now smart enough to take Krishna's advice), Krish continued talking.

"In this form, growing up on Midgard, I used to sneak into things they called 'circuses'. People with talent would gather together and perform for a large crowd. I thought it was stunning. You would have loved it, Loki. The acrobats and such..." Krishna's voice walked along dreamy paths for a moment, until it sprung back to the independent bite her voice always carried. "My favorites were always the tightrope walkers. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful."

Krish remembered. A tough thing to do, as the Gods strived to make her forget everything menial. But she remembered. She remembered sitting on the cold metal benches in a large tent, with the smells of popcorn and sugar floating carelessly on the air. She remembered following the elephants with her eyes, the way they would run with the performers atop their backs. The way they shook their great heads and their tusks shook, too, and it seemed like anything could be taken down by their majesty. She remembered that. The elephants and the smell of the popcorn.

"Occasionally," Came that independent voice from the tree, "The tightrope walkers would fall." She poked her head out again to look straight at Loki. "My doing, of course. I liked to make them fall. The audience was none the wiser. No one would have thought of a little girl to be the cause of such a tragedy. Their faces when they heard the unnatural thunk and saw the walker's crippled body lying helplessly on the ground. The way they moaned and screamed. The terror that rode throughout that tent in waves, it was like magic." She stared off into space. "I was never known, I never wanted to be known. I just wanted anonymous power. I still do." She disappeared in the tree again and fell silent.

Thor didn't know much about Krishna. And he didn't know what the hell she just talked about.

But Loki did. And the sorrow in Krishna's voice made him despair.

"What else occupied your time on Midgard?" He asked.

"Oh, you know, the usual things kids do." Krish, knowing she was in the presence of Thor, chose her words carefully. Instead of saying 'I skinned people, cut them up, and put them in mason jars', she said, "I delivered people their Karma. New York was a great place for me to grow, filled with terrible people doing terrible things. Then I went to Russia in my adolescent years and worked there. That's where I saw the circuses."

"Like training?" Thor asked, trying to do what little he could to keep up with the conversation. "What were you training for?"

"I wasn't training, I was being trained. I had a leash around my neck. I was being trained for here, for Loki. But I won't participate." Krish chuckled. "And those idiotic Gods got the date wrong, now they're scrambling to right themselves." Krish slipped out of the tree. She had tied one end of the rope to one of the sturdy upper branches and was heading for a tree directly across the way.

"Trained for Loki?" Thor asked again.

"Yes, well. I was sent at the wrong time." Krish held Loki's chin and looked over his face. "Aside from the occasional mischief, Loki here is as innocent as a lamb. He has no Karma built up, and I have no weapon against him." Loki's mouth hinted a smile.

"Loki will be a fantastic God." Thor said.

Krish zoned in on her next tree target and headed straight for it. "Just wait until he becomes a bloodthirsty badass."

Loki cheered up dramatically. "I become a bloodthirsty badass?!"

"We'll talk about it later." Krish disappeared in her second tree. She poked her face out of the swarm of leaves. "But yes." Loki wanted to do a double fist pump to the air, but he resisted. Thor was giving him a highly displeased look.

The rope that was hanging slack in the middle of the courtyard suddenly went tight. It created a streamlined cord that sliced through the air about 10 feet up. "Is that even?" Krish asked, looking herself from the top of the tree. "I suppose it'll do."

"What are you doing?"

"Tightrope walking." Krish said. Loki couldn't see her, but he was pretty sure she shrugged. It just sounded like it in her voice. She did a voice-shrug. "I don't see the danger in it." Loki had learned not to question Krish. Because she was mostly psychopath. And if she could shove a spear through half of her inner organs, he was pretty sure she could tightrope without help.

Krish emerged out of the top of the tree, balancing on the rope. It quivered at her weight, like it didn't want her there and it was eager to throw her off. When she took a step forward, lost her balance a bit, and cried out, apparently it hit one of Thor's paternal buttons. He flipped his head around dramatically to glare at Loki.

"Brother. Help your maiden."

"I don't need any help, Thor." Krish rejected calmly.

"Yes, see? She said it herself. No help required." Loki added.

But then Thor pulled this face. This stupid face. This stupid, accusatory face. This face where his chin scrunched up and his eyes went wide. And after Loki didn't do anything, his nostrils even flared. It was terrifying.

"You know what, Krish, I think you DO need some help after all…" Loki scrambled to his feet.

"What?" Krish looked disgusted. "No, I don't need help." Loki stayed under the rope. "Loki, go away."

Loki looked back at Thor, and Thor pulled the face again. "Krish, that isn't going to happen."

Krish called Loki a name under her breath, mumbled something about being independent, and then started walking on the rope. One foot in front of the other, trying to keep the shaking to minimum. Shaking was bad. Shaking was just the more terrifying prologue to falling. Loki even started getting a little nervous when he watched her place each bare foot on the hardly-worthy-of-being-called-a-rope rope.

He found himself following under her carefully, cringing every time she jerked. She always followed her missteps with a hysterical laugh. She inched her way along, the rope seeming to get angrier as she went.

"Have you done this before?"

"No."

"Ugh. Krish…"

"What? There's a first time for everything…"

"Some first times can get you killed."

"Yeah, been through that. That's how lives 25, 86, and 12 ended."

Silence from Thor and Loki. And then Krishna's creepy chuckle (a mastered creepy chuckle) –

"Ehehehehehe…"

Cue what the three of them should have seen coming: the rope broke. Krish actually saw it from a mile away. Ropes from stables aren't meant to be walked on. Of course it was going to break. She also knew Loki would be right under her. But when it snapped, it surprised her immensely. She screamed and flailed momentarily in the air to grab the rope that was no longer there. But then she fell right into Loki's arms, and seconds later Thor had practically appeared from no where to be at her side.

"Well that was fun," Krish clambered out of Loki's hold, laughing happily. How could Krish be so happy when she knew exactly what was meant for her? "Now I can cross that off my bucket list."

The noon was draining away, and as it did the mood did as well. Dominoes everywhere were falling, every action. The Gods must have been ablaze with conversation up in their roost, chattering nervously about little rebel Krishna, wondering what they were going to do, how they were going to contain her. Wringing their hands together until they went raw with anxiety. That image made Krishna obscenely happy.

The dominoes had been falling for a while, now. Half the chain was nearly gone. There was no stopping it, so she might as well embrace it.

Krish laughed a little more, but her laughter faded.

"Come on, Loki." Her smile was unceasing. Loki wondered if she understood what was happening. Or maybe she was the one that understood the most. "Let's have one more glass of wine together before I go."

"Before you go where?"

"To my exile." She said simply. Thor's lips went tight, and Loki's eyebrows slanted sadly. But Krishna continued to smile. "Just one more glass of wine."