TO KATE: yes, you have my permission. i am interested in what you are planning to do. thank you for your review, (and for reading my chapters numerous times) i just wish you would have not been a guest, so i could have sent this note to you properly.

There might be a change in the number of chapters left in this, so i hope that's okay with you guys... Sorry the update is so late. I had... a bit of rift in my personal life. So, I'll try my best not to let that show throught my writing... Uh, here's another chapter for you.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Playground Games

"I think she's just sick. Are you sick, Lucy?" Richie asked Lucy, as they sat down in a fancy restaurant. So expensive, so... too much.

Lucy shook her head, but whether or not she was agreeing, Lucy did not know. Her head was still buzzing, she was still clasping that shard in her fingers, inside the pocket of the heavy black coat her mother bought as an 'engagement present'. As if she needed another coat. Her parents were chipper as ever, happy that their only daughter would finally be married. Nonsense. Lucy was still very young, and she did love Richie. She did.

She did.

Lucy looked to Richie with a sort of smile, a flash of Loki peeking into her vision for but a moment. Enough to rattle Lucy and leave her with a gasp for air. Was Loki doing this intentionally? Just to mess with Lucy? Why would he need do such a thing if he'd let her go - sent her back home where she belonged. Oh, Lucy hoped the Prankster wasn't playing such cruel mind-games with her. She might grow to hate him... She might want him more.

"Well, we could surely leave if you aren't-"

"I'm just... A bit tired. It will pass once I eat something, I'm sure." Lucy interrupted.

Her mother smiled, pulling aside one of the waitresses for a bottle of wine. Lucy fingered the shard, having warmed it with her body temperature.

"Are you for certain nothing else is wrong with you? You're happy we're engaged, aren't you?" Richie asked, lying beside of Lucy in her bedroom, arms wrapped around him.

Her brown eyes were focussed on him, while her left arm was draped over his right side. Lucy smiled small, "You worry too much. I just need to sleep."

"Oh, alright." Richie moved in for a tender kiss - brushing his fingers along her cheek, a slow, intimate manner - making Lucy blush a light pink color. She couldn't help but kiss him back, just so he wouldn't worry any more than he already was. Lucy kept her eyes closed after the kiss was over, hoping to fall asleep quickly. She felt Richie stroking her back, making it harder to concentrate except only on the diamond ring, that felt like dead weight, on her finger.

It couldn't have been but two hours, when Lucy felt herself stir and open her eyes. She felt completely wide awake, and Richie had turned on his opposite side, towards the wall. Her hand slid up his side, over the blanket, and then under. Lucy almost jerked her hand away from his body when she felt how cold it was. The fear was shooting through her veins when Lucy's first thought was that Richie was dead. She ripped the covers away from her fiancee, and saw the alabaster skin, and raven locks of Loki. He was asleep, breathing steady next to Lucy. But, where was Richie? Lucy looked all over the room, she ran a hand through her hair, and then...

Then, Lucy reached and traced the spine of Loki's back with her index finger. Why was he so cold, without having been in his true form? Lucy couldn't stop there, only touching him with her finger. She slid a little closer, she was completely pressed against his back, while her hand was exploring his arm and shoulder. He did not move, he did not make a sound, he just slept - heavy. Lucy was not content with it at all. She pressed a little closer, and slid her hand across his naked belly. A slight twitch.

So she did it again.

Loki was partially awake now, and he was moving his hand to cover hers. Laced their fingers, and Loki was letting out a small sigh. Lucy kissed his shoulder, his neck.

"Pet. Do you mourn for me? Do you mourn?"

Lucy scrunched her brow, "Mourn?"

"Why else would you think about me so much?"

She shook her head, "You're manipulating me, Loki."

"I'm not here - I'm in Asgard. How could I manipulate you when I'm not even here?"

Lucy pulled Loki onto his back then. He was staring up at her with his emerald eyes, and Lucy felt her brown ones try to well with tears. Both her hands were against his cheeks, down to his neck, across his chest, then back up. She shook her head, she closed her eyes. She opened them. Loki was still there, no emotion on his face. No sign of anything.

"I'm not here, Lucy."

"N-no..." Lucy said in her sleep, turning onto her stomach with her face pressed into the warmth of her pillow.

She was dreaming, that much he could tell, as he stood over her in the darkness of her mortal bedroom. Richie, the mortal male that was to wed her sooner than later, lay beside her, snoring... a much deeper sleep than that of Lucy. If he made the wrong move, he might just wake Lucy, and all control in him would immediately be lost.

Loki came for a visit, and he knew it would be best if Lucy were asleep, just so she couldn't see him, just so she couldn't touch him and make Loki feel everything he hated. Love, remorse. Hatred in himself for sending her back. Just one last visit before she was no longer available for his taking. He would not take her from the altar, no matter how tempting it might be. He would let her live her life, let her gradually forget him. Loki... he could make her forget, now, while she slept.

The notion, in his mind, was strong. He reached out with his palm, about to erase himself from her mind. Hovering over the back of her head, those bouncy curls sliding on the pillow the closer he got. Now, do it. Loki pushed himself. Make her forget.

"L...loki." She breathed again. Loki snatched his hand away from the air above her.

(F/B:) "I can make you forget." Loki told Lucy, standing on the Rainbow Bridge in the partial light. Raging waters flowed beneath them. Lucy was trying to figure out why they had not drifted away into the stars.

Lucy shook her head. Forget? How could she forget? "There's a part of me that wants to, but... I will not see it happen. I want to remember."

"Why?"

"Everybody has a dark side." Lucy smiled. (End F/B)

"Stupid girl." Loki turned to the window, walking towards it. He was leaving, but, not without one last glance to Lucy's sleeping form beforehand.

Wedding planning was a little stressful, but Lucy was a little thankful that her mother was handling the majority of it. Lucy had only put a little of her thoughts into the planning. She chose the cake, she chose the colors. Lucy was surprised why no one questioned her choice... Green, black, gold. Such odd colors, but... Lucy did not care.

Richie and Lucy's father had already picked out their suits. Solid black, emerald green ties, and gold buttons. It was soon time for Lucy to pick her dress. A whole month. A whole month had went by, and Lucy had not been able to put her whole heart into the one event that should be more important to her in her entire life. Her wedding, her first wedding. Her mother didn't seem to notice her attitude, but, Richie did. He noticed how different she was. Every time Lucy dreamt of Loki, she would have a hard time deciphering whether or not she was in reality. Richie had to basically pry her out of dreamworld.

It confused him, and even more so, when Lucy slipped - accidentally calling Richie Loki on a car ride home from picking wedding flowers. Richie did not seem to become angry with it, but Lucy knew full well what she had done, and that Richie had every right to be mad with her. It seemed more worrysome that Richie shrugged it off, rather than addressing the situation and becoming furious. Lucy still apologized - until Richie convinced her that he knew it was probably just the stress.

Sure, stress.

Lucy brought her knees to her chest as she sat in the sun room, while it rained. She listened to the splatter of raindrops hitting the ground, and was almost completely drowned in it. Lucy pulled her hair back into a band, it still being long enough to do so. She looked up to the grey sky, wondering what Loki was doing.

"I knew something was the matter when you came back that night, Loki." Thor said to his brother, as they sat in a sauna-like room, clad in towels.

Loki looked at Thor directly, "She wasn't awake, she had no idea I was even there."

"Yes, but, Loki - you cannot do that. What if she had been awake? What would you have done?"

"Does it really matter? It's over, I went... and I came back - without her."

Thor arched his neck back against the wall as steam rolled in circles about the two of them. Loki was not anywhere close to his normal self, but, there were bits and pieces of him that were. Loki was constantly distant, not paying attention to hardly anything. When it came to eating with his family, Loki usually just sat there, barely touching his food. Thor knew what was going through his mind. As did their parents, but to Thor, it showed more. Loki would catch his brother staring at him, concerned. But, it was Thor's fault the way Loki was so distant.

Loki would always blame Thor.

"Are you going to tell father not to let me go to Midgard now? Would that satisfy you, Thor?"

Thor breathed heavy, "Now, listen close, brother..." he said, "You know that's not what I meant."

"I know what you meant."

"All I meant, was that it's not innocuous to travel to Midgard, risking she might see you. That's why you sent her back, that's why-"

"You sent her back."

"If you are blaming me, then you should not have kept that woman captive to begin with. I mean well, Loki. I am your brother, and I only want what is best for you. I know that mortal girl was important to you - even if you don't admit it - in the end... But, you have to know that she would have died here. She would not have been able to survive. Even if she had, age would have found her, and-"

Loki stood, he swept his hand across the steam and hissed, "Oh, enough with your words, Thor! I will not sit here and listen to you come up with that drivel you spit from your obnoxious mouth."

He turned on his bare heels for the door, "You mean well." He somewhat laughed.

ALRIGHT. So, yeah, there might be two more chapters left now. My bad. I had a suggestion or two and it got my mind going. Who knows really how many chapters i have left up my sleeve.