Disclaimer: I do not own Thor or Marvel, and this story is not for profit.

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who favorite/followed/reviewed! I'm so sorry for the wait.

AltheaGray-Thanks for the review girl! I totally understand the busy thing, since it's been way too long since this story was updated. Thanks for making timeJ. I'm glad you liked those scenes!

Pietoraven36- Thank you! And yes, Sif knows it's Loki. A few chapters back it explained everything. I kind of made it that since Thor told everyone Loki saved his life, Loki came back, took Odin's throne secretly, but only masqueraded as him for a little while, and then reveiled himself since most people accepted him because he saved Thor's life. (Although he kept the getting rid of Odin a secret still). I apologize if it wasn't very clear. I didn't think it was a particularly interesting part, so I didn't make it super long when I wrote it; it was a very brief explanation. Thank you so so much!

meguhanu- Oh my goodness! Thank you so much! I hope you continue to enjoy this story, your support means so much to me!

Kristina44- I know, I know. I am ashamed.:( Some unexpected things came up… but I will start updating quicker I promise! And thank you as always! And here it is!

Chapter 25: Experiences

"Business was booming." The owner of the bar Lora worked at had said that one evening during one of his rare visits. It had been particularly busy that night in the hotel bar, almost every bar stool and table was occupied, and they had had to turn several people away. Lora had remarked how busy it was that night, and the owner, who was cleaning glasses, had said "business is booming" and then winked happily. Lora wasn't familiar with this Midgardian expression, and had asked a coworker named Sally later what the owner had meant by his words.

"Have you been living under a rock your entire life? How do you not know what that means?" Sally asked not looking at her, being too busy cleaning the tables after everyone had left.

"I'm from out-of–town." Lora said.

"Well it just means that business is doing really well. Increasing. Making money and what not."

"Oooohhh."' Lora said, "That makes sense."

"Yeah. Good."

Lora liked that expression, "business is booming" and she used it now, smiling at Martin Massie as they carried a large canvas together down the stairs of the building.

When she said it, he laughed, agreeing. Martin had made more money in the last few months forging art with Lora than he had made in ten years of his life as an independent artist. The thought wiped the smile from his face.

"Why do you think," he grunted as he lifted one end of the painting over a rail, "it is so much easier to do the wrong thing? I've sold more paintings this month then all my other years put together."

Lora said back to him from the other end, " I don't think it's easier to do the wrong thing, although my last boyfriend would probably agree with you." she muttered bitterly, then said more loudly to Martin, "I guess it's just harder for new artists to sell their work. People don't want to buy from someone they have never heard of. If it makes you feel better, when you die your work will probably be worth a fortune."

"That might be sooner than I hope if we don't start being more careful. I've been meaning to talk to you, Lora."

They set down the painting on the floor, taking a break before they carried it the rest of the way.

"What is it?" Lora asked.

"I've been thinking that maybe we should lay low for a little while. This is dangerous business, and if we aren't careful, we could seriously be in trouble."

"We have been careful Martin. You should know by now that I wouldn't do anything to put us in danger."

"I know; but it's not you. It's just the business Lora. It's a dangerous one, and we aren't just goofing around any more, we have a serious operation and there are a lot of powerful people who know us. If one of them were to find out we've been selling them fake art…"

Lora tried to smile, to ease his mind. "First, you know we have never 'goofed around'. We have always been extremely precise and careful. No one, I can promise you, is going to catch us. Second, in case you haven't noticed, we are making an absolutely excessive amount of money lately, and slowing the business down right now would not be a wise business decision. Third, I don't want to stop. I am having fun."

When he didn't respond she asked, "Well aren't you having fun, too?"

She thought she heard him grumble, "I was," under his breath, but she couldn't be quite sure.

He didn't press the matter though, so they continued to do as they had done before.

…

"Can I help you with something?" Lora asked the gentleman sitting at the bar for the third time.

"No thank you." He said once again.

Lora raised an eyebrow at him and then went to go refill another customer's glass.

It was a slow, lazy night at the bar, and the low murmur of voices combined with the gentle rain that could be heard outside made it a pleasant and drowsy evening for Lora.

She chanced a glance back at the gentleman once again. He was watching her again. He was wearing a suit, but his jacket was on his chair and his tie was loosened. He must be staying at the hotel on a business trip; Lora had seen him at the bar for several days past. He always sat and drank alone, but he had never stared at her. Not until tonight.

Lora sighed, put the bottle back under the counter, and marched over to his seat for the fourth time tonight.

"What?" He asked innocently.

"I just would like for you to please stop staring at me, or if you choose not to, at least tell me why you're doing it."

When he didn't say anything she huffed and started to walk away, but then he gently called her back, chuckling.

"I apologize. I was staring at you, and it was very rude. I can't promise I'm going to stop, because that would be impossible, but I do apologize for it."

She had the feeling he was trying to be charming, but now she was just annoyed. "And you still won't tell me why?"

He took another sip of his whiskey and raised his hands apologetically in the air. "Well, it's just that I've been in New York for a week, and every night I've stayed at this hotel I've come and had a drink at this bar, and been served by this pretty and well mannered woman with dark hair and bright eyes. But today for the first time this whole week, you are positively glowing. There's a smile that won't seem to leave your face, your eyes are shining, and you are speaking loudly enough for me to hear your voice, which is simply magical, I might add. You seem very happy, you must have had a good day."

She had the feeling that he was exaggerating, but she did know what he was talking about. She had had a good day. She and Martin had made an absolute killing off of the painting, and they had celebrated with a trip to Coney Island, and for the first time in her life Lora had discovered the absolute joy of roller coasters. A dark or depressing thought had not come into her mind the entire day, and that had surely but slowly worked it's magic on her as the day went on and eventually turned to night.

Lora laughed, remembering how high they had been on the coaster, so that she could see out to the statue of liberty.

"I did have a nice day. But you must stop staring. It's making me self-conscious."

"I already told you, I can't do that. Before you were pretty and kind, but happiness really suits you. You're absolutely radiant, and magical. It's enough to drive a man insane."

Lora blushed, unused to such blatant flirting in a long time. "Thank you. You are pretty radiant yourself." And he was. Tall and broad-shouldered, he had short, dark curly hair that combined perfectly with the thick black-framed glasses that stayed over his dark brown eyes.

He smiled, pleased. And then a bit of a shadow crossed his pretty face. "I just hope it wasn't some other man who is responsible for your happiness tonight."

"No, I'm afraid not." Lora said, her face a deep shade of red.

"Well then, you have to save a drink for after the bar closes and let me buy it for you. And until then I'll just sit here and stare."

…..

Lora's first thought, waking up so early that it was just barely still dark, was that the rooms of the hotel she worked at were very nice, and she was glad that she had finally seen one; having up till this moment only been in the bar.

For half a second after that she was confused about where she was, but the heavy arm around her naked waist reminded her and she recalled everything.

She had had just one drink, and sipped on it for over forty minutes while they talked and laughed and flirted and eventually went up to his room.

For a first time, Lora knew, it wasn't half bad, based on other stories and experiences she had heard. The man she spent the night with she had learned was named Henry, and he was as kind and passionate as a woman could hope for in a lover.

Even so, Lora almost wished, as she gently lifted his arm off of her so as to not wake him, that he had been a selfish and arrogant man, so that the feeling she had would make more since just now.

She collected her strewn, wrinkled clothes off the floor and wondered to herself if all people felt this way after their first time; awkward and sort of sad. She had had a pleasant time, but the feeling she had now wasn't near as pleasant. The only thing she could pin it down to was that maybe it hadn't been special enough. She always imagined it being somewhere beautiful, with someone she loved, and laying together in bliss for hours afterword and into the morning. Special. But her mother had told her once, that if you believed that all of your life experiences should be more special than everybody else's, that nothing would ever make you happy. She supposed she was right, although it was often hard for her to heed her mother's advise when her own young heart wanted to follow it's own path, so she decided that time would only tell the way that she truly felt about what had happened last night, and that years later she might look back fondly on what had happened and find it to be very special indeed.

…..

Loki was very, very worried indeed. He had seen Lora go into the hotel bar for work, and since he wasn't tired decided to wait her entire shift for her to get off work and then make sure he saw her make it home safely. But it had been twelve hours now and there was no sign of her.

The rain had been constant the entire evening; early on it was a steady Summer downpour until it slowly became a intense storm, marked with frequent thunder and lightning. But Loki hadn't minded the water or the cold; even the thunder wasn't so bad since he knew that it didn't necessarily mean his brother was around. But he felt like a stupid, worried parent when Lora hadn't left the bar on time.

He had abandoned his usual spot from across the street and was now pacing up and down right in front of the doors to the hotel. It was just so unlike her, to not leave on time. She was such a routine person. And he was never worried about her protecting herself, she was strong and had plenty of experience dealing with disgruntled criminals when she had lived in Asgard. But she could be too sweet and trusting sometimes. Wasn't befriending him proof enough of that?

There were only three scenarios that really seemed possible to him.

One, the heavy rain and cover of night had made him just miss her, and she had already left early and he had just not seen her leave. Two, she had acted very unlike herself, and rented a warm room at the hotel to wait out the storm. He preferred to think this was what happened, but it just didn't seem quite like Lora. Which brought him to three, the only likely explanation, someone killed her and cut her up into a million pieces and was probably going to sneak her out of the hotel in a suitcase before throwing her remains into the dumpster.

And that was it. He was going in to find her. And if he couldn't find her in this building, then he would probably just have to search every spot on the rest of this realm.

The rain had let up now, and it was so early in the morning that the Sun should be coming up any moment soon. He was making his way over to the doors, when one of them creaked open. He physically felt his heart beat when he saw Lora leaning her body against the door to open it while fumbling around with her coat buttons.

He took a few steps back so she wouldn't see him, but it became apparent that stealth was hardly necessary at the moment as Lora was extremely distracted.

Her hair was a wild tangled mess, and what lipstick she had probably had on earlier in the day was smeared across half of her face, and most noticeably, she was too exhausted to hardly walk. She appeared to have not had much sleep, although she had most definitely rented a hotel room to wait out the storm like he had supposed. Loki wondered if maybe she didn't like thunder. He couldn't be sure, because they hadn't had time to talk about everything back when she was putting on his chains in Asgard, but it seemed like an explanation for her weariness and disheveled appearance.

He waited for Lora to get a good head start on him, and then began to supervise her walk back to her apartment. Her walking was scattered and off balance, not to mention her bag was wide open and half falling off of her arm.

After they had walked a few blocks Loki began to notice that he wasn't the only person following her. Well, it hadn't taken a few blocks for him to notice, Loki had of course noticed immediately, but he had waited to see if the man who was following Lora was going in the same direction as her or if he were indeed stalking her. Unfortunately, it was the latter.

Loki cursed under his breath. She had worked in criminal investigation for years. She had told him, at his own prodding, horror stories about things that she had seen at work back when they used to talk for hours in his cell. How could she be so stupid to walk through the city in the middle of the night barely conscious? Why hadn't she taken one of those ugly yellow cabs home?

Loki wondered, as he waited for the man to turn a corner before grabbing him and putting his hand over his mouth and whispering in his ear, "let's you and I take a walk this way," if the man had wanted to kill Lora, or hurt her in some other way. More than likely he had been intent on the purse that was hanging haphazardly down her arm.

Loki had the thought, as he dragged the man into a dark alley and shoved his back against a wall, that he had changed since he had met Lora. There were irritating instances every now and then when he was about to do something bad, but then he would think about her and in his mind he would see her react to what he was about to do, usually when it was something he knew was wrong. More often than not it was the look on her face when he had shoved her away from him after learning that she was a human that he would see in his mind. It was the look he hated more than anything in the world, and he never wanted to see it again. So whenever he would see it in his mind, he would always feel compelled to do whatever he knew she would approve of.

It didn't happen all that often, for which he was very grateful, because if he saw her face every time he tried to make a decision he'd be as pure and weak as his brother Thor.

And he was especially grateful that he couldn't see it now, as he crushed the man's neck with his bare hands, because he was sure that she definitely would not approve of this.

As he dropped the man's lifeless body into the puddle on the ground, he smirked and wiped his hands. Some things, after all, never change. And with that he went to find Lora again to make sure she made it home safely the rest of the way.