A/N: So, funny story. I was doing my final edits on Day 115 yesterday when I decided that I needed to rewrite the second half of it from a different POV. And then I realized that a secondary plot thread in the chapter no longer worked because of that, so I either had to undo my rewrites or push that thread into a new chapter. 24-ish hours later, and voilà, you guys get an additional chapter that is now Day 93. So if it's a bit choppy, that would be why.

Chapter Nineteen – Day 93

How was it that her life took so many strange turns? Jane had asked herself that nearly every day for the last three months, but tonight the question was exceptionally valid. First, Thor had kissed her, then she had slapped him, and now Loki was holding her hand like it was no big deal. Like they took midnight strolls all the time. It was weird.

But evidently it was nothing special to him. They had fallen into silence the further away they got from the tavern, but a content smile still lit up his face. Every once in a while, it would twitch almost into a grin; she suspected it was at the memory of her slapping his brother. Probably not one of her finer moments, but getting groped in a bar was not her idea of a good time, even if it was by a prince.

With her free hand, Jane rubbed at her temple. An odd echo of music was resounding through her skull again, causing her teeth to clench. The song of the green light from New York plagued her dreams often enough, taunting her for failing to find it, but this was different. If the green had been an electric guitar, this was more like a pipe organ, deep and melodic in a way that would have been beautiful but for how it pounded through her head.

"What is it, Jane?"

Jane popped her jaw as she let her hand fall away from her head. Blinking rapidly a few times, she realized she had stopped walking at some point. Loki stood in front of her, watching her warily. He had been in such a good mood before; she hated the thought of ruining it with more magical problems. "Nothing, just a headache."

He looked unconvinced, so she tried again more firmly, "Maybe you higher beings don't have those, but I'll be fine."

"If you're sure…" he trailed off, his mouth curving into a disapproving moue as he looked her over. He slid his hand back into hers – further proof that apparently only humans got fluttery feelings over such a tiny expression of intimacy – and resumed their leisurely pace. "If you aren't yet in need of removing your cuffs, would a short detour help your affliction?"

His gaze was fixed on the pathway ahead of them, as if unwilling to see her reaction. As it was, Jane gaped at him, pounding skull set aside for a brief moment. First an offer to take her home, now an offer to let her explore? Today (or perhaps today and yesterday, it was rather late) was very strange indeed.

Prudence won out over impulse as she bit her tongue to keep herself from shouting her approval. Sending her senses inward, she felt around for her magic. It was starting to bubble up in agitation, not liking the cuffs one bit, but surely she could manage another hour or so. Pleased with her own restraint, she replied primly, "Yes, I believe it would."

He smiled down at her, one of those genuine smiles she saw so rarely. "Then I know just the place."

He sped up, but she did not mind, eager to explore any bit of this world that he would let her. The winding streets were fairly grid-like, but she knew she could still easily get lost in this maze of towering buildings. She was so caught up in staring at it all that she barely noticed when Loki stopped at the top of a hill. At the insistent pressure of his hand, Jane looked out to where he was pointing. "Just a bit further down, that's the start of the rainbow bridge. And at the end, look, it's Himinbjorg. That is how we access the Bifrost and traverse the realms."

Jane watched in fascination as the long bridge that led out into the raw depths of space glimmered with color. She now understood its somewhat silly name; even from this distance, it was too lovely to be called anything else. But the way it extended out past the water and into the nothing… it was also terrifying. A million questions swirled through her head (How could they be on a literal edge of the world? If the planet was somehow flat, how did they have an atmosphere or even consistent gravity? How could there be enough water to continually flow off the edge?) but the only one she got out was, "Can we go down and see it?" The excitement in her voice was painfully obvious, but this was the sort of thing she lived for.

"Only once you've mastered your magic. But Heimdall would not appreciate our intrusion so late in the evening regardless."

The flood of disappointment was tempered minutely by the promise of someday. Not wanting to let that detract from the present moment, Jane asked instead, "Who's Heimdall?"

"He is the gatekeeper of the Bifrost, capable of seeing and hearing nearly everything in the Nine Realms."

"Nearly everything!?"

Misinterpreting her astonishment, Loki amended proudly, "Except, of course, those who know how to hide from him."

Jane looked back to the odd structure at the end of the bridge, imagining the poor man stuck inside. "That sounds like an awful job. Wouldn't he go insane from it?"

Loki chuckled. "He very well might have, but no one would dare suggest it. He could be listening, after all."

"That is legitimately disturbing." Her skin crawled at the idea; even alien planets had their version of Big Brother watching them. Suddenly longing for the false security of her room, Jane turned to Loki. "I think I'm ready to call it a night."

He eyed her appraisingly, though what he was looking for she had no idea. Fighting back a feeling of defensiveness, Jane stood unflinching beneath his shrewd gaze. "All right, we shall head back." Swinging around her so their hands stayed united, he led the way back to the palace.

Loki popped the cuffs open with a familiar motion, knowing well enough by now how to release them without exposing himself to any stray sparks from her skin. Setting them aside, he watched as Jane idly rubbed at her wrists as she wandered over to her bed, collapsing backwards onto the mattress with the kind of panache normally reserved for adolescents. Something was up with her, something more than the understandably upsetting fact that Thor had forced his lips upon her, and he was determined to figure it out. He may have resigned himself to playing the long game, but she needed to be happy and healthy for that plan to work.

There were many ways he could get her to confide in him, but as she had yet to move from her position, he was going to have to use her exhaustion to his advantage. A strategy forming in his mind, he flopped onto her bed beside her with just as dramatic a motion as she had made, landing so that his head was even with hers. Her drooping eyes flared open in alarm; he grinned invitingly in response. If she were not temptation incarnate, this would have been a simple ploy of manipulation, but since she was, he would have to keep himself in check.

"What are you still doing here?" she asked in shock.

"Since you were the one to force me to go out, it's only fair you keep me company until I'm ready to retire."

He watched in amusement as she spluttered, struggling for coherent words. "But you wanted to leave, too!"

Pulling out his most haughty, princely tone, Loki conceded, "Yes, but I expected you to last longer than that, so now I'm still too awake to go to bed myself."

Her nervous swallow was intriguing. "And I can help with that how?"

What was the cause of the trepidation in her voice? He had implied nothing untoward. But then again, he was lying on her bed in the middle of the night; perhaps she thought he would be just as presumptuous as Thor. Unsettled by that comparison, he swiftly found the words to disabuse her of that notion. "As I said, you shall keep me company, at least until I tire of your chatter." He watched her sigh in relief. "But I'm surprised at you; I thought you would be vibrating with a thousand questions after tonight."

Her shoulders twitched up in a small shrug. "Yeah, but you never answer any of them anyway, so what's the point?"

As much as he disliked the resignation in her voice, it gave him the perfect opening. Feigning indifference, Loki stated, "Perhaps tonight I'm bored enough to try."

"Really?" Skepticism dripped from the word, her narrowed eyes boring into his.

He grinned, turning his face away from her to stare at the ceiling. "Perhaps."

A few heartbeats of silence passed before she spoke up again. "That's really not a helpful answer."

"Who said I intended to be helpful?"

He felt the mattress shift as she shuffled herself closer to him, raising herself up on an arm to lean into his line of sight. This really was too easy. "If you're just going to be enigmatic, I'm going to ignore you and fall asleep."

He shot her a disbelieving look. "Doubtful."

"What, because you're going to poke me to stay awake?" she asked exasperatedly.

Would it be too immature to poke her right now? Most likely, but it was tempting. "No, because you haven't been sleeping."

A flicker of panic washed over her face before she attempted to conceal it. "What? Of course, I have."

"If you have, it hasn't been good sleep," he began. Looking her over again, he took in the wan skin and fine lines marring her previously smooth flesh. "There are shadows under your eyes, and now you're having headaches."

Jane huffed. "I said I was fine."

"But you're not."

"So what? I'm tired enough now, I think."

Loki observed her curiously. So, he had gotten her to admit something was wrong, yet she was still too stubborn to explain any further. He would have to lay out his final snare. "If you tell me about it, I'll answer three of your questions."

Her returning gaze was suspicious. "Any three?"

It was a good distinction to make. "If I decide I don't want to answer one, I'll let you ask a new one."

He watched the debate in her head play out across her face. The allure of knowledge had a powerful hold over her, and it worried him that she was even considering turning down this opportunity. The sleep issue must have been more troubling than he had anticipated.

Finally, she gave in as she slumped back down. "Ugh, I suppose it's the best offer I'll get."

"Most certainly."

Her glare was weak, at best. "Fine. You remember how that green light in New York called to me? Well, that song keeps playing in my dreams, and it won't ever stop." One of her hands reached up to rub absently at her temple. "And tonight… well, tonight I heard another song while I was awake. But the strange thing is, it reminds me of the melody I made up when I first played with projecting music from my head."

Loki carefully hid his concern, not wanting to agitate her further. The Infinity Stone could not possibly be calling to her all the way here, could it? Midgard was halfway across the galaxy; it had to be a dream. But hearing a new song… if it were the Tesseract, she would have been hearing it for far longer than this. No, perhaps the Aether was calling out from within, restless from her slow progress. They would have to work on that.

After all, if the being who already possessed a Stone heard one of the stones from Midgard, that would be a manageable loss. If it heard Jane's… well, it would be best to avoid that.

"Okay, first question. What does that look mean?"

Her abrupt inquiry pulled him from his musings. Noting her impatient expectancy, he nevertheless simply replied, "Pass."

"Oh, come on," she pleaded. "That was an easy one."

"Still a pass."

"Ugh," she grumbled, rolling onto her side as she formulated an alternative. "Okay, new first question. Why do you hate Sif? I know why she hates you, but I never got your side of it."

He found himself unconsciously mirroring her new position, pushing thoughts of Infinity Stones aside to enjoy her willful closeness. But the avenue of questioning she had chosen to pursue surprised him. "Really? Questions about my past? I thought you'd be far more interested in your precious science after showing you the edge of Asgard."

"Yeah, but those I can try to do research on. Only you can answer questions about yourself."

It took nerve for her to try him like this, he would grant her that. "Clever girl. All right, I don't hate Sif, but I find her barely tolerable." At her encouraging look, he forced himself to continue, trying to find words that were honest and yet favorable to himself. "From the moment she arrived, she attached herself to Thor, and her desperation to be a warrior caused her to become a cruel girl. I was the only one who dared retaliate."

"She doesn't seem cruel now."

"Only because she learned her lesson by my hand."

Jane raised an eyebrow at him, apparently unimpressed. "Well just so you know, I don't think she hates you either. I think she's just jealous of the fact that Thor loves you more than her."

An astute observation from someone so socially inept. But she was only half right, Loki knew. Sif may believe such a thing, but Thor's affections were too widely spread to hold depth for either of them. But he would let Jane believe what she wished. "I'll take that under advisement."

"Sure you will." Her eyes rolled dramatically, at odds with the amused but tired grin tugging at her lips. "Okay, question number two. Why do you enjoy playing tricks on people so much?"

"Because it's fun."

"Yeah, but does it go any deeper than that? Is it because somebody once played a prank on you or something?"

Loki felt conflicted. Was he supposed to be flattered that she was wasting her questions on him, or should he be worried that she asking about the least admirable aspects of his character? "I suppose it started with Thor. He had strength to his advantage, and I had magic to mine. And as I was not allowed to use my magic on the training grounds, I had to reserve my reprisals for off of it."

"So you only prank people who have fought you?"

Smirking at her valid misgivings, he clarified, "Fought, offended, bored… the trick was always equal to the crime."

She wriggled on top of the sheets, curling up as her eyes fought to stay open. "Glad you don't find me boring then."

"For a mortal, you are quite interesting."

Snorting softly, she muttered a sarcastic, "Thanks."

"You're most welcome."

Jane's eyelids began to flutter shut again, her longed-for sleep finally taking its hold. Indulging himself for a moment, Loki watched her, savoring the sight of her face smoothing out in peaceful repose. But he needed to return to his own chambers; taking advantage of her exhaustion to pull answers from her was much less of an offense than using it to spend yet another night in her bed uninvited.

Pushing himself in a sitting position, Loki froze as he felt her hand on his forearm. Giving her a questioning look, her eyes were barely open as she murmured, "Hey, I still have a third question."

"I can answer it in the morning," he promised gently.

"No, no, I have it. Question number three." She hesitated, a perfect pink lip catching between her teeth. "Will you stay and see if you can do anything about the nightmares if I have one?"

Without thought, Loki replied, "I suppose I could do that." And really, what was there to think about? She needed help, needed him, and he was not nearly foolish enough to spit on that.

A/N: Very dialogue-heavy, I know, but whenever I start a new chapter, their sniping just tends to pour out.

And not that it matters, but the Aether's music is basically the Davy Jones theme from POTC. No one orchestrates a pipe organ quite like Hans Zimmer.