Loki was a coward. He would never admit it to anyone, but he truly was. How can we know? Because, as Payton dealt with her niece and nephews, Loki was cowering in the basement.

Children were sources of chaos, in truth, and Loki couldn't risk their breaking something, or hurting themselves, and the collar blaming himself. Besides… Loki hadn't been around kids since… well, since Balder died. And these children were younger than Balder had been.

Hope and Asher were their names, and while they seemed rather well-mannered… Loki was afraid.

"Hey, Loki!" Payton called down the stairs. "Dinner's ready, if you want it."

Loki did not want it. Not if it meant coming out of his hidey-hole. Never mind how amazing it smelt, or how hungry he truly was. He hadn't even eaten his slushy, for lunch, and he hadn't bothered to try to fix something else after the taser-collar incident, that morning. He hadn't eaten since the previous night, and his hunger was beginning to wear on him, coiling deep in his gut like a malcontent serpent.

Fine. He would go up and eat. But if the collar forced him to vomit everything he consumed, he could blame Payton and her fantastic cooking, and not himself. Timidly, he crept up the flight of stairs and into the kitchen, where the two small children blinked up at him, forks frozen halfway between their plates and their mouths. What they were eating, Loki had no idea, but it smelled amazing.

"Dinner's on the counter, go ahead and help yourself." Payton smiled at him cheerfully, as she sat down and began to dig in.

"Are you really a space alien?" Asher wondered.

"Yes." He mumbled, nodding his thanks to Payton. There was a spot of difficulty with the utensils for serving the food, as Loki typically didn't serve himself, but he quickly managed to sort it out, without spilling too much of the red, chunky sauce on the counter. Plunking down in the chair, he began silently eating his meal as Payton chattered cheerfully with the children. They were each about seven years old, with the same dusty blond hair as their mother, and deep, brown eyes.

(Norns, this food was amazing… he'd have to find out what it was called.)

"What do you think, Loki?"

What?

Loki glanced up guiltily to see all three of them staring at him expectantly. What had they been talking about? Loki had been lost in his own thoughts. "Um…" He faltered. "Th-That is… I'm not sure… what you're talking about."

The twins burst into giggles, and Loki's face burned in humiliation. And, of course, he just had to make himself look stupid in front of Payton. Then again, why did Payton's opinion matter? She was just a mortal… No, Loki's mind insisted. She isn't. She's something special, and you know it.

"We were talking about how we're going to work out sleeping arrangements. Typically, Hope and Asher have your bed. They want to get out sleeping bags, and sleep on the floor in the basement, but I figured since that's technically your room, at the moment, you'd want to have a say."

Loki almost choked on the forkful of Midgardian fare in his surprise. She was giving him a choice? I mean, yes, she'd made it very clear that he wasn't to be treated as a slave, but still… this was her family. If she wished to force them upon him, at the very least, he was her guest, and it was well within her rights, even if he didn't want to share quarters with the two brats.

"It'll only be for tonight, Mr. Prince Loki." Hope piped up, and the idea of tagging the Midgardian title of respect on before his actual title somehow struck him as humorous, and he snickered a little. "I suppose I don't mind."

It was less that he didn't mind, and more like he didn't want to take advantage of Payton's kindness in allowing him the choice. Finding out what would happen if he refused to allow them to bed down on the floor of the basement was not high in his list of priorities.

Asher burst into a raucous applause, and Hope actually got up, rounded the table, and hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Mr. Prince Loki!" They chorused, and Payton hid a smile behind her glass.

"Ah… no trouble." He assured them with an awkward pat to Hope's head. Just so long as they didn't snore, or wake up so early that he couldn't sleep in as he was accustomed to doing. Then again, it could possibly be different, on Midgard.

"So, are you guys done with your spaghetti?" Payton asked, and the two small children bobbed their heads excitedly. "What about you, Loki?"

Hesitantly, he nodded. Not to appear ungrateful, or selfish, he didn't mention how he wanted to eat about five more helpings of the heavenly food.

"Okay, then." Payton nodded, and collected their plates. "Ash, can you get the cake from the fridge?"

Cake?!

Loki's eyes lit up hopefully. He wasn't going to lie, cake was his weakness. As the young boy returned to the table, bearing the sweet, Payton burst out laughing at the awed look on the Trickster's face.

"What?" He crossed his arms indignantly, but continued to stare at the cake as if it held the secrets of the universe. "I didn't realize Midgard had cake."

"What's Midgard?" Hope raised her eyebrows, momentarily looking just like Andy. It was almost unnerving.

"He means Earth." Payton explained, as she began cutting slices out of the fluffy cake.

"Oh, yeah, Earth has lotsa cake!" Asher enthused with a wide grin, displaying his missing front tooth. "Red cake, and chocolate cake, and yellow cake, and vanilla cake, and this cake is pond cake!"

"Pound cake." Payton corrected with a smile, as she passed a slice to her niece. "Want some?"

"Would I?" Loki breathed, and was rewarded with a slice of his own.

That evening, as Hope and Asher were set up in front of the TV, watching Cinderella as they munched on popcorn, Payton sat in her studio, working on her latest painting to get herself in the frame of mind to work on her drawings for the latest book she'd been hired to illustrate. Presently, she was aware of a quite presence hovering behind her nervously.

"Disney not interest you?" She guessed, glancing up at the Trickster, who was standing in the doorway, fidgeting with his fingers.

"That's not how magic works." He muttered.

"Really?" Payton smirked. "Do tell."

"They make it seem so ethereal, and fantastic, when in truth, it's cold, hard facts. Besides, if you can get something to transform its atomic particles at the drop of a hat, it's not going to unravel at midnight. It's ridiculous." He explained with an edge of disdain in his voice. "Do Midgardians always over-dramatize things they don't understand?"

Payton shrugged. "Yeah, basically. Wanna see what I'm working on?"

Loki nodded eagerly, and stepped forward, eyes alight in curiosity. The canvas displayed the interior of a forest, light filtering down on the lithe form a fairy, pixie dust shimmering around her, creating an otherworldly, somewhat eerie effect.

"Who is it?" Loki wondered. "I didn't know you knew any fairies."

"I don't." Payton laughed. "I made her up."

"Entirely?" Loki's eyebrows raised, obviously impressed. "That's amazing, Payton. You're extremely talented."

"Thanks." Payton grinned, pretending that that didn't mean as much as it did. Loki thought she was talented? He was basically from the most advanced civilization in the universe, as far as she could tell, and she, Payton, had made him impressed? That was actually saying a lot.

"You're a lot like my brother, you know." Loki quietly stated, eyes flicking to the floor. "He… he's good at drawing and things like you…"

"Is that a compliment?" Payton wondered, raising an eyebrow.

"Not exactly." Loki chuckled. "It's just that… when I look at you… I think of home. That's all."

There was a slightly awkward silence, as Payton blinked in surprise. She didn't think he'd have anything positive in his mind about her, to be honest. But the way he was looking at her now, as if she was the most fascinating creature in existence, it kind of made her think twice.

"Maybe you're not so bad after all." She hummed, and wiped the paint from her fingers on her smock.

At that, a corner of his mouth turned up in a tiny smile. "Maybe not."

"Hey, you want to learn how to read?" Payton asked, and, to be honest, not even she knew where that had come from. Yeah, he didn't know how, but they'd been talking about something entirely different, and…

He was staring at his boots, his face red in embarrassment. "I do know how. Just not in your language." He mumbled in a tone that clearly stated, I'm not actually an idiot…

"Well, I mean, you kinda can't get anything done on Midgard unless you can read." Payton pointed out apologetically. "I understand if you don't want to, but I think it'd be a useful skill."

"Maybe so…" Loki sighed, shuffling his boots awkwardly. Poor guy, he obviously felt really stupid.

"Speaking of getting anything done on Midgard…" Payton went on. "Do you have a plan for what to do, once we get that collar off?"

Silently, he shook his head. "I'm still banished, even if I have the wretched thing gone, I suppose."

"You might want a job, you know, cause living in this house can't be a permanent thing. I have connections, I could probably set something up for you."

"That's very kind of you…" He smiled softly. "I don't know how I can ever repay you, Payton. You've gone above and beyond what I expected, you know."

Payton snorted. "Well, considering what you expected was for me to boss you around at risk of taser collar, that's not exactly saying much."

"I suppose not." Loki laughed. "Still… I could never be more grateful to you."

Payton smiled up at him, suddenly struck by how young he looked, when he was finally opening up to her. He really was a great kid, to be honest. "I'll get Andy to look at your collar tomorrow, okay? She's good with tech and stuff like that."

This seemed like the perfect closure to the day, and, judging by the bags under Loki's eyes, he was exhausted. With a polite nod, the Trickster bid her good night, and shuffled out towards the basement.

TheOnlyHuman.