She didn't speak to Loki the first time she brought him to the In-Between. Nor did she the second, third, or fourth. Instead she watched as he explored the dimension he found himself, smirking as she watched him grow frustrated that his magic was not working there.

She watched from above, high in the boughs of the encoded tree. Finally when he seemingly gave up exploring the space one night and instead sat at the base of a tree she at last spoke.

Rikki let out a little whistle, before swinging down from the tree boughs and to land before the supposed 'God of Mischief'.

"I expected for you to get bored much quicker."

She met his emerald stare with her own ocean blue, a cheeky grin stretching her lips wide.

"Though I suppose your race of beings have no doubt learned patience through your long lives."

His frame was lithe, long and lean but muscular in an elegant sort of way. His dark hair curled at his ears in dark midnight that in the In-Between the blue tones shone brighter. His likeness to Tom Hiddleston was like a relative; a father or brother. There was a similarity but the sharpness of his facial features looked as if they could cut ice. His eyes peered over her form, dissecting every detail of her features trying to find out what or who she was before he spoke.

Rikki glanced down at her favorite outfit she wore, the same she wore the day she set sail when 'Carina' turned five with Peter. 'I Speak Fluent Sarcasm' and her favorite cutoff shorts with her feet bare.

"What is this place?" His voice was a contradiction. Rough with smooth undertones, it was delicious like dark chocolate and almonds.

"It is called the In-Between. Perhaps there's legends of it in Yggdrasil?"

His eyes narrowed but gave nothing away except for the answer to the one question.

"I suppose not." She shrugged.

"Why have you brought me here?"

Rikki sat before him, her legs criss-crossed. She smiled and examined him like he had her, mostly to irritate him since she had observed him much already. As soon as his eyebrow started ticking she asked a question, "Do you love Asgard?"

His stubbornly pursed lips barely parted.

"Or is it not necessarily Asgard that you love but the idea of it? The work your mother has put into it. Her care for the people, her love for you?"

"I don't see how…"

"It is relevant." Rikki smiled. "You see, the way we believe and feel about a place can often mold our actions. How far we will take certain pranks for instance, or in your instance plots."

His eyes narrowed and his face that had seemed young for only a brief moment drew darker and older within seconds.

"Are you implying…"

She waved his question away, "The thing is I don't particularly care what you do, however, in the future due to the non-actions of others a plot of yours is going to bring on so much more trouble for the universe as a whole than you can imagine."

Rikki stood, "Now it's the time for you to know something that ironically everyone or at least anyone who has access to Norse mythology already knows. Seriously I don't know how the heck this has stayed a secret in Asgard for so long, like does no one go to Earth anymore?"

He looked at her with a dark blank stare.

"I suppose you call it Midgard."

"Allfather believes watching over the nine realms is enough."

Rikki let out a booming laugh, "That's so going to bite him in the ass in the future. Anyways…" She looked at him and she tried to look more gently like how she would toward Peter or Remus. "How do you want to do this? I'm about to give you some painful, not fun news. Should I rip it off like a bandaid fast and quick or draw it out slowly like a blade before stitching a wound?"

"You've never actually been stabbed, have you?"

"Nope but I feel like it's definitely in my future now."

Loki's cold features faltered and his shoulders relaxed as his face split into a grin and he let out several chuckles. He straightened his shoulders before smoothing back his raven locks and tucked his grin away so that all that remained was a little smirk on the corners of his lips.

"Fast and quick."

The blonde wrinkled her nose and took a breath closing her eyes for a moment. Once she opened them the smirk that had been his lips was gone and his gaze was firmly upon hers. She stood straighter.

Here goes nothing.

"You are adopted."

His shoulders relaxed immediately and he let out a chuckle.

"Was that all? I have suspected since I was a young boy, I was not a child born from my mother."

Rikki winced and refrained from her bad habit of biting her lip, "Have you ever found out who you are related to?"

His gaze was off to the side, "I suspected I was from a fallen soldier family during the war with the Jotunns."

At her quick suck in of air his eyes narrowed and met her eyes.

"However that is not so, is it?"

Rikki wasn't sure why this terrified her so much. Perhaps...she shook her head and smiled ironically.

"You are still a prince. In fact, you may have been a first born, it was unclear. However…" The next facts came from her bestie and weren't something that were in the legends that she found or the old marvel-verse. "Your birth father's race were born mighty, he married a Vanir princess and she gave birth to a child. The child may have not been as giant as it's predecessors however it had powerful Vanir and Aesir magic. However, the child came in a time of war and when it's mother did not survive the wild terrain of the planet the father placed it in a temple to test whether or not it would survive. If it would be worthy for the throne." Rikki glanced up to find Loki's eyes fixated on her, "The father lost the war and the victor found the child. The child though reached out and shifted into it's Aesir form at the sight of another Aesir. The king took the babe back home to his wife who raised her nephew up like her son."

"Her nephew?" His voice choked out.

"Yes the Vanir princess that married Laufey was Queen Frigga's younger sister."

He fell to his knees.

"Why didn't Odin tell me?"

"Why were you always given an equal chance for the throne?" Rikki grimaced, "Yes one of the many questions I'd like to smack down on Odin myself. I mean I know what his answers will be in theory, but they don't answer for his A parenting skills." Her sarcasm was on point.

She knelt before him, "So when are you going to tell Heimdall to expect my call?"

His incredulous look of surprise was only met with her knowing smirk.