Loki was supposed to be listening for when the shower stopped running, but lost himself in his thoughts. He didn't sense Beth's arrival until the door was already opening. Quickly, he waved a hand over his face, pretending to brush some hair back. The tears running down his face were now invisible.

All Beth noticed was Loki sitting at his desk by candlelight, an open notebook and pen resting before him, still shirtless and disheveled from their make-out session earlier. His arms were crossed, and there was something eerie about the way he stared emotionlessly into empty air.

"You alright?" She hesitated by the door in a fuzzy purple bathrobe.

"Mm-hm." He blinked, picked up his pen and finished jotting down his last thought.

She hopped onto his bed, letting herself bounce a couple of times. "Writing a letter back home or something?"

He shook his head. "About my mother. This is my new journal, and I thought the first entry should be about her." He paused for a few seconds, thinking. "Want to read what I've written so far?"

She shook her head. "You shouldn't let me read your diary! That defeats the purpose of having one!"

He shrugged. "Well, that depends. When I was younger, there was something I wanted to explain to my brother, but couldn't bring myself to word it properly. Thankfully, I had already bared my soul in writing. So I allowed him to read that part of my journal, and he understood completely."

"Hmm, what was it about?"

He hesitated, but couldn't see a reason for Beth to feel threatened by his past. "My 'first love', and the dream life I envisioned with her. Unfortunately, she was in love with Thor. I wanted him to understand how deeply it would hurt me if he accepted her advances at that time."

"Oh." That sounded so very normal. "So did he honor the Bro Code?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. That was over 300 years ago."

Beth felt like her heart slowed to a stop. 'That was over 300 years ago'? Is that how he's gonna talk about me in 300 years?

Loki noticed her troubled expression. "What is it?"

"Nothing. Just... wondering how long it'll take you to forget about me."

Loki was stumped for a moment. "It was Sif. She has always hated me. I accepted it a long time ago, so I don't consider her whereabouts or relations anymore. I'm not my brother's keeper either. That was what I meant. She still means a lot to me. Remembering those times when I was sure we would be together forever still stirs up all of those old feelings... just none of the same hopes and expectations."

She sighed, then nodded. Then began to laugh at herself. "I can't believe I just got upset because I thought you were completely over another woman."

He laughed with her. "Shows how perceptive you are." Which reminds him... he glances towards his diary. "I wish you could have met my mother. I think she would have found you intriguing and amusing, in a good way."

Now Beth was curious. "I'll come read it if you let me sit on your lap."

He smirked. "Is that supposed to be a compromise?"

Once she was settled into him, his arms securing her around the waist, a rare blush formed across her face. "Wow. I haven't felt like this since I was a little girl."

Loki tried to remember the last time he sat on his mother or father's lap. He couldn't.

Beth read his memoir; all eleven pages of it, front and back. It described several highlight moments of Loki's childhood that involved his mother. Her favorites were:

His first magic lesson. When they first compromised on how long Loki may grow his hair. The one time Frigga tried spanking him after prepubescence, but he ran. How she had to literally pry Loki from his father's bedside the first time he saw him go into the Odinsleep. Some nervous ticks and other eccentricities she passed on to him. Traveling alone with her to visit relatives from her side of the family, because their kids got along better with him than with Thor.

There was even a time she condoned a prank he played on Odin, because she thought it was funny and well-deserved too. Even agreeing to take the blame if he were ever exposed as the culprit. That part made Beth laugh almost as hard as the botched spanking did.

But towards the end, she paused and turned to him in amazement. "You never told me she kept looking for you after you fell!"

"I didn't?"

"No. You made it sound like everyone was dancing on your grave."

"I thought I made it clear that Frigga was always the one exception."

Beth smiled, now absolutely sure that she had every right to be angry at her dad.

After the final paragraph, she understood why Loki looked so grave when she walked in. It read:

'I was always in the forefront of her mind. She never came to peace with my death. She fawned over me relentlessly since the day I came home. Always assumed the best of me. There was no room to doubt Mother's love. But Father's meant so much more to me that without it, life wasn't worth living. She didn't even cross my mind in the moment I decided to fall. I always secretly thought of Mother as my favorite, but in that moment, she didn't even exist in comparison.'

"You know you shouldn't feel guilty about that, right?" She put the book down. "If you could think straight, you wouldn't have tried to kill yourself, obviously."

"But maybe I wouldn't have gone mad at all if my perspective were more balanced to begin with."

Beth didn't think she had the qualifications to answer that.

Loki could tell by her face that she was searching for something to say. "I wasn't looking for comfort. I just wanted to share those memories. With you. The only other person I shared them with is gone."

She combed her fingers through his hair. "Do you feel less alone now?"

"Much." He smiled, leaning into her touch.

"Good." She glanced at his Roman desk clock "I'm hungry. Wanna overtip an UberEats driver?"

"They deserve it for coming out here."

"Personally, I wouldn't even. I'm not driving into the hills that have eyes to deliver pizza, unless I knew a massive tip were guaranteed."

"We are very lucky, considering all we've done. Every time we take something from the world, 'tis only fair we give back far more than expected."

She nodded in agreement. "This poor bastard is gonna piss themselves when they get a $500 tip."

"... I'm not sure if I understand that reaction, but as long as it means they are happy."

That night, over dinner...

"You know what's crazy?" Beth asked.

"I know who is," Loki replied with a smirk.

"Very funny. Jane Foster is an astrophysicist. My 'better self' studied astrophysics. Had things gone differently, you and your brother would both be dating astrophysicists."

Ugh. That's all he needed, was his love life shadowing Thor's, too. Their lovers competing in the same field. "At least you can afford the education now."

"I can afford my whole class's tuitions. But I can't buy the attention span, or a fuck to give."

"Well, you must learn some lucrative skills besides killing, spying and housekeeping. What if Odin finds me, and you are left alone again? No one here to manage all the paperwork that 'makes your brain hurt to even look at'? You have to learn these things. Licences and IDs won't get you through everything."

Beth pouted. She felt like this was a lecture her father should have given her at some point. But better late than never, and better your boyfriend than nobody.

"I'm not going to be an astrophysicist, but you're right." Except finances would be the least of my worries if you get recaptured.

Beth went back to scrolling on her phone. Loki suppressed a sigh. He has asked her not to read the news or use social media at meal times. But she set him straight by informing him that it has been relatively normal to read the newspaper at the table for a long time, and phones are now a digital equivalent. There was mild debate over that, but she won in the end.

"Interesting," she says suddenly.

"What?"

"Bruce Wayne has gone missing again. Or should I say, Tommy Elliot."

"Ah, the man whose face you sliced off." Then he realized he needed to narrow it down. "Then put it on another inmate and hung him to fake your friend's suicide."

"Don't tell me you've never done anything like that before."

He actually had to think about it. "Nope. Any time I've cut off a face, the head came with it," he said with mild pride.

"Ooh. Sexy." Let him guess if she's being sarcastic or not. "I'll be right back," she gets up, grabs her phone and hurries off to her room.

Loki nodded and kept eating... until a few seconds later, his phone rang from the living room. But only for slightly less than a second.

That was weird.

He went to go see who it was. The missed call was from... Beth?

Meanwhile, in Beth's room...

"Shit," she says, accidentally dialing the last person she called: Loki. Rookie mistake, but it happens even to the best smartphone users. Thinking nothing of it, she scrolled through her contacts to a number she never thought she would call anymore.

Back to Loki...

Two options came to Loki's mind. One, she dialed him by accident. Two...

She was in danger, tried to call him on her phone for some reason, and something bad happened to her.

Loki decided that he couldn't waste time worrying if he was being paranoid right now. He went to Beth's bedroom door and pressed his ear against it, not sure what he expected to hear, but hoping it would be some sign of healthy human life. He didn't want to knock, for fear of looking insane if nothing was wrong.

"I'm still sorry that I didn't call you sooner," he faintly heard her voice say impatiently.

Oh. She was just on the phone. So that probably was an accident. But his curiosity easily got the better of him once he heard her voice, so he stayed.

"I thought it went without saying that the face wouldn't last forever. It's dead human flesh, you were rushing me, and I wasn't done using you! You know what? We're getting off topic."

A long pause.

"With or without kryptonite, and I'll make you a face that will last a lot longer this time. Along with many duplicates in cold storage."

Another pause.

"Oh, it will happen overnight... but I understand that it might not be tonight. You see, I want you to kill her in her sleep. I don't want her putting up a fight, nor do I care if she suffers anymore. I just want Kate. Kane. Dead."

A shorter pause.

"I need her to be a thing of the past, whether I like it or not," Beth says firmly.

When Loki heard thirty seconds of silence after that, and then the sound of her footsteps moving in an unknown direction, he quickly cloaked himself–just in case–and returned to the dining room.

Two minutes later, Beth came back to find Loki staring idly at his now-empty plate, looking exhausted.

"When was the last time you slept before last night?" she asked, knowing of his insomnia.

"Too long." He stood up, taking his plate and glass with him. "I'm going to bed. You may join me in an hour, if you want to."

"Wait."

He stopped and turned curiously. Is she going to tell him what she just did?

"Leave your dishes, I got them."

Really? You don't mean 'Hey, I just put a hit out on my sister?' "Thank you," he said kindly, though deeply offended that Beth was concealing this from him. He left them in the sink anyway as he passed by it. "Goodnight, Beth."

Once he was in his room, and sure that Beth wasn't doing the same thing to him that he was doing to her a few minutes ago, Loki picked up his phone and dialed an old 'friend' of his own.

"What is it, Odinson?" answered a woman's voice after a few rings.

Loki got straight to the point. "I need you to make sure someone doesn't sleep alone for a while..."

Two days later...

They're sitting at the dining table, again. Loki was completely focused on his breakfast and the fascinating way humans can't do anything without a screen in their face. Beth was being that human, reading Gotham City's news on her tablet, only pausing to take another bite.

"Ugh!" She suddenly groans. "It's like she just sensed that I was dating someone really hot and had to go try and one-up me." She then pressed the screen directly against her face and shouted into it, "You couldn't sense me behind the door, but you can sense this?!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Gotham has a new hot couple." She handed him the tablet. "Check out my sister's new girlfriend."

The page featured a candid photo of Kate Kane dining with a scantily clad, voluptuous green-eyed blonde. Her hair was the color of sunlight, falling in neat waves down her shoulders and more than halfway down her back. Loki's eyes traced her bare leg from the hem of her red minidress to her black pumps... She was wearing an ankle bracelet that said: 'Amy'.

That's the name you're going by? Not very subtle. "Hm." He feigned complete indifference, handing Beth back her tablet.

"You don't have to pretend not to think other girls are hot, you know."

Thank goodness that was all she thought he was hiding. "I don't need to announce it, either." Then something Beth said a short while ago came to mind. "You really think she 'one-upped' you?"

Beth recalled saying 'try', but fuck it, since he asked. "I wouldn't want her, but if you both put on the same striptease for the whole world to watch at the same time, I'm sure most dollar bills would be thrown at her."

He couldn't help but laugh. 'Amy' would have been all too pleased to hear that. "That was the first and will be the last time I ask you if someone looks better than me."

"Good, because those questions suck. Looks really don't matter to me. You could look like Ivan Ooze and I'd still want to..."

"Want to what?"

Before she could answer, the alarm went off on her phone, alerting her to start getting ready for her doctor's appointment. She sighed. "Exactly what I'm going on birth control for." She silenced the alarm and put the phone down slowly. "So our fun doesn't ruin anyone's life before it even starts."

Loki solemnly nodded. "And so I don't impregnate you with a giant."

"You're the one who's worried about that part. I have a feeling if–or when–we explore the option of breeding, our baby will be perfectly compatible with my body. It won't be any Breaking Dawn stuff."

"Breaking whose stuff?"

"It's a book." She suddenly gasped as an idea came to her. "Or maybe we can grow our babies in an artificial womb outside my body."

"'Babies'? Now there's more than one?"

"You're right. I'm getting ahead of myself. First real boyfriend at age 28, you know?"

He took a sip of his coffee, and when he placed the mug down, there was a faraway look in his eyes. "I had my first boyfriend at 705" he sighed, a little nostalgic smile forming.

Beth's eyes widened and she tilted her head. So her gaydar wasn't malfunctioning; he just swings at least two ways.

"Okay, I have to go now." She said, standing up. "But I have so many questions when I get back." She planted a long kiss on his lips and hurried out the front door. The sooner she got this trip over with, the sooner she can get back home and ask Loki about butt stuf