"LOOOKIIII!" Thor bellowed as he came running into the library.
I sighed, put my book down and took my earphones off. I had hoped for a few moments of peace and quiet.
"Where is that husband of yours? Because if I find him, I'll kill him!" Thor thundered.
"I have no idea," I answered honestly. "Last I saw him he was in the study with Carter, tinkering away with the broken portals."
"GAAAH!"
I grinned as Thor ran back into the hallway. Curiously, I followed him.
Jessie was in the hallway, hanging against the wall while clutching her stomach, almost crying with laughter.
"In the library with a candlestick! That's what you said!" Thor shook his finger at her. Jessie pealed with laughter.
"You make it too easy," she wheezed.
"Are you sure Loki isn't your biological father?" Thor asked suspiciously.
"I think mum would have told me by now," Jessie giggled. "And I think he's hiding in their bedroom."
Thor barreled towards the bedroom.
Loki dropped his invisibility spell and hung against Jessie, his cackle ringing through the house. The co-conspirators gave each other the most pathetic high five I'd ever seen, both of them limp with laughter.
Sif stepped out of the kitchen, dressed in one of Thor's shirts, her hair damply hanging down her back. She raised an eyebrow at me. I just shrugged. I had no idea either.
"DON'T THINK I CAN'T HEAR THAT CACKLE!" Thor boomed.
"Oh shit," Loki startled and turned invisible again. "Cover for me!" his voice floated through the hallway.
"YOU GIVE IT BACK RIGHT NOW, YOU LITTLE WEASEL!" Thor stomped back in the hallway.
He looked at Jessie, about to ask her where Loki was. Jessie smiled sweetly at him. Thor shook his head in disgust.
"Try the bathroom?" she suggested, bursting out in laughter again. Thor glared at her but stormed into the bathroom anyway.

I walked into the kitchen with Sif.
"Is it always like this?" she asked curiously.
I grinned. "Usually. The first few weeks Thor lived with us were something, those two kept playing pranks and half of the time Jess and I ended up as the unintended and unwilling victims." I laughed at the memory.
"They've calmed down a bit since."
Sif had been staying with us for two days now. We hadn't seen much of her or Thor, and I couldn't blame her. If Loki and I hadn't seen each other for that long you'd probably have a hard time dragging us out of the bedroom too!
"I don't know what I expected to find here, but it wasn't this," Sif admitted.
"I don't think any of us would have been able to predict this a few years ago," I agreed, handing Sif a mug of tea. "But sometimes life surprises us in the best way possible."
Another one of Thor's bellows and Jessie's giggles came drifting in from the hallway. Thor was laughing despite himself.
"You aren't what I expected either," Sif said, "it's hard enough to imagine Loki as married, let alone to someone like you."
I stopped myself from answering that I could never have imagined him marrying someone as boring and mousy as me either.
Instead, I just smiled.
"We love each other, and we've worked hard to get where we are now. Both of us have."
"Your daughter likes him." It was almost a question.
"They get on well with each other, they are close," I nodded.
"Thor speaks highly of you," Sif continued, half talking to herself as if she was trying to make sense of the situation.
"I love Thor to bits, he's like a brother to me. I haven't been part of a family in a really long time, none of us had, and all three of us love having him here." I said honestly.
"SHOW YOURSELF SO I CAN KILL YOU, YOU LITTLE THIEF!" Thor was still looking for Loki.
"Well, that's certain to entice Loki to show himself," Sif giggled despite herself. I grinned back.
"What did he steal anyway?" Sif asked curiously.
"I have no idea," I admitted.
I suddenly reached behind me. I turned around and wrapped my arms around Loki, pulling his head down for a kiss.
"How did you know I was here?" his eyes twinkled into mine.
"I heard a little giggle," I smiled up at him.
"Thor! He's in the kitchen," Sif hollered.
"Hey!" Loki admonished her.
"What? If your family is helping you, it's only fair I help Thor," Sif grinned.
Thor came barreling into the kitchen, chasing Loki around the table.
"You give it back!" Thor half-shouted, half-laughed.
"Never!" Loki laughed. Sif held out her foot and Loki stumbled, giving Thor enough time to grab Loki from the back by his waist.
"Give it back!" Thor demanded.
Loki pealed with laughter.
"Shape change, Loki!" I cheered him on, "don't let Thor win!"
Loki was dangling limply over Thor's arms, laughing too much to be able to speak.
"Loki is ticklish as long as you get him in the right spot, just below his ribs," Sif explained. "He can't shape change when he can't concentrate, and he can't concentrate when he's laughing like that."
I looked at her in surprise, I didnt' know Loki was ticklish.
"You didn't know that?" Sif winked at me, "it's the best way to get him to yield, trust me."
"Do you yield?" Thor was almost laughing as much as Loki. Loki held up his hands, squirming in Thor's grip but unable to escape.
"I yield, I yield," Loki laughed breathlessly.
"Fine! Then give me back my phone."
"Only if you promise to come and play the bass guitar!"
"Wait, was that what this was all about?" Thor asked curiously.
"Yes, I have a song stuck in my head, playing it is the only way to get it out! And you've been holed up in your room for days!" Loki admitted.
"Why didn't you ask like a normal person?"
"This was more fun," Loki grinned.
Thor shook his head.
"You are crazy! Now give me my phone back and I'll play a few songs with you!"
"I don't have it, I slipped it into Jessie's pocket ages ago! Jessie!"
Jessie came walking into the kitchen, clutching her side.
"I've laughed so much my stomach hurts," she complained.
"You can give your uncle his phone back now, he's yielded," Loki said smugly.
"I yielded? You yielded!"
Thor and Loki argued as they walked toward the music room.
"It's been a long time since I saw Thor laughing like that," Sif said thoughtfully. "A really long time."
"Loki has been happier with Thor around too," I told her.
"We should go for drinks one of these days, I'm sure you'd love to hear the stories those two will never admit to from their childhood, and you can fill me in on what has been happening here."
"I'd love that," I eyed Sif in surprise. "I know just the place. Thor said the mead there is almost as good as the year Volstagg fell in the barrel and lost his pants, whatever that means."
Sif grinned. "That was a good year!"
"I'd better go, Loki will soon realise he needs a drummer too."
"You play the drums?" It was Sif's turn to sound surprised.
I nodded. "We can do with a second guitar player, want me to teach you?" I asked as I beckoned her along to the music room.
Maybe having Sif around wasn't going to be as bad as I had feared it would be!

As it turned out, Sif and I didn't get to have that drink.
A day later, she was contacted by an informant who had a lead on Halja's location. Thor tried to persuade Sif to at least let him come along with her, but Sif had to regretfully refuse his offer.
"I love you honey-bear, but I have my mission and you have your own. Keep an eye on that brother of yours, will you?
I promise I'll facetime every day. And now I know about Agartha, I can be back here in no time once I catch Beaumont!"
Thor was sad when Sif left, but knowing that she would stay in touch and she was only an Agartha portal or two away helped.

Loki and Carter were focussing most of their time on the broken portals.
I didn't see why it was such a big deal first of all, with Agartha only a stone's throw away, but Loki explained to me why it was so important. Until now we had been dependent on Agartha portals, which only lead to places on Midgard.
A few powerful magic users could make their own portals using their life force as Odin had, but that was dangerous and could lessen the caster's life span if they weren't careful. The ability to create functioning portals had been long lost, but if Loki and Carter could rediscover how to create them, it would be the discovery of this century.
With Beaumont and Halja out there up to no good, magic in Midgard waning and the Dreamers stirring it seemed to me there were things that were more important to focus on. Loki just rolled his eyes and said not everything always had to be about saving the world.

"If only we knew what your ancestors used as a power source, there is nothing here that remotely resembles one!"
Carter picked despondently through the broken pieces.
"I suspect it might have pulled on the hold's own power source, but I can not see how either," Loki admitted, running a hand through his hair.
His demeanour changed completely when his phone buzzed.
"Yes!" he punched the air. "One of my purveyors of magic tomes finally came through! He has Apsethus the Lybian's tome on energy and ascendance. It should aid us in working out this little puzzle!
Darling, get dressed and grab your bag, we're going to Milan!"
"Who, me?" I asked in confusion. I had been happily ignoring the two of them up until now.
"Yes, you! Come on, you, me, a trip to Milan? I promise I'll stay away from the clothes shops!" Loki smiles his most charming smile.
"It will be fun! I'll even buy you ice cream!"

It won't surprise you that less than an hour later I found myself in Milan, blinking against the sun.
Loki looked sharp in a suit I was almost certain I had never seen before, I was wearing a white dress with little red rosebuds on it. I loved the skirt on it, it was knee length and swished around my legs as I walked.
Loki's arm was casually draped around my shoulder as he guided me through the bustling streets of the Italian city. I looked up at him and smiled and he winked back from behind his designer sunglasses.
My heart skipped a beat, as it so often did, and suddenly I found myself thinking again how unbelievable it was that the tall handsome god that turned heads wherever he went was truly mine.
"I've known the family that runs the bookstores for centuries.
When I first set foot in it it was the owner's great-great-great-grandfather who sold me the first magic tome I ever bought on Midgard," Loki reminisced.
"I haven't been here in quite a few decades. Beaumont hasn't either, I mean," he corrected himself.
We turned into an alleyway and stepped into a tiny bookstore. I squinted as my eyes adapted to the darkness inside.
Bookcases were crammed in every available place in the small store, and piles of books that didn't fit in the bookcases lay on the tables and were piled upon the floor.
The place had that special smell that all proper bookstores have, of paper and ink and strangely enough, vanilla.
"It is because lignin, which is present in all wood-based paper, is closely related to vanilla.
As it breaks down, the lignin grants old books that faint vanilla scent," Loki had explained to me when I had commented on it after happily smelling an old book he brought home.
The owner greeted Loki in a way that was friendly, but he was clear he hadn't met Loki before.
He took Loki deeper into the store, the two of them talked animatedly in Italian.
I stayed behind and looked around a bit. None of the books seemed to be in a language I could read.
"Loki?" A boy, no older than twelve stood behind me and was pointing towards the shelves Loki had disappeared behind.
He motioned with his hands as if to make two horns on his head.
I smiled and shook my head. Loki usually played along with children, letting them think he was the Loki from the movies, but I always felt uncomfortable pretending.
"Sorry, I don't speak Italian," I shook my head.
"That's okay, I speak English." He barely even had an accent. "My parents sent me to an international school, they say knowing languages is important. I'm Giacomo."
"Hi, I'm Sorcha," I smiled.
"So, is that Loki?" he asked. I hesitated with my answer.
I was sworn to keep the Secret World secret, and while this shop sold magic tomes, I wasn't certain how much the people here knew.
"My great-grandfather used to tell me he met Loki once when he was a little boy.
He used to take me to the movies every Saturday afternoon, and whenever a Thor movie was on he'd want to see it," Giacomo smiled.
"And he'd tell how he met Loki once and great-grandfather fell and hurt his knee, and Loki bought him an ice cream. He said Loki looked just like in the movies."
"Yes, that is Loki," I admitted with a smile.
"Cool. Did he ever get Hulk-smashed?" the boy asked enthusiastically.
"No, but I didn't need the Hulk to kick his butt when he tried to destroy the world once," I grinned.
"You are funny," Giacomo laughed.
"Do you play video games? I used to play with my great-grandfather but he can't play anymore."
"Sure, what have you got?"
"Mario Kart?"
"I rock at that game, even Thor can't defeat me at that."
"You are really funny!"
Giacomo led me into a small kitchen. An old man was sitting in a wheelchair, his eyes staring unseeing ahead of him.
"Great-grandfather got unwell, and now he can't talk or play anymore," Giacomo explained. "I mind him when my father is working in the shop."

Loki wandered into the kitchen half an hour later. "Here you are! I was looking for you everywhere!"
He looked at me incredulously. "Please tell me I didn't take you to a bookshop with magic tomes that date back centuries and you are playing video games!"
I blushed and Giacomo giggled.
"And who are you?" Loki gave the boy a friendly smile.
"I'm Giacomo. I already know who you are!"
"I used to know a little boy named Giacomo," Loki smiled. "As a matter of fact, he used to play in this kitchen too."
"That is my great-grandfather. He used to talk about you.
But now he can't talk anymore."
Giacomo motioned with his head towards his great-grandfather.
"Oh," Loki sighed, his eyes suddenly soft.
"Hello, Giacomo," he said softly, gently taking the old man's hand.
"Not running around so much anymore nowadays, are you? You always had a scraped knee or two, it used to drive your mother up the wall.
You used to remind me of myself when I was little."
The old man stared past him, unseeing.
"I sometimes forget how rapidly mortals age," Loki whispered, almost to himself.
"Can he still eat ice cream?"
Giacomo nodded. "If we feed him."
Loki pressed a few coins in the boy's hand. "But him some ice cream, and for yourself too.
Tell him it's from Loki, and that I never forgot him either."

"Are you okay?" I asked once we were back outside.
"Yes, It's just easy to forget how quickly time passes. You'll learn that lesson too over time," Loki said softly.
"Don't get too attached to mortals, they don't live very long."
"I think it's a bit too late for that," I replied, thinking about Jessie.
"I know. For me too," Loki smiled a sad little lopsided smile.
"We'll deal with that when the time comes," I said softly.
One of my Bee's side effects was that I would live a long time. Based on the way my cells renewed themselves it was likely I would live as long as Loki, perhaps even longer.
While that was a blessing for our relationship, it did mean I would see my daughter age and eventually die. And my grandchildren. And my great-grandchildren.
Loki nodded and squeezed my hand. " When the time comes we'll deal with it together. You won't have to deal with it alone."
For a moment a shadow was cast over what had been a pleasant afternoon.

As soon as we walked out of the alleyway and back into the busier part of the city, that changed. At least for Loki.
"Loki? Loki! Oh, my God…. It's Loki!"
"Just keep walking," I hissed, "Just ignore…"
Loki had taken off his sunglasses and turned around with a beaming smile.
He held his arms wide. "Ladies! How lovely to meet you!"
"..them." I finished my sentence to myself, as Loki was already walking towards a small group of young women.
I sighed to myself.

Loki refused to change his face while we were out and about, stating he had hidden for long enough.
I understood that, but it did mean he regularly got mistaken for Tom Hiddleston, the actor who played him in the movies.
"It's not my fault his own fans don't know he sports red hair and a beard nowadays," Loki had shrugged happily the first time it happened.
"Besides, it would be rude to not give my new worshippers what they want."
(If any of you had a picture taken with a black-haired Loki with his hair way below his shoulders who was accompanied by an unidentified brunette in those days, it probably wasn't Tom. Sorry about that!)

"Would you mind holding my coat?"
"And my bag?"
"Could you take a picture for us?"
The women were American tourists, as far as I could tell from their accents.
Soon I was laden with bags and coats, trying to juggle four phones while Loki had his arms around all four women at once.
"I can't believe we ran into you here! Are you shooting a movie or a TV show?"
"Just doing a bit of shopping," Loki answered honestly.
"Now, smile at the camera and say 'KNEEL!' he ordered cheerfully.
The women tittered and blushed and obeyed laughingly. Of course, a picture had to be taken with each phone, and after that, they each wanted selfies too.
I wondered if Tom Hiddleston had a girlfriend and if she found herself holding bags and coats and taking pictures as often as I did.
I glared at Loki who winked and smiled. He looked incredibly pleased with himself.
It wasn't exactly like he was worshipped in the past the way Thor was, and he thrived on the attention he was getting now. I smiled despite myself.
"I know it's a lot to ask, but if I ring my mother, could you say hi? She's a huge fan too!"

Half an hour later we finally managed to break away from the little group, but not after Loki had spoken to multiple friends and relatives on the phone.
Grinning from ear to ear he swaggered beside me.
"Well, that was fun!" he beamed.
"Oh yes, I had the time of my life," I grumbled. "Nothing makes my day more than being treated as a nobody while a bunch of women throw themselves at you!"
Loki frowned as he opened the car door for me.
"Are you jealous? It's all just a bit of fun, they don't even know who I truly am."
I said nothing and played with the zipper on my handbag.
Loki got into the car beside me.
"It usually doesn't bother you when we run into a bunch of fans, normally you think it's funny!"
Loki sounded confused.
"I'm not jealous," I mumbled.
"If this is about meeting the old man…"
"That's not it either."
"Are you still upset about Beaumont?"
I shook my head.
"It's nothing, just a bit of a headache. Can we go home?"
"Don't lie to me. You know I can tell," Loki admonished me gently.
I shook my head again. I wasn't ready to talk. I wasn't even sure if there was anything to talk about yet.
I needed a bit more time before I was ready to dump this on him as well.
"Look, I don't know much about relationships, but the only way this is going to work is if we talk to each other.
I know I haven't always been honest with you, and that I have hidden things from you.
But I have always tried to be open with you, as open as I could.
If there is something on your mind, please extend me the same courtesy."
His blue eyes pleaded into mine, I could see he was worried.
I reached out and stroked a loose strand of hair out of his face, traced those gorgeous cheekbones, that perfect jaw. He took my hand and kissed my fingertips.
"I love you, you know that don't you?" he asked.
"I know. I love you back," I smiled. "I'm just stuck in my own head a bit. I get like that sometimes. If there is something to talk about, I'll tell to you. I promise."
Loki nodded, unconvinced.
It was only when we got home that we realised neither of us had ever gotten the promised ice cream.