Well, I'm back!  Hope everyone out there had a wonderful holiday and got everything they wanted!  I managed to finish this and the next section of the story, which I will post forthwith, as soon as I finish double-checking it for proper terminology.

Loki's Plan Part 7

Things were less peaceful the next morning, however.  Mayura's father came over early to drop off a clean school uniform for her, and since he wasn't expected, Loki hadn't prepared a very good explanation about his kakusei form.  There was a lot of fast talking required to keep Mayura's father from dragging her away on his scooter and hiding her somewhere, especially since he hadn't liked Loki-kun from the start.

On the other hand, Mayura's situation required far less fast talking; although Loki wisely glossed over the part where she was going to become his wife.  That would only have made him suspicious again.  Remarkably, Daidouji Misao seemed almost resigned to his daughter's not being mortal, which made Loki suspicious in his turn.  For all the time Mayura spent with him, he realized he knew little of her history before she met him except for that one time just after her mother's death.

The rest of the day went like any other day, and Loki resumed his "Loki-kun" form for most of it.  He realized that he would have to maintain it for the general public, since he was too well-known, and too many questions would be asked otherwise.  He could phase it out slowly, but if "small Loki" suddenly disappeared and "big Loki" appeared in his place, it would make people suspicious.  Even unobservant people like Inspector Niiyama.

Mayura dropped by after school, but she didn't stay long, since she had to pick up some groceries before she headed home and there weren't any big new cases or anything else to report.  Loki gave her a kiss before she left and wished her a pleasant night, although he was a little reluctant to let go of her.  He knew he didn't have long to wait before she would be with him always, though, so he didn't begrudge her a little time with the only family she'd had for so long.

He had a quiet night with his own family, and was fast asleep when the phone rang at one am.  Yamino was the one who woke to get the phone, although he was more than a little groggy himself.

"Moshi moshi..." he yawned.

"Yamino-san?" Daidouji Misao's worried voice came on the other end of the line.

"Daidouji-san?  Is something wrong?" Yamino asked, wide awake now.

"Mayura's talking in her sleep...actually, more like yelling.  She seems quite upset and I can't get her to wake up.  She's not speaking Japanese, and since about the only thing I can pick up of it is Loki-san's name, I thought he might be able to help figure it out or wake her" her father said, sounding almost frantic.

"I'll wake Loki-sama and we'll be right over." Yamino assured him.

"Thank you." he said with a sigh of obvious relief.

When Yamino went to knock on his father's door, Loki was already awake and in kakusei form.

"What was that all about?" he asked blearily.

"Daidouji-san called.  He said Mayura-san's having some sort of nightmare and won't wake up, and although she's saying something, I suspect she may have been speaking Old Norse since he couldn't understand anything more than your name.  He asked if you would come over to see if you can help." Yamino explained.

"You could very well be right about the language, given everything that's happened lately.  Well, what are we doing hanging around here?  Let's get going!"  Loki said.

Fenrir deigned to wake up as well, and with Ecchan floating above they headed to the shrine where Mayura lived.

When they got there Daidouji-san was just as frantic as he had sounded on the phone.  He quickly lead them through the living quarters to Mayura's room, and even before they got there they could hear her shouting.  her words were in Old Norse, as Yamino had guessed, but even if they were able to understand the words, what she was saying was not coherent.  About all they could make out was something about Loki, and running away, and babies.

Loki didn't precisely run, but he did pick up his pace getting to her room and when he got there he kneeled down at the side of her bed and gently shook her by the shoulder.

"Mayura, wake up, Mayura!" he said softly.

He got no response other than her rolling over and continuing to mumble in Old Norse about babies and running away.  He shook her a little harder and called her again with no better response than the last time, but then he got an idea.  He leaned over to kiss her brow and spoke to her gently in old Norse.

"Hush now, Sigyn, it's only a bad dream, nothing more" he reassured her.

"Loki?" she murmured, finally waking up.

"Hai Mayura, I'm here.  You were having a bad dream.  How are you feeling?" he asked.

"I'm fine.  I know I must be having a bad dream, but I don't remember what I was dreaming about."

"That's probably a good thing." he reassured her.

"Loki," Mayura said quizzically, beginning to wake up more and realizing where she was, "What are you doing at my house?"

"Your father was worried about you and he couldn't get you to wake up, so he called to see if I could help." Loki explained.

"Oh." Mayura said.

"If you're sure you're feeling better, you should probably go back to sleep.  It's after one am, and you do have school tomorrow - today, whatever." Loki laughed.

"Maybe you're right.  Will you stay until I fall asleep?"

"Of course." Loki said gently.

"Me too." Ecchan said and snuggled next to her.

Once Mayura was asleep again, Loki went to talk to her father.  He had a fairly good guess what her dream - or more properly nightmare - had been about, and it meant that it was time he explained Sign's exact position in relation to him.  Otherwise, Daidouji would not understand why what she was seeing was so significant.  Loki also expected the nightmares to become worse before they got better, and he wanted to keep her close to him at night so he could calm her - which meant having her sleep over at his house instead of her own.  It would test his resolve, he knew, but he would just have to resist.

"So you're telling me my daughter is supposed to marry you?" Daidouji sat with his chin supported on the backs of his hands and glared at Loki.  The possibility of Mayura becoming prescient hadn't phased him much, but this was beyond bearing.

"I'm telling you she will marry me." Loki said firmly.  "Not right away, but it will be soon."

"And if I protest this union?"

"It will go ahead, with your blessing or without, but I would prefer to have at least your cooperation in this.  I would rather not part Mayura from her family entirely."

"I'm sure you can understand, I haven't exactly had the best impression of you..."

"I understand completely.  I am a father too, and if some man were to announce summarily that he was going to marry one of my daughters I too would be demanding that he prove his worth."

"You have daughters?" Misao said, surprised.

"I do.  I have three... no, two daughters.  I lost my youngest just recently." Loki said sadly.

Misao was stunned by the woeful expression on his face.  It seemed strange to see this man - no, God - whom he had always thought of as a bizarre sort of child, mourning a daughter.  It made him seem more real, somehow.  "I am most sorry for your loss." he said with all sincerity.  "Loosing a loved-one is never easy."  He tentatively reached out to pat Loki's hand.

Loki blinked, a little surprised at Daidouji seeming change of heart toward him.  "I try not to dwell on it," he admitted.

"In any case, I will talk to Mayura in the morning and see what she wants to do." Misao conceded.  "I will allow the shikigami to stay the night with her in case of more bad dreams tonight, and if you wish you may stay on the property as well; but in a room some distance from hers." he added sternly.

The night passed without any more disturbances, thankfully, and in the morning Daidouji Misao went to talk to his daughter.  She wasn't yet awake when he entered her room, and he stood for a while at the door, just looking at her.  She was curled on her side, her pose sweet and angelically innocent, but her father knew better.  Even now, when she was almost "grown up", to him she would always be the little scamp who had "painted" the temple walls with permanent marker when she was five because they were "too boring", or the twelve-year-old who had rebelliously cut her hair to just above her ears and dyed it peacock blue after a fight about...something - he'd even forgotten what it was - then come crying to him when the heat of her anger burned out and she was appalled at what she had done.  He still had pictures of that little escapade, although she didn't know any had even been taken.  Perhaps, if he ever grew to accept Loki, he would show the Trickster God those photos, Misao had a feeling he would appreciate them. 

He still regretted that his daughter had to grow up without a mother's tender influences.  Although her aunt (his sister) would occasionally have Mayura over to her house to spend time with her cousins there, and his mother-in-law had tried her best two summers ago to instill at least some amount of poise and decorum in her wayward granddaughter, some of it seemed to have stuck, but not nearly enough... and now, in a month, Mayura would be graduating from high school, and some time after that, he had just found out, she would be marrying a man - no, a God, he had to at least acknowledge that much - whom he did not even like, much less approve of.  Still, she would soon be her own woman, and he had always known she would leave him someday (although he hadn't thought it would be to live with a God, especially one of such ill repute as Loki)... and that she wasn't exactly human herself.

He tried to remember when he had first realized that his darling daughter wasn't quite like the other little girls.  It hadn't really been until she was in kindergarten.  Before that, he had always just seen her as his kawaii and special little girl.  He had assumed that all young children had the kind of golden aura she did, and that she would grow out of it with time and worldly experience, like the words of the famous poet:

            "But trailing clouds of glory do we come ...

At length the man perceives it die away,

And fade into the light of common day.

But when he saw her with all the other children her age, her aura was so much brighter than theirs that he knew something had to be different about her.

Misao shook his head.  All this wasn't accomplishing what he had come here to do.  He walked into the room and shook his daughter awake.

"Mayura, time to get up," he said.

"Already?" she sighed, rolling over and sitting up, "I didn't think it was morning yet."

"It's a little earlier than usual, but I have some things to talk to you about.  I was speaking to Loki last night after he came to calm you out of your nightmare.  He said he had asked you to marry him?"  Misao's frown was very evident.

"Well it's more like he explained what my destiny was, and I told him I was fine with becoming his wife."  Mayura said somewhat defiantly.

"Okay, I can understand that.  I never told you, for fear of you not understanding or taking this the wrong way, but I have always known you were different from other children, Mayura; made for bigger things.  I always saw different auras and powers around you than I did around other people.  Loki told me that he will marry you with my consent or without, so I'm telling you now: I may not be entirely comfortable with it, but if this is what you want, I'm willing to give my consent to it."

"Papa..."

"Who am I to argue with a God, after all.  No matter what you become, Mayura, you will always be my daughter.  But none of this is the main reason I came to talk to you this morning.  Loki says these nightmares like the one you had last night will likely increase.  He wants to keep you at his house so that he can keep track of what's happening with them, and keep waking you out of them quickly if it's needed, since it seems to be something I can't do.  I told him I would have to hear what you want to do, so, what do you think?"

"I think it would probably be best if I did go there.  I felt so much better last night after he was here, and the nightmare was so horrible...  I don't even know what it was, but it was horrible, that much I do know.  I'll feel better going to sleep knowing he's close to wake me up if I have another dream like that." Mayura said.

"Alright.  In that case, you'd better get up now and pack some things, since you'll be staying over at Loki's house.  I do hope you'll at least drop in and see your old dad once in a while." he said mournfully.

"Oh!  I promise I'll come for dinner every night, unless there's a case or something." Mayura said with a wink, and her father laughed.

"Alright, it's a deal then."