An Echo In Time Chapter 14: Interlude Part 1, a thor fanfic

Authors Note

Song Lyrics from Carole & Tuesday - Light A Fire
/watch?v=WXrt9o8IqJ4&list=PLb-h0TgZRJZptIWDEcr7fbmMRLigLHlGQ&index=4

Whole Playlist:
/playlist?list=PLb-h0TgZRJZooJ-TPIjxWEFoYEnXi2vcl

A few months had passed since Thor had departed from Asgard, unaware of the swap that had happened on the kingdom's throne. It actually was a bit of a surprise that none of the people seemed to suspect a thing. Sure, Loki copied the Allfather's image to a T but he was far from keeping in character all the time. There were striking differences in the way he behaved, but no one except her seemed to be aware of them. Even though they were so painfully obvious. At least they were to her. Maybe because she knew.

The Allfather had never been one to say no to a banquet and there had been a fair share of them in the past. But ever since Loki had claimed the throne, they happened so regularly one would think it strange if a week passed without there being a big party, banquet or ball held at the golden castle. Not that anyone complained. The Asgardians loved celebrating more than any other nation, often just searching for the tiniest excuse to feast and drink til morning. Maybe that's why most of them lacked a bit in the brain department.

It may have come a bit as a surprise, but in general the God of Mischief did an unexpectedly good job as king. He had immediately begun to repair the damage caused by the Dark Elves and by now there was no trace of their invasion left to find. He also took care of his people, listening to their requests and worries to a point that the townsfolk had started to remark on how the Allfather seemed just a bit more gentle these days. However, they traced his behavioral change back to the loss of his wife. To sum it up, the kingdom was prospering. Although yes, the big statue portraying the image of "the Allfather's heroic dead son", he had recently ordered to be constructed, was a bit much…

However, Luciana sometimes worried a bit about matters outside the kingdom. It seemed that in between all the domestic ruling, Loki risked forgetting about foreign affairs and relations to the other planets. The Allfather still owned the title of "protector of the nine realms", something the God of Mischief didn't seem to care all that much about.

It was another festive night at Asgard's castle. "The Allfather '' had decided to host a ball this time so it was a more classy atmosphere, although Luciana knew this wouldn't mean anything after enough drinks had been passed around. She often was left the only sober person by the end of these celebrations as for several reasons she refrained from drinking alcohol.
Today was no different and she stood by one of the tall walls, sipping on a glass of juice as she watched the other guests. Normally she would be in the midst of all the laughter, singing and dancing to her heart's content but today she wasn't in the mood. Luciana looked at the small device in her hands. That day was steadily coming closer. It was inevitable. It always had been and it wouldn't be any different this time either.
With a sigh she leaned down. Lifting her dress up a bit on the side, she reattached the device back on the holster on her right thigh, careful not to draw any attention to herself. She couldn't afford anyone to notice it.

After straightening up again her emerald eyes scanned the room. It didn't take her long to spot "the Allfather's" figure in the crowd. As usual he was surrounded by several women and men, who were all laughing at something he said. Even though she knew it wasn't really him, seeing "Odin" flirt like that still gave her goosebumps all over. It was like watching your grandfather coming onto one of your friends, and they reciprocated it.

A truly horrible image.

Luciana took another sip of her drink. She would later have to talk to him, even though she wasn't particularly looking forward to it. After all, tonight was her last day before her departure from Asgard.

Luciana made her way towards the throne hall, where she was scheduled to talk to Loki. She sincerely hoped he wasn't as wasted as the several passed out people she had kept stumbling over.
Inside, the God of Mischief was seated on his throne, watching as she walked over the long maroon carpet in front of it.

"Are you ever not gonna greet me like that?" she said, raising an eyebrow at him.
He laughed. "Well, I dropped the illusion for you at least, didn't I?"
"I would have immediately left if you hadn't."
He laughed again as he rose to his feet, making his way down the stairs to her level. Luciana keenly studied his movements. "You're less wasted than I thought you would be."
"Heh. I wouldn't get drunk knowing we were to meet later."
"Loki not drinking at his own party. Now where's the fun in that? Do you have a fever?" she joked. But to her surprise his face was serious.
"Fun, hm… It didn't look like you had any of that either this evening."
"Oh? Now how do you know that? Were you watching me~?"
"I'm always keeping watch on my guests! You need to, to throw a successful party, you know?" He paused for a second, noticing how agitated he had sounded. But seeing as that probed no teasing remark from the brunette, Loki only coughed awkwardly before continuing. "Anyways, normally you're always in the center of things. But today you just kept to yourself all the time. You didn't dance. You didn't even sing a single song."

Luciana blinked, confused by what he was trying to say. It was almost like-
"Are you worried about me?"
"... Maybe." he admitted reluctantly.
She drew in a breath, not having expected him to agree with her words. The brunette let out a chuckle, albeit it sounded a bit nervous. "My, how sweet of the king to fret over a simple woman like me~ But there's really nothing to worry about. I just didn't feel like having a party today. You are holding these quite often after all. It's just getting a bit repetitive at times, you know?" She paused in her explanation to look at him. "Always playing along to the same act, you should understand that. Sometimes I wonder how you manage to keep up this charade everyday. I mean you can't do what you normally would want to. You're always disguised as the Allfather after all so-"

"I'm not right now."
"What?"
"I'm not disguised as Odin right now," he repeated.
Luciana chuckled. "Well, of course not. There's nobody watching after all. And-"
"Dance with me."
"What?" she asked again, getting more and more confused by the second. This was not going how she expected it to.
"You're right. I can't do what I want to do at those parties because I'm playing the role of the mighty Allfather. But I don't have to do that in front of you. I can do what I want. And right now, I want to dance with a beautiful woman."
The brunette stared wide-eyed between him and the hand he was holding out to her. She couldn't quite process the turn this conversation was taking. Meanwhile, he was waiting for her to take it, smiling, confident that she would.
"Ever the smooth talker, aren't you?" She laughed wryly. But nonetheless she hesitantly placed her hand in his and was promptly pulled towards him. Surprised, Luciana let out a short shriek, earning her an amused chuckle from her friend. Not being particularly happy at being laughed at, a small pout appeared on her features. "You say you want to dance, but there's no music."
"Oh really~?" With a grin on his lips, Loki waved his free hand through the air in one swift motion and the next moment a melody could be heard in the grand hall, even though there were no instruments far and wide. "Who do you think you have in front of you?" he said with no small amount of pride in his voice.
"A man with a questionable taste in music."
"Ouch. Why must the lady hurt me so?
Alright, fine. How about you sing something then and I will adjust to that."
"I suppose that would work."

Luciana didn't know why, but she decided to humor him. It wasn't what she had come here for. But surely one little dance wouldn't do any harm. She could tell him everything else afterwards.
The way he was staring at her so expectandly, there was no chance she could deny him now. Closing her eyes she pondered for a moment. It didn't take her long though and soon she found the song she wanted to dance to.

[ Light A Fire ]

"Loneliness
You're tied around my wrist
When all I ever wanted was this
Yeah, all I ever wanted was this"

After the first few notes had left her lips, she felt Loki squeezing the hand he was holding. It didn't take long for the sound of instruments to adjust to her voice and soon it seemed like a song was being played around the two of them. As she kept singing, she slowly opened her eyes and found him staring at her. The confident grin from before was gone now. Replaced by an expression of astonishment. It almost seemed like he was in some kind of daze.

"Sleepless nights
Always seem to lose these fights
Building up my thoughts like bricks
But nothing in my blood says quit"

An amused look appeared on her features when she saw it, and if she hadn't been singing, she surely would have started laughing at the sight. Luciana squeezed his hand, bringing him back from wherever his mind had wandered off too.
Realizing she had just caught him staring, Loki quickly looked away, apparently embarrassed. However, it lasted only for a moment as his head snapped back the second he felt her place her other hand on his shoulder.

"When the lights go out
And I'm all by myself in the darkness
When the lights go out
I hear my heart beating the hardest"

Loki adjusted his posture, placing his hand on her back and soon the two started moving along to the music. The first few steps were a bit awkward, but soon their movements fell in line with the melody. They had often danced together in the past and it didn't take long for their bodies to remember. While they moved slowly at first, once they fell in sync with each other their steps became faster, more confident, straying away from the simple back and forth swaying.

"Oh, I was born to break these chains
Like a spark before the flames
Watch me light a fire, fire in my soul
Yeah I can feel it in my bones
Like a dream ready to explode
Watch me light a fire"

As they danced and turned, Luciana's mind went back to a time long ago. Back to when they were children. As they grew up, both of the princes had to learn about the etiquettes and customs of royalty - and that had included learning how to dance. She, however, wasn't of royal blood, so it hadn't been required of her to participate. In fact, she shouldn't have been allowed to. But for a reason unknown to her, back then the queen had requested for her to take the lessons alongside her sons. The brunette still remembered her words to this day.

"I'm sure these two will be more motivated to learn if you're there. Won't you do that for me, my dear Lucy?"

"Battle scars
Lead me through the night like stars
And all I ever wanted was this
Yeah, all I ever wanted was this
Out of bounds
When every single wall comes down
I'll be standing on the edge of greatness"

Of course there had been no way for her to turn down a request from Frigga herself, although she would have agreed even if she hadn't been the queen of Asgard. And so she had found herself taking dance lessons with the two princes. It had been rather convenient for the instructor as well, because thanks to her, he had had someone at his display who could do the female part and had the right height as a dance partner as well. Sadly, that also meant that she barely had gotten any breaks in between the lessons as she had been required to always practice the same dance with both Loki and Thor.

Dancing with Loki had always been easy. He had learned the steps quickly and seemed to instinctively know how he had to move both correctly and gracefully. Thor on the other hand… He had been a brute even as a kid. Teaching him how to dance had been exhausting to say the least. He had kept on forgetting the steps, regularly stepped on her feet and grace hadn't even been part of his vocabulary at that point. This had led to the majority of the lessons being spent on her dancing with the blonde while the younger prince often had to sit on the sidelines for quite some time until they finally could move on to the next dance. Luciana remembered the way he had been pouting about it, just as Loki led her to a turn. She had to keep herself from laughing, resulting in her missing the rhythm for a second. Even though she barely managed to avoid stepping on Loki's foot, she stumbled in the process.

"Fire, fire, fire
Fire, fire, fire
Watch me light a fire, fire in my soul
Fire, fire, fire
Fire, fire, fire
Watch me light a fire"

Luckily she was caught by her dance partner. However, it resulted in them now being closer together than before, the space between their bodies having almost been reduced to none. She saw the God of Mischief drawing in a sharp breath and felt her own sudden increasing need for air. A few of the words she sang came out a bit squeaky as a result and she was glad when she got to the end of the line, allowing her to refill on oxygen.

"When the lights go out
And I'm all by myself in the darkness
When the lights go out
I hear my heart beating the hardest"

They slowed down in their steps and she found herself staring into his blue eyes that looked at her in a way she couldn't describe. In the past she had often wondered what the world looked like through his eyes. What did he see? How did he perceive things? Those questions had been on her mind a lot after everything that had happened, at a point where she had desperately tried to understand why he did the things he had done.
But that was not what she currently wanted to know. Right now she wanted to see what he saw at that moment. It would surely tell her why he was making such a face. What was it that he saw that made him look like he had just laid eyes upon the most precious thing in the world?
He wasn't supposed to make an expression like that.

"Oh, I was born to break these chains
Like a spark before the flames
Watch me light a fire"

Just as she realized that she risked losing herself in those blue eyes, he suddenly moved both his hands towards her hips and lifted her upwards. Her eyes grew wide in surprise as Loki did a turn before gently setting her down, allowing for her feet to touch the ground again.
They had often done figures like that in the past. After the end of the lessons Luciana had often walked over to the sulking younger prince, asking him for another dance even though her feet had already been killing her. Even back then, she had hated to see a frown on his face.
After a while those after-lesson-dances had started to become the thing she looked forward to the most on those days. It was only then that the two of them had been able to dance freely, often breaking out from the steps they had been taught, adding extra turns and figures whenever they pleased.

"Yeah I can feel it in my bones
Like a dream ready to explode
Watch me light a fire,
fire in my soul"

That's what they were doing now too. Spinning and turning freely at a fast pace that bothered on breaking the rhythm of the song, but was still in pace with the melody. Luciana felt herself being transported back to those days in the past, when everything had been easy and fun. When his hands had still been clean from blood. When she still had been free from the burden she carried. They had been laughing with a childlike happy-go-luckiness, contently enjoying the moment they had.
Right now Loki was displaying the same carefree smile like back then. An expression she hadn't thought to see on him ever again and it made her heart dance in her chest.

"Fire, fire, fire
Fire, fire, fire
Watch me light a fire, fire in my soul
Fire, fire, fire
Fire, fire, fire
Watch me light a fire"