An Echo In Time Chapter 20: Thor: Ragnarok Part 5, a thor fanfic

Author's Note

Song Lyrics from Lawson - Four Letters
/watch?v=ONQACAueB3I&list=PLb-h0TgZRJZpYbnvq7gW1FBvsBMdCI_mZ&index=20

Additional Song: Selena Gomez - Slow Down
/watch?v=YwPCo8r-IEU&list=PLb-h0TgZRJZpYbnvq7gW1FBvsBMdCI_mZ&index=23

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

Water dropped from her still wet hair to the floor as Luciana stepped out of the shower. One of the many perks of being a god was that daily life activities were so much easier than for the average creature. With just the snap of her finger she was completely dry, no towel needed. She still wrapped herself in one though before walking out of the bath, towards her couch where she had left her clothes.
In celebration of his champion's "win" The Grandmaster had announced another one of his private parties for the night and as his favorite songbird she was obviously required to attend. If she wanted to or not. She was still angry about how the match had ended through unfair matters, but sadly there was nothing she could do about it. At least Thor was seemingly alright, as he had been transported to the Hulk's chambers. Letting out a sigh, she was about to conjure her clothes back on her body when she noticed something strange about them.

"What the-!?"

Quickly she grabbed for the fabric, holding it out in front of her. Her eyebrow twitched at the sight in front of her. This was not the outfit she remembered getting out of before entering the shower. Yes, it had the same outline, design and the feel of the fabric was the same too. The color however…
"What is this hideous yellow!?" she yelled. Her hands crumpled the fabric in their palms with the amount of force she was clawing into it. The twitching in her eyebrow was getting faster by the second. There was only one reason for her clothes to look like that.
"Looookiiiiiii." she snarled angrily. This had to be his doing.

Throwing the dress back on the couch, Luciana reached for the smartphone on the glass table, hastily typing something into it.

Sent to: Liz
"Liz, drink one for me please. My streak broke today. After years of successfully avoiding it, I just fell for one of Loki's tricks."

She was about to throw the phone on the couch as well, but decided against it. Instead she grabbed the clothes again and took a selfie of herself as she held them. Quickly she attached the image to another message.

Sent to: Liz
"He ruined my clothes! Look at this! They're all yellow! I hate yellow!"

"Ah." it slipped out of her mouth when she saw that the messages didn't go out. "Haaah… Of course. Can't magically send things when I don't even know where this godforsaken planet even is."
With a groan she finally dropped the phone on the couch. She looked back at the dress in her hand, twisting her face. There was no way she'd wear this at tonight's party. She snapped her fingers and instead conjured the clothes she had briefly worn on Earth onto herself. The next moment Luciana stormed for the door, the dress still in her hand. Outside of her room it didn't even take her a minute to locate the voice of the perpetrator of this crime. The clicking sound of the heels of her boots on the stone tiles resounded throughout the long hallway she was stalking down. In her mind she could already see that smug grin of his and it annoyed her to no end.

Luciana rounded another corner and there he stood, chatting with two rather fancy dressed women. It seemed they already had their party outfits on.
"Loookiii~" she called out to him in a sweet sing-sang. Having heard his name, he glanced at her, the corners of his lips turning up in a smirk when he saw the yellow dress in her hand. "Pardon me, ladies. There's a matter I must attend to." he excused himself before casually walking over to her. She smiled sweetly at him. But it was an icy smile and her eyes weren't in it.
"My, Lucy. To what do I owe the honor?"
"You ruined my clothes." she replied in a deadpan voice.
He raised an eyebrow, obviously amused by the annoyed expression on her face. "Ruined? No, I merely thought it was time for a change as we're now living on a new planet. Everyone here got an upgraded outfit. Me. My brother. Even the green guy. Only you're still running around in your old Asgardian dress."
"Oh, you're saying you were doing me a favor in getting me new clothes?"
"Obviously."
"Yet it seems you merely changed the color of my old Asgardian dress, to something I hate."
"Hate is such a strong word, don't you think? What did that color ever do to you?"
"Lokiii…" she hissed with gritted teeth.
However, his grin was only growing wider by the second. "Look at it like that. If you start wearing something yellow, you might end up liking it sooner or later."
"There's no way in hell I'm going to wear this. I'll go in these Midgardian clothes to that party."

"No. Waaaaaay." another voice resounded behind the two. Surprised, they both turned their heads. There stood The Grandmaster, his hands stemmed on his hips, shaking his head. He quickly walked over to Luciana, grabbing the sleeve of her jacket with his right hand. "In these plain clothes? Lucy, my dear, there's no way you'll be allowed at my party like that."
"P-plain? Grandmaster, these are considered very expensive on the planet they come from and-"
"They're ugly."
"Excuse me?"
"U-G-L-Y. Ugly. And absolutely not acceptable at my party. My best songbird can and will not show up in something hideous like that."
"..."

Next to a speechless Luciana, Loki was snickering. He was holding his hand in front of his mouth but it did nothing to hide it. The brunette could clearly see his body shaking from trying to hold back his laughter. She darted a death glare in his direction, which unfortunately didn't seem to impress the God of Mischief at all.
"Well, Lucy. You heard the man." he rejoined the conversation. "No Midgardian clothes. But don't worry, the dress you're holding in your hand should suffice the dress code quite alright."
"Urgh…"
"If you two would excuse me now, there's still some things I need to take care of. I'm looking forward to seeing you in yellow tonight, Lucy~" he winked at her before turning on his heel, making his way further down the hallway, leaving the brunette alone with the ruler.

Luciana's hands balled into fists. I am going to strangle him… she thought, gritting her teeth. That's when she got an idea.
"Grandmaster!"
"Yes!?" the man jumped at suddenly being called like that. He stared at the Asgardian woman who was currently giving him the sweetest smile she could muster.
"Grandmaster~" she cooed. "Would you do your favorite songbird a favor~?"

Am I running out?

Luciana observed herself in the mirror, turning to get a good look of her body at different angles. The long light blue sash flattered as she moved. "Yep. This will do." she said to herself.
The outfit The Grandmaster had provided to her as by her request was a tad different from the Asgardian one she was so used to. Most obvious was the change in the color scheme. While her old dress had been a dark magenta tone, this attire featured blue as its prominent color. Another difference was that there was no skirt. Instead she was wearing a rather tight body that would have bothered on being skimpy if it wasn't for the pair of tights with over knee optic she wore underneath. The only familiar thing was the long sash that fell behind her back.

The heels of her new shoes clicked as she walked along the hallway towards the grand hall the party was being held at. From what she could hear, it was already well underway. It seemed she would arrive a bit late. But that would be alright. She was required to be there, however no one had dictated her to be punctual.

Loki had already arrived at the party way before Luciana, drinking and mingling with the other guests right from the get go. All the while, he had kept on sneaking glances towards the entrance, waiting for her to arrive.
The moment he had found her clothes laying around on the couch in her room he had known it was the chance to play a little trick on her. One that actually would succeed. Much to his chagrin, it had been a long time since she had fallen for his mischief. He didn't know how she did it, but for the past 500 years or so Luciana had always managed to expose his pranks beforehand, or worse, turn them around on him instead.

But not this time.

When she had stalked up to him in the afternoon in those Midgardian clothes he had feared for a second to have failed again. But to his pleasant surprise Lady Luck actually had been on his side for once. He still couldn't quite believe that he had to thank The Grandmaster of all people for it, but who was he to complain? His prank was a success and now Luciana had no other choice but to attend the party in a bright yellow dress. Sure, it wasn't his best trick and maybe it was a bit childish to do this to her only because she didn't like what he was wearing. But her words had stung a little, so it was justified. His only fear was that she would pull a no show…
No, that was impossible. She knew what the consequences of going against The Grandmaster's words were. So there was no way she would.

He shook his head as he excused himself from the conversation he had been engaged in. Passing one of the waiters, he grabbed another drink from the tray. He wondered how yellow would look on her. Now that he thought about it, they would kind of be matching in their outfits…
His heart made a jump in his chest and he quickly took another sip. All the waiting and anticipation was making him all giddy. Or maybe it was the amount of alcohol in his bloodstream. He sighed and took another glance towards the entrance. And what he saw there almost made him drop his drink.

Standing at the entrance of the grand hall, Luciana scanned the room. It was very crowded. A sea of people who were dancing, drinking, chatting or… doing other things. She averted her gaze when suddenly a female voice addressed her. "New outfit?"
Turning her head, she saw a dark skinned woman approach her. Or rather stagger towards her.
This woman… I believe people call her Scrapper 142… she thought, eyeing her suspiciously. She had heard that it was this woman who had captured both the Hulk and Thor. Meaning she was not to be underestimated. Without thinking Luciana grabbed a glass of juice from the tray of a passing waiter, downing it in one go and immediately placing it on the tray again. The woman raised an eyebrow at her. "Not bad. For a little princess that is."
"Excuse me? I'm not a princess."
"Sure."

What was her problem? Had she only come over to insult her? Luciana couldn't remember having spoken to her before, so there was no way she could have offended her in any way. Wait… That tattoo on her arm…
"You look like a valkyrie…" she stated, moreso thinking out loud than speaking to her opposite. For a second the woman's eyebrow twitched. But then her mouth curled up into a smirk. "And you look like the weasely prince's bitch."
"Excuse me!?" Luciana exclaimed in offense. "If anything, then he's my bitch!"
"Ehhh~ That so." Scrapper 142 smugly responded before taking a big sip from her drink.

Wait… What did I just… Don't tell me!?

Panic rising in her stomach, the brunette frantically looked around the room.
"If you're looking for the cocktail tray, the waiter went over there."
"...Cocktails… That wasn't juice?"
"Pfff, no. The dude with the juices is over there with the musicians. You know, 'cause they're not allowed to drink before the performance. Although, you just kinda broke that rule, huh."
The woman started laughing and Luciana could feel the blood draining from her face. That had been alcohol. She wasn't allowed to drink alcohol. She couldn't handle it, not even the tiniest bit. No no no no. This was bad.

"Hey. About what you said just now. I think you might be right."
"Huh? W-what?" she asked, confused. She felt a little dizzy already. Or was that just her imagination?
"He keeps staring at you."
"Who?"
"His majesty. The weasel prince." She tipped her head to the side.
Following the motion with her eyes, she caught sight of Loki next to the bar. He had some kind of drink in his hand and, just like Scrapper 142 had said, was looking in their direction. As their gazes met, his eyes grew wide and he looked away, as if embarrassed of having been caught. Luciana tilted her head to the sight. What was that about?
"Damn, seems like your new clothes are doing quite a number on him." the other woman chuckled beside her. Slowly the brunette looked down on herself.
That's right! She was wearing the outfit The Grandmaster had prepared for her, effectively thwarting Loki's plan in getting her to wear the dress he had ruined. Her lips curled into a smug smile. "Would you excuse me?" Luciana said to the woman. She didn't wait for a reply, already making her way through the crowd. This however, didn't seem to be such an easy task as she kept on bumping against people, almost tripping over her feet once or twice. The alcohol was definitely taking effect.

"Need a hand?" she heard Loki's smug voice not far away. But before she could respond somebody blocked off her path.
"You're late. The Grandmaster hates waiting."
"A good evening to you too, Topaz." the brunette half sang, half scoffed.
"You're up. Go. Or I'll melt you myself."
"Eh- Wait!" Luciana protested but couldn't do anything as she was pushed through the crowd until she found herself in front of The Grandmaster's DJ pult. He was behind it and clapped in his hands when he saw her. "Ah, there you are. Finally." He walked over to her, pressing the microphone into her hand. "You know, for a second I was afraid you wouldn't be coming. Which would have been such a shame. We know what happens to no shows, right?"
"Y-yeah…"
"Oh, by the way, these are looking magnificent on you, dear. I knew they were perfect. I picked them for you myself, you know?" he winked at her.
"Uhm, thank you. They're really great."
"I know, right? Well, time for you to give us some real music. I'm getting quite tired of this electronic stuff."

With that he pushed her forwards into the middle of the circle of people that had formed. For a few moments she stood like that, scanning the sea of faces staring at her. They were expecting her to sing, however her mind was drawing a blank. It was probably the alcohol's fault, but she couldn't come up with a single word or note.
That's when she found Loki in the crowd. He was also staring at her, but unlike the others who kept looking with expectation in their eyes, he looked concerned.
Concerned… What was he looking concerned for? This whole situation right now was his fault to begin with. She'd have been here ages ago if he hadn't pulled that stunt. And she wouldn't have mistaken the cocktail for juice. She would make him pay for that later.

Wait… Later?
Why later? Why not right now?

That's right. This was the perfect chance to get revenge on him. But a tiny voice in her head was telling her to stop.

Don't do it. This is going against the normal proceeding of events.

She didn't know whether it was due to the alcohol in her blood taking over, but she decided to ignore it. After all, she now knew exactly what she would sing. A sly smirk displayed on her face, she turned towards The Grandmaster.
"I don't need this." she said, pressing the microphone into his hands.
Positioning herself back at the center she struck a pose - and then she sang.

Seeing Luciana getting dragged away by The Grandmaster's second in command, he had immediately followed after them. Now Loki was standing in the crowd among the rest of the hundred's of party guests, staring at the woman in their midst. He had noticed something strange about the brunette the moment she had started pushing her way towards him through the sea of people. Her movements had been… strange. Normally there was a certain grace to them that persisted no matter the situation. Whether she was dancing or fighting, even when angry - like this afternoon and the day before - there was always a certain charm to the way her body moved. However, that was gone. Instead her steps had seemed sluggish, almost uncoordinated. And the way she had kept on bumping into other guests - something was clearly wrong. And he had a slinking suspicion about what the cause could be. Although, he hoped he'd turn out to be wrong.
Unfortunately, the things he hoped for seldom came true. And when he saw the way she was standing there, looking all lost and confused, her eyes hazy, he knew.
Luciana had somehow consumed alcohol.

This was bad. Really bad. He had never understood how one could get completely wasted from just one sip, but the brunette was the living proof that it was indeed possible. The smallest amount got her drunk. And drunk Luciana was dangerous.
While he was contemplating how to drag her away from this party in the most inconspicuous way possible, her eyes suddenly found him. For a moment she blankly stared at him, but when her mouth suddenly curled upwards into the definition of a dangerous smile, he knew he had a problem. Which only became more clear when she started singing.

[ Selena Gomez - Slow down ]

"Now that I have captured your attention
I wanna steal you for a rhythm intervention
Mr. TSA, I'm ready for inspection
Sh-sh-show me how you make a first impression"

All of a sudden he didn't think that the prank he had played on her earlier had been such a good idea after all. He had already known that Luciana would try to get back at him in some way or the other. It had been like that since they were little. While at first he had been able to see through her little revenge plans easily, he had lost that ability long ago and now only very rarely managed to escape whatever her mind had thought up to punish him with. But drunk Luciana was a whole other level of unpredictable.

"Oh, oh
Can we take it nice and slow, slow?
Break it down and drop it low, low
'Cause I just wanna party all night in the neon lights
'Til you can't let me go"

Sure, right now she was only dancing and singing. But the way she moved. And the lyrics of the song… Just simply watching this gave him a weird feeling all over. Trying to distract himself, he downed the rest of his still half full glass of liquor. Which in hindsight, wasn't the smartest idea as the continuously rising level of alcohol in his blood only made his defenses to what was in front of him weaker.

"I just wanna feel your body right next to mine
All night long
Baby, slow down the song
And when it's coming closer to the end, hit rewind
All night long
Baby, slow down the song"

Luciana's body moved to the beat of the song, becoming one with the rhythm. Her movements were different from usual. Normally her dancing was all about having fun, about expressing yourself confidently with a joy that celebrated life in itself.

But this-

This was confident too, but in a whole other way. It was fierce and passionate. It was sensual and suggestive. There was a fire in her eyes that seemed to burn every person that was unfortunate - or was it fortunate - enough to be graced by her gaze. Right now she looked more erotic than she had ever before.

"Yeah, baby, slow down the song
Yeah, baby, slow down the song"

And he hated it. He hated how it was affecting him. He hated how fast his breathing had become. He hated how his heart was hammering in his chest. He hated the tingling feeling all over his body. He hated the thoughts that were beginning to form in the back of his mind. He hated every single person in this godforsaken hall. He wanted them to disappear. Because what he hated most was that he wanted her to dance and sing like that for him and him alone.

"If you want me, I'm accepting applications
So long as we can keep this record on rotation
You know I'm good with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
Breathe me in, breathe me out
So amazing"

The moment he realized what he was thinking, Loki turned his head away. He needed to get out of this room. Away from this party. And most importantly, away from her. Unfortunately though, Luciana had no intention of letting that happen. The moment she noticed him attempting to leave from the corner of her eye, she knew her plan was working. Which meant she could move on to the next step.

"Oh, oh
Can we take it nice and slow, slow?
Break it down and drop it low, low
'Cause I just wanna party all night in the neon lights
'Til you can't let me go"

Loki had crossed half of the way to the entrance when suddenly he was faced with Luciana right in front of him. His eyes wide from the shock, he halted in his movements. His head snapped back around to the improvised stage. How had she gotten here so quickly!?
His body jerked when he felt someone's slender fingers on his cheek. They forced him to turn back and what he saw almost had his heart jump out of his chest. Two emerald green eyes were looking up at him. Piercing through him. Burning him under their gaze. Luciana's face was only inches from his and he could feel her breath on his skin as she kept singing. He drew in a sharp breath.

"I just wanna feel your body right next to mine
All night long
Baby, slow down the song
And when it's coming closer to the end, hit rewind
All night long
Baby, slow down the song"

The song was still going. When would it be over, he wondered. When would it finally end?
As fast as her face had appeared in front of him, it also disappeared. He almost felt relieved, or he would have, if he didn't suddenly feel her hand running along his back. His head snapped to the side, just in time to see her pass him. She was circling around him, running her hands all over his body.

"Yeah, baby, slow down the song
Yeah, baby, slow down the song"

The crowd was probably screaming and whistling, but he couldn't hear them. The only things he heard were her voice and the blood rushing through his veins. Suddenly he felt hyper aware of every cell and muscle in his body. Every spot her hands touched felt hot and left his skin with a tingling sensation. Even though he was wearing clothes, it felt like her touch was burning through them. And for a second Loki caught himself wishing they were gone. He wondered how her touch would feel directly on his skin.

"Breathe me in, breathe me out
The music's got me going
Breathe me in, breathe me out
No stopping 'til the morning
Breathe me in, breathe me out
You know I'm ready for it
For it, for it
Yeah"

Another round.
Another ragged breath.
Another touch.
His head was spinning.
From the alcohol?
No, it wasn't the alcohol.
It was her. Only her.
It was always her.

Luciana.

Luciana who was dancing around him.
Luciana's voice that was singing into his ear.
Luciana who was occupying his mind.
Luciana who was taking control of him.
Luciana who was wrapping her arms around his body from behind.
Luciana who was breathing against his neck…

"Mmnnghh…"

[...]

He had tried to stay quiet.
But it had been too much. He couldn't help it. There was no way he could have won against her.
And so the moan had escaped his lips. Luckily, it had been faint. Quiet enough for no one to hear.

Or it would have been.

If it wasn't for Luciana who had used her powers in that exact moment to drown out all the noise other than his voice. Luciana's powers that had turned up the volume of his voice like he was some kind of radio.

The sound echoed throughout the big hall, resounding from its walls. Everyone had heard it. Every single guest of this party, including The Grandmaster, the host himself, had heard him moaning. Every single pair of eyes was glued on him.
And as he was beginning to realize what had just happened, all of the color left Loki's face.