Part Ten: Wherein Invitations are Offered and Accepted

Sigourney shrugged out of her bag, still holding onto Loki, and let it fall with a thud to the floor. As though he could read her mind, Loki scooped Sigourney up into his arms and carried her damsel-style to her bed. He deposited her there gently, half looking like he would leave her.

"Stay, alright?" She clutched at his hands as he pulled them away, "Just stay here with me. For a bit."

Loki didn't resist. He lied down next to her, his lean frame between her and the edge of the bed. Sigourney couldn't help herself. She needed him near. She hid her face in the front of his t-shirt, pressing herself against his chest. Loki's arms wrapped around her again to hold her in place. His presence was like an anchor. Sigourney's mind began to clear. They stayed like that for a long time, just lying there in the stillness of Sigourney's apartment. She thought she might fall asleep. But she didn't. She listened to the soft sound of Loki's breathing and felt the way his fingers idly grazed her back now and again.

"Why did you cut Sif's hair?" Sigourney's voice cut through the silence weakly.

A self conscious laugh come from somewhere in the back of Loki's throat, then he said, "Like so many things, it seemed like a good idea at the time. And also she tossed one of my spell books down the well."

He let his answer hang in the air for a moment.

Then he asked, tentatively, "How much do you remember of that?"

"Not much." Sigourney admitted, "I remember sitting with her while she cried. She yelled at me. Called me a snake lover."

Loki flinched at this.

Sigourney pressed on, "And I remember... fighting with you about it after. We were in the garden."

"You called me reckless and unfeeling." His voice rolled through his chest like a wave against a rocky shore.

"Yes..." Sigourney thought about this, "I did. I'm sorry."

At this Loki laughed again, "It was a long time ago. And you were right."

Sigourney propped herself up on her elbow. Loki looked up at her, waiting for her to say something. Instead, she studied his perfectly calculated features. Each curve and line was dear to her in a way that filled her chest nearly to bursting. But it wasn't his face.

"Why are you hiding?" She whispered, not thinking about the words as they left her lips.

Loki did not misunderstand her. Rather than fall back into their argument from the night before about why he was on Earth, Loki simply let out a soft sigh. Pale green light glimmered across his skin. In it's wake his face became a rough version of itself. Smudged under-eyes, half healed scrapes, and old scars replaced the perfect mask. Sigourney smiled.

"I like this face better." She told him.

She stared at the scars around his mouth and across his lips. The fine lines that could have only been made with a needle and thread. Sigourney's fingers hovered centimeters from his face, stopped only by the realization of what she had been about to do.

"It's alright." Loki told her, his voice a soft murmur.

Her fingertips brushed along the raised ridged of the scars. Sigourney could feel Loki's eyes on her as she traced the marks on his mouth. His skin was so cold. She smiled again.

"I remember this too." She breathed, "We were under our tree, after your mother had pulled the thread out, and you let me touch your mouth. Just like this."

"Do you understand now?" Loki asked, his voice grazing her fingers.

She thought for a moment. It terrified her to no end, but she thought she finally did understand. Or at least was beginning to. Somehow, her head was filled with two sets of conflicting memories. There was her mundane, ordinary life here on Earth. And under that, locked behind some kind of wall, was another life. A life that had happened somewhere else... with Loki. It was all very Fire and Hemlock which would have amused her if it hadn't been so disturbing.

"I think so." She told him, following a line from the corner of his top lip across to his bottom lip, "Not, everything... but a bit. Enough to know that I know you."

He nodded, "Yes, you know me very well. You know me better than anyone."

That thought amused Sigourney for some reason. She knew he was right, but it was nice to hear him admit it for once.

"Do you remember," Loki ventured carefully, "what else happened that day?"

Sigourney did. It came to her easily. They had been barely more than teenagers at the time. Still kids, really, when she thought about it. They sat in the soft grass under their tree, in the far part of the lower gardens where no one else ever went. Sigourney had gone looking for him and found him there crying alone. Her soft heart had always had a spot for Loki in it. But sitting there together, safe from view behind the lush greenery of the gardens, Sigourney had realized just how much space Loki took up within her heart.

She'd spoken softly to him until he stopped crying and he let her touch the still fresh cuts around his mouth. She could feel his pain through her fingertips. Her gift. It stung her flesh, like sticking herself with her own embroidery needle again and again. Then she had leaned in close and brushed her lips across his, kissing the hurt away.

She felt her face go warm at the memory. Sigourney looked away, suddenly unable to handle his gaze.

"Yes. I remember." She pulled her hand away, but he caught it in his and pressed her palm to his chest.

"What else do you remember?" His thumb grazed the back of her hand softly as he spoke.

Sigourney thought, her mind working to sort out which memory came from which life, "Bits and pieces. It's all mixed up in my head. But I know I couldn't have dreamt all this. It has to have come from somewhere."

She looked at him again, her eyes meeting his.

"But you can't tell me, can you?" She asked.

Loki's face tensed, no doubt in anticipation of another argument, "No. I don't think I can. Not without hurting you."

"I understand." Sigourney nodded slowly, "At least, I think I do now."

They fell quiet again. Loki stared up at her with a look in his eyes she simply couldn't bare. It was filled with longing and self-discipline. She tucked her head in the place between his shoulder and neck so that she wouldn't have to meet that gaze. Loki's arm draped across her shoulders. He pressed his mouth to the side of her head, a half kiss against her hair.

"Can you answer just one question for me, Loki?" She asked, a thought blossoming.

"I can try." He told her.

"The thing you came to find on Earth," She ventured, slowly, following the line of intuition guiding her, "it was me, wasn't it?"

Loki took a slow breath, then said, "Yes, it is."

Sigourney propped herself back up onto her elbow, "And your 'friends'... they're trying to stop you."

"Yes, they are." He replied, brushing her hair back from her face, "Or, they are now. At first they were only looking for me."

"That's where you went." Sigourney said, clarity coming over her more rapidly now, "When you disappeared. You were trying to..."

"Lead them away from here." Loki nodded.

"It hasn't worked." She told him, "I saw them the other day. And, before, I was in the park and Sif warned me to stay away from you."

"She what?" Loki sat up in his surprise, "She's here?"

"Yes." Sigourney pushed herself the rest of the way up and placed a hand on his shoulder, "I don't think they want anything to do with me. It's you they're most interested in."

"They want to keep us apart." Loki corrected, burying his face in his hands, "And they'll do whatever it takes."

Sigourney thought for a moment. It was Loki they wanted, not her. The wave of intuition rose to its peak within her and she understood exactly what would have to be done. The knowledge of it was a breath of frigid winter air, clear and painful in the hollow of her chest. It made her gasp a little. Loki turned to look at her.

"What is it?" He asked.

Sigourney tried to swallow down the icy pain and said softly, "You can't stay here. You have to go somewhere they can't find you."

Loki shook his head, his mouth open to protest, but Sigourney didn't give him a chance.

"It's the only way." She plunged on, "You're not safe here. You said it yourself, remember? They will kill you if they find you again. You have to go somewhere where you'll be safe. Somewhere far, far away."

Loki stared at her, his eyes full of a confused sort of fear. His lips closed and parted a few times, searching for the right words. Sigourney would have found it funny, the man with the silver tongue finally with nothing to say, if the look on his face hadn't been breaking her heart. The ice in the pit of her chest had thawed, leaving a hollow ache that made it hard to breathe.

Finally, he spoke in barely more than a whisper, "Come with me."

"What?" She gasped softly.

"Siggy, come with me." He shifted, facing her properly and taking both her hands between his, "We'll go somewhere far away, just as you've said."

"I..." She couldn't make her mind work properly.

He squeezed her hands gently, "Siggy, please. I cannot be without you. Not again."

"Because you love me?" Her voice came out in a hitched sort of sob.

"Because I love you." He said, so earnestly it made the hollow ache in her chest all the deeper.

There was only one thing Sigourney could think of to make the ache stop. She closed what little distance there was between herself and Loki, pressing her lips to his. He didn't resist. Loki's arms closed around her, drawing her to him until she molded against the shape of his chest as though she were designed to be there. She kissed him again and again. He drank her in readily, with a thirst that could not be slated. Her fingers lost themselves in the soft, wavy strands of his hair, drawing him closer still. Each kiss became deeper then the last until she was left almost breathless.

Loki pulled away gently and Sigourney's eyes flutter open. He lied back, stretching out across her bed, his arms open to her in an invitation. Sigourney accepted. She lowered herself over him and caught his mouth with hers again and again. Every part of him, every line and angle and curve, was precious to her. She wanted to steep him within her soul so that she would never have to be without him. She kissed his cold, smooth skin as though she were placing stars within the night sky. And every soft gasp and hitched breath that came in response to what she did filled her to bursting.

Later, her head on his shoulder, Sigourney listened to the sound of Loki's heart through his chest. Her fingers absentmindedly brushed along the line of his collarbone. How had she forgotten this? They had lied just like this countless times, tangled together in soft silence. She had to remind herself that there was no risk of being discovered that would pull Loki from her arms; no daybreak negotiations to be had between hurried kisses as one of them tried to dress and sneak back to their own bedchamber. They could simply lie there together with no thoughts as to what tomorrow would bring.

Almost.

Sigourney couldn't help but turn over what Loki had suggested before she changed the nature of their conversation. He had asked her to leave with him and go goodness-knows-where. Lying there, Loki's arms around her and his finger in her hair, all she wanted was to be with him. But small details of what that would mean crept in at the back of her mind. What about her life here? The shop and her family? Being with Loki would mean leaving all that behind and stepping into a life she could only imagine. A life of magic and danger. But there was no way Loki could remain on Earth with her. The threat to his life aside, she knew his nature wouldn't allow it. Loki didn't have the capacity to survive a mortal existence. And Sigourney didn't know if she had the capacity to survive an immortal one.

She supposed she must have managed to do it at some point. Somehow. She had a head full of half memories from another life. A life she must have lived, or else how could she remember it? And people from that life, Loki and Sif and the others, all knew her. They remembered her, even if she hadn't remembered them. The question was, what had happened to make her forget? And why was she on Earth instead of... somewhere else? A sharp pain twinged above her right eyebrow. Sigourney shut her eyes against it, waiting as it slowly faded. She frowned a little to herself, deciding against riddling out such big questions, and shifted so that her forehead rested against the side of Loki's neck.

One of his hands found hers and gently pulled it away from its continued brushing along his collar bone. He pressed Sigourney's palm to his lips softly, smiling against her skin as he kissed her.

"Loki?" She murmured.

"Hmm?" He hummed into her palm.

"Where would we go, if I left with you?" She asked.

He returned her hand to his chest, pressing it gently to the place above his heart, "Anywhere you want. Just name it."

"I'm afraid I'm not terribly well traveled." She beamed as she spoke, "I don't know many places outside this solar system."

"You're right, I'd forgotten." Loki admitted, "Well, in that case I'll just have to take you to some of my favourite worlds. I know a handful of rather beautiful and secluded places."

"I suppose doing anything touristy is out of the question? What with our being fugitives and all?" She teased.

"Absolutely." He teased back, a smile colouring his voice, "But, you know, it's probably for the best. Xandar is so crowded this time of year."

Sigourney laughed, "Maybe we can go during the off-season."

"Perhaps." He chuckled, then paused for a moment before saying more softly, "Then... are you decided?"

"I'm afraid." She breathed.

"I know." He kissed her forehead, "I am too."