The first rays of the morning light were breaking through the trees when he stepped through the portal. The cool morning air curled around his form, a wonderful change from the polluted air of New York City of the last world. In his sight of the woods was a stone mill house that had a working wheel attached to the side. It was a quaint sight, something he had seen out of the storybooks that the Midgardians loved to tell to their children.
A breath in, feeling renewed by the energy of this world. It was much better than the last one and Loki relishes the feeling that it was providing for him. Loki tilted his head, also feeling the difference of the magic in the air around him. It wasn't the same as his or any other magical user in his universe, a bit more grit and darkness to it when focusing on it. Almost like that one show, he watches of the two brothers hunting the supernatural when he is bored.
A bit of magic caught Loki's attention, feeling warm and pushy as it interacted with his own, trying to bond with it and entice him to stay in this world. It caused him to smile, curious to see who was on the other end.
It was a siren song that he was willing to follow, to see if there was a dangerous siren at the end of it. It would certainly be much more interesting than just blipping off to another universe because he hadn't landed.
He followed after that bit of magic, seeing that it ended at the front door of the mill house. From the wooden porch, there was a dirt driveway with an older blue truck that looks like it's seen better days with the back end with scrapes and the paint falling off. There was nothing else, but woods as far as he could see.
Loki turned his attention back to the front door after his quick survey of the area. Looking over the magical locks and spells that made whoever was approved to enter be able to and caused those who weren't to look away or just not plain enter the mill house on the door frame. Loki after a minute knew what he should do to coax it open.
He pressed his hands against the door, he felt that unfamiliar magic rush to greet his magic, pushing past physical barriers to be as close as it possibly could be.
Loki smiled at the eagerness, letting the warmth of it wash over him. Without much persuasion, Loki was able to get past all the spells and charms. He continued to follow after the magic, taking in the interior of the mill house. It was much darker and cramped, filled with objects and books of the magical variety that would probably make Dr. Strange go crazy with the need to study if allowed anywhere near it.
He came to the wooden railing in the middle of the room, looking down into the hole to the first floor. There he saw the usual Midgard way of decorating the living room with a couch, fireplace with a mirror hanging over the mantle and rug - all of which looked like it hadn't seen sunlight for a long time with the way dust lightly covered all of it.
Of course, it had disturbed areas where the dust was cleared, most likely by whoever lived in the house. But still, it was bad practice to not keep the living area on the wrong side of cleanliness. Loki found stairs and went down them, using a small spell to clean the dust up. As he stepped off of the last step, he took in the rest of the floor.
There were built-in bookshelves along the walls, stuffed with books all relating to magic in one way or another. There were no lights, only candles placed in areas that weren't likely to catch anything on fire. Further along, was a table surrounded by chairs in what he assumed was the kitchen. Which was also the same state of dusty as the living room had just been.
"Messy, messy." He mumbled to himself. He turned away from that, not willing to waste more magic to clean up a mess that wasn't his.
What greeted him was an area where books and random pieces of paper gathered on a big table. He felt the magic radiate off this piece of furniture, probably where the magic-user spent most of their time within the mill house. Loki moved over to it, letting his hands run over the top of it to further inspect the magic that was now wrapping around his form.
The warmth - the same as when he touched the door frame a few minutes before - washed over Loki's body, greeting him. It caused him to smile at how overeager this energy was. Whoever was on the other end must be an interesting creature, filled with stories for him to hear.
He spotted a piece of paper littered with dark spots over it. Moving to take a look, Loki saw that it was an outline of one of the Midgard's countries, the US. The dark spots were scattered all over the map, marking spots almost at random. Loki tilted his head, curious at what this magic-user could be doing with such a map. Could be something unsavoury.
Or perhaps it was to do some good.
Anything was possible with magic practitioners. Loki would know, seeing as he defied himself twice now for following a path they wanted to see happen for him. (He wasn't fond of people deciding who he was, not even future or past versions of himself.)
"How'd you get in, mate?" Came a gruff voice from behind him, accented in a way that made it a bit difficult to place it. British, but nothing like the many films he had watched with Verity.
"Someone's magic let me in. A bit overeager, but worked in my favour." Loki replied turning to face the voice. The man was standing by the kitchen table, blond hair pressed down on one side of his head and wearing nothing but boxers. "Seems someone else is also eager to greet me."
The man drew his eyebrows together, confused and annoyed. It caused Loki to smile wider, enjoying whatever this was. "Who're you?"
"Loki, God of Stories." He said, spreading his arms open. Like he was expecting to be greeted the same way the magic of this place had been doing since he stepped out of the portal.
What the god got instead was widen eyes and then the chanting of a spell that tried to trap him where he stood. With a groan at the sudden headache this caused, Loki held up a hand and used his own spell to shut the man up. As he pressed the palm of his hands to his temples to relieve him of the horrible headache, the blond moved his mouth to open and close. As if he could suddenly start speaking by will alone.
Loki moved forward, watching to make sure that the man didn't try to reach for any of the objects near him. "What, don't converse with gods on a daily basis here? It really is like that show with Dean and Sam, ugh." Loki says, still pressing against his temple. "I'm not going to do anything, so don't start that chant up again. Just gives me a terrible headache."
With that, Loki waved one of his hands again to give the man his voice back. He sat down in one of the wooden chairs. He didn't watch to see if the man followed suit, staring down at the wooden table, watching the lights of candles flicker across it - but he heard him speaking. "What's a bloody god doing in my house?"
"Following some bit of magic," Loki mumbled. "Was insistent that I follow it actually."
"What'd you mean by that, mate?" The man asked, finally sitting down in a chair by the scraping sounds Loki was hearing.
"Magic tried to interact with mine. I thought you humans were at least sensitive to sensing different kinds of magic," He grumbled. He risked moving his head to focus on the blond. He was handsome - at least in the rugged and slightly messy way that shouldn't be charming in its own right. Or work even from his observation of this realm.
But Loki couldn't judge, not after how many children he's had. There were many ways of being handsome, he supposed. He could get behind it with the several tattoos he saw on the man's chest and arms along with the several scars that nearly blended in with the pale skin.
"Who're you after all? I gave you my name and title, now give up yours."
The blond tilted his head, a mixture of different emotions flickering on his face. Loki didn't bother to follow them at all, more curious about who this man was. Most humans weren't ballsy enough to try and trap a God, after all.
Finally, the man spoke. "John Constantine, Exorcist, Demonologist and dabbler of the Dark Arts."
"Hmm, doesn't ring a bell, I'm afraid."
That earned a bewildered look from the man. "Usually the opposite for me. Your kind likes to gloat about smiting me one of these days when we see each other." He says as if that were supposed to jog Loki's memory for whoever this John Constantine was.
Loki shrugs. "I'm not for smiting, not lately. More for trying to do the good thing and hoping the Avengers or the All-Father don't bust down my door for misconceived ill deeds that are happening with my old self's memo for evil trickery."
"That right?"
"Yeah, you can ask my friend Verity. She can tell when someone is lying after all. A perfect friend for a God like me."
"You realize that the Avengers don't exist? Fictional? Created by someone's imagination?" John said, looking annoyed as he did earlier, leaning back in his chair. "Are you even really Loki?"
Loki rolled his eyes. "Yes, I am, in all my forms." As he said this, he shifted to another form, one that men were more susceptible to. (Always made poker night at the local bars much more fun since they never noticed they were being cheated out of their money until it was too late.) It felt slightly wrong at that moment, his body not fitting how he felt or how he pictures himself.
But he didn't have a better way to prove to this man that he was in fact Loki other than maybe forcing the knowledge into the blond's mind. (And humans didn't like that very much, always left a sour note to a relationship.) "Satisfied?"
"Oddly, yeah," John says, close to mumbling it. His eyes were wide, showing that they were brown - and what a lovely colour they were, Loki notes to himself - and that there was a surprised look in them as they stared at Loki. "You do this for every bloke you meet?"
A smirk. "No, I don't John. In fact, I would like to return to my other form. This body doesn't quite match up with what I want currently."
"Very conscious of that?"
"The gods you've met aren't?"
"No," John says, bringing out a cigarette and lighter from seemingly nowhere - Loki better, knowing it was only a sleight of hand trick that the humans were found to call magic. He placed one in his mouth and lit up with no trouble. Breath in and a few moments let smoke crawl out of his mouth. "But they also tried to smite me, so not like I could ask if they liked switching their forms as you do, love."
Loki narrowed his eyes at John as he switched back the body he had before. "Switching nicknames on me?"
He saw the blond smirking for the first time. "Nah, you just feel more of a love than a mate, if you catch my drift."
"I believe I do," Loki says, leaning towards the man. The signs of flirting were never hard for him to miss from any mortal creature. (Once more his children were proof of this.) "But I believe your friend over there will likely skin you alive than watch anything that goes down between us."
"He's right John, don't flirt this early in the morning." A woman said, far more dressed and presentable than John was currently. Loki watches with amusement as John turned around to face his friend, looking a bit shocked. "And put something on, you dickhead."
John didn't scramble out of his chair as Loki expected, but he did cautiously get up when she continued to glare at him as she made coffee. When slipping out of the room, Loki focused his attention on the woman.
She had curly, light brown hair that was pulled back to keep it out of her face. Loki also took note of her outfit which looked like any other human getting ready for a public outing. A big difference from the near-naked look that John had going on. (It was almost as if he were proud to do such a thing if Loki was reading the man correctly.)
Her eyes kept flickering between the coffee machine and Loki, looking unsure of what she should make of him. When stirring in cream and sugar into her brew, Loki spoke up. "Don't fret, I'm just visiting."
"How do you know John?" She asked him, turning and walking towards the kitchen table.
"Only just met him since this isn't my universe." When seeing the woman react with eyes widening slightly, Loki smirks. "Not here to harm him, just curious really. I'm suspecting that it was his magic trying to bond to mine, it matches up with his personality enough."
"You can sense magic?" She asked as she sat down.
"I can. It comes in handy when avoiding certain people or Gods or Goddesses since everyone gives off their own signature. Even you humans do it if you look close enough." Loki explained. "Which is why I'm surprised he wasn't able to sense who I was."
She shrugged as if she were just as clueless as he was about it. "Ask him yourself, I'm still new to all of this."
"Really? Learning or is it something else?"
"Something else," She answered. "Who're you?"
"Loki, the God of Stories."
This earned him a surprised look, lowering her mug away from her face to avoid swallowing her drink. "Are you serious?"
"Of course. I'm Loki, why is that hard to believe?"
"John's explained that Gods aren't friendly."
Loki chuckled at this. "He's right, the All-Father is proof of that. But I am much friendlier to you humans after that's occurred in the last - What? Two or three years? - to me. I would like to think so at least."
"You are so far." She says, smiling as she lifts her cup once more. "I'm Zed."
"Lovely name. Much more original than John. Too many Johns even in stories."
"Guarantee that I'm the most unique out of all of them, love."
Loki rolled his eyes, looking past Zed to see the blond walking in. While Loki would have liked to continued to stare at the blond's naked chest, studying it like any piece of magical text, he could admit that what John wore was decent as well. Especially the red tie.
"Tell me that when you can discern between magical energies." He says, standing up.
"I can over a drink."
As Zed makes a face, Loki smiles. "Where would you take me if I were to agree to such a thing?"
"Poker tournament?" John says in a questioning tone. As if he wasn't quite sure where a god like Loki would like to go when being taken out.
He moves closer to the blond, enjoying the little movements that he spotted from his lack of answers. When close enough, Loki spoke up. "That's good enough. Make sure it's with demons and we have a deal for when I return."
John smiles, warm as the magic that Loki still felt wrapping itself around his form. "Deal it is then."
Loki leaned forward, pressing a chaste kiss to John's lips. Before the man could react, Loki used his magic to summon a portal and stepped through that. Somehow, he knew his name was being used in a series of curses as he journeyed to the next world.
I've been wanting to do this pairing for a year now, so I'm glad I was finally able to do this! Was a lot of fun to do, especially when I got to have Zed appear and bond a bit with Loki. I do planning on doing a sequel to this for their promised night which will be a lot of fun.
Hopefully, it was a fun one-shot to read! :D