Maisy wondered if Loki had picked up his distaste for the morning hours from Odin. The Allfather kept rubbing his eyes tiredly and yawning, which were actions she'd never seen him perform before. Perhaps it was not that he disliked mornings, though, perhaps it was from grief. In her own experience, Maisy had found that grief was exhausting. However, she wasn't sure that she believed Odin was capable of feeling such sadness over Loki.

When she entered the small dining room and he looked up at her she clenched her fists and refused to make eye contact. Instead, she focused on the servant in the room, who pulled back a chair for her and brought her a plate of the finest Asgardian breakfast. She wasn't sure if it was the company or her condition, but either way she felt a little ill at the sight of the rich foods.

"Could I just have some water, please?" She asked the servant, who nodded and went to fetch what she'd asked for.

"You slept well?" Odin asked.

"No," Maisy snapped, "But at least the urge to puke woke me up from my nightmare."

"Are you ill?" He leaned forward, though they were at opposite ends of a very long table, "Should I call in a healer?"

"Morning sickness," she gratefully took the water that the servant brought to her, trying for the thousandth time that morning to clear away the lingering taste, "My first experience with it. Woo hoo."

"Midgardians can become so mournful that they vomit?" Odin asked, fluffy brows raised.

"What?"

"Mourning sickness?"

They stared at each other for a minute before Maisy understood what he was saying.

"Not 'mourning' like sadness. Morning, like the start of the day. Do Asgardian women not get random bouts of sickness during their first trimester?"

"I… I do not know," he stared intently at his plate.

"But surely if it had happened when Queen Frigga was pregnant with Thor you would have noticed," Maisy said skeptically.

"I was… rather busy during Frigga's pregnancy. I did not pay that close of attention. Or perhaps Asgardian women do not experience it."

Maisy nodded and poked at her food with her fork, entirely uninterested in it.

"I had heard that expecting mothers are meant to eat large quantities of food, are they not?" Odin said after clearing his throat, "You ought to try some of the-"

"I'm still feeling woozy," Maisy shook her head.

"You must eat something."

"I really don't want to."

"You there," Odin gestured to the servant, "Bring the princess a plain bread roll. Surely that will not upset you."

"Actually," Maisy looked to the servant, "Could you bring me a slice of toast instead?"

"Of course, lady princess."

When the attendant had returned with the toast and set it before Maisy, Odin dismissed the man and anyone else in the room. It was just the two of them and the silence was unbearably awkward. The light sound of toast munching didn't help matters.

"So," Maisy swallowed and then took a gulp of water, "I think if you are going to try and convince me to stay you'd better do it soon."

Odin nodded and pushed his chair back, getting up and walking over to her. She remained seated and absently tapped the prongs of her fork against the table. When she looked over at him he'd turned into Loki, but she didn't find this particularly surprising. She'd even prepared herself for it after her previous meeting with Odin.

"Just so you know, sir, I am hallucinating again," she said, continuing to tap the fork on the table, "I may not be able to understand you until it passes and it might not pass until something startles me out of it."

"You aren't hallucinating," the hallucination chuckled, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. She ignored it.

"I'd appreciate it if you startled me out of it soon, Odin," Maisy said, closing her eyes.

"This is one vision that will not go away," the hallucination told her, "Not unless someone enters the room unexpectedly."

"Odin, if you're still there you should probably invite more people into the room. That oughta do the trick," Maisy said, keeping her eyes closed.

"I've just locked the doors with a spell," Loki's voice was in her ear and she dearly wanted to open her eyes and take in the sight of him. But she knew that the moment she did then something horrible would happen and she'd be left with that hollow feeling again. The feeling that Loki was never actually coming back to her.

"Go away," she whispered, knowing she shouldn't talk to the dream, but feeling alone since she couldn't see or hear Odin any more, "Just go away."

"I will not. I love you too much."

"You are dead," she hissed, "And I don't want to watch you die when this dream becomes a nightmare… or a daymare or whatever."

"Then keep your eyes closed," his hand left her shoulder and she felt his knuckles brush her cheek softy, "And allow me to tell you a story."

She didn't respond.

"Once there was a pompous, rude, and arrogant prince," his voice was so sweet, so familiar, so filled with mischief that Maisy felt her heart beat faster, "His name was Thor, obviously."

Maisy couldn't help a small snort.

"And Thor had an even more pompous, even more rude brother - though he was far from arrogant and graced with an astounding sense of humility. He was also incredibly handsome. Ah, and I cannot forget to mention that he was clever. His name was Loki. And even though he had everything anyone could possibly want at his fingertips, he was sad. Of course he would never have told anyone about this sadness. Not his father, whom he wanted to impress, nor his mother, for she would only coddle him. He didn't even tell his brother.

Loki and Thor had many adventures together and one fateful journey brought them to Jotunheim. Many things happened that day. Thor was banished, which only increased the younger brother's sadness, and Loki found out that he was not who he'd always thought he was. Things went very poorly from there forward. Loki did many stupid things and landed himself in quite a lot of trouble when he returned home.

But, then something horrible happened. The mother of the two princes was killed and they set out to avenge her… and save the realms while they were at it. For his services, Loki was rewarded with a probation."

Maisy felt him take her hand in his and heard him kneel on the floor next to her.

"During his probation something unexpected happened. Thor brought a dying woman home with him and got blood all over the floor, leaving dreadful stains for the maids to clean up. The woman would die unless a handsome prince came to her rescue. Loki saw an opportunity to redeem himself… or at the very least, a chance to annoy his father. He married the beautiful woman and they fell in love instantly with no problems at all!"

"Liar," Maisy couldn't help a small smile, even though she knew he wasn't real.

"Alright, well, they might have had a few problems. The woman may or may not have threatened him with a hair brush and he may or may not have been an absolute prick to her and made her sleep on the floor. But eventually they were so in love with one another that they had a true wedding and vowed to stay with one another. As most stories would go, they would live happily for the rest of their lives," his voice lowered, "But that did not happen."

Maisy winced. She'd been about to open her eyes, thinking that this might actually be a happy hallucination for once. The words he just spoke made her think that he was probably about to get murdered again.

"The beautiful princess and her handsome prince lived happily on Midgard for some time," the Loki hallucination continued, "They had a grand time together, but horrid dreams plagued the princess and it worried her husband dreadfully that he did not know what was wrong with her. And though he'd made much smarter decisions since meeting his princess, one day he did something rather stupid."

Unsure of what he was referring to, Maisy racked her brain for any stupid decisions he'd made recently. Nothing came to mind, but she wasn't in a mindset to think that he could have done anything wrong. She only wanted to think the best of him. Fortunately, the hallucination continued with his story.

"He made a deal with an old enemy. The deal benefited him for a time, but he did not want to tell his wife about it because he feared disappointing her. Then a time came when he made another deal with the enemy, this time bargaining to rid his princess of nightmares."

"What?" Maisy opened her eyes and looked at him. He was kneeling on the floor next to her chair. He pressed her hand to his cheek and closed his eyes.

"The prince—I made a deal with Blaze," he still sounded like he was telling a story, "And if I upheld my end of if then she promised to tell me how to get rid of the nightmares. I could not do it on my own and I did not want to see you suffer any more than you had already. So, I went to Sokovia and I fought alongside the mighty Avengers. We truly did make a good team once we got used to one another and I enjoyed being at Thor's side again.

"And, just as Blaze and I planned, she came to me on the battlefield… and killed me. She made sure that it was in clear view of Thor before setting off a magnificent explosion that knocked my poor shocked brother aside. Then she made her get away and left my body for Thor to find and cry over and take back to you."

"So then," Maisy whispered, confused, "Are you a dream or are you a ghost?"

"Neither," he looked up at her with a small smile and the trickery in his eyes took her breath away, "Blaze's deal was that she would tell me the cure for your nightmares, but I would have to take the throne of Asgard first. And so, she made it seem as though she stabbed me and then killed an unfortunate Hydra operative. When Thor was knocked aside by the explosion I cast a powerful disguise spell over the body and ran off with Blaze.

"We returned to Asgard and Odin was nowhere to be found. Evidently, he'd gone into the Odinsleep while we were away and one of Surtur's Asgardian spies kidnapped the Allfather and hid him away in some nursing home on Midgard, leaving the throne free for the taking. So I took it."

Her head was spinning with all of this information and she still couldn't be sure that it wasn't all a product of her imagination. Oh, how she wanted to think that the man before her was truly there, how she wanted to embrace him and hold him to her. But she couldn't. Not if this wasn't real. Not if her mind was playing tricks on her again. She would not give in to the nightmares.

Tears sprung to her eyes with the frustration of it all.

"And now," he took her other hand as well and placed them both on his cheeks, smiling at her, "Now I've come to reclaim my princess and make all of her bad dreams go away."

"How do I know you aren't a dream? This is too good to be true," she looked around the room, "I can't see him, but Odin's probably still here, thinking I'm absolutely crazy. He's probably going to lock me in a padded cell."

"I thought you might be hard to convince what with all of what's been happening in your mind. So, I have undeniable proof that I am truly here," he kissed each of her palms and stood, walking away. She followed him with her eyes and saw him shift into the appearance of a servant and then open the door to the dining room. On the other side of the door stood Linn, looking furious.

"Where's Odin?" She demanded, "I wanna talk to Mr. Allfader guy about him having me and my Bjorn arrested. And I wanna talk to him about how mean he's being to Maisy!"

The servant who may or may not have actually been Loki closed and locked the door behind Linn and lead her over to Maisy. Maisy held her friend's hand, but wouldn't look away from the servant. He winked at her.

"Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" Linn snapped.

Maisy only nodded, holding her breath.

The face of the servant disappeared and Loki's grin replaced in. He turned his palms up, arms extended, and took a bow.

"Ta-da."

Maisy quickly turned to see what Linn's reaction was. Every hope she'd ever had hinged on this teenager's perception of the man before them. Linn's jaw had dropped and she was staring incredulously.

"Sweet Andromeda! I freaking knew it! I freaking knew you wasn't dead!"

A note from the author: *finally peeks out of reader proof bunker* Ta-da! I told you it would get happy again soon! Thanks for putting up with the angst, even though all of you knew that I didn't actually kill him off. It's mostly fluff from here on out, but... well, I can't promise that everyone is completely safe yet. But enjoy the fluff for now!

This is completely off topic, but something I thought you guys might enjoy. I found a song that all of you wonderfully bloodthirsty people might like. You may have even heard it before, but I just found it on YouTube a couple of days ago when I was looking for writing music. It's called The Dismemberment Song by Blue Da Kid. And it is exactly what is sounds like, but also super cheerful. And when I heard it I thought of all of you and how you feel about Egil and Blaze. XD I hope you guys like it if you listen to it! :D

Thank you so much for reading/following/favoriting!

Special thanks to my reviewers:

Ninja Squirrel: I'm glad it made sense to you! Sometimes I read over a chapter so many times that the words start to lose meaning and then I think that no one else will understand it either. :P And don't worry, now that we've got Loki back the next step is getting rid of the nightmare curse!

Dragoncat: I'd say he's downright heroic! ;)

You guys are awesome! See you in the next chapter!