Hi there! Guess what... EXAMS ARE FINITOOOOO! PARTY!
Anyway... enjoy ;)
Chapter 14
Even though Jane had called about an hour before, she still couldn't put aside the nervous and worrying feelings which grew stronger with every step she got closer to the apartment. While trying to stop her hands from shaking, Jane searched for her keys. Trembling she put them into the keyhole and bust open the door. Without closing the door she ran into the house.
"Frigga!" she called out. "I'm home sweetie…" Jane's words faded away when her eyes scanned the living room and she could only find Loki on the couch, reading. The young king slowly lowered the book and threw a questioning look on Jane. The worried mother felt her cheeks getting hot. She tried to say something to brake the tension, but Loki's usual sarcasm saved the day.
"Let's not rush, shall we…" the young king said with a smirk before fixing his attention back on the pages. Jane swallowed and was about to ask where Frigga was, when her daughter busted into the room.
"Mummy!" she cried out happily while throwing her arms around Jane's waist.
Behind his book, Loki's lips followed Frigga's words with a disgusted pair of eyes above them.
Jane finally let go of the breath she'd been holding. She wanted to hug her daughter back, being more relieved than ever, but Frigga didn't give her a chance. The little girl grabbed her mother's hand and dragged her to the kitchen.
"Mummy! Mummy! Loki made pancakes! We'll have enough for the whole week! Are we gonna have some for dessert tonight? Please! Please!" Frigga pleaded overenthusiastically, but Jane didn't really notice. She'd just been thrown from one surprise into the other. Her eyes found the six plates of deliciously looking pancakes, covered in cling film, standing in the fridge.
Again Jane seemed to change into a fish. Her mouth opened and closed in disbelief. She kept staring at the pancakes even when Frigga'd already closed the door. After some seconds, Jane noticed that even her daughter had turned quiet. She turned around and found Frigga starring at her with a worried look in her eyes. Jane quickly smiled, but it wasn't really convincing. Jane looked over to Loki and expected him to look up, but the young king just ignored her. She didn't know what to say!
Footsteps sounded from the hall. A cautious Thor appeared in the living room. He looked at Loki, decided that his brother was ignoring him and looked at his wife and daughter in the kitchen. Jane had never seem so relieved, surprised and wordless.
"Jane?" Thor asked. "Everything all right? Is there a reason why the door is standing open?"
Jane opened and closed her mouth again like a new born fish, but finally decided to just shake her head. She smiled and cleared her throat.
"No.. No.. I just… never mind…" she stuttered.
Thor slowly nodded. He walked back into the hall and closed the door. Afterwards he walked in again, throwing a questioning look from his wife to his brother, who kept ignoring everyone, but it was Frigga who answered.
"Daddy! You never guess! Loki made pancakes!" she shouted enthusiastically while running towards the fridge and picking up one of the plates so she could show it to Thor. The God of Thunder smiled.
"I remember those…" he said with a smile while picking up a pillow and throwing it hard into Loki's face. The young king dropped the book – Chapter Seventeen: The Man with Two Faces – in surprise when the fabric hit his face and looked up.
Thor grinned. "I'm giving you a compliment, brother, you should listen. Otherwise you give that crap about me "tossing you into an abyss"." he continued sarcastically. Loki scowled and picked up the book again.
"I don't really think that's a compliment…" he said while searching for the page he'd been reading.
"I said: I remember those…" Thor repeated.
"Exactly!" Loki said. "Because you ate a million of them.. including mine…"
"Only because I wouldn't dare to take Sif's…" Thor answered with a smile.
"Ow… Not really a compliment either…" Loki responded sarcastically. Thor suppressed the urge to throw another pillow. Completely without reason, a sudden thought crossed his mind: throwing pillows at Loki had become some kind of habit and normality ever since their childhood.
"Just playing!" Thor said thinking of the afternoons they'd spent eating pancakes.
"Right, let's-see-how-many-pancakes-fit-in-my-mouth is a marvellous game…" Loki added in the same tone as before. "Especially when the 'mouth' turns into 'stomach"'
Thor bit his lip and looked up at Jane who threw him disapproving glare. She was slowly getting over the first surprise.
"Really, Thor…" Loki continued, only to make it worse, "You're bloody disgusting…."
Frigga giggled and even Jane couldn't keep a smile of her face. Thor cleared his throat.
"Can I take one of those?" he asked in an attempt to change the subject.
Loki looked up and frowned.
"What if I would say: no?"
"Then I would ignore you!"
Loki smiled and focused back on the book. "Great, then I say: NO!"
Thor shook his head and sighed while walking into the kitchen. He opened the fridge and was ready to take a pancake when Jane suddenly closed the door with another disapproving look on her face. This time, though, Thor could see she wasn't completely serious.
"Ah ah… first dinner!" Jane said with fake anger.
"But…"
"No! You are not going to be a bad example for Frigga!" Jane continued. Thor scowled and looked at Frigga.
"Almost…" he mouthed. Frigga giggled again.
-xxx-
Loki sighed. He was bored. He'd finished his book just before dinner and was now starring at the ceiling of his already dark room. As always, he couldn't sleep. Images of the day floated through his head like leaves on a silent river, passing across his eyes for a second, only to disappear in the stream again. The young king smiled slightly when he thought of Frigga's admiration for his magic. And then there was that moment on the balcony…
"You are my uncle, after all!" she had said. Loki closed his eyes and groaned. As much as he wanted to believe the girl, he knew it wasn't true. It would never be true! He'd given up on family a long time ago. He could make it on his own!
But he had given his fingerprints to the little girl, if only to see that brilliant smile on her face. For a while now, not many people had been smiling in Loki's presence and even though the young king would never admit it, he really didn't feel quite comfortable about that. Not that he cared about what those people were feeling. If they wanted to hate him, then that was their problem. Loki wasn't going to waste time on them…
But being the God of Mischief meant making jokes, turning a sad face into a smile again. And sometimes his pranks went too far, but he was always there to solve it again. Now, he was no longer the God of Mischief… now he was the bad guy, the Devil. (Loki was quite sure that the idea of the Devil was partly based on him). Except that little girl… only Frigga wasn't scared of him..(and Thor of course, but seriously, F*CK Thor).
Loki bit his lip and frowned. Did he think of Frigga as family? As his niece? No.. of course not! Or did he? Yes… No… Yes… No… Maybe?
Loki rubbed his temples and groaned. He was way too tired for all this. He just wanted to fall asleep! But then the nightmares would return!
Loki turned to his side and grabbed the Harry Potter book from the small nightstand and turned to his favourite part: Chapter Twelve: The Mirror of Erised. While he silently read the chapter, he thought about how much he wanted to look at that mirror.
What would I see? He wondered. The throne of Asgard? Frigga, my mother? Thor dead? Odin dead? Or just my bloody pancakes?
Loki quite detested this Dumbledore character.
You fool! The young king thought. You don't know what it's like to have no real family!"
Suddenly Loki realised that this Mirror of Erised was very much alike The Tesseract. It gave you exactly what you wanted most in the world and drove you mad in the end. Loki swallowed and closed his eyes to make the upcoming memories of the Tesseract disappear. Flashes of blue light, the sound of his heart beating fast and out of rhythm, his breath uncontrollably wild, his own creepy, crazy laugh that haunted his dreams until this day…
Loki put aside the book. At least this mirror wasn't capable of mass murder on its own…
The young king took a deep breath and forced the fear clinging onto his heart to fade away. He turned his back to the nightstand and the book and closed his tired eyes.
-xxx-
The next day, Frigga begged her parents if they could go to the library again. She'd noticed that Loki had finished his book.
Loki on the other hand asked if he could stay home. Not that he didn't want to go the library, he just didn't want to be around Frigga to much. He was still not quite sure what to think of the events of the day before. Obviously, Thor and Jane refused to let him stay behind on his own, so Loki went along anyway, pissed off by the lack of trust they were showing towards him.
Frigga , who noticed Loki's antisocial behaviour, tried her best not to annoy him, but it wasn't easy. She was still so excited about yesterday! And she already had to force herself not to talk about the magic Loki had used. Every now and then she glanced over at The God of Mischief, which only irritated the young king more.
Loki was almost relieved when they reached the library. Frigga disappeared to the children section after winking rather unsubtle with both eyes – she couldn't do it with one eye – at Loki to tell him she would get him his book.
Loki sighed and ran off to a random section before Thor got the chance to ask him what was going on. The young king found himself wondering around the library without paying any attention at the books surrounding him until he found himself lost in the expecting and young mothers section. Loki sighed and quickly made his way to the next section which wasn't that much better: knitting and crochet section. Loki groaned and looked around in order to find the least shameful way to leave this place, when he heard voices from the other side of the shelves in front of him. He recognised the voices… Jane and Thor were talking quick and were almost whispering, but Loki could still understand what they were saying. The young king cautiously shove some books about knitting 'modern' sweaters and ugly teddy bears aside and looked at the couple. He made himself look invisible in case Jane or Thor would notice the two staring eyes just above the shelf.
"…so what am I supposed to think? Thor? I'm sorry, but Loki has given me every reason not to trust him! And now he's doing exactly what you always warned me for: being the nice guy!"
"Jane, I understand, but … I… I'm not asking you to trust him. I don't either… Not entirely anyway.. but it seems to me that Loki has changed… back into the person he was before… at least a little bit."
"But what if that's exactly what he wants you to believe! What if he'd playing tricks on all of us? Don't get me wrong, honey, I want to believe with all my heart he's what he seems…."
"Sweetheart… I think…" Thor stayed silent for some time, overthinking his words. "This is not Loki's style…" he finally said hesitatingly. "I mean, of course he could do a thing like this, but it isn't like Loki to make it last that long. His deception mostly lasts for a few seconds, minutes at most a day, but not weeks."
Jane turned silent. She bid her lip while trying to make up her mind.
"So what are we going to do then? Let him go back? You'll only be worried every second of the day. You'll follow him and you now I can't come with you. Frigga has to grow up here! We agreed on that!."
Thor frowned sadly. "You know Frigga won't like that… She's grown fond of Loki and Asgard…She wants to meet Sif, she wants to see magic…"
Jane shook her head. "Thor! I thought we agreed we wouldn't bring her up with the dangers you went through! You had hundreds of years to adjust yourself to those dangers. Frigga, probably, has at most twelve years! What is it that your saying now!"
Thor rubbed his temples. "I don't know, all right! I'm just saying what I'm seeing! There's no denying it!"
"I just think you want to go home!" Jane said more rudely than she intended.
"Yes!" Thor almost shouted. "Is that so wrong!"
Jane was surprised by Thor's hard reaction. "No, but…" she tried, but she had nothing to say.
"Look, Jane, I miss Asgard. I miss the other realms, I miss Lady Sif and The Worriers Three, but that's not even the problem. The problem really is that I have no idea about what Loki did to my father. He most likely killed him. If that's the case, I just need to visit home. Loki hasn't talked about my friends during his time here, so I don't know what happened to them either. I need to see if Asgard is safe! It's my duty as a prince of Asgard. And…" Thor's words faded away.
Jane was crying, even though she didn't want to. She hated fighting and right now she saw that Thor was having trouble telling her the whole truth. The reason why he wanted to go back… She took Thor's face in her hands – Loki almost puked – and forced him to look at her.
"What? What is it?" she asked in a broken whisper. Thor hesitated.
"One of the main reasons why I left and promised you not to go back was because of Loki's death…"
Jane frowned. Thor continued. "The first time I thought Loki death, I mourned for months. After hundreds of years it's hard to say goodbye to someone who spend his life at your side, saved your life, fought alongside you... I never really accused him of anything, never hated him for what he did, because I understood why and it was partly my fault. Loki's blood was on my hands too. I hated to walk around the rooms where we'd spend time together. I hated to practise fighting when Loki wasn't there to tell me I looked like an idiot when I was waving around Mjölnir. I wanted to leave, but I couldn't, because the Bifröst was gone. Only when Heimdall suddenly saw Loki again, my father was prepared to use Dark Energy to get me on Earth."
Thor took a deep breath and softly touched Jane's face to wipe of the tears.
"The second time Loki died, again because of me, I knew that mourning would hurt more than ever before. When I got back to Asgard I just couldn't think of living there anymore without Loki and my mother, let alone being king. But now… Loki's alive, Jane… And it doesn't matter how much I hate him, we both belong on Asgard…"
Loki didn't hear the rest of the conversation. He backed against the opposite row while the stinging, burning feeling of guilt took over his heart again. This time, though, he let it go it's way. God, it hurt!
As silently as possible, he made his way back through the rows of endless shelves. When he was sure no one was watching, he changed his appearance into that of 'Tony' again. Loki walked from section to section, thinking over what would happen now. Would they send him back? Would they follow? And if they did… he would have a new problem, because Sif and the Worriers Three were still locked away, thinking it was Odin who was keeping them there.
When Loki reached the exit, he forced himself to look like his usual self: bored and uninterested. He spotted Frigga with her mother, waiting to take the books with them. Frigga saw him and – again really subtle – showed him her pile of books. Loki could see she had two big books. How many parts did this series contain?
Loki walked over to where Thor was standing and noticed how The God of Thunder quickly tried to look casual.
Amateur… he thought.
-xxx-
When they got home Frigga used her James Bond moves once more to deliver Loki his books: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Loki groaned while thinking of what Thor had said. He was right though, Frigga wouldn't like it…
The young king locked himself inside his room and started reading while Frigga watched that traumatic show about a talking Sponge and a money obsessed red lobster. Before Loki realised it, it was already dinnertime, which the young king skipped. He just lay down on his bed. When he got enough of reading he just stared a little more at the ceiling while the night fell over the city. He heard Frigga enter her room. He heard Jane say: "Sweet dreams sweetie! Nighty-night!"
Jane closed the door of Frigga's room and Loki could hear the familiar click of Frigga's flashlight switching on. The young king closed his eyes, until Jane suddenly opened his door. Loki pulled up his eyebrows and expected Jane to be all blushing and stuttering, but she watched Loki with the most serious look on her face he'd ever seen.
"Could you come to the living room for a second?" she asked. "We need to talk…"
Loki got up. Were they going to tell him they would let him go back? So soon?"
The young king followed Jane. Thor was sitting in the couch, watching some boring detective series when they entered the room. The God of Thunder switched of the television and waited for Loki to sit down, but the young king just kept standing so Thor didn't bother.
"Tomorrow, Frigga has to go to school again. She going on a little school excursion. I would want you to come with me to work."
Loki pulled up his eyebrows in disbelief.
"What! I thought you didn't want to.." Loki started, but Thor cut him off.
"Honestly, we trust you enough to get out of the house…"
Loki couldn't believe what he was hearing. Was he serious! Did he honestly think that letting him come along was any kind of reward!
"Why can't you leave me here!" he said angrily. "Do you still think I'm going to burn down your house!"
Thor closed his eyes. He was tired and wanted to go to sleep. "Loki, please, just accept that you're coming with me. End of discussion!"
Loki wanted to start yelling at Thor, but he understood that that wouldn't get him anywhere, so he just turned around and disappeared back into his room.
The young king slammed the door behind him and waited for the expected tantrum, but nothing happened. Loki sighed and dropped on the bed.
Foul! he thought. Did you really think they would let you go back!
Again Loki couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about everything and more. Right now, his busy, boring life on Asgard seemed perfect! Oh what he would give to just go back! Somewhere around four in the morning the young king finally managed to fall sink into an uneasy sleep…
Only to be woken up by Jane's hard knock on the door. Loki groaned. If he wouldn't have felt so bad, he would have busted out the door with one move, just to make sure nobody could ever knock on it again.
Jane cautiously looked inside the room.
"I'm sorry, but we have to leave within fifteen minutes…" she said softly. Loki groaned a response.
Jane hesitated. "Please, Loki…" she added when she noticed Loki didn't move. "Please, don't get Thor angry… he has such a morning temper…"
Loki smirked. "You don't say…" he said sarcastically. Jane sighed and smiled.
"Breakfast is still on the table…" she said before leaving the room.
Loki groaned and swung his feet off the bed. With his eyes still half closed he stomped off to the kitchen. There he was welcomed by a hyper active Frigga. The little girl called: "Good morning!" and ran off to her room to do something she'd already done five times that morning. Loki sighed and yawned. After a glare on the food on the table, he decided to just take an apple. The young king dropped on the couch. While he desperately tried to block out Frigga's enthusiasm.
Twenty minutes later Loki found himself on the backseat of the car. He'd managed to take the sequel of Harry Potter with him. Next to him, Frigga never seemed to shut up. Apparently she was talking about the excursion. She would go to another part of New York city to work on the subject of that Sherlock Holmes feller. It was only a short bus ride, but Frigga seemed overexcited.
First, Thor parked in front in Stark Tower. After some kissing and goodbyes en "have-funs" Jane finally left the car and entered the building. The next stop was on a big parking lot. A little bit further, Loki saw two yellow school busses surrounded by even more annoyingly exited little children and their desperate parents. Frigga suddenly turned silent. Loki looked over to the girl and saw she was staring at the kids and their parents. A sudden sad and slightly jealous look covered her face. Loki wondered what the problem was, until he saw Thor staring at the families too after which he threw a sorrowful glare at his daughter.
"Frigga…" the God of Thunder started. But Frigga shook her head and put her hand on the door handle. Loki raised his eyebrows. He was starting to understand what was going on. He looked over at Thor in surprise.
"Seriously brother? You're scared to show your famous, ugly face in front on some simple Midgardians?"
Thor scowled. "You don't understand…" he tried to explain, but Loki shut him up. The young king shook his head.
"Puny God…" he said in disbelief. Thor opened his mouth to respond, but the painful expression on Frigga's face made him change his mind. Thor sighed and threw another look on the parents standing around the busses, hugging and kissing their kids.
"All right then…" Thor muttered before opening the door to get out of the car. Loki grinned at Frigga, who's eyes had lit up instantly. The little girl immediately opened the door and sprang out of the car. Loki followed, changing his appearance while he did. Thor was going to make a remark about it, but decided to just shut up. He cautiously followed his daughter. A little away from the other parents, the three of them stopped. Frigga was even more excited and happy then she'd been the entire morning.
Suddenly a whistle sounded behind them. Loki looked and saw a stern yet kind looking women waving at the kids while yelling they had to enter the bus. Frigga's teacher, Loki supposed. Frigga turned to her dad and hugged him.
"Thank you Daddy!" she squealed in his shirt. Thor hugged his daughter back.
"You have to hurry!" he said kindly. "You'll leave soon!"
Frigga let go of her father, smiled and turned around.
"Have fun!" Thor shouted while Frigga frisked away from them. Halfway she suddenly stopped and turned around again. After a second of hesitation, she ran back to Thor and Loki. Before the young king could do anything, the little girl had thrown her arms around his waist and hugged him shortly. Loki froze and almost forgot to keep up the illusion of Tony. Thor's eyes grew big while he watched his daughter letting go of his brother, smiling again, saying: "Bye bye, Loki!" and running of to her impatient teacher.
The moment Frigga had entered the bus, the doors closed and both busses took off. Frigga quickly sat down on the last row and pushed her nose against the window. She smiled and waved until she couldn't see both men anymore. The waving parents slowly got back into their cars and left, but Thor and Loki just stood there next to each other. Frozen… not able to move. After a couple of seconds Thor cleared his throat.
"Well… that was rather…"
"Unexpected…" Loki finished the sentence.
"Yeah…"
Both brothers looked at each other and pulled up their shoulders at the same time. They turned around an walked back to the car. They'd never needed many words to understand each other…
-xxx-
"You just keep yourself busy while I'm working!" Thor said while he opened the door of what was called a tourist agency. Loki was too busy with trying to believe the idea that Thor worked in a bloody travel office. A travel office!
"Sure…" Loki said after realising Thor was waiting for an answer. They entered the building. Thor closed the door and immediately walked over to the desk which served as the reception. He opened a drawer and dropped the keys into it. Afterwards he pressed some buttons on a little touchscreen against the wall and pressed the bigger red button next to it. Immediately the shutters before the windows rolled up, allowing the morning sun to fall through the glass. Because of the light, Loki could see the rest of the room. The walls were ridiculously white, but most of them were covered with posters of the most sunny and snowy travel destinations in existence, the one looking faker than the other. The ceiling was light blue and white clouds, accompanied by birds and a sun were painted over the blue. Against one wall, Loki saw three identical desks with computers on top of them. Next to the door and next to each desk there was a pile of different travel catalogues. On the wall behind the desks there were even more folders to be found. On the other side of the room, next to the windows, there was a small play corner with dolls, books, magazines and toy bricks, right next to an couple of comfortable looking red sofas and chairs. In the back of the shop there was a door which probably led to the stock of boring travel folders…
Loki made his way to the closest couch and made himself comfortable. Thor, who was putting aside some papers about Frigga's excursion he still had in his pockets, threw him a warning glare.
"No monkey business! " he said while switching on the computer. Loki looked up and smiled innocently.
"As ever…" he said. The young king opened Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets and started reading again: Chapter Four: At Flourish and Blotts.
An so the day went on. Thor set in his chair the first hour. Afterwards he decided to play a game of Solitaire on his computer. He had to wait until half past ten before the first customers arrived. It was a young, annoyingly in love, couple who giggled and told each other how much they loved each other every two words. They wanted to arrange their honeymoon to Venice, Italy. But before letting go of that information they told Thor their entire love story.
As it turned out, they'd met only two days ago, on a party. The next day the guy, who called himself Louis even though he wasn't French, had introduced his new girlfriend to his parents. The following day the happy couple had met the girl's, Tanya's, parents. That same night they'd made out and exactly on midnight, Louis had proposed Tanya by singing Bruno Mars's Marry You. They'd asked their parents for their blessing, but they refused, since the happy couple had woken them up at three in the morning, after which Tanya had suggested to marry in Las Vegas, after which Louis had promised to take her to Venice.
The whole time Thor had listened with the most fake smile possible frozen on his face. He didn't even mind when Loki silently groaned and started hitting himself with his book. When they'd reached the part about the proposal Loki had already rolled behind his sofa in an attempt to block out the ongoing poppycock.
In the end the couple finally understood that they couldn't effort a journey to the other side of the ocean after which the Tanya started crying and shouting and Louis screamed he wanted his ring back. When Tanya had slapped her now ex-fiancée across the face and dramatically had slammed the door behind her and Louis cursed all women in the world and left too, the silence finally filled the room. Thor sighed in relief and dropped his head on the table. Loki cautiously came from behind the sofa.
"And I thought bilgesnipe were creepy…" Loki said with a smile. Thor groaned his answer an lifted his head.
"Learned the truth a long time ago…" he said sarcastically.
During the next hours two more customers arrived. One women who wanted a last minute ticket to Mexico city. And a couple of students, who were obviously skipping some lessons, asking if they could use the toilet.
Around half past one, Jane suddenly appeared, waving with a bag of donuts. Thor sighed with relief and kissed his wife, ignoring Loki's disgusted scowl. Both of them sat down in the two remaining couches. Jane tried to give Loki a donut, but the young king just kept on reading. Jane looked at the cover in surprise.
"Are you reading Harry Potter?" she asked before she could stop herself. Loki sighed.
"Yes… About time you noticed… This is already the second book!"
Jane looked at Thor. Her husband was clearly sharing her surprise. He'd noticed that Loki had been reading a lot lately, but Loki was always reading so he didn't really pay attention to it.
"You are reading Midgardian fiction…" the God of Thunder asked. Loki put down the book and sighed.
"Yes… is that surprising?" he asked.
"Well…" Thor started. " I thought that out of all books… you wouldn't chose something about… Midgardian wizards…"
"I don't see it that way…" Loki answered irritated. "I'm quite sure these are all original Asgardians! Like Merlin! They refer to him more than once."
Jane almost choked on her donut. She coughed and looked at Loki in surprise.
"You know about Merlin?" she asked. This time Loki and Thor looked at Jane with an questioning expression on their faces. Jane didn't really understand their reaction.
"Merlin is a legend. A myth. The legend of King Arthur… The Knights of the Round Table? Lancelot.. Guinevere… Morgana… " she tried.
Loki and Thor just staired at Jane for a moment until Loki started to understand.
"You think… " he asked cautiously. "You think that Merlin… was Midgardian…"
Now it was Jane's turn to be surprised. She looked at Thor. The God of Thunder was starting to understand the situation.
"Yes of course…" Jane answered after a couple of seconds. "The legend of King Arthur is from Earth… right?"
Loki smiled in disbelief. "Well yes… but that doesn't matter! That Arthur character was a big doucheback! I can't believe this! Do people actually think Merlin was a Midgardian?"
That last question was for Thor. The God of Thunder rubbed his temples.
"Yes…" he answered. "People make stories, Loki… Legends… we are legends too!"
"But Merlin!"
"Yes Loki! Also Merlin!"
Loki shook his head in disbelief. Jane on the other hand was getting enough of this mystery talk she couldn't follow.
"Can somebody tell me what I'm missing!" she shouted. She really hated it when people knew something she didn't.
Loki looked over at Jane as if he'd just noticed she had arrived.
"Merlin. Was. Never. A. Midgardian." He said clearly.
"You mean…" Jane hesitated. "Merlin… The Merlin was Asgardian…"
Loki lifted his hands above his head. "How do you think he was capable of using magic! Probably every sorcerer or witch you ever heard of was Asgardian!"
Jane didn't understand. So Thor continued.
"A long time ago it wasn't unusual for an Asgardian to come to Earth. Earth was the only one of the nine realms that didn't know of our existence. Like Loki said are most of the wizard and witches in human history actual Asgardians. To become a sorcerer or a witch you had to pass some tests. The last one was mostly done on Earth, on Midgard. You were supposed to help people with your magic. But then the dark times started and the Midgardians got scared of the magic they didn't possess or could control. The witch hunting started. Some died, others fled. Now, there're almost no sorcerers left, not on Asgard, not on Midgard."
"And what has Merlin to do with this?" Jane asked. "Did he come down? Or was Arthur also Asgardian?"
Thor shook his head. "Merlin was one of the strongest sorcerers, even on Asgard! He was also really into helping others, especially Midgardians. He was one of the best men that ever lived. The story of King Arthur is only one of the many we know… Merlin came down, helped Arthur get the throne and afterwards he left again."
"And what about Morgana? She had magic too, according the legend…"
"Morgana is what you would call a really talented magician. Her magic wasn't real, but was supposed to look real."
Jane watched Thor for a moment. "So you mean to say… that… those legends are true… those people actually existed!"
Thor pulled up his shoulders and took a bite from his donut. "Most of the human legends are made up. Most of the time, a part is real, but that part is so small that the actual story is lost. Other legends did happen, like King Arthurs, but even that one looks better than it actually was. People tend to make their stories in such a way that, after a while, their common sense tells them that it just can't be true…"
Jane fell back in her chair and sighed. Her whole world had just been ripped apart, turned upside down, washed, dried and put back together again. Her science brain immediately fired a thousand questions on her conscious mind until she got a headache of it. This could change everything! What did this mean for history? Could this solve mysteries that had looked impossible until now?
"Are there any other legends that are true?" she asked after a while. Loki sighed and got to his feet. He walked over the other side of the room where he'd just spotted a small fridge, tucked away behind the third desk. He was hoping for a coke…
Thor frowned. He was sure that there were some more, but he couldn't really put his finger on it at the moment.
"Loki?" he asked after a while. The young who'd just found out the fridge was closed with a lock turned around. He scowled.
"Why should I know!" he asked.
"Well you're the bookworm!" Thor answered with a smile. Loki smirked and thought for a moment. He didn't really wanted to break his mind over this, but he was a little bit interested himself too now.
"Wasn't there some other story…" he started after a couple of seconds. "A French one… about a girl…something with a war…"
Jane looked up in surprise. "Jeanne D'arc!" she shouted exitedly. Loki thought about that for a moment and nodded.
"Yeah… I think it was Jeanne D'arc…"
Thor nodded. "Right…" he said. "That was Sif! I remember that day…"
Thor looked at the ceiling while the memories came to the surface. Loki nodded in agreement.
"That was one heck of a rescue, if you ask me…" the young king said while he opened the drawer of Thor's desk to get the keys. He looked at the different keys and decided that the little one would probably fit. Thor didn't even notice.
Jane looked from Thor too Loki and back. "You don't mean that Sif was Jeanne D'arc!" she said in surprise.
Thor woke up from his daydream of long forgotten memories and looked at Jane.
"Well, she couldn't exactly go by the name of Sif, could see…"
"But… but…" Jane stuttered. "Jeanne D'arc died… she was burned alive at the stake!"
Thor smiled. "That where we come in…" he said mysteriously. Jane's eyes grew big!
"You mean you were there! But that hundreds of years ago!"
Thor grinned.
"We were teenagers back then…" he said.
"Not to mention; I was taller than Thor then!" Loki added smiling. The God of Thunder scowled.
"Anyway… Sif had gone down, because we had a fight!"
"Correction!" Loki interrupted. "You had a fight with Sif! We had nothing to do with it!"
"Who's we?" Jane asked quickly.
"Lady Sif, the Worriers Three, Loki and me… And I'm sorry about that, Loki!"
"What did you do?" Jane asked suspiciously. Thor scowled once more.
"I didn't believe Sif when she said she would be a better worrier than me…" he confessed. "Sif was so mad that she went to Earth to prove she could lead battles and be a better worrier then the other men!"
"What happened?" Jane asked when Thor turned quiet.
"Everything went great!" Loki continued. He'd managed to open the fridge and he'd found a can of coke. "Until it didn't of course. We came down when Heimdall told us Sif was in danger. The Worriers Three fought of the enemies and Thor saved Sif from the stake. Only a few saw it, others were distracted by the fighting and the only reason why some called Jeanne D'arc a witch is because of me… "
"But all the sources state that Jeanne D'arc died that day!" Jane repeated.
"That's because she did…" Loki said mysteriously while opening his can. "Sif wasn't burned alive, Jeanne D'arc was. Like I said: it's because of me that some thought and still think that Jeanne D'arc was a witch. I created an illusion on the place where Sif had been standing. People saw Jeanne die, while Sif was already safe and sound."
Thor nodded. "That was a rather fun battle…"
Loki on the other hand scowled. "Not me! That was the most horrible illusion I'd ever created! A screaming, burning lump of bloody flesh!"
Thor grinned. "Oh, really? Worse than faking your own death…"
Loki smiled his usual smile and took a nip of his coke. "Now that was fun!"
Suddenly the bell, which lett them know a new customer had arrived, rang and the three of them looked up. When Loki saw who it was he almost choked on his coke.
"Tony!" a voice sounded. Thor and Jane turned to Loki when they realisd that the man who'd just entered knew Loki... even worse, Loki's illusion!
Loki was frozen. Everything happened so quickly, he hadden't had the time to change again.
The man opened his arms and hugged Loki in a way to familiar way.
"It is I!" the man continued with a fake Italian accent. "Stuart! You're special friend who gave you a ride..."
Loki wanted to sayd something, but he was so surpirsed, he didn't manage to say something. he wqas even getting kind of scared.
Stuart winked at Loki, which almost made him puke. "You left so quickly, my love..." he said in a whisper. "I didn't catch your phonenumber..." he added with another wink. Loki opened his mouth, wishing something else then puke would come out when suddenly...
Three black cars stopped in front of the office, soflty hitting the red cabrio in which was parked there. Stuart turned pale and made a high pitched sound.
"My beauty!" he squeeked before running out of the building.
Men in suits, carrying guns and earpieces, got out and made their way to the front door. Everybody in the room looked shock, especially when they recognized the logo: an abstract drawing of an eagle. SHIELD. Loki looked at Thor. Did that idiot give him away? But Thor and Jane were both staring awe struck out of the window. They clearly didn't know what was happening either.
Two people entered the room. TOne was a tall men, who looked like someone who didn't have much fun in his life. He was big and muscled. His face was covered in what seemed like a constant serious scowl. His eyes immediately focused on Loki, him being the only strange face in the room. The second person was a women, which they all knew as Agent Hill.
Agent Hill walked over to Thor.
"Thor, you need to come with us! Emergency!"
Thor shook his head. Everything was happening to quickly, he couldn't follow…
"How did you find me?" Thor finally asked. "How did you now I was here?"
Agent Hill sighed. "We never lost you, Thor. We always knew where you were. We need you to come with us, now! And that counts for you too, Doctor Foster!"
"What's happening?" Jane asked after she'd found the way to speak again.
"Our meters have detected a high radiation of Tesseract Energy under the streets of New York. We've found one particularly strong point. The street is about to blow! You need to come with us. We can use whatever knowledge you have about the Tesseract! Doctor Selvig is already on the sight. Stark en Banner are coming. We need your help now!"
On the other side of the room, Loki followed the conversation silently. He was growing weary of that dude staring, but tried to ignore it. The moment he'd heard the word Tesseract, every fibre in his body froze instantly.
Tesseract Energy… The young king hoped he'd never needed to hear that again…
"It's in a street close to Broadway…", Agents Hill continued. Loki blinked. He had no idea what Broadway meant or was, but he had the feeling he'd read it somewhere. The young king looked around.
"You need to follow me, now!" Agent Hill repeated, her voice growing more impatient every second. Jane sprang to her feet and looked at Loki. Thor noticed it.
"He has to come with us!" the God of Thunder said. Agent Hill and her partner looked bewildered.
"Who is he?" Agent Hill immediately asked. Thor looked at Jane and Jane's eye fell on the Harry Potter book Loki had left on the table next to the couch.
"His name's … Harry… Harry Livingstone… He's my intern, but he knows quite a lot about the Tesseract. He's been working on it with me…Right Harry?"
Loki looked up. Thor staring look made it clear he had to come up with a lie. Loki turned to Agent Hill and mister creepy and said in a snooty British accent: "That's right, I'm from London University… The Tesseract is a rather funny object, for example... "
"All right he can come…" Agent Hill quickly cut him off. Thor let go of his breath and ran to his desk to get his coat. Afterwards he followed Jane and Agent Hill out the door.
In the meantime Loki tried to remember where he'd read something about Broadway… His eyes fell on the papers about Frigga's excursion Thor had put on the desk. Loki put down his can and took the letter.
W 169th St
Close to Broadway
Loki froze on the spot. Outside he could here an another Agent talk to Agent Hill.
"I just received an update: there's a school bus stuck on the sight…"
Loki couldn't hear Agent Hill's response. The blood pounded in his ears while a sickening feeling took hold of his body.
"Thor…" the young king said softly. The God of Thunder turned around, ready to shout something like: "Just come with us!", but Loki's pale face made the words get stuck in his throat. Behind him, Jane also noticed Loki's strange behaviour.
Loki held up the address. Both parents froze on the spot. Then out of nowhere Jane started screaming. She ran outside and clung onto Agent Hill, yelling something. Thor and Loki followed.
Agent Hill asked something at the dude on the other end of her earpiece, in order to answer Jane's desperate question. It stayed silent for a couple of seconds. Then the expression on Agent Hill's face changed. She slowly nodded.
No Stress! I'm already writing on the next one! Hope you liked it! Next Chapter will contain a bit more action, PROMISE!
Please review!
(and a nice holiday for everyone who has one... ;) )
Rumple x