"I found you at last, you idiot."

Hermione reached down into the hole where Loki was lying and hauled him up, out of the hole with a large amount of effort. Even though her strength was increased, it was still bit of a struggle. It was a worry of hers, too. Over the last ten years, her strength had been steadily decreasing, due to the fact that there were no more apples of Idunn to eat. It would likely be another two-hundred years or so before she reached the end of her lifespan, though, so she wasn't complaining.

She couldn't believe it. One of her best friends was actually here, in real life, not just in the dreams. This was a dream come true, a total miracle. How he'd come to Sakaar, she didn't know. Maybe it was a mishap with the Bifrost, or an accident with teleporting. Sakaar wasn't exactly a place that you found on purpose. It was a planet where lost things came, where the lost people could find a place where they belonged, among the other lost people. Over her years on Sakaar, she'd realised that the barbaric, gladiator style planet was like a strange, closely knit family. To say it was odd was an understatement.

What was even more odd was the state that Loki was in. Now that her extreme happiness had begun to die down, she was seeing that his clothes were ripped, he was smoking slightly, and there was a cut on his cheek. To see him as anything less that totally and utterly immaculate was very out of the ordinary. Usually, he presented himself with a slightly arrogant air...Hermione strained to remember anything about him apart from the key facts she already knew. This was what she was scared of. That she had spent so much time away from Midgard and searching for Loki that she couldn't actually remember much about him. And it was happening. Only the most noteworthy memories of him were inside her head. All the little idiosyncrasies were gone, replaced with a large black void of silent nothingness. It made her feel slightly numb.

"Ugh," Loki groaned, slowly opening his bleary eyes. "Where in Odin's name am I?" He didn't quite seem to realise that Hermione was kneeling next to him, tears streaming down her face, desperately resisting the urge to hug him. If there was one thing she knew, it was that Loki wasn't the most enthusiastic about physical contact, especially hugs.

"Sakaar," said Hermione. "You're on Sakaar." A fat, salty ear dripped off her cheek and landed on Loki's dusty, cut up face. Loki's eyes shot open, though he didn't try to sit up. He looked like he was trying to deduce something. She could practically hear the gears and cogs in his head ticking, ticking, ticking away, frantically working away. When his eyes landed on her, she saw them light up.

Oh, how she'd missed that spark.

"Hermione?" He sat up, gazing at her like she was an apparition, priming to disappear at any given moment. Like if he tried to reach out for her, his hand would slide directly through her. "Is that really you?"

"Yes, you plonker, it's really me. I'm right in front of you, can't you see me?"

"How can it be you?"

"Well, I'm certainly not anyone else. Come on, I know you're not this sentimental." She playfully clapped him on the shoulder, a throwback to when she used to do that in her old flat. She still missed that building, with the giant library/study, the little kitchen and the cozy lounge. Loki staye sitting there, slightly dazed. He was never like this, from what she could remember. Something serious must have happened on his end. "What's wrong?"

"Apparently, I have a sister."

"So, Sakaar is a place where lost things go, right?"

"Yeah, that right."

Loki and Hermione were sitting at the newly refurbished bar inside her and Valkyrie's apartment, politely sipping on tea that Hermione had discreetly conjured. She wasn't sure how she was going to tell him about how she was now an Asgardian, at least for the next two-hundred years. Knowing her luck, it would most likely slip out at the worst possible moment.

Loki sniffed dramatically. "I am not a lost thing. If anyone dares to call me that, I will impale them."

"Maybe you should reconsider before doing that." Hermione sipped her tea, before pausing in thought. "Then again, Sakaar is a pretty lawless place, so people most likely wouldn't notice. No, don't look like that." Loki began to get a dangerous gleam in his eyes, one Hermione hadn't seen for years. "Just because people won't notice or care, doesn't mean that you can go around stabbing people."

"Six years have passed and you're exactly the same." Hermione deflated slightly. Loki, being as perceptive as he was, noticed this immediately. "Okay, now it's my turn to ask you what's wrong."

Hermione sighed. It was now or never, what with her confidence rapidly exiting her body. "It's been thirty-seven years here, Loki. Time works differently on Sakaar."

"How?"

Valkyrie chose this moment to butt into the conversation, bringing up her own barstool and draping her arm around Hermione. "Don't ask this klutz to explain it. She won't even admit to her time travel accident. It's better to just accept it and move on."

"I'm afraid that I won't be able to do that. Hermione, I will be asking you about it later."

"Of course." Hermione placed her cup of tea down.

Loki's back straightened as he seemed to realise something. "If you have been here for nearly forty years, why do you still look exactly the same? Do people here not age?"

Hermione didn't answer. Instead, Valkyrie happily shared her wife's embarrassing story. "No, she accidentally ate an Apple of Idunn, so now she's Asgardian. Would you believe that she fainted when she found out?"

Surprisingly, in that moment, Loki did faint, plummeting to the ground and landing with a dull, 'thwap.'

Something was definitely off with him at the moment.

"Don't mention it to anybody, okay?" snapped Loki. As soon as he'd come around from his faint, he leaped to his feet and acted as if he was standing the entire time. He glared at Valkyrie and Hermione, who were currently trying to stifle their giggling.

"Fine. I can do that."

"You will do it, or you will face the consequences."

Hermione smiled. This was just like old times. The bickering, Loki's high and mighty attitude, and the warm feeling of having a proper, real friend. For all the time she'd spent on Sakaar, Valkyrie was still really her only real friend. It was surprising. So, to have another friend back, it made her feel all warm and fuzzy. It was a very pleasant feeling.

"Of course, mighty one."

"Ah, someone finally addressing me correctly." Loki smiled at her, then added, "Peasant," for good measure. Hermione giggled.

"It's been too long, Loki."

"Agreed."

With that, Hermione conjured Loki's favourite chair up next to her favourite one and they sat down, catching each other up on the years that they'd missed. Valkyrie watch as they animatedly talked, grinning and taking occasional gulps from her latest alcoholic conquest. It was good to see her wife so happy. Not that she wasn't happy as she was. It was just the fact that she seemed so happy to have an old friend back.

After half an hour, she went to her own room to practice throwing her knives, wanting to give them some privacy.

Three hours later, when she emerged, they were both still talking as vibrant as ever. It would take a long time for them to finish, she could tell.

Adorable.

Yes, this is short. I wanted to do a chapter that is just reunion. I needed to. It didn't seem right to tack it on to another chapter. Anyway, this is the last chapter for quite a while, as I am going away on holiday for three weeks in a day and won't be online. I'm planning the rest of the story out and am going to make it quality, I promise.

I am very tired.

Sincerely,

Mariadoria