Siggy leaned back against her bed frame, starring at the form of Loki dressed in leather armor. Except it wasn't him…

She frowned and held a hand out towards his visage, sensing for coolness. "You're his ghost…or some ass-hat trying to mess around with my emotions! Be gone demon!" she screeched.

With that done, and no disappearing semi-there Loki, she began tearing up. "That works in the movies…" she whined and shrank into her own hug.

The Loki person shifted towards her. "Sigrün, it is me. I didn't actually die."

"Y-you...?"

"I pretended to."

At his words, her eyes widened and her skin paled.

"That's right!" he whispered, happy she understood so quickly. He was worried she'd be upset. "I knew I would only be imprisoned once more after helping Thor with the Ether, so I showed him I died with an illusion."

When he finished speaking, no sooner did his mouth close that Siggy's open palm was flying through the air. When her hand flew threw his head she'd helplessly followed her wild swing throughout. Sprawled on her bed, she glared up at him with tears stinging her eyes.

"You fucking asshole." She hissed and her hair lighted with her rage.

Loki frowned. "I don't know why you're so angry."

"Angry?" she snapped and stood up on the mattress. "And you 'wouldn't know why'?" When he took that as a queue to remain wisely silent, his only shook his head in reply. She nearly pitied him. Nearly…

"Well then! Where to begin? How about I mourned you for nearly a year?" she hissed, when she saw a slight tightness rise to his jaw, she plowed on. "I thought you were dead! I get there wasn't much between us, except for some very nice chemistry, but a girl has the right to know when a guy- correction- the only guy she could ever potentially fuck decides to never tell her he was in fact not dead on an asteroid!"

Loki sat, dumfounded, and watched her rage above him. As she howled, her body grew hotter, and he swore he could even feel a little of her on Asgard through his illusion. He knew then that there was no way to appease her through his illusions.

"Sigrün…" he said and she looked down at him through brilliant amber eyes, filled with tears. It broke some small piece deep inside him. "I am alive. I rule Asgard now…it's…it is complicated though."

"You mean its all lies." She hissed and fell to her butt, her fight dissipating as she dragged her knees to her chest. Her hair turned a deep, low blue, and it hit him somewhere hard in the chest. He realized it was...regret.

Loki took a breath and tried to placate her. "I rule it in place of Odin now. That is truth. I suppose I shant lie, at least not to you." At her no shit look he continued. "It was fortuitous, but I did not expect Odin to succumb to the sleep so easily. But I took advantage without thought…that is the truth."

Siggy shook her head and looked out her window. "I don't feel you." She whispered after a long beat of silence.

"I feel as you do." He said, longingly. "I cannot feel you within my illusions."

"You're not even really here?" She cried out then and fell into a nearby pillow. "Just go, Loki!" she yelled, muffled by the cotton. "I can't touch you to even hit you properly!"

"Sigrün…."

"GO!" she snapped and lifted up to shout at him. Her hair blew into red flame once more, and the liquid rage trailed down her arms threateningly.

Loki frowned and nodded. "I leave you then, my Valkyrie."

When he was gone, Siggy broke down and burst into hot tears. When she heard a hiss she screamed and threw the now singed pillow away from her.

The emptiness she'd tried to bury away was aching thrust back through the barriers she placed around it, now that he was gone once again. It was merely a tease; it had been so long.

Why didn't he just show himself in the flesh? Now she was left wondering if it was truly him or just a sad lie of her own psyche. Her shoulders slumped immediately even as she though that. Yes, he showed himself as figment of her own overworked, overstressed, homesick, lovesick addled brain...

She cried herself to sleep that night.

Siggy woke with a start, trapped by hot sheets and dried tears that had coated her face. After glancing at a nearby mirror, she looked like a drowned cat as she crawled from her bed. She hadn't really slept and felt so exhausted…

She shuffled to the bathroom and nearly melted under the cool water of her waterfall shower, slowly breathing beneath the stream. It took a good long time for her to accept her surroundings, rebounding from her dream, but she didn't use up any heat.

Siggy kept the temperature on cold the entire time during her shower, and she leaned into the stone tiles after a time. That was a dream…she thought with a sigh.

She normally drank before bed, but the night before she hadn't had anything. Her drinking had spiraled out of control the past winter. It helped her push away her grief, yet it had gotten to the point where if she looked down at the scare on her hand she would burst into tears. It reminded her of the loss of Loki, so she'd promptly open a bottle and drown in her pain.

Siggy had stopped drinking recklessly when her mom found her in the cold running shower, after having lied there for hours. The symptoms of withholding alcohol before bed had dreams come at her in full force when she didn't pass out every night. Over time, she contained them by having a glass or two before bed.

It was a dream she thought again. Even though she had been angry during it, she still felt pain, knowing it was just that…a dream.

Siggy got out of the shower reluctantly, and dried off. She looked into the mirror and noticed her dark eyes. With what she saw, she frowned and sighed before brushing her thick hair out and leaving it alone. She'd found, as a freshman in high school, that she could dry it instantly with a "flame-on", as Kurt liked to call it.

However, she noticed it was softer after it air-dried when she didn't use that tactic. So Siggy avoided flaming it up as much as she could. Even if her hair was a veritable bon-fire at will or not, more often, she was still a woman. She allowed a little bit of vanity about her red locks. The little granny who fawned over her in town didn't need to know she could light someone's cigarette with it...

Siggy sailed out of the bathroom, feeling a little more rejuvenated by the shower, but she was in desperate need of coffee. Thankfully her mom made the very best, so she headed that way.

She pulled on fresh undies, dragged on black house shorts and added a bra in case a neighbor was over. She nabbed a baggy old university shirt and left the room, with Ulfur padded happily behind.

Siggy made it to the first floor, ignored her empty kitchen, and went right to the front door as she grabbed her laptop bag. Before opening the door, she slipped on some brown rabbit fur boots, which she used to trek between houses. Sometimes she went barefoot, but she liked the feel of the decadent fur around her ankles.

Siggy opened the front door and Ulfur burst out, hell-bent on getting some food. She followed behind, at a walking pace, and felt the crunch of wild grass and dew beneath her soles. It didn't make sense to have a stone path there; she'd be forced to get the snow and ice off of it most of the year or else face the wrath of her mother.

She made it to the old wooden door and, when it caught, she barked out a curse. "Son of a bitch!" she slammed a hip into it and it flew inward.

The sight she was greeted with was her mother sipping coffee at the high pub-style table. However, a guest was seated across from her, in true Franzi fashion. Siggy immediately knew who it was…

"What the fuck?"

"Sigrün!" Franzi snapped, her accent harsh and commanding. "Respect our guest, mien lieben!"

"It's quite alright, Lady Franzi." The guest said and looked over to the redhead who looked ready to burst with anger. "I would make you some coffee, but alas, I am terrible at it." Loki looked like a cat who found the cream bowl as he looked her over.

Suddenly feeling defeated, Siggy's shoulders dropped and she shuffled over to feed Ulfur before heading to the coffee pot.

"Ah, Loki, my dear." Franzi said, reaching out to lay a hand on the god's wrist. "Bitte, tell me more of your mother, Frigga."

"Ah yes, well she would have be so pleased you worship her still. She is in the stars now." He said, with reverence.

"So beautiful…" Franzi said and leaned back as Siggy slide up beside the table to top her cup of coffee off. "Danke, bebe."

Siggy nodded and looked at Loki's cup. She noticed he liked it like her own still. Forcing away the feeling of being flattered, she shuffled away and finished her own cup before moving around the side and sitting between the two at the tall, pub-style table.

She took a desperate sip before she withdrew her laptop, trying to ignore the radiating coolness of Loki's legs near her own.

"So, Siggy, what are your plans for today?"

She barely heard her mother as she pulled up her email and frowned at the newest one. At least their funders had made contact with the Bulgarian government with a pure What-the-Fuck type, yet sickly polite, response.

"Sigrün!"

Siggy jerked in her seat and looked between her two companions. Loki wielded a smirk and her mother sat looking lethal. "Entschuldigung, mama." She uttered the apology quickly, and said, "I thought I'd go to the general store to place some orders, before I forget and then need something badly."

With an easy smile, despite her wrath a moment ago, Franzi replied, "Ja bebe, take my list with you. Loki will help you gather the items. He's staying with us for a few days."

"Seriously, mama? You just met him!" Siggy snapped and then knife-handed the god, angrily. "You are such an asshole, preying on the hospitality of my mother! What happened to you being, like, a goddamn ghost last night?"

"Luckily, the fools in Asgard are easily pacified. I told them the Allfather needed time to attend his personal affairs and that he'd return, rejuvenated, within a few days. Again very lucky for you, dove, Asgardian days move much slower than Earth's."

She groaned and slumped her head on the laptop. "I thought you were dead this morning. I convinced myself you were a dream…"

Franzi chose that moment to get up and start breakfast, before she patted her foster-daughter's back. It was the perfect amount of comfort Siggy needed to gather her wits, and then she lifted her head.

She was an anthropologist. They didn't get caught up in the details; they flowed on with the roughness of the waves surrounding them, and then attacked them with skill.

Siggy lifted her mug and looked at Loki, really looked at him. He was wearing a mortal button down black shirt, green scarf loose around his neck, and black slacks…he looked like a damn fine model she thought with a sigh. He looked so perfect and she…?

Siggy knew she looked unkempt with the holey university shirt, little shorts and worn furry boots. She also knew her hair was frizzing up…

Loki, on the on the other hand, looked right at her wet hair. He knew she showered often, but he never comprehended how her hair looked wet. It was still quite full, but it was slightly darker, due to the water. He more easily spotted the strands of white and deep mahogany buried within the copper of the mass. He felt a twitch in his fingers to touch it.

"So," she began, "You're staying here for a few days then? How come you're not a ghost anymore?"

Loki cleared his throat and drained his cup, before Franzi spirited the thing away. "I was an illusion last night. Today, I am here. You know this." He said with a deep voice as he leaned toward her, and snatched her hand before she could withdraw. He was more than satisfied by her reaction.

She shuddered and the tips of her hair lit, curling up as they both heated and dried within the same moment. Siggy tried to glare at him, but she already gave away how much she enjoyed his cool touch.

"You're a douche-canoe." She said with a nonthreatening frown and allowed her fingers to curl into his palm.

"I know not what this canoe of douche is."

She sighed as her mother set a new cup of coffee down for Loki. "Why can't I stay pissed at you?"

"Because I am a god." He said and she made a face, shaking her head. "Well then, I am loveably evil."

With a barley-contained smirk, she sighed aloud and dove to finish off her email. "That I can agree with you on...just not the loveable part."

"You wound me so."