Title: Little White Lie
Characters: Loki, Thor, Jane Foster
Pairings: none yet, but stay tuned.
Rating: T for imagery and themes
Summary: Deceit, after all, comes naturally to him.
Author's Notes: Remember, please read and review! It helps to know what I'm doing right and what I need to work on.
Disclaimer: I don't own it. Surprise, surprise.
"So, uh, you said your name was Luka, right?" Jane asks, fiddling with her fork as she waits for their food to arrive. Clearly, she is trying to break the ice a bit. Oh, Jane Foster knows nothing of breaking ice. Nothing like telling your son that he's actually not your son to brighten a dreary day! At least, that's how Odin seems to see the world.
"Yes, Miss Foster," Loki replies. He sits still, exercising his never-ending patience.
"Okay, you can just call me Jane," she says with a nervous laugh. "You remind me of Th-" She catches herself, looking anxiously to him.
"Who do I remind you of, Jane?" he asks, putting special emphasis on her given name. He already knows what she was going to say; he just wants to hear her say it.
"I don't know… No offense, Luka, but you're a stranger to me. And, well, this is, you know, kind of personal information," she says.
"I promise I won't tell a soul," he replies with a grin. "My lips are sealed." And they were once, literally. He has the scars, little white lies dotting the skin around his lips, to prove it. That wasn't one of his better tricks, really. He is quite the wordsmith, but even words cannot stop the advance of a silver needle and black thread.
"Well," Jane starts, twisting her hands in her lap. "This is going to sound really weird, but, well…see, I'm an astrophysicist."
"That's not very strange," he replies. Their food arrives – a simple salad for her and one of those cheeseburgers that he sees everyone eating wherever he goes for him. He regards his meal for a second before picking up a French fry and biting into it.
"No, no, that's not what I meant!" she says with a smile. "That's not the strange part. I was looking into some light disturbances out in the desert here, but then there was this tornado sort of thing, and we drove straight into it, because, well, because it looked cool and I thought it might have something to do with what I was researching. But when we got there, the tornado disappeared and we ran into this guy."
"You hit someone?" Loki asks, astounded. Thor had not told him about this! Though, he supposed that he wouldn't, seeing as their ties together were rather strained at the moment.
"Yes, well, I'm sure you would've too!" she exclaims, and Loki tries to suppress his laughter. He cannot even drive, much less hit someone. But at least this shows that she is taking his disguise well. She is treating him like she would treat any other man who happened to enter this town today.
"Anyway," she continues after pausing to take a bite of her salad, "I hit this guy, and so I get out of the car, and I look him over and he's obviously not dead, but there's something wrong with him, you know?" He nods accordingly. "He spouts some nonsense, well, I thought it was nonsense, about being the god of Thunder, Thor, and that kind of thing."
"Ah, the Norse gods!" he says. He decides to start talking about his fake history, to warm her up to what might soon come. "I studied Norse mythology at university. Well, that was my minor. I majored in International Studies and Business and French."
"What's your job?" she asks. "If you don't mind me asking."
"I'm the CEO of a large corporation, actually," he says, spinning the web of lies. "I used to live in France, but the company's moving here now, so I bought an apartment in New York City."
"Well, how'd you end up here in New Mexico, then?"
"I was travelling from France to Russia to see some family, and then to here for a connecting flight. But my flight to New York got delayed, so here I am," he says, and he sure can talk the talk. He is surprised with how naturally human, with how mortal he sounds. He is quite the chameleon, he supposes, and it is in his nature to be what he is not.
"Oh, okay," she says. "Anyway, to continue, I let him stay with us for a bit, but we got into some issues with the authorities, and well, you know, stuff happened. Thor, it turns out, really is a Norse god. And he had to go back to Asgard to stop his evil brother…oh, what was his name?"
"Loki, perhaps?" he prompts, playing his role of the university graduate to the letter. "In Norse mythology, Loki was your typical trickster archetype, but he was a little more violent than you might expect."
"Yeah, that's the one!" she says. "Thanks. So Thor had to go back to Asgard and kill Loki, and he promised me that he would be back before the end of the week. But he's obviously not back yet. Maybe…does time work differently on Asgard?"
"Maybe it does," Loki replies. "But mythology doesn't reveal that sort of thing to us." Oh, how he loves this! This is his element, this trickery! And though he really detests living the lie sometimes, he does enjoy the occasional folly, like this situation here.
"I'm just kind of worried, you know?" she says, taking another bite of her salad. "I mean, I know he'll come back to me. When he promised me that he would, he just had that look in his eyes…" She paused, regarding Loki with a new intensity. "There's something special about you, Luka," she said suddenly. "I'm not quite sure what it is, but something about you makes me want to talk to you and tell you everything."
"I'm sorry if I put you on edge," he says quietly. But in reality, he's not sorry. Not one bit sorry, in fact. He is ecstatic. Finally, someone is recognizing his gifts, his talents for the dark magic! He had been using magic against her that entire time, making his eyes greener and warmer and kinder, and making her want to keep talking. Even the most scientific of mortals, then, can be fooled by a simple magic trick. Interesting.
"Oh, no, it's fine," she replies hastily, turning her attention back to her salad.
"He'll come back one day," Loki says, removing his napkin from his lap and tossing it on to the table. "I'm sure of it." Though he really isn't sure of it, and he really hopes that Thor doesn't find a way back to Asgard so soon. He needs time. Lots of time.
Jane laughs, but it is hesitant and halted. "I guess we should be going, then, right?" she asks, digging in her pockets for some money.
Ever the gentleman devil, Loki pulls his hand out from under the table. "I've got it," he says, laying the cash on the table. Easy trick, that was.
She blushes, and he can't help but smile.
"I guess we're going then," she says, and they stand up and walk out, heading to her building.