2. Buy the Stars

You'll never see that the stars

are free

we don't own our heavens

now

We only own our hells

- "Buy the Stars" by Marina and the Diamonds

Loki woke up again to feel cold hands drift over his face. This time when he reached out to grab, he caught a thin wrist and he opened his eyes.

"It's just me."

The moonlight fell on the Saturn girl as he tossed her hand away and sat up, hissing at the ache in his back as he did so.

"Who are you?" He asked as he saw her eyes searching his chest. "I'm fine."

"Where did it hurt?" She ignored him and pressed her hand to his back. She searched until he let out another hiss and grunt of pain. He felt the warmth again and the pain dissolved much like water dissolves blood. He looked at her. "Better?"

"Who are you?"

"Hotaru."

"A princess of Saturn."

She looked up and he saw her fingers dig into the folds of her skirt. Hotaru looked back up at him and nodded. The moonlight made her paler, Loki realized and he tried to imagine her in the garbs of the Moon Kingdom. She must have looked like the walking dead when she wore such dresses.

"Yes, I am. Who are you?"

"Loki…" he said, putting on a charming smile. "Don't be frightened. I only know because I'm from Asgard and have studied extensively on the powers of Saturn."

She looked surprised. "Asgard. I haven't heard from people there in a long time. Not since before I was reborn on this planet anyway."

"Yes, well, there are not many books left I'm afraid. They were old when I was studying. Odin and his court are rather afraid of your powers."

He looked down at her tiny hands. He could easily break her wrist. It was difficult to believe that this girl could destroy anything.

"Well Loki," she said, taking his face in her hands and analyze it, "go get some more sleep."

"I don't need to sleep as much as you."

"I'm afraid you do if you plan on leaving anytime soon." Hotaru said as she got up. "Night Loki."

He didn't say anything and watched her walk out the door. He sighed. Instead of sleeping, he got up and walked around the room to see he was in a tiny room filled with books and photos. The books ranged from medical text books of mortal anatomy to plays written by other mortals. Photos were pinned to the walls with little notes. There weren't many of Hotaru, but many of what he suspected were the other princesses.

He searched for Hotaru. He found one picture that looked as if the other women dragged her into it. Two blonde women stood on both sides of Hotaru with their arms wrapped around her tightly, laughing and smiling as Hotaru giggled. There was another picture with her sitting next to a man with dark hair at a table with her leaning over, reading the book as the man pointed at the picture in the book.

Loki wondered if the man would be a problem. Hmph, he could do away with him if he was indeed a problem.

She was surrounded by people in all of her photos. Such pictures hinted love and family which annoyed Loki because it was easier to pick apart someone who was broken and lonely, but Hotaru didn't seem to be this. She was always dragged into the photos though and she did not always live with these women.

She did reveal that they were reborn in Midgard. That meant there had to be a time before these girls. The people of Saturn, according to myth, never had a happy ending and he was going to exploit this fear.

He recalled the conversation that Hotaru had with the other woman earlier. She did have a past and he intended to uncover it.

Hotaru looked at him up and down before the other women came into her apartment. She cleaned every inch in her apartment and dressed Loki in pants and another shirt that hid most of the bruises. She even had the nerve to fluff up his hair by running her hands over it and he finally had to stop her by grabbing her wrist.

"Sorry," Hotaru said quickly before going back to cleaning.

"HOTARU! Let us in! It's pouring out!" A girl cried out as Hotaru opened the door and six other women poured into the apartment.

They all looked at him after sitting down on Hotaru's sofa or in one of the other chairs circled around the tiny table.

"I am Loki of Asgard." He said.

This caused a burst of conversation to fill the room.

The girl with the buns in her hair was the princess of the Moon, he guessed by how the way the other girls seemed to flock to her. Hotaru smiled at the woman even as she sat next to him. He felt like a child, forced to sit with his mother as he was analyzed by the others.

"So, you're from Asgard?" A woman with long blue hair asked with narrow eyes.

"Michiru-mama, be nice. He's still healing."

"You should just be happy that Haruka is still in Africa or she'd want to strangle him," another blonde with a red bow in her hair said to Hotaru. "She's going to kill him once she finds out he was in your apartment overnight."

"He was hurt!" Hotaru said.

The one with the blue hair, who scanned him with a tiny mortal machine, was clearly from the planet of Mercury.

"He's healed remarkably one," the princess of Mercury said.

"I can't go home yet, I'm afraid," Loki lied.

The ravens that sat outside the windowsill of Hotaru's apartment screamed at him. He flinched at the noise. The one with the ravens that screamed at him belonged to the planet of Mars and he recognized her voice from the day before.

The princess of Mars glared at him.

"Do you plan on taking over the world?" Usagi asked, ignoring everyone in the room.

He shook his head. Yet.

"Then good. I don't see why everyone was throwing such a fit about. Now how did you get here?"

"Usagi, you can't be so trusting!" The girl from Mars said.

A tall girl who reminded him of mortal statues of Jupiter. "Rei is right. You can't be serious, Usagi."

"He knows about us," Hotaru said as Loki nodded. "It'll be interesting to hear about Asgard, we've been out of touch with the rest of the universe. I think he could give us some good insight."

"Hotaru does have a point there."

"We have Setsuna for that," the woman with the long blue hair said. He suspected Neptune.

"She's at the Gates of Time though." Hotaru reminded everyone. The senshi looked at one another and Loki could see that they were trying to digest all the information and decide if he was indeed a disaster, or a monster that they might face on later. The Moon didn't seem to be concerned about him. The others didn't agree except for Hotaru.

"He's staying with me and I can defeat him if he does do anything suspicious," Hotaru said as she looked at Loki.

"I would be delighted to help you all," Loki said with a bow of his head.

"Good, now I don't know about you guys, but I have stuff to do." The moon princess said as she got up, grinning from ear to ear. "Loki, I'll see you in a few days and I'd love to learn more about Asgard. Now, I have a wedding to get ready for."

A wedding? Loki looked at Hotaru.

"Usagi! What about-" The princess of Jupiter began when the Moon looked back at her.

"I trust Hotaru's judgement. Don't you?"

The other senshi looked at one another before nodding.

Loki repressed a grin.

Hey everyone, I'll update tomorrow I think. Anyway, thanks for all the reviews. It's been a long time since I've written fan fiction. I hope you enjoyed it.