Press conferences, public outings, several meetings with so many types of scientists that it made Lusca's head spin. The month after her arrival in New York was insanely busy and no matter how much she wanted to take a break and contact Agwe and check in on Lyron, Loki never let her rest for a moment. She was introduced to the world and everything about her and Lyron was questioned.

The general populace was shaken up over the fact that there was an island full of people who could wield magic. Others didn't worry over the magical aspect - after all, their new ruler had magic - but they were shocked that there was still a piece of the planet that had gone undiscovered. Some people were speculating that Lyron was actually Atlantis or El Dorado or some other mysterious legend. Some were worried about it, claiming Lyron had enough power to do serious harm to the rest of the world. Others were more bothersome about the discovering, wondering when Lyron would be open to visitors.

Loki didn't assist Lusca in any way when it came to her answers. She was glad of this because she didn't want him letting the inquisitive scientists and eager, wealthy tourists onto her island without her and the council's permission. However, she would have liked it if he didn't schedule her for quite so many meetings with these crazy outsiders and allow her to flounder about.

Today was a bad day in particular because she would be meeting with some elite members of the New York society. And these were the same people who had been considered hoighty toighty before the invasion. They'd remained influential in the goings on of the city and Loki had told Lusca that he wanted her to meet some of them at a garden party. He wasn't going. In fact, he never went to these socialite events that he forced his fiancee into. He claimed he was far too busy, but when Lusca returned to Stark Tower at the end of any given day he was relaxing with a book and a glass of wine. The only reason she knew this was because he tended to relax in the common area of the floor they both lived on. She always ignored him and went straight to her room, locking the door behind her.

When Lusca arrived at the garden where the party was being held she took a deep breath and prepared to exit the limo. Before she did, she felt Natasha give her a pat on the back.

"Hey, you doing okay?"

Lusca had kept her composure for the past month. No one cared about her and she didn't particularly care about any of these people. It was easy to give them her best smile and laugh politely at bad or slightly racist jokes that they told. When people asked about how savage her country was she had managed to politely explain that they were actually more advanced than America as far as technology went. She had nodded along when the big wig men rudely explained to her that since Lyron was undiscovered until this point it was impossible for them to have anything beyond caves and clothes made of skins. She'd been doing quite well at handling these people because none of them cared. But the moment her red haired bodyguard inquired after her well being she lost it.

The tears fell freely and there was little Lusca could do to stop the torrent.

"So that's a 'no'?" Natasha handed her a box of tissues.

"I'm sorry," Lusca sobbed, quickly trying to mop away the smeared mascara, "I'm sorry… I just… oh!"

"Hey, hey," Natasha patted her gently, "You're doing great. He's been asking a lot of you and you're a long way from home."

"It's, I'm," Lusca blew her nose, "I'm fine. Everything is okay."

"Obviously everything is not okay. What can I do to help?"

"I don't know. I… just don't know what to do!" Lusca felt a fresh wave coming on and she glanced out the tinted windows and saw paparazzi ready with their cameras, "I should know what to do though. I'm the queen of Lyron so I should bloody well know what to do with all of these people. I feel so bad though, because, because I don't know."

"You don't want to go to this event, right?"

"Right."

"Then let's not. I'm sick of all of these pampered idiots too. Let's get out of here."

"I can't! They'll be so disappointed that I didn't show up, and," She gasped for breath, "And, and he'll know I didn't c-come and he'll get m-mad at me!"

"For one day let's just say 'screw you' to Loki, okay? If you keep going like this you're going to die of exhaustion and he'll be even angrier about that. Today we're playing hooky."

"I could n-never!" Lusca sobbed, grabbing a fistful of more tissues.

"Maybe you couldn't, but watch this," Natasha opened the door on her side of the limousine and was greeted by a hundred flashing cameras. The reporters asked so many questions that Lusca couldn't even make sense of them from inside the car. Natasha crossed her arms and waited for the noise to die down. When the reporters were quiet the redhead smiled at them.

"Queen Lusca just puked. She is feeling unwell and, though it greatly saddens her, she does not wish to get the rest of you ill. She says it could be an island illness that has followed her from Lyron. Something you aren't likely to survive if you aren't from the island. She wanted me to convey her most sincere apologies to all of you and said she would be happy to reschedule some other time. Good day."

There was another great wave of questions, but Natasha refused to answer them as she climbed back in the limo and tapped on the cab window. The driver took off and over the intercom he asked where they wanted to go.

"Take us to the Liberty Island ferry," Natasha requested and then looked at Lusca, "You still want to see the Statue of Liberty before they take it down?"

Still crying, but now with a smile, Lusca laughed and nodded her head. Then she blew her nose again and sat back in the leather seats with a content sigh.

"Thank you, Ms. Romanoff."

"Any time, Your Majesty."

"She didn't show?" Loki asked Lewis Layn, who was seated across from him in his office, "Where in the nine realms did she go?"

"Her bodyguard told everyone that she had thrown up and that she had some sort of island sickness," Lewis shrugged, "I'm honestly kind of glad she did. J.J.J is getting sick of stories about Lyron. The people keep eating it up, but Jameson thinks there are more important things to cover than celebrity gossip. If you didn't know me personally then he'd probably take me off of the story and have me cover the crime wave that's sweeping Jersey City right now."

"I don't care," Loki waved the young reporter's problems away, "What I need to know is where Lusca has run off to and what she's doing now. Did Romanoff say anything about where they were going?"

"No. And we never even caught a glimpse of the queen. I'm not even a hundred percent sure that she was in the limo. Maybe she's still here, chilling?"

"I assume someone would have informed me if she was ill. And she didn't look the least bit sick when I passed her in the hall this morning. She's lying and she's run off somewhere."

"Well, uh, what are you going to do?" Lewis was playing with one of the fancy pens on the desk until Loki snatched it from his hand.

"Nothing. She'll be back. She has too much to lose if she doesn't return," Loki stopped himself when he remembered that he was talking to a reporter, "I'd greatly appreciate it if you didn't write a word of what I've just said."

"Yeah. Yup. Of course."

"Good. No get out. If you see Lusca do not report where she's actually been. As far as anyone knows she is sick, but will make a strong recovery soon. We need the people to love her," Loki rolled his eyes, "Because they are determined to hate me."

"Sure. Right. Anything you say."

Lewis scampered away and Loki got up and looked out his window at the city. He wasn't concerned about Lusca missing a publicity appointment. The people adored her. She'd easily bounce back from this one mishap. Of course, it irritated him that she disobeyed him, but he supposed he'd really been making her do too much in the past thirty days if she felt the need to fake a sickness.

No, he wasn't bothered over Lusca's small act of rebellion. What really frustrated him was that it seemed Agent Romanoff had gone along with this - perhaps even instigated it. He supposed that even under the influence of the scepter her personality might still allow her to help the queen take a break, but he suspected it was more than that. He had a sneaking feeling that Natasha Romanoff had somehow shaken off the control of the scepter and was plotting something.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Sorry it was so short. Feel free to favorite/follow/review. :)