As ever THANK YOU! to all my readers, reviewers, favouriters and followers! I love you all.
A couple of notes on the reviews – as per on-stolen-time's review, I shall now remain tight-lipped on the future of this story! I keep forgetting you don't know as much about what's going to happen as I do… Sorry!
To Ryan, she was wearing a scarf, hence no skin-on-skin with the strangling!
And to xXxDragonxPhoenixXx, Loki certainly didn't expect her to!
o
Notes for this chapter:
The song Efanna is learning is 'Tracce' by Ludovico Einaudi, from his album 'Le Onde'. Not only is it beautiful, but particularly apt to this story, so I'd recommend checking it out! In fact check out the whole album!
'Mardy' is a colloquial term so I thought I'd better give a quick definition. It's kinda somewhere between 'stroppy' and 'sulky'. Yeah I could've used those words, but 'mardy' just fitted better! You can also be 'in a mardy' or 'throw a mardy', much like you can be 'in a stop' or 'throw a tantrum'.
o
Chapter Six:
Lessons in Human Nature
Loki was woken by music again the next morning. This time however it was gentler and far quieter. Although that wasn't hard, he mused as he looked up through the pane of glass in the roof above his head. Yesterday it had almost been enough to deafen him. He laid there for a while, considering the events of the previous day. Efanna's revelation about her mother's death, and particularly her lack of father had shaken him slightly. The loneliness in her voice had almost seemed to mirror his own and he had found himself beginning to feel sorry for her. Those thoughts had been firmly reined in once he had realised them however. Regardless of any pain she had suffered, the mortal was still beneath him, and not worthy of his compassion, nor even his pity.
Knowing, as he did now, the pain in her past made her all the more interesting to him though. Whilst it explained some of her more vulnerable moments he could not understand how she could appear so cheerful, so calm and at ease with the world that had treated her so cruelly, abandoned her and left her to fend for herself. Her seeming ability to treat him, a complete stranger, with such kindness when the world had deprived her of any such thing for herself disquieted him. He didn't believe any creature could truly be that selfless. To him it seemed yet another secret she was hiding behind those elusive white eyes of hers. Another reason for him to want to unravel her.
As these thoughts floated though his mind, Loki noticed something rather odd about the music drifting up from the sitting room. It seemed to consist of the same piece over and over again, fragmented with long pauses and jarring notes before moments where it suddenly took back off again. As he listened the melody grew stronger, still the same song but more complex with counter melodies woven into it, becoming more fluid until it began to sound like a proper composition. Curious he extracted himself from the covers and dressed, this time in his Asgardian shirt which Efanna had laundered for him.
As he left the room there was a longer pause and the piece seemed to revert back to what he assumed was the beginning. It started deeply and slowly, a melody haunting and sad. As he descended the stairs it warmed somehow until a higher tune was woven in, creating a sense almost of longing. It was definitely the same piece of music that had woken him, but now far superior. Upon entering the sitting room he was surprised to see the source of the music seemed to be Efanna. She was sat at the musical instrument by the door, her back straight and her hands caressing its black and white keys. Her confidence seemed to grow as the melody progressed, the strokes of her fingers more delicate, more defined. After she finished she seemed to take a deep breath, releasing it slowly before shuffling some of the papers and books on the stand in front of her.
"That was very beautiful, Efanna," Loki complemented her from the foot of the stairs. The music had indeed moved him, it was different somehow from that which he had listened to as a child growing up in Asgard. "Did you write it?"
Efanna jumped at his words, spinning round with a hand over her heart.
"Loki! Gods, you made me jump!"
She seemed to catch her breath before realising he'd asked her a question.
"Oh, no, I didn't write it, I was just learning it," she said, shifting slightly to show him the book in front of her, "I can play well, but I'm hopeless at writing anything myself."
She looked at him quizzically for a moment.
"You know, you actually sounded sincere then," she told him.
"Must everything I say be a lie?" he asked, slightly amused at her tone of voice.
"It usually is," she retorted with a knowing sort of look. Loki shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands slightly, unable to argue with such a statement.
"I am but what I am."
"As are we all," she replied sanguinely, "But really, did you actually mean it?"
Loki couldn't help but chuckle at the hopeful look on her face. She seemed so pitifully innocent.
"In this instance I was not, in fact, lying," he admitted. Her answering smile was like the sun coming up.
"Wow, Loki, thanks!" she exclaimed, "I'm guessing you preferred today's wake-up call to yesterday's then?"
"Considerably more so."
"Well, maybe I'll stick to the piano in the mornings then, if it means you're going to be so nice to me," she said, smiling at him.
Loki shook his head. It seemed laughably easy to make her happy. She tilted her head at him slightly, as she often did when it seemed she was trying to figure him out, but appeared to disregard whatever thought she'd had and instead sprang up from her stool.
"Breakfast?" she asked, walking into the kitchen with a bounce in her step.
Loki followed, watching as she pottered around, fetching bowls and this 'cereal', which he had discovered to be a mixture of oats, grains and dried fruits which was apparently eaten drenched in milk. She deposited them on the table, humming quietly to herself, and hid herself behind the lime green laptop which was already set up. He fetched the milk before he sat down himself, Efanna eating hers without. He was halfway through, watching her as she tapped and scrolled away, when he heard her sigh.
"I don't know why I bother reading the news," she said, "It's just depressing. Economic crisis, murder, war…"
She sounded and looked dejected, her voice heavy and her brow crumpled.
"If you had submitted to me, if you had allowed me my rightful place as your ruler, I would have stopped all these mindless wars," Loki told her, somewhat peevishly, "All this needless violence, this unnecessary bloodshed."
She turned her face from her gloomy contemplation of her laptop, her expression now profoundly sceptical.
"Would you, Loki? Really?" she asked, "If you think that then you truly don't understand us do you? Neither do you understand what it is to be a King."
She paused, registering Loki's increasingly irritated expression.
"Throughout history one thing has always been made particularly clear," she explained, "A King only rules as long as his people allow him to. That's what's happening in the Middle East, the people have decided they will no longer follow the person who rules them. That would have happened to you too, Loki; in fact it already did, before you'd even made it to power."
Loki's gaze was rapidly becoming frosty.
"I would have stopped such rebellions before they even started, brought peace to people's minds before they could have such thoughts," he told her fiercely.
"What, so you would've controlled the minds of every human on Earth? All seven billion of us? Yeah right, Loki, that would never have been feasible and you know it. You were hoping that if you controlled the majority, the ones with power, the ones with influence, that the rest of us would follow like sheep. That would never have worked. You gave us the very reason yourself, in your pretty little speech in Stuttgart."
"And what reason was that?" he asked darkly.
"'The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity'," she quoted.
"I do not see how that would ensure my failure," he retorted, surprised at her being able to quote him word-for-word, "It is the reason why you mortals would be better off under my rule. You would have no need for identity. You would have no power."
"But don't you see?" Efanna cried, "It is the very fact that we spend all our lives searching for our own power, our own identity that makes us so unsuitable to be ruled! If it is so important to us that we let it 'diminish our life's joy' then why would we give it up just because you tell us to? Just because it would diminish your life's joy if we didn't? We are a species to whom identity and individuality are incredibly important. They are a part of our most basic nature. As such we are probably one of the hardest creatures to repress or control."
Her words were passionate and now accompanied by animated hand gestures. Loki however was decidedly unimpressed by her speech.
"We fight back, Loki," she told him firmly, "We're not just going to roll over and say 'oh, go on then' just because some mardy alien in fancy dress tells us to. I thought that was made perfectly clear to you? You faced rebellion even before the 'Avengers' showed up; remember that old man? Even if you had won, if you hadn't been made into Loki-mush by the Hulk and all that; if your plan had succeeded and you made yourself our 'King' you would have faced people like that from day one. And you wouldn't've been able to stop them quick enough, because these things spread, Loki, like wild-fire. Those you killed would have been made into martyrs. Their example would have been that there are others who would stand against you and brought people together, not proved that resistance is futile. We're an incredibly stubborn race. The best way to get us to do something is to tell us we can't. Then we'll go find a way, just for the sake of proving you wrong."
"So you're saying I should have conquered your world by telling people not to submit to me?" he asked contemptuously, decidedly ignoring her mention of the Hulk and being made into 'Loki-mush'. His gaze could now accurately be described as icy.
Efanna laughed, the tension around her evaporating instantly.
"Yeah, well, that probably wouldn't've worked either," she admitted, affably, "On the whole I think it would've been better if you hadn't tried to conquer us at all."
"I care not for what you think, mortal," he told her coldly.
Efanna just shrugged and turned back to her laptop as Loki ate the rest of his, now soggy, breakfast.
"Oh! Stark's been causing trouble again," she muttered as he was putting his dish in the sink.
Loki's attention was immediately drawn and he moved across the room to gain a look at Efanna's screen. He was merely keeping up to date on the movements of his enemies, he told himself firmly, and not at all worried that they might have discovered his location. His conversation with Efanna had reminded him that he was far from as invincible as he liked to think. The heading stretching across the top of the screen, however, simply read 'Diplomatic relations strained after Iron Man intervention'.
"Apparently he's gone off gung-ho and rescued a load of citizens who got caught in the cross-fire; and turned a few tanks and military bases to dust by the look of it," she explained, noting his interest, "Bet he's getting a bollocking now. Kudos to him for actually doing something though. Oi! Where are you going?" she added as Loki slunk off having decided it was nothing of importance. He stopped at the door, looking back at her in annoyance.
"You're not going anywhere till you've done the washing up. Here," she told him sternly, holding her empty bowl out.
Loki's eyes flashed. "And why am I doing it rather than you?" Many would have cowered at the tone of his voice. Efanna just shrugged.
"It's my turn to dry, I washed last night," she told him.
Loki scowled at her. He was a king, a god! And she dared order him to do such chores? Efanna just poked her tongue out at him.
"Insolent mortal," he muttered.
"Stroppy Asgardian," she retorted with a grin.
Despite his irritation he turned to the sink. He had learnt last night that Efanna was a particularly skilful nagger. She'd continuously chanted his name for a full quarter of an hour the previous night when he'd then refused to help, dancing out of the way whenever he had attempted to retaliate. She'd stopped only when he'd finally relented and he had no doubt she'd do the same now.
o
Efanna enjoyed ordering Loki around like this. She was sure it probably wasn't the most sensible of things to do, but seeing as he was in mortal form she was quick enough to evade him when his temper snapped. And he really needed to be brought down a peg or two. Talk about a superiority complex. As soon as he'd created a small pile on the draining board however, she grabbed a tea towel and joined him. She knew it wouldn't be a good idea to push him too far.
"So," she said, grabbing the first of the soapy crockery, "What did you think of Doctor Who last night?"
The newest series of the show had once again taken pride of place on Saturday nights and she'd thought she may as well introduce her extraterrestrial guest to the joys of television with the best of British drama. He scowled at her, but appeared to consider her question.
"It was … interesting," he said, finally, "Unrealistic, but certainly imaginative."
"It's not supposed to be realistic, it's about a bow-tie wearing alien who travels through space and time in a blue phone box."
He looked down at her, his expression conceding her point.
"The … Doctor … annoys me though," he said.
"Why?"
"He has too high a regard for you mortals. If he is as advanced a being as he claims to be he should be ruling you, not rushing about the universe, saving you from creatures who are so obviously superior to you."
"Well, you would think like that, wouldn't you?" Efanna said with a small smile as he handed her another dripping bowl.
"He's also a coward – he does nothing but run. Plus he wears that ridiculous hat."
Efanna snorted. "Loki, you are the last person who can complain about another's choice in headwear!"
"And what do you mean by that?" he asked darkly.
"The horns, Loki, I mean the horns," she said with a sly grin, "You can't tell me no one's told you you look like a goat with that helmet on! What is it with Asgardians and overly elaborate headwear?"
Loki looked down at her, obviously trying not to smirk. "I'm not sure I've been called goat before," he admitted, "But I can't deny that that particular aspect of Asgardian fashion is perhaps a little overly elaborate. Thor and I used to have the most lengthy arguments over whom looked most absurd when we were younger."
He stopped suddenly as if only just realising what he had said. Efanna noticed and quickly brought the subject back to Doctor Who.
"But there's nothing wrong with running away," she said smoothly, "They say bravery is another name for stupidity, and that a wise man knows when best to run."
He smirked again and Efanna assumed he was taking this as an insult towards his brother. She judged his temper sufficiently diverted.
"If you enjoyed it you should probably watch more, I would think it could be a good way for you to learn more about us humans as a species. After all, when do we reveal more about ourselves than when we tell stories?"
"Perhaps," he said, handing her a mug.
"It's gotta be more interesting than just watching me paint," she insisted, "I've got all six of the new series on DVD."
"Six series?"
She shrugged. "Like I said, gotta be more interesting than watching me paint."
Loki watched her closely for a moment. "Very well."
Efanna had to resist the urge to punch the air. She had successfully managed to find a way to keep Loki out of her way for large proportions of the day. It wasn't that she didn't like his company, but since he had arrived she had been on tenterhooks, praying that she didn't have a Vision and collapse in front of him. She would only be able to pull off the whole 'falling over' excuse a limited number of times, and even then, only when her Visions were short flashes like the one she'd had in Cardiff. Thankfully the only Visions she'd had yesterday had been in the evening, where she'd been able to pass them off as simply falling asleep in front of the TV. Even if Loki agreed simply to not know for a while, he was smart and it wouldn't be too long before he figured it out. Or lost all patience and forced the answer out of her. The longer she could stall the better. Then maybe when he found out he might trust her enough not to want to kill her on the spot.
Okay, please let me know what you think! It's now got to the tricky part where I need to pass sufficient time for them to get to know each other well, and show enough of their developing relationship, but not so much that I bore you all to death! So the time jumps are going to be getting a bit bigger I think. I'm not sure how well I'll do this as I've never written a story over such a long fictional time-scale before!