A/N: Woah I'm still sorry. So so so sorry, I just want to finish and I'm just sorry. No one seems to care about me or this story. Hahaha..ha

Spring..

By the time the snow began to thaw out, Loki was getting better at 'being human' as he called it. He had settled into a routine and had managed to establish a somewhat normal pattern of sleeping and eating. At night Hazel would catch him often times staring at the sky with wide tired eyes, but then she would coax him to bed. He chose to wear green most of the time. Dark colors suited him and she found that he had almost enjoyed choosing what fabrics and colors that would make up his wardrobe. Sweaters and jeans and soft t-shirts, but honestly anything suited him really.

Hazel took him into town when the spring became more apparent. The last of the snow melted off the newly emerging leaves and it was time to plant her garden for the coming season. Loki didn't like the car, but he went along anyway. He said it made him feel claustrophobic. She had only laughed and told him that he shouldn't worry, considering he spent most of his life traveling by magic.

They arrived at the small seed and garden shop and she hopped excitedly out of the car only to wait for him at the curb. He always had an air of grace surrounding his tall thin form and he slipped from the car like true royalty.

"Come on. Oh and be prepared. Everyone knows me in there so when I come in with a strange man.. Er that is to say expect everyone to ask you questions because they've never seen you before. Will you be okay?" She set a hand on his.

Loki gave her an exasperated eye roll as he joined her at the edge of the gravel parking lot. "I have entertained royal parties since I was a boy Hazel. You need not worry about me making small talk with the people in this shop. I'm a prince if you'll recall."

"No need to be a smart ass. I was just asking. Come on then."

The Prince eyed the flowers growing in the windows of the small store. Hazel had already made her way inside and he was left alone in the sunshine. He let out a long breath as a cool breeze ruffled his hair. "I know you're watching Heimdal. Is this what you had in mind when you ordered me sent here." He murmured under his breath. "I've become something domestic."

"Loki? That's exotic! Can we meet the young man Hazel?" An older voice came from inside the shop.

"Well he was with me just a second ago." Hazel's was next and he let out another sigh.

"Entertaining elderly shop keepers. I do hope you are proud of yourself." He ran a hand through his long hair and stepped through the shadowy doorway. "Hello. I just stopped to look at your.. Um.. Flowers." He finished lamely as he realized he didn't know what kind they were.

Hazel smiled warmly as the woman who was standing beside her gave him an open mouthed once over. She elbowed Hazel, who blushed before bustling to the fallen prince's side. He clenched his jaw to keep from quipping out something rude. He silver tongue practically ached to be used.

"Well aren't you.. Just.." She trailed off and cleared her throat. "Nice to meet you dear. You can call me Ethel if you want." She winked.

"Charmed." Loki managed a tight smile. It almost bordered on polite.

"Come help me pick out seeds for this year." Hazel slipped her hand into the inside of his elbow. "Thanks Ethel." She pulled him away from the still gawking woman with a laugh. "I think she liked you."

"If I'm not mistaken she is still staring." He muttered under his breath.

Hazel stole a glance back at the owner of the small garden shop and true enough, she was staring practically lustfully after the fallen Prince with a pen on her lips. She stared after his back side with intense focus. She stifled a laugh against her hand. "You're not mistaken at all."

Loki waved his finger through the air. He looked down in confusion when her elbow didn't slip from where it propped up her cheek and then cleared his throat in embarrassment. "I forgot.."

"Forgot.. Oh." Hazel let her fingers tighten around his sleeve. "You're humanity?"

"Is a curse." He finished, suddenly looked incredibly distraught. "I am going to go wait in the car."

"Are you okay?" She grabbed his hand before he could dart out the door.

"No I don't think so. I feel incredibly mortal suddenly. Please let me go. I need to.. I need to go out."

"Let me come with you-"

"No please." He slipped his hand from hers. "Please. I will meet you back at your cabin." With a somewhat polite nod to Ethel, he rushed from the tiny seed shop and out into the street.

"He alright?" Ethel asked as Hazel hesitated but didn't follow after him.

"I don't know. I really need to get after him. I honestly don't even know if he knows his way home.." She dropped a pile of hastily grabbed seed packets on the counter and looked back out the door worriedly. "Just these thanks."

"Well gosh he is handsome. I think you lucked out with that one. Not like you're gonna find someone here in town, no offense." She scanned the packages one by one with a dreamy look on her face. "But he's exotic."

"Er.. Thanks I think." She tossed some money onto the counter. "Thanks again." She rushed out the door in the direction Loki had fled. She fumbled with her keys before rushing out the door. The old truck's door squeaked when she opened it and tossed the back of seeds into the upsettingly empty passenger's seat. She let out a long breath as her truck rumbled to life.

When she finally rolled into her gravel driveway, having exhausted every other place he could still be walking, Hazel was worried sick. The sun had started to drop down and Loki was alone. Which could or could not be dangerous depending on how he was feeling. She knew he had dangerous shadows threatening the corners of his heart. She only hoped that she could shine enough light on him to save him from those shadows before he had some kind of meltdown.

As Hazel jumped out of her car, she could hear his frustrated shouts from the trees at the edge of her property.

"Shit." She muttered as she slipped on the gravel and ran in the direction of her prince's voice. The sound of wood shattering, like the first time they had met, made her run faster. He had only come to her before when the creeping shadows had become too much and now he had fled. "No, No no.."

Loki shouted angrily at the bark of one of Hazel's proud redwood trees. He had already punched his hands raw before remembering he couldn't heal his burst and bruised skin. He was practically blinded with rage and had nothing to funnel it with. The phantom waves of fire and lightening danced over his pale skin as the space in his soul where his magic had once occupied ached. He wanted to prove himself important, powerful and distinctly not mortal. He couldn't stand it. "Is this what you wanted Father! You wanted me reduced to nothing? Is this your master plot!" Pain was burning its way up his arms from the cuts and bruises as blood blossomed leaked pale skin and he screamed up to the empty sky.

"Loki!" Hazel's voice made his skin prickle. He didn't want her to see this moment of weakness. He was a god, not a weak mortal. "What are you-"

"Get away from you me." He hissed through clenched teeth. "I don't want you here."

"No." She answered firmly.

"Don't you stand up to me like you are something more than human-"

"Don't act like you aren't just as human now!" She countered.

"I was a king! I was a god! Don't you dare compare the two of us." He grabbed her upper arms and shook her. Venom poured from his angry gaze, but his silver tongue failed him. "I am.. I was.." He stuttered suddenly.

Hazel took the moment to break free of his grasp. She thought she would be angry. She thought she would snap at him but instead she felt her gaze soften. "Oh Loki." She wrapped her arms around his neck tightly. She had never held him before and naturally, she expected it to be strange or unfamiliar. The fallen prince was rigid and nervous but she was strangely calm and relaxed quickly against his rib cage. His heart beat slow and steady underneath his shirt.

He let out a shaking breath after a moment. "Why.. Why are you doing that.."

She waited another moment before she took a step back and searched his face. Her hands slipped into him and lifted his between them. His knuckles were practically ripped to shreds. "Why did you do this?" She asked quietly and squeezed his fingers.

Loki clenched his jaw but said nothing. He turned away from her and tried to take his hands back.

"Let's go home." She whispered.

"I can't go home. My home is an infinite distance from here in Asgard."

Hazel let out a frustrated breath. "This can be you're home if you'd let me-"

"Let you what." His voice had lost its edge. He sounded more like a scared child than a former god. "Let me follow you around, like nothing more than a lost puppy. Let you take care of me? I'm not a pet to be kept Hazel."

"No but you don't have anywhere else to go. It could be your home too. I'm inviting you to stay with me for as long as you need and you're trying to make it seem like I'm insulting you Loki. I've never been anything but kind and understanding.. Nothing you've ever done could change my opinion of you. You will always be my sweet moon prince from the stars."

The fallen prince nodded almost minutely, but didn't speak for a long time. They stood in silence, surrounded by the sounds of the forest. She clenched his hands tightly in hers and waited.

"My hands hurt." He finally whispered, near silent and broken.

Hazel looked up at him with nothing but warmth in her gaze. "Come on. I'll clean you up and make you some tea."

They sat together in the bathroom for a long time. After a little bit of struggling and plenty of pained hisses as she disinfected his wounds, Hazel managed to clean up his bruised hands. She expressed her disappointment because his hands were beautiful and delicate, he shouldn't have treated them the way that he did. He had only scoffed and turned away, but despite everything a light smile played on his pale lips. Hazels face lit up then as she wrapped his hands tightly in gauze.

"What do you miss most?" She asked suddenly as her fingers brushed against his.

"Hm?"

"About your magic."

He let out a breath through his nose. "It's hard to place exactly. It's almost as if there is a gaping vacancy in my soul. It has always been inside me I suppose. In even the simplest things I can feel the lack of my magic." The fallen prince turned his mangled hands over to catch her fingers. "I must apologize for the way I behaved earlier. I fear I am having a much harder time adjusting then I initially thought. Time is beginning to ware on me."

Hazel stood from where she had been sitting on a stool before him and pulled him into another tight hug. He hesitated, but then wrapped his arms around her waist. Her fingers buried themselves into his thick hair. "I'm so sorry Loki. I wish there was more I could do for you."

"You've done plenty thank you." He answered quietly. "I may not always show it but I do appreciate every bit that you've done for me."

"You're welcome."

They say the thaw comes slowly. But, beads of dew soon took the place of stubborn morning frost that turned the grass white. Hazel decided it was time to plant so that by the summer she would have plenty to sell. She took Loki out in the early morning, he was normally awake anyway, to her fields hidden in the trees and closer to the road.

"What do you want to plant? We've got to set things up for summer and the fall too. So tomatoes and all kinds of squash, carrots, radishes, pumpkins.." She trailed off as she held out her basket of seed packets for the fallen prince to look at.

"Why don't you choose for me Hazel. I'm certain I don't know what I'm even looking at." He sighed deeply.

Hazel smiled. His hands had healed almost entirely. Only three small band-aides still remained on his delicate knuckles where one particularly deep and another long thin cut still persistently seeped blood. "You can do the carrots. Just follow the directions on the back of the package or they won't grow right. Do you think you can manage?"

He rolled his bright eyes and snatched the package. "I can manage much more than that."

She laughed as he stalked off towards the patch of dirt she had pointed him towards, with his eyes glued to the pack of carrot seeds. She shook her head before turning to another patch of dirt which would be filled with tomato plants and flowers.

After a couple of hours, she was done and she turned to see if her prince was faring as well. She burst out in a fit of laughter when she saw him covered in dirt with the corner of his tongue poking out of his mouth in concentration.

"Do you need help, your highness?"

"Don't patronize me." He muttered as she walked over the dirt to his side.

"I'm not just let me help you." She grinned up at her prince as their hands met when he handed her the seed packet.

By the time the sun was setting, and with both of them covered in mud and dust, and they sat side by side in the grass looking at the stars.

"You must tell me Hazel. What is that made you invite me into your home that first night?" Loki asked as he picked at the mud in his hair. "I was destroying your trees and yet you allowed me into your home and tried to mend me."

"That's a really deep question out of nowhere." She looked up at him. He was picking at the grass and keeping his gaze away from her. "You looked like you needed someone. I thought I could help you."

"You have done your best." He murmured.

"Oh have I. What made you decide to come inside?"

He stole a glance at her. "You are unflinchingly kind Hazel. That is why I decided to come inside. I appreciate everything you have done for me."

They sat in silence for a long time after that. Reluctantly, Loki laid back into the grass. Crickets sang all around them in the trees and the stars twinkled overhead. Her fingers found his in the soft grass and she curled into his side. He was tense at first but relaxed with a sigh.

"You're welcome." She whispered.