A/N: Apologies ring from on high. There are only like 2 chapters left. This and a short epilogue. Some feedback would be cool. Unless you guys don't want to in which case.. No one is even reading sooooo..
The Autumn..
When the winds blew in and the weather got cold again, Hazel's garden filled with children and pumpkins. Mostly Loki seemed confused by the idea of Halloween. Hazel didn't try to explain it. She was sitting on the kitchen counter with a cup of tea in between her hands when he came in from staring up at the stars.
"No word from your brother?" She asked quietly as she help out the cup she had prepared for him.
Loki made his way to where she was sitting and graciously accepted the warm cup. "None. I am not surprised." He leaned against the cabinets beside her. "We should talk."
"Hm?" She asked around her tea. "Did something happen?"
He stared down at his steaming liquid with his bright eyes. "Not recently"
"What is it?"
"You.. ah. This is incredibly.. You tried to kiss me. Do you remember that?" He didn't look up at her but managed to get the words out. He was normally almost perfectly articulate and it killed her to hear him stutter.
"Yeah I vaguely remember."
"We never talked about that. And I never apologized for my response." He was quiet. "You are wonderful as well. But, I am evil and poisonous and I will only leave you here alone." He paused and looked up at her. "I'm not human forever Hazel. I'll go back to Asgard and you will be here, entirely mortal and alone."
"You can come back and see me. Like you used to." Her voice was small.
There was a moment of silence. A light breeze was pushing against the side of her cabin and the old wood creaked with the burden. He took a step towards her and set one of his soft hands on her knee and the other on the side of her neck.
Hazel searched his face as he leaned towards her. "As long as you're here we could just pretend you won't have to go back."
"I suppose." He conceded after a moment. His bright eyes watched her carefully. After another silent minute passed, he leaned into her. "You are unflinching in the face of my rage."
"Your rage?" She asked quietly. His breath hit her lips as he stepped between her knees. "You've never told me about your rage." She set her hands on his jaw.
"I told you before. I was, I am a jealous beast Hazel." His eyes met hers. "That was why the Chitauri were able to prey on me. I wanted power, I always will want power. What if I can't control my envy? What if I destroy you?"
She smiled suddenly and pulled him forward. Their lips met and she continued to smile. Goosebumps erupted up and down her arms as he breathed lightly against her skin . He smelled like sunshine and tea and cheap shampoo that he had picked out himself at the minimart on the corner. His hands were still shaky and she captured the one that was still resting on her knee when they broke apart. She kissed each of his fingertips before looking up into his eyes.
"I'm not afraid of you or your rage, Prince Loki of Asgard." She set her forehead against his. "I only know what you have been to me here. And that is wonderful and gentle and kind."
He gave her a guarded smile. She traced the lines of his face with her fingertips. His bright eyes slipped shut and he let out a long breath. "You don't know what a relief it is to be able to do this. To have you this close to me."
He hummed non-commitally.
"Kiss me again."
Loki obliged. Their lips met again and his fingers threaded into her hair.
They made love that night for the first and last time that night. It was all desperate clutching of hands and gasping. She didn't think she could ever be close enough to him and yet during that night he filled all her senses and it was finally enough. She grabbed at his hair and ran her fingers down his back while he placed rough kisses down her neck and across her collar bone. They lay in a tangle of sheets, wrapped around one another after. Hazel kept her eyes on his ribcage, while the fallen prince stared up to the ceiling. He wore an unsure expression as the girls fingers danced across his pale chest.
"Where did you get this Loki?" She asked quietly, as her finger tips found another scar in between two of his ribs.
"Hm." He looked down to where her fingers were resting. "Just a bit of training. Nothing exciting. Thor made a poor move and I suffered for it."
She smiled against his skin. "What about this one?"
"A particularly nasty group of fire giants on Muspelheim." He chuckled slightly under his breath. He wound an arm around her shoulders. "One of the few times I couldn't talk myself out of something. They don't listen to reason. Thor had to come and smash the monsters but not before I had been burned."
"Fire giants?"
"There are nine realms, all connected by the arms of Yggdrasil." He recited. "The tree of life which keeps us alive. Without it we would not be able to travel around and maintain order in the universe." He glanced down at her. "I suppose I grew up listening to the stories. My mother used to tell them to me before bed every night. Thor was never interested unless it involved a battle, which it often did. Everything is interconnected and nothing can exist without the other realms. Though we on Asgard are seen as gods, we cannot exist without those living on the roots of the tree. We live and die just as you do."
"That was incredibly poetic." She whispered. "Show me."
In a rush, Hazel jumped from bed and through on sweatpants and the first shirt she could find. Though slightly reluctant, Loki followed. He brought her onto the porch with a pen and a pad of paper and drew up the stars for her. He did his home and the many lands he and Thor had been too. He pointed to the sky in the vague direction she assumed things were. They stayed on the porch all night that night wrapped in each–other's arms.
The rain came in a rush. Hazel's garden turned to a giant mud puddle and she and Loki spent too much time inside. They spent hours playing cards and watching movies Hazel deemed would be relevant to his humanity and he went along with it all with pure grace. He was almost confusingly alright with being human. As though he had quietly accepted the domestic life he had been presented with. It worried Hazel but she tried to make the best of his company.
It was during the rainy autumn that someone found them. Someone who knew what Loki had tried to do in New York, and apparently had known someone who had died. The first time he had come up to Loki had been over the summer. He had been eying the prince for almost an hour when Hazel decided to go up to him.
"Is something wrong sir?" She asked him. She didn't recognize him from town.
"Who is that man?" He asked in a rough voice. "Where did he come from?"
Hazel kept her gaze carefully on his twitching hands. "Um.. Why do you need to know?"
He turned to Hazel. "I know where you are." With that he was gone in a rush.
"Who was that?" Loki's voice hit her ear and she turned when his hand touched the small of her back.
"I don't know. He was asking where you came from."
The fallen prince clenched his jaw. "I should have known this would happen." He muttered and then disappeared into her house for the rest of the day.
It was on the rainy day in November that he found them again. She was laying on the couch with her head in his lap, quiet music played on her record player. "Tell me again about the tree." She held his hand in hers above her head. "Or about your mother."
"You've heard all those stories Hazel." He had leaned his head against the back of the couch. "I have a feeling you just want to listen to me speak."
"What's wrong with that your highness? Even you like hearing you speak."
A loud pounding on the door made her jump. Loki lifted his head lazily from the couch.
"Were you expecting someone?" She asked her prince, who only rolled his eyes in response. Hazel smiled and placed a hesitant kiss on his fingertips before making her way to the door. "Can I help you?" She opened the door enough to look at the man who was standing on the other side with two other men.
"Can you?" He grimaced. "You're boyfriend? Can you send him out here? We just want to have look at him."
"You.. What?"
"Who is it Hazel." Loki's voice was closer and vaguely concerned.
The door was shoved open as the first man forced his way inside Hazel's house. The wood hit her in the chest and she was pushed back into the wall. She fought to regain her breath as she looked up to find Loki in a defensive stance against the advancing men.
"New York." The man in the front snarled. "My brother died in that madness. Want to explain yourself? You look something like the guy those Avengers were fighting."
The fallen prince flinched as if the words stung his skin. "I suppose I do."
One of the men grabbed Hazel and dragged her forward by the arm. She was tossed to the man in the front of the group who grabbed her hair and pushed her to the ground.
"What are you doing here. I thought you were some kinda alien or something." He man stepped into Loki's face, dragging Hazel behind him. "You killed a lot of people Mr. Martian. I bet people would celebrate if I brought you in."
Loki's eyes fell to Hazel for a moment before turned back to the man. "You're brother, what was his name?"
"What?" The man snarled.
"I'm not overly fond of repeating myself."
"Jake. My brother's name was Jake."
Hazel grabbed at the man's hand tangled in her hair. She struggled to free herself, but there was nothing she could do but look up to Loki with pleading eyes. He didn't look back at her. Something had changed in his eyes and she was suddenly more concerned then she had been in months. "Loki please-"
"Shut your mouth." The man holding her jerked her.
Loki tilted up his chin defiantly at the man. He took an impatient breath through his nose. "Do you suppose Jake cried? As the Chitauri were ripping him apart. When he realized he would never see his family again. When he realized there was nothing he could do to stop himself from being killed." He sneered and Hazel's stomach turned.
The men's anger turned. Hazel was pushed on the floor and she gasped as the breath was knocked from her lungs. "Loki stop!"
He was already gone. The men attacked him, but centuries of battle training made him react to the attacks quickly and without hesitation. The first went down with a crack on the head to her hardwood floor as the prince dodged his fists easily. The second man, after seeing his friend knocked out on the floor threw a blind punch which hit Loki square in the jaw. He laughed and ducked a second punch. His quick fists hit the man in the stomach before he was grabbed by the man who had been holding Hazel.
"Stop please!" She tried again.
The men hit him until he was laughing and blood was leaking out of his nose and mouth. They hit his face and blood leaked down from his hairline onto his porcelain skin.
"Hit me again. Make me bleed human. Nothing you do can hurt me now." Loki laughed humorlessly. "I am more alone then you could ever know. I don't feel a thing." He sagged in the men's arms and they dropped him to the floor with a disgusted scoff.
"What if we beat the girl. Would that wipe that smirk off your face?"
"Do what you wish." Loki didn't look up from where he had landed on the floor. "She doesn't mean a damn thing to me."
"Loki you don't mean that." Hazel whispered breathlessly as she was hauled to her feet. "Do something, make them stop." She struggled frantically against their grips. Loki only started to laugh again. She looked up with wild eyes at the men holding her. They looked suddenly almost apologetic. "No please. You don't have to do this."
"Sorry kiddo. My brother woulda wanted this guy to pay." A fist hit her cheek, and Loki was laughing wildly and pain blossomed over her cheekbone and tears slipped down her face.
Suddenly someone grabbed the man who had been holding onto her and she was dropped to the floor. She looked up, hoping to see her moonlight prince standing above her. Instead the massive figure of his older brother glared angrily at the man who had hit Hazel. His friend was backing away from the angry blonde. And Loki still laughed manically on the floor.
"Are you okay?" Thor lifted her gently in his massive hands.
"What are you doing here?" She asked in a shaky voice.
"Heimdal told me if I didn't something bad was going to happen." He ran his fingers over her cheek. "That is going to bruise."
"Thor. What do you think you're doing." Loki groaned.
"No brother what are you doing. Look at what your actions have caused." Thor lifted him roughly by the arm. "Look what you've done. Hazel has been injured because of you."
He laughed again.
Hazel wiped at her eyes as she searched his face for some semblance of her moonlight prince. He seemed to have been beaten away with the fists of the men who had fled with Thor's arrival. "Are you hurt your highness." Her voice was a shaking whisper and his eyes focused a little. They shifted to the bruise on his cheek as though he was confused as to the source of it.
"If you don't stop this before father hears you'll be taken back to Asgard and then I cannot protect you. All that I said on your behalf will be lost do you understand." Thor shook his brother until his eyes came into bright sharp focus. "You will be lost to me. I can't bare that."
"What.. Thor." Loki's voice was soft. He touched at the drying blood on his face with sticky blood soaked fingertips. "You're bleeding." He stated with a soft breath as his eyes fell on Hazels split cheek.
"Yes she is. By your doing brother."
"My doing.. I did this. I hit you?"
"No of course not. Don't you remember?" Hazel reached out for his fingertips.
Loki pulled his hand back. "Barely. It's.. hazy. I was lost."
Her fingers found his. "Are you back?"
"I must return to Asgard before father begins to think to ask Heimdal what is happening." He hooked his hand on the back of his brother's neck. "You be good Loki. My brother. I will come back soon. Hazel, it was lovely to see you even under these circumstances."
Thor disappeared after that and they were alone on the floor. Hazel felt tears leak down onto her cheeks again. She clutched desperately at his fingers. He seemed frozen and horrified.
"I did this, I don't even remember." He muttered.
"You were laughing and invited them to hit you until you were bleeding." She took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "You didn't hit me but you didn't stop them when they did. You told me you didn't care what happened to me."
He nodded. "I tried. I tried to tell you that I'm poisonous but you didn't listen Hazel. I told you I would ruin you and look where we are."
She let out a long breath before moving to touch his blood soaked face. "You're hurt. We'll clean this blood up and you'll feel better. I know you will."
"My father will send for my return." Loki's voice had gotten quiet. "He will take me back. Thor's words will be discredited."
"No.. I won't let them take you."
"Look what my presence has done. It's brought you nothing but pain." He insisted defensively. "Look at your face? This is what I do. I'm a storm and I will only hurt you further if I stay here."
She let out a breath. "I promised you I would have you if you came back to me. I won't break my promise to you. Let's clean you up and we'll make tea and we won't think about it."
His hands found hers. "There is no happy ending to our story. We cannot pretend it didn't happen."
"Come on." She ignored his words and pulled him back towards the bathroom where he was once again sat on her toilet so she could wipe blood from his pale skin.
His face was littered with cuts and bruises when she finally wiped all of the blood that had dried on his skin. He looked more tired than she had ever seen him look. Deep dark circles weighed at the skin under his eyes. Loki hazarded a look up at her through his dark spidery eyelashes.
"I will repeat what I said before Hazel, because I fear that you chose to ignore it. Ours is not a story that will have a happy ending." He chose his words carefully.
"I heard you."
"What will you do when I am gone?"
She shrugged. "Carry on as if you were never here. Isn't that what you want?"
The fallen prince clenched his jaw. "There's not another way and you know that. If I return to Asgard, even if it is as a Prince, they won't allow me to return to Midgard.. Er, Earth. That is to say you." His fingers found hers. "Are you ready for that?"
"No. I won't ever be ready to live without you."
He slid off of the toilet and wrapped her in his long arms. They stayed on the floor for as long as they could manage. A reality hit Hazel that she might never feel his hands on her arms and face again. She felt tears leak down her cheeks before she knew she was crying. He only leaned his head back against the wall and tried to ignore her sadness. He placed a few small kisses on her forehead before sighing.
"I am sorry. This is entirely my fault. If I get taken away from here, which I am almost certain I will, it is because I said things I did not mean."
"I love you." She confessed suddenly.
"Your father has ordered your return your highness." A deep booming voice jeered from the door of the bathroom." A pair of guards dressed in shining golden armor stood in the hallway of Hazel's home.
"As expected-"
"No, please. You can't take him from me." Hazel sobbed and clutched desperately at her fallen prince as he was dragged to his feet with little resistance. "Please."
"It's not our place Midgardian, please stand down." The second guard pushed her away from Loki as a pair of handcuffs were put roughly onto his wrists.
"Loki.."
"I will send word if at all possible. I am sorry." His eyes glimmered before in a flash the guards were gone, leaving nothing but a charred space on the wood in their wake.
She curled into a ball and cried alone on the floow for the rest of the night.