Chapter Seven:

Shopping for Attention

Loki felt glad for some reason. He would have liked to have his own dorm but sharing a dorm with Aphrodite made him feel much better. He thought he would actually prefer to share a dorm with a toad than with his brother. But he had to be careful sharing a dorm with Aphrodite. She was a woman and he was a man, and usually only a man and woman may share a dorm if they are married. Loki did not understand how humans can share a dorm so easily without being married. And not only that, he was the one to blame for burning her leg as well. All of sudden he didn't feel too glad anymore about sharing her dorm. "Loki!"

Loki snapped out of his thoughts and looked beside him where someone had yelled his name. "Finally you pay attention. That was the fifth time I called your name," Aph said to him.

Looking around he noticed it was only him and her standing alone in the lobby. "Where are the others?"

"They feel into a pit of fire," Aph replied to his question.

Loki couldn't believe how her words sounded so true that he actually thought the others had really fallen into a pit of fire. "They did not," he scoffed at her, knowing it wasn't true.

"They did too," she argued back, "you were just lost in your thoughts to notice. What were you thinking about anyway?"

Remembering that he felt uncomfortable sharing a room with a woman and knowing he wasn't married to her made him look away from her. "Nothing," he quietly replied.

"Ok then," Aph said dropping her other questions. "I was going to ask if you want to come with me shopping or do you want to stay?"

He looked back at her, "Shopping?" It was another word for him that he didn't quite understand.

"Yes, shopping. It means going to a market to buy things." Aph replied as calmly as she could. She was getting tired of having to translate simple words to him.

He thought going to the market would do him some good. But then he began to think about the unfamiliarity's the market would hold in Midgard that would just confuse him. Yet he would lie to himself if he said he wouldn't be excited to see new items. But then there would be a big crowd of people at the market buying their things and bargaining and yelling and oh dear-Loki didn't know if he wanted to deal with all the crowded humans. He saw impatience growing on Aph's face and with a heavy sigh he replied, "I will go shopping with you."

Aph didn't know what took him so long to answer but once he did she was glad as her impatience left her. She walked out of the hotel with Loki behind her, observed the streets, and spotted a store two blocks down. She thanked the gods for her good luck. It meant she wouldn't have to walk far and she wouldn't end up getting lost in the city. Walking into the crowd with Loki now beside her, they walked down to the first light stop. Waiting for the light to turn green so they could cross the street, she glanced over at him and then laughed quietly. "Do you have to dress like that here?" She didn't mind his Agardian clothes, she liked them in fact, but he was now on Earth and she thought it would be best of him if he could dress somewhat dress normally.

He raised an eyebrow at her. He knew that humans dressed much differently than Asgardians but no one ever stopped to mention his wardrobe in Midgard. He cleared his throat and changed his clothing into a suit with a light green and yellow scarf, just like the one he wore when he was in Germany.

"A bit classy," Aph said noticing the suit he changed into, "but better. Didn't you say your father took your magic away, though?"

As the light turned green and they crossed the street he smirked at her, "Yes, but I hid a little magic inside me to defend myself in a dire situation." Then he frowned, "But I can't conjure anything big, just small things such disappearing or changing clothing."

Aph decided to leave it at that because she became aware of something behind her. She didn't want to believe it but looking a little over her shoulder her suspicion was proven right. But perhaps she was wrong and she decided not take anything into mind until she arrived at the store. But as she stopped at the next light stop she couldn't help but feel anxious as she took another look behind her shoulder. She didn't have to arrive at the store to notice a group of girls who stood behind them as quietly as they could, which they couldn't because one would burst out giggling causing another girl to shush her then causing other girls to burst out giggling at the shush, keeping their star-lit eyes glued on Loki's backside. She turned her head back and glimpsed at Loki beside her, who seemed oblivious to the group of whispering girls behind him. He is going to be in for a big surprise, Aph thought as the light turned green and they crossed the street. The group of girls made sure they stayed glued to Loki's tracks behind him. Aph couldn't help but smile as one girl finally made her self known just before they entered the store. "Loki?" She had called as she grabbed him by his arm sleeve, making him stop and glare at her. The girl squealed at the glare he gave her and just as quickly as she squealed she stopped and shoved a notebook into Loki's unsuspecting hands. "Will you please sign it! My name's Mary Jones!"

Aph saw Loki give her a very confused look and she said to him, "You're kind of famous. Girls love you so they want you to sign their stuff so they can keep a memory of you to themselves."

"I know what she wants," Loki replied, and leaned closer to her and quietly said, "but I destroyed half of this city. How can they love me?"

"Loki," Aph said with a cheerful tone and patted his shoulder lightly, "woman here love bad guys. Why? I don't know. All I know is that you better sign that notebook before she kisses you to death."

The girl's face, Mary Jones, went a deep red at Aph's words and she spoke so quickly that even Aph had to listen closely to what she said. "No I could never, I mean, it would be my dream! But no I couldn't kiss you! Only if you want me to kiss you, like, just sign my notebook before I say more stupid things!"

Loki smirked, feeling a wave of power course through his body knowing that women loved him. No one, not even a single a woman, would ever look at him in Asgard even before he caused all the destruction in the nine realms. He was now sure that no woman will ever look at him again and then coming to know that women in Midgard adored him made him feel worthy once again. But he didn't only sign notebooks, he took pictures as well. Aph could see how smug Loki was started to look with all the attention from the girls so she decided to leave him in his fun and walked into the store alone.

The first thing she looked for were Aloe Vera gels. The burning pain had gone away but it always came back when she accidently touched the bandages too hard or if she moved her leg too fast as walked. She made sure she got a bottle of Aloe Vera gel and more bandages for her burn, and with those in hand she turned to go get more things. She had three hundred dollars that she had taken from Stark's wallet so she decided to go on a little shopping spree. The last time she had gone shopping she was with her mother and was three years old. As Aph cruised the aisles she couldn't believe how much had changed in the products. There were thousands of different products that Aph didn't know which product was best to use or eat. After a while it became overwhelming for her to take in so much stuff that she just rushed over to the candy aisle. Taking her time to look over many kinds of candy as well she decided on a bag of gummy bears, pop rocks, a bag of licorice, and two bags of chocolate. She had a terrible secret that Loki was the only one who was about to find out later. She paid for her things, grabbed her bag with her things and walked out of the store. By now the group of girls that surrounded Loki had grown, and Loki wasn't too pleased about it now. They were smothering him, closing him in a tight circle, and irritating him so much as they got grabby with their hands. Multiple times Loki tried to break away from the circle and couldn't, the group of girls just getting even tighter around him. And when he yelled at them to leave him alone he just saw that he excited them even more!

"Alright knock it off!" Loki heard Aph yell and spun around to find her. He saw her easily push through the girls to get to him, something he couldn't do himself as easily as her. "Move dammit! What is wrong with you guys? Don't you have anything better to do?" Aph told the girls as she forcefully widen the circle around Loki.

One girl seemed to get angry as Aph had forcefully pushed her away from Loki. "Who the hell are you?" The girl demanded as she tried to discreetly walk towards Loki again.

Aph noticed her slow advance on Loki and she instantly walked over to stop her in her tracks. "Your worst nightmare," Aph replied with a hostile voice. Aph absolutely hated people who couldn't take a hint to back off.

The girl's face wrinkled in pure fright and she instantly walked back into the safety of the circle behind her. She wasn't the only as the circle instantly began to break apart from girls who ran away screaming. Smirking to herself, Aph knew she still got it...even if a bracelet prevented it most of the time. Turning on her heel to face Loki, she motioned him with her arm to start walking back to the hotel.

Aph and Loki entered their hotel room. It was a very spacy room with a living room, one bedroom, a kitchen, and two bathrooms. All the walls were colored a soft warm peachy color and most of the furniture was white. The kitchen was white as well with white counters and a large white refrigerator. If Aph didn't know any better she'd say it was almost like an apartment, a very luxurious apartment at that. Aph instantly set her eyes on one of the long white couches that was in the living room and walked towards it. Plopping into the last seat of the couch, she kicked her shoes off and went to work on her burn.

Loki's eyes followed Aph until she sat on the couch and then looked around the room himself. He liked that the dorm was big and had more than enough space for the two of them. They could easily get their own privacy without making one other uncomfortable. Setting his eyes on Aph again, he reckoned that she had chosen the living room for herself. At least he hoped she had because he wanted the bed and not the white bench, no matter how soft it was. He knew he would never be able to sleep on those soft benches like Tony did. Finally deciding to leave the woman alone in that living room, he walked himself into the bedroom.

Aph kept an eye on the god, even as he retreated to the bedroom. Even though she had said she trusted more the god of mischief than Stark, she actually trusted more the rich human than a god of who knows where. Everything made it worse that he had said to her he still had a bit of magic in him and that just set her on the edge of the cliff for the night. She never trusted a human or anything for that matter whenever she was near one, now being near the god of mischief is worse. She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight, no way in hell. She'd rather fall asleep tomorrow on the job than fall asleep in the same room with a god. As she finished wrapping the new bandage around her leg, her burn felt much better with the Aloe Vera gel. She sighed in content, folded her legs up on the couch, and looked for a bag of chocolates in the bag. She really did hate sugar, or anything that had sugar, but she could never bring herself to hate chocolate. Chocolate was the one thing that always made her feel better and tasted like wonder in her mouth. Chocolate was the one thing she could trust in the universe, always and always, it was her only friend...

"What are you eating?"

Aph shot her eyes open and screamed, surprised by the Loki's voice right behind her. She had been indulging her in chocolate too much to remember that there was a god in the very same room. She turned her head to give him a quick glare and then turned back to her chocolate. She took a small bite from the small bar and munched on it slowly to enjoy it. "Don't sneak up on me like that! Why aren't you in your room? I thought you chose the room for yourself for the night."

Loki hadn't meant to scare her, but seeing that she had taken something else out from the bag besides a bottle and bandages, he got curious. And as he walked closer to her he saw her eating something and the curiosity just got him more, so he had to ask her. "What are you eating?" He repeated himself.

"Chocolate." Was her simple answer as she took another small bite.

"Chocolate? Is that some sort of food?"

Aph shoved the rest of the chocolate in her mouth and patted beside her on the couch. She sat more properly in her seat so Loki could have a seat beside her. Loki hesitated to sit beside her, but seeing her give another hard pat on the couch he slowly walked around and took a seat carefully beside her. The moment he sat Aph offered him a brown plastic wrap; it was ripped and it exposed a brown bar. Carefully taking it from her hand, careful not to touch her fingers with his own, he turned the bar in his hand.

"Chocolate is a candy," she began to explain to him, "a sweet as I noticed you call them. Try it, you'll like it."

He eyed her and the chocolate in his hand warily for a moment before he slowly put the chocolate in his mouth and took a small bite out of it. After a couple of times chewing and tasting it, he shoved the whole tiny bar in his mouth and almost ate the plastic wrapper in the process. Aph laughed as Loki fished the wrapper out of his mouth and threw the wrapper onto the small glass coffee table in front of them. She reached for the bag beside her and threw it onto his lap.

"I got you some more sweets. There're different sweets this time so, you know, you can try them all." Aph said as she saw him taking out the bag of licorice and inspect it. She reached for the tv remote on the glass coffee table and turned on the tv.

"But why do you show me this kindness?" He asked her.

"Because you remind me of my sister," she replied quietly as she look through the tv guide, and then grinned at him, "just promise me you won't throw hot sugar on me again."

He quietly laughed and nodded his head softly in response. She turned her attention back to the tv in front of her as Loki now looked at a packet of pop rocks. He wondered why they were named pop rocks and how rocks could be sweets. He couldn't help himself and he asked yet again, "How can a rock be a sweet?"

"Hm? Oh, well there are just some candy, like that one, that are just made from sugar and are named rocks." Then she scratched her cheek to get rid of an itch and said, "But I do remember when my mom bought me rock candy one day. It looks like crystal but it's completely made of sugar so it's edible. I only got to eat a little piece because my sister stole the rest." Loki stayed quiet and opened his new bag of chocolates. As he put the small bar in his mouth without the wrapper this time, a knock sounded from the door. Aph groaned in annoyance and stood up to answer the door. She already knew who it was so she wasn't surprised to see Tony and Thor standing outside.

"We heard you scream, anything not alright by any chance?" Tony asked.

"That was about five minutes ago, Mr. Stark I would have been dead by now." Aph replied.

"Where is my brother?" Thor asked her.

"Dead. Remember that scream? Well yeah it wasn't mine; I killed him."

Aph regretted it a thousand times for telling him that. Thor became so worried and angered that he threw the door wide open and pushed Aph to the floor. Aph landed on her back and hissed, feeling her spine pulse in pain. But that didn't stop her as she sat and yelled at Thor who had already barged into her room, "You are so goddamn rude! Not to mention stupid!"

"Do not call me stupid," Thor boomed at her as he pointed his hammer at her.

Aph flared with rage as she shot up from the floor and jabbed at his chest harshly with her index finger, "Stupid stupid stupid! Watcha gonna do about it blondy? Hit a young maiden again? This the third time you hurt me! You know nothing about protecting 'Midgard' and its 'humans'!"

"You have offended me, Aphrodite, and lied to me." He said grimly to her as he looked at his brother on the couch, worry and fear draining out of him.

"Goddamn right I offended you blondy!" Aph shouted at him. She was even about to start hitting him until Tony saw what she was going to do to him.

"Alright, you need to chiiiillll." Tony said walking around Thor and quickly grabbed Aph to pull her back.

"Don't touch me," Aph screamed at him, "I don't like anyone touching me and I won't chill! Get off me Stark! Stark! Put me down! Stark!" Tony had forcefully picked her up to take her away from Thor. The last thing he needed was an EMP to happen in the hotel. Aph finally let out one irritated scream and went limp in Tony's arm. "Fine, I'm chill and whatever. Just get your hands off me!"

"Are you sure?" Tony asked, with that suggestive smirk again. Aph pushed him away from her and smoothed her shirt down, clearing her throat angrily. At the moment Aph was holding in so much anger like never before that it was running in circles through her brain and body, tickling her mouth to make her scream, and twitching her muscles to ache for something to hit.

"Brother are those sweets you have?"

Loki once again glared at Thor from the couch and moved his bag of sweets closer to him, "They are mine Thor!" Seeing what was going to happen Aph ran over to the coffee table, snatch her own bag of chocolates, and smashed them into Thor's hands. She turned him around and pushed Thor towards the door while saying, "Those are chocolates and yes they are sweets! Go eat them and get fat!" Once she shoved him out she turned to Tony and pointed to the door, "You too, get out!"

"Why?" Tony asked rather sadly, pretending of course. "Anyway you can't kick me out. I paid for this room so I can stay in here if I like."

"You are going to pay with your life when I shock the living hell of you, Stark. I have no problems surrendering myself to pain just to hurt you." She spoke lowly to him. "Don't try me, Stark. People have a bad habit of underestimating me."

"Fine," Tony said holding his hands up in the air of defeat, "don't get your panties in a knot. I'm leaving."

The moment he walked out the door Aph slammed it behind him. She had just quite enough of people interrupting her life and annoying her so greatly to such high levels that she didn't know existed. "Aphrodite."

Loki turned his head to where Aph had previously been seated. Tucked in between the couches was a small device that was lit up, and Loki knew it was Tony's JARVIS.

"What is it, JARVIS?" Aph asked calmly once again as she reached the couch and pluck the device out.

"I must teach you the basics now, Aphrodite." Jarvis said.

"You know what JARVIS," Aph replied thinking, "I think I really only needed to know the rules. I don't need training in a field that I'm an expert in. Even with 10f6 on my wrist I still have my past knowledge."

"Very well then, I will inform Tony that you have completed your training." JARVIS replied and the device turned off.

Setting the device on the coffee table, she sat on the couch again and picked up the remote. "Do you want to watch something on tv?" She asked Loki as she looked through the guide.

"Actually, yes." Loki replied.

They both settled comfortably into the couch to watch a show that Aph had chosen. At least I won't fall asleep like this, Aph thought, and I can keep an eye on him. But as a yawn took over her, she mentally scolded herself and forced her eyes to watch the show. Almost an hour passed when Aph's eyes closed by themselves without her knowing it.