Loki awoke to a mouth full of fur. He glared at the offending feline who glared back, bored. Loki pushed the cat off of him, scowling as it yowled in protest. Loki was on guard as he took in his surroundings— a small room with a couple bookshelves, a couch, and several armchairs, one of which was occupied by a young woman with long, brunette hair that turned a bright, fiery red halfway down. An archway that led off into what looked like an even smaller kitchen. A hallway with a couple doors on the side and a larger door that looked as though it led outside.
Loki walked towards that door purposefully. When he opened it he paused; stretching out in every direction was a forest. A narrow dirt road led deep into it and a dusty old pick-up truck was parked next to it. A small building stood a few meters away and Loki walked towards it, leaving the door behind him open. The door of the small building was unlocked and Loki walked in cautiously. The soft whuff of a horse drew Loki in— he had always enjoyed the horses in Asgard.
The building— which Loki now realized was a tiny stable— had a single stall, in which stood a tall black horse. Said horse's nostrils flared as it stuck its head over the stall door, large brown eyes staring intelligently at Loki. Loki reached a hand out and placed it on the horse's nose. As he pet the horse's head, Loki noticed a small metal plate on the side of the mare's halter.
"'Oblivion'," Loki read from the plate, "Is that your name?"
'Oblivion' whuffed some more and nudged Loki's hand heavily. Loki smiled the tiniest bit before frowning at the crunching of leaves outside the stable. Loki moved backward into the shadows as a tall figure stepped into the stable and walked up to Oblivion's stall. Loki recognized the oddly coloured hair as the woman who had been asleep in the house.
The woman spoke, her voice low and calm, "Hey, Beautiful. You wouldn't happen to have seen a man walking around in here, would you?" The horse tossed her head and snorted as the woman reached up to pet her. The woman smiled, "I didn't think so. I really hope he didn't wander into the woods, the poor bastard wouldn't last a day out there."
Loki scowled briefly at the offhand insult and stepped out of the shadows. "And why do you say that?"
Sunrise spun around, one hand clutching her chest in surprise as she stared at the man standing in the shadows. Wide eyes took in the tangled black hair that covered a high brow and sharp cheekbones. Eyes that were too green to be called blue and too blue to be called green glittered in the low light.
At the same time, Loki examined the young woman. A side-swept fringe partially covered bold eyebrows— like two powerful strokes of an artist's brush— while mottled green eyes sparkled underneath them. Full, dark pink lips were parted under a strong nose that seemed almost too big for her face— almost. Although her legs were covered by jeans, Loki guessed that they had the same toned muscles as her arms. She stood at least a half foot below Loki, causing her to stare up at him through dark eyelashes.
Sunrise lowered her hand as her heart slowed down. She leaned back to put a hand on Oblivion's head as the horse nudged her.
"I'm glad you didn't run off," Sunrise said as she extended her hand towards Loki. "My name's Sunrise, what's yours?"
Loki looked at the hand in obvious disdain and Sunrise swiftly retracted it, fighting down a blush.
"I am Loki, of Asgard. What is this place?"
Sunrise's eyes widened dramatically and she reached up to brush away a piece of hair so she could see him better.
"Loki… as in Loki, Loki?"
The man in question raised a dark eyebrow the slightest bit while furrowing the other one, creating a look of elegant confusion. Sunrise wondered briefly if the man had practiced that look in the mirror to perfect it.
"Do you know another Loki? Now answer my question, mortal," Loki demanded as he lifted his chin imperiously, granting him another inch or two on the woman.
Sunrise paused for a moment— in shock or wonder, we may never know— before focusing on the man who had just claimed to be a Norse god from the mythical realm of Asgard of all places.
"My cottage… um, technically my barn— although it's really more of a small stable…" Sunrise broke off as Loki flashed her another look of disdain. "You're a few miles outside of Fish Creek, Wisconsin. Are you all right?"
Loki seemed to almost flinch back the smallest bit before asking, "What are you talking about? Of course I'm all right, why wouldn't I be?"
"Nothing! It's just… when I found you, you were unconscious. When I woke up and saw you were gone, I was afraid you had wandered off and gotten hurt." At Loki's look of curiosity, she continued, "There are wolves and bears in the forest that can get awfully territorial if you go too close to their dens. I was afraid you would get hurt out there."
"How kind of you to worry about me, but I assure you I can take care of myself," Loki sneered.
Sunrise straightened up suddenly, glaring at Loki in indignation. "I'm not trying to be 'kind'"— she added air-quotes— "I just don't want to go on a walk one day and find your miserable corpse lying about! But if you're so sure you can handle yourself out there, be my goddamn guest!"
Sunrise turned and stormed out of the stable, Loki glowering as he followed closely behind the insufferable woman. Loki followed her all the way into her house, this time closing the door behind him.
As he walks into the living room, the daylight streaming through the windows reveals the chaos that he had missed when he'd first woken up. The bookshelves are lined with books, but even more balance precariously on the edge, seemingly daring one to watch them fall. More books crowd a beaten up coffee table. These books are far more worn than the ones on the bookshelf, dog-eared pages and post-it-notes sticking out of most of them. Loki spots a couple notebooks and several packets of typed words covered in scrawling red ink.
Loki glances up as dishes clink together in the kitchen. He moves toward the woman curiously, only to stumble over a cat that has come to twine itself around his legs. He scowls down at the black creature before nudging it with his boot. The cat mewls pitifully but wanders off toward another cat, this one with white socks and tail to break up the black.
In the kitchen Sunrise has set out two plates on the table and is currently busying herself next to a stove that Loki stares at curiously, only to school his features into indifference when Sunrise turns around. Loki smells the sizzle of bacon and frowns deeply when his stomach rumbles in need. Sunrise smiles at him gently before scooping several strips of bacon onto a plate and setting it on the ground. Two dogs race up and begin to wolf it down; a description that seems awfully apt since one of the dogs glares up at him from a gray, wolfish face.
Sunrise sets another plate of bacon on the table and gestures at it saying, "Take as much as you want, I don't eat meat."
Loki stares at her in surprise, no one in Asgard would ever dream of turning down meat. Loki asks, "Why not? Does it make you ill or something?"
She laughs, not high and delicate like the ladies of Asgard, but deep and raspy, ending in an intake of breath that sounds like a gasp. "No, I'm a pescatarian. I don't eat meat, but I'll eat fish occasionally. I don't like the idea of eating something that was slaughtered so it could be turned into chicken McNuggets. There's no honor in that."
Loki watched as her face slowly grew darker, brows furrowing down over eyes that seemed browner all of a sudden and lips that turned down when she finished speaking. Then she smiled at him, bending down briefly to pat the wolf-like dog and straightening to continue what she was doing at the stove.
Loki shook his head in bemusement and picked up a piece of bacon, eating it slowly as he watched the woman scoop eggs into a serving bowl and set it on the table before pulling two pieces of bread out of the toaster and putting them on a plate before sticking two more in. She pulled a tub of butter out of the fridge and set a metal container on the counter next to the toast.
Sunrise stared at Loki for a second as he stood in the middle of her kitchen watching her before pointing out, "You can sit down and eat if you want. I didn't know how you like your eggs so I didn't put in too much salt and pepper. If you want more it's right there"— she points towards two bird shaped containers— "and I usually put basil and oregano on mine, so that's on the counter right now."
Loki followed Sunrise in sitting down and scooped some eggs onto his plate and grabbed a piece of toast, watching as Sunrise dumped enough pepper onto her eggs to turn them vaguely grey. Loki tried a bite before shaking some pepper onto his own eggs— although not nearly as much as the woman in front of him, who was now buttering a piece of toast while pushing a dog's head off of her lap.
Sunrise watched the self-proclaimed god butter a piece of toast and cautiously pick up the metal container of cinnamon-sugar to check the contents before pouring some of it on his toast. When he finished Sunrise grabbed the next two pieces of toast and handed him one before buttering and sugaring her own piece. Sunrise piled eggs onto the toast before taking a huge bite, blushing faintly when Loki stared at her.
"I know I eat like a barbarian, but you don't have to stare," Sunrise defended, looking fixedly at her plate as she chewed on her food with more vigor than was technically necessary.
"That's not what I was thinking, mortal. You eat like an Asgardian, I simply wasn't expecting it. In my experience, the women of this planet eat… slower," Loki responded, his voice the tiniest bit embarrassed, yet still managing to sound superior.
"Yeah, well, I'm not exactly 'most women' now am I?" Sunrise retorted.
Loki made a show of checking Sunrise out before responding, "No, you are most certainly not."
Sunrise blushed faintly, pursing her lips and flaring her nostrils her nostrils, before standing up and dumping her empty plate in the sink. She began clearing the table as Loki finished, putting empty dishes in the sink and letting the two dogs eat whatever remained of the eggs.
"When you're done, you can put your dishes in the sink and come to my study. It's the second door on the right," Sunrise said stiffly as she walked out of the kitchen, Dusk on her heels while Lupa waited next to Loki, her wolfish eyes begging for the last piece of bacon before Loki placed it in his mouth.
Loki glanced down the hallway, noting the open doorway on the right, before scanning the books on the two shelves. His eyebrow raised slightly at the expansive selection; mystery and horror, thrillers and young adult novels, the occasional romance and a vast amount of fantasy. Several dictionaries and reference books occupy a higher shelf on his left.
Loki wandered down the short hallway, glancing down at the husky on his heels before opening a door on the right, withdrawing when it revealed a bathroom. The only door on the left was locked and Loki glanced around briefly before waving his hand to unlock it. When he tried it again, Loki was shocked to find it still locked. He rattled the doorknob for a second before scowling and turning towards the open door on the right.
The door leads to a small room with a window facing past the stable and into the forest. A large desk lays under the window with an open laptop on it. Loki looks around and spots Sunrise sprawled on the wooden floor scribbling furiously on a sheet of typed words. As Loki watches, she pauses for a moment and mutters under her breath before scribbling more, using the red pen to cross out a line and re-write something above it.
Loki clears his throat and Sunrise leaps up, yelping quietly as she stares wide-eyed at him. Loki raises an unimpressed eyebrow and Sunrise ducks her head to hide her growing blush.
"Sorry, I didn't see you there," Sunrise muttered as she stood up.
Sunrise shuffles the papers into a sloppy pile and stacks them on the desk, closing the laptop lid as she does. She smiles at Loki, who stares back skeptically.
"Okay, so the way I see it, you have two options: I can give you a ride into town and you can find your way back wherever you came from," Sunrise started, pausing briefly before continuing, "Or you can stay here until you get back on your feet."
Loki showed no evident signs of surprise, but Sunrise could tell by the way he froze that he was shocked.
"Why would you let me stay here?" Loki asked warily.
Sunrise tilted her head and quirked an eyebrow before answering, "Because I found you unconscious in the middle of the woods and you're claiming to be a Norse god." Loki still looked skeptical. Sunrise sighed and continued, "Just call it my Midwestern hospitality, okay?"
"I still do not understand," Loki responded with a curious tilt to his head.
Sunrise laughed slightly, this time airy and giggly. She shook her head slightly before responding, "Never mind, it's an Earth thing."
Perhaps if Sunrise hadn't been so focused on a plot bunny for her latest book, she would have noticed the growing anger and frustration that was currently making Loki's body tense. But alas, all she could think about was whether she should follow this plot bunny, or her original plan. So, as she walked past Loki to leave the room, she was caught completely unawares when his hand wrapped around her throat and slammed her into the wall.
Sunrise choked out a gasp and wrapped her hands around Loki's, nails digging into his hand and wrist in an attempt to weaken his grip. Loki growled and pressed Sunrise harder into the wall before leaning close. Loki snarled low in Sunrise's ear, his eyes alight with the rush of power he felt by having Sunrise at his mercy.
"You would do well to show me some respect, mortal. I do not understand why it is so hard for you to understand that when I say I am a god, that means I AM A GOD!" Loki roared in her face.
Sunrise whimpered and yelled out when Loki released her, standing back to let her collapse to the ground, coughing. She looked up at him suddenly and stood.
"I apologize if you feel as though I have disrespected you, Loki," Sunrise began, her voice raspy and low, "but something tells me that you don't respect me very much either. So until you can find the respect to apologize to me for what you just did, you can get the hell out of my home."
At Loki's darkened gaze, Sunrise slipped out into the hall and allowed Lupa and Dusk to stand between them, snarling at the threat posed to their mistress. Loki looked down at the dogs and warily walked past them, heading towards the door and walking out of it. Sunrise ran to the door and watched Loki walk into the woods without glancing back at the house.
Sunrise collapsed to the floor for the second time that day and buried her face in Dusk's fur, screaming in rage and causing the cat who had begun to peer around the corner to dart back into the living room.
"I didn't mean to tell him to leave, Dusk," Sunrise said softly, staring into the dogs eyes mournfully. "I want him to stay; obviously he's hurt and angry at something or someone and what do I do? Make him feel like the entire world's against him. God, I've just done to him what EVERYONE did to me." Sunrise began hiccuping, "Does this— hic— make me a bad person,— hic— Dusk?"
Apparently, the dog had no answer for her. Sunrise stood and walked over to the stable to begin the chores she had put off in favour of talking to Loki. As she mucked Oblivion's stall and brushed down the horse, Sunrise couldn't stop hiccuping and staring out at the direction Loki had disappeared to.
AN: Hello again all of my beautiful readers! I want to thank everyone who has favourited and followed this story. Please leave a review and inspire me to write more fun shenanigans... or not-so-fun shenanigans depending on how you view this latest development. :)