A/N: Here we have it ladies and gents! The chapter we've all been waiting for! After about a quarter of a book, we finally reach it! Next milestone is in about half a dozen chappies-ish around about. It the meantime, sweet, sweet romance! Huzaah!

Anyway, sorry that I put this chapter up a little later in the evening than might be convenient. I've kind of been off with the fairies yonder in Lala Land the past few weeks... But I assure you, daydreaming aside, I'll make sure to stick up a new chapter every Saturday.

Also, thank you to my beta #1 -Flame of the Dark- for the support , and my newly recruited beta #2 -sosaveme- (I'll get around to fixing the grammar and other errors later. Off with the fairies and all that lot)... XD anyway, enjoy the story, people!

Chapter 13

Suger Me, Darlin'

Groaning like a zombie, I shamble over to the couch, flopping down on it beside Loki. He continues reading his book as I slouch and whimper, my lower lip quivering as I wrap my arms around my stomach.

"The pain," I moan, slumping into Loki's side. With a sigh, he closes his book.

"The agony!" I complain, looking up pathetically at his unimpressed face.

"Please... end it now..." I whimper dramatically. He rolls his eyes, putting his book on the side table.

"What is it now?" He asks me, manoeuvring me into sitting upright, and mostly failing as I put on my best rag doll impression.

"The paiiin!" I moan again. "Being a lady sucks! Wanna be a man! Make me a man!" Loki just raises his eyebrow at my requests.

"I take it that you are suffering pain from your menstrual cycle, rather than pain caused by your own doing?" He asks me.

"Nope," I shake my head, grimacing as a sharp, searing pull of agony tears through me. "It was my doing, deciding to go the lazy route and not go that extra mile into becoming a dude... fuck, I can feel my ovaries," I rub at the offending area, continuing with my whimpering. Loki just keeps his eyebrow raised as he watches me writhe pathetically while cursing every deity (including the one sitting next to me), for deciding that pink frills and dresses was the way to go for me. Seriously, though, do I look like the pink frills and dresses kind of person? Suppose it's a good thing I was born in the twentieth century, when girls don't have to dress like that...

"That's not where the ovaries are located," Loki comments. I eye him shrewdly out of the corner of my eye.

"And how the fuck would you know?" I demand, the agony (and possibly the hormones) making me feel irritable. With a sigh, he fixes me with an exasperated look that screams my stupidity.

"I read," he says simply, before reaches his hand out to me. "Allow me."

I don't know what's more shocking- that Loki's trying to help with the pain, or that I'm letting him with no questions asked. I feel like I can trust him to do this right...

I move my hand from my side, knowing that he's planning on using some of his Hogwarts sorcery to make me feel better. Once it's in place, his hand glows a gentle, subtle green. The pain starts to fade little by little, until it's mostly gone and all that's left of it is a weird sensation, like I should be in pain...

"Thanks," I murmur, still slumped against him. I close my eyes in relief of the lack of pain.

Fucking periods.

They're always the same. Always at different levels of harsh pain and torture, ripping me from the inside. When I was young, having my first period at age eleven, I was almost convinced that the bleeding came from my insides tearing themselves apart. It didn't exactly help that the school wasn't all that clear with their sex ed, seeming to think that we were still too young to know where babies come from. Maybe we were, but it's better to get us too early than too late...

"So," I say slowly, shifting comfortably into a better slouching position. "What's it like for all the women of Asgard when that time of month- year- decade- fuck it hits?" I slur slowly, shifting in my seat slightly to have a better view of his face without having to take my head off of his shoulder... which actually isn't really all that comfortable...

I feel so weird and numb... I grimace at the odd sensation.

"The women of Asgard actually get far worse cycles than those of Midgard," Loki explains calmly as he fixes his eyes ahead. "For the average woman, the cycle usually lasts for roughly a month every other decade, and they usually are forced to spend the majority of the time in the Medical Station for the pain and blood loss."

"No shit," I mumble in surprise.

What do you know, there's a people-like species out there that actually has it worse than us humans...

"I assure you Shana, to you I speak nothing but the truth," he says softly, and it sounds almost like he were making me a promise.

"Yeah, well, don't go making any promises you can't keep," I warn him, finally releasing his shoulder from my captivity so I can level him with a warning look. "There might come a time when I am acting especially stupid, and the best thing the situation calls for is a good old 'everything will be alright.'" Loki looks confused at my words, though whether it's from my wording or the fact that I'm actually telling him not to always speak truthfully to me us hard to tell.

"I'm just saying," I continue, leaning my head back down on his shoulder again. "Every other time, you can say anything you like, from my outfit making me look fat down to you being able to see my moustache-"

"You haven't got a moustache," Loki scoffs, clearly thinking that I'm joking.

"Yeah, that's what every guy thinks," I say ominously, sitting upright yet again to look him in the eyes with mock seriousness. "Look closer and you'll see; the hairs are fine, but they're definitely there," I point to the area just above my top lip, leaning closer to him for him to see it better. He leans away in protest.

"I'd much rather not, thank you very much," he says quickly, raising his hands to ward me off as I threaten to invade on his personal space. I release a loud cackle in response, leaning back once more into a better sitting position.

"I'm just saying," I say, chuckling as I jokingly stroke over the barely there hairs. "You guys aren't the only ones to go through some major hairy changes upon hitting puberty."

"Even now you continue to surprise me," Loki says, gradually easing back into his previous sitting position. "You talk worse than the most brutish of Asgardian warriors!" he exclaims, looking towards my upper lip in distaste.

"I blame it on me going stir crazy," I say stubbornly, crossing my arms over my chest and slouching back into the couch. "All day every day, these same four walls," I sigh dramatically.

"You are in quite the melodramatic mood, are you not?" Loki asks in amusement. I shrug, pouting thoughtfully.

"Myeah, I've kind of got back to that phase of hopelessly planning my escape," I say absently, casually bringing my left hand up for my observation, (ugh, when did my nails get so full of dirt?) Meanwhile, Loki tenses up beside me, like as though he actually thinks I stand a possible chance of escaping and is trying to toughen himself up for that possibility.

"Oh?" He says softly, his mouth more or less being the only thing that moves. "And how far have you managed to go in your planning?" I frown in deep thought as I plan my answer out carefully.

"First, I seduce you with my otherworldly lap dancing skills," I smirk at him as seductively as I can (which is about on par with me doing the duck pout), as he eyes me warily. "Then, I snog the living daylights out of ya," I lean forward a little, grinning in a way that most probably makes me look insane. His eyes are actually much brighter than I originally thought they were. "Then the third thing I do is whack you over the head with whatever book you're reading, and make a mad run for the door," I finish, my face only a couple of inches from his, now.

Since when did this happen...?

"And if I catch you?" Loki asks softly, his eyes tracing over my face; not turning away, not pushing me back. My mind quickly supplies me with a multitude of cheesy pick-up lines, like 'you've already caught me,' or 'then I'll just fall harder..."

... Actually, that last one's pretty shit...

But that's not what I say (thankfully).

"Then I'll just have to summon my pet dragon, Draco, and have him finish you off," I say decisively. He stares at me, seemingly uncertain on how he should respond to this.

"Your pet dragon," he says slowly, like he doesn't quite know what to make of it.

"Yep! Then he'll fly me to the sun set and beyond, yonder to safe haven, sanctuary, home, family, life, utopia, my compu-" my senses are suddenly overwhelmed by sensation.

I feel his hands gripping my face tightly; far too smooth considering his thousand-plus years of wars...

I smell the scent of Loki; undefinable, but if I were to summon any sort of likeness, I'd say it ironically reminds me of winter.

As I flutter my eyes, I see green as his stare into mine; passionately, and kind of seeming a little bit irritated, for some reason. Not that it matters...

I hear the blood rushing through my head, and the sounds of...

I taste...

There's nothing else in the world but this kiss. His tongue had only just greeted mine when he pulls away, looking only a little shaken.

"Fuck me," I gasp, staring at him in shock; a look which he returns tenfold.

"What?" He finally asks, looking a little disturbed. I frown at him, thinking over what I'd said... and then realised exactly what I'd said.

"Oh," I chuckle, my body now finally catching up with the situation at hand as a blush creeps up my face. "Well, I mean, if you want to... but I really, you know, meant like, you know, what I... erm... I," I stammer to a halt as Loki pulls me back towards him, my lips colliding with his as he hugs my body close.

Well, fuck me, I can't help but think again. Whilst I might not be quite as... adventurous as Loki where beds are concerned, I've had a few kisses in my time.

Though none of them have been this intense. I know what people say about people who kiss their captors; that it's wrong, and those poor people obviously need help. But this doesn't feel wrong; it feels so damn right, like we've been pushing towards this moment for the last... month?

Whatever, time doesn't mean anything anymore. Especially not when I have his cool, gorgeous tongue expertly poking around my mouth and overwhelming my tastebuds with the taste of winter.

Finally, we break free to breathe, with me still clutched tightly to his firm body.

"Fuck..." I breath again, not capable of saying anything else.

"So you keep saying," Loki says in amusement, looking a little dazed as he stares down at me.

"Yeah, but... fuck..." I say again. There's a thousand things I want to say, like why did he kiss me? What did he mean by the kiss? Am I now pregnant with his alien babies? But my brain is obviously still short circuiting, because... fuck...

Loki's face quickly closes off as I stare blankly at him. He releases me, shifting so he sits as far away from me as the couch would allow.

"My apologies; I had not realised that my desires were not returned. Now I'll just-"

"Shush," I stop him from talking any further, placing my finger on his lips to help shut him up. "Just... let me gather my brain back together for a moment again, okay?" I ask him, my words about as big of a jumbled, wavering mess as the rest of me. With a frown, he nods; lowering the finger I hold to his captive lips and freeing his mouth.

"Thanks," I say softly, my eyes lowering to his lips. Why would he kiss me? That's all I need to know right now. The how and the what ifs can come later. Right now, I need to know if he's just messing with me or not.

"Why did you kiss me?" I ask him, breaking the thick silence that had fallen between us. His eyes immediately light up, gleaming with a very suspicious light; a rather mischievous light...

"You were starting to ramble," he answers simply, and I gape at him in response.

I don't know what I was expecting from him in way of an answer, but I think it might have been something along the lines of, 'I'd been planning for this for many moons now, and I had thought that now was the time to claim ye, my sweet, gentle, caring Shana'... or something along those lines...

Obviously, that's not the case...

"What about my rambling?" I ask him, getting a pretty strong, almost psychic feeling in my gut that I seriously won't much like his answer.

"When you talk, there is only one way to make you stop; which is by distracting you with something of far greater importance," Loki explains, his smirk now back in full force. "I most certainly did not want to listen to another word of you speaking of how much you miss your dear, beloved computer, so I took matters into my own hands."

Ever the charmer.

"So, what? You kissed me just to shut me up?" I ask him, feeling quite offended at the thought.

"Well, that and more," Loki admits, his voice almost a purr. He shifts forward, watching me intently as he rests his hand lightly on my forearm.

"Shana, I have already told you how you appear to me. Do you really wish for me to write entire ballads on your beauty alone, with lyrics for your... unconventional personality? Because I could easily do so, if you wished it," he says, his voice growing softer as his eyes seem to drown in mine.

My heart picks up in pace as I stare back, suddenly feeling like I've been sucked into every teenage girl's daydream. Here I have a literal god, confessing his attraction to be, even going so far as to kiss me!

I feel so bewildered on what's happening, and how this came to happen. But for some strange reason, it doesn't feel at all wrong. All the pieces click together, and with it comes the realisation that we've skipped past many little stages in our relationship over the past month or so; but yet not a single milestone was missed.

So this is the word I've been looking for -for what's going on between us, I think as the silence stretches on, but doesn't feel so uncomfortable anymore. Awkward? Maybe a little. Confusing? Very, at least for me.

When did this happen? I think once again, blinking my eyes away so I can blush more discretely.

It's all I can think for a moment, trying to gather my brain back together. When I finally have enough reasoning for speech, I wish I just stayed silent with what comes flooding from my mouth.

"Does this mean we're, I don't know... dating, now?" I blurt, but manage to have the forethought to keep my eyes focused on the floor so I don't have to see his expression. He's silent for a moment, though I haven't a clue whether it's good or bad.

"If you wish," he finally says to break the silence. "You don't have to be romantic with me if you do not wish it, Shana. Your mind is your own, and I would understand if you would prefer if things returned to how they were before, what with my previous activities on Midgard." I lift my eyes to meet his, and see the solemn truth in them. I make my choice as I stare into his intense green eyes.

"Okay," I say softly, my voice barely above a murmur. "But only if you promise not to treat me like some Asgardian whore," I narrow my eyes threateningly, because whether or not he was revered as a god, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

And I can make for a very pissed off woman.

"The ladies of Asgard are most certainly not whores," Loki informs me calmly. "But I assure you that I will treat you as a Prince should treat his chosen future consort. Like the Goddess and Queen she is."