A/N: This chapter is a little shorter than most of the others, but I'm sure you guys wouldn't mind. An important little question for you all to answer, though (don't go tripping over each other in your mad rush to answer! XD ): should I keep to the movie relationships, the comic relationships, or my own relationships? Loki obviously excluded.

Also, thanks to my fans- you might not be many (yet), but thank you all for the support, especially those who took the time to leave their reviews.

Now, on with the story!

Chapter 15

Dreamer

I'm flying. Soaring through the clouds, over the forest and the towns below. It's all so beautiful and magic up here in the sky. I hear a great whooshing sound next to me, prompting me to turn my gaze away from the view and towards my companion.

"Who are you?" I ask the large flying beast. He turns his head to look at me, and I get the most unusual feeling that he's smiling at me.

"Did you know that even the gods worship higher beings?" The creature says in his soft, gentle voice. I frown at the apparent subject change.

"No?" I say slowly, wondering what this has to do with the creature's identity. "Why? Are you their god?" It's only logical to assume it. After all, why else was he bringing this up?

The creature laughs cheerfully at my question before he says, "No, Shana. I am not their god."

Then why bring it up? Unless...

"Am I their god?" I ask him slowly, dearly hoping that he'll say yes. Wouldn't that be something? Shana White-Friar, goddess of the gods. Yet again he laughs, only this time it's more so.

"No, Shana," he finally says, though there's still a hint of a chuckle to be heard in his voice.

"Then why bring it up if neither of us are fucking gods?" I ask him, feeling quite frustrated, now. The creature tilts his head to the side from where he sits in front of me on the great grassy plain we're both sitting on.

"Because anyone can be a god," he says slowly as he starts picking at the grass with his great scaley paws. (Are they paws? Feet? Hands? Claws?) "Take Captain America, for example. He started out small and scrawny, and yet look at him now! He'll forever be remembered as the first modern superhero- immortalized as such, should he ever even die."

"So... are you saying that I could become a god?" I ask him, trying to wrap my head around the relevance of this entire conversation.

"No," he says again, delicately plucking a small daisy from the ground and lifting it to better admire the flower. "There is a lot ahead of you, Shana. You wanted a life of adventure, of romance and mystery and superheroes and drama. You wanted it all. As you can see with Loki, you're getting exactly what you wanted. I'm only preparing you for what comes next." He throws the flower to the side, turning his large green eyes to watch me expectantly.

"But what's this got to do with their gods?" I ask him, steadily growing more confused by the second.

"It's simple, really," the creature says as he moves his great body to stand up. "They have chosen the recipe. Now, they are set to make their new favourite toy."

I blink my eyes open, frowning as the dream I've awoken from swirls around in my mind. Parts of it drift away like whispers in a storm, but some parts of the dream are cemented in my mind. Especially the last part of it.

What did the creature mean by those last parting words? Why do I keep dreaming of him? Who are these gods? Are they the Norns that Loki occasionally talks about, and the book briefly mentioned?

Sitting up, I turn my head towards Loki's bed. Wide awake, he's sitting with his back propped against the pillows, with a book safely nestled on his lap. He seems deeply engrossed by the book.

"Did you have pleasant dreams?" I'm startled from my observations by Loki's question, having thought that he was completely oblivious to anything that's not happening directly in front of him.

"It was alright," I tell him honestly. "Weird, but alright."

"I thought as much," Loki says as he places a bookmark delicately between the pages of his book, closing it gently. "You had spent several minutes mumbling about dragons, gods and 'fucking morse code' before you finally woke up." I don't know what I'm more shocked by: Loki swearing, even by quote; or that he could even understand my sleep babble. Friends have recorded my sleep babbling in the past, and it's always sounded like whispered mumbling that not even I can translate.

"That... sounds about accurate," I admit slowly, ducking my head at his annoyed glare.

"I could hardly read with your constant talking, and telling you to be silent did nothing," he rants, looking a little mad.

"Well, I'm sorry you couldn't read for a couple of minutes," I huff, crossing my arms in a very grown-up manner. And thus, our first meaningless bicker as a couple begins.

"Fifteen minutes, Shana!"

"Seriously? Fifteen minutes on the dot?"

"Of course not. If such matters mean so much to you, then it was exactly fifteen minutes, 37 seconds and 29 milliseconds."

"Wow! And you call us time obsessive!"

"And the other night you were making noises of a most private nature-"

"Now that was an alright dream!"

"Please cease with talking in your sleep, I have learned things I have no business in knowing about you."

"You could if you want, baby," I wink cheesily at him, gaining a delicious eye roll in return.

"Could you please halt with your rapier wit for a moment and... and..." he trails off, obviously giving up on his impossible campaign to shut up a sleeping person. Silence falls between us in the aftermath of our not quite bloodthirsty argument. After a few minutes of quiet, I stand up from the couch, intent on heading for the toilet, when I hear some soft chuckling coming from Loki's direction.

"Exactly what were you dreaming of?" He asks me, a wide grin spread across his lips.

"In which dream?" I ask him with an eyebrow raised and a smirk on my lips, unable to stop myself from messing with him for just a little bit longer. He raises an unimpressed eyebrow at my attempt at crude humour.

"Okay, okay. Sorry, sorry, sorry," I say, raising my hands in surrender. "Really, though. It's nothing. It's only this dream I've been having," I explain, hoping to ward off the questions. After all, weird though the dream may be, it's just a dream. What if it's nothing? It's not like it might kill me if I keep quiet or anything...

"It may be of no importance," Loki says gently, climbing off of his bed and walking towards the couch I'm still sitting on. "But the Norns have been known to communicate in many strange ways." Silence falls between us as he sits beside me, staring at me intensely as he waits for my response.

I turn my eyes to the window set opposite the couch as I carefully gather my thoughts. Evidently it's very early in the morning, if the faint light outside and the dark blue of the sky are any indication. The only thing that breaks the quiet between us is the sound of the birds just starting to sing.

"You need not tell me, of course," Loki says from beside me; his voice is loud compared to the delicate quiet of the morning. "But on Asgard, dreams are held with high respect for the knowledge they could give the dreamer." Frowning slightly, I turn to face him.

"It really wasn't anything special," I say, but this time I say it in a tired tone, rather than defensive one. There's no use arguing against him, after all. "It was only a dream of me flying in the air next to this weird giant lizard who told me some stuff," I shrug nonchalantly while Loki, for some reason, continues to stare at me intensely.

"Were his scales black?" is the first thing Loki asks me. I stare at him for a moment, wondering what the relevance is of whether or not he had black scales.

"Yes," I say, nodding my head slowly. "Black scales, green eyes and enormous wings." Loki slowly nods his own head as though in understanding of something. (Of what? It was only a dream- my imagination!)

"Did he have a soft, gentle voice?" Loki then asks me. I tense up, my eyes widening at the question.

How did he know that? Did I even mention that the creature spoke? Is this one of those crazy cases of shared dreams?

"Yes," I respond carefully, frowning at Loki in suspicion, as I'm pretty sure this sort of thing only happens in films.

"A final question, Shana," Loki says gently, leaning forwards in attention with his forearms resting on his knees. "Did this dark scaled winged creature resemble a Midgardian dragon?"

For some reason, this question leaves me with chills racing through my body. Why didn't its appearance register with me? Why didn't I realise before now that he looks exactly like a dragon? I've seen plenty of dragons in my life- they're fucking popular mythological creatures!

But how did Loki know?

"Yes..." I whisper softly, thoroughly creeped out.

What the fuck is happening with my life?

"I thought as much," Loki comments with a knowing nod. "Recently, I have been having similar dreams." He doesn't really need to say anything- I already gathered as much. I nod my head blankly as I stare ahead. It's a small thing, finding out that Loki's been dreaming of the exact same sort of thing as me... or, at least, it's small compared to a lot of the other stuff that's happening in my life right now.

What the fuck is happening with my life?

"I believe the Norns are trying to tell us something. Possibly even trying to warn us of what is to come," Loki continues to hypothesize. I nod my head slowly again.

"What did the dragon say in your most recent dream?" Loki asks me, I cock my head in response and think back to the dream I just had.

"A few things," I say with a shrug. "Something about your gods, a bunch of stuff about destiny... and something about the gods having their recipe, and working on creating their favourite toy... or something along those lines..." I shake my head to clear it a little.

It's too early in the fucking morning for this...

Loki continues to stare at me intensely as he leans back on the couch. For a long moment, all that can be heard in the room is the sound of the birds outside.

"So... what do you think?" I eventually ask just to break the suppressing silence.

"Nothing," Loki says slowly. "Not at the moment, at least. The message could mean anything, or it could just be the simplest answer." He falls into silence again. As the seconds tick by, I realise he's not going elaborate without a little bit of pushing.

"So what's the simplest answer?" I prompt, shifting a little closer towards him as I await an answer. He opens his mouth to answer, but changes his mind. Closing it for a moment, he returns to staring at me intensely. Taking his time, he raises one of his hands, brushing it against the side of my face as a small, sad smile crosses his lips.

"There are a couple of them," he says slowly, shifting his hand to cup my face gently. "Perhaps he meant you? That I am the one who enables your future?"

"Maybe," I accept, leaning my head slightly into the affectionate touch. "But that's not the one you're thinking of, is it?" The hand drops limply from my face.

"I must admit," Loki says as he carefully looks into my eyes. "The second option is the one I hope for the most."

"Is there any chance you'll tell me what it is, exactly?" I ask him. He frowns as he stares at me thoughtfully for a few seconds longer.

"No," he finally says. "Just know that if I'm right, you will find out sooner than you planned for."