A/N: Don't worry about when we're gonna get to what happens that makes Asgard in trouble. It's the next chapter. The story should go more with the movie plot after that. I used some of the dialogue from the movies in the later chapters, but I put it in Italics to show it isn't my writing. I'll remind everyone when the chapters come along later. Enjoy and don't forget to comment! I'd love to know what you think. :D
Chapter Two: Midgardians
He couldn't take it anymore. Another week of the same dream had come and gone. If he had any hope of the other nightmares that had frequented him instead of the one he had now, it was long gone.
"Tell my chief officers not to expect me for some time," Loki sent out the command. "I have business to attend to that requires my absence from Asgard."
He didn't know exactly how long he would be gone, but he knew he was leaving the kingdom in the hands of capable people he had relative faith in. At least while he was away.
Shielding himself from the gaze of Heimdall, Loki made his way to Midgard.
'Maybe seeing the idiot will offer some relief,' Loki hoped.
Invisible, Loki located his brother and followed him for a day.
Thor stayed at Stark's place along with a few other Avengers. He looked like he always did with his golden hair and open blue eyes.
Thor seemed to unconsciously give great sighs when he let his mind drift. An important conversation had better luck at maintaining his attention, but it had to be relatively short.
Although Thor looked to be doing alright overall, it appeared melancholy was always lurking beneath the surface. Loki felt a pang of guilt.
First, they lost their mother and now Thor believed he had also lost his brother.
'There's nothing to be done about that,' Loki decided stubbornly.
Content with seeing Thor meander throughout his day, Loki left around nightfall. He didn't know why he went towards human civilization when dawn came the next morning, but he did.
Locating where the humans put their dead, Loki sat against a tombstone and looked around. A few humans came and went as the morning passed, leaving flowers for their deceased against tombs. Some bent their head in prayer while others just gazed at the graves of loved ones. Loki was grateful Asgard burned their dead when they sent them over the side of the water.
Still curious as the afternoon approached, Loki went into the funeral home where a number of people wearing black walked about in a room. Keeping himself invisible, he walked towards a gathering of people. Upon a rise, an open casket revealed a dead man in a suit. Loki didn't know what to think as people came up and looked at their dead loved one, and then went away.
When he stepped closer, he wished he hadn't. Sitting up front was the widow of the deceased man. Her cries were silent, but her bereavement shook her shoulders and colored her face with a different brand of suffering. Though her sobs were soft, they each pierced Loki as if a knife were gashing into his heart and up into his throat.
He quickly left the funeral home feeling as if he would start gagging with the despair threatening to cry from his mouth of its own volition.
Loki took deep breathes outside as he leaned against a tombstone of some unknown human.
'Why,' was all he could think. He didn't know exactly what he was questioning.
"Did you know grandpa," came a child voice from behind him.
Loki, if he were not a god and had dignity, kept himself from jumping in surprise.
"It's rude to sneak up on people," he said, remembering his own stalking of Thor just yesterday.
"It's okay," said the little girl who smiled up at him. She had blond pigtails and a black dress. "I miss him, too."
For panicked second, Loki thought she meant Thor, but then he remembered she was at the funeral for her grandfather.
"You don't look that sad to me," Loki responded, noting her small smile. Did she understand death? She couldn't be older than ten years old.
"Grandpa has gone to a better place now," she answered, looking up into the sky. "He was in a lot of pain before. I think he's happier now."
"There's no way of really knowing," Loki said, thinking of his mother.
"I'm sorry I upset you," said the girl, looking concerned.
"What do you mean?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It's just, you looked very sad suddenly," she replied.
"Nonsense," Loki scoffed, folding his arms and scowling down at her.
The girl gave him a smile. "When I feel sad," she said, "I just think of all the fun times we had together, and then I can't stop smiling. The people that leave are always with us. At least, that's what my mom says."
Loki found himself chewing on her words. He thought of all the time him and his mother had sat together working with magic and reading complicated spell books the warriors of Asgard had little interest in.
"There," said the girl seeing his smile, "isn't it better now?"
Loki hadn't realized he was smiling until she said something. "Away with you," he said with less bite than he had meant. "Go to your family and be with them."
The girl took one last look at him before striding back into the funeral house.
Loki stared after her, confused about her odd behavior. He was sure he'd never been such a strange child when he was young. But her advice had been oddly mature. He knew, after a few minutes of contemplation, that she had lost someone else besides her grandfather recently. Was it her father, perhaps?
Loki shook his head when he realized what he was doing.
Why would he empathize with a mortal? He didn't know.
He didn't know how these mortals kept living the way they did. He hardly knew why he even cared.
'Their lives are nothing,' he thought, trying to right himself from his leaning position.
'But,' he kept thinking, 'almost every single human on this planet has suffered like that woman in there. Like that child. The death of a spouse, father, sibling, other relatives and friends all bring grief.'
Loki wondered around the city that evening, trying to get the numerous questions, the crying woman, and her unusual granddaughter out of his mind. Even as he was distracted by the dazzling lights and numerous entertainments found on the streets of the busier sides of the town, he would always go back to what he had witnessed and heard at the funeral home.
After sleeping through a night without any nightmares, he went about the next day going to plays and human museums. He did the same thing the next few days after that before deciding to read some of the literature that humans enjoyed; their classics, among many others.
He spent around two weeks just reading. Books he practically devoured; many of which had come across the seas of this world that included Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and South Africa. Loki had to physically make himself leave three libraries and five bookstores. If he took a few for his private collection, he would never admit it to a soul.
'For such an insignificant world,' he thought, 'I suppose it does have its redeeming points.'
He had to admit that the mortals had a way with words. Stories with tales from that of oppression and colonization, to love, growth, and betrayal and many other topics and themes pulled him in like no other.
If Loki were completely honest with himself, he discovered how his own position as a prince had completely blinded him to the view others within his own kingdom had of their world. He had moments of revelations as he read different books that had him pausing and thinking of his long life on Asgard.
'Do we even have a poor class in Asgard,' he questioned, thinking back on his duties as Odin. He remembered a few cases where crops were in danger of failing, but he had never really thought about the people who worked on the farms that surrounded the city. Had Odin never bothered with them as well?
'This will have to be remedied,' he decided only to be shocked a second later by his decision.
He laughed out loud, startling a few people on the streets near him.
"I can't believe I care about the people of Asgard," he mumbled to himself. "Much less that of the lower class."
Loki shook his head in bewilderment. That Midgardian mortals made him see himself a little differently, well, it simply astounded him. But for them to make him care even a little about Asgardian citizens, well, he didn't have a word for it.
Asgard certainly had an amazingly filled library of its own, but it paled with the tragedies, tales, and imagination these Midgardians came up with. The subcultures within the dominant culture were numerous, and each book held a value all its own. And an element of, Loki was certain, universal truth could be found in the greatest of the works produced on the planet. The works that reached beyond its own time and customs.
When he ate some of the Midgardian food, he found he could not begin to decide what his favorite was. Ice cream was certainly one of his top five. Nothing of the sort was found on Asgard.
He spent the next month engrossed in learning what made humans different from Asgardians, and found that they were not as different as he first thought, really. But only at a fundamental level of being.
Most, if not all, humans wanted to live a relatively comfortable life, support themselves and their family, and reach a standing that their culture approved of. Asgardians had their own values of status, family, and way of living. They differed from Midgardians in many ways, what with magic and creatures, certainly, but the only truly profound difference was the amount of time they lived. And their level of significance on a big scale, of course. Loki was certain that could not be pushed aside so easily.
Although he mostly learned about Americans, being within that country, he did enjoy the numerous cultures the entire planet housed. He wished he could travel around all of Midgard, but he simply did not have the time.
Loki found himself humming catchy songs, replaying movie scenes in his head, and pulling out certain books to reread paragraphs that were his favorite as he engrossed himself in human creations.
When he passed a part of the city that was destroyed by his own invasion, he deftly turned down an adjacent road. He didn't want to look at the people that came and went with numerous pictures of the loved ones that had died during the attack. He also felt something close to guilt and regret wave over him from his gut that he didn't want to feel or acknowledge.
No matter his altering view of Midgardians, they were still just Midgardians. To feel like his actions towards them were wrong would be admitting they were more than what they were.
'Mortals only live a little, then die,' he figured simply.
The girl at the cemetery, howerver, flashed before his eyes. What if his invasion had caused her father's death? He forced the thought from his mind. He wasn't even sure if she had lost anyone besides her grandfather, much less her father. But her knowing eyes had told a different tale than what he made up in his mind, and he knew it.
As days passed, he came to a point where he had to conclude that he had really underestimated the humans, especially their strength, imagination, and resilience. They had their lesser and baser points, of course, but that was only to be expected. He had no doubt that mortals were lesser than gods.
Loki spent the rest of his last week there alternating between checking in on his brother and wondering around other parts of Midgard. Humans were very inventive and ever changing. He figured they had to keep moving forward when they didn't have much time in the first place. Not like his realm and their immortality.
Nothing really did change that quickly back on Asgard. He didn't know what he took for granted until he roamed beside those less fortunate in regard to life expectancy. And he felt himself fortunate that he had discovered all that humans had to offer.
'But they are still inferior,' Loki thought to himself. 'Asgard and the other realms hold a higher place than Earth, which cannot be overlooked. Humans have some value, yes, but they are still inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.'
It wasn't until his seventh week and fourth day there that he came upon a harrowing sight.
It was during lunch and a very busy part of the day when he walked to where a huge gathering was near the middle of a road crossing. Before he had a chance to turn away or teleport, he heard the gut-wrenching wails of a woman.
The cries of her agony made him stop short of the scene, but he pushed forward despite the foreboding feeling gnawing at him. He wished he could erase what he saw; a small child in her arms, hit by a car not long before.
He was confused with his own reaction because he felt like weeping.
'But I've killed many humans,' Loki thought, 'and never felt anything. The Infinity Stone had its numbing influence, but still. Why now? They are near irrelevant creatures.'
The image of the girl at the cemetery came upon him again. It could have easily been her that was hit. He felt the lump grow bigger in his throat.
The agonizing sound of the mother's keening soon became more than he could take. He left, teleporting back to where Thor was.
Just inches from touching his brother, fully intent on acting on the absurd urge of hugging him, or at the very least gripping his shoulder to make sure he was all right, he stopped. He dropped his shaking hand and tried to get a hold of his himself.
'Silly me,' he thought shakily, his nerves still unsettled from the Midgardian mother and her dead son. 'Thor is a god, and hardly needs my concern.'
He mentally chastised himself. Thor thought he was dead. It wouldn't be wise to reveal otherwise when he was supposed to be ruling Asgard in the disguise of Odin.
Clenching his hands until it hurt, Loki settled for following his brother around all day. He felt childish trailing after Thor in such a close manner. It was as if he were a boy again. He felt ridiculous after some hours passed.
'The humans and their emotions are getting to me,' Loki thought, not able to call them lesser or trivial beings. It felt improper after seeing that mother lose her child.
He shivered involuntarily when the scene came unbidden before his eyes. He couldn't quite get rid of the feeling of guilt that bubbled up from his stomach this time as he thought about the destruction he had brought down upon Earth not too long ago.
He couldn't bring himself to leave until Thor was in a deep sleep. He brushed Thor's blond hair away from his face, looking down and seeing the sad lines that haunted his brother even in slumber. Feeling a bit awful for causing his brother to be in such a state, Loki finally left Midgard.
As he reflected on his time on Earth once he returned to Asgard, Loki felt that he had enjoyed his stay there.
'Midgardians know how to enjoy life. Great literature,' he thought, before his mind took a bleak turn. 'And they know the true pain of suffering. The pain even I put them through. What I did without a second thought.'
Loki forcefully changed his train of thought. 'I don't have time to waste thinking about humans and their condition.'
"Make sure the farmers has everything they need in order to keep their crops afloat. Bring me the report on how many Asgardians are homeless as well," he direction to the appropriate councilmen.
The men at the table looked around at each other, and not for the first time. Loki had a feeling they were unused to a king that felt so much concern with matters that did not concern war. Oddly, he felt they respected him, or "Odin," even more. He couldn't hide the fact, from himself, that it was the humans doing that had led to this development.
'Well,' he thought, 'so be it.'
As the days passed, he often checked in on Thor through his basin, but also made it his aim to learn more about the many peoples that lived on the realm his brother protected. They had a certain pull on him that he couldn't get rid of.
He admired them in a way. He could see how Thor's time amongst the humans could have changed his brother. Where Thor was once arrogant, pushy, and almost intolerant, he was now more humble, more lenient, and had a lot more patience than Loki thought he could have ever possessed. He still didn't like that woman, but he could see how other mortals may have played a part in his brother's change as well.
'They're still not worth dying for, Thor,' Loki thought, snuffing out an inkling of doubt that had invaded a corner of his mind. The reoccurring dream of Thor being dead made it a bit easier to disregard the human's influence on Loki.
That nightmare with Thor being dead returned a few days after he had returned from Midgard.
Loki sat up one late night knowing he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.
'You're more important than they are.'