New and Old

It had been almost a week since Loki and Jane had started living together. The mortal world had its own very difficult ways to master. However Loki believed he had been mastering them sufficiently. This pleasant, uneventful –perhaps slightly dull- hiatus ended when Loki woke and not for the first time, saw Jane's face staring down at him, her brown eyes wide with worry. It had happened again, it had not happened since his stay in the hospital -curse his mortal magicless body! When he felt the dark pull he had succumbed instantly with no resistance. Being without magic is worse than he thought it could have been.

Loki had been in the bathroom; just finishing with his daily bathing, he was dressing in his new -much better fitted- mortal clothes. When suddenly the world had turned black; he was once again floating in The Abyss. The voice came to him again there, pulling and urging. He had almost given in...Almost. However, the sound of someone else's voice joined the one already calling to him; one pulling him deeper into the void, the other pulling him towards the surface. He strained to focus on the one that would be his salvation and soon, he knew who's voice it was; it was Jane. With an immeasurable amount of force he wrenched himself free from the darkness and came like a new born once again into the blinding light.

Jane hovered over him, her hand gripping his shoulder with bruising force. If he had not been mortal then her touch would have been no more than a butterfly's. Another reminder of his frailty.

"Loki, w-what happened -are you okay?" Jane's voice wavered but not with her usual indecisiveness, with alarm. Slowly, Loki pushed himself up to his elbows. His head was foggy and he swooned momentarily before he regained his stability.

"Quite," he said. He gave his head a gentle shake sending his wet black curls dancing and swirling in a halo. The remaining tendrils of the darkness snapped their bonds on his mind and slipped away like ribbons in the wind.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Jane asked "You just collapsed. I -I touched you but –y- you were ice cold." she was visibly distressed. Loki had not heard this kind of pitch to Jane's voice before. At first he thought the trembling was from her holding him. He looked down and saw that he was the one shaking.

Tremors shook Loki's body -Jane taken by a force beyond her control, wrapped her arms around his shoulders, hugging him tight to her. Part of her was dimly aware this was the closest they had been in their hesitant friendship. They had exchanged brief touches before; a brush of the shoulder in passing, a touch of the finger on the arm to get attention, a light pat of acknowledgement. Jane didn't release him until his shaking stopped.

Loki become acutely aware of their prolonged contact and close proximity contact and drew himself away from her first. He got to his feet with more composure than he thought he had control of. Do not give in. A deep breath and he steadied his frazzled nerves. A prince of Asgard should not show such weakness before a mere mortal! Something coiled in his gut and he clenched his fists. Yes he had forgotten who he was these past days. Relaxing into a comfortable camaraderie with Jane Foster. No longer. He had to focus on what was important! His magic, he needed his magic back.

Jane looked up and saw something ruthless and chilling in Loki's eyes. A snarl curled his lips and he rapidly exited the bathroom. She flinched as the door slammed into the wall. What had got into him? Loki? She flinched again as the front door crashed shut with a BOOM! Reverberating in her ears.

Loki stepped out into the busy New York streets. Rage he was well familiar with- rose to the boil. The people on the sidewalk saw his volatile animosity and broke around him like waves on the prow of a ship. Not caring where he went he walked and walked, the rage growing and growing into a blind fury. He needed to hit something to stab something! He found himself in New York's Central Park. There was hardly anyone around to see him. IF ONLY HE HAD HIS MAGIC! He lashed out in with such ferocity and struck a tree hard enough to make the branches shake. Birds flew up from the leaves, cawing and twittering their displeasure. Loki cried out in a mixture of pain and frustration. His hand came away bloody, knuckles scraped and bleeding.

"CURSE THIS MORTAL BODY! CURSE THIS INFERNAL WRETCHED REALM!" tilting his head to face the grey New York sky he screamed at the clouds "AND CURSE YOU ODIN! CURSE YOU AND YOUR DAMNED SECRETS! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?! ARE YOU HAPPY YOU FUCKING SON OF A BITCH?!"

People were staring. Loki whirled on them with a growl "What!"

They quickly looked away and carried on walking. As I thought. He scoffed. The stinging pain in his knuckles reminding him yet again that he had no magic. He was millions of light years away from home. If he could call that- that place a home. Yes, the home of the people who had lied to him, the home of the man whom had stolen him from his heritage! Loki was biting his lower lip hard enough to taste the tang of blood. His monstrous birthright, his savage sickening inheritance. To believe that that blood -that cold, black blood ran through his veins. It was abhorrent.

Yes abhorrent, I tried to snuff out that stain and look where it got me. An icy chuckle escaped. And he slumped down onto a nearby bench. Stuck with the younger version of dear Thor's sweet mortal love. He thought with disgust; though it wasn't the thought of Jane that made his blood sour, it was the thought of his 'brother'.

Jane had been nothing but an agreeable and generous mortal to him; welcoming him into her home –though it was also to her benefit to have him there- helping him adjust to the mortal world –though she thought he just had this thing called 'amnesia'.

With another frustrated sigh he held his head in his hands, running them through his hair. Without his magic to hold the raven locks in place they coiled rebelliously in all directions. He supposed he could use the mortals' hair gel-or whatever they called it. Although, he thought it looked far too sticky and the thought of putting that sticky, tacky substance into his hair appalled him.

Look what had become of him! The great Loki, the silver-tongued god of mischief and lies- was sat on a mortal bench, in a poor excuse for a park thinking to himself about how mortal hair products were not to his liking! It was laughable, and he did laugh then. Only seconds ago was he yelling to the sky and now he was moping like a spoilt child. This sobered him significantly. He was not Thor, that oaf was the one who moped when he didn't get his way. Not Loki... Loki planned. And he would find a way to get his magic back. Even if it was the last thing he did with his pitiful life. So it was time to get up, to get back to work... and also to apologize to Jane. She'd done nothing wrong -at least not yet.

You can't blame someone for something they have yet to do. Jane's story with Thor had yet to pass... perhaps- no- he couldn't! Could he? It was one of the oldest taboos; to mess with time was forbidden! The affects could have immeasurable complications to the future -but was that not what he wanted to change? The future? If his brother, Thor, never met Jane then he would never have come back? Time was on his side but also against him. He had to tread carefully. To tamper with time was dangerous... very dangerous.

For a moment he considered every possibility and risk, and then toughened his resolve. He rose from the bench with new, unwavering determination and started walking again.

Loki wavered for a second before opening the door to his and Jane's shared accommodation.

"I don't know where he's gone!" he caught Jane talking frantically on the phone to someone. "-no he doesn't have a cell! I've been meaning to buy him one-," she froze when she saw him in the door way to the kitchen. The Phone slipped from her grasp and clattered to the hardwood floor. Instincts told him he should raise his hands to defend himself -she slapped him.

Jane stared dazedly where she had struck him. The force of her slap had snapped his face to the side. Her hand stung. She looked down at her palm then she saw his injured hand. "w-what happened?" she snatched his hand up and cradled it in her own. Slightly baffled by the sudden change from violence to tenderness Loki stared at her. Loki, god of lies knew when it was time to lie and it was time for truth.

"I punched a tree," he admitted.

"What?" she peered closer at his hand "why?" Loki hesitated. "Did I say something- did I- was it me?" He extracted his hand from hers.

"No Jane," for some reason his voice strained on her name "it was not your fault. I simply needed to... let of some steam, as it were." The corner of his mouth twitched up.

"Ah-good- well not good- oh you know what I mean- are you sure you're okay? If you ever wanna talk you know- I know we've only known each other a week but-ah- how do I say this?" Jane floundered embarrassingly trying to organize her thoughts and words. For such a promising mind she did have trouble with her thought-to-word capacity. "What I'm trying to say is you can talk to me if you want?"

Who else would I talk to? He held back this comment though. It was true- she was the only mortal he knew well enough to converse with... he had been acquainted with her friend Daniel during the past week but he found the man's talent to read people a bit unnerving -a bit too much like his own ability for comfort. There was a red hand print glowing on Loki's left cheek. "Oh I'm so sorry!" she hurried over to the freezer to get some ice.

"It's quite alright Dr. Foster,"

"What?" Jane stopped and looked at him bewildered. Damn...

"Yes?" he masked his face with innocence.

"I'm not a doctor yet," she giggled "why did you call me that?"

"Slip of the tongue?" Loki offered. She looked incredulous then smiled. "A prediction then, Jane."

"A prediction?" Jane got the ice wrapped it in a tea towel and handed it to him. He pressed the cool cloth to his stinging cheek.

"Indeed," his silver tongue getting to work "I prophesize that you shall be Dr. Jane Foster the leader in astrophysics and research of wormholes." Jane guffawed and snorted in quite an unbecoming way. But it was mildly amusing. Loki grinned faintly.

"Aha- okay then- I still need to get my degree then I need to do my masters and my PHD." She finished, still chucking.

"I have nothing but faith," Loki fully grinned.

"Hey," her voice went soft and she looked very shy, "I am sorry- really sorry- about slapping you,"

Genuine regret and not just fear from striking a prince, that's a nice change.

"It's alright," he took the cold press of ice away and Jane winced at the red hand print.

"I- I was just so worried- you're not used to the city- and I was worried that you could have got hit by another car or- something- and I guess I feel responsible for you- since I hit you with my car-,"

"Jane," he stopped her ramblings short. "I am quite capable of taking care of myself,"

"I know- you're a grown man- a very big strong tall and good looking grown man-," Jane abruptly stopped, her eyes widening with horror. Had she just said all of that aloud?

This mortal? Loki was confused yet again by her.

"Ah-um... I guess I just was angry... and relieved you were okay... so I slapped you," well done Jane. Very smooth.

"You have a very strange way of showing you're happy to see someone," Loki observed. Ignoring for the time being the tirade of compliments that had turned Jane's skin bright pink. She laughed awkwardly.

"I guess I do," she smiled awkwardly. "So-uh you missed breakfast," Jane wondered into the kitchen- which had turned into a complete ramshackle; pots, pans, plates, bowls and even more mugs than it should be possible for one person to use, were littered about every surface and piled high in unstable towers. The kitchen only diminished into this state whenever Jane had attempted to cook. Loki felt a mounting foreboding, unsure what to expect until he saw it... "So I -ahem," she cleared her throat, "made you some mac and cheese."

There on the centre of the table -which had stayed immaculately clean during her attempts at cooking- was possible one of the most unappetizing dishes of food -if you could call it such- Loki had ever seen. A simple white plate with globules of a yellow, creamy substance.

Looks like a plate of dog vomit. Loki swallowed reflexively, preying she didn't actually intend for him to eat... whatever that was. Apparently she did. May The Norns save his poor soul. He ate it though. What else could he do? She had obviously gone to much trouble preparing this- this- meal for him.

"How was it?" Jane asked anxiously.

"It was- Um- very-," Loki endeavored to find the right words but failed miserably.

"That bad huh?" Jane scrunched up her face in a grimace. Giving in Loki took a breath and nodded.

"Possibly the worst thing I've ever eaten," he honestly admitted. He feared Jane would react badly to this news but she took it in her stride and beyond; first by solemnly nodding her head then, by bursting into a fit of unabashed laughter. Startling Loki enough into laughter along with her.

Hello fellow lovely readers. so this chapter just kept going and going in my head but I'll have the rest of that for the next chapter otherwise I'll have nothing to write! thank you for supporting me and my story, I'm very pleased and exited by all of the feed back you guys have left for me.

thank you once again for the reviews it really helps me to keep writing, (so the faster you want updates, the more reviews i need ;) please leave a word on your way out x