The waitress placed the bowls of food in front of them, and Sara felt her mouth water. She served herself some of the stirfry noodles, and watched as Loki selected from the dishes in front of him. He was wearing his button up shirt in black, and his nicer shoes. The slacks he wore neatly pressed with a seam down the front of each leg. She had put on her black Mary Jane pumps, and a lavender dress that she had ordered from a shop online. She took some of the Honey Walnut Shrimp, and a spoonful of the broccoli beef as she smiled at him.
He watched her hands then, focusing on them when she picked up her chopsticks and began eating. She saw him try, and fail a few times, almost staining his shirt with the sauces before he caught the piece of chicken in his hand.
"No, it takes practice. Let me show you." She said, and she showed him how to eat using the sticks, and he managed a bite of the beef and she smiled at him. "See, you are getting it."
"It is unwieldy, I may starve before it get another bite." He complained, and he managed another bite of food. He watched her eat, and he smiled at her hands. "Your hands are more graceful than mine with those sticks. An entire culture eats with these?"
"Several actually, it is considered more polite and mannerly than stabbing your food with a fork." She said, and he gave her a shake if his head. He managed to get the hang of it eventually, and he was soon eating as she was. She bit into a Rangoon, and her eyes rolled into the back of her head at how good it was.
"You actually have really nice hands." She said, and sipped her tea as he looked at her in suprise. He licked some of the sauce from the shrimp off his lower lip, and watched her for a long moment. She felt shy then, and she looked down at her plate and shook her head. "Just saying. Like observationaly speaking."
"Thank you. I have realized something however, you asked me so many questions while I painted your wall, I never asked any about you." He asked, and he sipped his tea as she felt her heart pound out of her chest. Sara felt like a bug under a microscope then and his first question threw her off. "Why do insects fascinate you so much? You have many books about them, and I find it a bit off that a woman would be so enthralled by them."
"They are important to the ecosystem. Some eat other insects that spread illnesses to humans, and others help break down garbage and debris, they are amazing survivors too. They can withstand anything we throw at them, adapt, and come back stronger." She replied, and she hoped he did not find her weird or really strange. "I like other less than cuddly animals too."
"Which ones do you like?" He asked and she ate a bite of the chicken before answering. She shrugged, and had to think about it for a moment.
"Snakes, frogs, bats, and Scorpions." She admitted, and he pointed his sticks at her. She prayed internally that he didn't ask her any more questions, but he did and a grin formed on his face.
"Interested in the creatures that lurk in the shadows, the hidden, the things that would rather be unseen. That tells me that you prefer that others do not see you, more look at you as if you are a shadow or a spirit." He said, and she bit her lip and she wanted to change the subject. But she knew in her stomach that he was going to ask her why she didn't date. "Is that why you don't have anyone calling on your company?"
"Are you asking me that because you want to pick on me?" She asked, being defensive and his eyes went wide at her response. He gave her a smirk, and he leaned back in his seat in the cozy corner of the restaurant. He let his eyes roam over a watercolor of koi fish in a pond, thinking about what she said.
"No, I am genuinely curious." He replied, and he ate a piece of broccoli and chewed silently as she set her sticks down and felt her heart pound in her chest. She never told anyone about this fear, and about what Darla made her believe.
"My Stepmom told me that... she told me that sex hurts girls every time they have it. And that it only feels good for guys, I also still have her reminding me that my real mom was used by my dad, and she didn't want me ending up like her. The other woman in a marriage that was already on the rocks." She blurted out, and he sat quietly and his smirk fell as he listened to her. "I got caught kissing a boy in High School when I walked home, and Darla beat me... then locked me in my room for a week to punish me for starting to turn into my Mom. She was never nice to me, and blamed me for everything she did to herself."
"She was overly cruel to you?" He asked, and she nodded. He reached across the table, the gold bracelet around his wrist that held his magic at bay shining under the light. His fingers touched hers, and she felt shivers travel up her spine to her brain and it melted at the contact.
"Yeah, she was. Because I was born, and my Dad cheated on her because Darla was not having sex with him anymore." She replied, and his fingers caressed hers a bit. She stared at her plate, and the gentle touches made her want more. She wanted to hold his hand, for him to not pull away from her ever, she wanted him to hold her.
"I understand these feelings, and can empathize with you." He replied, and her ice blue orbs met his and he gave her fingers a soft squeeze with his before taking his hand back. The spell was broken then, and her heart calmed back down. She ate more of her food, and he worked on his plate, neither one of them talking through the rest of the meal.
--‐--
Loki carried the bag with the leftovers in his hand as Sara unlocked the Mercedes in the Parking lot, she got in, and let Loki get settled in the leather seats.
She was thinking about what he said, and she backed the car out of the space, and began driving toward home. His hand rested on the console between them, the bag of leftovers on the floor between his feet. She turned on the radio as she waited to turn, and his fingers brushed the hem of her skirt as he streched them. She jumped, and she slammed on the brakes, nearly causing an accident and she blinked at him in shock.
"Intercourse only hurts for a woman the first moments of her first time, then it is rather pleasurable, depending on the partner." He said casually, his smirk wide as he looked at her. "You are the last woman I would refer to as a whore, more of a nervous girl that has never truly been loved."
"Could you move your hand?" She asked, keeping her voice even and he moved to rest it on his thigh. She had to keep him at a distance, she couldn't let him get under her skin. She was supposed to be keeping him here during his Exile, not messing around with him, or taking sex advice for that matter from him. She had to be smart about this, and keep herself detached, she had to be calm.
"I was too forward, I am sorry." He said, and he stared ahead into the cool night. By the time they got back home, the air in the car was thick, and she was about to say something when he got out of the car and shut the door. She stared after him, watching as he walked out of the barn, and toward the house. She wanted to run after him, but she had to remain calm before she did something stupid. She got out of the car, picking up the bag of leftovers next to her, and began walking toward the house.
She was shuffling through her keys, trying to find the right on in the dim light, when a set of arms grabbed her from behind and she tried to scream. Her heart raced in her chest, and she struggled as the hand gripped her mouth. She dropped the keys and the leftover food hit the gravel and spilled, she tried to kick backwards with her heels but couldn't make contact. One of her flat shoes flew off, and she tried to bite at the hand and screamed against the hand again. She struggled, and the arm around her waist tightened and threatened to crush her. A hand bunched the front of her skirt up, and rubbed over her panties and she tried harder to get free.
"Make a sound bitch, and I will cut your face up. See who wants to fuck you then." Travis hissed in her ear, and pulled her back to the barn. He held her tight, and shoved her in and she fell backwards but managed to catch herself against the Jaguar before she hit the concrete floor. She stared at him in shock, and she backed up slowly. Her hands searched for a weapon, anything, and she felt the handle of a pitchfork that was left leaning against the wall for decoration. She grabbed it, gritting her teeth, and held the sharp tines toward him.
"Fuck Off Travis!" She said, and jabbed at him with her makeshift weapon. She saw a shadow across the open barn doors, but was not sure what it was. He moved back, and drew a switchblade knife and waved it at her.
"I just want to taste that pussy Sara, you might even like it." He said, and she took a step back and tightened her grip on the handle. He was not touching her again, that was for sure, and she would make sure of that. He lunged at her, and she jabbed back, two of the tines jammed into his arm, making him scream and she pulled it back. She screamed at him, and lunged forward again, and Loki appeared behind him with a piece of firewood in his hands like a club. Travis growled at her, running toward her and holding the knife. She raised the fork at the right moment, impaling his throat and neck on the makeshift weapon. She gasped, realizing that he was dying, as she jerked the fork back and her eyes fixed on his. She dropped the handle and backed up as Travis collapsed, his hand reaching for the wounds, twitching and convulsed on the concrete floor.
She backed against the wall, realizing that she had killed someone, and that she had done it on her property. She slid down the wall, and felt the clean pavement under her knees and thighs. From far away, someone was calling her name, and her face was forced to look into a set of green eyes. He held her face in his hands, and she gasped as she began to panic. Her eyes went back to the body, but the hands forced her to look back at the face in front of her.
"Sara! Do not look at it!" Loki shouted at her, and everything came back to her. He opened her purse, using her thumb to unlock her phone and he struggled with it a moment and she tapped the icon to make a phone call for him. He found the entry he was looking for, and he held it to his ear. "Sheriff, it is Sara, she was attacked again by that Travis person... no, he is dead. We are in the barn... Sara stabbed him with a tool of some sort... Yes, I shall stay with her. We will not touch anything, you have my word."
He hung up the phone, and he took her purse off her shoulder. He pulled her close to him, his arms around her and let her sob and cry. He just sat with her, she in his lap and sobbing into his chest. She had killed someone, taken a life, and it was tearing her up. Sara did not know if she would ever come back from the act she did that night.
--‐--‐--
He lay in the bed, staring at the ceiling above him. It was late when the Sheriff left, taking their statements and collecting his evidence. Sara finally calmed enough to tell her side of things, but it took her a long time to do it. She eventually got the story out, and Loki cursed his pride for letting it get that far. She had rejected his advances, and he, like a damned fool, took it to heart.
Her sobs echoed in his head, the way she clung to his arms hard enough to bruise him. And then the moment her crying turned into screams, her throat creating sounds he never thought she could make. He holding her back, and she screamed into his chest as he cradled her head.
He heard a sound through the window then, a thrumming of machinery and he wondered what it was. He rose from his sheets, and saw the barn lights on and someone moving about. He wondered how she had gotten past him, and he pulled a shirt over his head. The gray sweatpants low on his hips as he slipped his feet into the low shoes from Walmart. He hurried, worried what a sleepwalking Sara could get up to.
"Dont let her get hurt." He growled, and he hurried down the stairs. He ran through the front door, and heard a hissing sound under the thrum of a machine as he moved. His pace steady, and he walked to the outbuilding and saw her in a yellow coat of a slick material, and rubberized boots in brown. She aimed a nozzle at the floor, and she pulled a trigger, shooting water on the blood stain on the paved ground. She stopped after a moment, getting onto her hands and knees to scrub at the spot with a heavy brush. She was crying, sobbing again as she worked and he walked to her.
"Sara?" He asked, and she stood up, her hands clutching the brush and tears in her already red eyes. He knew her reaction well, he felt it the first time he went into battle on Asgard. The look in the eyes of the man he killed nearly broke him, the fear and pain, and then the dying of the light behind them. He was sick to his stomach after, heaving the contents of his stomach on the field after the battle ended.
"I... I have to clean this up." She said, and Loki walked over to her. He held his hand out, and she gave him the brush. He lowered himself to his knees then, and began scrubbing the spot with her. She grabbed another brush, and he stopped the back and forth motion of her brush.
"Work in circles, see the whorls in the flooring? Back and forth is causing the bristles to miss the lower grooves left by the crafter." He said, and she began scrubbing in circles with him. Her tears dried as she worked, and he stayed quiet as he set his brush to work. Words were failing him in the moment, and he searched for them as he focused. Instead, he began to sing an old Tavern song from his youth on Asgard. Sara stopped, listening to him, her eyes on him as he finished his song.
"That was pretty, what is it about?" She asked him, and he sat back on his heels and laughed a bit. He began working on her section of the stain, debating if he should answer her.
"It is a scandalous song about a Tavern Wench, it is praising her... rather nice attributes." He answered, and Sara laughed at it. She sat back on her heels next to him, and she started laughing harder. He joined her, and he regarded her as she picked up the hose again and he moved so she could spray the floor. She swept the nozzle from side to side, and soon the stain was gone. The dirty water flowing down the drain in the center of the building.
She turned off the machine, and began rolling up the hose. Her hands shaking from stress and lack of sleep as she worked, and he grabbed the handle of it and she pointed to an old horse stall at the end of the building. He wheeled it down to it, and found the space it went into among other tools. She followed, struggling to hang the orange cord back in its place, and she began to step up on another machine. Loki stopped her, taking it from her and putting it on the hook.
"The family kept horses here at one time, I think my Dad turned this into a garage. He wanted a horse or two though, but Darla refused to let him have one." She said, rambling as she looked at him. He let her, knowing it was taking her mind off the events of the night. She shrugged, and she picked at her thumbnail. "Maybe I could get a horse, have a corral built and stuff. I would like a pet someday, like a real pet. Do you like dogs or cats?"
"I like many animals, I can teach you how to ride a horse. Perhaps you could get two, they would be happy with you as the person caring for them." He said, and her head jerked up and her mouth fell open. "You have a kind heart, I see that in how you care about the cat."
"Thanks." She said, her eyes searching his face and she bit her lip. "Am I evil? Because I killed him?" She asked and he watched her take off the coat, and kick the boots off her feet and she put on a pair of shoes. He shook his head, thinking about her question and he watched her as she shivered and held herself.
"No, because it causes you such grief to have been placed in a position to take that life." He said, leaning against a post. She stood up, swaying on her feet in her pajamas and he smiled at her. "Travis trespassed on your sense of security, he threatened to harm you, possibly would have forced himself on you. You were given no other choice, you had to defend yourself somehow. And as a result of his actions, he was killed in the process."
"I saw his eyes..." She began, suckin in a shaky breath and he stopped her before she could continue.
"I saw yours, and the regret in them at what you had done. If you could have taken it back, you would have. That makes you very far from evil." He said, and she walked to him, and wrapped her arms around him. He stiffened for a moment, and eventually relaxed and returned the embrace. She smelled like a garden in full bloom, and he waited until she let him go to release her. "You need sleep now Sara, more than anything else. It will not help you to deprive yourself of rest, it will only make your emotions more raw."
He lifted her up, carrying her back to the house and to a warm place for her to sleep. She struggled a bit, but gave up the fight as he walked her back to her room. A place to give her overwrought mind solace, a safe place for her heart to heal.