Sara woke closer to noon the next morning in her bed, but it felt warmer than normal. She stared at her mural, trying to figure out why it felt this way when the comforting weight around her waist shifted. The movement made her go still, remembering that he chose to sleep next to her and how she didn't argue about it when he lay down behind her as she curled into a ball on her side. She also remembered what he said, that sex only hurt a little the first time. It felt wonderful, it felt safe, and she wanted it more. She lived with the war inside her head long enough, she wanted to feel this all the time.
It was somewhat arousing too.
She wiggled her toes, and tried to shift away a bit, but the arm tightened around her and she knew in her heart that she couldn't have this with him. She would be abusing her position, and he deserved someone who was not a mess. Someone who was not afraid of their own shadow. Someone better than her.
The arm moved, and she pretended to be asleep to spare his feelings. Loki moving away from her quickly with a sharp inhale of breath, and she heard him stand up. The bed felt colder immediately, and she yawned and streched her back. She opened her eyes, and saw him standing over her and she rubbed her face and sighed.
"I can warm us up some..." She looked at the clock next to the bed and almost went into shock as to how long she slept in. "Lunch. I never sleep this late!"
"You were very emotionally drained, I do not blame you for wanting to stay in bed." He said, and he pressed his lips together. "I promised not to touch you while you slept, it seems my nocturnal self found your presence appealing. I woke up with my arm around you, and I am sorry for breaking that promise."
"I forgive you." She smiled, and reached out and grabbed his index finger. She gave it a squeeze, and his thumb caressed hers hand gently. "I thank you for being honest too. Most men would never have said a thing, I like that you are different that way."
"There are no men like me Sara..." He started, and she laughed at his statement. She shrugged, and shook her head, blushing. She saw the confused look on his face, and she laughed a bit harder at his rection.
"Well yeah, you are a God." She said, and he gave her a warm smile. She streched her back again, a loud sound like a wale mating call coming from her stomach and she tried to silence it with her hands. Loki laughed, and she covered her face and groaned out loud. "I will get cleaned up, and make us some food. I want to make some soup in the Crock Pot for dinner tonight too, we can have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow."
"That sounds very nice." Loki replied, and left her sitting on her bed. She got up herself, making her way to the shower and feeling a bit sad at how depressed he looked sometimes. "We will start after lunch with you learning how to defend yourself as well."
"Wait.. now? I..." She started to protest, and he crossed his arms as he gave her a look that screamed that he meant business. She sighed, and nodded, nervous that he was going to find out how weak she was and exploit it.
"Okay." She mumbled, and got out of bed and watched him leave the room. She fidgeted with her fingers, and bit her lip as she wiggled her toes. "He is going to hate me after this."
--
"Thumb out side your fist, and don't just punch forward, try to punch through my hand." He said, and she nodded as she checked her stance to make sure she was balanced properly. He held his hands up, and she felt sweat trickle down her back as she threw the punch, and connected with his palm. She jerked her hand back, waving it to relieve the sting in her little finger.
"You are hitting with the wrong knuckles, the top two. If you punch with the knuckles on your weakest fingers, you will break them." He said, and he held his hands up and she blinked back tears in frustration. They had been going for over an hour, and she still was not able to throw a proper punch. She was tired, sweaty, and she ached throughout her shoulders and legs.
"I'm tired, can't we take a break? My shoulders hurt too." She whined, and he held his hands up and gave her her targets.
"When you give me a proper punch." He said, and she rubbed her eyes and threw her head back. She clenched her fist and threw the punch, not having her balance right and she slipped and went down on her butt. She sat on the ground, and groaned as he stood over her. She buried her face in her hands, and screamed in frustration.
"I'M NOT MADE FOR THIS YOU ASSHOLE!" She shouted at the top of her lungs and got up, storming toward the house in her shirt and leggings. She slammed the door open, and ran up the stairs to hide in her room and slammed the door behind her. She paced the room, trying not to cry and she wanted to throw something. This was not her, she was a sweetheart, a little girl even, not someone who fought back.
She heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and they stopped in front of her door and she shook. She called him an asshole, he knew she was useless, and now she was dead. He would kill her and claim that it was an accident on the stairs or something. He opened it, walking into her sanctuary, standing in front of her and he pointed a finger at her.
"You need to learn all of this Sara! And you do not walk away during a lesson!" He shouted at her, and she froze as she backed up. He stalked forward, and stood over her and she panicked and cowered back. Her heart richocheted off her chest cavity, and she was sure he had something on her then. He paused, seeing her fear, and let out a breath. His face relaxed, and he took a step back from her.
"I'm not strong like you or anyone else, Darla was right. I'm a weak little mouse, and someone is going to kill me someday." She said, and hung her head. He crossed his arms, and shook his head.
"I think you are afraid to discover what you are capable of, that your fear all comes from the cruelty of your past. You have to take back that power in you, use it to your advantage." He reasoned, and she shook her head and fidgeted with her fingers. She looked at him, and shook her head some more.
"I'm not like you, I'm tiny. I'm not even brave, or anything important for that matter." She said, and he laughed. He leaned forward, shaking his head as he laughed at her statement. She crossed her arms, getting mad at his making fun of her and he rubbed his face.
"Not brave?" He chuckled, looking at her. "I have seen you do some rather brave things. You shot a Coyote that was going to attack me, you chased Travis with a venomous spider in your bare hand, you... you improvised a weapon when you were threatened, you fought back. You have more bravery in you than you can fathom, all you have to do is look inside yourself and find it." He said, and lifted her chin. "Use all the anger you have buried in you, and punch my hand."
"No. This is not for me." She said, and shook her head. She stood in front of him, his eyes on her, and her entire being realizing how pathetic she was. "I'm okay."
"You are not. You are lying to yourself when you say that you are okay. You need to be honest with yourself." He said, his voice like a gunshot in the room and her eyes blinking. He held up his hand, and she shook her head, wanting him to leave so she could take a shower.
"I am, I have to be." She said, swallowing hard. He regarded her for a moment, his lips parting and the tears came. "I have to keep telling myself that I am okay. I have to keep saying it, because, if I don't... then I might not be able to get back up from a very dark place, and I will break under every bit of pressure on me."
"Sara." He said, and she looked at him. He was not judging her, he understood. He knew what she dealt with, because he was there too. She wiped her face, and he raised his hands slowly, and she let a breath out as she stared at him in silence.
"What?" She asked him, and he stepped back. He held his hand up, and he pointed at the palm of it. She found her stance, giving in to his demand, curling her fingers and heard Darla calling her weak and pathetic in her head. She heard the taunts, being called a worm, her mother being called a whore, all of it. She gritted her teeth, and threw the punch, connecting with his hand and he stepped back and shook his palm to relieve the sting. She looked at him, her mouth falling open in shock and she covered her open mouth.
"I... I am so sorry! I did not mean to do it that hard!" She said, and he grinned at her and laughed.
"That was perfect. Think you can do it again?" He asked her and she nodded as he gestured to her shower, she blinked at him and she stared in shock at Loki.
"Go shower, we will pick up again tomorrow. We need to work on your stamina, and your core muscles." He said, and she nodded as he began to leave. He stopped, looking at her and gave her a smile. "You are brave Sara, I know that you are. You are also important, that is why I will not give up on you. I want you to honestly be okay, but not in the way you lie to yourself."
--
She felt so much better after her shower, and her aching muscles did not feel as bad anymore as she walked down the stairs. She found her book in the Library, and was curling in her comfy chair when she heard a truck chugging down the driveway. She set her book aside, and froze. After last night, she was a bit more wary of people coming to the door, and she waited as she heard a beep of something getting scanned and things being shuffled around on the porch.
She heard the doorbell, and then the lumbering of the UPS truck back down the driveway. She let herself relax, but the still gave a cautious look through the beveled glass that was part of the stained glass roses on the front door. She really had to get the gate fixed, then she would be able to close it and keep people like Travis out. She abandoned her book for the moment, and opened the door, looking down to see three packages neatly stacked on the porch and she picked them up and walked back inside. She looked at the larger box, reading the return address and giggled, grinning to herself in excitement and ran up the stairs to her room.
She tore the box open, using whatever sharp instrument she could find to cut the tape, amd kicked the box aside as she pulled the plastic bag with her new coat in it. She saw it online, and it looked like something an Elf in Lord of the Rings would wear, so she splurged on it. She unwrapped the gray wool and fur coat, and she hugged it to herself as she squealed like a teenage girl. She giggled, trying it on, and she found it fit her perfectly. The belled sleeves, edged with white, rabbit fur, and the hood over her back edged the same. Along the ankle length hem, was Celtic designs that trailed up to her waist in, and the sleeves had the same patterns woven into the fabric with silver threads.
She stared at herself in the mirror, closing the hidden zipper, and she turned around as she looked at herself. All she needed was the ears, and she could really rock the DD campaign. She put the hood up, and squealed again as she saw herself. She had never been this giddy over anything in her life, and this was the reason.
"It is beautiful." Loki said, standing in the door. She turned around quickly, startled by the suddenness of his presence, and she saw him pick up the box from the floor. She felt embarrassment creeping up her spine and into her brain as he grinned at her.
"Yeah... I thought I could wear it this Fall and Winter... so... maybe I shouldn't have..." She stammered out, and Loki laughed at her. She pushed the wide hood back, and he sighed as he crossed his arms as he leaned against the doorframe.
"Not many have given you a compliment that was not laced with insults, have they?" He asked her and she stared at him in shock. Her fingers figdeted with one another, and she swallowed hard as she looked around the room. She blinked at him, her mouth dry, and she nodded silently. He walked toward her, putting the hood back up on her head, and he gave her a genuine smile.
"It is very beautiful on you." He said, and touched the white, Rabbit Fur trim. "The color compliments your eyes very well, brings them out really."
"T... Thank you." She said, and he gave her a nod. He picked up the bag, and placed it in the box. Leaving her standing in her room, her thoughts jumbled at the compliments he had given her. A blush crept up her neck, his words echoing through her head as he said them. She covered her face then, finding it hard to deny that he was getting to her, and in a good way.
"I'm so stupid." She groaned, scared that he would end up in a prison somewhere if she gave in. Locked up, and alone for however long he lived. She hated her heart then, because it was a traitor.
And it hurt like hell to know that she wanted something she could never have.
--
"Troublesome sentiment." He muttered to himself, reading the book in his hands. But the Princess Bride kept becoming Sara, and he was becoming Westly. Giving her the moon on a necklace of stars if he could, his eyes scanning each page of the book by William Goulding. He turned the page, reading Miracle Max's speech about what to do if a person was fully dead, and gave a laugh at the absurdity of it.
He enjoyed her collection of books, and respected her care for them above all. He read quite a bit of the cataloge around him, the Graphic Novels giving his some issue, the one called Sandman was a fantastic set of stories though. He also enjoyed Strangers in Paradise, and found the ending between the two friends satisfying. Sara collected these books for some reason or another, and he treated them all with the same care that she did, as if he were holding a part of her soul in his hands.
He crossed his ankles on the Ottoman in the Library, and laughed harder at the conversation when he heard the doorbell chime. Sara answered it, and he heard the hyperactive squeals of Emily as she walked in.
"Bitch! I would have come earlier, but Mark insisted that I just give you space! Now what the fuck are you doing?" The redhead shouted, and he heard Sara struggling with something. He stood up, walking to the hall, and she was trying to move a large, wooden cabinet. Mark sighed as Amy walked in and gave her a motherly hug, Robert looking at the cabinet and back at Sara.
"I'm fine, thanks for asking. Could you help me get this into the Den?" She asked the guys, and he saw how she had polished the wood using a bottle of linseed oil. "I got it up from the basement, but I ran out of steam getting it here. I had all this weird energy after Loki taught me how to fight this morning."
"He is teaching you how to fight? Awesome! You guys can use the Gym if you want." Mark said, and Emily walked over and wrapped her arms around Loki. He stiffened up, and eventually returned the embrace.
"Teach her how to kick some ass Spooky!" Emily said, and he laughed a bit as she let him go. Her firey curls bouncing as she grinned at Mark, and the look said she was onto something.
"Yeah, but what the hell is it?" Robert asked, dropping the current conversation and he waved Loki over. They each took a side, and moved it into the room. They set it down on the carved feet, and Sara thought about where to put the heavy piece of furniture. She pointed toward a corner in the bay window, they got it in place and Sara smiled at it as she put a chair and low table next to it.
"It is damned heavy, that is what it is." Loki groaned, and Sara rolled her eyes as she walked over to the cabinet and put a key into the front of it. She opened it up, lifting the lid and she pulled a metal disc with notches in it out of a yellowed, parchment slipcase. She screwed the disc in place, carefully laying a brass arm over it, and securing it to the center post.
"Darla hated this thing, but I loved it. It is a Polyphone!" She said, and took a hand crank out of the cabinet she inserted into a hole on the side of the cabinet, and turned it gently. They could hear clicking from a mechanism inside the cabinet, and she stopped when the crank would not turn anymore.
"You mean a damn heavy musicbox?" Mark laughed, and she rolled her eyes. And released a lever and the box began to play a melody as the disc turned in it.
"This one belonged to my Great, Great, Great Grandmother. She brought it to the country when they immigrated in 1903. It still has her name engraved in the brass plate." She said, and she let it play on. She pointed to the plate, and Emily read it. "They were popular in Germany and much of Europe. She has more discs, and I am so glad it still works."
"To my sweet Eliza Pruitt, with all my love Charles Pruitt. That is so sweet, and romantic!" Emily said, and Sara laughed as she stopped the music and closed up the cabinet. She left the brass key in the lock, and shrugged. Loki watching her as she picked up a large tome and she opened. Inside were photographs of different people, and she showed them one in black and white.
"That is Eliza, and that is Charles. She died of typhus at fourty four, she had four boys." She turned the page, and there was photos of the four men. "Andrew, Michael, Edmund, and John. They married, but Edmund was the only son to survive and inherit the Pruitt Fortune. All this was built on a shipping empire that still goes on today."
"This is cool! Where did you find this book Sara?" Amy asked, turning the page and there were more photographs. Loki studied them all, and he saw a portrait of Sara. She was wearing a soft green dress, and sitting in a chair. She smiled slightly, and the photographer captured her in the perfect morning light. The golden glow on her face, and making her features a soft as they looked in real life.
"It was up in the Office. Along with the key to the Polyphone, I was cleaning some stuff out when I found it. Sort of wild that I ended up included in the Family History, it tells me that my Dad kept it up." She said, and Amy turned the page to unfold a family tree. There were miniature photographs or just names written in the spaces, and he found her entry. A small portrait of a child Sara smiling at them as it had the date of her birth written under it.
"Jesus Sara! You are a descendent of William the Conquerer! You have Royal Blood in you!" Emily laughed, and Robert bowed to her. "Elizabeth of York too! This goes back generations!"
"Fuck me! Do I bow or do I curtsy?" Robert joked and Amy elbowed him in the ribs. Loki traced his fingers over the names, and studied them all as his eyes followed his fingers.
He squinted at the tree, and he saw a name that got his attention among all of them. He tapped it, and let out a long breath in shock. Mark squinted at the faded ink, and Sara saw it too.
"Jessinia Pruitt. I read about her." Sara said, and shook her head. "She was executed as a Witch during the Burning Times at age twelve. The accusations near destroyed the family, and they had to flee Germany for Ireland."
"I was at that execution." Loki said, and everyone stared at him. He felt shame at not saving Sara's ancestor, and he lowered his eyes. "She was brave until her last breath, never begged for mercy, or wept as the other women and girls did. I was angry that an innocent girl should be treated as such, but she kept her pride."
"How many other relatives of mine did you visit?" Sara asked, and he gave a laugh as her look. "It is wild to think you are as old as you are, you were probably alive when the Roman Empire collapsed."
"He does have one of those faces, he could be in his twenties, or he could be way older." Emily said, and crossed her arms as she raised her eyebrows at him. "Put a pair of glasses on him, hot Professor Vibes."
"Irish! Down girl!" Amy laughed, and Loki snorted at them as Robert laughed to himself.
"I am not that old, but I have lived a great while." He said and Emily laughed at an image she had in her head. She threw her head back, and Mark kissed her cheek as Sara carefully folded the vellum back up and closed the book.
"He is an Archeological Dig!" Emily squealed, laughing as Mark tickled her and holding her stomach. Sara held the book in her arms, and blinked. And he could tell that she had a question on her mind. And then he could see the memory of the potion, and he knew then that she was kept in the dark about what it had done to her.
"How long will I live? Can you see the future and tell that stuff?" She asked, and she hugged the book to her chest tighter. Loki knew then that he couldn't lie to her then, and he let out a long breath.
"The average lifespan of an Asgardian is five thousand years, give ot take. You have a bit over four thousand years left, thanks to the potion you were given, I would have thought that Odin would have told you about this." He replied, the look in her eyes making him feel rage as she shook her head to indicate a no. Everyone blinked between the two of them, and Emily gasped in shock. Her mouth fell open, and she shook her head harder, his eyes watching Sara as she hugged the book tighter.
"He lied to you by omission!" Amy shouted, and Sara nodded as she stood in in her spot. "That old bastard! He only told you that the serum would cure the cancer, I was there when he talked to you. He didn't say that you would have millenia to live!"
"Holy shit Sara, you okay?" Mark asked, amd she just held the book. The color drained from her face and Robert ran over, her body falling backwards ans she collapsed to the rug. Loki vaulted the couch, and caught her shoulders, keeping her head from striking the floor as Robert grabbed her waist as they both lowered her gently.
"Sara!" Emily shrieked, and Amy patted her cheek. She dug in her purse, finding a capsule, breaking it in half and waving it under her nose. Sara jerked awake, cringing at the smell as her color returned and shook her head. She stared up as Loki, and he realized he was cradling her cheek in his hand, he moved back and Robert helped her sit up.
"Shit girl, don't ever do that to us again." Robert groaned, and she sat on the rug and blinked as she looked at her friends.
"Hey, you may have a long life because Spooky needs someone to keep him from burning this house down. And... it makes me feel better to go when I do, knowing someone will remember us." Robert said, and Sara hugged him. Loki felt a gnawing in his stomach though, anger claiming him at Odin lying to an innocent girl to gain his own ends. If he could, he would make Odin pay for all of his lies.
He clenched a fist, and gritted his teeth as he saw a shadow of a woman flit across the room. He looked at it, and felt the cold breeze pass him as he relaxed his hand. He would still make Odin pay, but he was not sure how, the cold cuff around his wrist a reminder of how powerless he was.