Tara was out for an early-morning jog when her phone buzzed with the latest unusual wish request. She didn't check it until she'd finished her routine loop – her boss loved to set a time delay on emails so they'd be first in her inbox that morning. There was no requirement to open it until she was in office, but Tara appreciated having some light reading for breakfast.

Once she'd opened the attached file, she was glad she'd done so while still at home. While her last few special cases had been difficult, this one was a whole new level of atypical.

Audrey Belvins, age five. Wish: to hear about the "real stories" from Loki, brother of Thor (parents read her mythology picture books)

There'd been many requests to meet Thor when he was on-world. Tara used to coordinate them through Pepper Potts since the god of thunder was known to stay frequently enough in Avengers Mansion. Thor's genuine enjoyment of the visits had increased the number of wishes he received and fulfilled to the point he'd needed his own point person and handler. Tony threw a fit when he found out, calling the large god "competition." Tara and Pepper had both just rolled their eyes at him.

That said, Thor was notorious for being hard to contact when he wasn't in the company of the Avengers seeing as he didn't carry a cell phone. Then again, it wouldn't matter when he went off-world anyway. Tara fired off a quick text to Tony as she continued to read over the questionnaire responses that had been submitted by the little girl's parents. She had a response before she was finished– it was signed off from JARVIS, confirming that Thor was not present on Earth and when he would return was unknown.

There went her most direct option towards being able to research Loki, let alone contact him.

Time to go old school.

Tara started with the library. It wasn't that she didn't trust the internet. The New York Public Library had extensive archives, and considering the long lifespan and presence of the Norse gods throughout recorded history, Tara wanted to start with a strong foundation. She admittedly didn't know much about the Norse pantheon until after Thor's public debut. Her favorites had always been the Greco-Romans, but much of the allure wore off when she went down the rabbit hole of wondering if they were real, too.

[Note to self: if Zeus real, automatic DENY on any request.]

The point was, before Tara tried finding out how to reach Loki, she first wanted to get a better understanding of who he was and if she even should contact him.

Her hours bouncing between the fiction sections and battling the Dewey decimal system left her with two conclusions: all mythology was dramatic, and Loki & Thor were seemingly at the center of most of the drama within their pantheon. The books she found ranged from dry comparisons between different translations of older texts, colorful picture books and graphic novels, and even a few of the epics themselves that waxed lyrical about the gods and their heroes. Loki was a lot of things: frost giant, shapeshifter, gender-fluid, sorcerer…. Tara didn't want to dwell on the fact that they'd allegedly given birth to a horse with eight legs, but that seemed on-par with what the Norse myths didn't blink an eye at.

Still, even with all of that– Loki was chaotic, for sure. But they didn't seem malicious, and certainly not towards children.

Background cemented, she left all the books in the return bin except for one that she checked out and brought home: an older tome that had a layer of dust on the plastic jacket when she pulled it off the shelf, but with ink and watercolor depictions of all the main players and central stories. She wanted to have something on hand as extra reference, and she could finish reading through its pages before she went to sleep each night.

At home, she began her online search and immediately had to start sifting through what could be considered credible or not. There were numerous forums related to theories about the Norse pantheon living among them, both tracing their visits to Earth (or Midgard, as she now knew of the Nine Realms) through historical documents and tracking their movements in modern times. She found conversations about cover-ups involving magic in World War II, of strange lightning storms in the 2000s– there was even a small but loud minority that claimed a famous pop star was one of these Asgardians.

It was only in the pre-morning hours that she finally stumbled onto a lucky break. The catalyst was, strangely enough, a tattoo design on Pinterest. The intricate curved lines on the person's bicep reminded Tara of Celtic knots or gnarled tree roots, but the caption beneath the image simply had the emojis for a lightning bolt and a rainbow. A reverse image search pulled up several reposts, but the last result was too blurry to make out. It was much clearer on its source site, another nondescript forum, and there were multiple images to go along with it. The grainy satellite footage was of a more intricate version of the tattoo's design, but this time scorched into the dry ground.

And then came the scattered rumors in the comments there and on other sites, all with similar points of discussion. Armored individuals. A giant robot. Localized supercells and dry lightning. A blinding columnar rainbow. Magic.

She scrambled back to her borrowed book and flipped to the colorful dual-page depiction of the rainbow bridge that connected the Nine Realms: the Bifrost. There was an inked silhouette of a lone figure standing at the edge of the bridge to everywhere and nowhere, and Tara nearly jumped with glee as she read the tiny description at the bottom corner of the right page.

Heimdall, guardian of the Bifrost, sees all who seek to enter the realm of Asgard.

Bingo.

Tara drove upstate, following the directions on her phone's GPS app to a lone field she'd spotted when looking for a suitably rural area. There were no buildings of any kind around for miles, and hopefully no one around to see what she was up to either. She sat in her car for several minutes, staring at her notepad as she went over her loose plans once more.

Maybe it was crazy. Maybe she was crazy.

…still, it was worth a shot.

She left the car and walked towards the center of the field. Her hands dropped limply to her sides as she tipped her head back to look at the partly cloudy sky.

"Um… right. Heimdall, I beseech thee. I ask not for transport, but for you to pass on a message. I seek audience with Loki Laufeyjarson, god of mischief and fire. A sick child has requested their presence as a wish to boost her spirit." She paused, feeling slightly self-conscious and silly for speaking to nothing. "I don't know if you can hear me, or if Loki is even within your reach, but if you can help me find them, I would be grateful and…" She paused again, knowing the weight of her next words. "And in your debt. You have my thanks."

She stood there for some time, not knowing if she should wait a while to receive a response or not. As she watched the clouds pass by and sun continue its path towards the west, however, she realized how unlikely it was that anything actually occur that quickly. If her request had even been heard at all.

She remained until she reached a full hour, enjoying the warm day, sunshine, and absence of city sounds. Then she headed home.

Her conversation with Heimdall recessed in the back of her mind as she went back to her normal work routine in the meantime: family outreach, screening requests, and drafting social media and press releases for some of the latest visits and donations she had been involved with. News had broke about the large donation Tony Stark had made to upgrade a local hospital's physical therapy facilities and staffing after his latest World of Wishes visit, so she made a note to reach out to Pepper soon to get a statement on his behalf.

"Tara!" She looked up to see her boss Kirsten pop her head into her office to see if she was busy. "Do you have a moment? I just wanted to check in with you."

Tara shrugged. "Sure, just give me a moment to finish this thought."

"Of course!"

Tara vaguely registered Kirsten close her office door behind her, noting it as odd since that was something she tended to only do during their quarterlies. The concern was fleeting, however, and Tara pushed her laptop slightly to the side when she was ready to speak.

"Was there anything specific you wanted us to cover?" She asked. It was normal for Kirsten to check in during work hours, but tended to do so over their messaging system since she could do so during meetings.

"I promise it's nothing unusual," Kirsten smiled at her. "I just wanted to check in about how your recent requests were going, considering their, 'uniqueness,' shall we say."

Tara nodded easily. "Ah, gotcha. They've all gone exceedingly well, actually! Since they were discrete, we've only received feedback from the families and the child life units, and they've only passed along good things. Other than that, the three most recent ones I've screened have been for Tony Stark though, so looks like he'll be our top wish fulfiller of the year again."

Kirsten's smile was a bit tight, but Tara brushed it off. Tony was certainly an 'acquired taste' personality-wise.

"That's great to hear on all counts! Do you have those scheduled?

"I just sent a message to his team, hopefully I'll hear back by tomorrow about the first one at least."

"Awesome, thanks Tara. The only other thing I had was about the request from the other week? You know," she lowered her voice, "the one for Thor's brother?"

Tara's response was somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. "Nothing to report yet. I'm just waiting to hear back on a lead, but it's probably nothing."

Kirsten nodded in understanding. "Well, keep me posted! And let me know if you need anything from me."

"Will do," Tara replied, waving back as Kirsten opened the door and left her to her work.

She didn't think much of the interaction until later that day as she was on her way to the break room to heat up her lunch. She returned a smile to her boss in the hallway and planned to continue walking until she heard Kirsten call her name. She turned curiously.

"Hey, any chance you have an update on when Tony Stark can fulfill these latest requests?"

Tara's curiosity faded quickly into confusion, something cold settling in her gut. "But… you just asked me in my office a little while ago?" She unhelpfully gestured back the way she'd come.

Kirsten peered at her in concern. "Are you feeling alright, Tara? You know you can take off sick for the rest of the day if you need to."

Tara shook her head and apologized in a daze, brushing past her boss and returning to her office. She set her cold lunch on her desk, staring blankly at where she swore Kirsten had stood several hours earlier.

Or had she?

Tara slipped her phone out of the pocket of her leggings, unlocking it and opening her recent text messages. The name she was looking for was near the top, and Tara opened the contact to call her. At least luck seemed on her side now, because the phone only rang three times before it was answered.

"Oui?" The chatter in the background was reminiscent of a large city, but the faint sirens Tara could hear were noticeably not of New York City.

"Are you in France right now?" She questioned incredulously, letting it distract her for a moment.

"S'agit-il d'une urgence?" The voice grew tense, and the sirens sounded a lot closer than before.

Tara didn't know French per say, but she could guess that urgence probably meant something close to 'urgent' or 'emergent,' considering the context. "Right, sorry. I think someone shapeshifted to be my boss to ask me about a case, but it sounds like it wasn't you."

"C'est exact." Mystique definitely sounded concerned now. A few murmured apologies filtered through the speaker– Tara assumed she was slipping through a crowd. "La transformation, ou la magie?"

Changing shape, or magic?

Tara sucked in a sharp breath. "Yeah. I'm… gonna go home. Have fun evading the French police."

Mystique laughed, light and airy. It was so unlike her that Tara knew others must be within hearing. "Je le ferai. Merci." The call cut off as she hung up.

She was going to deal with this later, and on her own turf.

Eating spaghetti with a light-colored blanket on your lap was always a gamble, but Tara didn't particularly care about the odds today. She'd switched straight into her comfy home clothes once the front door was locked and bolted and was determined to huddle in a nest of blankets and watch television for the rest of the day. She'd seen this particular show numerous times before, but it was nice to lose herself in it mindlessly as she swirled the noodles around in the red sauce without spilling a drop.

The tapping at her window continued for several minutes before it entered her bubble of awareness. She was expecting a knock on her door, after all. It was only after the pings were accompanied with a weak cawing that she finally twisted around to see what the source was.

To her surprise, she saw a crow huddled on the ridge of her building that sat right beneath her windows. There looked to be something wrong with its wing; it was bent at an odd angle with several feathers missing.

Tara didn't know anything about birds, let alone healing them, but she could at least let it inside while she searched for an available animal rehabber. She didn't want it to fall from this height when it couldn't fly!

She untangled herself from her blankets to get up and open the window next to the crow. She didn't want to accidentally hit it while trying to help. The window opened up and out at an angle, but it gave enough space for her to reach her arms out and lift the bird up. It cawed again and pecked at her hand lightly, as if curious. Maybe it was– crows were infamously smart. She set it down on her kitchen counter and it shook its body almost like a dog to right itself.

"That's better," she smiled successfully. "Now just… stay there while I search for someone who can help you out. Yeah? Good bird." She turned back to the couch to retrieve her phone from the mess of blankets. "I guess I should search for places that accept corvids specifically… or is it cervids? Pretty sure it's corvid…"

A low chuckled sounded from behind her. Tara froze.

"You'd be correct."

Tara whirled around as adrenaline raced through her, knees bending slightly and hands raised defensively.

Where the injured crow had been moments before, now a tall, lean raven-haired man in a long, jade duster coat stood leaning against her countertop. He watched her lazily with bright emerald eyes and a sly smirk.

"Ms. Knight," he said smoothly, his teeth glinting pearly white as his mouth widened into a smile. "Heimdall said you wished to speak with me?"

Tara stared at the intruder blankly. "What. The fuck."

The man's brow furrowed slightly. "Beg pardon?"

"Beg pardon?" Tara parroted. "Beg your pardon!" Her arms dropped as she started shaking in fury. "That was you at my work, pretending to be my boss, wasn't it? You've been stalking me! I was expecting you to shapeshift into another person, but turning into a bird to get into my apartment? Who do you think you are, Zeus?!"

His subtle amusement faded abruptly at her last comparison. "How dare you compare me to that lecher?"

"Why shouldn't I? As reactions to birds turning into men go, this is fairly reasonable!" She paused, chest heaving from shouting. "You were at my work earlier. Why not do this," she gestured at his now-humanoid form, "then?"

He raised a mocking eyebrow, gaze roving over her heated stance. "Yes, I wonder why," he said scathingly.

Tara huffed, unimpressed. "You will not blame me for this." She stopped again, eyes narrowed. "You said Heimdall told you?"

The intruder scoffed but nodded once, sharply.

Tara took a steadying breath, not moving her gaze off of (allegedly) Loki, god of mischief. "Can I offer you a drink while I grab the folder?"

He observed her with suspicion. "I doubt you have anything–"

"It's an '05 Bordeaux. Gift from Tony Stark."

Loki paused. "I supposed a glass would be acceptable."

"Great!" She certainly needed one to process that a bird-turned-god was standing in her kitchen.

A/N: so... hi? 3 I did not die! I finished visiting all 50 states, quit my job and started graduate school lol.

I added chapter names! They fit the theme of the fic title :) And as always- I appreciate any character suggestions in the comments! Been having some difficulty with Marvel because I feel the tone of the universe is a lot more serious than DC (metahumans are a lot more normalized, vs Marvel having mutants = civil rights, actual WWII Nazis, etc.).