AN: I'm baaaack. I know, I know, I'm a piece of garbage for making you wait this long. I moved across the country to Boston from Oklahoma and I don't know anyone out here and it has been an adjustment that I'm still not all the way adjusted too.

Anywhoo

I do not own Marvel,

Read, Review, and Enjoy!

Chapter Seven

"Guards!" the man on the throne yelled.

Steve turned to keep both Odin and Loki in his eyesight. His shoulders tensed as armed guards came into the throne room.

"Shit" I mumbled as the sound of several people came into the room. I glanced at Loki again and took in just how chained up he was. Our eyes made contact and his eyebrow rose as if challenging me to say something. The guards all turned and pointed their weapons towards us and I turned my gaze away from him.

Summing courage I slipped out from under Steve's arm and made my way to in front of the throne. Making sure I ignored the weapons trained on me, and the growl that I heard from Loki at having said weapons pointed at me.

The heat of having all of the eyes in the room was burning me as I nodded my head in respect towards what I was praying to well Thor, that she was Frigga. "Queen Frigga" I began, raising my head to look her in the eyes. "I'm-"

"Scarlett!" I heard a friendly voice boom and relief flooded me. "Steve!"

I turned and gave Thor a huge grin, "Thor!"

Thor shook Steve's hand and the two of them joined me in front of Thor's parents.

Thor enveloped me into a hug. "It's good to see you," he said. "Are you here for Loki's sentencing?"

I opened my mouth to reply but was caught with the stench of him. "Ew" I squealed, "You stink"

Thor chuckled and he broke the hug, "I was busy fighting," he said.

I pushed him lightly on the chest, "I can tell, wait sentencing?"

Thor nodded and motioned his head towards Loki, "my father is delivering his sentence"

I turned towards Loki as Thor turned to his parents. I wanted to say something but I was so aware of how many people were in the room. So instead I sought out Steve's hand. Steve's hand clasped mine and I leaned against his shoulder as I turned back towards Thor.

"These are my friends from Midgard" Thor said. "They are-"

"They are trespassers" The man who I am guessing is Odin stood up and yelled. "They were not invited here"

I rocked back on my heels, content to let the boys figure out what was going on. I was out of my depth here and I needed to let Thor handle his parents.

My attention was drawn again however, despite how hard I tried to ignore it, to Loki standing there. He was in the corner with his arms crossed. I glanced at the Loki in chains and then back to the Loki who was glaring at me, an eyebrow raised. "When did you become so passive" he said.

I opened my mouth to retort but I stopped, it was bad enough I talked to this figment when I was alone; I wasn't going to start responding in public.

"You know the punishment for coming here uninvited" Odin's voice drew my attention back.

Heat ran through me at this statement, "punishment?" I scoffed as I let go Steve's hand. "Does it look like we wanted to be here"?

Thor glanced down at me and I swore I saw a small smile flit through his face.

Odin opened his mouth but I knew if I stopped I wasn't going to start again.

"We were dragged here" I spoke over him, motioning to Steve, "by some unknown force from Earth. Thor clearly knows us so we aren't a threat. All we want to get back to Earth"

"Enough!" Odin yelled "guards!"

Steve grabbed my wrist as two soldiers walked towards us

I glanced at Thor "Father" he said.

Steve held out his hand to the guards, "no need" he said "we understand" as the two of us started to walk out of the throne room.

Apparently our compliance wasn't good enough for the guards as the one closest to me grabbed my upper arm. Chains rattled and I glanced over at my shoulder to meet Loki's eyes for what felt like the millionth time tonight. There was a moment where I swear I saw something like possession in those jade green eyes at my being manhandled.

This wasn't supposed to be this way. We were going on a date, a nice normal date. Not swept away to Asgard to be escorted out by some pretentious king whose head is so far up his.

No

I stopped in my tracks. The only way I was going to get him to listen was to get his attention. I pieced together a very very sketchy plan to find a way to get his attention. Hoping that Thor wasn't just bullshitting us with this.

"Please work," I whispered as I stuck my hand out and wished that I wasn't about to make an utter fool out of myself.

Power surged ran through me as Mjonir made contact with my outstretched hand. I shook off both Steve and the guard's hands and walked right back up Thor and Odin.

Odin leaned forward in his throne and grabbed his staff.

"Listen here" I growled as I gave Thor back Mjonir. "I have had to deal with Thor being banished to my world, have had to clean up the mess that he and Loki made in New Mexico. I fought against Loki while he invaded my world. I buried friends and family. I watched my world destroyed because of your sons twice." My chest heaving as I took another breath "And now I have been dragged here, I have been disrespected and ushered out of here when the truth is that I have done more parenting to your children than you have. So Steve and I are going to go, Thor is going to show us the way to where we will return to Earth and hopefully never see each other again."

I turned and walked back down the steps, my head held high as I felt something uncurl in me as I made my way back towards Steve. For the first time in almost a year, I felt like the old me.

Loki took a step to the side, standing right in my path. "Clara" he breathed.

"Loki" I mummed.

Loki reached out towards me and for a moment, just a second I swear. I was going to let him.

Then I remembered, I remembered how long it took to clean up New York, we still weren't even done. I remembered the nightmares the ones I loved and how they couldn't sleep through the night. I remembered Phil.

"I have an eidetic memory." I breathed out looking up at him, "Which means that I remember everything that I read. Which means I will never forget the names of the hundreds who died because of your actions."

Loki didn't reply but he didn't break my gaze either, his hand withdrawing as I side stepped him and made my way towards Steve.

"Lets go home," I said as we headed towards the door.

Steve and I walked out of the throne room. I led him to around the corner before I leaned against the wall. "Ho-ly crap" placing my hands on my knees.

"You were amazing" Steve said.

I met his eyes and gave a wobbly smile, "you think?" I asked, "I'm still convinced we might actually be killed."

"How did you do the thing with his hammer?" Steve asked.

I took a deep breath as I calmed myself down from the encounter, from talking to Loki. "I had moved it before, didn't really know it was special till New York. Then I closed my eyes and wished"

Steve pulled me upright and enveloped me in a bone-crushing hug.

I wrapped my arms around his middle, and rested my head on his shoulder.

We heard Thor chuckling and we broke apart to see him. "That was spectacular," he laughed.

"Really?" I asked, "cause I was pretty sure that we were about to die"

"Well, the punishment for trespassing is execution, but since you wielded Mjonir, your lives have been spared." Thor said.

"So lets not push it and head home," Steve said.

I looked up at him, "I couldn't agree more"

We walked out of the castle in silence, us trailing behind Thor. I couldn't help but take in the how beautiful the castle was. I slipped my phone out and started snapping a few pictures. I had no idea how my phone was working, but I wasn't asking questions. This was breathtaking.

We continued, Thor and Steve catching up while I continued to capture the beauty of Asgard. I was actually feeling the itch in my hand to draw.

"Heimdall" Thor greeted, "how goes it"

My gaze was torn from the golden walls to the golden gatekeeper.

"Very well my prince, it is finally nice to meet you Lady Stark and Captain" Heimdall answered.

"Likewise" I said as Steve nodded.

"We are sending our friends back to Midgard" Thor said.

"DC" Steve added.

"Please" I said to the gatekeeper with a smile.

Heimdall nodded his head. "Of course my prince"

Heimdall picked his sword. "My son" I heard a female call.

The trio of us turned to see Queen Frigga walking towards us.

"Mother" Thor replied.

"I was wondering if I could borrow Clara?" she asked looking towards me.

"Oh" I replied surprised that she wanted to talk to me. "Ya sure, I guess" I shot Steve a quick what the hell look as I walked towards her majesty.

"Go ahead" Frigga said to her son, "I'll have Heimdall send her down when we've finished."

I shot a look towards Steve, "mam, I think your husband made it pretty clear that we needed to leave immediately." He said.

Frigga waved away our concern, "nonsense" she said.

"I'll be fine" I said to Steve, I walked over and gave his hand a squeeze.

"See you soon" he replied with a smile and a quick kiss on the cheek.

Heimdall opened the bifrost and Steve walked through it.

"Are you and the Captain together?" Thor asked.

My cheeks felt hot as I nodded. "Tonight was our first date," I confirmed.

"Mother, may I formally introduce you to Lady Scarlett" Thor said with a huge sweeping arm movement. "A warrior and my friend"

My lips quirked in a smile. "Thanks for that introduction"

"Scarlett?" Frigga said "not Clara?"

I took a deep breath. "Clara is my first name, but I go by Scarlett. Um your majesty?" I tacked on at the end.

Frigga nodded her head in understanding, "there is no need for formalities, as you put it, you've been parenting my children more than I have."

I closed my eyes in embarrassment, "I didn't mean it that way"

"Come" Frigga said, "I think we have much to discuss"

I nodded my head and dropped my eyes to the ground. This is what I got for yelling at the freaking king and queen of Asgard.

"I will leave you two to your conversation" Thor said, winding his hammer to take him across the rainbow bridge.

"Go take a bath!" I call to him as he took off to the castle.

With Thor gone, my ability to hide behind at least one person I hadn't offended was gone.

I turned to face Queen Frigga, "mam" I began

Frigga had a kind smile on her face, and I knew that this was the reason Loki held her in such high esteem.

"There is no need to be worried, my dear," she said extending her hand out towards me. I smiled in return and grasped her hand.

Our surroundings changed the moment that I grabbed her hand. I released it the moment that I was sure that I wasn't going to vomit.

"Apologies, traveling like that for someone who hasn't before can be quite difficult." Frigga said.

I put my hand on whatever was next to me, a desk it seemed to be, to stop the dizziness. I looked down and noticed that my hand was on a necklace. My necklace. I picked it up and let the charm dangle in front of me. The crescent moon that had diamonds on it. I lost it back in New Mexico, I thought when the Destroyer came into the town it was destroyed. Apparently someone had nicked it before then.

"My son came back from seeing his brother" Frigga said noticing the necklace, "and he came back with this necklace."

I crumpled the necklace in my hand. "Is this why you wanted to talk to me?" I asked.

"It is" Frigga said.

I bit my lip and turned around to survey this room. It was Loki's bedroom. He hadn't been in here since New Mexico if that necklace was still there. That seemed like a lifetime ago, for both of us.

"This is," I asked

"It is" Frigga said as she reached towards a stack of papers. "you know, I thought for sure I was going to have a daughter in a short time." She handed me the piece of paper she was looking for.

Heat crept up my neck as I took in what was on that piece of paper. Loki had sketched me, in a dress. An Asgardian dress of green and gold. It was clear that oki has meant it as a future design for me to wear.

"Queen Frigga" I said turning to face her, "I" I began and then stopped. What the hell, there wasn't anyone here that I was worried about knowing this. "I'm not going to lie. When we met, I felt a connection that I hadn't felt with someone in a long time. And then he lied to me, and he destroyed a town to kill his brother. Then he healed me when I was dying and tried to take over my world. I can't lie to you and say when I look at him I don't still feel that connection. But the good doesn't out way the bad."

I watched a sad smile settle on Frigga's face. "I see he picked a good one to love"

I was pretty sure my entire face was red at hearing Frigga's words.

"My son will spend the rest of his days locked in the cell." She informed me.

My head snapped up, "what?" I asked.

"That is the punishment my husband has decided"

Relief that at least he wasn't going to die rushed through me. Then anger at this situation. "Then why bring me here?" I asked, "Why show me this" waving the picture to here.

"Because I needed to know if there was someone else besides me who cares for my son." She replied.

I looked down at the picture that made sense I guess, while it sucked on my side, if it was my child…

"I think I'm ready to go home now" I said softly to her.

"Do you want to see him?" she asked.

AN: Does she want to see him? Who is ready for the Scarlett/Loki talk, if she is brave enough to face him that is.

Let me know your thoughts and opinions in the box below!