She was meant to be nothing more than a distraction. On his colder days he might even have used the word 'plaything'. She wasn't supposed to mean anything…the first time she wasn't even supposed to have a name.

Loki had discovered the secret pathways between the realms and they had been an escape. He had viewed them as a salvation in a way. When he could not bear Asgard a moment longer. When he needed to be gone from Odin, from Thor, from his brother's friends…when he needed freedom or perhaps it was solitude. The pathways combined with a cloaking spell to hide from Heimdall and he could drop the mask, stop the lies, and be himself, whoever that was, however much pain went with that.

Midgard had been chosen simply as a realm in which he would not be known nor recognized as anything different or otherworldly.

And he had met her. Blonde and beautiful, kindhearted and fun. It was supposed to be just one night. And then he would move on and forget about her. Just as Thor forgot so easily about the various maidens he meant in his travels.

They had made plans to meet again, but he had only agreed to them so he might be gone that much quicker. He never had meant to keep them.

Loki had returned to Asgard. But something drew him back. He found himself thinking of her, remembering her. The way she smiled at him and the way she looked at him. The image plagued him. No matter how he strived to ignore it, it would always return, stronger each time.

And so he found himself back again in her town, in this small cramped business he heard dubbed a 'diner'. And as he sat at a corner table and watched her, he realized what it was that had brought him back.

She was fair and she was kind, but he hadn't returned for either of those reasons. He returned because of the way she brightened as she saw him entered and how even as she served the other customers, her gaze always and continually returned to him. She was focused on him. Her attention was on him completely as it had been the day she had spotted him across the shop and approached him.

No one looked at him in that way or ever had, as if he was the most important person in the room. It was a look he had seen given many times to Thor but never to himself. Even Frigga, try as she might to make him feel included, could not say she had ever given him that look. He could never be a priority for her. The very fact that she had to make a special effort to include him showed how futile the effort really was. But this woman wasn't making an effort; it wasn't a task or her good deed for the day. It was obvious, that as far as she was concerned, at least for tonight, he was the most important person in her vicinity.

The sensation felt…intoxicating. And as the evening dragged on the intoxication grew.

As the diner closed up for the night, he meant her out back, determined, desperate, hungry. She was hardly out the back door when he'd pulled her to him and was kissing her.

There had certainly been women before. But with each and every one of them he had known they were only there with him because Thor had chosen someone else for the night. Even Sif, the only woman he had ever looked at with real interest had quickly made her preferences clear. Just another person who saw Thor and could not spare Loki a second look afterwards.

But this woman had never met Thor and she never would. She would never hear tales of the great feats of valor that his brother performed. She would never whistle the stupid ballads that various bards had composed to Thor's honor.

Maybe the deck was stacked in Loki's favor for that. But for now he would take it. Because this feeling of wonderment was like a drug. He needed it. He'd been so long without attention, without someone's focus, without unconditional approval, that as he tasted it now, it fired his blood and left a yearning to feel more of it.

She broke the kiss but did not pull away from him. Instead, smiling up into his eyes she said, "There's a disco in the next town over."

"What?" he blinked down at her, the unfamiliar word bringing him back to his surroundings.

"Come on. You can drive. Or I can if you didn't bring your car. I want to dance with you."

"Why?"

"Because you're the only person I've ever met that I've wanted to dance with. I want to do everything there is to do with you. What better reason could there be than that? " She disentangled herself from his arms and taking his hand, led him towards her vehicle. As they got in and she turned the key, she smiled back at him. "I honestly didn't think you were going to come tonight."

"I said I would."

"Yes. But I've known liars before. But it was wrong to think you might be one. You're not. There's something about you. You're special. And I've felt special ever since the day we met. And I've never felt more special than I do now."

"Meredith…"

She beamed even more. "You remember my name."

"Yes Meredith…er…"

She laughed. "Quill. But that's alright. First name is already a start."

"I'm not special. And I do lie."

"We all lie once in a while."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Anything," she said. And he believed her.

"The other day. When we met. Why did you come over to me?"

"You'll think I'm silly."

"What was it?"

"I saw you across the store, and the sun was shining through the window on you. And you looked…like you were part of it. A being composed of pure light. Silly, I know. Just a trick of the light. That's all it was and I knew it at the time. So I came over to talk to you. Just to show myself how silly I was being. But it didn't work. And I went to lunch with you and then dinner, and then drinks, and then the time we spent along the riverbank. And each moment, each word you said and each gesture you made proved something to me…you were composed of pure light. Inside. There was something special about you. And it wasn't the sunlight and it wasn't a trick of the light. It was just you, or rather all you."

He stared at her. "You're wrong about me."

She leaned over, close to him, her lips up to his ear and whispered, ever so softly, "No I'm not."