Caroline sat at her kitchen table, purple pen in hand, finally making a dent in the exams she had meant to grade weeks ago. She had her tablet open off to the side, a classical music station playing softly in the background. Caroline found it impossible to concentrate on what she was reading if the background music had words or at least words in English. A number from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker was currently wafting through her apartment, and she tapped her feet reflexively to the sound.

She had, of course, already graded the multiple choice part of the exams—that was easy, if time consuming, just feed each test through the scantron machine. Now she was making her way through the essay section. She had given them the choice of either explaining the evolution and importance of agriculture from the ancient period to the early Middle Ages, or the development of writing. Most chose the agriculture question, though the writing responses proved to be the best answers so far.

The importance of Agriculture is obviously so people can eat. Without it, a country would starve. Many countries had to import food in ancient times, for example, Egypt. Caroline read while massaging her temps from the massive headache she could feel coming on.

You know, I was thinking.

Caroline jumped as Loki materialized across from her, "Jesus Christ!"

Loki smirked, "not quite. Anyway," he continued, ignoring her scowl. "I was thinking. Perhaps if we cannot track my body through physical means, as made obvious by our failure last week, magical means must suffice."

She raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.

"There's a spell," he said.

"A spell?"

"Yes. It is…complicated. But I'm confident that I can perform it," the self assured smile spreading across his usually stern face made him look much younger than usual.

"Perform it through my body," she pointed out, feeling that it had to be relevant though she wasn't sure how.

A slight crease appeared between his eyes, "well, obviously. But it's my magic, little apricot. You will be fine."

She frowned, displeased with his easy attitude towards her health and well-being. "You know this," she gestured to her torso, "is the only body you've got for the moment, so you better be sure that I will be fine."

Loki waived his hand though his eyes lingered over her torso, shrouded as it was in a hooded sweatshirt, "As I said, you will be fine. You've handled minor spells without any complications. I don't see why this spell should be any different."

Caroline wanted to object, but she was out of her element. She knew next to nothing about magic, real, actual magic. And Loki was obviously very well trained. She wasn't sure if she was more annoyed at his attitude or her own ignorance. Still, if this would make her mind her own again, it was worth it.

"Well, alright, I guess. Why don't we do the spell then," she said, making to stand up.

Loki squinched up his face like he had just tasted something really sour. "There is a slight problem."

She sat back down with a sigh. Of course there was a problem, nothing about Loki, or her life since he had invaded it, was very simple.

"Okay," she said slowly, hoping to god that the problem wasn't something like they needed to sacrifice a virgin.

"Don't worry, it's nothing that dramatic." He was clearly amused by her imagination. After a pause, "I simply don't know how to do the spell," he said through tight lips, clearly not pleased at having to admit his own shortcomings.

"But you just said you thought you'd be able to perform it without a problem," she pointed out, wrinkling her forehead in confusion.

The smug look returned to his angular face. "Of course I will be able to do the spell. I simply need to obtain a copy of it first. There has got to be a few copies lying around this realm."

Caroline raised her eyebrow, not sure if she should be annoyed at his dismissive tone or amused at his ignorance about Earth. "I mean it's not like this world is big or anything. We'll just pop over to the local wizarding supply store and pick it up."

It was Loki's turn to scowl, "Are you mocking me?"

She couldn't keep the smile that tugged at the corner of her mouth. He just looked so affronted when he was angry. Like it was a great indignity to his person to be teased.

"Maybe a little," she confessed, chuckling.

"This is not a laughing matter, Caroline," he sniffed, arms crossed over his chest.

"Oh, don't be so serious," she said, making an exaggerated frown. "Really though. I mean, do you have the name of the book we need? There are hundreds of libraries and even more bookshops in the city. And if there's nothing here, there's always the internet. I'm sure it'll be easy enough to find."

he drummed is fingers on the table for a moment, thinking.

"Animancy, is the title, I believe. Magic of the mind, or soul, if you're romantically inclined," he said dismissively, indicating that he was certainly not one of the latter.

Caroline nodded and scribbled the word down on the open page of her planner.

"Great. I've got to be on campus tomorrow for class and office hours. But I'll pop over to the Butler Library after and see if we might have it somewhere on campus. And then, if that doesn't give us anything, we can try the Public Library."

Those were the two libraries she had immediate access to anyway. If she couldn't find it in either collections, then their search would be infinitely more difficult. Books out of circulation were notoriously hard to track down.

"We shall cross that bridge when we come to it," Loki said reassuringly.

Caroline frowned again, "do you have to do that?"

"Do what?" He asked, adopting an air of injury.

"Comment on my thoughts. I know you can hear them, but it's weird. Especially when you're sitting across the table from me having a conversation," she tried to explain as calmly as she could.

"Unless I actually watch you speak, I cannot tell the difference," he paused, but continued before the sarcastic retort could bubble past her lips. "However, if it would put you more at ease, I shall endeavor to humanize our conversations."

Try as he might, and Caroline suspected he wasn't trying very hard, he couldn't keep a slight sneer of contempt form his voice. She rolled her eyes, but muttered a thank you.

Pen in hand again, she returned to the papers before her. Though the lusty notes of an opera helped fill the air—someone was dying, and dying with vigor—, Caroline was painfully aware that Loki was sitting across from her, watching. Rhythmically, he drummed his fingers against the table.

She finished the test before her and added up the points. Caroline winced; 64%, not terribly good. Hopefully their multi-choice section would boost them a little. She put it in the complete stack and took the next one. Loki fidgeted in his seat and sighed.

A writing system is a marker of a fully developed civilization. Many early writing systems were pictorially based, and later evolved into more abstract systems.

Loki sighed again and began to pick at a hang nail, loudly. It was quite impressive considering he didn't actually have a body. Caroline very carefully put her pen down and looked up at him pointedly.

"Would you like to help grade these?" she asked, gesturing to the papers next to her elbow.

Loki raised an eyebrow and sneered, "such things are beneath me, Caroline."

She rolled her eyes, and stood. His response was annoying but pretty predictable. She had only asked to see what he would say, well that and to get him to stop making such irritating noises. Making her way over to the bookshelves against the opposite wall in the living room area, she plucked a thick blue volume with a large sword on the cover off the shelf and tossed it to him.

"Here, keep yourself entertained so you don't drive me any more crazy that you already heave," she said lightly before returning to her seat.

Surreptitiously, she watched him turn the brick of a book over in his hands. It was a flimsy paperback, almost too thick to support itself, with a cracked spine and dog eared corners, but, she suspected, it would catch his interest.

"A Game of Thrones?" He read aloud, brows knit together as he scanned the covers for more information.

"There are four more books in the series, each thicker than that one" she offered helpfully.

Loki thumbed open the front cover and began to read.

Caroline managed to finish grading the exams in time for Wednesday's class, much to her students' relief, or dread, depending on how they did. Though she was still having some trouble with background noise and hearing things that she normally shouldn't, Loki had been right. It was much easier for Caroline to concentrate and block out the extraneous sounds. Anyway, she managed to complete class without her students thinking she was crazy, and that's what mattered most to her at the moment.

"I've just go to stop at my office for an hour or so, then we can go to the library," she whispered to Loki, hoping no one noticed that she was seemingly talking to thin air.

Though he had been fairly quite all day, his anxiety and anticipation were coursing through her system, making her edgy. It had been hard to get through the class period without snapping at her students for side chatter, though they were quiet enough that a normal professor wouldn't notice. Clearly, he was impatient for her to being their search.

It's not as if any of the little miscreants are going to bother you in the next hour or so, Loki started.

"Don't talk about my students that way," she hissed, momentarily forgetting to whisper.

A startled freshman side-eyed her, but Caroline just hurried on to her office.

Please, little apricot, you talk about your students that way, he drawled.

She rolled her eyes, "I do not!"

Caroline finally made it to her office and closed the door behind her, happy to see that Mitch wasn't there as usual.

Ugh. Mitch.

She'd managed to avoid him since the day he had found her passed out in the office. She definitely needed to apologize to him; if for nothing more than being an utter ingrate for his medical attention and concern. Involuntarily, her hand shot up to rub the spot on her forehead that had gotten cut open. The wound was healing nicely, though she might have a tiny little scar for a while.

Caroline glanced around the room. It was tiny, and made even smaller by two work spaces awkwardly jammed inside. The space was divided by one narrow window on the middle of the far wall. Caroline and Mitch's desks faced each other. There were also two bookshelves per scholar. Caroline's were behind her desk chair; Mitch had his flanking the window and door, leaving the wall behind his desk free for posters. Bright spring afternoon sunlight filtered through the window, lightening the usually dim room.

Caroline sat at her desk and pulled out a grade-book from her leather satchel. Though it had to be computerized, she liked to have a physical copy of her students' grades; she was the same way with her planner. There was just something comforting about pen moving across paper, and owing a physical record of your life.

She bent down to turn her computer on, and managed not to jump out of her skin when she popped back up to see Loki seated across from her, dressed, rather surprisingly, in black jeans and a green polo sweater. He had apparently been taking notice of how people dressed around here.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, startled.

"Making you look less insane," he said causally, picking the sword-shaped penknife off her desk. "You'll inevitably speak to me, anyway. "

"Put that down!" She snapped, snatching it out of his hands. The image of the dull blade embedded into some unsuspecting intruder's eyeball flashing through her mind.

Loki held his hands in front of himself in a gesture of surrender. "Has anyone told you that you would greatly benefit from learning to relax yourself?"

"I was relaxed, until you decided to possess me," she returned. "Now I feel like everyone knows I'm going crazy."

"We've been over this; you are not becoming mad," he said, sounding bored.

"Are you sure? Because I am literally hallucinating an argument with a Norse god who also happens to be a voice inside my head. In what world is that not crazy?"

Loki studies his nails, probably more for the dramatic visual than because he was actually worried about the state of his non-corporeal fingers. "In my world, obviously. And it is not a hallucination if it is actually taking place."

Caroline scowled and turned her attention to her computer and the task at hand. Loki was mercifully quite for the moment. She could feel him watching her though, and it made her movements feel awkward, even if she was only typing.

"Stop staring at me," she said, not lifting her gaze from the computer screen.

"What else am I supposed to do? You forgot my book." There was a pause. "Is Jon Snow really Ned Stark's bastard? I find it hard to believe…"

She looked up, about to answer him, when the office door swung open.

Christ. This was exactly what she had been afraid of. She glanced at Loki, hoping he would disappear, but he just smirked at her.

"Oh. I didn't realize you were with anyone," Mitch said, eyeing Loki with curiosity.

Well this was awkward: her work colleague—someone she was very committed to making sure he thought she was sane—had more or less walked into on her having a conversation with her imaginary friend. The tiny room felt claustrophobic with the three of them in it, and she wished she could open the window. And maybe jump out of it.

"Hey Mitch…" she began, scrambling for a good explanation of who Loki might be. "This is...Luke Northman. We went to undergrad together. Luke," Caroline began, turning to Loki and begging him mentally to play along, "this is Mitchell Park, my cohort and officemate."

Mitch held out his hand to "Loki and smiled "pleased to meet you!"

Loki stared at the hand for a moment, clearly unwilling to touch another person and reveal himself. Caroline groaned internally—this was all so messy, and rude, and awkward. After the longest moment of her life, Loki unfolded himself from the chair opposite her desk and leaned towards her. She stood rooted to the ground, immobile with shock, as his lips brushed against her cheek. He squeezed her shoulder in a friendly fashion.

"It was wonderful to catch up with you, Caroline," he murmured stepping away. "Remember to call me if you're ever in London."

Loki nodded to Mitch and walked out of the office door. She watched him literally disappear around the corner before she managed to snap out of her shock. She smiled awkwardly at Mitch hoping that he didn't think her rude by association.

"Um, sorry about that," she started, shuffling together a random stack of papers on her desk. "Actually, yeah, sorry about last week too. I was such a spaz, and you were being really nice and helpful…"

"Oh, it's alright…you bumped your head so…" he trailed off, clearly still wondering about the strange man he had just found in his office.

Feeling embarrassed, but not entirely sure why, Caroline sat back down at her computer and tried to get some work done. Instead she felt her eyes wander across to the room, to watch Mitch rummage around in his desk for a minute. She frowned, why was he here, anyway? He never came in on Wednesdays. They had an unspoken agreement that she didn't come in on Tuesdays, so he could work undisturbed, and he didn't come in on Wednesdays. This was twice in as many weeks now that he was here on a day he shouldn't be.

He looked up and caught her staring. She quickly looked back at her computer, feeling heat rise to her cheeks.

A moment later, there was a knock on the door, and a student she didn't recognize hovered just outside.

"Professor Park, are you free?" he ask, glancing nervously at Caroline.

Mitch straightened up and gave the student an easy smile, "Sure thing, Connor, why don't you come in?"

There was one small chair, usually right underneath the window though Loki had moved, that they shared for visiting students. Mitch indicated that Connor should pull up the seat.

Caroline glanced back at her computer, trying to ignore their conversation. She looked at the clock in the right hand corner of her desktop. Only half an hour left. She could make it.

"Caroline?"

Her head snapped up at the sound of Mitch's voice. The student was gone, how long ago, she wasn't really sure; she had finally managed to get in the zone.

Well fuck. This probably wasn't good.

"Yup?" She smiled brightly, hope it looked natural.

It doesn't, Loki put in.

Shut the hell up, she thought back, startled to hear him again. When had he returned to her mind?

Oh, I never really leave. Think of me as your conscience.

That's a terrible idea, she thought wryly.

"Caroline?" Mitch asked, rather loudly, snapping her back to reality once again.

"huh? I'm sorry…I was miles away." What a lame excuse.

Truer words have never been spoken.

"Do you want to get coffee with me next week?" He asked again, looking at her earnestly.

What?

What?

NOT YOU.

Caroline thought it would be a miracle if she managed to keep her face straight for this entire conversation. Loki was truly a test for her self-discipline.

"Like a group thing?" she asked, buying for time, "with Cat and the others?" She knew he didn't mean a group thing.

"No like a you and me thing," he grinned, revealing dimples on both sides of his mouth.

She should say no. She should definitely say no. They were officemates and cohorts; they were going to be stuck together for the next five years, at least. But saying no would be so rude. And his smile was so infectious.

"Yeah, okay," she heard herself say, smile still plastered on her face.

Caroline flopped onto her sofa, hoping the elevation would sooth her aching feet. She had probably walked the length of a small country today, running from this library to that one all across the city. Her hands felt grimy from all the dusty books and card catalogs she'd touched, but she was too tired to actually stand up and wash them. Who knew tracking down one book was going to be so goddamned difficult. Not to mention she was mentally exhausted from dealing with Loki commenting on every single one of her waking thoughts. He had wanted to know all about Mitch. Finally, she'd told him to shut up or she was going home.

That had been effective.

The stacks at Columbia's Butler Library had yielded nothing, and similarly the Rare Books and Manuscript Collection had been a dead end—although she had found a manuscript that she wanted to come back and look at later for her dissertation. Then she'd taken the subway down all the way to fifth and forty-second to the main branch of the public library; from there, it was only a few blocks to the Morgan Library. Still, her hands were empty. She'd even tried searching online, both sites for buying books and sites for renting books, and there was just nothing. Caroline was beginning to doubt this book existed on earth at all.

Normally a trip to the Public Library, with its colossal public reading room, or the Morgan Library with its majestic setting and beautiful décor was enough to make her heart fly, but tonight she just felt empty, tired, and defeated.

She stared at the ceiling for a moment, tracing the the pre-war crown molding with her eyes. her stomach grumbled. Slowly, Caroline swung her legs off of the sofa and stood. After scrubbing her hands thoroughly, she started making dinner. Cooking always soothed her—the mechanical process of chopping, stirring, and combining ingredients to make something delicious helped ease her busy mind. Tonight she decided on shrimp risotto.

Getting out the cutting board, she started chopping the aromatics—onions, garlic, celery, and carrots. Chop chop chop. She turned the front burner of her stove on and melted butter in a big cast iron Dutch-oven. Caroline threw the veggies in and turned her attention to peeling and deveining the shrimp. After a few minutes, the bases of her nails turned purple with cold from touching the seafood, but she paid it no mind.

That's quite a lot of food for one person, Loki commented rather snidely.

Caroline quirked her lips up in a smirk, "I'm eating for two now, thanks to you."

Is that some sort of jest, little apricot? He was clearly unimpressed what passed for a joke on Midgard.

She ignored him, and continued working, taking a moment to stir the pot again.

"Hey, can you taste stuff when I eat it?" She asked, genuinely curious as she nibbled at a carrot to see how cooked it was.

I experience all sensations of your body.

She grimaced, unsure how she felt about that, and dumped a cup of Arborio rice into the butter and veggies.

"So I'm beginning to doubt your book exists," she started, trying to make conversation. "We've been to the three most impressive libraries in what amounts to the intellectual center of country and found nothing. It's not even online," she grumbled, dumping a cup of white wine into the pot.

It has only been one day. Surely you're not giving up already? The bitter bite of his despair was heavy in her mouth.

Caroline sighed, "of course I'm not giving up. I'm just…cranky."

She finished putting the rest of the liquid ingredients into the Dutch-oven and left it on the stove to simmer. She sat at the table and waited for him to materialize before her. Caroline didn't have to wait long; a moment later he was sitting across from her, as usual, dressed the same as he had been earlier.

"What are we even going to do once we find your body? I mean, it's obviously …compromised," she asked, wondering why he wasn't more bothered by that fact.

Loki gave an elegant shrug of his shoulders, "I'll figure it out when we reach that point."

Caroline stood to give her dinner a few stirs, and to toss the shrimp in. She didn't really like his answer, but she could feel enough of his own mind to know that he was worried about the exact same thing. It seemed silly to her for him to pretend otherwise, considering she could feel exactly what he was feeling, but she left it alone. The brief flashback to the memories he had shown her their first night stuck together made her think he must have his reason for being so distant.

"What about rare book collectors?" His voice rang from behind her, possibly trying to switch her train of thought from his past.

She turned around, wooden spoon still in her hand, "what do you mean?"

"In Asgard most knowledge is held in private hands—wealthy citizens or institutions build private collections over generations. One needs permission to access these reservoirs—they're not open to the general populace as your libraries seem to be here. But perhaps there are private collections in Midgard as well? Anyway," he continued, "there are people who specialize in tracking down rare volumes for these collections. Surely there are a few such individuals in this realm as well."

Caroline tilted her head to the side, thinking. There was definitely something to that. As a perpetual university student, she was so used to using InterLibrary Loan that the thought hadn't even crossed her mind. She'd had enough medieval intellectual history to know that that's how modern libraries had begun. Surely there were still avid collectors with rare, priceless books around the world. And where there were people willing to spend money, there are always people willing to help them do so.

"You might be right," she said, sitting back down. "There are a bunch of rare bookstores in the city. I can go check them out tomorrow, see if anybody can help."

Loki smiled, clearly pleased he had come up with the answer to their problem, "I caution you, though. Be careful how you go about asking for this book. I'm assuming that rare as it is, whoever actually owns it might know how powerful it truly is. We may have to…employ other means of persuasion to get our hands on it."

She frowned, not liking the feeling he gave her as he spoke. "What are you suggesting?"

"Nothing, at present; I am simply trying to prepare you for all possibilities."

There's chapter four! I hope you all enjoyed it.

Notes: The libraries mentioned in this chapter are all real! I had tons of fun looking into all of them, though eventually I decided describing Caroline wandering through a million different bookshelves wasn't ultimately that interesting.

I'd like to thank ZizFox for reviewing the previous chapter! Thank you darling, it made my day to get your message.

I'd also like to thank anyone who added this story or me to their favorites / alert lists.

Comments? Questions? Constructive Criticism? Please Review or PM