AUTHOR'S NOTE: Takes place after Avengers and I could throw in some Dark World spoilers, such as scenes or events. Just FYI if you haven't seen the film yet. Also, this is a LOKANE, so if you're not about that life I'd turn back now.
"Hello Darling," It had been almost two years since he'd heard that voice, turning to his left he looked upon Frigga. His foster mother was as beautiful as the last day he'd seen her and her smile…her smile that didn't quite reach her eyes today.
"Hello, Mother. Have I made you proud?" He asked sardonically, flashing a wide grin. Always trying for an angle, a jab at those he loved, trying to spark a response that lets him know she's missed him.
"Loki stop, don't make this worse than it is." The furrow of her perfect brows tell him this.
"Define worse." He deadpanned, twisting his wrists in the chains and raising them slightly for effect, Frigga was about to respond when a booming voice interrupted mother and son.
"Leave us."
Loki watched his mother leave, only after was she out of sight did he turn his sight to Odin. The guards on either sides of him shoved him forward, making him stumble slightly, the bright gold chains clanging in the massive hall, reverberating three fold all around them. He stopped a few feet from the steps to the throne and swung his leg to clank against his ankle chains, he broke into wide grin while exhaling a laugh at the irony of the entire situation.
"I really don't see what all the fuss is about."
"You waged a war." Odin stated, his posture was relaxed, and he spoke in a very matter of fact way to the young man before him.
Loki's eye twitched slightly and he rolled his shoulders as he stood up straighter, "I went down to Midgard to rule as a benevolent god-"
"We are not gods, we live and we die." Odin's eye narrowed at his son, who for all his intellect and measured banter, and silver tongued cleverness; he was in some ways just as thick headed as his brother Thor.
Loki shook his head slowly as if he was about to agree but then his lips dipped from a slight frown to small smirk.
"Give or take 5000 years."
"Tell me Loki, have you always the need to get in the last word?"
"Must you ask?"
"Loki, for all your grave imbalances, you are still my son. Though you may claim not to be, that is your choice. But in my eyes as your father and as your Allfather, I cannot simply let this pass. You have committed crimes that go against the moral laws of our people, you are a murderer and by all rights should be put to death-"
"If I am for the axe, then let it swing already. It's not that I don't love these conversations, it's just…I don't." Somewhere the frank indifference he'd been displaying since he'd swaggered into the hall had disappeared in the last few seconds, replaced with frantic irritation, Loki always had a matchstick temper when it came to his father.
"You will not be put to death. There is a fate that suits you far better.." Odin paused and looked away from his son, who stood bound by chains from his neck to his wrists, waist, and ankles. His son who still wore his royal colors of deep green, gold, and black, gathering his thoughts he looked back down at him. Loki stared back, his face contorted with impatience and a low bubbling rage.
"It was my birth right to rule, father!" Loki yelled out suddenly, desperately.
"It was your birthright to die. Cast out on a frozen rock!" Odin bellowed back, he placed his hand on his temple and rubbed them slightly. Loki narrowed his eyes, all the faux mirth gone from his features as he waited for Odin to continue with his sentence.
"You will be sent to earth, were you will live out the rest of your days. You will be stripped of your powers and status. You shall never step foot into Asgard again and thus will never see Frigga again."
Loki's eyes widened, not with rage, but with defeat, the one person in the word he truly cared for irrevocably was going to be stripped from his life forever. Frigga, his mother, the woman who had sat by his side as a boy and told him stories of dark elves and the other forest beasts that dwelled within the nine realms and the tales of the infinity stones. The same woman who had taught him how to use magic and had held him in his darkest moments, had stopped tears and taught him that bravery was not just in found in the hammer or fist.
"This sentence will be carried out immediately." Odin continued. Loki seemed to be pulled from his revere at this, looking back up at his Allfather.
"I am not like Thor, Odin," he practically spat his name. "I am not Asgardian and my power cannot be stripped by your will. I am from yotunheim and I cannot be stripped of my power, nice try old man." He sneered.
Odin pointed his staff at Loki, "And in your final moment you fail to realize there are other ways for you to lose your magic, through the magic of others."
Jane flipped through the pages of her star charts without focus, her mind too focused on the weather outside her window. Dark grey clouds had begun to form earlier this afternoon, and no matter how much time had passed since she and Thor had spoken, since meeting him she never viewed the grey sky or the sound of thunder the same.
Jane now lived about an hour outside of Denver, after returning from her stint in Oslo the past summer she had become accustomed to colder climates and decided to relocate from New Mexico to Denver. Darcy lived in Denver, and once a week came out to catch up with her astrophysicist friend, that is when she wasn't out on a date.
It was harder to see the clouds now, it was past seven pm now and it was pitch black outside, if it wasn't for the occasional lightning she wouldn't have seen the huge funnel beginning to form a few miles away from her house.
Casting the charts aside as she pushed herself up from the desk, her gaze staring intently, but suddently the funnel disappeared.
Jane exhaled sadly, it was definitely a weird weather phenomenon, but she wasn't a storm chaser so she turn around grabbing her empty coffee mug and shuffled to the kitchen morosely. She placed the green mug down next to the machine, taking the pot out and refilling it with water. She glanced left back to the large window in front of her desk.
Nothing.
Frowning slightly she turned back around and placed the pot back in the machine and turned it on. The sound of grinding coffee beans intensifying the already silent house. Jane leaned back against the small island in her kitchen, waiting for the coffee to finish. She tucked a loose hair behind her ear and licked her dry lips.
The weather had just started to dip below freezing at night the past few days, the sudden change making her take hot baths and showers left her skin dry. She reached into the pocket of her maroon robe and pulled out a small stick of cherry chap stick.
Finally, the coffee was done.
She returned to her table, the clink of the mug onto the metal table reverberating in the room, and it was at that moment when she was about to return to her charts and sitting that she stopped. Outside the window, streaking across the sky seemed like a small comet…no not streaking, falling...
Jane's bright brown eyes widened as she stood in paralyzed surprise, moments later it hit the ground and that was all it took.
She dashed to her closet and threw off her robe, grabbing a black hoodie and heavy wool pea coat to throw over her long johns, she dashed into her bedroom down the hall from her kitchen and threw on some jeans and rubber boots. Passing her desk she grabbed the house keys from a red bowl and the flashlight inside one of its drawers, and dashed out of the house and into the night.
In her fervent rush she had forgotten a hat and gloves but pressed on, lucky the night had not experienced more than an inch of snow fall so the small driveway to the woods was an easy walk. Once she entered the woods she flicked on her flashlight, walking west towards the comet. It had seemed pretty close, perhaps a mile or so out from her house. Luckily her cell had GPS and she'd kept it in the hoodie since earlier that day, after returning from lunch with Darcy in Denver.
The moon was extremely bright tonight, since the clouds had evaporated that night, she hardly needed the flashlight. The snow fall was not too terribly deep, not even coming up to half of her calf boots.
After a while she became aware she was closing in on the impact sight, trees were unnaturally bent or fallen and dirt had been turned back as if it had just been plowed. At the edge of the crater she stopped, all the trees surrounded it had been pressed back, at its center was, what appeared to be the crumpled form of a man.
Jane squinted her eyes and shone the flashlight over the immobile person, slowly she made her way down to the center as she closed in she realized he was breathing.
A few feet away she stopped dead.
The man was regaining consciousness; he rolled over onto his back and exhaled loudly and quick through barred teeth. Had mess of shoulder length black hair and a pale complexion with sharp features, "Loki…" she said to herself, but apparently the forest was as quiet and as taken to carrying noise as her own home, he looked over at her.
Loki was hugging the sides of his torso, face constricted in pain, though realizing her presence he attempted to reign in the expression on his face. His normal attire she had seen on the news of green, black, and gold armor was gone. In its place was a think green shirt, black slacks, and boots; all of which were beaten and covered in dirt and snow, his shirt had a few slight rips at one side, which is perhaps how he landed. There were a few small cuts on his face and one prominent one across the bridge of his nose.
Jane and he looked at each other in silence, minutes passed and as they did she noticed he began to shake, the cold weather now starting to have an effect on him.
Finally he broke the silence as he slowly pushed himself up, wincing as he did and faltering slightly as she attempted to stand straight, on arm still wrapped across his middle.
"Jane Foster,"
She took a step back, still processing that not Thor, but his crazy psychopath brother was now standing in front of her.
"No." she said with finality that surprised even her.
"No?" he repeated in mock surprise as he took a slow and visibly painful step towards her "Are you telling me you would withhold shelter to Thor's own brother?"
"You may be Thor's brother, but you're a murderer too. Kind of makes the former rather irrelevant." She responded.
Loki began to laugh, but the air was far too sharp and frigid and he began to cough, and with that he yelled slightly as he crumpled to his knees, both arms now wrapped across his middle. He breathed fast and loudly, small puffs of white hair escaping his pale lips as hollow eyes looked back up at her. He held her gaze, his eyes unfaltering, his forearms were exposed to the elements and were shaking.
Jane swallowed and furrowed her brow, broke the gaze with the fallen Asgardian and began walking back up the crater and home. The decision to leave him was callous, rationality told her he was a god and would be fine, but from what she saw…her mind argued against itself saying he wouldn't.
Loki wasn't her problem, in fact he was Thor's problem, Asgard's problem, and ultimately anyone else's but her own. As she stepped from the woods and back onto her drive way she made the short walk to her door, unlocked it and stepped inside.
Closing the door behind her she pressed her back against the door and looked at her empty home, warm and modern in all its Ikea furnishings, she slipped off the boots at her door and walked over to her coffee, picked it up and took a long sip.
After about an hour of failed research once more, her mind no longer on Thor, but his serpentine brother who was presumably still laying out in the forest somewhere. Jane chewed her thumb nail, slightly irritated, Thor had been to New York and saved the world, but couldn't find two minutes to come visit her before shipping off to Asgard once more? And now Loki had been expressed delivered to her? Bullshit, it was bullshit and she was having no part in it she thought defiantly. She tucked another rogue locke of hair from her face behind her ear and flicked through a text book.
Jane had just begun to make another cup of coffee when a knock came from her door.
She paused.
Knowing who it was before she even made a move to open the door, finally she walked over to it at the second knock.
She swung the door open, apparently the snow had begun to fall again because small flakes blew in the air and caught in his black hair. Loki stood in silence, one shoulder propped against her doorway, she took a step back, he didn't move but his eyes looked tired and his demeanor spoke nothing of the arrogant god like swagger she had seen him wear on television last summer.
He seemed like he'd collapse at any moment and his shaking was intense, and his breathing ragged.
Jane bit her bottom lip and stepped aside, he quickly registered her movement and moved inside, before she had a chance to resend her response to him at her doorstep. Jane closed the door and locked it, hoping that she wouldn't turn around to a knife in her back.
But what she turned to she did not expect, Loki had slumped to the floor against the wall right behind her, his head tilted back and his eyes open looking at her but slightly unfocused, though he still found his smile, and wryly added, "Sentiment."
Jane looked at him wearily, and stepped back.
The Asgardian seemed content to sit on the concrete floor, his gaze weakly following Jane as she made her way to her closest and pulled a small box down from the top shelf. She grabbed something small and silver and stuffed it into her robe pocket and turned back to him.
She padded back over to him in her black socks and knelt down, he rolled his head against the wall to face her, still shivering and breathing heavy.
"If I help you can you stand?"
"Perhaps." He breathed, she stood and grabbed his arm, it took a few minutes as he Loki kept making small noises of discomfort, finally on his feet once more she placed one of his arms across her shoulder, he fell forward and leaned on Jane's small frame, who was for once happy her home was so tiny.
In just a few steps they were at her couch, she helped him onto it and pulled a blanket from off the back and threw it over him, Loki immediately slumped onto his side and laid down, wincing as he did and gritting his death, he let out a small moan of pain.
Jane sat on the table across from the couch and looked at him, his eyes fought to stay open.
"Jane Foster, in all the nine realms, who would have thought you would have ever offered me your home."
"Well, I couldn't really turn you away you would've just passed out and died on my front porch." She deadpanned, Loki smiled and laughed slightly, trying to not make his sides hurt too much.
She placed a hand against his forehead, he was still shaking like mad, but his head was on fire.