Six months. Six long, agonizingly dull months. Of course, in reality, when in comparison to the life span of a God, it's been a blink of an eye. Regardless, Loki was all about to lose whatever patience it was he had left. After Thor and his 'friends' had stopped him from taking over Midgard to rule as a benevolent and powerful God, Odin had decided to imprison him in the dungeons for life, instead of just swinging the axe and getting it over with. The latter, at this point, would have been much more preferable. His talents - his purpose - was worthless to him or anyone else while locked in this cell. If Odin wanted to be rid of him he should have just lopped his head off and been done with it - like any decent ruler would have decided. Not that he was fooled into thinking that Odin's mercy had anything to do with compassion for his forsaken son - but everything to do with his mother's pity.

Loki closed the book he had been staring at for the last several minutes and sighed, deciding he wouldn't be getting any information out of it from gazing blankly through its pages. Not that actually reading it would have provided any more knowledge then what he was doing before - he'd read the book a dozen times. He was grateful that his mother - that Frigga - was trying her utmost to provide him with entertainment during his incarceration, but she really wasn't able to keep up with how quickly he'd been digesting all the reading material. Not that it was surprising - being as there wasn't much else to do in a small prison cell.

That was, until she showed up.

Loki could hear the guards before he saw them, their armor clanking and echoing loudly throughout the dungeons. He'd thought it nothing new, just another group of bruised and battered warriors that Thor had beaten to a pulp in his effort to clean up the realms. Yet, there was something peculiar about how the guards sounded as they neared his cell - he could only hear one extra set of footsteps between them - not the usual dozen they brought down at a time. Curious, he lifted himself from his seat at the table and walked over to the clear wall of energy keeping him inside. With his hands clasped tightly behind his back, he leaned in just inches from the wall to peer out at the new prisoner of Asgard.

It was a girl - at least he suspected so - it was difficult to tell with the amount of hair and dirt she had covering her face. The two guards opened the cell directly across from his own and shoved her inside, putting the energy field up before she even had a chance to pull herself off the ground. Loki, after coming to the conclusion that she was, indeed, a girl, thought her to be a child - as she couldn't have stood taller than 5 feet. But, on a closer inspection, found her to be in proportion of an adult female - in all the obvious ways.

This was new - interesting even. He'd never seen someone, expect during his short stay on earth, this size. Her skin was dark with a grey, slightly beige look too it - a bit unusual for a human - and the majority of her coal colored hair was tied up haphazardly on her head. As Loki tried to figure out what disgusting grey and brown dirt covered clothes the girl was wearing, he noticed the multitude of scars that covered the visible parts of her body. Many of which were on her fingers and face, the light marks contrasting against her dark skin and freckles. It soon become clear to him that this wasn't some unfortunate Midgardian that happened to find their way to Asgard, but a species he personally hadn't seen before. Her eyes were almost the same shade as her hair, but the pupil was surrounded by a bright, almost glowing, blue circle. As the girl stumbled around her cell, Loki could get a better view of those eyes, and a smile worked its way on his face as he noticed the slight shimmer in them when hit by the light.

"Oh, it's nocturnal." He said to himself, pacing in front of his cell as he followed the new creatures movements. "That's interesting."

She hadn't noticed him watching her yet, which was good, but also made him assume her to be a bit slow. Either way, he was curious how a species could possibly go unnoticed by the Asgards - by anyone in the nine realms - for this long. As the shield surrounding his cell was sound proof, he decided to speak to her through unconventional methods.

"Hello," He said plainly, letting his voice echo through the girls head. He watched in amusement as a silent scream came from her mouth and she cupped her hands over her ears. He winced slightly, though he couldn't hear her actually scream, the terror emanating itself from her thoughts was enough to imitate any vocalization of distress.

"Please try to calm down, you're incessant screaming isn't helping anyone," He said to her, his eyes never leaving her horrified figure, "I'm merely speaking to you through your thoughts - these walls are sound proof."

Loki let out an irritated grunt as the creature continued to whirl around her cell in confusion, her eyes landing basically everywhere but him. After several minutes of coaxing, the girl finally turned her attention to him, her hands still held tightly to her ears.

"You're talking to me...in my head?" She said aloud, her thoughts fortunately echoing her question.

"Yes, I am. Now that we've taken care of the semantics here, I'd like to ask you a few things..." Before he had a chance to send out a warning, the girl walked quickly forward to the edge of the cell and placed her hands on the wall of energy. He bit back a sadistic, and exasperated laugh as she was flung back to the ground by a pulse of energy and the thoughts of terror and confusion flooded back into her. Loki didn't have the patience to deal with any more of this, and pressed less then pleasant feelings into her thoughts in an attempt to regain her attention. The girl gripped her head for a moment in pain before he pulled himself back from her, allowing the girl to focus.

"I don't understand what's going on," She thought to him, her eyes now meeting his, "Where am I? Why was I put here?"

"Well it's quite obvious you're confused," He started, now letting his posture become more relaxed, "But unfortunately, I'm unable to answer your questions. As you can see, I'm locked down here with you."

She nodded at him as she picked herself up from the floor, her body noticeably shaking. She inched her way slowly, painfully slowly, to the edge of the cell - careful not to repeat the same mistake again.

"My name is Nora," She said, her eyes wide and her pupils constricted in the bright lights of the room.

"I didn't ask," He replied bluntly, "I'm much more curious as to what you are rather then who you are."

Nora looked taken aback at his curt response and eyed him questionably, suddenly not sure if she should be speaking to him. She now took a moment to look him over, his garments insinuating that he was definitely not your average prisoner. Nora stepped back from her cell wall cautiously, coming to the conclusion that she needed to get her head straight before continuing this conversation - if she could really call this type of thing a conversation.

"Well, who are you," She countered, now coming to terms with her situation, "I'm not about to spill my guts out to some man locked in the cell across from me."

The audacity. The absolute insolence of this creature was astounding. Loki was well aware she knew nothing about his power or importance, but even the most simple minded prisoner could spot a prince at glance, even a forsaken one. He straightened his back and gave her a scowl, turning from her now and taking long strides over to his small table. Nora, worrying she may have just scared away the only person she was able to talk to, advanced towards the wall again, stopping just before the yellow glowing barrier.

"Wait please," She said quickly, "Please, don't go. I don't know what's going on here - I'm sorry if I offended you somehow." Nora waited in agitation, watching as he proceeded to sit in his chair, his back facing her. He wanted to make her suffer for a bit - punish the creature for even daring to ask him a question before answering his own. If he had been out of this cell, had this girl shown such ignorance to his face, he'd have killed her in a second. But, being as he was in a cell and unable to do any real harm to her, he took small satisfaction at watching her squirm uneasily at his silence. After to what seemed like hours to Nora, he turned to her slightly, most of his body still facing away from her.

"Tell me what you are and how you got here creature," Loki said, his expression giving nothing away. She smiled at him now, and let her tense shoulders drop down in relaxation.

"That," She said, her smile growing a little wider now, "Is a long story - and my name is Nora, not creature."

Thanks for reading guys! Phew - I haven't written anything in a very long time. It feels really good to finally get my creative juices going again. Just a quick note, this story is rated M for a reason, there will be some sexually mature themes in later chapters, as well as violence (not sexual violence though - they are separate - promise.) I like critiques and reviews, they make me smile and want to continue writing :) so if you want to see more drop me a comment!

Also - I'm always super self-conscious about Mary-Sueing it up. I'm trying my utmost to NOT make Nora a you know what, so if you start to feel like her character is becoming one, for the love of Loki (hur hur) let me know.

Thanks again folks! I'll update soon :)