IDUNA (Loki x Reader)

Chapter 1 - Purveyor of 5 More Years

You would think that after all these years, you'd become a morning person, but your eyes were still struggling to light up as you entered the hospital, tote bag on your shoulder.

You didn't start working there intending to help the patients. Well, that's a lie; you always planned on helping prepare the hospital meals, but the extent to which you help them now was a later decision. Each day, you'd grab the ziplock you prepared that morning from your tote, and discreetly replace some of the apple slices on the trays with your own. One for a veteran, one for a grandmother recovering from a heart attack, one to give the soon-to-be-widower some more time with his beloved. The slices looked the same, the slowly yellowing white with all the skin removed. Not everyone in the hospital could digest it.

That's the last you saw of it, but you knew more would come of its story. Families would be relieved, their grandfathers would be with them for at least another five years, their body slowly rebuilding itself. It was a miracle. Some people even thanked god, which you thought was ironic.

The apples were a blessing when you were the only one who knew about them. Golden on the outside, not like the yellow ones from the market, more like the ones from the jewelry store on the designer street near the hospital. Not that you'd been there much, you only made enough to live modest means. With the skin cut off, they were little more than a Red Delicious.

There was nothing to hide on Earth, nobody to take advantage of you. At least not for your powers. On Asgard, it wasn't only the gods and goddesses that begged you to hand over the key to a wrinkle-less face and more time on their planet. It became all you heard about, and you saw people looking at your bag wherever you went, wondering if they might be able to convince you to part with just one. "My father is sick."

Their father was usually a patch of grey hair that they found that morning.

After this relentless cycle for over one thousand years, you convinced Odin and Frigga to let you take the Bifrost to Earth, and not just for a visit.

"I will continue to come to help the gods and goddesses when I'm needed. I couldn't live with myself if I left any of you and never returned. That's not why I'm doing this."

"Then why are you?" Frigga seemed reluctant to hear you out. You took a deep and nervous breath. It took long enough to get here, you couldn't let it slip out of your hands just to bend to your queen.

"My entire life on Asgard has been defined by manipulation and mental abuse. People know how guilt works on me, I never want to be the reason why someone departs us before their time. If you could stop someone from dying, you always would. So I do, but it's destroying me.

My powers were never bestowed on me to keep all of Asgard immortal. You guys would have a lot more work to do if that was the case." you eyed the two royalty on the thrones before you.

"My only purpose was to keep the gods and goddesses immortal. I've always done that, and yet it's become something else. A constant reminder that I am worth nothing without some fruit."

"You know that isn't true." Loki jumps in.

"Right, I believe that. Especially when it comes from you." You stare at him, deadpanned. You see Thor bow his head, seemingly ashamed.

"I don't blame any of you. I'm sorry if that seems like why I'm here. If the roles were reversed, of course I'd want to live forever. It just so happens that I already do. If that's my fate, to be immortal, I'd at least like some control over how the next thousand years go. I think time on Earth is what will allow me to do that. I can decide how I spend each day, and best of all, I don't have to keep anyone from dying."