Working Title : Loki & Annie

62 Toy Cars and a Dead Fish Named Jeff

Loki followed the boy named Micah through the home, their hands clasped together. As they walked Loki looked down at their hands with something that made him feel nice inside. Very few people voluntarily touched him, he knew he was a Prince so most people were not allowed to touch him. But he liked holding this boy's hand, it was like holding His-Thor's hand when they were littler and His-Thor still played with him. Following this boy named Micah, they entered through an open doorway, and Loki felt sad when Micah let go of his hand.

"This is my room!" Micah spun around, his arms waving to encompass everything.

Loki first saw the pile of strange and colorful things on the small bed. He didn't know what any of them were but he liked the bright colors, he had never seen things made of such colors except flowers and perhaps the Lady's gowns. He stood still, only moving his eyes as he saw a long wooden box that he had seen Annie remove clothing from. She called it a dresser though it did not dress anyone. There were numerous items all on the top of it and actually many other things in the room that he had no idea what their purpose was.

"Come look." Micah waved his hand for Loki to follow him while walking to his bed. He hopped up on it then scootched back a little. He picked up one of his toys, "This is an Army man." He set it aside. "And this is an action figure." He waved it towards Loki who had remained standing where he had been.

Loki didn't know what any of those items were though he understood the meaning of the words. He held onto Hulk and Thor tightly with one hand and with the one Micah had let go of raised a thin finger to pluck at his bottom lip. He didn't know what any of these things were.

Micah looked over at Loki. "You can come and sit by me." He patted the bed.

Loki stared at the spot on the bed. He didn't know if he should sit or not. He didn't know exactly what to do.

 Micah waited while watching Loki then hopped off the bed. "That's okay. Look here," he walked over to Loki and took his hand again, and led him over to the dresser. Micah pointed to his fishbowl. "That's Jeff."

Loki peered into the clear bowl that held water. There appeared to be bright green plants growing from multi-colored pebbles that were scattered on the bottom. Floating on the top of the water was a bright red item.

"That's my fish, his name is Jeff. But he's not real, he's plastic." Micah reached into the bowl and grabbed the little plastic fish and held it up to Loki's face. "See? It's not real."

Loki had watched with a frown as Micah pulled the red item from the water then held it out as water dripped onto the floor. Now he leaned slightly forward, his head tilting to the side as he peered at the still form.

"Here." Micah raised Loki's hand that was still in his and turned it over, palm up. He set the plastic fish on it. "You can hold him."

Loki's eyebrows rose as he felt the hard item and the water drops in his palm. When it didn't move he raised his palm closer to his face so he could study it. The boy Micah was correct, it did look like a very small fish. Loki had seen fish this size in the many fountains and ponds in the gardens. A long time ago he and His-Thor would chase them and try to scoop them up while Mother and her Lady's had sat doing needlework while chatting. Father had said they were gossiping but Mother had said it was chatting and so that's what he called it too.

"See? It's a fish." Micah plucked it back up and dropped it back into the fishbowl where it sank for a moment then rose to the surface. "I had a real fish named Jeff but he died. And daddy said I can't get another one till I take care of this Jeff for a whole, entire year!" Micah sounded affronted. "That's a long, long, long, long, long time." He shook his head. "But then I can get another Jeff. A real one."