Jewel Thief ◇ L. Laufeyson

21 ◇ home

LOKI DIRECTED ME to fly into a room through the opening of a large balcony. The room was untouched by the damage on the outside of the building, save for a few vases and shelves that had fallen to the floor - no doubt by the earthquakes Hela had caused during her attacks, or the lightning strikes by Thor.

My diamond platform disappeared and Loki and I touched down on the marble floor. He glanced around the room with something in his eyes - nostalgia.

I took a second to look around as well; it was a room with high ceilings and dark oak walls, with massive bookshelves and a few lounging chairs with comfy furs thrown about. A large black bed made up neatly was against a far wall, grand velvet curtains surrounding it.

"Do you like it?" Loki asked me softly, remaining still in the middle of the room. He seemed to be taking it in.

I glanced at him, a bit confused by his sudden sad manner and nodded. "Very luxurious," I complimented, not bothering to continue to look around. I started walking with a bit more pep in my step - we had places to be.

Loki suppressed a sad smile. "It would have been ours."

I stopped in my tracks, my heart skipping a beat. How could I have not realized it before?

Suddenly the giant bookshelves and the dark colors made sense with Loki's look of nostalgia. This was his old bedroom, and he was most likely never going to step foot in it again.

I silently scolded myself for my blindness to the obvious and spun on me heel, briskly walking up to Loki. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it encouragingly. "It's alright," I said sweetly, "We can rebuild it someday."

This time, he didn't hold back his smile and nodded shakily, the two of us exiting the room hand in hand.

As our pace quickened down the grand halls of the castle, I couldn't help but feel a tinge of sadness as we rushed by the gorgeous fortress.

Loki had talked about showing me around Asgard one day, yet we didn't have a second to spare to take it all in. Even as we ran through the large banquet hall I recognized from our shared dreamspace, we didn't slow down.

Loki's grip on my hand tightened. I knew he also regreted the fact we couldn't take in Asgard's full glory together, but we didn't stop running until we made it to a large staircase. No time to waste, and pushing away those feelings felt better than to dwell in them.

Together we jogged down the steps, into a place with a slight chill in the air. The Vault.

"Some of the most dangerous weapons in the galaxy lie within this space," Loki informed me, guiding me through the space with his hand on my back.

In the cavernous room we stood were dozens of relics, each a different size and shape. I could feel the power in the room, radiating in the air.

My eyes landed on a familiar cube and I stopped myself from dropping my jaw open. "Is that..."

"The Tesseract," Loki finished, breathing heavily and eyeing it hungrily.

I scoffed at him, lightly punching his shoulder. "What, you want some alone time with it? Quit it with the bedroom eyes."

He took his eyes off the Tesseract and shot me a look, slightly offended and slightly disappointed.

I rolled my eyes, continuing down the Vault's walkway. Loki didn't follow me right away, but after a few steps I noticed he quickly fell back into step with me.

We came to a large skull sitting atop a pile of sand in a wide bowl, menacing horns sticking out of the skull.

"Huh," I said plainly, unimpressed with the boring-looking skull. "So, this is Surtur."