Power of Gods | Loki FanFiction

XVIII |the love club

'I joined the club and it's all on'

I only realised that I must have fallen asleep when I woke up in my bed the next morning with a heavy headache and no memory. On the bedside table was a glass with a more than disgusting-looking liquid that smelled to the heavens. Next to it was a piece of paper that - despite neat handwriting - took me two embarassing minutes to decipher.

For the headache. Drink up!
-Jill
P.S. Hold your nose.

I was happy to follow the advice and understood it as soon as the first drop touched my tongue. I almost threw up, but forced myself to empty the glass and then stretch my legs out of bed. I would have preferred to stay in bed till noon, but my first training session was scheduled for today.

What had come over me when I though that it would be a good or even acceptable idea to get drunk that evening?! I very much needed to make sure that this wasn't my last training and Odin labeled me as just another weak mortal.

After my attempt to get myself into the armor failed miserably, I called for Jill, who, only minutes later, knocked on the door quietly but still far too loud. It was obvious that she was trying to hold back a laugh when she saw me, which I could hardly blame her for. "You can make fun of me all you want, I know I'm a pathetic idiot," I grumbled and let myself fall onto the bed - half dressed.

I felt a weight pressing down on the mattress next to me and I just managed to open my eyes and look at her. Unlike me, she looked rested and - as always - beautiful. Unlike me, she also had hardly drunk anything and had the steadfastness of all the Aesir. She gently smiled at me. "Oh, no... If anything you´re an idiot in need of a bath. And in the meantime I'll get you something decent to eat. That always helps." I hadn't thought of that, but it would probably be smart to at least shower to get rid of the smell of alcohol.

"I don't think I can get anything down without throwing it up again." Nevertheless, I sat up and ran my hand through my tangled hair. "Did you drink the juice? I know it's disgusting, but it will make you feel better." Carefully but firmly, she pulled me to my feet. "I did. What did you put in it?" I asked, still a little dazed, but managed to stand upright. "Believe me... You don't want to know. But it definitely works. I got the recipe from the Queen herself. She´s really good with herbs and things like that."

Jill shooed me into the bathroom and then disappeared to give me some privacy and get my breakfast. Once again, I was infinitely grateful to have her around and wished I could do something to help her in return. The problem was that whenever I tried to help, I tended to make things worse.

I ran warm water into the golden tub, added some bubble-bath-stuff, and laid out two towels. I had no idea what the ´bubble-bath-stuff´ did, but it didn't seem dangerous and I honestly had no desire to worry about it. This proved to be justified as I slipped into the water and relaxed almost instantly.

The fumes from the oils filled my nose and cleared my head enough to ease the pain and put me into an almost meditative state. I allowed my thoughts to drift and wondered what had happened last night. I could tell from my dry eyes that I must have cried. And not just a little.

But why? Granted, there were many possible reasons. Guilt, self-loathing, loneliness, Arya, Loki... Loki. Loki who was dead. Loki, whom I let die. Just like I had let Arya die. Which automatically led to my loneliness.

I hated my brain.

I would have loved to go back to sleep and banish the voices of reason and doubt from my head, but a timid knock on the door brought me back to the here and now.

"I'll be right there!" I called through the door and washed my hair quickly before getting out of the water and wrapping myself in the two towels.

Jill was waiting patiently in my room. She had put a tray with something that looked like jam and bread, along with a bunch of fresh green grapes, on the small table. Why were there always grapes here with every meal? At first it had been a luxury - I hadn't eaten grapes for ages because they were difficult to have while you were moving around and went bad too quickly - but it was starting to get annoying. I missed chocolate and other kinds of candy. But I didn't complain; instead I threw a few in while Jill helped me into the armor.

I actually managed to be no more than twenty minutes late. Thor was already waiting and smiled knowingly as I approached him. "How did you sleep?" he asked, sounding like the definition of 'cheerful' "Forget about training and tell me how you can still be in such a good mood after a night like that," I grumbled. He laughed - at least that didn´t give me a headache anymore, thanks to the juice-of-hell. "I'll tell you when you get your powers under control."

I sighed and stretched a little "Very well, teach, where do we start?"

~

After a week, Odin decided that my progress was good enough for me to stay - possibly because Thor had persuaded him to. Besides that, Thor was a surprisingly good teacher. Unlike Loki, he understood my new powers, and knew them better that just from second-hand information. Unlike Loki, however, were also his teaching methods. Thor had a much gentler approach that I wasn't used to. Admittedly, he didn't want to prepare me for a fight in a matter of days. Still, it was strange. Thor - by his own admission - took many lessons from the ones he had had as a child with his own teacher and his mother, which only made me like the latter even more.

After a month, I accompanied Thor on my first mission, which soon became more and more regular.

After another two months, I started teaching Jill hand-to-hand combat. It was the least I could do for her when she was constantly being picked on by random pricks. 'Constantly' was perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but regular enough for me to worry about her safety - and that of the other maids. Thor on the other hand, had managed to pull himself together after his drunken bout and apologized to Jill, even if he continued to look at her like a lovesick poodle, but you couldn't really blame him for that.

Long story short; I'll spare you the details of the next two years. It won't really be important until 2012 - the year in which my life was finally and completely turned upside down by a certain someone.

A/N: That's it for the first act. The second will definitely be a bit more action-packed and I'll focus a lot on Jana's relationship with her sister, so stay tuned...

I'm also taking a break next week. So, the next chapter will be out on October 23rd.