Mischief On Earth ✔

Of Trust And Truth

* music above *

He inserted the key into the doorknob. Kyra had made a spare one for him. It went in and he turned it, feeling the mechanism inside unlock.

Now all he had to do was to press down on the silver handle.

He hesitated.

One could see the apprehension in his eyes, in the way his jaw was clenched, in the emotionless expression dressing his face.

After a heartbeat he pushed down on the handle and entered the apartment. The first thing he realized was the light sound of water from somewhere in Kyra's bedroom. She was showering, which meant she was probably out of the funk he had left her in. Which was good.

Of course she's no longer depressed, she's hit the golden jackpot with her article now, hasn't she?

The second thing he saw was the laptop, opened on the kitchen table.

He was too far to see the screen, and besides, it was tilted at an angle away from him. But he could see that it was lit up.

Slowly, almost as if in a trance, he walked over to it. His fingers reached out, brushing the metal surface of the laptop.

He hadn't really believed what Herrick said. There had to be a rational explanation surely.....and for all he knew that video was faked or - or acted by someone else to fool him........after all the face wasn't clear, one had only seen the back. And though it had look like Kyra, it might not have been.

She couldn't have betrayed him surely?

He spun the laptop around to face him.

And saw himself, dressed in a formal shirt, sitting in a cubicle. Kyra must have taken this when he wasn't looking, in the office.

Underneath the photo was the headline - "Legend in Disguise".

And next thing he knew he had ran his eyes all over the article, not really reading, but reading enough to register the words Asgard, God, Loki, exile, magic and the legends are real! She had wrote everything - everything - in there, with not a single piece of information left out about him. His entire history was dissected and examined in this article, written by Kyra Pierce.

There was another window opened, and he clicked on it. It directed him to her email, where she had a draft ready to be sent. Subject - "Legend In Disguise", and the recipient was one San Diego Union-Tribune.

For long seconds he just stared at it.

So she really was planning on doing it.

Herrick had been right.

It was a sucker punch to his gut. It felt not unlike the time Odin had told him he was adopted, though in several ways this felt worse, way worse.

She had made him trust again. Ever since the first day they met, her and her drunken yelling and proud declaring that he was her lover, and all the incidents that had happened after - their first kiss, knowing her story, seeing her fears........he knew his heart was being stolen, bit by bit, and he let her do it, with just the barest hint of resistance, because why?

He trusted her.

He had fallen for her.

Fallen for her lies and tricks you mean. The God of Mischief pranked. How pathetic.

The door opened then and she came out, dressed in a shirt and shorts. Even from here he could smell the shampoo on her, that lovely scent he had long decided to name Kyra Pierce.